- Top 10 Marine Biology Searches
www.About-Marine-Biology.com
Latest Posts On Marine Biology
• MindBody Relaxation Series• Freshwater Fish Cookbook – Freshwater Favorites
• How To Build Your Own Tiki Bar, Tiki Hut or Tiki Furniture
• Cichlid Fish Secrets
• Experts Guide to Saltwater Aquariums Plus 3 Bonus Reports
Top Marine Biology Categories
Aquatic Sciences conservation Degrees In Marine Biology Discovery Ecology Environment environmental science http://gdata.youtube.com/schemas/2007#video Marine Biology Marine Biology News marine conservation Marine life Miller Library of Marine Biology news News & Resources oceans Reefs in the News RSS News TV & Film World news
Tens of thousands of sea turtles were trapped and killed by commercial fishing fleets over the past 20 years, but real total could number millions Millions of sea turtles have been inadvertently trapped and killed by commercial fishing fleets over the last 20 years, a global survey has found. Six of the seven species of sea turtle are under threat. The study, published in Conservation Letters, said the biggest danger to their survival was being inadvertently caught up by commercial fishing gear - long lines which can stretch for up to 40kms studded with hooks or vast nets - to become what is known as bycatch. Once snared, the turtles are unable to come to the surface to breathe. Although turtles, the second largest reptile species on Earth, are still hunted for their meat and shells, accidental entrapment is a greater threat. "Bycatch, writ large, is the most serious, acute threat to the sea turtle population globally," said Bryan Wallace, the lead author. "Trawlers are completely indiscriminate. The target might be shrimp but for every pound of shrimp that might comp up with a given haul, there might have five or 20lbs of bycatch. That could be turtles, it could be all sorts of things," said Wallace, a professor at Duke University and science adviser to Conservation International. The study is the first global survey of commercial fishing operations, gauging the effects on sea turtles of three widely used methods of fishing gear: long lines, gillnets and trawls. It reviewed existing records from fishing fleet operations around the world. All the data was based on direct onboard observations or interviews with fishermen. According to those records, more than 85,000 turtles were snared between 1990 and 2008. But Wallace said the figure covered barely 1% of fishing operations, and did not cover smaller fleets. "A conservative estimate is that the true total is probably in the millions of turtles," he said. However, he said the adoption of different equipment - such as turtle excluder devices or escape hatches which allow turtles to swim free of large nets - could dramatically reduce the numbers of bycatch. Some countries have now made such precautions mandatory. One of the report's recommendations was for consumers to be conscious of where their fish was sourced. The report also recommends seasonal bans on fishing to avoid turtle migration routes. The report identified four regions where urgent conservation measures are needed: the Mediterranean, the eastern Pacific, and the south and north-west Atlantic off the coast of the United States. It said the crowded, heavily fished Mediterranean had some of the highest rates of bycatch because of heavy use of long lines and trawling. The coast off Mexico's Baja Peninsula, a crucial nesting area for sea turtles, was also deadly. According to the IUCN red list of endangered species, five species of sea turtle - hawksbill, leatherback, Kemp's Ridley, green and loggerhead - are either endangered or critically endangered. The Olive Ridley is classed as vulnerable while flatback turtles are classed as "data deficient", meaning there is not enough research to make a conservation assessment. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Beach litter figures down overall, but quantity of plastic found on shorelines grows to unprecedented levels From the mundane debris of food wrappers and cigarette butts, to a laboratory incubator and a dead goat, Britain's beaches are strewn with litter, according to the Marine Conservation Society. The volunteers who conducted the survey, the UK's biggest, found one piece for each step along the shore. The results showed litter levels along the coasts have increased dramatically since 1994, from 1,000 items per kilometre to over 1,800 items. It also found that plastic litter was at its highest level ever. In 2009, the overall number of items on beaches declined - falling 16% from last year's record high to 342,000. But the percentage of plastic litter reached an unprecedented 64%. Emma Snowden, litter projects coordinator at MCS, said: "It's a lot of these single throwaway items." The most common type of litter was small plastic pellets, broken down from larger items. Other items in the top 10 include food wrappers, cigarette butts, plastic drinks bottles, chunks of polystyrene and cotton bud sticks, of which nearly 13,000 were found. The report warns that coastal communities are bearing the brunt of the rising tide of litter, which can harm tourism, fishing and water sports. Marine animals are also at risk - thousands of birds, turtles, fish, and marine mammals are thought to die each year by eating or becoming tangled in litter. The rise of plastic is of particular concern because it breaks up into ever-smaller pieces rather than degrading. "In the marine environment, plastic just doesn't disappear," said Snowden. Scientists suspect that these plastic pellets may absorb potentially toxic chemicals which are then ingested by marine animals. The government plans to convene a round table this autumn to discuss the problem of marine litter. Each major party has signalled their support for government action on the issue. The MSC stresses, however, that it is also matter of personal responsibility. "Every bit of litter has an owner," said Snowdon. "We can all help by not dropping or throwing it out the window, by taking a cloth bag to the supermarket, by refilling water bottles. Sewage-related debris is a really easy one to stop. If people would stop using their toilets as a wet bin, we wouldn't have this on the beach." The public was responsible for nearly half of the rubbish surveyed this year - items such as crisp wrappers and drink bottles made up 42% of the total collected. Fishing, shipping, and sewage-related debris added a further 22%. Although some items travelled from countries as far away as China and Saudi Arabia, most of the rubbish, according to Snowden, comes from the UK. "Of the litter we can source, the majority is from us: the great British public. People are dropping it on the beach, but even in towns and cities, it's washed down the drains." Some parts of the country were harder hit than others. Welsh beaches had the highest level of litter this year, up 21% from last year, to 3,100 items per kilometre. Scotland's levels of litter declined 26% in 2009, but its beaches were still polluted enough to put it into second place. England came in third overall, but the south west was the most rubbish-strewn region in the entire country with 3,269 items per kilometre. These statistics reflect geographical location as well as how many people use the beaches. "The south west always tends to have the highest because it's a popular destination for tourists," said Snowden, "but also because of its proximity to shipping lanes." The south west receives about twice the national average of shipping debris, according to the report, but the south east has been affected as well. Last year, Northern Ireland had the lowest densities of litter - this year, the beaches of the Channel Islands were the UK's cleanest. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
The engineer on the ageing Steve Irwin ship describes his role in chasing down whalers in the Southern Ocean When I rolled back into port this month with the Sea Shepherd team and our ship the Steve Irwin, it had been an eventful few weeks at sea, chasing Japanese whalers around the Southern Ocean in a bid to stop their annual whale hunt. I joined the ship in August as part of an international crew of volunteers, eager to work with an organisation willing to physically intervene against the poaching. As an engineer, working in the engine room fills an important role in the campaign effort. Having an older vessel, the success of our operation very much depends on us keeping the engines running smoothly and ensuring we have enough speed and durability to catch up with the whaling ships and stay with them for as long as we can. On the one hand we have a team of very experienced engineers, officers and seafarers onboard. On the other, a part of the crew learns along the way. Their commitment to take risks, dedication to work and the personal sacrifices they have made to come onboard make them much valued members of the team. The Southern Ocean is an unforgiving place. Many of the new crew get hit by the wave of seasickness which spreads through the ship during the first few days out of port. Although people get used to the life of rolling and pitching pretty quickly, it is far from comfortable. Sleeping becomes quite difficult when your bunk is rolling back and forth or you sleep in one of the forward cabins with near zero gravity. Imagine trying to catch up on some much needed sleep after a long day at work when you get thrown up against the ceiling every 10 seconds. Life at sea made me appreciate the comfort and ease of life on the land. At first sight, the sea is a pretty cold and empty place. But after a closer look, you find the place crawling with life. Albatrosses fly gracefully across our bow and occasionally land on deck for a quick rest stop. Seals lie dotted around on the ice floes and our presence has on some occasions been responded to with angry growls from those we awoke from their afternoon nap. A couple of centuries ago, whales were considered a shipping hazard with the need for careful navigation around enormous pods of whales. Now we are happy to get quick glimpses of breaching humpback, piked or fin whales. One day, about 50 metres from the ship, two humpback whales jumped out of the water, throwing their huge bodies up in the air, and crashing back down, causing huge eruptions on the surface. We all rushed up to the deck and stood there in awe. Up until that point we hadn't seen many whales at all. Quite a discouraging observation when you consider a vast industrial whaling fleet looming about. But here they were and happy to show off their tricks. Amid the cheering and clapping from the growing crowd of spectators on deck, they continued to breach, flip and dive back down. When you see these animals in the free, open ocean, their wilderness, their world, it gives you strength to carry on. During this year's campaign we were in many confrontations with the whaling ships. Blocking their slipway, trying to stop them from entering the whale sanctuary area and ensuring the harpoon ships stayed close by to keep an eye on us instead of going off over the horizon in a bid to resume whaling. Standing outside on the deck and seeing a ship bearing down upon you at speed is a thrilling sight and we have needed to take greater care in looking out for the movement of the whalers. With two — what we believe deliberate — rammings, of which one resulted in the sinking of the Ady Gil, they have shown themselves to be prepared to use violence against us. It seems that with increasing value put on threatened animals in the wild, poachers are willing to go to extremes in defending their lucrative operations. After having followed the factory ship Nisshin Maru for over three weeks while no whaling could take place, we were forced to head back to land. Low on fuel, food and fresh water we turned the ship and set course for Australia. During the last night with the whaling fleet I stood outside on deck and looked out at the factory ship in front of us for one last time. I felt a great sense of pride, to know that in the 21st century it is still a committed, dedicated, and hard working group of ordinary people that can bring about the change needed to keep this planet healthy and sane. In fact, it is the only thing that ever has. • Wietse Van Der Werf was a crew member of Sea Shepherd's 2009-2010 anti-whaling campaign guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Stocks will collapse after a few more seasons of fishing at current levels, and investors will just move on to the next catch Idiots. Morons. Blockheads. Numbskulls. Nothing quite captures the mind-withering stupidity of what has just happened in Doha. Swayed by Japan and a number of other countries, some of them doubtless bought off in traditional fashion, the members of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) have decided not to protect the Atlantic bluefin tuna. Those who opposed suspending trade in the species argued that the temporary ban proposed by Monaco would devastate their fishing industries. There is some truth in this: for the years in which bluefin stocks would have been allowed to recover, the export ban would have put people out of work and reduced the output of their industry. But the absence of a ban ensures that, after one or two more seasons of fishing at current levels, all the jobs and the entire industry are finished forever, along with the magnificent species that supported them. The insistence that the fishing can continue without consequences betrays Olympic-class denial, a flat refusal to look reality in the face. One of the commenters on a Guardian thread this week, who lives in Japan and uses the tag Kimpatsu, related his experiences of trying to discuss these issues. "the Japanese policy towards both Bluefin tuna and whales has two engines of motivation. The first is the fact that the average Japanese is in denial about the imminent extinction of these creatures; the thought runs that as they have always eaten these animals (and many Japanese mistakenly think that the whale is a fish) since time immemorial, they will be able to continue doing so indefinitely into the future. When pressed on the subject of hunting to extinction, they grow aggressive. (I know from personal experience.) The second reason is the low-grade paranoia that informs all Japanese interaction with the outside world; the notion of Nihon tataki (Japan-bashing) is omnipresent. If you protest against whaling or tuna fishing, you're a cultural imperialist. If you point out that some Japanese are members of Greenpeace or oppose whaling (my GP is one), then "you don't understand Japanese mind so much". Remember: all your actions against whaling and overfishing are driven by a deep-seated, irrational hatred of Japan. Consequently, when you push, they push back." I have no idea how representative this is, but the attitudes Kimpatsu describes were powerfully represented in The Cove, the film about the secret dolphin slaughter in Japan which won the 2010 Oscar for best documentary. The massacre it exposed is pointless, counter-productive and profoundly damaging to Japan's international image, but it was fiercely defended by what seemed to be the entire political establishment. Denial is evident everywhere on earth, but in the Japanese fishing and whaling industries it seems to have been raised to an art-form. But it would be wrong to blame only Japan for this. In fact the only nations which unequivocally stood up for a ban were Monaco, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, the United States, Norway and Kenya. It's good to have the UK and US on board, especially after eight years of sabotaging international treaties by the Bush administration, but the feeble or hostile response of many other countries was deeply depressing. The EU, some of whose members are major tuna exporters to Japan, supported a ban, but only if it was delayed until May 2011, by which time tuna stocks might pass the point of no return. Several nations simply rebuffed what the fisheries scientists say and insisted that they could carry on as usual without ill-effect. It's Easter Island all over again. This proposal was brought before the meeting in Doha for just one reason: the nations charged with managing the tuna fishery have flunked it. The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (Iccat), which is supposed to discharge this task, is in urgent need of a new name: it should be called the the International Commission for the Cleansing of Atlantic Tunas. It has repeatedly set catch limits way above what its own scientists have proposed, and turned a blind eye to illegal bluefin catches which probably outweigh the legal take. Now Japan, as if to show that it really doesn't care what happens to the industry it claims to support, has said that it should be Iccat, not Cites, which continues to decide how many tuna are caught. It's like putting Cruella de Ville in charge of the Battersea Dog's Home. Behind all this lurks a simple calculation. The businessmen currently fishing the Atlantic bluefin to extinction know that while any members of the species survive there is no cut-off point for the profits they make. The scarcer tuna become, the higher the price each carcass fetches. Once the fish have been exterminated, the investors can just shift their vast profits into another industry. It makes perfect economic sense. The shocker is that the nations which are supposed to regulate these crooks have let them get away with it. In doing so, they are reducing the king of fish to an expendable asset in a bent accountant's ledger. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
More than 300 southern right whales have been found dead in the last five years in the waters off Argentina's Patagonian coast Experts are meeting this week to try to solve the mystery of the largest ever recorded die-off of great whales. More than 300 southern right whales, most of them young calves, have been found dead in the last five years in the waters off Argentina's Patagonian coast - one of the most important breeding grounds for the species. Possible causes being examined include biotoxins - naturally occurring poisons which include the venom of some snakes and spiders and the "flesh-eating" bacteria Necrotizing fasciitis - disease, environmental factors, and lack of prey, particularly the tiny krill which make up the bulk of the southern right's diet. Another theory put forward has been the effect of gulls, which can act like parasites, gouging skin and blubber from the whales' backs. The main evidence that will be examined is tests on samples taken from beached whale calves, which have shown "unusually thin" blubber, said the US-based Wildlife Conservation Society, which described the die-off as "a perplexing and urgent mystery". "We need to critically examine possible causes for this increase in calf mortality so we can begin to explore possible solutions," said Marcela Uhart, one of the WCS scientists who first discovered the problem. "Finding the cause may require an expansion of monitoring activities to include the vast feeding grounds for the species." Southern right whales are one of three species of right whales, so called because fishermen considered them the "right whale" to hunt, because they are slow swimmers, easy to approach, live close to shore and float when dead. In the first half of the 1800s about 45,000 right whales were killed, driving them close to extinction, before they became protected in 1937. Since then the southern right whale — which weighs up to 90 tonnes when fully grown — has been a conservation success, numbers rebounding to about 7,500, in populations off South America, South Africa, Australia and some oceanic islands. Numbers of the Northern Atlantic right whale and Northern Pacific right whale have recovered less well, to a few hundred each, according to the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society. Part of the concern about the recent die-off is that the dead whales have been found around the Peninsula Valdés, where one third of the global population of southern right whales is thought to use the protected bays for calving and nursing between the months of June and December. "Peninsula Valdés is one of the most important calving and nursing grounds for the species found throughout the southern hemisphere," said Howard Rosenbaum, director WCS's ocean giants programme, and a member of the International Whaling Commission's scientific committee. "By working with the government of Argentina, the Province of Chubut [which is hosting the conference this week], and our diverse team of experts and specialists, we can increase our chances of solving this mystery, the critical next step to ensuring a future for this population of southern right whales." The southern right whale grows to up to 17m long, with a rotund body and broad back, and brown skin with white patches on the belly. Distinguishing features include two blow-holes which make a V-shaped blow up to 5m high, growths called callosities on their heads, jaws, and lips - the unique patterns of which can be used to identify individuals - and the largest testes in the animal kingdom weighting up to a tonne a pair. Despite being slow swimmers they are "highly acrobatic", and can use their tail flukes to "sail" in the wind, reports the WCS. They live in groups of up to 12 at their feeding grounds, or two and three in the breeding areas. This week's workshop meeting, which ends tomorrow, is sponsored by the International Whaling Commission, which last year declared the die-off as a management priority. Other participants include the WCS, Centro Nacional Patagónico, the Zoological Society of London, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the World Conservation Union (IUCN), the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the British Antarctic Survey, the Marine Mammal Centre, and the US Marine Mammal Commission. Globally the southern right whale is one of 86 recognised species of cetaceans - porpoises, dolphins and whales - listed as being of "least concern" by the IUCN World Conservation Union. In the last update by the Cetacean specialist group, in 2008, two species are listed as "critically endangered", and a dozen species and several sub-species "endangered" or "vulnerable"; many more are not assessed due to lack of data. Threats include continued hunting, entrapment in fishing gear and structures like dams, over-fishing of prey, and noise from ships and other human activities. There is also concern that high levels of chemicals found in tissues of these animals "may be affecting the animals' immune and reproductive systems", says another report from the group in 2003. A report last week by Natural England, the countryside agency for England, said that all species of whale and dolphin found around England were endangered. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
|
|
Subscribe To Marine Biology By Email | ||
|
Marine Biology RSS Feed | ||
|
Marine Biology Comments Feed | ||
| Have A New Idea For Marine Biology? | ||
|
|||