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Hakai Magazine is all about the coast, but other outlets sometimes share our fascination. Every week on Strand we round up our favorite coastal stories from around the web.

Somalia threatened by illegal fishermen after west chases away pirates

by Catrina Stewart for The Guardian

“Unfortunately for the local population, as the pirates have departed, other aggressors have returned. While the world has shifted its attention elsewhere, marauding flotillas from countries such as Yemen, Iran, and South Korea—in flagrant breach of international maritime law—have begun to plunder Somalia’s rich fishing grounds, plunging the local fishermen who hold up the town’s economy into financial ruin.”

Mongrel microbe tests story of complex life

by Emily Singer for Quanta Magazine

“Most biologists agree that at some point around two billion years ago, one featureless cell swallowed another, and the two began to work together as one. But the details of this process—whether this symbiosis jump-started an evolutionary process, or whether it happened midway along the path to eukaryotes—continue to drive huge disputes in the field. One group theorizes that eukaryotes emerged in a rapid burst, driven by the acquisition of the cellular energy factories known as mitochondria. Others propose a slower, stepwise process. They say that mitochondria couldn’t have developed in simple cells; some level of complexity must have evolved before mitochondria came onboard. The debate has grown so heated that members of each camp no longer attend the other’s conference sessions.”

Megalodon teeth washing up along North Carolina beaches

by Todd Masson for The Times-Picayune

“Imagine being alive millions of years ago, and having to contend with megalodons, giant sharks that were longer than any of the ships Columbus took across the Atlantic … Denny Bland, who found one of the teeth, said it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. ‘Oh my God … I felt like a lottery winner or something,’ he said.”

Scientists warned the US president about global warming 50 years ago today

by Dana Nuccitelli for The Guardian

“Contrarians today often repeat the myths that because carbon dioxide is invisible and only a trace gas, it can’t possibly cause significant climate change. This report demonstrates that scientists understood the greenhouse effect better 50 years ago than these contrarians do today.”

How long would it take to drain the ocean?

by David Aldridge for Deep Sea News

“The total volume of water in the oceans is approximately 1.3 billion cubic kilometers (or 1300000000000000000000000 cubic liters). I did a little experiment with my bathroom sink and I calculate that the plughole in my house drains approximately 30 liters of water per minute (speeds will obviously vary slightly between plugholes, especially if you live with one of those people who blocks it up with hair all the time!)”