I just received a link to this video via a comment on a previous post. I think ocean acidification has gotten far too little press. I’ve been wanting to find the time to develop my own presentation on it, but this one is far better than I’d be able to do.
Good news for Atlantic coast coral reefs. Oceana reports that after more than five years of work by Oceana and others, the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council approved a plan to protect more than 23,000 square miles of known deep-sea coral from North Carolina to Florida from destructive fishing gear. It’s believed to be the largest contiguous distribution of pristine deepwater coral ecosystems in the world. The decision will now be sent to NOAA for approval, and new regulations will likely take effect by the end of 2009.
Offshore oil and gas development and oil spills impact coastal communities, soil beaches and destroy ocean wildlife such as marine mammals, fish, and sea birds. Help prevent more of these types of catastrophes and put our nation on the path to a clean energy future while protecting our oceans.
Your help is needed to stop the planned expansion of oil drilling across the country! On his way out of Washington, former President Bush proposed a parting gift to his friends in the oil industry. This plan allows oil and gas leasing in almost all of the Arctic Ocean and would open the nation’s coastlines from California to Maine to the threat of oil drilling.
Chris Jordan is on Midway Atoll with a team of artists to document a shocking result of our love of plastic: thousands of albatrosses who mistake floating plastic trash for food — and are starving to death.
Did you know that the oceans are more acidic than they have been in 800,000 years and this change occurred one-hundred-times faster than ever before? There has been no time for marine life to adapt and if corals and shellfish disappear, it will have repercussions for sharks, sea turtles, marine mammals and many other animals that depend on them.
The oceans have absorbed 500 billion tons of carbon dioxide since the Industrial Revolution and scientists predict a mass extinction of corals by the middle to end of this century – including a collapse of the world’s largest barrier reef systems in Australia and Belize.
More acidic oceans threaten the one-quarter of marine life that depends on coral reefs for food and shelter, as well as all animals that depend on carbonate to build their shells and skeletons, like corals, pteropods, and shellfish like oysters.
If you find this alarming and would like to help, you can tell Congress that they need to address ocean acidification now.
The government wants your comments on a proposal to protect more than 23,000 square miles of deep-sea corals from destructive fishing gear.
Deep beneath the crystalline blue surface of the Atlantic Ocean off the southeastern U.S. lies a virtual rain forest of coral reefs so expansive the network is believed to be the world’s largest.
A 23,000-square-mile area stretching from North Carolina to Florida is just part of that entire reef tract now being proposed for protection from potential damage by deep-sea commercial fishing and energy exploration.
You can learn more about this reef system in a Washington Post article, “Protection plan deep-sea coral reefs considered.”
If you’d like to help protect America’s deep sea coral reefs, you can fill out a simple form to tell the government to protect these marine ecosystems.
Your help is needed to help save loggerhead and leatherback sea turtles. The government is proposing new measures that could triple the number of threatened and endangered sea turtles caught by Hawaii’s longline fishermen.
The unintended catch (aka bycatch) of yellowfin tuna, sharks, false killer whales, humpback whales, bottlenose dolphins, and albatross is also likely to rise if the new rule is approved.
The new rule would allow for more than 4 million deadly hooks in the water, which could double the quantity of the bycatch in the Hawaiian swordfish fishery. That would equal 1.3 million pounds of wasted catch!
The government agencies responsible for this fishery are accepting public comments through August 3. Please take the time to send an email to the government and voice your support for strong conservation measures.
The End of the Line, a world class documentary about the devastating effect of overfishing on global oceans, makes its theatrical release in Denver this Friday! The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January and its Denver run will begin tomorrow, for one week only, at Landmark Chez Artiste.
The film, which is narrated by Oceana Board member Ted Danson, examines the imminent extinction of bluefin tuna, brought on by increasing western demand for sushi; the impact on marine life resulting in huge overpopulation of jellyfish; and the profound implications of a future world with no fish that would bring certain mass starvation.
Filmed over two years, The End of the Line follows investigative reporter and author Charles Clover, who inspired the film with his book by the same title. The documentary also features interviews with some of the world’s foremost fishery scientists, including Dr. Daniel Pauly (another Oceana Board Member) and Dr. Boris Worm. Learn more about the film at www.endoftheline.com.
Early action could be crucial to addressing the problem of major increases in jellyfish numbers, which appears to be the result of human activities.
Catostylus
New research led by CSIRO Climate Adaptation Flagship and University of Queensland scientist, Dr Anthony Richardson, presents convincing evidence that this ‘jellyfish joyride’ is associated with over-fishing and excess nutrients from fertilisers and sewage.
“Dense jellyfish aggregations can be a natural feature of healthy ocean ecosystems, but a clear picture is now emerging of more severe and frequent jellyfish outbreaks worldwide,” Dr Richardson says.
“In recent years, jellyfish blooms have been recorded in the Mediterranean, the Gulf of Mexico, the Black and Caspian Seas, the Northeast US coast, and particularly in Far East coastal waters.
“The most dramatic have been the outbreaks in the Sea of Japan involving the gargantuan Nomura jellyfish which can grow up to 2 m in diameter and weigh 200 kg.”
The new research, by Dr Richardson and colleagues at the University of Miami, Swansea University and the University of the Western Cape, has been published in the international journal; Trends in Ecology and Evolution, in time for World Oceans Day on 8 June.
“Fish normally keep jellyfish in check through competition and predation but overfishing can destroy that balance,” Dr Richardson says. “For example, off Namibia intense fishing has decimated sardine stocks and jellyfish have replaced them as the dominant species.”
Climate change may favour some jellyfish species by increasing the availability of flagellates in surface waters – a key jellyfish food source. Warmer oceans could also extend the distribution of many jellyfish species.
“Mounting evidence suggests that open-ocean ecosystems can flip from being dominated by fish, to being dominated by jellyfish,” Dr Richardson says “This would have lasting ecological, economic and social consequences.
“We need to start managing the marine environment in a holistic and precautionary way to prevent more examples of what could be termed a ‘jellyfish joyride’.”
The full research paper is available at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/01695347
This summer, The Plastiki, a ship made of plastic bottles will set sail on a voyage throughout the Pacific to “draw attention to the rethinking of our everyday human fingerprints on the natural world and in turn capturing the world’s imagination by telling a story; that of the pioneering and sustainable design process that created and built The Plastiki, to the oceans and the many challenges it and its inhabitants face.”
In Summer 2009, David de Rothschild and a crew of experts, scientists and creatives will sail 12,000 nautical miles across the Pacific Ocean from San Francisco to Sydney in a boat made out of plastic bottles and recycled waste products. This epic voyage is named The Plastiki taking inspiration from Thor Heyerdal’s 1947 expedition The Kontiki.
To follow the adventures of The Plastiki Expedition, check out their website.
