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Blue Planet Society
The health of the marine environment is essential to life on earth. The sea is far richer in major groupings (phyla) of animals than the land; nearly half of all animal phyla occur only in the sea. It was only in 1992 that scientists (Grassle and Maciolek) estimated that the deep sea could harbour 10 million species that have not yet been described and named, a diversity of species roughly comparable to that of tropical forests.
Despite this diversity, less than one percent of the seas around the UK are protected. This is comparable to the landmass of the UK having Hyde Park in London as its only National Park. This situation highlights the fact that conserving our marine environment seems to be of little importance to our Government. Unfortunately, with few exceptions, this sitution can be found worldwide.
Marine mammals do recieve some attention, and rightly so, but do you spare a thought for that endangered cod, haddock, halibut, swordfish or tuna you purchased in the supermarket? Most of us have a general idea of what damage has been and is being done on land, but who really knows what harm we continue to do to the far larger area of our planet that is our oceans and seas?
The Blue Planet Society strives to increase our understanding of man’s impact on the marine environment and to ensure that wildlife in the sea is given the same consideration as wildlife on land.
The health of the marine environment is essential to life on earth. The sea is far richer in major groupings (phyla) of animals than t... more -
Oceans more acidic than expected
The world’s oceans may be acidifying far more rapidly than scientists expected, with serious implications for the future of corals, reef algae, shell fish and some ocean food chains.
New coral evidence suggesting the oceans may have acidified by almost a third of a unit of pH as a result of human emissions of CO2 was presented 7 July 2008 to the International Coral Reef Symposium, at Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in a keynote paper by Australian earth scientist Professor Malcolm McCulloch of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and Australian National University.
“We’ve measured an increase of almost 0.3 of a pH unit in acidity in corals – which is much higher than has been detected so far in ocean water itself,” Prof. McCullough says.
“This suggests either that the corals are somehow amplifying the effect – or else that we may have gravely underestimated the rate at which the burning of fossil fuels is turning the oceans acidic.”
Acidic oceans have two important implications, Prof. McCulloch says. First, they may cause living creatures which depend on an alkaline environment to cease forming their shells and skeletons – this applies to about a third of sea life.
Second, as the oceans become saturated with CO2 their ability to absorb carbon from the atmosphere is expected to decline, leaving more CO2 in the air to insulate and accelerate the pace at which the planet warms.
“We are unsure of the explanation for why the corals are showing these high levels of acidification – but we need to find out, and quickly,” he says. “Clearly something is happening in the oceans, and we need to understand whether it is a major problem or not.”
There is also emerging evidence that coralline algae, which are the ‘cement’ that binds together the fronts of coral reefs against the ocean’s power, will be more seriously affected than even the coral itself, causing reefs to crumble away.
The world’s oceans may be acidifying far more rapidly than scientists expected, with serious implications for the future of corals, re... more -
First Atlantic Hurricane Becomes Category 3
Hurricane Bertha strengthened to a Category 3 storm Monday as it swirled in the central Atlantic, but it posed no immediate threat to land.
Forecasters expect the Atlantic season's first hurricane to head toward Bermuda. It was too early to tell whether the storm would hit the island, but residents were urged to monitor Bertha's progress.
At 5 p.m. Monday, the hurricane was located 730 miles east-northeast of the Northern Leeward Islands and about 1,150 miles southeast of Bermuda. It was moving west-northwest at about 12 mph. Maximum sustained winds were measured at 115 mph.
Daniel Brown, a forecaster at the National Hurricane Center, said Bertha was expected to stay at roughly the same intensity.
"It looks like it will remain over warm enough waters for the next couple of days," Brown said. "Conditions aren't going to change too much over the next couple days, so it will likely remain a strong hurricane."
The hurricane center has projected 12 to 16 named storms in the Atlantic this season, with six to nine of them hurricanes.
The U.S. has not been hit by a major hurricane since 2005, the busiest season on record, which brought a destructive triple-punch of Katrina, Wilma and Rita ashore.
The Atlantic hurricane season runs through Nov. 30
Hurricane Bertha strengthened to a Category 3 storm Monday as it swirled in the central Atlantic, but it posed no immediate threat to ... more -
Half of US Coral Reefs in 'Poor' or 'Fair' Condition States NOAA Report
Nearly half of U.S. coral reef ecosystems are considered to be in "poor" or "fair" condition according to a new NOAA analysis of the health of coral reefs under U.S. jurisdiction.
The report issued July 7, The State of Coral Reef Ecosystems of the United States and Pacific Freely Associated States: 2008, says that the nation's coral reef ecosystems, particularly those adjacent to populated areas, continue to face intense human-derived threats from coastal development, fishing, sedimentation and recreational use. Even the most remote reefs are subject to threats such as marine debris, illegal fishing and climate-related effects of coral bleaching, disease and ocean acidification.
The report was released by NOAA at the 11th International Coral Reef Symposium in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. More than 270 scientist and managers working throughout the Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean, the Atlantic and Pacific authored the 15 jurisdiction-specific chapters of the report. The scientists graded the coral ecosystems on a five tier scale: excellent, good, fair, poor and unknown.
"NOAA's coral program has made some significant progress since it was established 10 years ago, but we need to redouble our efforts to protect this critical resource," said retired Navy Vice Admiral Conrad C. Lautenbacher Jr., Ph.D., under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator.
The 569-page document details coral reef conditions in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Navassa Island, southeast Florida, the Florida Keys, Flower Garden Banks, the Main Hawaiian Islands, the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, American Samoa, the Pacific Remote Islands, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam and the Republic of Palau.
"The report shows that this is a global issue," said Tim Keeney, deputy assistant secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and co-chair of the United States Coral Reef Task Force.
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Life is born from the oceans, and we are killing them. This is a disappointing report. Why can we humans not get it? Nearly half of U.S. coral reef ecosystems are considered to be in "poor" or "fair" condition according to a new NOAA analysis of the h... more -
Bushmeat of the ocean
Most of us have seen the pictures, some of the world's most endangered animals being sold in markets across Africa as bushmeat. Gorillas, chimps, monkeys and wild cats, no animal is safe from this destructive trade. Logging in areas of pristine tropical forest has created a network of new roads which give the hunters easy access to their prey in parts of Africa that may previously have taken weeks to reach.
Suprisingly perhaps, a similar situation can be found in markets across the US, Europe and Asia but instead of gorilla, chimp and serval you will find grouper, tuna and cod. Instead of logging companies you have equally ruthless fishing concerns, whoes hunters are the bluewater trawlers and longliners.
How can you compare a grouper with a gorilla? I hear you say. Well according to the highly respected IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) there are three species of grouper that are critically endangered (calico, goliath and black) one level higher than the endangered mountain gorilla.
It seems that we are quite happy to tuck into an endangered marine animal whilst we reel in horror at what we perceive to be the barbarity of the African bushmeat trade, well here's a warning, that monkfish you had for supper last night is the bushmeat of the ocean, once plentiful, but now a rare and endangered wild animal.
Most of us have seen the pictures, some of the world's most endangered animals being sold in markets across Africa as bushmeat. Gorill... more -
NASA: the ocean's carbon balance
"For eons, the world’s oceans have been sucking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and releasing it again in a steady inhale and exhale. The ocean takes up carbon dioxide through photosynthesis by plant-like organisms (phytoplankton), as well as by simple chemistry: carbon dioxide dissolves in water. It reacts with seawater, creating carbonic acid. Carbonic acid releases hydrogen ions, which combine with carbonate in seawater to form bicarbonate, a form of carbon that doesn’t escape the ocean easily.
Crew members aboard the R/V Roger Revelle retrieve a CTD rosette from the frigid waters of the Southern Ocean. As the device is lowered into the ocean, electronic instruments measure salinity, temperature, and depth. Each of the white bottles collects seawater at different depths for detailed analysis. (Photograph ©2008 Brett longworth.)
As we burn fossil fuels and atmospheric carbon dioxide levels go up, the ocean absorbs more carbon dioxide to stay in balance. But this absorption has a price: these reactions lower the water’s pH, meaning it’s more acidic. And the ocean has its limits. As temperatures rise, carbon dioxide leaks out of the ocean like a glass of root beer going flat on a warm day. Carbonate gets used up and has to be re-stocked by upwelling of deeper waters, which are rich in carbonate dissolved from limestone and other rocks.
In the center of the ocean, wind-driven currents bring cool waters and fresh carbonate to the surface. The new water takes up yet more carbon to match the atmosphere, while the old water carries the carbon it has captured into the ocean.
The warmer the surface water becomes, the harder it is for winds to mix the surface layers with the deeper layers. The ocean settles into layers, or stratifies. Without an infusion of fresh carbonate-rich water from below, the surface water saturates with carbon dioxide. The stagnant water also supports fewer phytoplankton, and carbon dioxide uptake from photosynthesis slows. In short, stratification cuts down the amount of carbon the ocean can take up."
Good article about the scientific research that goes into determining the natural and human factors behind Co2 absorption and balance in our oceans. And as this article illustrates, humans will have to mitigate their emissions of Co2 in order for our oceans to continue to be able to balance Co2 in a way that sustains them, our planet, and all species that depend on them for life. "For eons, the world’s oceans have been sucking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and releasing it again in a steady inhale and exh... more -
Companies begin quest for oil, gas off Florida
"Oil companies once viewed drilling in the deep waters off Florida as cost prohibitive. Politicians feared even the slightest sign of support would be career suicide.
No more. Record crude oil prices are fueling support for oil and natural gas exploration off the nation’s shores. In Florida, movement was underway even before President Bush called on Congress last month to lift a federal moratorium that’s barred new offshore drilling since 1981.
The early activity here stems from a 2006 Congressional compromise that allows drilling on 8.3 million acres more than 125 miles off the Panhandle - an area that had been covered by the moratorium, which was enacted out of environmental concerns. In exchange, the state got a no-drilling buffer along the rest of its beaches.
Florida may turn out to be a prelude for other coastal states. If oil or natural gas deposits are found in the newly opened region, experts say it could further the push to explore other once-protected areas everywhere. It also could be a rallying point for critics, who say the new exploration isn’t a license to expand exploration.
With gas topping $4 a gallon, recent polls show Americans, Floridians included, more supportive of drilling in protected areas. Some politicians - including Gov. Charlie Crist - have switched sides.
“We think the public is way out ahead of the politicians on these issues. People are more open to (offshore drilling) now,” said Tom Moskitis, spokesman for the American Gas Association, a trade group.
At the same time, oil companies, driven by the record energy price, are more willing to risk $100 million or more to begin exploring new regions. The Interior Department estimates there could be 18 billion barrels of oil and 77 trillion cubic feet of natural gas beneath the 574 million acres of federal coastal waters that are now off-limits.
In March, four companies - Australia-based BHP Billiton Petroleum Deepwater Inc., Houston-based Anadarko E&P Co., Shell Offshore Inc. and Italian oil and natural gas company Eni SpA - purchased leases on 36 Gulf of Mexico tracts under the 2006 compromise.
But finding and producing natural gas in the new site will be expensive. Three-dimensional mapping of the ocean floor, which must happen before any drilling, could take up to two years, Strive said. If a promising site is found, engineers must drill up to three miles below the ocean surface to extract the oil or natural gas.
And it will take years before the company begins producing anything at the site - and there is no guarantee of success. A company can have as much as $4 billion invested and a wait of up to five years before seeing any return on the investment, Strive said.
“We typically will have $100 to $200 million invested in a project before we know if it is an economic venture or not,” he said. “Then, if you know you have made an economic discovery, you spend a billion dollars or more on a facility.”
The 1981 moratorium - enacted out of environmental concerns in response to a massive oil spill off the Santa Barbara coast a decade earlier - has prevented the Interior Department from spending money on offshore oil or gas leases in virtually all coastal waters outside the western Gulf of Mexico and in some areas off Alaska.
U.S. Sen. John McCain supports lifting the ban and allowing states to decide whether to approve drilling of their shores. Crist, Florida’s Republican governor and a possible vice presidential candidate, reversed his long-standing opposition to lifting the ban last month.
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, who has led opposition to offshore drilling among the state’s Congressional delegation, criticized the governor for reversing his position, accusing Crist and McCain of putting oil company profits before protecting the state’s $65 billion annual tourism industry." "Oil companies once viewed drilling in the deep waters off Florida as cost prohibitive. Politicians feared even the slightest sign of ... more -
Oceans in crisis
One of the long-established ecological principles is that large animals are less abundant than smaller ones. There are fewer elephants than antelope, which are less numerous than rabbits. Because larger animals need more resources, and ecosystem can support fewer of them.
The one glaring exception to this principle is us: Homo sapiens. There are 6.7 billion humans on earth. No other large animal gets close to us as a species. For example, our nearest relatives the great apes (gorillas, orang's and chimp's), number fewer than 350,000.
Part of our success as a species can be attributed to our ability to domesticate animals and plants. Farming as we now call it, has enabled us to feed a population that would be impossible to sustain from wild resources alone. Crops and livestock, genetically modified over millennia for food, have led to a situation where the global population of humans can now double every 40 years or so.
The domestication of land animals may have also inadvertently saved the remaining wild populations from being hunted to extinction, a situation that unfortunately does not apply across the board. The exploitation of wild marine animals continues unabated, mostly without the safety-valve of large scale farming to reduce pressure on the populations.
Perhaps because of the vast and hostile environment in which they inhabit marine animals have, until recently, shown remarkable resilience to over 100 years of industrial scale exploitation. But there are now numerous unmistakeable indicators that this is no longer the case.
Ninety percent of all commercial fish species are in dire trouble. Fished well beyond sustainable limits for decades some experts predict that 'wild seafood', as such, will cease to exist by 2050.
Fish and jellyfish essentially compete for similar nutrient resources and with the fish gone the jellyfish thrive. Jellyfish populations have exploded all across the world, overtaking fish in terms of total biomass in many areas.
There have been an increasing number of reports where whales, porpoises, seals and seabirds have been found starving to death through lack of enough fish to eat and Namibia are culling 86,000 Cape fur seals this year to protect their overexploited and dwindling fish stocks.
In the Mediterranean sharks have been declared 'functionally extinct' and the bluefin tuna is expected to join them any day now. Sharks across the globe are being cruelly slaughtered in their millions to satisfy the fin soup market. Hardly an essential ingredient to human survival.
Longlining is decimating the billfish and pelagic bird populations. The iconic marlin, sailfish and swordfish are now in grave danger of disappearing off the face of the earth forever and the accidental bycatch of pelagic seabirds and turtles, such as the albatross and hawksbill, is reducing populations so quickly that there is virtually no hope of their breeding quickly enough to maintain healthy populations.
Not satisfied with taking all the fish, pelagic fishing boats are now converting to krill fishing to satisfy the increasing demand for fish-oil and fish-meal. Venturing deep into Antarctic waters to harvest what has recently been described as 'pink gold'. Krill are a 'keystone' species whose exploitation we may later refer to as the 'straw that broke the camels back'.
The evidence of destruction is there for all but the blindest to see, and yet the exploitation goes on unabated and largely unregulated. Something is very seriously wrong with our oceans and if these tell tale signs are continually ignored, that damage may well become irreparable.
One of the long-established ecological principles is that large animals are less abundant than smaller ones. There are fewer elephants... more -
Oceanic whitetip close to extinction
"Fears that some species of sharks could soon be wiped out entirely have intensified with the recent report that the oceanic whitetip shark has become extinct in the Gulf of Mexico.
Research by Dalhousie University of Halifax in Canada, suggests that the oceanic whitetip shark in the Gulf of Mexico has suffered at the hands of longline tuna fisheries to the point that populations are now just 1% of figures recorded in 1950.
Before the advent of commercial fishing techniques the oceanic whitetip was considered to be the most common large shark in the world.
Crisis Key advisor to Bite-Back, Ian Blacker, said: “This news is yet another example of commercial greed and ignorance wreaking havoc on nature. What’s worse is the situation appears to be replicated across the globe.”
It proves to be a credible concern as this recent research adds to earlier findings that illustrate the massive decline in numbers of large shark species.
Covering the same period, the research team also revealed that stocks of silky sharks in the Gulf of Mexico have declined by around 90%.
Professor Ransom Myers at Dalhousie University said: "Sharks are in a global extinction crisis. Wherever you look around the world the story is the same.”
The research team has linked the increase in longline fishing for tuna with the decrease in numbers of oceanic whitetips and silky sharks in the Gulf of Mexico. Often a by-catch of longline fishing boats, theses sharks have been landed for their valuable fins to supply the increasing demand for shark fin soup.
Bite-Back, the UK’s fastest growing shark and marine conservation organisation, is working to expose the correlation between the demand for shark meat and fins and the decimation of shark populations and encourage a significant fall in consumer and retail demand.
Currently 270,000 sharks are killed worldwide everyday to keep up with consumer demand.
Graham Buckingham, campaign director at Bite-Back, said: “Except for the oceans, there is no other place on earth where the decimation of an entire species would be allowed to go unchallenged. It is our opinion that restaurants and retailers that sell shark meat and fins are effectively endorsing the extinction of these creatures. It has to stop".” "Fears that some species of sharks could soon be wiped out entirely have intensified with the recent report that the oceanic whitetip ... more -
Oxygen-starved oceans rapidly dying
The world's coastal oceans are in crisis, with oxygen-starved ''dead zones'' increasing by a third in just two years as global temperatures increase with climate change, according to the International Whaling Commission's latest scientific report.
Dead zones, caused by over-enrichment of waters by nutrients from run-off, sewerage and warming waters, represent ''the worst-case scenario for coastal biodiversity'' and are the ''severest form'' of ocean habitat degradation, the report says.
The number of ocean dead zones has grown from 44 areas reported in 1995 to more than 400, with some of the worst oxygen-starved areas extending over 22,000sqkm.
Recent figures from the United Nations Environment Program estimate fertilisers, sewage and other other pollutants, combined with the impact of climate change, have led to a doubling in the number of oxygen-deficient dead zones every decade since the 1960s.
The growing list of dead zones includes waters in the Gulf of Mexico, South China Sea, Gulf of Finland, Adriatic Sea and areas of the Caribbean. The Black Sea between south-eastern Europe and Turkey which has one of the largest dead zones in the world, had 26 commercial fish species in the 1960s but now has only five.
The commission's 2008 State of the Cetacean Environment Report lists a growing number of concerns over the impacts of climate change and ocean pollution on the world's whales, dolphins and porpoises.
The report says low-oxygen waters at depths of 300m to 700m have expanded in tropical oceans over the past 50 years as the oceans warm. Areas previously rich in oxygen have become ''oxygen minimum zones'' containing less than 120 micromoles of oxygen per kilogram of water. It says these reduced oxygen areas will have ''dramatic consequences'' for marine ecosystems because fish, squid and crustaceans cannot survive in them. The worst-affected areas are in tropical regions of the Atlantic Ocean, west of Africa and the equatorial areas of the Pacific .
The commission's report says skin diseases are now more frequent among whales and dolphins and may be linked to ocean pollution or climate change.
It says ocean surface warming and the southward displacement of Southern Ocean currents will reduce the feeding grounds of humpback, blue, fin, sperm and southern right whales.
Climate modelling shows 30 per cent of ice cover will be lost in the West Antarctic Peninsula and the Weddell Sea. Whales will need to travel much further to reach the retreating Southern Ocean fronts.
The world's coastal oceans are in crisis, with oxygen-starved ''dead zones'' increasing by a third in just two years as global tempera... more -
Oceans becoming acid soup
Silently and steadily, a tragedy is unfolding beneath the ocean's waves: Coral reefs around the world are disappearing. According to some projections, there could be few, if any, left by the end of the century.
This dire and credible prediction has shocked many marine scientists, who had not realized how close to the tipping point coral reefs are. The news is especially disheartening because 2008 is the International Year of the Reef.
The culprit here is carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas that is responsible for global warming and that also is turning our oceans into an acid bath.
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Here's the problem. When carbon dioxide enters the ocean, it reacts with water to form carbonic acid. A few other chemical steps ensue, with the outcome that fewer carbonate ions are available for biological systems. Corals are not the only organisms that suffer. All shell-forming marine creatures are adversely affected.
Taking a human analogy, it would be as if your bones could no longer keep growing.
We are seeing the effects of ocean acidification. Today, the concentration of carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere is more than 380 parts per million. That's more than at any time during the past 20 million years.
About 25 percent of this carbon dioxide ends up being absorbed by the oceans. As carbon dioxide levels have risen during the industrial era, the average pH level in the ocean, an indicator of acidity, has dropped by 0.1 pH unit. (On the pH scale, a lower number means more acidic.)
That might not sound like much, but evidence from Antarctic ice cores shows that the global average is lower than at any time over almost half a million years. As the Science article notes, changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide over the last century "are 2 or 3 orders of magnitude higher than most of the changes seen in the past 420,000 years."
Silently and steadily, a tragedy is unfolding beneath the ocean's waves: Coral reefs around the world are disappearing. According to s... more -
Blue whale song is getting deeper
The haunting song of the world's biggest animal, the blue whale, is getting deeper, researchers have discovered.
Underwater recordings of the giant endangered mammals have revealed that the tone of their rhythmic pulses and moans has become steadily lower as their population have slowly recovered after nearly being wiped out by whaling.
Marine biologists believe the changes offer a new insight into blue whale culture as entire populations alter the tone of their songs as they grow in numbers.
Professor John Hildebrand, a blue whale expert at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California in San Diego, has used recordings of blue whales since the 1960s to track the changes in their songs.
He found that in 1962 blue whale calls were at a frequency of around 22Hz, well below the range of human hearing, but last year had decreased even further in frequency to around 15Hz.
He said: "This is giving us an insight into the culture of blue whales as they are clearly listening to each other's songs and changing them.
It takes a conscious decision to make the calls deeper, so it is a reflection of what is going on in the population.
"These animals have a finite lung capacity, so their songs are a trade off between frequency and volume.
"They can either make the song really loud or really deep.
"As their numbers have slowly increased after the devastation caused by whaling, they are having to communicate over smaller distances so their songs don't need to be as loud and they can make them deeper."
The findings are the latest to offer a glimpse into the mysterious world of these majestic creatures.
Blue whales, which can grow up to 110 feet in length, are notoriously shy and difficult to study.
Before large-scale hunting, the global blue whale population was thought to have been around 200,000 animals, but numbers fell to just a few hundred by the 1960s when a hunting ban was introduced.
The population has since recovered to around 4,500 animals.
Professor Hildebrand has also discovered that blue whales in different parts of the world use different "dialects" in their songs.
Only the males sing and it is thought they are attempting to attract mates or to communicate to other males during the mating season.
But other researchers believe whale song is a more complicated form of communication than simply trying to attract a female.
The haunting song of the world's biggest animal, the blue whale, is getting deeper, researchers have discovered. ... more -
Climate change threatens 4,000 species of fish, corals
Beautiful coral reefs are increasingly under threat from climate change, and so are 4,000 species of fish, critically dependent on them for food, shelter or reproduction, warns a study.
It blames global warming for the latest threat to marine biodiversity. Already many corals have died because of warmer waters associated with climate change.
''The problem for specialist coral fishes is that when the corals die, the fish have nowhere else to go. Other kinds of fish live more independently, but depend on reefs for shelter in the juvenile stage of their life,'' said the study's co-author Philip Munday.
''As coral communities become less healthy, so too do the fish communities. A loss of diversity in corals due to bleaching and other impacts is also likely to lead to a loss in diversity among the fishes which inhabit them,'' the researchers said.
Like corals themselves, coral fishes seem to prefer a temperature-stable environment and heating of the water may affect them in unpredictable ways.
For instance, Munday said, warmer water may lead to higher survival rates in baby fish - but it could equally send a signal to adults to stop breeding, as reproduction is often governed by water conditions.
Recent research has shown that some species might grow more slowly if temperatures go above their preferred range.
An estimated 200 million people worldwide derive their livelihoods and a major source of sustenance from coral reefs. In Australia, a $5 billion tourism industry depends significantly on visitors being able to view corals and their colourful fish.
Beautiful coral reefs are increasingly under threat from climate change, and so are 4,000 species of fish, critically dependent on the... more -
Taking biofuel crops off land and cultivating them at sea
The dream of tackling climate change with biofuels has been tarnished by the rush to produce them on land. Not only are there serious environmental costs, including deforestation, water use, production of greenhouse gases, and energy-efficiency limitations, but there are rising concerns about the effects on the world's poor. Already the price of food is being driven up as land is taken away from food production, increasing the cost of food and nutrition for those who can least afford it.
It is curious then that, bar a brief mention in a recent paper on sustainable biofuels by the UK-based Royal Society, the potential for biomass production at sea is largely ignored.
A vast resource
The oceans are the largest active carbon sink on the planet, covering more than 70 per cent of its surface area, and are predicted to grow as sea levels rise. Our seas also receive a larger proportion of the world's sunshine than land does, particularly in the tropical and subtropical belt where land is more scarce. To agriculturalists, the oceans are vast and grossly underused fields well-provided with sunlight and water.
The full potential for sea cultivation (mariculture) has only recently been recognised. The 'blue revolution' of freshwater aquaculture and mariculture is growing exponentially.
Statistics from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization show mariculture is strongest in Asia and the Pacific. While aquaculture production has risen sixty-fold since the early 1950s (to 59.4 million tonnes in 2004) and is worth around US$70 billion, 91.5 per cent of this was produced in Asia and the Pacific.
Similarly, 99.8 per cent of the eight million or so tonnes of seaweed produced each year, with a market of nearly US$6 billion, come from Asia and the Pacific, primarily China, Japan and Korea.
Seaweeds as fuel
Until now, seaweed has been valued mainly as food, but also as fertiliser, animal feed, and recently for a growing phycocolloid industry producing algin, agar and carrageenan. But it could also be a major fuel.
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After reading this it looks like a partial solution that could be viable. It frees up land for use to grow food, will not use up scarce water resources, and does not use up carbon resources as other energy sources do.
The dream of tackling climate change with biofuels has been tarnished by the rush to produce them on land. Not only are there serious ... more -
Persistant Man-Made Chemical Pollutants Found In Deep-Sea Species
New evidence that chemical contaminants are finding their way into the deep-sea food web has been found in deep-sea squids and octopods, including the strange-looking "vampire squid". These species are food for deep-diving toothed whales and other predators. In a study to be published in the journal Marine Pollution Bulletin, Michael Vecchione of NOAA Fisheries' National Systematics Laboratory and colleagues Michael Unger, Ellen Harvey and George Vadas at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science of The College of William and Mary report finding a variety of chemical contaminants in nine species of cephalopods, a class of organisms that includes octopods, squids, cuttlefishes and nautiluses.
"It was surprising to find measurable and sometimes high amounts of toxic pollutants in such a deep and remote environment," Vecchione said. Among the chemicals detected were tributyltin (TBT), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), brominated diphenyl ethers (BDEs), and dichlorodiphenyl-trichloroethane (DDT).
They are known as persistent organic pollutants (POPs) because they don't degrade and persist in the environment for a very long time.
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Other chemical contaminants found in the specimens include polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), found in all the samples, diphenyl ether (DPE), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and brominated diphenyl ethers (BDEs). The researchers also detected DDT, a pesticide banned in the U.S. in the 1970s but still used on a limited basis in some parts of the world to control diseases like malaria.
The fact that we detected a variety of pollutants in specimens collected from more than 3,000 feet deep is evidence that human-produced chemicals are reaching remote areas of the open ocean, accumulating in prey species, and therefore available to higher levels of marine life. Contamination of the deep-sea food web is happening, and it is a real concern."
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We humans are poisoning the very environment that sustains us. And that is not 'natural.' New evidence that chemical contaminants are finding their way into the deep-sea food web has been found in deep-sea squids and octopod... more -
Carbon Neutral: CHECK, Net Neutral: CHECK, Water Neutral ... HUH?
The global-warming debate has introduced some new catchphrases into the business lexicon. Becoming carbon neutral, for example, is now a goal for multinationals like Dell, HSBC and Tesco. But for another well-known international brand, becoming carbon neutral isn't enough. Last June, Coca-Cola CEO Neville Isdell flew to Beijing and pledged that his company would become "water neutral" — every drop of water it uses to produce beverages would be returned to the earth or compensated for through conservation and recycling programs. "Water is the main ingredient in nearly every beverage that we make," Isdell said. "Without access to safe water supply, our business simply cannot exist."
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Some will say that it's still not enough, but I thought it was interesting to see what one major global corporation is doing (or at least thinking of doing) to minimize its impact on the environment ... partly in response to social pressures, but partly because they know that it's in their best financial interests in the long term as well. The global-warming debate has introduced some new catchphrases into the business lexicon. Becoming carbon neutral, for example, is now... more -
Seaweed Fields Forever
Growing large seaweed fields for energy using nutrients from wastewater could be an economically-sound use for the millions of tonnes of untreated wastewater dumped daily into our seas worldwide, and the seaweed helps clean it up in the process. Check out this Op-Ed piece. Growing large seaweed fields for energy using nutrients from wastewater could be an economically-sound use for the millions of tonnes ... more
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Ocean seeding plans to capture carbon in oceans draws fire
In some of the most ambitious efforts by green tech start-ups, a handful of businesses have emerged with plans to capture large amounts of carbon dioxide by stimulating the growth of ocean plankton.
On Monday, a group of watchdog environmental bodies, including Greenpeace and the ETC Group voiced their opposition to a project proposal from Australia-based Ocean Nourishment.
The company is said to be planning on "seeding" the Sulu Sea between the Philippines and Borneo with a nitrogen nutrient called urea, which would be pumped into the ocean from a special plant.
A plankton bloom. Good to capture carbon dioxide?
(Credit: Planktos)The idea behind these geo-engineering projects is to drop large amounts of food into the ocean, which acts as a fertilizer to grow plankton. During metabolism, the plankton should be able to consume large amounts of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas linked to global warming.
Other clean tech companies pursuing similar approaches include Planktos which is using iron as a fertilizer. It intends to fund the business by selling carbon credits, represented by the carbon dioxide sequestered by plankton growth.
Another company, called Climos, last month issued a call to create a code of ethics for ocean carbon experiments, which includes a permitting process and oversight over the environmental impact of these practices.
"Clearly, a market has emerged that can fund carbon mitigation activity. However, important questions of effectiveness, environmental impact and corporate conduct in all ocean fertilization projects need to be addressed as these projects move forward," Margaret Leinen, Climos' chief science officer, said in a statement.
In some of the most ambitious efforts by green tech start-ups, a handful of businesses have emerged with plans to capture large amount... more -
Acidification from fossil fuels is killing our oceans
In a Hobart laboratory a few weeks ago, a young marine biologist placed the shell of a tiny sea snail on a weighing scale and held her breath. Donna Roberts's critical experiment rested on getting the exact weight of this fragile specimen; any movement in the room could instantly throw off the delicate scale, so sensitive it is called a microbalance.
Roberts had been weighing 100 of these shells, stripped from snails that had been collected from the depths of the great Southern Ocean half way between Tasmania and Antarctica.
The snails, known to biologists as pteropods, swim through the sea like butterflies. They are as abundant as krill and help feed the ocean's huge schools of fish.
The shell specimens dated back to 1996 and the earlier ones had weighed in at 20 micrograms. But Roberts observed that as the specimens became more recent, the weight of the shells had fallen. When her last specimen, from 2005, weighed in at just 10 micrograms, Roberts barely dared to breathe.
"Wow, what is going on?" she asked herself. A halving of shell weight in just one decade was a real worry.
Roberts's still unpublished research is just one reason why her collaborator, Dr Will Howard, from the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre, this week convened an extraordinary meeting of Australia's leading marine scientists in Hobart.
For three days, the 50 scientists, along with colleagues from America and New Zealand, focused their collective minds on a threat that has emerged, it seems, from out of the blue: the growing acidification of our oceans.
These scientists now know that burning fossil fuels and massive land clearing are not just warming the planet and raising sea temperatures, they are also changing the chemical make up of the oceans. A vast amount of the carbon dioxide humans have pumped into the atmosphere since the industrial revolution has been absorbed by oceans.
A new report by the Antarctic research centre, released at the Hobart meeting, says that about half the fossil fuel carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere by humans has now dissolved into the oceans. If we keep pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere at the current projections, by 2100 the ocean acidification will be three times that experienced at the end of the glacial period, 15,000 years ago.
The chemistry is basic. The ocean is a weakly alkaline solution. When carbon dioxide sucked in from the atmosphere dissolves in sea water, it forms a weak acid, making the ocean more acidic. For sea life with fragile shells, corals and countless other sea creatures, a more acidic ocean could be disastrous and have unknown impacts right up the marine food chain.
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Our oceans have absorbed so much CO2 they will one day no longer be able to sustain life if we continue on the path we are on. What we do to other species we do to ourselves.
In a Hobart laboratory a few weeks ago, a young marine biologist placed the shell of a tiny sea snail on a weighing scale and held her... more -
Caribbean monk seal confirmed extinct; Hawaiian and Mediterranean monk seals next?...
The U.S. agency focused on the condition of the oceans says the Caribbean monk seal has gone extinct.
The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration's Fisheries Services has confirmed what many biologists have long suspected: the only subtropical seal native to the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico is extinct. It also warns that the Hawaiian and Mediterranean monk seals could be next.
The last confirmed sighting of the Caribbean monk seal was in 1952 at Seranilla Bank, between Jamaica and the Yucatan Peninsula.
Biologists say humans left the population unsustainable after over hunting them.
Today, there are fewer than 1,200 Hawaiian and 500 Mediterranean monk seals remaining.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jG7KS792s_njtUMaxoi6... The U.S. agency focused on the condition of the oceans says the Caribbean monk seal has gone extinct. ... more
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