Thursday, 31 January 2019
Using Science to Inform the CBD Post-2020 Biodiversity Framework
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Wednesday, 30 January 2019
There she blows! Mud volcanoes in the Mediterranean
Mud volcanoes don’t spew lava, but they do release lots of gases, like methane, and can form both underwater and on land. They might even form on Mars. Dr. Carmina López-Rodríguez and her colleagues investigated how and when a mud volcano in the Mediterranean formed. Read more to see what they found!
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Tuesday, 29 January 2019
Monday, 28 January 2019
OC Overview for the Week of January 28 2019
Dan Haifley, Our Ocean Backyard: The philosophy of tide pools and our interconnected environment
https://www.santacruzsentinel.com/2019/01/26/dan-haifley-our-ocean-backy...
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From My Beach Chair to the O2 Arena in London
Kevin Anderson is a professional tennis player from South Africa and currently ranked Number 6 in the world on the ATP Tour. A winner of six ATP titles, Anderson reached the 2017 US Open final, the 2018 Wimbledon final and qualified for the 2018 season-ending tournament in London as one of the eight best players of the year. Anderson resides in Gulf Stream, Florida, with his wife, Kelsey, and rescue dog, Lady Kady.
The importance of water in my life is immeasurable.
I never go to a practice without my large canteen of water or play a match on a hot day without going through a few liters to keep me hydrated. This is the same for all tennis players, which is why it’s no surprise to see large bins on the courts at tournaments overfilled with plastic bottles.
It never dawned on me the issue right in front of my eyes until I walked on the beach near my home and saw the same type of bottles littered all across the sand.
When you read the news about the ludicrous amount of trash in the ocean and when you see it every time you go to the beach, you start to ask yourself why and what can be done? Part of the reason my wife, Kelsey, and I moved to Florida was because of the beach—it provides not only a great place for a workout but also a dream location after a hard day of training. But the plastic bottles, plastic spoons and plastic bags that brush up against us on the sand are not part of that dream. Those moments of trash interruptions at the beach, and having educated myself on the ramifications of plastic in our seas, are part of what has spurred me to take on this issue at home and on the ATP Tour.
Last month, my wife and I held a fundraising event in Boca Raton to support two causes very close to our hearts, Ocean Conservancy and Dezzy’s Second Chance Animal Rescue. We raised a lot of awareness for both organizations, and as for the ocean, we saw it as an opportunity to speak with our friends, neighbors and fellow tennis stars about the issue that is so close to our front doors. What I’ve learned in my research and work on this issue is that the problem of trash in the ocean is so overwhelming—it often leaves people thinking that they can’t make an impact. After meeting and working with the Ocean Conservancy team this past month, I know that is not case and that there is hope for clean beaches in Florida and around the world.
People like the ones at Ocean Conservancy can always use a helping hand and as a member of the ATP Player’s Council I take that position seriously and see it as an opportunity to do good using that platform. Because of my personal initiative to promote reducing single-use plastics, the ATP Tour put my goals in action at the O2 arena, reducing single-use plastic to the Nitto ATP Finals in London in November by providing reusable water bottles for players and staff (with water coolers to refill), paper straws and glass cups for use in the player restaurant and reusable cups for fans buying drinks in the stands. This huge step in the right direction sends a great message that you can put on these massive events and minimize the waste produced.
When you combine those sorts of changes with Ocean Conservancy and the work they do including their International Coastal Cleanup, you’ve got a combination that can really make change. What drew me to Ocean Conservancy in addition to the ICC was their work with major corporations and governments on the Trash Free Seas Alliance. As great as it is to see people come in large groups clean up the beach, that needs to be supported by major entities like the Alliance members in order to curb the flow of trash from the source so it doesn’t end up in the ocean in the first place.
I’ve faced a lot of tough opponents on the tennis court and the lesson I’ve learned in all of my matches is that persistence is the greatest asset any competitor has. In the fight against ocean plastic, it will be persistence from residents across the globe, from companies and organizations like the ATP Tour and Ocean Conservancy that will help us win this battle.
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Citizen Science, Oh My!
To understand ecosystem level changes, it is important to monitor an ecosystem over a long period of time. However, long-term funding can be limited, especially during times of economic hardships. How do researchers carry out long-term ecological studies in place where sustained funding is unavailable? Read this article to get a glimpse into citizen science, […]
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Saturday, 26 January 2019
Greenland sharks: Caught on tape for conservation
In 2016 researchers discovered that Greenland sharks (Somniosus microcephalus) are the oldest living vertebrates on the planet. What does that mean for the conservation and management of these large, cold-water predators? This week we’ll find out.
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Friday, 25 January 2019
Impacts of the US government shutdown on federal MPAs: Some of the world’s largest MPAs had just one person working at them this past month
Due to an impasse in recent weeks between US President Donald Trump and Congress over whether to spend billions of dollars to extend the wall on the nation’s southern border, about one-quarter of the government was shut down – with no funding to conduct operations – and most employees furloughed for a period that stretched to 35 days. Finally, on 25 January, President Trump announced the full government would be reopened for three weeks to allow time for more negotiations on the border wall. However, if there is no resolution by mid-February, another shutdown remains a possibility.
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Webinar: Tuesday February 5th - Harnessing Biological Partnerships to Improve Coastal Restoration
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Washington D.C. Bans the Plastic Straw
Straws have become the poster child single-use item—and their days are numbered. This January, Washington D.C. became the second city in the United States to ban plastic straws.
In 2014, Ocean Conservancy launched its Skip the Straw Campaign, with tens of thousands of individuals pledging to request their beverages without straws. In the last few years alone, thousands of restaurants across the country have also decided to go strawless or to use sustainable alternatives. Other straw victories include Starbucks’ announcement to phase out straws, the European Union’s agreement to ban straws and other single-use items and coalitions popping up across the globe to combat straws in their communities—take a look at these student groups taking action in Yogyakarta, Indonesia and North Carolina, United States.
Many restaurants in D.C. had already been going straw-free as a result of Our Last Straw, a coalition of restaurants, bars, non-profits and others pushing for a straw ban in the district. Restaurants, bars and cafes now have six-months to phase out straws before enforcement begins in July 2019.
The straw ban is part of a larger citywide goal to reduce waste by 80% by 2032. Last year, Mayor Bowser implemented the Year of the Anacostia, a campaign to reduce waste entering the river, by cracking down on illegal dumping, encouraging stewardship and education, installing trash traps and improving trash reduction efforts in city limits. In the last two years, Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup event on the Anacostia has picked up 9,000 pounds of debris on just two miles of the waterway. The straw ban fits in to an existing suite of other food service requirements, including a guarantee of recyclability for all products and a foam ban that were first instituted in 2016. Achieving progressive foodservice legislation and enforcement with city-wide support wasn’t easy, but a collective goal to curb the some 400,000 pounds of trash entering the Anacostia each year made it achievable. Zach Rybarczyk, who works at the district’s Department of Energy & Environment on this issue, explained that it took the collaboration of a multitude of government agencies, non-profits, businesses and disability groups to bring the policy to life.
Join the movement! Commit to skipping the straw and add your voice to the sea of people taking a stand for the ocean. Sign the pledge now and remember to order your drink without a straw. It is a small step that goes a long way for ocean health. Take the pledge today.
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Thursday, 24 January 2019
Government Shutdown Means Wave of Problems
The federal government shutdown is now the longest in history and shows no signs of drawing to a close. Of NOAA’s 11,000 employees, more than half are currently furloughed. None are currently being paid.
NOAA’s important work has ground to a near-halt. As the shutdown wears on, each day brings new and compounding impacts on our oceans and those who rely on them.
Fisheries feel the effects
From Massachusetts down to Florida, there are fishermen who need inspections and permits before they can take their boats out on the water—but permits are not being processed. Many fishing seasons began with the New Year, and some fishermen are seeing an economic hit. Thankfully, so far fishermen in Alaska have seen some relief, but many elsewhere are still being forced to idle their engines. The uncertainty has many fishermen wondering how they might best proceed and how regulators might respond. The staff of the regional councils that manage fisheries are still working, but their meetings and operations have been limited and they can’t make any final decisions.
Marine species monitoring grinds to a halt
During this winter shutdown, thousands of humpback whales are making their annual migration to Hawaii. Unfortunately, the NOAA scientists tasked with protecting them are not working. In the Pacific Northwest, the shutdown has limited the ability for the Lummi Island tribal nation and veterinarians to help two ailing southern resident orcas in Puget Sound. Only 75 southern resident orcas remain. In fact, the whole of NOAA’s West Coast Stranding Network, a response team and hotline, is not operating.
On the East Coast, there are fears that endangered sea turtles off of the Outer Banks could be stunned by recent cold weather. Sea Turtle Conservancy, a Florida organization that last year helped rescue stunned turtles off of Cape Cod, can’t move the endangered species across state lines without permission from NOAA and the Fish & Wildlife Service.
Public input affected
A big issue in Gulf of Mexico fishery management is state management of recreational red snapper, and now, because of the shutdown, it will take longer to resolve. The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council can no longer take final action at their upcoming meeting because they were not able to publish the meeting agenda in the Federal Register two weeks in advance as required by law.
The general public being able to review and comment on federal agency actions is an integral part of resource management and environmental policy in the United States. What this will mean for public comment periods is anyone’s guess, but it has certainly introduced some confusion. NOAA has had public comment periods end during the shutdown. However, documents that the public should be able to review may not be accessible, and other relevant websites—including FederalRegister.gov—are not being supported. What this will mean for public comment periods is anyone’s guess, though extensions are being requested.
Science suffers
NOAA’s scientific staff, efforts and data touch on so much more than fish or marine species. NOAA ships are stuck at port, limiting exploration and data collection. Vital climate data is unavailable, causing disruptions for scientists both within the United States and around the world. Fascinatingly, according to Nature, “An international team of geophysicists has delayed the release of an updated model of Earth’s magnetic field—data that underlie all modern navigation, affecting everyone from military planners to smartphone users.”
Department of the Interior Staff called back into work on offshore oil and gas
The Department of the Interior, through their Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), is responsible for offshore oil and gas lease sales as well as the development of the Five Year Plan that will guide them. The majority of BOEM’s functions ceased with the shutdown, but now the administration is bringing back 40 staffers to prep for lease sales and finalize the Five Year Plan for offshore oil and gas that is expected to greatly increase the areas of the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf subject to development. The timing has been thrown into question, but clearly this un-furloughing of staff indicates that the administration wants to wrap it up. Members of both the House and Senate have questioned the administration’s prioritization of offshore oil and gas development during this shutdown.
As for renewable energy, BOEM has cancelled a series of public meetings on the draft environmental impact statement that they had prepared for the Vineyard Wind development off of Massachusetts.
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Slime, baby, slime!
Hagfish might look like disgusting little slime eels, but there is so much more to these jawless fishes. Read on to learn about hagfish and what scientists are uncovering about their slime!
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Wednesday, 23 January 2019
Hawksbills in hot water? Temperature and Precipitation Impacts on Hawksbill Sea Turtle Nests
Climate change is already having effects on sea turtles. All seven species of sea turtle are dependent on temperature for habitat selection and physiology. The impacts of temperature and moisture on hatchling development have real long-term impacts on marine turtle populations. Article Montero, N., dei Marcovaldi, M. A., Lopez–Mendilaharsu, M., Santos, A. S., Santos, A. […]
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Coast Guard Announces New Alaskan Arctic Vessel Study
The Coast Guard has launched a new study of vessel traffic in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas off the northwest and north coast of Alaska. The study, which was announced late last month, will assess current and predicted vessel traffic in the region and—if warranted—recommend measures to improve safety and environmental protection. The Coast Guard has invited the public to participate in this process by submitting suggestions and recommendations. Join us and tell the Coast Guard you support its efforts to protect Arctic waters from the impacts of increasing ship traffic.
The Chukchi and Beaufort seas are full of life. They are home to iconic marine mammals like walruses, bowhead whales and ice-dependent seals. Each summer, millions of seabirds gather in the Arctic to take advantage of seasonal abundance. Indigenous peoples have lived in Arctic coastal communities for thousands of years and continue to rely on healthy ocean waters as a source of food and to sustain traditional cultural practices.
The Arctic region is experiencing rapid change and is warming at more than twice the rate of the rest of the planet. Sea ice in the Chukchi and Beaufort is decreasing in extent, thickness and duration. At the same time, vessel traffic in the region is increasing, and that trend is predicted to continue in coming years. If not managed properly, this could cause significant impacts. Threats include:
- Oil spills from vessels, including the potential for large spills;
- Increases in air and water pollution;
- Conflicts with indigenous hunters in small craft;
- Ship strikes on slow-moving marine mammals;
- Growth in underwater noise that could adversely affect marine animals; and
- Introduction of harmful invasive species.
The remoteness of the region—thousands of miles from response capabilities—means that the impacts of a serious vessel accident, especially an oil spill, would be devastating to the marine environment and the people whose lives and livelihoods depend on a healthy ocean. The best way to avoid such accidents is to prevent them from happening in the first place.
Fortunately, there are ways to minimize these threats. We’re optimistic the Coast Guard’s newly announced vessel traffic study will lead to pragmatic measures that increase ship safety and help protect the Chukchi and Beaufort seas from potentially harmful impacts.
In fact, a similar Coast Guard study recently led to the adoption of designated vessel traffic routes and protected areas in the Bering Sea and Bering Strait region. All these measures took effect December 1, 2018.
The Coast Guard’s Chukchi and Beaufort sea traffic study is just getting underway, and there will be a lot to consider when assessing how best to manage marine traffic in this area. Vessel traffic is diverse and includes small craft used by indigenous hunters, traffic associated with community re-supply, tour boats, industry-related vessels, research ships and—increasingly—commercial transit traffic traveling the Northern Sea Route or Northwest Passage. The region is also highly dynamic: it’s covered in sea ice for months at a time, and ship operators can encounter ice hazards at any time of year. And, of course, these waters are home to ecologically important areas and an abundance of marine wildlife.
As the Coast Guard has recognized, successful vessel traffic management in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas will need to balance all these factors. Join us in encouraging the Coast Guard to chart a responsible path forward in this challenging region.
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Podcast: ocean acidification
Description: Guest Carl Lundin, Principal Marine and Polar Scientist in the International Union for the Conservation of Nature Danielle Smith, Danielle Smith Show, 21 January 2019. Podcast.
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Ocean acidification impacts on coastal communities
Researchers gathered to formulate recommendations for policymakers on the mitigation, adaptation and research priorities needed to avoid the catastrophic impact of ocean acidification on coastal economies. Problem Ocean acidification is “one of the greatest scourges from the development of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions to have both concrete and global impact,” H.S.H Prince Albert of Monaco. […]
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Tuesday, 22 January 2019
OC Overview for the Week of January 21 2019
Antarctic krill: Key food source moves south
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-46953652
The Government Shutdown Is Threatening the Lives of Your Favorite Ocean Animals
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/01/government-shutdown-noaa-ma...
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Economically vital Blue Crabs having a hard time dealing with marine hypoxia and acidification
Tomasetti SJ, Morrell BK, Merlo LR, Gobler CJ (2018) Individual and combined effects of low dissolved oxygen and low pH on survival of early stage larval blue crabs, Callinectes sapidus. PLoS ONE 13(12): e0208629. Blue Crab is the 5th most valuable fishery in the US. Known as Callinectes sapidus throughout its range, the Blue Crab […]
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Monday, 21 January 2019
A Person (or Fish) on the Inside: Scientists Discover New Ally to Fight Coral Bleaching.
Our ocean continues to warm at a rate faster than anyone expected and coral reefs are facing an absolutely massive threat. Scientists are hard at work, attempting to solve the global crisis that is climate change-induced coral bleaching and death. But what if these scientists had someone on the inside to help?
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The real-time impact of ship noise on dolphin calls
Dolphins are not alone in their adaption to noisy surroundings. Understanding the long-term sustainability of these animals ability to communicate with each other with altered calls is important for establishing meaningful protections for them as greater levels of noise are introduced into their surroundings.
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Saturday, 19 January 2019
What’s next for Air Jaws? Research Priorities for The Great White Shark
Article Huveneers, C., Apps, K., Becceri-Garcia, E. E., Bruce, B., Butcher, P. A., Carlisle, A., … & Daly-Engel, T. (2018). Future research directions on the ‘elusive’white shark. Frontiers in Marine Science, 5, 455. Background Since the beginning of Discovery Channel’s Shark Week, viewers have been mesmerized by the great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias). The great […]
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Friday, 18 January 2019
Thursday, 17 January 2019
Full carbonate chemistry at the site of calcification in a tropical coral
Coral calcification: Microscope-guided microsensor measurements reveal full carbonate chemistry at the site of calcification in a tropical coralResearchers from the Centre Scientifique de Monaco (CSM), the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen and the University of Kiel (CAU) have succeeded in directly measuring three key parameters necessary for skeleton formation in a live tropical coral. This way, they completely characterized the carbonate chemistry at the site of calcification. The study has now been published in Science Advances.
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Wednesday, 16 January 2019
Climate-driven events leave an imprint on corals in the Great Barrier Reef
Last year, it was reported that half of the Great Barrier Reef had just died after heat stress caused severe coral bleaching in 2016 and 2017 back-to-back. Now, researchers believe that the way to study coral loss going forward is to understand how one climate-driven disturbance relates to those that came before it.
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Tuesday, 15 January 2019
Antarctic Ice Key to the Carbon Cycle
A recent study suggests that nutrients from glacial melt and icebergs supports a significant portion of the biological production in the Antarctic. This in turn has implications for the global carbon cycle, since photosynthesis by microorganisms is one of the ways the ocean absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
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5 Things to Keep in Mind about Red Tide in 2019
“How are the beaches?”
This is a question we’ve heard hundreds of times this fall and going into this winter, from tourists and other folks who migrate to Florida by the millions when things turn icy and cold up north. Winter travelers come to Florida to soak up the sun and spend time on warm and pristine beaches. So, naturally, people have been worried about the impacts of red tide with its damage to wildlife, fish kills and ability to bring on respiratory distress.
The 2018 red tide event was massive in scale and scope of destruction. While things may have tapered off near Thanksgiving, the situation persists into 2019. Here are some facts and figures to recap the 2018 event and to prepare you for what lies ahead this year.
- At its worst, the 2018 red tide event was bigger in area than the entire state of Connecticut
Red tide ranged from the Panhandle down along the Southwest coast of Florida and around to the Eastern Central Atlantic Coast. At its peak, there were blooms affecting nearly 1,000 miles of coastline from Pensacola to Port Canaveral. The red tide was most persistent off the coast of six counties in Southwest Florida and at its worst covered thousands of square miles of water offshore. Red tide events can grow as large as 10,000 square miles, which is bigger than the entire area of New Jersey.
- Just because the temperature dropped, doesn’t mean that red tide is gone
Warmer temperatures tend to facilitate blooms of the microorganism that causes red tide, and so cooler winter temperatures have somewhat tempered the blooms, but they have not dissipated entirely. Although Gulf of Mexico water temperatures are in the mid to upper 60s Fahrenheit, red tide has not gone dormant. In the second week of January, there were still high concentrations of the red tide microorganism being reported in Manatee and Sarasota counties south of Tampa Bay. And red tide presence in those counties could be on the rise. So, while the fish kills may have been cleaned up, the coast is not clear. And we need to remain vigilant about what may be causing this red tide event to persist and its effects on communities and wildlife.
- Florida has a new governor and the attitude may be changing for harmful algal blooms like red tide
During his first day in office, Governor Ron DeSantis unleashed a firehose of executive and regulatory changes aimed at putting Florida’s water quality issues in check. Ocean Conservancy welcomes these encouraging moves by the new governor—especially those focused on dealing with the harmful algal blooms plaguing the state. We are especially excited to see an emphasis on studying the causes and impacts of red tide and additional support to local governments to minimize the impacts of red tide to residents and visitors. Governor DeSantis also created a blue-green algae task force, and we’re curious to see how this task force works with and compliments the state’s existing harmful algal bloom task force, which is poorly funded. We remain optimistic that the administration will continue to be a strong voice for our coastal ecosystems and the coastal economies that depend on them.
- The 2018 red tide event could have long-term impacts on Gulf fish stocks and other wildlife
Certain Gulf of Mexico fish, like gag grouper, live offshore as adults but inshore on the grass flats as juveniles—this is why small gag grouper are often referred to as “grass grouper” by fishermen. Gag are an important recreational and commercial fishery in the Gulf of Mexico, and if you’ve ever had a famous Floridian blackened grouper sandwich, there’s a good chance that it was actually gag. Because the red tide event of 2018 encompassed so much of this species’ territory—from its spawning area to the nurseries on the grass flats where juveniles grow up—there is concern that entire generations of gag could have been wiped out, which will have long term repercussions on the overall health of the stock. And gag is just one example—numerous other fisheries are impacted by red tide, including red and black grouper, goliath grouper and inshore stocks such as red drum, snook and spotted seatrout. The red tide affected more than fish too. Manatees, sea turtles, dolphins and birds are all affected by red tides. For bottlenose dolphins, the number of strandings was so high in the fall and winter of 2018 that NOAA declared an Unusual Mortality Event. As of December 2018, 127 bottlenose dolphins had stranded along the Southwest Coast of Florida where the red tide was most persistent.
- The government shutdown has impacted the ability of state researchers to track red tide
Operating under the Department of Commerce, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is one of the agencies that has been shuttered by the ongoing federal government shutdown. Florida state agencies such as the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission rely upon NOAA satellites and technology to compile their analysis of the red tide event, and that technology is no longer accessible while the government is shut down. The result is a much less clear picture on the water of what is happening with red tide and slows our ability to respond to events as they are happening.
Given that red tide is already carrying over from 2018, there is a possibility that 2019 could also bring serious water quality threats. Even if red tide dissipates, there are lingering issues statewide with blue-green algae and brown tide.
Harmful algal blooms were an important issue in Florida’s 2018 elections, and we’re glad to see Governor DeSantis acting quickly on his campaign promises. We hope that this momentum will continue and we will see sustained long-term funding for the harmful algal bloom task force and the new decision-making groups, like the blue-green algae task force, so they can take meaningful actions on the state’s water quality issues.
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Monday, 14 January 2019
OC Overview for the Week of January 14 2019
Climate Change Could Be Breaking a Natural Coral Reef Thermostat
https://www.hakaimagazine.com/news/climate-change-could-be-breaking-a-na...
Whales Remix Each Other’s Songs, Nearly 3,000 Miles Apart
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/humpback-whales-sing-similar-songs
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We’re changing our name - Welcome to The Skimmer!
A bit of big news from us: MEAM is going to be changing its name to The Skimmer on Marine Ecosystems and Management – or The Skimmer, for short – next month. This new name (which in long form still references our old name MEAM) comes with an amazing new logo designed by Larrea Young of Little Knids. What’s not changing? Our focus on bringing you critical insights for the sustainable management and conservation of marine ecosystems.
Why the change you ask? About a year ago, we started experimenting with a new type of feature – “Skimmers” – with the aim of providing a quick synopsis (a “bird’s eye view” if you will) of the latest news and research on a topic. We have covered ocean plastics, climate-related changes in the Arctic, how weather and climate extremes are impacting the ocean, managing ocean ecosystems in a changing climate, what managers should know about ocean bacteria and viruses, and (this month) gender as Skimmer articles, and are now taking this as the name of the publication. Not all of our articles will be in this specific format, although many will be. And in general the new name represents the type of integrative and easily and rapidly digestible information that marine conservation and management practitioners need – and which we’ll continue to provide.
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The Skimmer: Missing half the story: How considering gender can improve ocean conservation and management
“If we only think of fishing as men in boats pulling nets out of the water, we’re missing half the story. When we only tell half the story we’re in danger of underestimating how many animals are being caught, what types of animals are being caught, and why types of habitats are important for fishing. Not only that, we’re missing how families feed themselves, how they pay for school or health care, or how they share with their neighbors. When we miss half the story we are more likely to make fishing and conservation management decisions that don’t work.”
---- Dr. Danika Kleiber
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Latest News and Resources for Ocean Planners and Managers
- New book (available for free) assesses experience with implementing ecosystem approaches in the EU and beyond
- New publication and videos highlight practical ways to communicate EBM
- Responses requested for survey on Ecosystem-based Approach as sustainability tool
- Leading ocean conservationist sees only three major ocean conservation victories for 2018
- Seychelles launches first sovereign blue bond to support sustainable ocean projects
- Proposal to create world’s largest marine sanctuary in Antarctic fails
- Webinar recording provides an overview of significance of recent US elections for US ocean management (another analysis here)
- US federal government shutdown harmful for marine conservation and management
- Modern Fish Act to amend Magnuson Stevens Act approved by US Congress
- US mid-Atlantic regional council moves ahead on partnership activities, including ocean forum in spring
- Errors found in recent ocean warming study, reducing certainty of conclusions
- 75-80 percent chance of a moderate El Niño event forming in coming months
- New study finds Eastern Pacific El Niño events will intensify and become more frequent with global warming
- European Atlas of Marine Life launched
- European Commission and IOC-UNESCO launch MSPGlobal initiative to promote cross-border MSP
- $10bn pledged to protect oceans at Our Ocean Conference
- Sustainable Blue Economy Conference concludes with 62 pledges
- New framework provides guidance for sustainable investments in ocean industries
from OpenChannels News http://bit.ly/2TJlWQa https://ift.tt/eA8V8J
Climate change is lending a hand to harmful algae: how ocean acidification may contribute to harmful algal blooms
Climate change isn’t just changing temperatures–climate change is changing the pH of our ocean, with big impacts on marine food webs! Read up on a recent study describing how elevated carbon dioxide lead to harmful algal bloom conditions in the Northwest Atlantic.
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Henry Stommel Research Medal for Martin Visbeck
High honors for German OceanographerAt the 99th annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society Professor Martin Visbeck, Head of Physical Oceanography and Spokesman for the Cluster of Excellence "The Future Ocean", is honored with the Henry Stommel Research Medal. Prof. Visbeck receives the award for his outstanding contributions to understanding ocean circulation and mixing, and the role of the oceans in climate.
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from "Future Ocean" – News http://bit.ly/2FrBZPw https://ift.tt/eA8V8J
Sunday, 13 January 2019
Friday, 11 January 2019
Coral Cultures- A Test of Strength
Yuan, X., Guo, Y., Cai, W. J., Huang, H., Zhou, W., & Liu, S. (2019). Coral responses to ocean warming and acidification: Implications for future distribution of coral reefs in the South China Sea. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 138, 241-248. Background Humans burning fossil fuels have put carbon dioxide into the atmosphere at an unprecedented rate. Carbon dioxide […]
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Thursday, 10 January 2019
Communication Woes: Are we speaking the same language?
Scientists know communicating the significance of their findings is a huge part of their job. But what happens when the words we use mean different things to different people? When references and metaphors are only understood by certain generations, or by people from specific geographic regions? What hurdles come after the experiments are done and […]
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Wednesday, 9 January 2019
The (ocean) physics of The Ocean Cleanup’s System 001
The following is a guest post by Dr. Clark Richards, a physical oceanographer at the Bedford Institute of Ocean Sciences in Halifax, Canada. It was originally posted on his personal blog. Clark is an expert in geophysical fluid dynamics, ocean robots and throwing really expensive stuff in the ocean in treacherous places.
Introduction
The Ocean Cleanup, brainchild of Dutch inventor Boyan Slat, was in the news again this past week after announcing that in addition to the fact that their system is unable to collect plastic as intended, it suffered a mechanical failure. “Wilson” is currently being towed to Hawaii, where it will undergo repairs and upgrades, presumably to be towed back out to the garbage patch for a second trial.
I am not a mechanical engineer, so I don’t intend to comment on the details of their mechanical failure. I am, however, a sea-going oceanographer. Which means that I am used to the sorts of situations with scientific research equipment that was so succinctly paraphrased by Dr. Miriam Goldstein:
![“The ocean is strong and powerful, and likes to rip things up.” ![Dr. Miriam Goldstein. Prescient oceanographer]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_tv1XSvy7ga01JR89ZltonbmtiW4OUYBkic6FuAvNke0R7j4RleD9HAwIl9Am1Lk4T4zNe2MwBw8b41AYVgYcp-R1LkBgdtX75cC-veKn74jezTynlKQ28bsMKB4fSriUCQWBHGP0glpx8=s0-d)
“The ocean is strong and powerful, and likes to rip things up.” ![Dr. Miriam Goldstein. Prescient oceanographer]
Designing for physics
But beyond the engineering, there are the questions of what the *physics* are that TOC are relying on for their system to be successful. Some of you may recall that the original design was to moor (i.e. *anchor*) their device in 6000m (20000 feet) of water, and let existing ocean currents sweep garbage into the U-shaped structure. Thankfully, they realized the challenges associated with deep-ocean moorings, and abandoned that idea.
The latest design iteration (misleadingly called “System 001”, as though they haven’t built and tested any other previous to it), is to have a freely-drifting system, avoiding the use of anchors. TOC claim that under the influence of current, wind, and waves, their design will drift *faster* than the plastic — causing it to accumulate in the U, making for easy pickup. They summarize the concept with a little explainer video on their website, with a representative screen shot below:
Nice how the wind, waves, and current all are going in the same direction!!!
Based on a quick Twitter rant that I had after thinking about all this for a few minutes (see here), I wanted to explain out the various points that have either a) been missed by TOC design team, or b) deliberately excluded from their rosy assessment of how they expect their system to actually collect garbage. What follows is a “first stab” at a physical oceanographic assessment of the basic idea behind “System001”, and what TOC would need to address to convince the community (i.e. scientists, conservationists, etc) that their system is actually worth the millions of dollars going into development and testing.
The premise
As outlined in the video, the premise of System001 as a garbage collection system is that through the combined action of wind, waves, and currents, the U-shaped boom will travel faster through the water than the floating plastic, thereby collecting and concentrating it for eventual removal. This appears to be based on the idea that while both the boom and the plastic will drift with the current, because the boom protrudes from the water (like a sail), it will actually move faster than the surface water by catching wind.
There are some issues with this premise. Or, at least, there are some real aspects of oceanography that have either been ignored or missed in thinking that such a system will behave in the predictable way described by TOC. I’ll try and outline them here.
Stokes drift
Any of you who may have had an introduction to ocean waves may have heard that during the passage of a wave, the water particles move in little circles (often called wave orbital motion). While not a bad “first-order” description, it turns out that for real ocean waves there is also some drift in the direction of wave propagation. This drift is named after Gabriel Stokes, who first described it mathematically in 1847 (see wikipedia article here).
Stokes Drift
The amount of drift depends nonlinearly on both the amplitude and the wavelength of the wave. For example, for a 0.5m amplitude wave with a wavelength of 10m and period of 10s (something like typical ocean swell), the drift velocity is about 10 cm/s right at the surface.
Of course, the Stokes’ solution describes the motion of the water parcels being moved by the wave. For those water parcels to then have an effect on anything in the water, one would need to consider the various components of force/impulse/momentum (i.e. our buddy Sir Isaac Newton). Needless to say, it seems obvious that a smallish piece of neutrally buoyant plastic will respond to the Stokes drift much more readily than a 600m long floating cylinder with a large mass (and therefore large inertia).
This alone could be enough to quash the idea of a passive propagating collection system. Mr Slat?
Ekman currents
While we’re talking about long-dead European fluid mechanics pioneers, any study of the effect of winds and currents wouldn’t be complete without a foray into the theories proposed by Swedish oceanographer Vagn Walfrid Ekman in 1905. What Ekman found was that when the wind blew over the surface of the ocean, the resulting current (forced by friction between the air and the water) didn’t actually move in the same direction as the wind. The reason for this is because of the so-called “Coriolis effect”, whereby objects moving on the surface of the Earth experience an “acceleration” orthogonal to their direction of motion that appears to make them follow a curved path (for those who want to go down the rabbit hole, the Coriolis acceleration is essentially a “fix” for the fact that the surface of the Earth is non-inertial reference frame, and therefore doesn’t satisfy the conditions for Newton’s laws to apply without modification).
Anyway — the consequence is that in an ideal ocean, with a steady wind blowing over the surface, the surface currents actually move at an angle of 45 degrees to the wind direction! Whether it’s to the left or right of the wind depends on which hemisphere you are in — I’ll leave it as an exercise to determine which is which. And what’s cooler, is that the surface current then acts like a frictional layer to the water just below it, causing it to move at an angle, and so on, with the effect being that the wind-forced flow actually makes a SPIRAL that gets smaller with depth. This is known as the Ekman spiral.
Ekman Spiral
The actual depth that the spiral penetrates to depends on a mysterious ocean parameter called Az, which describes the vertical mixing of momentum between the layers — kind of like the friction between them. What is clear though, is that a small particle of plastic floating close to the surface and a 3m deep floating structure will likely not experience the same wind-forced current, and therefore won’t move in the same direction. Hmmm … that’s going to make it hard to pick up pieces of plastic.
What is a “Gyre” anyway?
The final point I wanted to make in this article (I have more, which I’ll summarize at the end for a possible future article), is to try and give a sense of what currents in the ocean (including in the “gyre” or in the region often referred to as the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch”) actually look like. The conception that there is a great swirling current 1000’s of km across is true only when the currents are averaged for a very long time. At any given instant, however, the ocean current field is a mess of flows at various space and time scales. An appropriate term for describing typical ocean flow fields is “turbulent”, as in an oft-viewed video made by NASA from satellite ocean current data.
To illustrate this, I took some screenshots of current conditions from the wonderful atmosphere/ocean visualization tool at earth.nullschool.net showing: ocean currents, surface waves, and wind.
Ocean Currents
Ocean waves
Wind
These images illustrate the potential problem with TOC idea, by highlighting the fact that the wind, wave, and current fields of the ocean (including even in the “quiet” garbage patch) are highly variable spatially and temporally, and are almost never aligned at the same period in time. What’s more, is that the currents and waves at a given time and location are not always a result of the wind at that location. Eddies in the ocean are generated through all kinds of different processes, and can propagate across ocean basins before finally dissipating.
Similarly, surface waves have been measured to cross oceans (i.e. the famous “Waves across the Pacific” study pioneered by the transformative oceanographer Walter Munk).
Other issues
Following the “rule of three”, I tried to hit what I consider to be the biggest concerns with TOC system design and principle, from my perspective as a physical oceanographer. However, there are other issues that should be addressed, if the system as designed is really believed by the TOC team to be capable of doing what they say. And really, it seems like a crazy waste of time on behalf of everyone involved to have spent this much time on something if they aren’t sure it will even work theoretically … not to mention the money spent thus far. So, part of me *has* to believe that all the dozens of people involved care deeply about making something that might actually work, and they have studied and considered all the effects and potential issues I (and others) have raised.
Anyway, the other issues are:
- What is the actual response of the system to a rapid change in wind/wave direction? Wind can change direction pretty quickly, especially compared to ocean currents. What’s to prevent a bunch of accumulated plastic getting blown out the open end of the U after a 180 degree shift in wind but before the system can re-orient?
- What about wave reflection from the boom structure itself? It is a well-known fact that objects (even floating ones) can reflect and “scatter” waves (scattering is when the reflected waves have a shorter wavelength than the original ones), and it seems like this could create a wave field in the U that might actually causes drift *out* of the system.
- The idea that all wildlife can just “swim under” the skirt (because it’s impermeable) is not supported by anything that I consider to be rigorous fluid mechanics, aside from the fact that much of what actually lives in the open ocean are non-motile or “planktonic” species. There are a lot of communities in the open ocean that float and drift at the surface, and I see no way that if the System collects floating plastic as it is designed that it won’t just sweep up all those species too. The latest EIA brushed off the effect of the System on planktonic organisms by stating that they “are ubiquitous in the world’s oceans and any deaths that occur as a result of the plastic extraction process will not have any population level effects”. But that doesn’t take into account that the stated mission is to deploy 60 such systems, which are estimated to clean the garbage patch of surface material at a rate of 50% reduction every 5 years. It stands to reason that they would also clean the Pacific of its planktonic communities by the same amount.
from Deep Sea News http://bit.ly/2slkYhv http://bit.ly/2M2TVjZ
New Congress Proposes Bold Action to Prohibit the Expansion of Risky Drilling
On Tuesday, lawmakers in the House of Representatives from across the country banded together to send the Trump administration a clear message: don’t recklessly expand drilling off our coasts.
Representatives introduced a suite of eight separate bills to prohibit expansion of oil and gas development in nearly every region of our outer continental shelf—in some cases permanently.
It’s been a little more than a year since the Trump administration introduced a draft plan to open virtually all of the United States’ outer continental shelf to offshore drilling. Most areas proposed under the Trump administration’s plan are currently closed to offshore drilling. Others are exposed to only limited offshore activity. Expanding offshore drilling in such places would be an unacceptable risk to coastal economies dependent on multibillion-dollar tourism and fishing industries.
Since the Trump administration’s draft proposed plan was released last January, coastal communities from Florida to New England and California to Oregon have been speaking out in strong opposition to the plan. In many places, offshore drilling became a central campaign issue in the 2018 mid-term elections with elected members promising to stand up to the Trump administration and put coastal communities ahead of the proposed offshore drilling expansion.
The 116th Congress officially kicked off last week, and many Members have already made it clear that they are ready to take legislative action if the Trump Administration ignores the widespread opposition to expanding offshore drilling.
Sign up for our emails!
The post New Congress Proposes Bold Action to Prohibit the Expansion of Risky Drilling appeared first on Ocean Conservancy.
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Have any sharks? Play GoFish and find out!
Scientists increasingly monitor what species are present in marine ecosystems as a way to figure out the health of that system and to detect if some species are threatened. Prior to the era of environmental DNA (eDNA) as a tool for detecting marine species, scientists would use traditional fish net and trawling methods to collect […]
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15 skills to help you stand out from the crowd
We’ve scoured our 100+ ‘Interview with WiseOceans’ to bring you the top 15 skills that our interviewees have needed in their marine conservation jobs (but didn’t necessarily know they would need when they started out).
How many have you got? Can you tick them all off?
You’ll often find yourself working in small teams/organisations or perhaps in remote locations, so bringing these extra skills can make you an indispensable member of the team!
In no particular order…
Have you seen our ‘Top five pieces of advice for a career in marine conservation‘ post? Essential reading for the aspiring marine biologist or conservationist.
Finally…make sure you’ve signed up to our Weekly Job Alert email to ensure you never miss the latest opportunities in marine conservation and science.
from WiseOceans blog – WiseOceans http://bit.ly/2FhypaQ http://bit.ly/2Fm2gOn
Top five pieces of advice for a career in marine conservation
You have always wanted to be a marine biologist…you are on the right degree or perhaps have already graduated. What now? How do you get that dream job? We’ve asked over 100 marine conservation professionals and scientists what their advice to you would be. Here are their top five pieces of advice.
A bonus piece of advice from WiseOceans… sign up to our Weekly Job Alert email to make sure you never miss out on your dream job or opportunity!
from WiseOceans blog – WiseOceans http://bit.ly/2FhbBrw http://bit.ly/2FnqmZk
Tuesday, 8 January 2019
The ocean acidification day of action
The Ocean Foundation has launched a new website that uses digital storytelling tools to engage users in learning about ocean acidification and encouraging them to get involved in the first OA Day of Action, on the 8th of January (8.1, for the pH of the ocean!) The Baltimore based band Animal Collective took an interest […]
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Monday, 7 January 2019
OC Overview for the Week of January 7 2019
Hundreds of thousands of native fish dead in second Murray-Darling incident
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/jan/07/hundreds-of-thous...
What the Government Shutdown Means for Our Coasts and Ocean
https://www.ecowatch.com/government-shutdown-oceans-coasts-2625337972.html
from OpenChannels News http://bit.ly/2ChayUP https://ift.tt/eA8V8J
Textiles in The Ocean
I have been picking up beach trash on and off for the last 5 years on a 1 mile stretch of beach in San Diego, California. While much has been written about plastics and microfibers and fast fashion, not much has been written about textiles in the ocean and the effect on animals.
In 2018, I started a more focussed tracking beach trash that included unique items. http://www.greenecoservices.com/5000-items-of-clothing-textiles-picked-o...
from OpenChannels News http://bit.ly/2RdMdcx https://ift.tt/eA8V8J
Into the deep: Deep sea mining is upon us, whether you would risk it or not
While we have a lot to discover about the deep sea, we do know that in the depths of the ocean are a number of valuable minerals and metals like gold, manganese, and cobalt. Yet with so little known, companies are ready to dive into the cold deep, gathering these metals for economic gain.
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Sunday, 6 January 2019
The Continued to be a Boondoogle of the Ocean Cleanup
boon·dog·gle
/ˈbo͞onˌdäɡəl/noun: work or activity that is wasteful or pointless but gives the appearance of having value.
verb: waste money or time on unnecessary or questionable projects.
The end of 2018 was tough for the Ocean Cleanup and its founder, inventor, and CEO Boyan Slat. In September, the 2000 foot-boom and supposed plastic collection device, was first deployed about 240 nautical miles offshore of San Francisco where it was tested for two weeks. The boom was then towed an additional 1,400 miles off the West Coast, about halfway between California and Hawaii, to begin collecting plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. This was supposed to be the first real-world proof of concept and trials of the device in the Pacific Garbage Patch.
Note that the previous prototype in the North Sea also failed at a shallower depth in calm seas. Of course, the next step is to build a bigger one and place it in rougher and deeper seas.
But in November, Ocean Cleanup stated the system was not holding plastic it collected. This lack of plastic collection arose from the system moving too slowly at times to hold plastic within the U-shaped collection area. The system is supposed to work by currents pushing plastics into the booms and nets. Yet slow and complex currents in this region of the Pacific allowed plastics to float out of the device again.
In late December, 60-feet of boom had detached due to material fatigue. Slat then indicated that this likely occurred due to wave action placing stress on the boom. The fracture was caused by material fatigue, he wrote. That’s likely because of the intense action of the waves that puts tremendous stress on objects in the water.
So to recap, the Ocean Cleanup system cannot either collect plastic or withstand the Pacific Ocean.
In a September interview with NPR, he said the device averages about four inches per second, which his team has now concluded is too slow. The break in the barrier was due to an issue with the material used to build it.
However, both of these issues could have easily been avoided by more appropriate simulations, analyses, and information prior to construction and deployment.
When the material failure occurred, it wasn’t due to the result of a major Pacific storm. It was just normal wear and tear, Slat said
Understanding material stresses is a key component of an engineering project and one that is well understood before construction. Note as well that the system is not something actually new, but is a modification of RO-BOOMS used in oil spill clean up since 1988. I am confident the specifications for use and the ocean states the booms can operate in are well known by the manufacturer and previous users alike
And while currents are complex, a whole field of physical oceanography exists and provides readily the information to know the current regime in the area. If more detailed temporal or spatial resolution is needed, the Ocean Cleanup team should have conducted more field studies to gain the data on the currents beforehand. The Ocean Cleanup has always seemed poorly developed and executed, ignorant of the best science and data available, blatantly dismissive of critique, and far too hurried.
This rush to place the device in the ocean for both good publicity and for the feeling of accomplishing something is unproductive at best and dangerous at the worst. And it clear that Slat is committed to an overly ambitious timeline no matter the consequences.
Founder & CEO Boyan Slat announced the news in a December 31 blog post, saying “setbacks like this are inevitable when pioneering new technology at a rapid pace”, and maintaining that ” these teething troubles are solvable, and the cleanup of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch will be operational in 2019″.
Read more at http://bit.ly/2LSzzKg
I get no pleasure in saying I told you so but…
As noted in a recent article featuring Dr. Goldstein,
But a critic who has followed Slat’s project since he unveiled it more than five years ago said the failure was predictable and that systems deployed closer to shore stand a greater chance of slowing the deluge of plastics spilling into the world’s oceans.
“I certainly hope they will be able to get it to work, but this is a very difficult environment where equipment breaks, which is why you normally do things closer to shore, where things are easier to repair,” said [Dr.] Miriam Goldstein, director of ocean policy at the Center for American Progress
In 2014, Drs. Kim Martini and Drs. Miriam Goldstein, a physical and biological oceanographer, provided a detailed technical review of the feasibility study here at DSN. Note the two of them pointed nearly 4 years ago about these issues.
….The modeling studies severely underestimate potential loads and tensions on the moored array and boom. Therefore, they are insufficient to properly design a mooring concept and estimate potential costs…
Since the authors had access to ORCAFLEX, a professional software package to design offshore marine structures, a full-scale mooring array could have been modeled to estimate loads and tensions on the moored array, but was not.
Structural deformation of the array and loss of functionality by ocean currents are not addressed…
Yeah. So these exact failures were predicted four years ago.
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