Oceanic Defense: January 2010

1.28.2010

Tsunamis And Their Electrical Communications

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Tsunamis send electric signals through the ocean that appear to be sensed by the vast network of communication cables on the seabed, according to a new study led by Manoj Nair of the University of Colorado and NOAA.

Nair and his colleagues used computer models to estimate the size of an electric field created by the force of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami as it traveled over major submarine cables. Salty seawater, a good conductor of electricity, generates an electric field as it moves through Earth’s geomagnetic field.

“We estimate that the 2004 tsunami induced voltages of about 500 millivolts (mV) in the cables. This is very small compared to a 9-volt battery, but still large enough to be distinguished from background noise on a magnetically quiet day,” Nair said. “By monitoring voltages across this network of ocean cables, we may be able to enhance the current tsunami warning system.”

But Nair cautioned that much research is still needed to effectively isolate the tsunami signals from other sources, such as Earth’s upper atmosphere, or ionosphere, whose signals can reach 100 mV. One millivolt is equivalent to one-thousandth of a volt.

Tsunamis are created by a large displacement of water resulting from earthquakes, landslides, volcanic eruptions, and even meteors hitting the ocean. Vessels far out at sea may not notice the waves passing underneath at the speed of a jetliner, because the wave heights are very small in the deep ocean. This makes their detection and monitoring a challenge.

The current tsunami warning system relies on a global seismometer network to detect earthquakes that may indicate that a tsunami has formed. Deep-ocean pressure sensors and coastal tide gauges are the only tools available to detect and measure an actual tsunami. The electric current induced in submarine cables may provide an additional way to confirm and track a tsunami.

Since the 2004 tsunami, the international warning system has expanded to include 47 deep-ocean pressure sensors, most of them in the Pacific area. After an investment of more than $100 million and strong support of Congress, NOAA has made tsunami warnings and education a priority. Within the United States, real-time data from these deep ocean sensors are used to forecast the impact of the tsunami on U.S. shorelines.

Co-authors are Alexei Kuvshinov of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zürich, S. Neetu of the National Institute of Oceanography, India and T. Harinarayana of the National Geophysical Research Institute, Hyderabad, India. Nair is also associated with NOAA’s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Science at the University of Colorado.

The study will appear in the February edition of the journal Earth, Planets and Space.

NOAA understands and predicts changes in the Earth's environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and conserves and manages our coastal and marine resources.

Source: http://www.underwatertimes.com/news.php?article_id=36281005179

About Oceanic Defense
We are an international non-profit organization with members in over 60 countries, spanning 6 continents with 1 mission; healthy aquatic ecosystems free from human abuse and neglect. Oceanic Defense teaches people to protect our oceans by acting responsibly as consumers and by making smart decisions in our daily lives. Whether we are buying groceries, commuting to work, planning a vacation or advocating within our own communities; each action we take or decision we make either helps or hurts our oceans. We empower people to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem and work together to protect our blue planet.

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Lawsuit Filed To Protect 83 Coral Reefs

SAN FRANCISCO, California -- The Center for Biological Diversity has formally notified the National Marine Fisheries Service of its intent to sue the agency for its failure to respond to a petition seeking to protect 83 imperiled coral species under the Endangered Species Act. These corals, all of which occur in U.S. waters ranging from Florida and Hawaii to U.S. territories in the Caribbean and Pacific, face a growing threat of extinction due to rising ocean temperatures caused by global warming, and the related threat of ocean acidification. The Endangered Species Act requires that the National Marine Fisheries Service respond to the petition within 90 days, and this initial finding is delinquent.

“Within a few decades, global warming and ocean acidification threaten to completely destroy magnificent coral reefs that took millions of years to build,” said Miyoko Sakashita, oceans director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Timing is of the essence to reverse the tragic decline of these vitally important reefs, and we can’t afford any delays in protecting corals under the Endangered Species Act.”

Scientists have warned that coral reefs are likely to be the first worldwide ecosystem to collapse due to global warming; all world’s reefs could be ruined by 2050. When corals are stressed by warm ocean temperatures, they are vulnerable to bleaching and death. Mass bleaching events have become much more frequent and severe as ocean temperatures have risen in recent decades. Scientists predict that most of the world’s corals will be subjected to mass bleaching events at deadly frequencies within 20 years on our current emissions path.

Further, ocean acidification, caused by the ocean’s absorption of carbon dioxide, impairs the ability of corals to grow and build their protective skeletons. Therefore, global warming and ocean acidification are an overriding threat to coral reefs that have already experienced population declines from threats such as destructive fishing, agriculture runoff, pollution, abrasion, predation, and disease.

Leading coral biologist Charlie Veron warned in a recent scientific paper that at current levels of CO2 in the atmosphere (387 ppm) most of the world’s coral reefs are committed to an irreversible decline. Other scientists have warned that CO2 concentrations must be reduced to levels below 350 ppm to protect corals and avoid runaway climate change.

“The coral conservation crisis is already so severe that preventing the extinction of coral reefs and the marine life that depends upon them is an enormous undertaking. The Endangered Species Act has an important role to play in that effort,” added Sakashita. “But without rapid CO2 reductions, the fate of the world’s coral reefs will be sealed.”

Protection under the Endangered Species Act would open the door to greater opportunities for coral reef conservation, as activities ranging from fishing, dumping, dredging, and offshore oil development, all of which hurt corals, would be subject to stricter regulatory scrutiny. Additionally, the Endangered Species Act would require federal agencies to ensure that that their actions do not harm the coral species, which could result in agencies approving projects with significant greenhouse gas emissions to consider and minimize such impacts on vulnerable corals.

Source: http://www.underwatertimes.com/news.php?article_id=81510930267

1.27.2010

Fleet of High-Tech Robot 'Gliders' to Explore Oceans

ScienceDaily— The Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences (IFM-GEOMAR) in Kiel, Germany, recently obtained the biggest fleet of so-called gliders in Europe. These instruments can explore the oceans like sailplanes up to a depth of 1000 metres. In doing so they only consume as much energy as a bike light. In the next years up to ten of these high-tech instruments will take measurements to better understand many processes in the oceans. Currently scientists and technicians prepare the devices for their first mission as a 'swarm' in the tropical Atlantic.

They may look like mini-torpedoes, yet exclusively serve peaceful purposes. The payload of the two-metre-long yellow diving robots consists of modern electronics, sensors and high-performance batteries. With these devices the marine scientists can collect selective measurements from the ocean interior while staying ashore themselves. Moreover, the gliders not only transmit the data in real time, but they can be reached by the scientists via satellite telephone and programmed with new mission parameters.

As such the new robots represent an important supplement to previous marine sensor platforms.

"Ten year ago we started to explore the ocean systematically with profiling drifters. Today more than 3000 of these devices constantly provide data from the ocean interior," explains Professor Torsten Kanzow, oceanographer at IFM-GEOMAR. This highly successful programme has one major disadvantage: the pathways of the drifters cannot be controlled.

"The new gliders have no direct motor, either. But with their small wings they move forward like sailplanes under water," says Dr. Gerd Krahmann, a colleague of Professor Kanzow. In a zigzag movement, the glider cycles between a maximum depth of 1000 metres and the sea surface.

"By telephone we can 'talk' to the glider and upload a new course everytime it comes up," explains Krahmann. A glider can carry out autonomous missions for weeks or even months. Every glider is equipped with instruments to measure temperature, salinity, oxygen and chlorophyll content as well as the turbidity of the sea water.

The IFM-GEOMAR has been the first institute in Europe to be committed to the new technology. "We tested different devices and we had to learn the hard way, too," oceanographer Dr. Johannes Karstensen says. "This way we have been able to contribute to the glider development, and now we have gathered knowledge required for successful glider operations," he adds.

Within the context of a special investment IFM-GEOMAR was able to obtain six new gliders adding to a total of nine altogether, which is the biggest fleet of that kind in Europe. Manufacturer of the IFM-GEOMAR-gliders is the Teledyne Webb Research Inc. in the USA.

A very successful mission using a single glider took place between August and October 2009 in the Atlantic Ocean, south of the Cape Verde Islands. The robot carried out measurements along a more than 1000 kilometres long track autonomously, before it was recovered by the German research vessel METEOR. The data collected are accessible online at http://gliderweb.ifm-geomar.de/html/ifm03_depl05_frame.html.

Now, for the first time the scientists in Kiel prepare a whole fleet of gliders for a concerted mission. After final tests the robots will be released mid-March 2010 at about 60 nautical miles north-east of the Cape Verde Island of Sao Vicente. For two months they will investigate physical and biogeochemical quantities of the Atlantic Ocean around the oceanographic long-term observatory TENATSO.

Goals of the experiment lead jointly by Prof. Torsten Kanzow, Prof. Julie LaRoche (marine biology) and Prof. Arne Körtzinger (marine chemistry) are to get new insights into water circulation and stratification as well as their impact on chemical and biological processes. With the glider swarm the scientists can sample a complete "sea-volume" and not just a single point or a single cross-section in the ocean. The gliders will be remotely controlled from a control centre at the IFM-GEOMAR in Kiel.

"This technology enables us to observe the upper layers of the ocean much more effectively and thus much less expensive than previously," says Prof. Dr. Martin Visbeck, Deputy Director of the IFM-GEOMAR and Head of the research division Ocean Circulation and Climate Dynamics.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100114162345.htm

1.25.2010

Bubbles in Ocean to Answer Questions About Climate, Sound, Light

ScienceDaily — The bubbles in your champagne that appear to jump out of your glass and tickle your nose are exhibiting a behavior quite similar to the tiny bubbles found throughout the world's oceans, according to bubble physicist Helen Czerski.

But while the champagne bubbles are likely to raise your spirits, those in the ocean can cause clouds to form and affect the climate.

"Bubbles are little packets of gases that rise or fall and can be carried around as if they're on little conveyor belts," said Czerski, a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography. "They carry carbon dioxide and oxygen from the atmosphere down into the ocean, and then when they go back up again they pop and sulfur compounds from marine plants are sent upward, forming particles in the air that lead to the formation of clouds."

Czerski is studying how to detect and count ocean bubbles of different sizes to help scientists in other disciplines create more accurate models. She said that scientists have found it difficult to judge the effect of bubbles on their data for years and usually have had to add a "fudge factor" to account for them.

"For instance, bubbles ring like bells when they are formed or when sound waves go past them, and if you're studying sounds traveling through the ocean -- like sounds from whales or sonar -- bubbles can get in the way of what you're trying to listen for," said Czerski, who earned a Ph.D. from Cambridge University before spending a year studying bubbles at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego and then moving to URI.

"Bubbles also scatter light strongly in the oceans and make things cloudy, so if you're studying light in the ocean you need to understand bubbles," she added.

The URI scientist uses an acoustical resonator to detect and count bubbles of different sizes in the water column. The device can detect bubbles from 3 to 170 microns in size, and she is assessing the accuracy and uncertainty in the measurements.

She recently used the resonator to collect bubble data near the Hawaiian Islands and in the Santa Barbara Channel off Southern California. She counts bubbles down to 10 meters deep -- most bubbles don't go down much further than that, she said. The big ones float back to the surface while the smallest ones gets squeezed out by the pressure as they sink.

"Just after a wave breaks, there are loads of bubbles and they're changing really, really quickly," Czerski explained. "They're stretching and squishing and bumping into each other and breaking into smaller bubbles and they're doing it all too fast for us to see directly. Whenever they break up, each new bubble makes a 'ping' sound, and if you hear it you can say something about those new bubbles."

Czerski said that understanding the physics of bubbles is increasingly important as climate models become more and more refined.

"We need to study bubble distribution and where they go in the water column to understand the exchange of gases that they carry," she said.

According to Czerski, while carbon dioxide and oxygen get carried into the ocean via bubbles, a chemical compound produced by phytoplankton gets carried out of the ocean via bubbles.

"No one really knows why phytoplankton create dimethyl sulfide, but they do, and it passes into bubbles and is carried up and out," she said. "These bubbles supply sulfur to the atmosphere, which acts as a seed for cloud droplets to form.

"Climate is made up of a whole bunch of little things, including bubbles, and these little things matter because there are lots of them," Czerski said.

Czerski began studying bubbles after earning a Ph.D. in a field she described as "blowing things up," which included becoming expert at high-speed photography. She then looked for disciplines in which she could apply this knowledge.

"I've always been fascinated by small things that do stuff that's too fast for us to see," she said. "And I like building experiments that help us see those things."

She learned to scuba dive in order to deploy instruments for measuring bubbles, and she now believes that getting in the water is a vital step for any aspiring bubble scientist.

"You can't really understand what's going on under the sea unless you go there yourself," Czerski concluded. "There is a huge benefit to directly experiencing the world you're studying. The rules are different down there."

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100121135853.htm

1.22.2010

Humpback nuzzled her saviors in thanks after they untangled her from crab lines diver says

One of the divers on the rescue team works on the crab pot lines that held the female humpback whale near the Farallon Islands. The weight of the crab pots was pulling the animal down. Marine Mammal Center photo via Associated Press Credit: Marine Mammal Center

A humpback whale freed by divers from a tangle of crab trap lines near the Farallon Islands nudged its rescuers and flapped around in what marine experts said was a rare and remarkable encounter.

"It felt to me like it was thanking us knowing that it was free and that we had helped it" James Moskito one of the rescue divers said Tuesday. "It stopped about a foot away from me pushed me around a little bit and had some fun."

Sunday's daring rescue was the first successful attempt on the West Coast to free an entangled humpback said Shelbi Stoudt stranding manager for the Marine Mammal Center in Marin County.

The 45- to 50-foot female humpback estimated to weigh 50 tons was on the humpbacks' usual migratory route between the Northern California coast and Baja California when it became entangled in the nylon ropes that link crab pots.

It was spotted by a crab fisherman at 8:30 a.m. Sunday in the open water east of the Farallones about 18 miles off the coast of San Francisco.

Mick Menigoz of Novato who organizes whale watching and shark diving expeditions on his boat the New Superfish got a call for help Sunday morning alerted the Marine Mammal Center and gathered a team of divers.

By 2:30 p.m. the rescuers had reached the whale and evaluated the situation. Team members realized the only way to save the endangered leviathan was to dive into the water and cut the ropes.

It was a very risky maneuver Stoudt said because the mere flip of a humpback's massive tail can kill a man.

"I was the first diver in the water and my heart sank when I saw all the lines wrapped around it" said Moskito a 40-year-old Pleasanton resident who works with "Great White Adventures" a cage-diving outfit that contracts with Menigoz. "I really didn't think we were going to be able to save it."

Moskito said about 20 crab-pot ropes which are 240 feet long with weights every 60 feet were wrapped around the animal. Rope was wrapped at least four times around the tail the back and the left front flipper and there was a line in the whale's mouth.

The crab pot lines were cinched so tight Moskito said that the rope was digging into the animal's blubber and leaving visible cuts.

At least 12 crab traps weighing 90 pounds each hung off the whale the divers said. The combined weight was pulling the whale downward forcing it to struggle mightily to keep its blow- hole out of the water.

Moskito and three other divers spent about an hour cutting the ropes with a special curved knife. The whale floated passively in the water the whole time he said giving off a strange kind of vibration.

"When I was cutting the line going through the mouth its eye was there winking at me watching me" Moskito said. "It was an epic moment of my life."

When the whale realized it was free it began swimming around in circles according to the rescuers. Moskito said it swam to each diver nuzzled him and then swam to the next one.

"It seemed kind of affectionate like a dog that's happy to see you" Moskito said. "I never felt threatened. It was an amazing unbelievable experience."

Humpback whales are known for their complex vocalizations that sound like singing and for their acrobatic breaching an apparently playful activity in which they lift almost their entire bodies out of the water and splash down.

Before 1900 an estimated 15000 humpbacks lived in the North Pacific but the population was severely reduced by commercial whaling. In the 20th century their numbers dwindled to fewer than 1000. An international ban on commercial whaling was instituted in 1964 but humpbacks are still endangered. Between 5000 and 7500 humpbacks are left in the world's oceans and many of those survivors migrate through the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary.

Whale experts say it's nice to think that the whale was thanking its rescuers but nobody really knows what was on its mind.

"You hate to anthropomorphize too much but the whale was doing little dives and the guys were rubbing shoulders with it" Menigoz said. "I don't know for sure what it was thinking but it's something that I will always remember. It was just too cool."

Humpback whales hold a special place in the hearts of Bay Area residents ever since one that came to be known as Humphrey journeyed up the Sacramento River in 1985. The wayward creature swam into a slough in Rio Vista attracting 10000 people a day as whale experts tried desperately to turn it around. Humphrey went back to sea after 25 days of near-pandemonium and worldwide media attention.

In the fall of 1990 Humphrey turned up again inside the bay in shallow water near the Bayshore Freeway finally beaching on mud flats near Double Rock just off the Candlestick parking lot. He remained stuck for 25 hours until volunteers helped by a 41-foot Coast Guard boat pulled him free and sent him back to the ocean. He has not been seen since.

Humpbacks like Humphrey do seem to relate to people more than other whales according to Stoudt.

"You do hear reports of friendly humpbacks whales approaching boaters especially in Baja California" Stoudt said "but for the most part they don't like to be interacted with."

Source: http://articles.sfgate.com/2005-12-14/news/17403910_1_humpback-crab-pots-whale

About Oceanic Defense
We are an international non-profit organization with members in over 60 countries, spanning 6 continents with 1 mission; healthy aquatic ecosystems free from human abuse and neglect. Oceanic Defense teaches people to protect our oceans by acting responsibly as consumers and by making smart decisions in our daily lives. Whether we are buying groceries, commuting to work, planning a vacation or advocating within our own communities; each action we take or decision we make either helps or hurts our oceans. We empower people to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem and work together to protect our blue planet.

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1.21.2010

Mercury levels of whale-eating town's residents 10 times average

Friday 22nd January, 06:40 AM JST, TOKYO — Levels of mercury in hair samples of residents of Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture, which is known for customarily eating small whales caught by coastal whaling, are about 10 times the average in Japan, possibly due to consumption of whale meat with high concentration of mercury, one of researchers who conducted the survey said Thursday.

Hair samples were collected from 30 men and 20 women living in the whaling town with a population of about 3,400 through local collaborators between December 2007 and July 2008 for testing, Tetsuya Endo, an associate professor at Health Sciences University of Hokkaido, said.

The survey showed the average total mercury levels in the men’s and women’s hair samples were 21.6 parts per million and 11.9 ppm, respectively, while the levels of average Japanese men and women are 2.55 ppm and 1.43 ppm, he said. The highest concentration level discovered in the survey was 67.2 ppm in a male aged in his 50s, as a total of three people exceeded the level of 50 ppm for no observed adverse effect set by the World Health Organization, Endo said.

Endo expressed alarm that contamination levels among some of the residents appeared to be high enough to develop health problems according to oversea standards.

"It’s necessary to conduct more detailed research on their health conditions and the current status of contamination," he said. "We should also make efforts to curb consumption of whale meat which is highly contaminated with mercury."

The researchers, also including Koichi Haraguchi at Daiichi College of Pharmaceutical Sciences in Fukuoka, will publish the survey result in an international science magazine on oceanic pollution.

According to Endo, the researchers also discovered high levels of mercury in products made from local marine mammals and fishes, such as pilot whales, dolphins, tunas and skipjack, distributed in and around the community.

In particular, the total contamination levels in the red meat from 22 samples of pilot whales, a cetacean commonly consumed in the town, averaged 9.6 ppm, with the level for methyl mercury alone coming to 5.9 ppm, both well beyond the tentative national regulation figures of 0.4 ppm and 0.3 ppm, respectively. Among the 50 residents tested, the average total mercury level in those who eat pilot whale once a month or more was 24.6 ppm, while the levels in those who eat it only once every several months or not at all were 15.5 ppm and 4.3 ppm, respectively.

No epidemiologic survey has been conducted in Taiji although health hazards to the residents from the consumption of whale products are suspected, according to Endo.

Source: http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/mercury-levels-of-whale-eating-towns-residents-10-times-japan-average

1.20.2010

Red Grouper: the 'Frank Lloyd Wrights of the Sea'

ScienceDaily — To the casual observer in the Gulf of Mexico, the seemingly sluggish red grouper is more of a couch potato than a busy beaver. But a new study led by researchers at The Florida State University reveals the fish to be both architect and ecosystem engineer.

Most abundant along Florida's west coast but also found on watery ledges and in crevices and caverns from North Carolina to Brazil, the red grouper excavates and maintains complex, three-dimensional structures that provide critical habitats for the spiny lobster and many other commercially important species in the Gulf of Mexico. The researchers watched it work hard to remove sand from the sea floor, exposing hard rocks crucial to corals and sponges and the animals they shelter.

In fact, the red grouper's sandy architecture is a monument to the interconnectedness of species and the vital role such connections play in the structural and functional diversity of the ocean, suggests Felicia C. Coleman, director of Florida State University's Coastal and Marine Laboratory.

"Watching these fish dig holes was amazing enough," Coleman said, "but then we realized that the sites they created served to attract mates, beneficial species such as cleaner shrimp that pick parasites and food scraps off the resident fish, and a variety of prey species for the red grouper. So it is no surprise that the fish are remarkably sedentary. Why move if you are clever enough to make everything you need come to you?"

Coleman and Christopher C. Koenig -- her spouse and fellow faculty member in the Department of Biological Science -- describe their study in a paper ("Benthic Habitat Modification through Excavation by Red Grouper, Epinephelus morio, in the Northeastern Gulf of Mexico") published online Jan. 9 in The Open Fish Science Journal. Their co-authors are Kathryn M. Scanlon, of the U.S. Geological Survey, Woods Hole, Mass.; Scott Heppell and Selena Heppell, Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Oregon State University; and Margaret W. Miller, of the National Marine Fisheries Service, Southeast Fisheries Science Center, Miami, Fla.

"Red grouper are the 'Frank Lloyd Wrights' of the sea floor," said University of California-Davis Professor Susan Williams, who collaborated with Coleman on an earlier, related study. "Its sea-floor associates include commercially valuable species such as vermilion snapper, black grouper and spiny lobsters. If the groupers are overfished, the suite of species that depends on them is likely to suffer."

Working along the West Florida Shelf, Coleman and colleagues observed the red grouper's excavating activities during both its juvenile stage in inshore waters and its adult stage at depths of 300 feet.

"We suspected that the groupers created the habitat," Coleman said. "We found through a series of experiments that they not only dug the holes but also maintained them by carrying mouthfuls of sediment from the center of the pit to the periphery and expelling them through their gills and mouths, then brushing off the rocks with their tail fins."

As juveniles, red grouper excavate the limestone bottom of Florida Bay and elsewhere, exposing "solution holes" formed thousands of years ago when sea level was lower and freshwater dissolved holes in the rock surface. When sea level rose to its present state, the solution holes filled with sediment. By removing the sediment from them, the fish restructure the flat bottom into a three- dimensional matrix, which is enhanced by the settlement and growth of corals and sponges. Spiny lobsters are among the many species that occupy those excavations, especially during the day when seeking refuge from roving predators.

Loss of this habitat -- through the loss of red grouper due to intensive fishing -- has obvious consequences to the lobster fishery of South Florida, Coleman said. She warns that habitat engineers, like foundation species, must be maintained in a healthy state, or the consequences to fishery production could be severe.

"You can't remove an animal that can dig a hole five meters across and several meters deep to reveal the rocky substrate and expect there to be no effect on reef communities," Koenig said. "The juveniles of a species closely associated with these pits, vermilion snapper, are extremely abundant around the offshore excavations. It is possible that the engineered habitat is significant as a nursery for this species, which other big fish rely on as food. One could anticipate a domino effect in lost diversity resulting from the loss of red grouper-engineered habitat."

Suggested changes in fisheries management intended to reduce bycatch of sea turtles in the long-line fishery by pushing the fleet further offshore would increase the fishing pressure on red grouper and other ecosystem engineers, such as tilefish, found at greater depths, contends Coleman.

"Imagine the impact not only on red grouper and tilefish but also on a suite of deep-water grouper for which we have very little information, other than the fact that some of them are critically endangered," she said.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100119172843.htm

About Oceanic Defense
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Measuring Carbon Dioxide Over the Ocean

The Norwegian weather ship Polarfront is equipped with a battery of instruments to measure wind speed, humidity and carbon dioxide. (Credit: Margaret Yelland (NOCS))

ScienceDaily — Reliable measurements of the air-sea flux of carbon dioxide -- an important greenhouse gas -- are needed for a better understanding of the impact of ocean-atmosphere interactions on climate. A new method developed by researchers at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (NOCS) working in collaboration with colleagues at the Bjerknes Center for Climate Research (Bergen, Norway) promises to make this task considerably easier.

Infrared gas sensors measure carbon dioxide based on its characteristic absorption spectra and are used to evaluate the air-sea flux of the gas. So-called closed-path sensors precondition air before measurements are made, while open-path sensors can be used to measure the air in situ.

One advantage of using open-path sensors at sea is that wind measurements can be taken contemporaneously in the same place. Moreover, because they are small and don't use much power they can be used on buoys.

"Open-path sensors have the potential greatly to increase our understanding of the variability of air-sea carbon dioxide fluxes," said PhD student John Prytherch of the University of Southampton's School of Ocean and Earth Science at NOCS.

However, a long-standing concern has been that the values from open-path sensors do not tally with those from closed-path sensors, or with measurements made using other techniques.

"Other scientists have been sceptical about the reliability of carbon dioxide flux measurements taken at sea using open-path sensors," says Prytherch: "However, we now believe that we understand the reason for the discrepancy and that we can correct for it."

The problem turns out to be that the sensors are sensitive to humidity, meaning that fluctuations in the amount of water vapour in the sample air skew the carbon dioxide measurements. This is probably caused by salt particles on the sensor lens that absorb water.

Having identified the problem, Prytherch and his colleagues developed and rigorously tested a novel method for correcting the data for the cross-sensitivity to humidity.

Data were collected aboard the Norwegian weather ship Polarfront, equipped with a battery of instruments to measure wind speed, humidity and carbon dioxide. Even the motion of the ship was monitored.

The researchers noted that the carbon dioxide fluxes calculated from open-path sensor data were clearly too high and affected by humidity. They were also very variable, suggesting that the effect is caused by salt on the optics, which accumulate before being washed off by rain. Indeed, the researchers were able to mimic this effect in the laboratory.

However, after correction using their newly developed method, the calculated carbon dioxide fluxes were in line with previous studies that used different sensors or techniques.

"This robust method opens the way for widespread use of open-path sensors for air-sea carbon dioxide flux estimation," said Dr Margaret Yelland of NOCS: "This will greatly increase the information available on the transfer of carbon dioxide between the air and sea -- information crucial for understanding how the ocean-atmosphere interaction impacts climate."

The work was supported by the United Kingdom's Natural Environment Research Council and is part of the UK SOLAS project HiWASE (High Wind Air-Sea Exchanges).

The researchers are John Prytherch, Margaret Yelland, Robin Pascal and Bengamin Moat (NOCS), and Ingunn Skjelvan and Craig Neill (Bjerknes Center for Climate Research, Bergen, Norway).

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100119103555.htm

About Oceanic Defense
We are an international non-profit organization with members in over 60 countries, spanning 6 continents with 1 mission; healthy aquatic ecosystems free from human abuse and neglect. Oceanic Defense teaches people to protect our oceans by acting responsibly as consumers and by making smart decisions in our daily lives. Whether we are buying groceries, commuting to work, planning a vacation or advocating within our own communities; each action we take or decision we make either helps or hurts our oceans. We empower people to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem and work together to protect our blue planet.

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1.14.2010

First Marine Conservation Zone revealed

England's first Marine Conservation Zone (MCZ) has been announced as Lundy Island, home to seals and eight species of coral.

The island, which lies off the coast of Devon, is now the first example of the new approach to marine protection being taken under the Marine and Coastal Access Act.

Dr Helen Phillips, Natural England's chief executive, said following the announcement: "As England's first Marine Conservation Zone, Lundy represents the first step in delivering the marine protection ambitions of the Marine and Coastal Access Act, and it is fitting that an area of such obvious environmental importance is being designated in this way."

Lundy is home to grey seals, red band fish, crawfish and at least eight species of coral, and is the only place in the UK where five cup corals exist together.

Its importance was recognised by its designation as a Marine Nature Reserve in 1986 and it was also designated as a Special Area of Conservation in 2000 in recognition of the significance of its special habitats, which include reefs, sea caves and sandbanks.

Dr Phillips added: "Lundy is a showcase of what a well protected marine environment can become. Today's designation ushers in a new era of marine protection and it is important that the momentum to develop more Marine Conservation Zones is now sustained."

Source: http://www.inthenews.co.uk/news/environment/first-marine-conservation-zone-revealed-$1352610.htm

1.12.2010

$3M grant to help rebuild decimated coastal reefs

BILOXI — When the former menhaden fishing vessel the Great Wicomico settled to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico last month 13 miles south of Horn Island, it became part of an effort to rebuild Mississippi's artificial reefs devastated during Hurricane Katrina.

There are 13 offshore and 54 inshore artificial reefs on about 16,000 acres off the Mississippi Coast, said Kerwin Cuevas, artificial reef bureau director for the state Department of Marine Resources.

"Katrina came and destroyed approximately 85 to 90 percent of Mississippi's inshore and offshore reefs," he said. "We are in the middle of refurbishing these reefs thanks to a NOAA grant."

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration grant is about $3 million for five years, he said.

William Walker, executive director of the Department of Marine Resources, said the artificial reef program fills a void in the state's offshore waters.

"The Gulf of Mexico water bottom is kind of like a desert. It is just kind of flat. There's not much there in terms of structure other than manmade things like oil rigs," he said.

The artificial reefs created from old vessels and concrete structures "provide a place for whole communities of fish and plant species to grow and reproduce."

The artificial reef program is a "huge and very successful program in terms of providing critical habitat to a wide variety of species," Walker said.

The state spends about $1 million a year on the program, he said. Cuevas said a study on the economic impact of artificial reefs before Hurricane Katrina found the reefs were worth $78.3 million annually to the state.

"Fishermen come to fish them," Cuevas said.

The NOAA money also is being used to restore oyster reefs and inshore habitat, he said.

"For the first two years past Katrina we had none, zero," he said of the oyster harvest. "Katrina demolished 90 percent of them."

Hurricane Katrina scoured the artificial reef into the bottom, he said.

The artificial reef program began in 1978 when a World War II Liberty cargo ship was sunk. Only one of five of the wartime cargo ships submerged offshore remain, he said.

The deepest artificial reefs are in about 135 feet of water while the shallowest are in 4- to 6-foot depths, he said.

The artificial reef program earned the praise of F.J. Eicke, acting president of the Horn Island chapter of the Coastal Conservation Association. "He has done a great job renewing old-damaged offshore reefs and creating new ones," Eicke said.

The program supports the aquaculture program going on between the Department of Marine Resources and the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory at Ocean Springs.

The program is aided by the volunteer group Mississippi Gulf Fishing Banks. Ralph Humphrey, president, said the group once had the lead role, but that has moved to DMR. The nonprofit group does get money for reefs, but it's channeled back to DMR, he said.

Source: http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20091230/NEWS/912300337/1001

1.11.2010

New Method of Measuring Ocean Carbon Dioxide Uptake Could Lead to Climate Change 'Early Warning System'

ScienceDaily — An international team of scientists led by the University of East Anglia (UEA) has developed a new method of measuring the absorption of CO2 by the oceans and mapped for the first time CO2 uptake for the entire North Atlantic.

Published December 4 in the journal Science, the peer-reviewed study will greatly improve our understanding of the natural ocean 'sinks' and enable more accurate predictions about how the global climate is changing.

The new technique could also lead to the development of an 'early-warning system' to detect any weakening of the ocean sinks -- seen by some scientists as the first signal of more pronounced climate change.

Led by Prof Andrew Watson of UEA's School of Environmental Sciences, the researchers used a network of commercial ships carrying chemical sensors in their engine rooms -- combined with other information such as satellite observations of sea surface temperature -- to map the uptake of atmospheric CO2 by the entire North Atlantic Ocean.

The results suggest that the North Atlantic absorption of CO2 varies substantially over periods of several years and is sensitive to regional changes in climate.

"These exciting results from our new coordinated network represent the first time scientists have observed CO2 uptake over any large region of the world -- either land or ocean -- with such accuracy," said Prof Watson.

"Our new method estimates the flux and how it varies from year to year and season to season, showing patterns of uptake with a detail never before realised."

It is hoped that similar networks could be established in other major ocean basins well-covered by shipping, making it possible to observe carbon uptake over most of the world's oceans. The networks could be used to give early warning of any weakening in the uptake of carbon dioxide by the global oceans. This uptake is very important in slowing the rise of CO2 in the atmosphere, and some scientists have warned that such a weakening of the sink could be beginning to occur as climate change becomes more pronounced.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091203141854.htm

1.10.2010

Coral Can Recover from Climate Change Damage, New Research Suggests

ScienceDaily — A study by the University of Exeter provides the first evidence that coral reefs can recover from the devastating effects of climate change. Published Jan. 11, 2010 in the journal PLoS ONE, the research shows for the first time that coral reefs located in marine reserves can recover from the impacts of global warming.

Scientists and environmentalists have warned that coral reefs may not be able to recover from the damage caused by climate change and that these unique environments could soon be lost forever. Now, this research adds weight to the argument that reducing levels of fishing is a viable way of protecting the world's most delicate aquatic ecosystems.

Increases in ocean surface water temperatures subject coral reefs to stresses that lead quickly to mass bleaching. The problem is intensified by ocean acidification, which is also caused by increased CO₂. This decreases the ability of corals to produce calcium carbonate (chalk), which is the material that reefs are made of.

Approximately 2% of the world's coral reefs are located within marine reserves, areas of the sea that are protected against potentially-damaging human activity, like dredging and fishing.
The researchers conducted surveys of ten sites inside and outside marine reserves of the Bahamas over 2.5 years. These reefs have been severely damaged by bleaching and then by hurricane Frances in the summer of 2004. At the beginning of the study, the reefs had an average of 7% coral cover. By the end of the project, coral cover in marine protected areas had increased by an average of 19%, while reefs in non-reserve sites showed no recovery.
Professor Peter Mumby of the University of Exeter said: "Coral reefs are the largest living structures on Earth and are home to the highest biodiversity on the planet. As a result of climate change, the environment that has enabled coral reefs to thrive for hundreds of thousands of years is changing too quickly for reefs to adapt.

"In order to protect reefs in the long-term we need radical action to reduce CO₂ emissions. However, our research shows that local action to reduce the effects of fishing can contribute meaningfully to the fate of reefs. The reserve allowed the number of parrotfishes to increase and because parrotfish eat seaweeds, the corals could grow freely without being swamped by weeds. As a result, reefs inside the park were showing recovery whereas those with more seaweed were not. This sort of evidence may help persuade governments to reduce the fishing of key herbivores like parrotfishes and help reefs cope with the inevitable threats posed by climate change."

Professor Mumby's research was funded by National Environment Research Council (NERC) and the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation.

Reef facts

A coral reef is made up of thin layers of calcium carbonate (limestone) secreted over thousands of years by billions of tiny soft bodied animals called coral polyps.
Coral reefs are the world's most diverse marine ecosystems and are home to twenty-five percent of known marine species, including 4,000 species of fish, 700 species of coral and thousands of other plants and animals.
Coral reefs have been on the planet for over 400 million years.
The largest coral reef is the Great Barrier Reef, which stretches along the northeast coast of Australia, from the northern tip of Queensland, to just north of Bundaberg. At 2,300km long, it is the largest natural feature on Earth.
Coral reefs occupy less than one quarter of one percent of the Earth's marine environment, yet they are home to more than a quarter of all known fish species.
As well as supporting huge tourist industries, coral reefs protect shorelines from erosion and storm damage.

High quality reef videos by Professor Peter Mumby can be viewed at: www.reefvid.org
The main funding for the research came from Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation and the Natural Environment Research Council.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100109002310.htm

1.08.2010

Bill banning use of offshore platforms for fish farms could affect Gulf aquaculture

Proposed federal legislation could make the Gulf of Mexico a less likely site for the nation's first commercial offshore fish farms.

Under the National Sustainable Offshore Aquaculture Act of 2009, proposed by Rep. Lois Capps, D-Calif., it would be illegal to use oil or natural gas platforms for fish farming operations.

Many consider the presence of 4,000 such platforms the Gulf's primary advantage as an aquaculture destination. Proponents have touted them as perfect workstations, providing a place to secure fish cages, quarter crewmembers, and store fish food and medications.

Farming fish such as red snapper would take pressure off dwindling natural stocks and create jobs, say those who favor the practice. Opponents point to a variety of issues, including water pollution, use of antibiotics and other chemicals, and potential damage to native populations if farm escapees contaminate the wild gene pool.

The Gulf is the only section of the nation's coastline that has an offshore aquaculture permitting plan awaiting final federal approval.

The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council approved the plan in January after years of debate. Though many expected the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to reject the plan -- which is applicable only in the gulf -- the agency allowed it to become law in September. All that remains is the final rulemaking procedure, which involves public comment.

So far, no one is lining up to get a permit. In part, that may be due to a legal conundrum that could keep a fish farm proposal in court for years.

At issue is whether raising fish in pens and harvesting them from cages constitutes fishing.

NOAA, through a legal memo that defines aquaculture as fishing, claims to have jurisdiction under current federal law, according to Stephanie Showalter, director of the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Legal Center, which studies coastal and ocean legal issues. But that interpretation has not been challenged, she said.

"I think there are strong legal arguments that could be made that aquaculture is not fishing," she said, "and so it would not be covered under the Magnuson Act."

The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act gives NOAA the authority to set catch limits and fishing seasons for the nation's fisheries.

NOAA has twice since 2005 tried to get legislation allowing it to regulate aquaculture. Both attempts failed. NOAA officials said Monday that the agency is working on a new plan but couldn't discuss it at this time, and has not yet reviewed the proposed aquaculture bill.

Capps' new bill would have NOAA regulate aquaculture, but it would also include new hurdles for anyone seeking to farm fish. For instance, no fish farms could be permitted until environmental impact studies had been conducted for all of the nation's coastal waters. It has been referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources. Her office did not return calls seeking comment.

"The new bill has many more environmental safeguards than the Gulf Council's plan, but it is still not enough," said Marianne Cufone, with Food and Water Watch, an environmental group opposed to ocean aquaculture.

Cufone's group favors "recirculating" aquaculture projects -- land-based systems that clean and reuse water thus preventing undesirable effects in the ocean.

Cufone said regulators should be aware that foreign companies are particularly interested in growing fish in American waters.

She said the companies would grow fish here, sell them all over the world and "leave us with the pollution and problems."

Rep. Jo Bonner, R-Mobile, said the bill could hurt Gulf coast aquaculture by banning the use of offshore platforms, even those that are no longer in service. In an e-mailed statement, Bonner said he would "make Rep. Capps aware of the potentially negative impact her bill could have on our economy."

Source: http://blog.al.com/live/2009/12/bill_banning_use_of_offshore_p.html

India begins DNA inventory of marine life

To study the impact of global warming on marine life in the seas around India, the government has embarked on a major project to give them DNA barcodes to “create inventories of biodiversity”.

The earth sciences ministry has asked the Centre for Marine Living Resources and Ecology (CMLRE) at Kochi to start the work on DNA barcoding of marine biodiversity.

DNA barcoding is a method that uses a short genetic marker in an organism’s DNA to identify it as belonging to a particular species. Barcoding a species costs Rs.10,000-15,000.

“We have initiated a scheme for DNA barcoding as part of our efforts under Census of Marine Life to create inventories of biodiversity. We had some meetings and a framework document has been prepared for initiating the project,” V.N. Sanjeevan, director CMLRE, told IANS.

Barcoding initially began with butterflies and fish. It worked well, and attempts have been made to apply this technique to other marine organisms.

In India barcoding of marine organisms began with a hands-on training, the first of its kind in the world, organised three years ago during the Indian Ocean Census of Marine Life (IOCOML). Since then quite a few teams have taken this up in earnest and have come out with gene sequences for about 200 marine organisms from the seas around India.

“Among the several government agencies in India, the Ministry of Earth Sciences has recognised the value of barcoding of marine organisms and is in the process of initiating a national project on this. The Ministry of Agriculture has barcoding projects for freshwater fishes and domesticated animals,” Mohideen Wafar, chairperson IOCOML, told IANS.

Barcoding allows researchers to track changes in the environment due to human influence, pollution and global warming.

“Barcoding also provides advantage in wildlife conservation – even when a protected organism is butchered and beyond visual identification, DNA sequence from a few milligrams of tissue can confirm its identity,” said Wafar.

“The best example in India is the case of whale shark. This is a protected species but recently one was caught by some fishermen in Kerala and pieces of its flesh, under a different name, were sold in the market. The wildlife authorities arrested the people and, in the absence of other evidence, could get the confirmation that the meat is indeed that of a whale shark by DNA sequencing,” he added.

Barcoding began in 2006 in India. As of now, the efforts are confined to groups like Annamalai University’s Centre of Advanced Study in Marine Biology and the National Institute of Oceanography in Goa.

“Less than 200 out of the 14,000 species known from Indian seas have been barcoded. This translates to about one percent. Given the number of potential marine species and the difficulties of barcoding some groups, it is difficult to set a time limit. But I would hope that at least 80-90 percent of known marine species get their barcodes in a decade,” said Wafar.

The scientists are also in the process of developing a hand-held barcode reader in which a tissue sample will be placed. Then the instrument automatically extracts the DNA, processes it, sequences it, compares with a set of data already stored in its memory and comes out with identification of the species.

“The year 2010 will be celebrated as the International Year of Biodiversity and that is one key reason the International Barcode of Life (iBOL) Project is scheduled for activation in mid-2010. India plans participation in this project as a regional node together with 25 other nations,” Wafar said.

Source: http://www.sindhtoday.net/news/1/87304.htm

1.06.2010

Scientists Shed New Light On Behavior Of Shark 'Tweens' And 'Teenagers'

ScienceDaily — A long-term field and DNA study by the Institute for Ocean Conservation Science at Stony Brook University, University of Miami, Field Museum of Chicago and others has shown that young lemon sharks born at the Bimini islands, Bahamas, tend to stay near their coastal birthplace for many years. While shark research and conservation typically focuses on baby sharks confined to shallow habitats, or ocean-roaming adults, less is known about these intermediate-aged animals, which are the breeders of tomorrow and are roughly similar in development to human ‘tweens’ and teenagers.

Tropical island-nations that sacrifice their nursery habitats to coastal development are therefore likely to lose not only babies but also much older sharks from their local areas, with potentially dire effects on the surrounding ecosystem. The study, conducted over a 14-year period at the Bimini Biological Field Station, is the cover article in the August issue of Molecular Ecology, a leading international scientific journal.

“It takes some sharks more than a decade to reach reproductive age, so we set out to better understand the phase of their development from when they are a couple of years old until they are on the verge of sexual maturity,” said lead author Dr. Demian Chapman, shark scientist with the Institute for Ocean Conservation Science at Stony Brook University (SBU) in New York, and an assistant professor at SBU. “We were very surprised to see that many lemon sharks lingered for years around the island where they were born -- often more than half of their development to adulthood.”

Fear of deep waterand the bigger predators that live there combined with abundant prey in the mangroves around Bimini probably keeps these island-born sharks in safer waters near home for several years after their birth. “This means that using marine reserves and other local conservation measures may help protect sharks born around tropical islands for much longer than we thought,” Dr. Chapman explained. He suspects that future research could show that these stay-at-home behavior patterns are common among many shark species that live and breed around tropical islands. “If island communities develop all of their shark nursery habitats, like mangroves, or overfish baby sharks in local waters, then they will subsequently lose a big chunk of the older sharks as well,” he said.

Love them or not, sharks are essential to healthy oceans. Removing these top-level ocean predators will disrupt the local food web and cause negative consequences for other species and the ecosystem at large. Moreover, many tropical islands generate substantial revenue from shark-dive tourism, which this new research suggests will be heavily reliant on sharks born in local nursery areas.

During the course of the Bimini study, from 1995 to 2007, over 1,700 immature lemon sharks were caught, tagged and released. The implanted tags, plus subsequent recaptures and DNA analysis, showed that more than half of the 3- to 7-year-old sharks caught off Bimini were born locally and had lingered near their birthplace for years. Full results are described in the study, entitled, Long-term natal site-fidelity by immature lemon sharks (Negaprion brevirostris) at a subtropical island.

“In general, the survival of these intermediate-aged sharks is critical for sustaining shark populations,” said study co-author Dr. Samuel Gruber, Professor at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science and Director of the Bimini Biological Field Station, who has been leading the overall lemon shark research program at Bimini since 1978. “Our study suggests that local conservation efforts can help many lemon sharks born at islands like Bimini survive through roughly half of their development to adulthood. Broader scale, sometimes international, management is needed to protect them after they’ve left their birthplace as adolescents and adults.”

Detailed information on how sharks disperse from their birthplace could be very useful for conservation efforts throughout the tropics, given that many tropical shark species are threatened by overexploitation to supply the trade for shark fin soup, for which demand is especially high in Asia. Between 22 and 73 million sharks are killed each year to supply the fin trade, and international management agencies are scrambling for solutions to stem severe shark population declines.

“Our study suggests that many tropical island nations may not have to wait for complex international shark regulations to be established in order to act,” said Dr. Chapman. “Their local management efforts could give immature sharks a chance to grow up in relative safety until they are big and ‘bad’ enough to roam deeper habitats far from home, where broader scale protection becomes more important.”

The research team is now extending its study to answer one of the great mysteries of shark biology: do sharks home back to their birthplace as adults? Co-author Dr. Kevin Feldheim of the Field Museum in Chicago, who led the genetics part of the study, said: “This research showed that most of the young sharks left the island by the time they were mature. Now we want to find out if they end up coming back to the place where they were born to breed, much like salmon and sea turtles do.”

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090824141047.htm

Tipping Elements in the Earth System: How Stable Is the Contemporary Environment?

ScienceDaily — A Special Feature of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences presents the latest scientific insights on so-called tipping elements in the planetary environment. These elements have been identified as the most vulnerable large-scale components of the Earth System that may be profoundly altered by human interference. If one or more of those components is tipped -- especially in the course of global warming -- then the age of remarkably stable environmental conditions on Earth throughout the Holocene may end quickly and irreversibly.

This Special Feature was designed and edited by Hans Joachim Schellnhuber of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). It is meant to make a major contribution to the emerging field of sustainability science. The authors involved analyse altogether eight Earth System components. Three of them, the biggest dust source on our planet, oceanic biogeochemical cycles, and marine methane hydrates, are discussed in depth as potential tipping elements for the first time ever.

"It is the cardinal question of Earth System and sustainability science whether global warming actually triggers singular transformations of crucial components of the planetary machinery," says Schellnhuber. Singular transformations -- as opposed to smooth linear and nonlinear ones -- would dramatically alter the environment in which human civilisations have developed and thrived over many millennia. "Currently, the climate system still operates in the Holocene mode, but the research presented here underlines that a rise of the global mean temperature beyond two degrees Celsius might push the world into singular-change terrain and therefore needs to be avoided," Schellnhuber adds.

The PIK scientist has introduced the tipping-elements concept into the research community some ten years ago. It describes components of the Earth System that could be pushed past critical thresholds by anthropogenic forcing, so that they may "tip" into qualitatively different modes of operation. In a recent seminal paper, Tim Lenton from the University of East Anglia, Hans Joachim Schellnhuber and an international group of colleagues presented a formal definition and compiled a short-list of the nine tipping elements ranked as the most policy-relevant. The current Special Feature examines five of these in much more depth: the El Niño/Southern Oscillation phenomenon, Arctic sea-ice and the great polar ice sheets, the Amazon rainforest, the major monsoon systems, and the circulation of ocean currents in the Atlantic Ocean.

In their article, Matthias Hofmann and Stefan Rahmstorf, also from PIK, discuss the last topic, i.e. the stability properties of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). The authors present new model simulations of the AMOC response to increased freshwater inflow into the North Atlantic. These challenge the hypothesis that the resulting circulation weakening and the possibility of abrupt oceanic change are just artefacts arising from model flaws. Rather, improving the physical realism of the model leads to a greater vulnerability of the projected AMOC stability.

A group of PIK scientists led by Anders Levermann show that every monsoon circulation inherently bears the possibility of an abrupt collapse. The reason is the moisture-advection feedback which is the core of any monsoon system and was captured in a conceptual model by the authors. The monsoon rains are essential for agriculture as the source of livelihood for several hundred million people in the pertinent regions, the authors state.

David Archer from the University of Chicago and his co-authors provide evidence that methane hydrates in ocean sediments should be regarded as a "slow tipping element" in the Earth's climate system. Global warming of some three degrees Celsius could lead to the escape of more than half of the relevant methane stocks, estimated 940 billion tons of carbon, on a millennial time-scale. This hydrate leakage could cause an additional rise in planetary temperature by 0.5 degrees Celsius. The authors tie this increase in global mean temperature to the methane, but it would persist through many millennia because methane is oxidised in about a decade to carbon dioxide, which continues to impact climate for many millennia.

Ulf Riebesell and colleagues from the Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences (IFM-GEOMAR) describe the oceans as a climate-system component which is presently undergoing major changes. The sea is not only warming, it is also becoming more acidic. Unbridled anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases could alter the cycling of carbon and nutrients in the surface ocean and might damage entire marine ecosystems. The authors conclude that the current level of knowledge allows no clear answer on whether tipping points in the marine ecosphere exist, but they regard some of the projected shifts in oceanic biogeochemistry and their impacts as severe.

Mojib Latif and Noel Keenlyside, also of IFM-GEOMAR, present a review of the complicated mechanisms ruling the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon. It leads to strong temperature and precipitation fluctuations in the Equatorial Pacific from one year to another and has widespread effects on the global climate system. However, current climate models cannot capture the potential tipping point behaviour of the ENSO phenomenon, the authors resume. Given the potentially huge impacts on biological, chemical and socio-economic systems, the question whether global warming will fundamentally alter the ENSO dynamics in the future has to be investigated further.

A research team led by Richard Washington from the University of Oxford qualifies the biggest dust source on our planet, the Bodélé Depression in Chad, as a potential tipping element. This area in the southern Sahara releases huge plumes, which carry about 700,000 tons of dust towards the Atlantic and the Amazon basin. The authors explain that the so-deployed mineral aerosols play a vital role in transcontinental climatic and biophysical feedbacks. If regional wind patterns or surface erosivities changed due to anthropogenic interference, the dust export from the Bodélé Depression could be substantially modified at time scales as small as one season.

A research team headed by Yadvinder Malhi, also of the University of Oxford, has employed nineteen different global climate models to investigate, whether climate change could cause a large-scale dieback of Amazonian rainforest. The analysis based on a scenario with continuously increasing global emissions of greenhouse gases over the 21st century suggests that dry season water stress is likely to increase in parts of Amazonia. The researchers provide evidence that the Amazonian rainforest could reveal characteristic properties of a tipping element with the tendency to change into a seasonal forest.

In his paper on potential threshold behaviour of sea-ice and continental ice-sheets, Dirk Notz of the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology concludes that tipping points more likely exist for the loss of the Greenland ice sheet and the West-Antarctic ice sheet than for the loss of Arctic sea-ice, which could recover rapidly in a cooler climate. Inland ice could be much more vulnerable to regional warming due to the lack of large internal stabilizing feedbacks as existing for the Arctic sea-ice dynamics. Melting of the continental ice-sheets could lead to rapid multi-meter rise in mean sea level over the coming centuries.

Finally, Nobel Laureate Mario Molina and his co-authors demand fast action from political and economic decision makers to avoid activation of tipping elements. They propose to strengthen the Montreal Protocol regarding substances that have high global-warming potentials. In particular, the scientists make strong cases for an accelerated phasing out of hydrochlorofluorocarbons and a massive reduction of the emissions of soot.

"After two decades of failed climate protection since the 1990 IPCC Report it is more doubtful than ever whether society will manage to confine global environmental change to sub-dangerous levels," says Hans Joachim Schellnhuber. The tipping-elements field is developing quickly into a broad and relevant research frontier domain, but the issues pose tough challenges for contemporary science. Practically none of the planetary cases studied can be either dismissed now -- by firmly ruling out a possible anthropogenic triggering of irregular dynamics -- or settled by providing reliable estimates for activation temperatures and reaction time scales. "Many of the papers sketch the research way forward, but it seems that we will have to live with at least another decade of tantalising ignorance concerning the most worrying potential impacts of global warming," says Schellnhuber.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091209193728.htm

1.05.2010

Sea Shepherd Ship Ady Gil; Rammed, Cut in Half

Famed Catamaran is sinking in the Southern Ocean

Six crewmembers Rescued by the Sea Shepherd Ship Bob Barker

In an unprovoked attack captured on film, the Japanese security ship Shonan Maru No. 2 deliberately rammed and caused catastrophic damage to the Sea Shepherd catamaran Ady Gil.

Six crew crewmembers, five from New Zealand and one from the Netherlands were immediately rescued by the crew of the Sea Shepherd ship Bob Barker. None of the crew Ady Gil crew were injured.

The Ady Gil is believed to be sinking and chances of salvage are very grim.

According to eyewitness Captain Chuck Swift on the Bob Barker, the attack happened while the vessels were dead in the water. The Shonan Maru No. 2 suddenly started up and deliberately rammed the Ady Gil ripping eight feet of the bow of the vessel completely off. According to Captain Swift, the vessel does not look like it will be saved.

“The Japanese whalers have now escalated this conflict very violently,” said Captain Paul Watson. “If they think that our remaining two ships will retreat from the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary in the face of their extremism, they will be mistaken. We now have a real whale war on our hands now and we have no intention of retreating.”

Captain Paul Watson onboard the Steve Irwin is racing towards the area at 16 knots but still remains some five hundred miles to the north. The Bob Barker has temporarily stopped the pursuit of the Nisshin Maru to rescue the crew of the Ady Gil. The Japanese ships refused to acknowledge the May Day distress of the Ady Gil and used the incident to break away from the scene of the ramming.

The incident took place at 64 Degrees and 03 Minutes South and 143 Degrees and 09 Minutes East

Until this morning the Japanese were completely unaware of the existence of the Bob Barker. This newest addition to the Sea Shepherd fleet left Mauritius off the coast of Africa on December 18th and was able to advance along the ice edge from the West as the Japanese were busy worrying about the advance of the Steve Irwin from the North.

“This is a substantial loss for our organization,” said Captain Watson. “The Ady Gil, the former Earthrace, represents a loss of almost two million dollars. However the loss of a single whale is of more importance to us and we will not lose the Ady Gil in vain. This blow simply strengthens our resolve, it does not weaken our spirit.”

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is requesting that the Australian government send a naval vessel to restore the peace in the waters of the Australian Antarctic Territory. We have 77 crew from 16 nations on three vessels, six of them were on the Ady Gil. Of these, 21 are Australian citizens: 16 Australians on the Steve Irwin and five on the Bob Barker. Sea Shepherd believes that the Australian government has a responsibility to protect the lives of Australian citizens working to defend whales from illegal Japanese whaling activities.

“Australia needs to send a naval vessel down here as soon as possible to protect both the whales and the Australian citizens working to defend these whales,” said Steve Irwin Chief Cook Laura Dakin of Canberra. “This is Australian Antarctic Territorial waters and I see the Japanese whalers doing whatever they want with impunity down here without a single Australian government vessel anywhere to be found. Peter Garrett, I have one question for you: Where the bloody hell are you?”

Source: Sea Shepherd: http://www.seashepherd.org/news-and-media/news-100105-4.html

Giant tuna fetches $177,000 at Japan fish auction

By SHINO YUASA, Associated Press Writer Shino Yuasa, Associated Press Writer

TOKYO – A giant bluefin tuna fetched 16.3 million yen ($177,000) in an auction Tuesday at the world's largest wholesale fish market in Japan.

The 513-pound (233-kilogram) fish was the priciest since 2001 when a 440-pound (200 kilogram) tuna sold for a record 20.2 million yen ($220,000) at Tokyo's Tsukiji market.

The gargantuan tuna was bought and shared by the owners of two Japanese sushi restaurants and one Hong Kong-based sushi establishment, said a market representative on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to disclose the information.

Caught off the coast of northern Japan, the big tuna was among 570 put up for auction Tuesday. About 40 percent of the auctioned fish came from abroad, including from Indonesia and Mexico, the representative said.

Japan is the world's biggest consumer of seafood with Japanese eating 80 percent of the Atlantic and Pacific bluefins caught. The two tuna species are the most sought after by sushi lovers.

However, tuna consumption in Japan has declined because of a prolonged economic slump as the world's second-largest economy struggles to shake off its worst recession since World War II.

"Consumers are shying away from eating tuna ... We are very worried about the trend," the market representative said.

Apart from falling demand for tuna, wholesalers are worried about growing calls for tighter fishing rules amid declining tuna stocks.

The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas in November slashed the quota for the 2010 catch by about one-third to 13,500 tons (12,250 metric tons) — a move criticized by environmentalists as not going far enough.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100105/ap_on_bi_ge/as_japan_giant_tuna_sold