Posts Tagged ‘Oceans’
The Oil Spill from someone smarter than me.
Thursday, September 2nd, 2010Do YOU eat carp?
Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010Fish. Good for you and there are plenty, right? Not so much.
First off, fish is not so good for you anymore. While it is true that fish are high in Omega 3 fatty acids and other nutritional necessities, it has become quite apparent that the amount of mercury in our waters has made fish a less healthy addition to our diets than it once was. Here is the scoop: Mercury is contained in trace amounts in all fish and seafoods. So far, the health benefits outweigh the risks with eating fish, but there are definitely fish to avoid-especially for mothers to be and those who are breast feeding. Older, bigger, predatory fish are higher in mercury and should generally be avoided. From the EPA, we have 3 guidelines:
- Do not eat Shark, Swordfish, King Mackerel, or Tilefish because they contain high levels of mercury.
- Eat up to 12 ounces (2 average meals) a week of a variety of fish and shellfish that are lower in mercury.
- Five of the most commonly eaten fish that are low in mercury are shrimp, canned light tuna, salmon, pollock, and catfish.
- Another commonly eaten fish, albacore (“white”) tuna has more mercury than canned light tuna. So, when choosing your two meals of fish and shellfish, you may eat up to 6 ounces (one average meal) of albacore tuna per week.
- Check local advisories about the safety of fish caught by family and friends in your local lakes, rivers, and coastal areas. If no advice is available, eat up to 6 ounces (one average meal) per week of fish you catch from local waters, but don’t consume any other fish during that week.
To find out what the American Heart Association has to say go to their site. So, we all know that eating red meat is not particularly good for the body, but when the EPA tells you to stick to only 2 meals of fish a week because of pollutants and heavy metals, then there is a problem. Then, you can add to that the amount of fish populations and habitats that we are eliminating due to plastics, run off and other environmental messes (ahem, BP). But pollution is not our only problem…
The next problem we have is over fishing. We have fished some 90% of the world’s largest fish out of existence (according to a study published in Nature magazine in 2003). This is not hard for me to believe. While watching a bit on TV about something, and they were talking about commercial fishing. I can’t remember the species (some tuna perhaps), but there were quotas on the amount of fish that a commercial fisherman could catch in a year. That quota was easily reached in less than a week. Not only do we consume huge amounts of fish these days, but we have made it easier to do so. Modern equipment has made fishing easier and more profitable, but this leads us to capture and consume more fish than we should. Over fishing means that we are reducing fish populations faster than they can replenish themselves. It is Shark Week on the Discovery channel and I learned that sports fishing alone has led to the decimation of many species of shark-a fish that is not even popular for eating (at least not here). If we are not careful, then we will soon eliminate all our favorite fish from the waters, and then what will we have? Well, we will likely have carp….
Two types of Asian Carp are invading much of the Great Lakes. Thanks to modern transportation, these and many other species are being introduced to regions around the world where they have never been seen before. Being out of their usual homes, they often thrive, becoming an invasive species that out competes with local fish populations and upsets the naturally balanced ecosystems. Currently in the Great Lakes, fresh water sturgeon are making a comeback from near extinction, but now are facing the invasion of the bighead and silver carp species. This is going on around the globe. Sports fishing on the Great Lakes is big business, so what will it mean to the local economy if all you can catch are carp? And will we start to see carp on the menu at the Greenhouse Tavern?
We have slowly been trying to make up for the environmental messes that we have created for our fish populations. Dams and power stations that cut off natural fish runs for salmon and the like have had to add fish ladders and fish hatcheries in order to sustain the populations of these popular fishes. Laws prohibiting fishing or establishing quotas on fish catches might help slow the destruction of some species, though it was too little, too late for many of the species of whales that are now extinct or can be counted in the tens rather than the thousands. But these efforts may all be moot, if we see a rise in the ocean temperatures by only a few degrees. Climate change has led to surges in populations of some species while it continues to wreak havoc on others. In Japan, some populations of giant Nomura jelly fish come to the surface once every decade or so. But over development and warmer waters have led to these invasions becoming more and more frequent. This equates to huge economic losses in Japan and large effects on fish populations. Climate change may be one of the issues that is affecting the Great Barrier Reef and other coral reefs throughout the world, whose destruction could lead to the decline of a huge number of fish species.
If we are not careful with our under appreciated natural resource of the oceans, then we could soon all be eating only carp.
The Polluted Pacific…and Atlantic, and Indian….
Thursday, June 10th, 2010The world’s oceans are in danger. As I sit at my computer today, there are still barrels of oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico at a rate that would make the Exxon Valdez seem like a puddle under an old Chevy. Why BP is still in charge of this environmental disaster that will affect seafood, fishing, shipping, and many other industries of the still shaky American economy is unfathomable to me. Why this is not the first thing on every news story and email blast is beyond me. Still we sit and hope that it somehow will not affect us personally as we fill our gas guzzling SUV’s and “like” the Boycott BP page on Facebook. Since every potential answer put up by BP has failed, we don’t really have an answer. While at the same time, BP is committed to cleaning up as much of the oil as it can-while trying to salvage it. Help from other countries stand by to try and clean up the ever expanding oil slick, but BP holds them at bay while they try to separate the crude from the water so they can at least sell something from this-I mean, it IS their oil after all, right? They even have refused hair and fur mats to aid in the clean up that cost them nothing to employ. Now the latest: clean up the oil by burning it off. WHAT? If any of you can remember Saddam Husein setting alight the Afghan oil fields as he retreated several decades ago, then you know what we are in for. We are going to trade one pollution for another. But then, there is no global worming or build up of greenhouse gases from emissions anyway, right BP? The entire problem and the lack of anyone in government doing anything substantial just shows how much power and money oil companies (and Haliburton) have over the country.
So, as tar balls and oil slicks roll up on to the beaches and we bury our heads in the sand, the rest of the world’s oceans are suffering from a completely different kind of pollution. I have written before about the Great Pacific Gyre and its swirling plastic that is destroying fish and wildlife and killing great patches of ocean. Sadly, it is now becoming apparent that this mass is worse. First off, the Pacific gyre is actually two separate whirlpools in separate parts of the Pacific. Why would all this plastic end up just in the Pacific? Good question! It hasn’t. Turns out there are gyres in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans as well. In total, there are estimated to be 5 gyres on the planet. That is, in fact, the name of a very important site that you should visit called 5 Gyres. It is a great site that interactively shows the basic locations of the sites and describes the problem and the research. Everyone should take a minute to check out this site and at least raise your awareness of the issue. Here is a video to show the growth of the problem, thanks to our disposable lifestyle.
Maximenko’s Plastic Pollution Growth Model from 5 Gyres on Vimeo.
But there is hope. There is a grassroots movement to clean up plastics from the beaches. All across America, there are great people organizing beach clean ups and trying to reduce the use of plastics. One blogger at The Daily Ocean has committed to spend 20 minutes a day over 365 days to pick up trash at her local beach. She chronicles what she finds and how much she picks up. In turn she has inspired great clean up events, like Blogger Beach Clean Up Day. What? You don’t love anywhere near the beach? Even the Great Lakes is an issue, but for those of us who want to help the world’s oceans without the work, there is a solution. Enter United By Blue. This great company sells organic cotton t-shirts and beautiful jewelry with the noble mission of cleaning up the world’s oceans. The designs are great ocean inspirations, like the fish pendant and the plastic jellyfish tee that shows how plastics can look like a fish food source. For every item that you buy. their crew picks up one pound of trash from a local beach. Now that is a gift that keeps on giving. Check out the video below and think about the oceans when buying your next gift!
How I met the Norwegian Ambassador
Thursday, April 29th, 2010You have to love a guy who has the ability to laugh at himself. His Excellency Wegger Chr. Strommen, the Ambassador from Norway started his presentation by making a joke about himself. He was warm and charming, but did not fail to get his message across.
Norway has the land mass of Montana, the economy of Massachusetts, and the population of Alabama. They are highly dependent on the sea. They draw their economic wealth from oil, gas, fishing, and other off shore activities. The Arctic is a sea that is covered by ice, and Norway sits right against it. He announced that Russia and Norway had finally settled their claims disputes in the Arctic region. This is one area that is still disputing its territorial borders, but as it is not really an industrial region (there is no land here, after all) it is normal to have these kinds of disputes. Besides, the ice shelf changes from year to year, even season to season. This is the background to which the science was introcuded.
The first speaker, Dr. Steven Nerem spoke about the spiral that is warming the Arctic. As the Arctic region warms, more ice melts. The water absorbs more heat than reflective ice. This warm ocean water melts more ice, thus leaving less reflective surface, causing more ice to melt and so on. Then he spoke of rising sea levels. Rising sea levels are due to multiple reasons. One reason that no one really speaks about is that water absorbs heat and expands. The warmer the ocean, the more the water of the oceans expand. Sea level changes are really not affected by the melting directly of melting ocean ice. Instead the melting of land based ice has a larger affect on sea level rising. It does have an affect on the salinity of the oceans, because ice is fresh water and sea water is salty. But as water warms, it expands and causes rising. If we melt the mountain glaciers, this will raise sea levels .75 meters; the ice of Greenland- 7 meters; and the Antarctic ice sheet 60 m The Earth has not been this warm for 125,000 years and sea levels were about 6 meters higher than they are today. There were numerous graphs and charts showing all kinds of data measuring the rise in sea levels. Ice sheet mass balance is a complicated algorithmic formula and shows how much glaciers are melting. Glaciers are melting around Greenland at crazy rates. As they melt they slide into the ocean and melt some more. If you think this doesn’t affect the planet, you should take note that measurements are taken of the Earths gravity and the gravity of the planet is affected by ice melt in Greenland. The summary of the story is that mountain glaciers are contributing to sea level rise by about 1 mm per year; thermal expansion, 1 mm/year; Greenland glaciers. 0.5mm/year; and Antarctic melt 0.5/year… for a total of 3 mm per year. Overall we can expect a rate increase of sea level of somewhere between 1 and 6 meters. This means a huge chunk of Florida and the gulf coast will end up under water. Also, the last decade we have seen the sea level rises of twice what we saw over the last century. During the Q & A section, we touched on the release of methane gas that is trapped in the the permafrost and it’s potential to increase the entire speed of the problem.
Rafe Pomerance was the next speaker. He took a different approach to the climate change issue. His slant is the political approach. 30 years ago, climate change and greenhouse gases were issues that were not even on the political radar. So while our issues are huge, we are making progress in that we are at the very least talking about it and trying to address the issues at hand. We are currently looking at legislation in America and how it could affect the political landscape. As America goes, so does much of the world. Ohio is key in this, as our Senators are swing votes in this legislation. Moreover, Ohio is in a difficult situation. As an economy that has been deeply affected by the economic downturn, and whose economy has always been built on manufacturing and whose power is drawn heavily from coal. we are more heavily affected by legislation in this area than much of the US.
Next we looked at Cap and Trade and how capping CO2 emissions can impact the economy. Of course, politics is always an interesting area. In the current economic climate, environment and pollution is not high on the priority list for most Americans. However, we are at the point that something needs to happen. At least the politics globally for climate change legislation is putting pressure on the US to create legislation. While the overall climate is positive, the feeling is that getting the Senate to pass legislation in this session is not very high. This is why senators in coal usage states (like Ohio) need to hear from their constituents.
Dr. Pal Prestrud was the final speaker. He arrived after 30 hours of travel to come to Cleveland. It is encouraging that someone would travel so far and so long just to come to Cleveland. It is also important to note that the world thinks that Cleveland is important
in changing the minds of Americans in this debate. He showed shocking slides of snow melt. Not just in other parts of the world that is easy for us to ignore, but right here in the US. Remember Alaska is not far from the Arctic and we are seeing significant snow loss here. The scary thing is that he talked about was how we do not really have adequate models for what is happening. we are seeing much bigger changes in the environment than any of our models have predicted. While our models make the case strong and important, if trends continue to out pace the models that we have created, then the case could be dire. Solar heat and radiation are reflected at a rate of 85-90% by snow and ice, but only 20% by earth and vegetation. Also, warming water changes the currents and the deep water cold. This has a huge impact on fishing, tourism, and sea creatures. Then he spoke more about the release of methane in the permafrost and how it will affect the planet. As ice melts, it raises interesting issues around politics and sociology. Indigenous people who have little political clout, and who have less impact on the planet are more adversely affected by climate change. Also, who owns the small islands in the Arctic? While debates have continued, while this ice is in place no one cares much, but as land is uncovered these debates become more important. There are more creatures affected by melting ice than just polar bears, a whole host of wildlife is at risk.
Overall the discussion was interesting and informative. While I am already following the global warming/ice melt debate, I learned quite a lot from the overall presentation. Norway is warming, ice is melting, and the US is key to changing and creating global legislation around this issue.
Bad Scientists, you get no pudding!
Wednesday, August 19th, 2009In June I posted my article on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. I used images that I found on the internet to illustrate my point. While I stand behind my use of these pictures for illustrative purposes, I was surprised to find out that most of them were not specific to the Pacific Garbage patch at all. In reality, the garbage patch is actually made up of tinier particulates. Bud Perry was researching this issue and wrote this blog post to further inform you and I alike. In all, I find it more disturbing than ever. The problem with the garbage patch is worse that I thought, because it is impossible to determine the extent of the damage. Moreover, this shows that there is plenty of garbage floating in waterways that are not even related to this patch. Just read one my new favorite blog The Daily Ocean, if you need any reassurance that we are littering our beaches and thus our oceans.
You’d have to be living under a rock if you haven’t heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It’s a giant mass of swirling trash floating in the Pacific Ocean in an area called the Great Pacific Gyre. Even Oprah has shown videos of dying animals and floating garbage, highlighting the desperate need to clean up this massive floating island of garbage rumored to be twice the size of Texas and over 300 feet deep! A search of the internet will continually display one or two photos of floating garbage, usually from below, or a poor dead baby bird that was fed plastic by its parents. There are hundreds of maps, diagrams and schematics showing how the ocean currents can trap floating debris. Greenpeace’s website even has an animation with arrows which depicts the ocean currents.
The one thing that’s missing, to really drive the concept home, is an aerial or satellite photograph. In fact, Wikipedia specifically states: “Despite its size and density, the patch is not visible from satellite photography.”
The existence of the Eastern garbage patch was predicted in a 1988 paper published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, based on Alaskan researchers who found tiny particles of plastic suspended in the water of the North Pacific Ocean. They then extrapolated that other areas of the ocean, where ever currents caused a looping pattern, would trap these plastics and eventually form a giant floating island of trash. However, this was just a hypothesis, they hadn’t actually found such an island.
Later, Charles Moore, a sea captain and ocean researcher, wrote a series of articles in which he claimed to have sailed through a massive garbage island in the Pacific Ocean during the Transpac sailing race. No one else in the race came across this island, which is odd since it is rumored to be twice the size of Texas. Moore took no photographs of this phenomenon either, perhaps because he was in a race. However, Moore’s articles received instant media attention.
Wikipedia offers up a reason why there are no corroborating photos: “The size of the affected region is unknown, as large items readily visible from the deck of a boat are few and far between. Most of the debris consists of small plastic particles suspended at or just below the water surface, making it impossible to detect by aircraft or satellite images.”
Then what are all those photographs of floating garbage on the internet actually of? Turns out these are photos of other floating plastic debris in lakes, rivers, and bays which are used to illustrate what floating garbage would look like. According to the experts, this is exactly what a large floating island of garbage would NOT look like…evidently. On the DailyKos.com website, an image showing a giant field of plastic bottles has been made up of smaller images to create a “holistic” view, with the disclaimer that the image was “not taken at sea”.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I DO believe it exists; it makes all the sense in the world. We are a filthy species, spreading our toxic waste over the entire globe without a care. Despite my belief, I really don’t like the prevalence of doctored photographs, or photos taken somewhere else with no direct link to this phenomenon. I don’t need more diagrams showing me how the Carolus effect, or Ocean Gyre, or prevailing currents work. I understand how they could generate a giant mass of plastic. But, for my sake people, stop generating fake photos as this only helps the naysayers and disbelievers (they’re out there!). I’d love to have a video taken below the surface by divers, or photos showing a huge ship’s wake filled with churned garbage.
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is really a huge soup of molecule sized plastic particles suspended in the saline water. It isn’t even visible to the eye; only to microscopes and other scientific equipment. The unfortunate thing is that the people generating media attention couldn’t grab enough interest by calling the area the Great Suspended Polymer Molecule Gyre. It just wasn’t catchy enough. The plastic comes from garbage so it was just a hop and a jump to the new title. Now all the graphs, charts and molecular diagrams in the world couldn’t get Oprah’s attention. Suddenly photos surfaced of large chunks of floating debris, and of poor exploded baby birds. This got attention. The problem, of course, is that all of the photographs have been faked or “re-appropriated”. I think this does a real dilemma a great disservice. It reminds me of the Tyrannosaurus debate: we don’t have a single full skeleton of the creature, so scientists used bones from other dinosaurs to make up the missing areas. This doesn’t discount the fact there were Tyrannosaurs running around, but it sure looks mighty suspicious and gives fodder to the Creationist Museum.
One person’s work for a cleaner ocean.
Sunday, August 16th, 2009One of my favorite blogs is Green LA Girl. I like her style of writing, and she has been doing it a long time. She is unpretentious, down to earth and friendly. Her posts run the gamut from the latest bike rally in an LA neighborhood to interviews within the movement to the loss of biodiversity in the world of bananas. So I was intrigued to check out her recommendation for The Daily Ocean. I follow it every day now. It is written by Sara Bayles. As an experiment, Sara decided to spend 20 minutes a day picking up garbage off the beach. She then weighs it and keeps track of just how much she has collected. She posts about the trash, the beauty of the things she sees on the beach and her reflections as she conducts this experiment. I think it is awesome. Lots of people can talk, but this wonderful woman is doing her part. Her blog raises awareness of the beaches and the oceans and what people are doing to them. I think you should look it up and give it a read. Read it every day and it will help to inspire you to do your own part. If everyone o the planet stopped littering and instead picked up garbage every day for a year, the planet would be cleaner and healthier indeed. Be sure to read The Daily Ocean and read Siel of Green LA Girl-she did a great interview of her that is a great read!
The Great Ocean Garbage Patch
Monday, June 15th, 2009Not satisfied with filling up our land masses with garbage and trash, the people of the planet are now striving to completely destroy the oceans. Remember when fish was a good thing to eat. It was healthy and full of rich fatty acids that were great at lowering cholesterol and reducing heart disease. Humans are putting an end to that. Most fish is so high in mercury, due to pollution, that too much fish can actually give you mercury poisoning. We have already driven multiple species of fish and mammals to the brink of extinction due to over fishing, destruction of habitat, global warming (yes, it is real), and hunting. As if that were not enough, we now are threatening the oceans with garbage.
from Ocean Trust Film.org
Floating around the Pacific ocean is a giant garbage patch the size of Texas. It is full of plastics that are slowly killing off wildlife, migratory birds and fish. The plastics literally are choking many of them. Some in the net-like mass itself. Some are choking on the garbage as it starts to break down and they try to consume it. Some are choking on the noxious poisons that are released as the giant patch dissolves. At least some day it will go away, right? Doubtful. Plastics do not biodegrade very fast. In the meantime, the mass has grown since it was first discovered some 13 years ago. Where is this patch? The largest portion lies in the Pacific Ocean between San Francisco and Hawaii. It is in an area of the ocean called the North Pacific Gyre. This is a region where most boats avoid, as it it like a giant high pressure eddy where water swirls and there is little wind. It is like a giant toilet bowl, where nothing flushes and all our waste is piling up.
So what is the big deal? It is only some garbage in the ocean in an area that we don’t really use. First, some of it does come back. The garbage washes back up on shore in some areas. It litters our beaches. It makes swimming difficult, even dangerous. Secondly, we cannot even begin to think about the problem as fixable. In fact it continues to grow. Trying to clean up this floating reef of garbage would ultimately bankrupt any government and further destroy area wildlife along the way. 
Thirdly, it is ugly. For such a beautiful planet, why do we have an ugly ocean? Think of a landfill the size of Texas in the middle of our country. But lastly, and most importantly, is the untold damage we are doing to the ocean’s natural habitat and the creatures that live in it. In yet another story of how man outsmarts beast, the birds of the Pacific forage here for food. Mistakenly they think plastics like milk rings and bottle caps are food. They take it back to their nests and feed it to their chicks who choke or starve to death on it. Birds, fish and other wildlife get caught up in the bits of floating crap and choke or drown. Some baby animals even grow around the plastics.
As the plastics break down into smaller pieces, they are eaten by fish and animals that usually feed on plankton. The biggest problem about all this pollution is that we do not know the long term effects of the damage. Just like we never knew about the damage of mercury to the fish population until it was too late, we may not realize the extent of the damage until the ecosystem of the world’s oceans are damaged beyond repair.
For a truly sobering view of the extent of the problem, watch this video. It is far more compelling than I could ever be.
