A dolphin hunt in Japan enrages activists. The Cove, an award-winning new movie, condemns it. So why do dolphin hunts go on elsewhere without much controversy?

Drain the ocean and what have you got? For starters, a chasm to rival the Grand Canyon and a mountain taller than Everest--as revealed by accurate, eye-popping new digital illustrations.

Most likely due to an El Niño, no storms have formed at all since the start of this year's hurricane season in June—but experts say there's still time for a whopper to take shape.

A seal hunter bloodies the waters, models strut the world's longest catwalk, mourners remember Hiroshima, and more in this week's best news photos.

Just as Hercules had the multi-headed hydra to contend with, ocean predators tussle with two-headed sea snakes—or so it appears.

Once Earth's fourth largest lake, the Aral Sea has shrunk substantially, with its eastern section losing about 80 percent of its water between 2006 and 2009, new satellite images show.

A new dink frog discovered in southern Costa Rica sports different colors depending on its age and sex—a rare trait among frogs, a new study says.

"We don't think they are poisonous, but they certainly taste bad," an ecologist says of Australia's corroboree frog, an endangered species that has now been successfully bred in captivity. Video.

Gotham City has the Bat-signal; the "I've fallen and I can't get up" lady has her Life Call pendant; and now, mutant corn has a chemical to call for a hero when villainous vermin attack.

A loggerhead sea turtle seemingly injured by a shark was recently fitted with "trial" prosthetics as part of efforts to give the rare animal fully functioning flippers. Video.

Two expeditions—including one that sets sail next week—will visit the Pacific Ocean's garbage patch this summer to call attention to millions of tons of plastic pollution.

Vast swaths of North Africa are getting lusher, new satellite images show, suggesting a possible boon for people living in the driest part of the continent.

New smart-phone applications may enable the public to help scientists monitor invasive species and collect data in a fraction of the time it normally takes. Video.

Using diamonds and a laser, scientists crushed and heated methane produced from just water and minerals to create the same hydrocarbon blend found in natural gas.

Predicting global warming may have just gotten even harder. The swimming of ocean creatures may be as effective as winds or tides at ocean mixing—a process that plays a major role in shaping Earth's climate.