What’s the Deal with Barnacles?

Have you ever seen barnacles on a rocky shore or the side of a boat and felt amazed? Chances are, probably not. These small, bumpy organisms are known to grow on rocks, boats and even whales, but most people probably don’t think twice about them. Barnacles may just seem like lumpy things in the water, but there is so much more to them than meets the eye.

Barnacles are living organisms (yes, they’re alive!) They are crustaceans, related to crabs, shrimp and lobsters. Scientists have discovered more than 1,400 species of barnacles, with the acorn barnacle being the most commonly known. These animals like to live in rocky intertidal areas or even near underwater volcanoes where there is active, moving water. This makes mealtime much easier for them since they are filter feeders. Barnacles use sensory appendages called cirri to comb through the water to grab their next snack.

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Unlike many other crustaceans, barnacles are sessile as adults, which means they stay in one place. Barnacles begin their lives as itsy-bitsy larvae, floating through the water column until they find a suitable place to call home. Once they find their prime choice in real estate (most often rocks, but sometimes vessels or other organisms), they set up shop permanently. To secure themselves to their new home, barnacles secrete a fast-curing and extremely adhesive “cement”. This natural protein-rich adhesive is one of the strongest natural glues known to science to date. Once barnacles glue themselves to an object, they never move again. Now that’s some serious commitment!

After attachment, a barnacle begins to grow its shell. Over time, the animal grows six calcium carbonate plates. Four of these plates become a “door” that the barnacle uses to feed and, if living in intertidal areas, retain moisture when the water recedes. Like other crustaceans, barnacles outgrow their shells. Unlike other crustaceans, they can’t move to find a new home. Instead, they molt their outgrown shell and regrow a new one. Scientists are still unsure how exactly barnacles do this, but they theorize it involves a unique chemical reaction that creates space inside the shell as new calcium carbonate develops.

People in maritime industries are often annoyed by barnacles, and it’s not just because they are hard to remove from boats and buoys. Large barnacle colonies can increase drag, affecting the energy efficiency of a ship, which in turn causes them to use more fuel than usual. The United States Navy estimates that extreme barnacle growth could increase fuel consumption up to 40%. This poses significant environmental and economic impacts, so it’s important to keep barnacle growth on vessels in check.

While barnacles may cause nautical hindrances, they are proving to be helpful in some areas of science, including forensic investigations. About a year after the vanishing of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 (MH370) in 2014, pieces of wreckage began to wash ashore on the island of Réunion. Gooseneck barnacles (Lepas anatifera) had grown on the debris, which led investigators to recruit scientists trained in a discipline called sclerochronology. This is the study of chemical composition and temperature markers within a shell over time (similar to tree-ring science, but for shells). The barnacle shells could offer critical coded information about where the debris has been in the ocean and when. While this science is still in its infancy, these studies could help tremendously in the journey to retrace the drift path of MH370 and deconstruct the mystery behind the airline’s disappearance.

Barnacles may not be as cute or charismatic as other marine wildlife, but they still depend on a healthy ocean to thrive. Ocean acidification can harm their growth and shell maintenance, making them especially vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Click here to learn more about Ocean Conservancy’s work to combat ocean acidification and strengthen the wildlife and communities affected by it today.

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Protecting Marine Mammals Through New Technology

This year marks the 50^th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act (ESA), a critical law that protects our country’s most imperiled species on land and at sea. 

This anniversary sends me back in time to reflect on the history that gave birth to this law. In the 1970s, there were growing concerns from citizens and leaders alike about the impacts of human activity on wildlife. Centuries of whaling had heavily depleted many whale populations. While commercial whaling was no longer practiced in U.S. waters, these recovering whale species faced new threats. Global trade was picking up steam, with goods moving across our seas in ocean freighters. And the commercial fishing industry boomed with few restrictions on where or how you could fish.

At the time, the introduction of the ESA and, similarly, the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), were innovative solutions to protect wildlife amid this activity in our ocean. 

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Today, our society’s economic demands on the ocean are much higher and continue to increase. Global commerce is at record levels, moving in container ships six times larger than in the 1970s. Lost or discarded fishing gear, known as ghost gear, presents another threat to whales and other wildlife. Despite improvements in fishing gear in the past decades, recent studies have found that as high as 86% of floating trash in the Great Pacific garbage patch is ghost gear. or And the fossil fuel industry has more than 3,500 structures used for offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico alone. 

On top of this, a century of burning oil and gas has warmed our ocean waters. This impacts marine food systems and migration patterns for species from zooplankton to whales. Now, as we work to address climate change, new industries, such as offshore wind, will operate in our shared waters. With many industries using our ocean, we must work together to ensure the safety of the marine life that calls our waters home.

While ESA and MMPA remain critical laws, we need more tools to pair with them to effectively protect marine mammals, especially our endangered whale species. 

Particularly, we are seeing new protections for ocean wildlife develop in the offshore wind sector. Government agencies, researchers, environmental nonprofits and the offshore wind industry are joining forces through the Regional Wildlife Science Collaborative for Offshore Wind. Together, they are working to advance mitigation technologies to protect ocean wildlife. Specifically, they are developing a set of criteria to verify the effectiveness of new solutions and technologies for protecting whales. 

Below are a few measures and technologies within the offshore wind sector that have proven effective or are gaining traction to help reduce risk to endangered whale species like the North Atlantic right whale. While these measures may seem straightforward, some come with tradeoffs given the complexities of our ocean economies.

• Using protected species observers: Protected species observers (PSOs) are trained third-party professionals who are hired by developers as part of monitoring teams on vessels. Their job is to identify any marine mammals or turtles within range and work to prevent harm to them. They minimize the possibility of a vessel coming into direct contact with the animals and stop any noise disturbances until they have left. PSOs have shown proven results, prompting the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to require them for a range of ocean activity, including all offshore wind surveying and development. 
• Incorporating passive acoustic monitoring underwater: Passive acoustic monitoring is a new technology that uses underwater microphones to detect sounds made by marine mammals, fish and other sources. These data collectors come in many forms, including seafloor-mounted devices, floating buoys streaming data in real-time, remotely operated vehicles and devices on ships. This monitoring can help detect underwater animals so that vessels can slow down or stop surveying or construction work. Whales don’t always make noise, so sound monitoring must be combined with visual observers and other technologies. Offshore wind developers are investing in these technologies and using data from this monitoring to predict when and where these mammals can be found. 
• Adding infrared cameras at the surface: Infrared cameras, or thermal imaging, are an evolving technology that can detect surfacing whales. They detect the temperature difference between the cold water and the warmth of a whale’s body and the air they exhale.. These cameras are focused on the water’s surface and work in tandem with human observers. This technology is being tested by offshore wind developers along the East Coast. If they perform better than human observer standards, they may open up new opportunities to monitor whales around sites. 
• Reducing speeds to 10 knots: Vessel strikes are among the leading causes of deaths for whales like the North Atlantic right whale. One of the most effective, proven and simple strategies for preventing these deaths is a 10-knot vessel speed restriction. Lower vessel speeds particularly for large ships, like cargo ships, can significantly reduce fatal collisions with whales. Federal restrictions on large vessel speeds in nearshore areas are already in place.

We must continue to test and prove these, and other measures and technologies, are effective at protecting marine life in our shared seas. This will help enable them to become standard practice for all ocean activity, whether shipping or offshore wind development. Ocean Conservancy is working to ensure offshore wind is developed responsibly and implements these solutions to protect our ocean’s vital ecosystems and wildlife. With collaboration and a new era of innovation, we can continue to uphold the promise of the Endangered Species Act for the next 50 years.

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What is a Blob Sculpin?

We know the deep sea is full of some exceptional animals—for proof, look no further than the gulper eel, lizardfish or snailfish. 

Today, we’re diving into another weird and wonderful deep-sea fish: the blob sculpin. Despite its somewhat lackluster name, the blob sculpin has flashy adaptations that allow it to thrive in the harsh conditions of the deep sea. Read on!

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Blob sculpin (Psychrolutes phrictus) are found as deep as 2,800 meters in the waters of the North Pacific. They are part of the Psychrolutidae family, which includes blobfishes, toadfishes and other species of sculpin. The family includes 35 species across eight genra, with multiple species that live in the deeper ocean waters. The genus name Psychrolutes comes from the Greek word psychroloutes, which means “someone that has a cold bath”—perfect for a critter that lives in the deep, cold ocean. Off North America, their range stretches from the Bering Sea down to San Diego, California, which might seem like they would encounter a wide range of temperatures, but the waters are always cold when you live that deep in the ocean. 

Blob sculpin are carnivores, meaning they eat other animals. Since they live in deep-sea areas where food can be scarce, they can’t be too picky. They’re known to consume invertebrates like cnidarians, crustaceans and mollusks living on the sea floor. 

Now, you might see some similarities between the blob sculpin and another “blobby” deep sea fish: the aptly named blobfish. That’s because blobfish and blob sculpin are closely related! They’re both part of the genus Psychrolutes, and they both have jelly-like bodies that help them withstand the crushing pressure of the deep sea. Neither of them has swim bladders, an organ that many other bony fish use to help them stay buoyant in the water column. In the deep sea, the pressure would simply pop the swim bladder like a balloon, so instead they use their jelly-like gelatinous bodies to help them stay afloat. 

The blob sculpin is just one of many examples of animals getting creative to survive in the deep sea (Want more? Check out this blog on whale falls!) We’re only beginning to scratch the surface of discovering all the ways animals adapt to life in the ocean depths. It’s up to us to make sure the deep sea—and the rest of the ocean—is healthy to preserve these incredible communities. 

One way we can help blob sculpin and other deep-sea dwellers is by making sure the deep sea stays healthy and trash free. Act now and help Ocean Conservancy turn the tide on the plastic-pollution crisis.

The post What is a Blob Sculpin? appeared first on Ocean Conservancy.

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The Dangers of Deep-Sea Mining

Already reeling from the impacts of climate change and plastic pollution, our ocean now faces another threat: deep-sea mining. The massive machines that would be deployed to mine the seabed for critical minerals would destroy ocean ecosystems that developed over tens of millions of years. Entire habitats would be wiped out; scraping ore-rich crusts from seamounts would be akin to mountaintop coal removal, killing corals and other immobile species.

Mining proponents maintain that seabed minerals must be mined to support clean-energy technologies, but a report by Planet Tracker casts doubt on this claim. Ocean Conservancy rejects industry’s assertion as a false choice. Instead, we call for a global moratorium on seabed mining. 

The ocean plastics crisis serves as a potent reminder that the recycling of materials we are already using should be prioritized over the production of virgin materials. Scaling EV battery recycling to achieve 100% circularity combined with the next generation of nickel- and cobalt-free batteries are alternative strategies that could obviate the need for deep-sea minerals or metals.

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Some claim deep-sea mining is justified because the deep sea is relatively lifeless, but this is patently untrue. Earlier this year, scientists discovered 5,000 new species in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) alone, including the enigmatic gummy squirrel and the delicate star-shaped dytaster. The CCZ seafloor, located between Hawaii and Mexico, is rich in potato-sized nodules that deep-sea mining companies are hungry to extract for critical minerals, directly threatening a variety of sea creatures, some newly discovered or even unknown to science. 

Mineral-rich hydrothermal vents serve as another habitat in the deep sea and support a diversity of unique animals found nowhere else on Earth, some with huge biomedical potential. For example, scientists isolated an enzyme from a microbe living near a vent that led to the development of a test for diagnosing COVID-19. How many species could we lose to deep-sea mining that might otherwise be the next antibiotic or anti-cancer drug?

It’s not just the immediate seabed that is at risk from mining. An analysis by Ocean Conservancy raises concerns about the impacts of seabed mining in United States federal waters on species living in the water column. Our paper explains that commercially valuable fishes in the vicinity of the Hawaiian Islands or Gulf of Alaska (two areas with prospective critical minerals) could be susceptible to sediment plumes generated by mining operations. Researchers confirm that jellyfishes living at depths of 1,500-2,000 feet in the mesopelagic zone showed signs of stress when exposed to sediments like those found at potential mining sites. This is important because mesopelagic species are critical to the ocean food web and the carbon cycle. Harm from mining tailings (toxic byproducts of mining), potentially traveling hundreds of miles, could have major ecological and climate-ripple effects.

Another major concern is ineffective governance. The International Seabed Authority (ISA) is the body charged with managing the international seabed for “the common heritage of mankind” while ensuring sufficient measures are in place to protect the marine environment. Tragically, this mandate is not unfolding in practice. Corporate mining interests have an outsized influence at the ISA, which calls into question the credibility of this body to develop effective regulations that are centered around ocean health.

Unfortunately, until the United States ratifies the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, it has no voting authority at ISA. A group of bipartisan senators is now urging ratification so that the United States can have a voice in seabed mining decisions. 

But even without a voice at the ISA, the Biden administration can and must take immediate and meaningful action here at home. First, it should issue a moratorium on mining in United States federal waters to safeguard the health of species, habitats, fisheries and critical seabed infrastructure such as telecommunications cables. Second, it can and must avoid incentivizing the destruction of the deep sea outside the United States by prohibiting the importation of marine minerals that would otherwise be eligible for electric vehicle tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act.  

We have too often witnessed the unchecked damage extractive industries inflict on our ocean. The fossil fuel industry has left countless scars: thousands of miles of pipelines, oil wells boring deep into the seabed and oil spills laying waste to marine ecosystems and wildlife. These serve as sobering reminders that seabed mining would further harm our ocean. 

The United States must send a strong message to the world that we can transition from fossil fuels to clean-energy technologies without needlessly sacrificing fragile and remote deep-ocean ecosystems. 

The post The Dangers of Deep-Sea Mining appeared first on Ocean Conservancy.

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Celebrating Ocean Victories of 2023

As another year comes to a close, I am reflecting on the incredible progress Ocean Conservancy has made in 2023 towards a healthy, resilient ocean future. This year has not been without its challenges: We saw record-breaking heat waves, legislative setbacks and frustrating court decisions. For better or worse, this is the nature of ocean conservation work—sometimes we hit roadblocks, but it’s a reminder of why this work is so critically important. 

It can be easy to focus on the challenges and forget to celebrate the many victories we’ve accomplished together. That’s why I like to pause at the end of each year and share some good news from the previous months (see my previous recaps from 2022, 2021 and 2020).

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Fortunately, we have much to celebrate in 2023. Compiling this list has made me even more hopeful for what we can achieve together in 2024. 

Here are seven of our big ocean victories from this year: 

We drove an ambitious agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from global shipping. In July, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) reached an agreement on decarbonizing the shipping sector. After years of dedicated advocacy by Ocean Conservancy and other partners, we celebrated an agreement that doubled the ambition of the initial IMO strategy— the shipping sector has agreed now to full decarbonization by 2050. With the shipping industry accounting for considerable contributions to global greenhouse gas emissions annually, this is a massive victory for our ocean and our planet. We will continue to participate in IMO negations to make sure these timelines are met, but this agreement is an important milestone in the journey towards a sustainable future. 

Our ocean plastic-pollution experts were at the forefront of the global plastics treaty negotiations. We’re at a pivotal moment in the fight against ocean plastics—leaders from around the world are in negations for the international legally binding instrument (ILBI) on plastic pollution. Also known as the “global plastics treaty,” this agreement aims to curb the global plastic-pollution crisis that is severely afflicting our ocean and the wildlife and communities that depend on it. As a leader in ocean plastics and a UN-accredited observer organization, Ocean Conservancy has compiled extensive research, responded to initial treaty drafts and participated in global negotiations. We have played an active role in shaping the ILBI, ensuring it reduces plastics at the source and tackles microplastics and ghost gear—the deadliest form of marine plastics.

We applauded additional funding towards the restoration of critical manatee habitat. In June, Florida passed a bill that will allocate $100 million towards the restoration of Indian River Lagoon, an important habitat for a range of Florida wildlife. The Lagoon is home to more than 4,300 plant and animal species, including dolphins, sea turtles and manatees—a species that has been threatened with decreasing habitat and increased harmful algal blooms. It’s not just the animals that benefit, though—the bill will also help improve water quality for communities throughout South Florida. 

We were proud to announce the recipients of the first Ocean Justice Community Grants. This year we awarded the first Ocean Justice Community Grants to five incredible organizations from Florida to Alaska. These grants are intended to support the work of ocean advocates who promote sustainable and traditional Indigenous practices, protect communities’ connections to the ocean, advance ocean innovations, develop new ocean leaders and strengthen coastal communities. This new initiative aligns with our vision of a healthier ocean protected by a more just world, and I am deeply honored that Ocean Conservancy gets to play a small part in advancing the work of these grantees. 

We spread awareness about the dangers of plastic foam and drove policy with our “What the Foam” campaign. Plastic foam, commonly used in takeout food containers and often referred to as “Styrofoam,” was the seventh most frequently collected trash item in our 2022 International Coastal Cleanup®. In September, Ocean Conservancy released a report showing the catastrophic effects of foam on ocean habitats and wildlife—including ingestion by turtles, seabirds, seals and more. We called on the United States to say, “What the Foam” and ban plastic-foam foodware nationally. We celebrated a major victory this year when Oregon passed Senate Bill 543, a law which will phase out foam foodware, packing peanuts and coolers and prohibit the use of PFAS (also known as “forever chemicals”) in food packaging. With this bill, Oregon joined 10 other states and Washington, D.C., in implementing plastic foam-foodware bans—and this is just the beginning. Also this year, we also saw the introduction of the federal Farewell to Foam Act, which would restrict the sale and use of foam foodware, packaging peanuts and single-use coolers. This legislation is the direct result of Ocean Conservancy’s campaign and is a testament to the power of the data we collect every year at the International Coastal Cleanup. 

We launched the first round of Ports and Community Grants. Ocean Conservancy’s Shipping Emissions and Ocean Justice Programs collaborated to form the Ports Justice Project, a community-centered effort to decarbonize maritime ports. This initiative offers grants to support Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC)-led and BIPOC-serving grassroots organizations within key regions, including in Virginia, South Florida and South Louisiana. The grants program aims to provide funding to groups that are already empowering their communities and developing innovative solutions to port-community concerns. 

We celebrated a big step forward in curbing ship pollution in California. In October, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved the California Air Resources Board (CARB) waiver requestfor the Ocean-Going Vessel At-Berth Regulation. Essentially, this rule reduces the amount of diesel particulates that are released by docked vessels in California ports. It’s a big step towards reducing air pollution in California and protecting the health of millions of Californians who are most impacted by emissions from diesel-powered ships.  We celebrate this rule as  an important, precedent-setting action. CARB estimates that in the next decade, the updated policy will save 237 lives, yield $2.31 billion in public health benefits and reduce carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions by 356,000 metric tons.

I could spend all day talking about what we achieved this year, but that would likely produce a very lengthy post. Instead, here are a few more achievements: 

• The International Trash Trap Network doubled in size, increasing trash collection by more than 6,000 times. 
• Ocean Conservancy’s Director of the Climate and Plastics Initiative, Aarthi Ananthanarayanan, was a featured speaker at TEDx Portland where she discussed the link between climate and plastics. 
• Miami Beach banned smoking on its beaches, eliminating one of the most commonly found items of ocean trash from a popular tourist spot. Miami Beach joins more than 20 Florida cities across the state that have taken action against smoking on beaches. 
• Ocean Conservancy’s Associate Director of U.S. Plastics Policy, Dr. Anja Brandon, was named one of Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business 2023.
• NOAA Fisheries launched its Climate Vulnerability Assessment Tool, which summarizes the vulnerability of fish and other marine animals across the United States and helps us plan for climate-ready fisheries. 
• #TeamSeas reached the halfway point to its goal of collecting 30 million pounds of ocean trash. 
• Ocean Conservancy’s Director of Climate Science Dr. Sarah Cooley provided expert testimony on the ocean effects of climate change to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), also known as the “the Supreme Court of the Sea.”
• Our Global Ghost Gear Initiative® conducted a ghost gear removal from the ocean near Panama City, Panama, during Our Ocean 2023, the annual gathering of global leaders and partners aimed at seeking solutions to our ocean’s biggest problems. 

These are just a few of the many victories we celebrated together this year—all thanks to incredible partnerships and the dedicated support of ocean advocates across the globe. I am grateful to my esteemed colleagues at Ocean Conservancy, our supporters and partners and to all those working towards a healthy, sustainable ocean. Let’s do it again in 2024.

The post Celebrating Ocean Victories of 2023 appeared first on Ocean Conservancy.

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What is a Sand Dune?

Along the sandy beach, you’ll find seashells, tiny crabs and—if you look up in the sky—gulls flying overhead. But a little distance from where the ocean meets the land, some beaches have sand dunes. These large mounds of sand are a bit puzzling. How do they stay formed into big hills? Why don’t they collapse or fall apart? And how do they form in the first place? Let’s explore! 

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What are Dunes?

For the purposes of this blog, we’ll be exploring coastal sand dunes—not desert sand dunes (or the movie Dune). 

A dune is a mound of sand formed by the wind, usually along the beach. Dunes form when wind moves sand into a protected area behind a structure.

As sand dunes grow slowly, colonizing plants are given the time they need to take hold and grow. Plants like sea oats, sand spurs and beach morning glory will take hold, and their deep roots will help strengthen the dunes and help hold sand over time. When sand dunes are left alone (when people don’t walk over them or disturb them) nature can take its course. 

Once the colonizing plants have a firm hold of the sand, additional organic material collects and breaks down. This fertile ground now allows for even more plants to grow and inhabit the dunes. Miraculously, the sand dune now has woody plants such as the palmetto, wax myrtle, beach rosemary, cabbage palm and others—further strengthening the dune and becoming what is known as a scrub zone. The oldest dunes may be colonized by trees such as the live oak and slash pine to create a maritime forest known as a hammock.

Habitat 

Sand dunes provide crucial habitat for several different coastal species. I saw an amazing diversity of wildlife when I visited Jockey’s Ridge State Park in North Carolina—427-acres with the tallest sand dunes on the east coast! 

Many species of insects live in the sand, including beetles, moths, wasps and crickets. There are also mammals found residing in sand dunes like foxes, rodents and opossums. You can find a variety of reptiles—lizards, snakes and even sea turtles—that nest in sand dunes. 

Storm Protection and Erosion

Sand dunes play an important role in protecting coastal communities from storms. Sand dunes provide protection against storm surges and high waves, which prevent or reduce flooding and infrastructure damage.

Sand dunes are some of the first lines of defense in the face of coastal storms. As ocean waves hit a dune during a big storm, the dune’s sandy sediments move and shift. This ocean wave’s energy is absorbed by the sand dune, weakening the wave and thus protecting the landward areas from the full force of the storm.

Coastal communities with healthy and in-tact sand dunes oftentimes sustain less damage from storms when compared to communities without them. 

You Can Help

The first thing you can do to help coastal sand dunes is to leave them alone. At the beach, always use the wooden walkway around the dunes, do not walk directly on the dunes. It is unlawful to harm the dunes. 

And secondly, you can help keep sand dunes free of trash and litter. That’s why Ocean Conservancy leads the International Coastal Cleanup®, the world’s largest annual beach and waterway cleanup effort. You can join nearly 17 million volunteers who have worked together to collect more than 350 million pounds of trash and counting! Simply download Clean Swell® and go clean up your community, your favorite park or your local beach or waterway. 

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