Sussex Police are also investigating thefts during fires at a Brighton hotel, Brighton Museum and Art Gallery, and the city's Sealife Centre.

BBC: Cash stolen during Crawley Hospital fire

It sits in the middle of the Japan current, a nutrient-rich stream that feeds a stunning variety of crustaceans, tropical fish and other sealife.

CNN: ASIANOW - TIME Asia | Travel Watch | Detour

The fire at Brighton Museum and Art Gallery started just after 12:00 on Monday, and at 16:30 a small fire was discovered at the Sealife Centre.

BBC: Cash stolen during Crawley Hospital fire

Previous studies have suggested pollution, destructive fishing practices and climate change have already caused major damage to many of the colonies of sealife colonies that were built up over thousands of years.

BBC: Google adds coral reef panoramas to Street View maps

Conservationists would also like to see Turkey adopting the idea of marine protection areas to care for underwater habitats such as the important Posidonia sea grass meadows, as well as its sealife and sunken ruins.

BBC: Med threat from 'concrete coasts'

Raymond Highsmith, executive director of the National Institute for Undersea Science and Technology, a Mississipi consortium coordinating the ship's research, says there are a lot of unknowns about the plume, but that he fears that if it is oil it could harm the small sealife that bigger fish and mammals depend on for food.

WSJ: Spill Fight Shows Progress