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Marine World
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UN Prepares for the Upcoming Ocean
Conference 2017: June 05-09
|| February
15: 2017
|| ά.
The world dumps the equivalent of one
garbage truck of plastic into the ocean every minute, the United Nations heard
today at the start of a two-day meeting to prepare for this June's Ocean
Conference that will aim to help safeguard the planet's oceans and help them
recover from human-induced problems. “When leaders from across Governments,
international organisations, civil society, the private sector and the
scientific and academic communities, gather together in New York, from June
05-09 for The Ocean Conference, we will be witness to a turning point.” the
President of the UN General Assembly, Peter Thomson, told the participants, who
also included the Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden and the Minister for Fisheries
of Fiji, the countries co-hosting the conference.
“We will witness the point in history when humanity truly began the process of
reversing the cycle of decline that accumulated human activity has brought upon
the Ocean,” Mr. Thomson added. The high-level Oceans Conference aims to get
everyone involved in conserving and sustainably using the oceans, seas and
marine resources, in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals:SDGs,
specifically Goal 14. The UN has called for voluntary commitments to implement
Goal 14 and today launched an online commitment registry which has its first
three commitments, the Swedish Government, the UN Environment Programme:UNEP and
Peaceboat, a non-governmental organisation.
Healthy oceans have a central role to play in solving one of
the biggest problems of the 21st century, how to feed nine billion people by
2050. Image: FAO
The site will be up through the end of the
Conference, which starts on World Environment Day, marked annually on June 05,
and includes June 08, celebrated as World Oceans Day. The voluntary commitments
'underscore the urgency for action and for solutions' said
Under-Secretary-General Wu Hongbo, who heads the UN Department for Economic and
Social Affairs and serves as the Secretary-General of the Conference.
Addressing participants today, Mr. Wu said that preparations for the Conference
were 'on track'. “The health of our oceans and seas and the future wellbeing of
our planet and our society, demand no less.” he said. In addition to pollution,
The Oceans Conference and SDG 14 address overfishing, as well as acidification
and increasing global water temperatures linked to climate change.
Discussing the problems ahead of today's preparatory meeting, Deputy Prime
Minister of Sweden, Isabella Lovin said that in a video log on Twitter that the
Conference could be a 'chance of a lifetime' to save the oceans under enormous
stress.
“We don't need to invent or negotiate something new, we just need to have action
to implement what we already agreed upon.” she said in reference to the expected
'Call to Action' that will result from the Conference in connection with
stopping illegal fishing, stopping marine pollution and addressing the special
circumstances of small island developing States.
Representing one of the many small island nations struggling with these issues,
the Minister for Fisheries of Fiji, Semi Koroilavesau, urged Conference
participants to make voluntary contributions, saying the oceans are of 'utmost
importance' to his country.
ω.
Whatever Your Field of
Work and Wherever in the World You are, Please, Make a Choice to Do All You Can
to Seek and Demand the End of Death Penalty For It is Your Business What is Done
in Your Name. The Law That Makes Humans Take Part in Taking Human Lives and That
Permits and Kills Human Lives is No Law. It is the Rule of the Jungle Where Law
Does Not Exist. The Humanion
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Climate Change Will Lead to Annual Coral
Bleaching: New Study
Most of the reefs in the
Seychelles have died due to El Niño, bleaching,
fishing and the rising temperature of the
seawater.
Image: Kadir van Lohuizen:NOOR
|| January 05:
2016 || ά. If current trends continue and the
world fails to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,
nearly all of the world's coral reefs will
suffer severe bleaching, the gravest threat to
one of the Earth's most important ecosystems, on
annual basis, the United Nations environment
agency today reported. The finding is part of a
study funded by the UN Environment
Programme:UNEP and partners, which reviewed new
climate change projections to predict which
corals will be affected first and at what rate.
The report is
published in the journal Nature Scientific
Reports. Researchers found that the reefs in
Taiwan and the Turks and Caicos archipelago will
be among the first to experience annual
bleaching, followed by reefs off the coast of
Bahrain, in Chile and in French Polynesia.
Calling the predictions 'a treasure trove' for
environmentalists, the head of the UN agency,
Erik Solheim said the projects allow
conservationists and governments to prioritise
the protection reef protection.
“The projections show us where we still have
time to act before it's too late.” Mr. Solheim
said. On average, the reefs will start to
undergo annual bleaching starting in 2014,
according to the study. Without the required
minimum of five years to regenerate, the annual
occurrences will have a deadly effect on the
corals and disrupt the ecosystems which they
support.
However, if Governments act on emission
reduction pledges made in the Paris Agreement,
which calls on countries to combat climate
change and limit global temperature rise to
below 02 degrees Celsius, the corals would have
another 11 years to adapt to the warming seas.
Between 2014 and 2016, the world witnessed the
longest global bleaching event recorded. Among
the casualties was the Great Barrier Reef, with
90 per cent of it bleached and 20 per cent of
the reef's coral killed.
ω.
Whatever Your Field of
Work and Wherever in the World You are, Please, Make a Choice to Do All You Can
to Seek and Demand the End of Death Penalty For It is Your Business What is Done
in Your Name. The Law That Makes Humans Take Part in Taking Human Lives and That
Permits and Kills Human Lives is No Law. It is the Rule of the Jungle Where Law
Does Not Exist. The Humanion
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This Why Must We Never Stop Seeking: This is Why
Must We Ever Keep on Asking: Southampton
Researchers Discovered New Marine Species
New species of gastropod snail
Phymorhynchus n. sp. Image: David Shale
||
December 17: 2016: University of Southampton News: England: United Kingdom || ά.
Scientists at the University of Southampton have discovered six new animal
species in undersea hot springs 02.8 kilometres deep in the southwest Indian
Ocean. The unique marine life was
discovered around hydrothermal vents at a place called Longqi, ‘Dragon's
Breath’, 2000 kilometres southeast of Madagascar and is described in the journal
Scientific Reports.
A research team, led by Dr Jon Copley, explored an area the size of a football
stadium on the ocean floor, pinpointing the locations of more than a dozen
mineral spires known as ‘vent chimneys’. These spires, many of which rise more
than two storeys above the seabed, are rich in copper and gold that is now
attracting interest for future seafloor mining. However, the spires are also
festooned with deep-sea animals, nourished by hot fluids gushing out of the vent
chimneys.
Rainer Maria Rilke
The team, which includes colleagues at the Natural History Museum in London and
Newcastle University, carried out genetic comparisons with other species and
populations elsewhere to show that several species at Longqi are not yet
recorded from anywhere else in the world's oceans. The expedition, which took
place in November 2011, provides a record of what lives on the ocean floor in
the area, which is licensed for mineral exploration by the International Seabed
Authority of the United Nations, before any mining surveys are carried out.
New species of scaleworm
Peinaleopolynoe n. sp. Image: David Shale
The Longqi vents are the first known
in the region and the expedition was the first to explore them using a
deep-diving remotely operated vehicle:ROV. The deep-sea animals that are so far
only known from Longqi include a species of hairy-chested ‘Hoff’ crab, closely
related to ‘Hoff’ crabs at Antarctic vents; two species of snail and a species
of limpet; a species of scaleworm; and another species of deep-sea worm. Apart
from one species of snail, which has been given the scientific name Gigantopelta
aegis, most have not yet been formally described.
“We can be certain that the new species we've found also live elsewhere in the
southwest Indian Ocean, as they will have migrated here from other sites, but at
the moment no-one really knows where, or how well-connected their populations
are with those at Longqi." said Dr Copley. “Our results highlight the need to
explore other hydrothermal vents in the southwest Indian Ocean and investigate
the connectivity of their populations, before any impacts from mineral
exploration activities and future deep-sea mining can be assessed.”
A group of hairy-chested ‘Hoff
crabs’. Image: University of Southampton
The scientists also found other
species at Longqi that are known at other vents far away in other oceans.
Another new species of scaleworm lives at vents on the East Scotia Ridge in the
Antarctic, 6,000 kilometres away, while a species of ragworm live at vents in
the eastern Pacific, more than 10,000 km away.
“Finding these two species at Longqi shows that some vent animals may be more
widely distributed across the oceans than we realised,” added Dr Copley.
ω.
Whatever Your Field of
Work and Wherever in the World You are, Please, Make a Choice to Do All You Can
to Seek and Demand the End of Death Penalty For It is Your Business What is Done
in Your Name. The Law That Makes Humans Take Part in Taking Human Lives and That
Permits and Kills Human Lives is No Law. It is the Rule of the Jungle Where Law
Does Not Exist. The Humanion
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World's Marine Protected Areas Now Form as Large
a Seascape as the Size of India: Yet The World
Must Do More to Protect the Entire Body of
Marine Sphere
By absorbing much of the added
heat trapped by atmospheric greenhouse gases,
the oceans are delaying some
of the impacts of climate change. Image:
WMO:Olga Khoroshunova
|| December 14: 2016 || ά.
Since April, an
unprecedented 03.6 million square kilometres of
ocean, an area larger than India, have been
designated as marine protected areas:MPAs,
meaning for the first time, more than 05% of the
world’s oceans are now protected. “The
establishment of so many new protected areas is
tremendous news and should give those fighting
tirelessly to conserve the world’s oceans and
seas an enormous sense of achievement.”
announced Erik Solheim, head of the United
Nations Environment Programme:UNEP.
Meanwhile, the Convention on Biological
Diversity:CBD, which is meeting this week in
Mexico, is calling for the world to protect 10
per cent of its coastal and marine areas by
2020. That goal is part of the Aichi
Biodiversity Targets and has now been exceeded.
Thanks to the recent creation of five 'mega MPAs'
off the coasts of Chile, Palau, Hawaii, and the
Pitcairn Islands and St. Helena’s in the South
Atlantic, the global total percentage of
protected seas is now 12.7 per cent.
Mr. Solheim urged stakeholders to remember that
“the Aichi Biodiversity Targets also call for
countries to focus their conservation efforts on
the areas of greatest biodiversity. It is not
just about the size of the area under
protection, but also about where these zones are
located and how strong that protection really
is.”
As part of the effort to emphasise the
importance of protecting the Antarctic seas,
during the conference, UNEP Patron of Oceans and
endurance swimmer Lewis Pugh announced his
campaign, Antarctica 2020, which aims to secure
MPAs in vulnerable areas of Antarctica over the
next three years. The campaign builds off the
momentum of the recent Ross Sea victory, which
together with the three targeted areas would
bring the total protected area in the Antarctic
to nearly seven million square kilometres, an
area the size of Australia.
“We have entered a new area of uncertainty, with
many hard-fought conservation achievements now
under threat. It’s time to build on our recent
success in the Ross Sea. With public support, I
believe we can achieve the most ambitious ocean
protection plan in history.” said Mr. Pugh as he
spoke from Antarctica’s Bellingshausen Sea,
where he is undertaking a swim in freezing
waters to bring global attention to oceanic
protection.
During the UN Biodiversity Conference in Cancun,
Mexico pledged to preserve an additional 650,000
square kilometres of land and sea, roughly 25
per cent of its territorial waters. The
commitment includes establishing the Mexican
Caribbean Biosphere Reserve, an area of 57,000
square kilometres.
Rafael Pacchiano Alamán, president of the
conference, hailed the country’s decision,
“Mexico wants to send a clear signal on the
urgency to meet the Aichi Targets by taking
unprecedented actions to preserve marine and
terrestrial ecosystems.” He added that the
country had “surpassed its commitment to achieve
the Aichi goals for marine areas and is on track
to achieve land protected areas.”
Other pledges from the conference included
Cambodia’s commitment to nearly double its
number of protected areas, which now include
one-third of the country’s land. The United Arab
Emirates also indicated its intention to declare
18 new protected areas, four of which are
marine. According to new figures released by the
International Union for Conservation of
Nature:IUCN and UNEP’s World Conservation
Monitoring Centre, today there are 14,859 MPAs
covering 18.5 million square kilometres of ocean
and sea.
However, both organizations warned that there is
an unequal representation of ecosystems and
areas rich in biodiversity; according to the
2016 Protected Planet report, only one third of
the world’s marine ecoregions offer more than 10
per cent of their areas protection. More than
three billion people depend on marine and
coastal diversity for their livelihoods. When
managed correctly, MPAs can boost the abundance
of fish and increase biodiversity.
ω.
Whatever Your Field of
Work and Wherever in the World You are, Please, Make a Choice to Do All You Can
to Seek and Demand the End of Death Penalty For It is Your Business What is Done
in Your Name. The Law That Makes Humans Take Part in Taking Human Lives and That
Permits and Kills Human Lives is No Law. It is the Rule of the Jungle Where Law
Does Not Exist. The Humanion
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New UN Report Finds Marine Debris Harming More
Than 800 Species That's Costing Countries
Millions
Marine waste, mainly fishing gear, being
collected on the beaches of Northwest
Spitsbergen, Norway.
Image: UNEP GRID Arendal:Peter Prokosch
|| December 05: 2016 || ά.
Marine debris is
negatively affecting more than 800 animal
species and causing serious losses to many
countries' economies, according to a United
Nations report launched today. The report,
Marine Debris: Understanding, Preventing and
Mitigating the Significant Adverse Impacts on
Marine and Coastal Biodiversity found that the
number of species affected by marine debris has
increased from 663 to 817 since 2012. It also
warned that this type of waste, which is mostly
made of plastic, is an increasing threat to
human health and well-being, and is costing
countries billions of dollars each year.
“I hope that this report will provide
governments and other stakeholders with the
information needed to take urgent actions to
address marine debris, one of the most prominent
threats to marine ecosystems, and support
healthy and resilient oceans as a critical
aspect of achieving sustainable development.”
said Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias, the
Executive Director of the Convention on
Biological Diversity:CBD. The report was
launched in Cancun, Mexico, on the sidelines of
the 13th meeting of the Conference of the
Parties to Convention, known as 'COP13' where
governments and private sector delegations have
been gathered since December 02 to discuss,
among others, how to integrate biodiversity into
policies relevant to agriculture, forestry,
fisheries and tourism sectors. The meeting wraps
up on December 17.
Marine debris is usually defined as any
persistent, manufactured or processed solid
material discarded, disposed of, or abandoned in
the marine and coastal environment.
Three-quarters of all marine debris is plastic,
a persistent and potentially hazardous
pollutant, which fragments into microplastics
that can be taken up by a wide range of marine
organisms.
The most common types of marine debris are: food
wrappers, bottle caps, straws, grocery bags,
beverage bottles and cigarette butts. Five of
these items are made of plastic. Marine and
coastal species, fish, seabirds, marine mammals
and reptiles, are affected by marine debris
mostly through ingestion or entanglement.
According to the report, 40 per cent of
cetaceans, and 44 per cent of seabird species
are affected by marine debris ingestion. The
effect of ingestion is not always understood, as
many ingest microplastics – little pieces or
fragments that are less than five millimetres in
diameter.
Plastic is a very common material in our daily
lives, eight per cent of global oil production
is used to make plastic items. However, it is
hard to dispose of and many times is discarded
after a single use, think of plastic bags to
carry groceries, wrapping for packages, among
many others.
Annual plastic production has substantially
increased over the last 60 years, from 01.5
million tonnes in the 1950s to 288 million
tonnes in 2012, with approximately two-thirds of
production occurring in East Asia, Europe and
North America. Current global estimates for
plastic waste indicate that 192 coastal
countries generated 275 million tonnes of waste
in 2010, of which between 04.8 and 12.7 million
tonnes, 01.8 - 04.6 per cent, entered the marine
environment.
Marine debris has an adverse effect in the
commercial fishing, shipping and tourism
industries. The report also notes that previous
research places the cost of pollution caused by
marine debris at $13 billion. Some of the cost
includes repairing vessel damage, clean-up, and
decrease in tourism revenues due to polluted
beaches. There are also social impacts such as
direct, short-term human health issues,
injuries, entanglement and navigational hazards
and long-term impacts on quality of life.
The report makes recommendations for governments
and citizens to reduce marine debris. Some of
them include: reducing plastic packaging,
introducing fees for single-use items, banning
items like plastic bags and microbeads, and
supporting innovation for new materials that are
fully biodegradable. In addition, governments
should increase awareness of the impacts of
marine debris among their citizens, and
facilitate recycling and reusing options, among
other measures.
ω.
Whatever Your Field of
Work and Wherever in the World You are, Please, Make a Choice to Do All You Can
to Seek and Demand the End of Death Penalty For It is Your Business What is Done
in Your Name. The Law That Makes Humans Take Part in Taking Human Lives and That
Permits and Kills Human Lives is No Law. It is the Rule of the Jungle Where Law
Does Not Exist. The Humanion
||
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Landmark Accord Agreed on World's Largest Marine
Sanctuary for Antarctica's Ross Sea: UN
In the Ross Sea region of
Antarctica, the Adélie penguins have been
observed to travel an average of 13,000
kilometres
during the year from their breeding to their
winter foraging grounds. Image UNEP GRID
Arendal:Peter Prokosch
|| October 28: 2016 || ά.
The United
Nations Environment Programme:UNEP welcomed a
unanimous decision today from the Commission for
the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living
Resources:CCAMLR to create the world's largest
protected area, land or marine, in the
Antarctic's Ross Sea. “We are thrilled that this
very special part of our planet's oceans has
been safeguarded for future generations.” said
Executive Director of UN Environment Erik
Solheim in a press release.
“We are especially proud of our Patron of the
Oceans Lewis Pugh, who shuttled between the
nations to help find consensus. Today's result
is a testament to his determined efforts.” added
Mr. Solheim. Mr. Pugh, an ocean advocate,
maritime lawyer, and endurance swimmer said he
was “overjoyed.” He was the first person to
complete a long-distance swim in every ocean of
the world, and he regularly swims in different
ecosystems in order to draw attention to
environmental concerns.
“The Ross Sea is one of the most magnificent
places on Earth. It is one of our last great
wilderness areas. This is a dream come true.” he
added. The Ross Sea is considered to be the last
great wilderness area in the world and is known
as the polar 'Garden of Eden.' It is 01.57
million kilometres in area, larger than the
United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Italy
together, and will be protected from industrial
fishing, which has had devastating effects on
seas elsewhere around the world.
According to David Ainley, the American
scientist who was the first to call for a marine
protected area 14 years ago, “The Ross Sea is
one of the most pristine marine ecosystems left
on Earth, and home to many species found nowhere
else. The data collected from this 'living
laboratory' helps us understand the significant
changes taking place on Earth right now. The
Ross Sea has much more value as an intact marine
ecosystem than as a fishing ground.” he added.
The Ross Sea is home to 50 per cent of ecotype-C
killer whales:the Ross Sea orca, 40 per cent of
Adélie penguins, and 25 per cent of emperor
penguins. Mr. Pugh's efforts as UNEP's Patron of
the Oceans and an ocean advocate have involved a
series of swims in the Ross Sea in order to
raise awareness about the need for conservation.
He also visited Moscow in February 2015 in order
to convince Russian officials to endorse the
protected area. Previously, Russia had blocked
the proposal five times. The media referred to
Mr. Pugh's work as “Speedo diplomacy” because of
his ability to survive Antarctic waters with
nothing more than a pair of swimming trunks.
“Today's announcement marks an important moment
in the history of conservation.” remarked Mr.
Pugh. “The High Seas represent 45 per cent of
the Earth's surface. But they are largely
unprotected and are facing rampant overfishing.
This is a crucial first step in what I hope will
be a series of marine protected areas around
Antarctica, and in other parts of the High Seas
around the world.”
He celebrated the fact that Russia, the United
States, the European Union, and other CCAMLR
nations were able to reach such an agreement
during a period of strained political relations.
“In 1959 at the height of the Cold War,
Antarctica was set aside as a place for peace
and science. Today's announcement shows that
Antarctica continues to be a place for peace and
bridge building, a place where we can find
common ground. My hope is that what has been
achieved here can be used to foster dialogue and
co-operation in other parts of the world.”
According to the Commission, Marine Protected
Areas aim to provide protection to marine
species, biodiversity, habitat, foraging and
nursery areas, as well as to preserve historical
and cultural sites. MPAs can assist in
rebuilding fish stocks, supporting ecosystem
processes, monitoring ecosystem change and
sustaining biological diversity. ω.
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Wild Salmon Numbers Crash
|| October 24: 2016 || ά.
Over the last
forty years, salmon numbers have more than
halved, from eight to 10 million in the early
1980s to three-four million in 2016 according to
NASCO, the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation
Organisation. “We are sleep walking into a
global ecological tragedy.’ says Atlantic Salmon
Trust:AST's new President, Earl Percy. “The
Atlantic salmon is a keystone species, central
to aquatic biodiversity, an indicator of
pristine freshwater environment and a
bell-weather for environmental change.
Salmon carry information about the condition of
the oceans right back to the rivers and this
drastic decline is symptomatic of widespread
problems thousands of miles away. We need to
understand what is happening and initiate
reforms that will save much more than just the
Atlantic salmon.” Earl Percy will be the AST’s
third President since the charity was founded at
Fishmongers’ Hall London in 1967. Earl Percy’s
appointment follows the sudden death of the 6th
Duke of Westminster on August 09, 2016. His
Grace had been President and a great supporter
of the AST since December 2004. The appointment
of the new President is endorsed by the Atlantic
Salmon Trust’s Patron HRH The Prince of Wales.
“The work of the AST is invaluable to increase
our understanding of the pressures our wild
salmon stocks are under.” said Earl Percy.
“Studying the salmon’s environment and lifecycle
will provide answers to where and why our salmon
are struggling. Without empirical data to inform
often sceptical decision-makers, it will be
impossible to effectively contribute to positive
policy formation that is desperately required to
protect our marine entire environment.”
The areas of most concern are the coastal zone
and wider ocean, marine survival in the East
Atlantic has declined from over 15% in the 1980s
to less than 05% in the last five years. The AST
is utilising new scientific and technological
advances to make research into this vast area
possible and developing new techniques to track
salmonid migration, identifying problems at
different stages of their journey.
In addition to its ecological importance the
Atlantic salmon generates economic benefits,
particularly to remote, rural communities. The
salmon is the highest valued species in
freshwater game fishing and draws anglers from
around the world. Most are passionate about the
salmon and make a practical contribution to the
conservation effort. In Scotland 80% of rod
caught salmon are now returned to the river.
Since 1967 the Atlantic Salmon Trust has been
leading the way in research into migratory
salmonids. With over £20 million raised,
projects have successfully and radically altered
the way in which salmon have been managed during
the Trusts existence.
2017 marks the Trust’s 50th Anniversary and the
AST will be holding an International Scientific
Symposium and Gala Fundraising Dinner, hosted by
the new President, to launch a new 10-year
Science Strategy and three major research
initiatives in the marine environment. The
celebrations will take place at Syon House,
London, kindly donated by the Duke of
Northumberland. Information on tickets will be
available on the AST website in due course.
Earl Percy will lead the new, enthusiastic and
motivated team at AST which includes Chairman
Robbie Douglas Miller, CEO Sarah Bayley Slater
and new Fundraising Officer Tiggy Pettifer. The
Gala Committee planning the event is chaired by
AST Board Member Peter Landale.
Earl George Percy left Edinburgh University in
2007 with a MA degree in Geography, specialising
in Political, Energy and Environmental
Geography, then went on to study Arabic at the
University of Damascus in Syria. Upon returning
to the UK, he founded a geothermal energy
business, Cluff Geothermal, in 2010, alongside
Algy Cluff and Professor Paul Younger, Rankine
Chair of Energy Engineering at Glasgow
University. He still runs that company that has
energy interests now in Kenya, Ethiopia and
Indonesia.
George grew up in the North East of England, and
after catching his first salmon at the age of
eight and spending much of youth, and a fair
amount of his adulthood, on the North Tyne and
the Coquet rivers, his passion and interest in
the sport and the salmon flourished.
The Atlantic
Salmon Trust is based at 11 Rutland Square,
Edinburgh, EH11 2AS. Tel: +44 131 221 6550
Email: info at atlanticsalmontrust.org Website:
atlanticsalmontrust.org. The Trust is a
registered Charity. ω.
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Look, What the Jellyfish Has Caught?
North Sea Jellyfish: Image:
University of Southampton
|| October 15: 2016: University of Southampton News || ά.
Animals feeding
at sea inherit a chemical record reflecting the
area where they fed, which can help track their
movements, according to a new study by
scientists from the University of Southampton.
Chemical testing of the source of marine food
products could be a powerful tool to help to
fight food fraud, maintain healthy sustainable
fish stocks or marine protected areas, and
ensure consumer confidence in marine
eco-labelling.
Tracing the location of marine animals is
difficult as they generally can’t be seen and
are often a long way from the nearest person.
The Southampton research team, led by
Dr Clive Trueman
and PhD student
Katie St John Glew,
built maps of chemical variation in jellyfish
caught across the North Sea. They then compared
the same chemical signals in scallops and
herring caught in known places across the North
Sea, and used statistical tests to find the
areas of the North Sea with the most similar
chemical compositions.
These chemical
tests were able to accurately link scallops and
herring to their true locations, and can be used
to test if the chemical composition of an animal
matches a claimed area of origin. Dr Trueman,
Associate Professor in Marine Ecology, said:
“Understanding the origin of fish or fish
products is increasingly important as we try to
manage our marine resources more effectively.
Fish from
sustainable fisheries can fetch a premium price,
but concerned consumers need to be confident
that fish really were caught from sustainable
sources. Recently, genetic tests have revealed
widespread mislabelling of the type of fish
being sold worldwide, but currently we don’t
have any way of testing where a fished product
was caught.”
The study, published in the journal Methods in
Ecology and Evolution, was funded by a NERC
SPITFIRE PhD award to Katie and also involved Dr
Kirsteen MacKenzie from the Institute for Marine
Research in Tromsø, Norway. ω.
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Finland to Being
Testing Intelligent Fairways in 2017: It Will
Pave the Way for Autodriven Ships
Ms Anne Berner, Minister of
Transport and Communications of Finland: Image: Finland Government
|| October 11: 2016 || ά.
The Finnish Transport
Agency will start testing intelligent fairways at the beginning of 2017.
Intelligent fairways are able to inform mariners about the prevailing conditions
and vessel movements in the fairway. Several fairways along the Finnish coast
will be used as test platforms. Finland's main objective is to make navigation
safer and more efficient. In order to reach this goal, the Finnish Transport
Agency will start testing intelligent fairways at the beginning of next year.
The latest weather reports and forecasts will be transmitted directly to the
navigation bridge systems of vessels approaching an intelligent fairway.
Moreover, the aids to navigation in the intelligent fairways will adapt to the
conditions and vessel movements in the fairway. "Finland is a forerunner of
digital vessel services", says Ms Anne Berner, Minister of Transport and
Communications of Finland.
We will do our best to stay
at the forefront of the digitalisation development", she continues. "We have
invested in good communication links, information security, open data access,
and we want to ensure, among other things, that interactive ecosystems promoting
intelligent robotics and automation are created in Finland.
Testing of intelligent fairways is a great leap towards autonomous vessel
traffic, based on intelligent automation. In my view, intelligent automation is
the key to enhancing maritime safety, reducing emissions and improving
productivity", says Minister Berner.
Smarter and safer vessel traffic in intelligent fairways
The tests combine real-time water level data and forecasts with a precise
three-dimensional model of the seabed. This data makes it possible to plan the
loading of the vessel to fit the prevailing conditions. This enables loading of
more cargo at high water, which improves transport efficiency.
These tests also utilize vessel data. When the shape of the seabed, the relative
depths and the ship characteristics are known, it is possible to estimate vessel
behaviour in the prevailing or forecasted conditions. In the two years running
up to the tests, the applications and depth models required for data collection
have been developed. The data transfer between vessels and vessel traffic
services has also been improved.
The testing of the intelligent fairways starts at the beginning of 2017 and
takes two years. The tests will include testing and piloting of the digital
services and real-time situational pictures in both the vessel's own systems and
in the systems used by the Vessel Traffic Services. ω.
Further information: Head of Unit Jouni Patrakka, Finnish Transport Agency,
phone +358 295 34 3308
Senior Officer Jorma Timonen, Finnish Transport Agency, phone +358 295 34 3485
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Ban Ki-moon Highlights
the Importance of the Sea Tribunal as the Legal
Body Commemorates Its 20th Anniversary
Image: UN Photo
|| October 07: 2016 || ά.
Recalling the renewed
focus on seas and oceans, including as illustrated in the 2030 Agenda for
Sustainable Development, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today
that as the global law of the sea continues to grow in relevance, so does its
international tribunal. “Sustainable Development Goal 14:SDG 14 reflects the
global commitment to conserve and sustainably use the oceans and their resources
by implementing international law as reflected in the UN Convention on the Law
of the Sea,” Mr. Ban said today in Hamburg, Germany, at the ceremony to
commemorate the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the International
Tribunal for the Law of the Sea.
“To guarantee the capacity of the oceans to continue to provide for humanity’s
many and varied needs in a sustainable manner, we must do much more to ensure
the uniform and consistent application of the Convention,” he added. In his
remarks, Mr. Ban highlighted the uniqueness of the Tribunal as it can settle not
only disputes among States but also between the appropriate organs of the
International Seabed Authority, a body established to organise, regulate and
control all mineral-related activities in the international seabed area beyond
the limits of national jurisdiction, and both public and private entities acting
as contractors, through its Seabed Disputes Chamber.
He added that the importance of the Tribunal was also reinforced, as evidenced
through its recent confirmation, in Case No. 21, concerning the request for an
advisory opinion submitted by the Sub-Regional Fisheries Commission that it can
issue Advisory Opinions when an international agreement related to the purposes
of the Convention specifically provides for this.
Further highlighting the importance of the Convention on the Law of the Sea,
informally known as UNCLOS, Mr. Ban said that it continues to provide the
overarching legal framework within which all activities in the oceans and seas
must be carried out and that it allows for the further development of specific
areas of the law of the sea and is thus capable of adapting to the evolving
needs of the international community.
In conclusion, the Secretary-General expressed hope that the commemoration will
encourage even more States to make use of the tools available to them under the
Convention to settle international disputes related to the application and
interpretation of the Convention on the Law of the Sea and the use of the
world’s oceans.
The International Tribunal is an independent judicial body established by the UN
Convention on the Law of the Sea to adjudicate disputes arising out of the
interpretation and application of the Convention. The body is composed of 21
independent members, elected from among persons with the highest reputation for
fairness and integrity and of recognised competence in the field of the law of
the sea. ω.
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And Here's the Twilight
Zone
Living in the twilight zone: The sea gooseberry is just one of
the many species that inhabit the mesopelagic region of the ocean, which is
between 100 m and 1000 m below the surface. The mesopelagic is home to most of
the world’s fish, but how they get enough food has largely been a mystery. Using
information from satellites and in situ instruments, scientists have worked out
that a ‘seasonal mixed-layer pump’ moves 300 million tonnes of carbon from the
surface waters to the depths below. This is an important addition to the ‘rain’
of fast-sinking organic aggregates of dead plankton and waste products from
organisms that live near the surface. Image: Copyright K. Raskoff
|| September 27: 2016 || ά.
The deep, dark
twilight zone a kilometre down in the ocean is home to most of the world’s fish,
but how they get enough food has largely been a mystery. Now, thanks to
satellites and floating sensors, scientists have worked out how much energy is
being pumped to the depths. The ‘mesopelagic region’ is between 100 m and 1000 m
below the surface and sustains one of the largest ecosystems on the planet.
Sometimes called the twilight
zone, because very little light penetrates this far, it remains vastly
unexplored and poorly understood. It was thought that this ecosystem is fed by a
‘rain’ of fast-sinking organic aggregates of dead plankton and waste products
from organisms that live near the surface. While this source of organic carbon
is very important, marine scientists have come to realise that it simply is not
enough to support the vast numbers and variety of organisms that live in this
deep layer of the ocean.
Thanks to a unique approach that combines satellite
measurements of ocean colour made available through ESA’s Climate Change
Initiative and in situ floats, which take direct measurements as they descend
and ascend through the water column, it transpires that a ‘seasonal mixed-layer
pump’ is responsible for supplying an important additional vital food source.
During the spring in each hemisphere, strong winds and storms mix the surface
waters with the organic carbon it contains and carry non-sinking particles and
dissolved organic carbon from the surface down into the depths of the twilight
zone. Critically, in summer, a shallow mixed layer forms at the surface. This
effectively ‘traps’ this deeply mixed carbon inside the mesopelagic region,
making this energy source available to organisms there.
While it was known that variations in the surface mixed layer
could pump part of the missing carbon into the mesopelagic, there has never been
a concerted effort to estimate the total amount of organic carbon that is
supplied in this way across the world’s oceans. A paper published in Nature
Geoscience describes how scientists at the UK’s Plymouth Marine Laboratory used
satellite and local measurements to estimate that the pump moves around 300
million tonnes of carbon each year.
In high-latitude regions, the figure represents an average of 23%, but possibly
in excess of 100%, of the better-studied flux of faster-sinking, larger
particles and aggregates. Lead researcher Giorgio Dall’Olmo said, “Most methods
for measuring carbon transport into the deep ocean have concentrated on the
particles that sink at relatively fast rates, but have not measured how
neutrally buoyant or slowly sinking organic particles are redistributed through
the water column.
“This means that current global estimates of carbon export in the ocean are
missing the potentially important contribution from the seasonal mixed-layer
pump. “Our new global estimates should be considered as an additional flux of
organic carbon to the mesopelagic region that was previously not accounted for,
and that’s important when we try to understand what sources of energy fuel the
mesopelagic ecosystem.” ω.
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Barents Sea Marine
Bloom
Image: Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2016, processed
by ESA
|| September 10: 2016 || ά.
Although it may
appear as a watercolour painting, this image is a natural-colour capture of a
plankton bloom in the Barents Sea by the Sentinel-02A satellite. Plankton, the
most abundant type of life found in the ocean, are microscopic marine plants
that drift on or near the surface of the sea. They are sometimes referred to as
‘the grass of the sea’ because they are the basic food on which all other marine
life depends.
Since plankton contain photosynthetic chlorophyll pigments, these simple
organisms play a similar role to terrestrial ‘green’ plants in the
photosynthetic process. Plankton are able to convert inorganic compounds such as
water, nitrogen and carbon into complex organic materials. With their ability to
‘digest’ these compounds, they are credited with removing as much carbon dioxide
from the atmosphere as their counterparts on land. As a result, the oceans have
a profound influence on climate. Since plankton are a major influence on the
amount of carbon in the atmosphere and are sensitive to environmental changes,
it is important to monitor and model them into calculations of future climate
change.
Although some types of plankton are individually microscopic, the chlorophyll
they use for photosynthesis collectively tints the colour of the surrounding
ocean waters, providing a means of detecting these tiny organisms from space
with dedicated sensors, such as Sentinel-02’s multispectral imager with 13
spectral bands.
Some algae species are toxic or harmful. If they surge out of control during
optimal blooming conditions they can exhaust the water of oxygen and suffocate
larger fish. This phenomenon has dramatically increased in recent decades, and
is particularly dangerous to fish farms because the fish cannot flee affected
areas. Early warning of harmful blooms from satellites can help to prevent fish
farmers from losing their stock, as it happened in Chile recently. ω.
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Annual Survey Shines a
Light on Thames Estuary’s Seals
Image: ZSL
|| August 15: 2016 || ά.
An expert team of
marine conservationists will be scouring the Greater Thames Estuary by land, sea
and air this week, as the Zoological Society of London:ZSL conducts its fourth
annual seal survey. Combining aerial surveys of the Essex and Kent coastlines,
as well as sandbanks in the outer Thames Estuary, with more traditional boat and
land-based studies, ZSL’s conservation scientists will be counting latest
numbers of these charismatic marine mammals, as well as looking out for any
emerging health trends.
Data collected from this research will reveal any change in abundance of harbour
seal populations and also highlight the ratio of harbour seals, Phoca vitulina,
to the larger and more dominant grey seals, Halichoerus grypus, which
increasingly compete with harbour seals for food and territory.
Last year’s ZSL seal survey counted 451 harbour seals and 454 grey seals in the
Thames Estuary. The 2016 edition will provide the latest update on these figures
and also inform future conservation and management of seals in the region. This
will be done through implementing the Greater Thames Seal Action Plan, providing
scientific evidence during any planning applications that may impact seals, as
well as generating comprehensive population data to inform future research in
the region.
Commenting on the annual survey, ZSL’s European Conservation Projects Manager
Joanna Barker said: “This is the fourth year in a row that we’ve conducted a
comprehensive survey of seal populations in the Thames, but from a conservation
point of view it’s one of the most important surveys yet.
“It’s a really interesting time to study seals in the UK.
Firstly, grey seal numbers have rapidly increased over the last 15 years,
especially along the east coast of England, which is good news for the species.
We believe this has also led to a greater amount of competition between grey and
harbour seals, however, both for food and for sites where they can ‘haul-out’ or
leave the water. In addition, new behaviour of grey seals predating upon harbour
seals has recently been observed in other European seal colonies. As the large
intertidal sandbanks in the Thames are preferred harbour seal habitat, we are
interested to see what impact increased competition could have for the species.
“Secondly, due to the close proximity to mainland Europe, it’s likely that the
Thames could also serve as the entry-point for disease outbreaks affecting
seals. We are particularly mindful that the last outbreak of phocine distemper
virus happened 14 years ago in 2002, and if a similar pattern is observed it is
predicted to return in 2016. Combine these various threats and you have what
could amount to a ‘perfect storm’ for the Thames’ harbour seal population, which
makes ZSL’s 2016 survey arguably the most important one yet.”
The efforts of international conservation charity ZSL and its partners to
protect Thames wildlife are boosted by the work of ‘citizen scientists’ –
members of the public who volunteer their time to provide hands-on assistance
with conservation projects or report marine mammal sightings via ZSL’s
interactive map.
Jon Bramley from Kent Mammal Group, a key partner in ZSL’s seal conservation
work, said: “We’re really lucky that so many local people offer their time to
help with these vital projects. We’re constantly on the look-out for new citizen
science recruits, so would encourage anyone keen on helping to get in touch.”
Find out more. ω.
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New UN-backed Survey
Reveals ‘Alarming’ Damage to High Seas and
Marine Ecosystems
|| July 14: 2016 || ά. More than half of the
world’s fragile coral reefs are under threat and
most of our major fish stocks are now overexploited,
according to the latest global assessments on the
state of world’s high seas and large marine
ecosystems launched today by United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organisation:UNESCO’s Intergovernmental
Oceanographic Commission.
The new study identified the increasing cumulative
impacts of climate change and human activities on
these systems for the deterioration of their health
and decline of resource productivity. “Sixty percent
of the world’s coral reefs are currently threatened
by local activities; 50 per cent of all fish stock
in large marine ecosystems are overexploited; 64 of
the world’s 66 large marine ecosystems have
experienced ocean warming in the last decades,” are
among the among the alarming statistics from the
assessment and detailed in a statement from UNESCO.
The findings were released today at the Headquarters
of the Organization of American States:OAS in
Washington D.C., in the framework of the
Transboundary Waters Assessment Programme:TWAP, a
project financed by the Global Environment
Facility:GEF. The Programme undertook global
assessments of the world’s transboundary water
systems, including the open ocean and large marine
ecosystems, in order to support national decision
makers and international organizations set
priorities for policy interventions and develop a
framework for future periodic assessments.
The statement also noted that the Intergovernmental
Oceanographic Commission and the UN Environmental
Programme:UNEP released a suite of products from the
TWAP data, including a full global assessment report
and a more targeted version in summary form for
policy makers.
“The findings from the open ocean
and [large marine ecosystems] assessments present
projections for disastrous escalation by 2030 and
2050 of the cumulative impacts of local and global
hazards – from tourism to climate change – on marine
ecosystems,” UNESCO said.
“The assessments nevertheless identify the important
potential benefits of globally and regionally
integrated governance to address these issues and
should help strengthen countries’ capacities to
conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and
marine resources.”
Highlighting the contributions of large marine
ecosystems to socio-economic development and to
human well-being, UNESCO said those ecosystems alone
contribute an estimated $28 trillion annually to the
global economy through services and benefits
provided by nature, including fish for food and
trade, tourism and recreation, coastal protection
from flooding and erosion, and the less tangible
benefits from cultural, spiritual, and aesthetic
connections to nature.
“Maintaining the health and resource productivity of
these transboundary water systems should help
countries achieve global objectives to reduce
poverty and hunger, and promote sustainable economic
growth,” added the statement.
Some TWAP findings by the numbers:
Open Ocean:
60 per cent of the world’s coral reefs are currently
threatened by local activities.
90 per cent of all coral reefs could be threatened
in 2030 by the combined pressures of local
activities and climate change.
100 international agreements currently “govern” the
open ocean, signaling severe fragmentation.
Large Marine Ecosystems:LMEs:
64 of 66 LMEs have experienced ocean warming since
1957:“Super-fast” warming in the Northwest
:Northeast Atlantic and in Western Pacific.
28 per cent reduction in fish catch potential
projected for high-risk LMEs in East Siberian Sea.
50 per cent of all fish stock in LMEs are
overexploited.
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Amid ‘Bad Year’ for Coral,
UN Launches Tool and Report Outlining Ways to
Protect Threatened Reefs
Coral Reef. Image: World Bank:Carl
Gustav
|| May 25: 2016||
ά.
At the second United Nations Environment Assembly:UNEA-2 taking
place in Nairobi this week, the UN Environment
Programme:UNEP was among a group of agencies
launching a new tool and report that recommends ways
to protect threatened coral reefs. “Humans have left
an indelible mark on the marine environment that has
led to almost 20 per cent of coral reefs
disappearing. But coral reefs are an invaluable
natural asset we can’t afford to lose,” said UNEP
Executive Director Achim Steiner in a press
release..
“To give them a fighting chance, we need early and
effective action on climate change,” he said. UNEP
noted that there has been unprecedented coral
bleaching on the northern and central Great Barrier
Reef, one of the world's most iconic reefs and a
UNESCO World Heritage site. Bleaching in the central
Indian Ocean is also severe, in the Maldives, Sri
Lanka and in the Lakshadweep islands of India, where
up to 100 per cent of corals are bleached in some
locations. Many will not survive.
A dataset by UNEP, the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration :NOAA, the World Wildlife
Fund:WWF and the Pacific Islands Climate Science
Center of the United States Geological Survey
provides a new tool to prioritize reef management in
the face of climate change.By downscaling climate
model projections for coral bleaching conditions,
the time when severe bleaching conditions can be
expected at a frequency of twice per decade, and
when bleaching can be expected annually, has been
identified, for all the world’s coral reefs, at a
resolution of 4 kilometres, UNEP said.
The new report, Mesophotic Coral Ecosystems: A
Lifeboat for Coral Reefs, examines what we know –
and don’t know – about submerged reefs, and shows
that coral ecosystems that live in low light
conditions come to the rescue in some situations.
The report found that bleaching is chief among the
threats of climate change to coral reefs. When
bleaching occurs frequently, reefs become more
vulnerable to erosion and lose their structure,
which in turn means that their productivity and
provision of ecosystems services diminish.
This will have wide-ranging
impact on coastal dwellers in more than 100
countries, including most small island developing
States, affecting in particular people who depend on
reefs for income or food, as well as industry
sectors developed around reefs, such as tourism,
UNEP stressed.
As the global climate heats up, shallow coral reefs
will experience increasing levels of catastrophic
bleaching and mortality. Even if emission reduction
committed to by countries in the Paris Agreement are
achieved, more than three quarters of all the
world’s reefs will experience bleaching conditions
annually within this century, UNEP said.
The agency noted, however, there is a glimmer of
hope in the great variation within and among
countries. “Many reefs are projected to experience
annual bleaching conditions more than 10 years later
than reefs within the same country or territory,”
said Ruben van Hooidonk, NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic
and Meteorological Laboratory.
These “relative refugia” are coral reef conservation
priorities, and can be found within 16 of the 20
countries with the greatest reef area in the world,
including, for example, Indonesia, the Philippines,
Malaysia and Australia.
“Until now we have not been able to identify such
refugia on reefs because the spatial scale of
climate models is too coarse. This dataset provides
an important resource in prioritizing reef
management, including establishment of marine
protected areas and reduction of direct human
stresses to support ecosystem resilience,” said Mr.
van Hooidonk.
Available through a newly
developed coral reef theme on UNEP Live, the data
can be freely downloaded and used for management or
adaptation planning as well as outreach. UNEP said
that in order to buy coral reefs more time and to
support recovery of reefs that have bleached
severely, some researchers are looking deeper for
answers. They are studying submerged,
light-dependent reefs to see if they may serve as
lifeboats for nearby, connected shallow reefs that
have been damaged by repeated bleaching. Mesophotic
coral reefs are one of the few remaining ecosystems
on earth to remain largely unexplored.
“While they are deeper and
more remote than shallow coral ecosystems,
mesophotic reefs are still subject to some of the
same effects such as bleaching and habitat
destruction,” Mr. Steiner said. “We are just
beginning to understand them, but in some locations
they may resist the most immediate impacts of
climate change, and may be able to help re-seed
damaged or destroyed surface reefs and fish
populations.”
The report’s main recommendations include to locate
where mesophotic reefs exist, with a priority in the
equatorial Indo-West Pacific and eastern Atlantic;
to increase understanding of how they are connected
to shallow reefs in order to understand the extent
to which they can be used as a refuge for, or to
reseed, shallow reefs; and to raise awareness among
managers and policymakers of the importance of their
ecosystem service values and encourage measures to
protect them.
These tools may support implementation of the
proposed UNEA-2 resolution on coral reefs, UNEP
said. “There is truly no time to waste, and UNEA-2
is an opportunity to accelerate action on
safeguarding our planet,” said Mr. Steiner.
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Industry Group Agreement to
Cod Fishery in the Northern Part of
North-East Atlantic
Inspectors will be
able to check on actual fish catches
on visiting ships under the new
Agreement. Photo: FAO
|| May 25: 2016||
ά.
Icelandic Seachill and The Saucy Fish co. are proud to be
supporting Greenpeace in their
efforts to help protect the
marine environment in the
Barents and Norwegian Seas which
is reflected in the signing of
industry group agreement that is
released today.
Nigel Edwards, Technical and CSR
Director at Icelandic Seachill
and The Saucy Fish Co. said:
''As part of our ongoing
commitment to source fish
responsibly, Icelandic Seachill
and The Saucy Fish Co. are proud
to be supporting Greenpeace in
their efforts to help protect
the marine environment in the
Barents and Norwegian Seas.
Together with other businesses
operating within the industry,
we are proud to be involved in
this landmark agreement to take
a precautionary approach to
fishing in areas that have not
been fished before and to take
further steps to protect
vulnerable marine life in the
areas where they currently
operate.
Below is a statement from CSR
Director Nigel Edwards. Nigel is
available for interview, please
do let me know if you’re running
this story and would like
further comment.
The Agreement
We acknowledge that climate change and the
melting of the ice sheet in the above areas
has caused concern related to fishing
activities in the vast area around Svalbard.
We
acknowledge Greenpeace’s role in bringing
attention to the region under these changing
circumstances.
We understand
that the marine area around Svalbard have
been identified in several scientific
programs as important.
We recognise
that the fisheries in the northern Barents
Sea and Norwegian Sea including the marine
areas around Svalbard are amongst the best
regulated fisheries in the world. Most of
these fisheries are independently certified
by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) as
compliant with their standard for
sustainable and well-managed fisheries.
Additionally there are many protected areas
already established around Svalbard to
safeguard ecological biodiversity.
We have
agreed that from the 2016 season the
catching sector will not expand their Cod
fishing activities with trawl gear into
those areas where regular fishing has not
taken place before. This is a precautionary
measure until through initiatives such as
those mentioned below the fishing activity
in future years will be determined by
improved knowledge replacing the need for
this precautionary approach.
We would like
to state that the Industry Group has been
successful in gaining agreement to have an
action orientated High-Level Roundtable. The
Roundtable will include the Norwegian
Governmental Fisheries Management agencies
and institutions and welcomes other
interested public stakeholders to
participate. The objectives of the
High-Level Roundtable will be to establish a
transparent process that will continue to
enable Cod to be sourced from the area but
also to meet the MSC independent sustainable
fishery standard for activities beyond 2016.
We call for
the governments to assist these efforts and
ensure all measures are based on best
available science, to properly assess and
map the area for example but not exclusively
the Mareano program.
In parallel
with the High-Level Roundtable, the Cod
catching industry will accelerate their work
to meet the MSC condition regarding
Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems (VME’s)
identified in the MSC re-certification
process. Together with the scientists from
the Norwegian Institute of Marine Research
and other relevant institutions, we will use
all available data:
To define
areas that may be vulnerable to trawling.
To develop effective and proportional
measures that prevent environmental
degradation in such areas.
We are also committed to a voluntary
agreement to avoid fishing in such areas on
a precautionary basis, whilst the
appropriate measures are under development.
The voluntary agreement will be in place
before the Cod fishing starts in the region
in 2016.
* the part of
ICES Division 1b referred is West of the
delimitation line as defined in the Treaty
between Norway and Russia concerning
maritime delimitation and cooperation in the
Barents Sea and the Arctic Ocean 2010
About Nigel Edwards: Edwards has
worked at Icelandic Seachill for over 18
years, after starting out in the seafood
industry as a fish technologist for the
Seafish Authority. Based in Grimsby and
heading up CSR across both Icelandic
Seachill and The Saucy Fish Co., Edwards is
a specialist is areas such as
sustainability, aquaculture, environmental
awareness and food safety.
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Finnish Companies Deliver
Energy Efficiency Solutions for World’s
First LNG Handysize Bulk Carriers
Image:
WE Tech
Solutions: WE Tech
|| May 15: 2016||
ά.
WE Tech Solutions: WE
Tech, a leading energy efficiency
solutions provider in the marine industry,
has received an order to deliver its
direct-drive permanent magnet shaft
generator solution to two new 25,600 dwt
dual-fueled handysize bulk carriers, with an
option for two more.
The Switch,
a technology specialist of megawatt-class
permanent magnet: PM machines for advanced
marine drive trains, will deliver the PM
shaft generators to be used in the solutions
provided by WE Tech.
The vessels are owned by the Finnish ship
owner ESL Shipping Ltd., and built at
Qingshan Shipyard of Sinotrans & CSC SBICO
in China. ESL Shipping Ltd. is the leading
carrier of dry bulk cargoes in the Baltic
Sea region. The ship owner chose PM shaft
generator technology to support its
sustainability strategy and start a new era
in green shipping within pollution-sensitive
seaways.
Image:
The Switch
These new, ice-class 1A ships will be the
first LNG dual-fueled handysize bulk
carriers in the world, representing the
latest in technology and innovation. The aim
of these new-build vessels is to raise the
bar when it comes to energy efficiency and
sustainability.
"With the active front-end low harmonic
drive technology (WE Drive™) and the
permanent magnet shaft generator technology
in our solution, the energy efficiency of
the machinery reaches unmatched levels in
the marine industry," says Martin Andtfolk,
Sales Manager of WE Tech.
"The market has now recognized that a PM
shaft generator is the most energy-efficient
way to generate power in a vessel," Mika
Koli, Business Development Manager from The
Switch says.
"Our vision is 30% less fuel consumed in the
global shipping industry by 2030," says
Mårten Storbacka, Managing Director of WE
Tech.
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Algae Use Their ‘Tails’ to
Gallop and Trot Like Quadrupeds
Microscope images showing two species of
algae which swim using tiny appendages
known as flagella: Credit: Kirsty Y. Wan
& Raymond E. Goldstein
|| May 04: 2016: University of Cambridge
News ||
Species of single-celled algae use whip-like
appendages called flagella to coordinate
their movements and achieve a remarkable
diversity of swimming gaits.
Long before there were fish swimming in the
oceans, tiny microorganisms were using long
slender appendages called cilia and flagella
to navigate their watery habitats. Now, new
research reveals that species of
single-celled algae coordinate their
flagella to achieve a remarkable diversity
of swimming gaits.
When it comes to four-legged animals such as
cats, horses and deer, or even humans, the
concept of a gait is familiar, but what
about unicellular green algae with multiple
limb-like flagella? The latest discovery,
published in the journal Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences, shows that
despite their simplicity, microalgae can
coordinate their flagella into leaping,
trotting or galloping gaits just as well.
Many gaits are periodic: whether it is the
stylish walk of a cat, the graceful gallop
of a horse, or the playful leap of a
springbok, the key is the order or sequence
in which these limbs are activated. When
springboks arch their backs and leap, or ‘pronk’,
they do so by lifting all four legs
simultaneously high into the air, yet when
horses trot it is the diagonally opposite
legs that move together in time.
In vertebrates, gaits are controlled by
central pattern generators, which can be
thought of as networks of neural oscillators
that coordinate output. Depending on the
interaction between these oscillators,
specific rhythms are produced, which,
mathematically speaking, exhibit certain
spatiotemporal symmetries. In other words,
the gait doesn’t change when one leg is
swapped with another – perhaps at a
different point in time, say a quarter-cycle
or half-cycle later.
It turns out the same symmetries also
characterise the swimming gaits of
microalgae, which are far too simple to have
neurons. For instance, microalgae with four
flagella in various possible configurations
can trot, pronk or gallop, depending on the
species.
“When I peered through the microscope and
saw that the alga was performing two sets of
perfectly synchronous breaststrokes, one
directly after the other, I was amazed,”
said the paper’s first author Dr Kirsty Wan
of the Department of Applied Mathematics and
Theoretical Physics (DAMTP) at the
University of Cambridge. “I realised
immediately that this behaviour could only
be due to something inside the cell rather
than passive hydrodynamics. Then of course
to prove this I had to expand my species
collection.”
The researchers determined that it is in
fact the networks of elastic fibres which
connect the flagella deep within the cell
that coordinate these diverse gaits. In the
simplest case of Chlamydomonas, which swims
a breaststroke with two flagella, absence of
a particular fibre between the flagella
leads to uncoordinated beating. Furthermore,
deliberately preventing the beating of one
flagellum in an alga with four flagella has
zero effect on the sequence of beating in
the remainder.
However, this does not mean that
hydrodynamics play no role. In recent work
from the same group, it was shown that
nearby flagella can be synchronised solely
by their mutual interaction through the
fluid. There is a distinction between
unicellular organisms for which good
coordination of a few flagella is essential,
and multicellular species or tissues that
possess a range of cilia and flagella. In
the latter case, hydrodynamic interactions
are much more important.
“As physicists our instinct is to seek out
generalisations and universal principles,
but the world of biology often presents us
with many fascinating counterexamples,” said
Professor Ray Goldstein, Schlumberger
Professor of Complex Physical Systems at
DAMTP, and senior author of the paper.
“Until now there have been many competing
theories regarding flagellar
synchronisation, but I think we are finally
making sense of how these different
organisms make best use of what they have.”
The findings also raise intriguing questions
about the evolution of the control of
peripheral appendages, which must have
arisen in the first instance in these
primitive microorganisms.
This research was supported by a Neville
Research Fellowship from Magdalene College,
and a Senior Investigator Award from the
Wellcome Trust.
RSC Bio Solutions People:
This Story is Here Because You Wrote This on
Your Website: A Story Worth Telling
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Two of RSC Bio
Solutions' Biodegradable Synthetic Hydraulic
Fluids to Be Used in MAN Diesel & Turbo
Systems
Though the science behind its products
may be complex, RSC Bio Solutions was
founded on a simple idea: the idea that
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animals or the air we breathe.
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Our meaning of existence resides
there where words equate to actions,
dear friends: seek to help, seek to
care, seek to heal and do no harm. The
Humanion: May 02: 2016
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May 01: 2016: Charlotte: N.C: USA ||
RSC Bio Solutions, a global leader in environmentally acceptable
lubricants and cleaners, recently announced that its
EnviroLogic® 3068 and EnviroLogic® 3100 high performance
hydraulic fluids have been approved for use in MAN
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Solutions to serve customers who have MAN stern tubes
and propellers, primarily in the marine transport, ferry
and fishing industries.
The EnviroLogic 3000 Series consists of readily
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they are formulated to provide exceptional oxidation and
thermal properties, these products are ideal for mobile
or marine hydraulic and propulsion systems operating in
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can withstand temperatures as high as 150°F or as low as
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psi. When compared to conventional, petroleum based
hydraulic oils, the EnviroLogic 3000 Series offers
excellent wear protection and long changeover intervals.
Under the new OEM approval, EnviroLogic 3068 and
EnviroLogic 3100 are approved for use in the following
MAN systems:
Fixed pitch propellers (FPP) with oil lubricated stern
tube;
Controllable pitch propellers (CPP) with common oil
lubricated stern tube and hub;
Controllable pitch propellers (CPP) with separate oil
lubricated stern tube and hub
Controllable pitch propellers (CPP) with water
lubricated stern tube and oil lubricated hub
“We have been supporting the marine
industry with our environmentally acceptable lubricants
and long list of approvals for 20 years. We are excited
that we continue to add to our depth and breadth of OEM
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Bernard C. Roell, Jr., vice president of technology at
RSC Bio Solutions.
EnviroLogic sustainable lubricants are suitable, proven
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a wide range of ISO grades and industry performance
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feasibility evident in the many original equipment
manufacturer (OEM) approvals, including: Aegir, Blohm &
Voss, Eaton/Vickers, Linde, Rolls Royce, Rexroth,
Komatsu and Wärtsilä.
About MAN Diesel & Turbo: MAN Diesel & Turbo SE,
based in Augsburg, Germany, is the world’s leading
provider of large-bore diesel and gas engines and
turbomachinery. The company employs around 15,000 staff
at more than 100 international sites, primarily in
Germany, Denmark, France, Switzerland, the Czech
Republic, India and China. The company’s product
portfolio includes two-stroke and four-stroke engines
for marine and stationary applications, turbochargers
and propellers as well as gas and steam turbines,
compressors and chemical reactors. The range of services
and supplies is rounded off by complete solutions like
ship propulsion systems, engine-based power plants and
turbomachinery trains for the oil & gas as well as the
process industries. Customers receive worldwide
after-sales services marketed under the MAN PrimeServ
brand.
About RSC Bio Solutions, LLC: Headquartered in
Charlotte, North Carolina, RSC Bio Solutions has 20
years of history and is committed to providing
sustainable solutions for unforgiving environments by
offering equipment operators high-performing,
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EnviroLogic® branded technology includes a full line of
lubricants – hydraulic fluids, gear oils and greases –
additionally offering an innovative line of cleaners and
solvents for industrial markets.
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Up
The Web of Life is
Not Just an Expression: NASA Examines El Niño's Impact
on Ocean’s Food Source
Kate Ramsayer Writing
||April
14, 2016||
El Niño years can have a big impact on the littlest
plants in the ocean, and NASA scientists are studying
the relationship between the two.
In El Niño years, huge masses of warm water – equivalent
to about half of the volume of the Mediterranean Sea –
slosh east across the Pacific Ocean towards South
America. While this warm water changes storm systems in
the atmosphere, it also has an impact below the ocean’s
surface. These impacts, which researchers can visualize
with satellite data, can ripple up the food chain to
fisheries and the livelihoods of fishermen.
El Niño’s mass of warm water puts a
lid on the normal currents of cold, deep water that
typically rise to the surface along the equator and off
the coast of Chile and Peru, said Stephanie Uz, ocean
scientist at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt,
Maryland. In a process called upwelling, those cold
waters normally bring up the nutrients that feed the
tiny organisms, which form the base of the food chain.
"An El Niño basically stops the normal upwelling," Uz
said. "There’s a lot of starvation that happens to the
marine food web." These tiny plants, called
phytoplankton, are fish food – without them, fish
populations drop, and the fishing industries that many
coastal regions depend on can collapse.
With NASA satellite data, and ocean
color software called SeaDAS, developed at the Ocean
Biology Processing Group at Goddard, Uz has been mapping
where these important phytoplankton appear. Orbiting
instruments like the Moderate Resolution Imaging
Spectrometer on the Aqua satellite, and the Visible
Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite on the Suomi NPP
satellite collect data on the color of the ocean. From
shades of blue and green, scientists can calculate the
amount of green chlorophyll – and therefore the amount
of phytoplankton present.
The ocean color maps, based on a month’s worth of
satellite data, can show that El Niño impact on
phytoplankton. In December 2015, at the peak of the
current El Niño event, there was more blue – and less
green chlorophyll – in the Pacific Ocean off of Peru and
Chile, compared to the previous year. Uz and her
colleagues are also watching as the El Niño weakens this
spring, to see when and where the phytoplankton reappear
as the upwelling cold water brings nutrients back to the
region.
"They can pop back up pretty quickly, once they have a
source of nutrients," Uz said.
|
Differences in December
phytoplankton abundances are visualized for
three years: during the strong East Pacific El
Nino of 1997 (using SeaWiFS satellite data),
during a normal year in 2013 (using data from
MODIS on the Aqua satellite), and during the
strong Central Pacific El Nino of 2015 (MODIS/Aqua).
Image: Uz/NASA Goddard
|
Researchers can also examine the
differences in ocean color between two different El Niño
events. During the large 1997-1998 El Niño event, the
green chlorophyll virtually disappeared from the coast
of Chile. This year’s event, while it caused a drop in
chlorophyll primarily along the equator, was much less
severe for the coastal phytoplankton population. The
reason – the warmer-than-normal waters associated with
the two El Niño events were centered in different
geographical locations. In 1997-1998, the biggest ocean
temperature abnormalities were in the eastern Pacific
Ocean; this year the focus was in the central ocean.
This difference impacts where the phytoplankton can feed
on nutrients, and where the fish can feed on
phytoplankton.
"When you have an East Pacific El Niño, like 1997-1998,
it has a much bigger impact on the fisheries off of
South America," Uz said. But Central Pacific El Niño
events, like this year’s, still have an impact on ocean
ecosystems, just with a shift in location. Researchers
are noting reduced food available along the food chain
around the Galapagos Islands, for example. And there has
been a drop in phytoplankton off the coast of South
America, just not as dramatically as before.
Scientists have more tools on hand to study this El
Niño, and can study more elements of the event, Uz said.
They’re putting these tools to use to ask questions not
just about ocean ecology, but about the carbon cycle as
well.
"We know how important phytoplankton are for the marine
food web, and we’re trying to understand their role as a
carbon pump," Uz said. The carbon pump refers to one of
the ways the Earth system removes carbon dioxide from
the atmosphere. When phytoplankton die, their
carbon-based bodies sink to the ocean floor, where they
can remain for millions of years. El Niño is a naturally
occurring disruption to the typical ocean currents, she
said – so it’s important to understand the phenomenon to
better attribute what occurs naturally, and what occurs
due to human-caused disruptions to the system.
Other scientists at Goddard are investigating ways to
forecast the ebbs and flows of nutrients using the
center’s supercomputers, incorporating data like winds,
sea surface temperatures, air pressures and more.
"It’s like weather forecasts, but for bionutrients and
phytoplankton in the ocean," said Cecile Rousseaux, an
ocean modeler with Goddard’s Global Modeling and
Assimilation Office. The forecasts could help fisheries
managers estimate how good the catch could be in a
particular year, she said, since fish populations depend
on phytoplankton populations. The 1997-1998 El Niño led
to a major collapse in the anchovy fishery off of Chile,
which caused economic hardships for fishermen along the
coast.
So far, Rousseaux said, the phytoplankton forecast
models haven’t shown any collapses for the 2015-2016 El
Niño, possibly because the warm water isn’t reaching as
far east in the Pacific this time around. The forecast
of phytoplankton populations effort is a relatively new
effort, she said, so it’s too soon to make definite
forecasts. But the data so far, from the modeling group
and others, show conditions returning to a more normal
state this spring.
The next step for the model, she said, is to try to
determine which individual species of phytoplankton will
bloom where, based on nutrient amounts, temperatures and
other factors – using satellites and other tools to
determine which kind of microscopic plant is where.
"We rely on satellite data, but this will go one step
further and give us even more information," Rousseaux
said.
For more information,
visit
Kate Ramsayer: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in
Greenbelt, Md.
( Editor: Karl Hille: NASA)
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P: 150416
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UN Food and Agriculture Agency
Talking Fish in Morocco Since It is a £144 Billion Dollar
Industry
February 22, 2016: Top fishery officials
are gathering in Morocco this week to discuss sustainable
trade practices in a $144 billion industry that provides
developing countries with more export revenue than meat,
tobacco, rice and sugar combined.
Lower-income nations’ exports of fish and fishery products
reached $78 billion in 2014, more than triple the value of
global rice exports, according to the United Nations Food
and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
“Sustainably serving those lucrative markets is of critical
importance to developing countries, where most fish are
produced, whether caught in the wild or grown in cages or
farm ponds,” the agency’s news release says.
The biennial high-level meeting of FAO’s Sub-Committee on
Fish Trade, being held in Agadir through Friday, 26
February, has drawn delegations of fisheries ministries from
more than 50 countries to discuss emerging governance needs
of the fisheries sector.
“Trade in fish is much more important than people think,
both in absolute and relative terms,” said Audun Lem,
Deputy-Director in FAO’s Fisheries and Aquaculture Policy
and Resources Division, who serves as Secretary of the
meeting.
Dialogues will help FAO, its member countries and industry
representatives understand new trends, opportunities and
challenges in the fishing sector, fostering the development
of strategies that can “best position developing countries
to develop their fisheries sectors in a sustainable manner
and to maximize their economic benefit from the growth we
expect to witness,” Mr. Lem said.
Traceability
One major topic for consideration is how to better trace
products throughout the supply chain. Ministers are poised
to agree on FAO’s proposed technical guidelines for catch
documentation schemes, a set of documents testifying to the
legal origin of the catch. This could become an important
tool in curbing illegal fishing, a target concerning the
conservation and sustainable use of the oceans, seas and
marine resources under Goal 14 of the 2030 Agenda for
Sustainable Development adopted by the UN General Assembly
in September 2015.
A woman carries fish at a FAO-funded food
security project in Uganda. Photo: FAO/Isaac Kasamani
Central to the effort is FAO’s Agreement on Port State
Measures to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate, Illegal,
Unreported and Unregulated Fishing, which has now been
ratified by 21 nations and is on course to have the 25
national ratifications required to enter into full legal
force by the time the Committee on Fisheries, an
intergovernmental forum, meets in July.
Work will also focus on harmonizing certification
requirements for fish exports to major international
markets, where consumers as well as retailers are becoming
more alert to quality, safety and legality concerns.
Emerging Trends
New trends will also be among the subjects at the Agadir
meeting. Aquaculture output has more than tripled to 78
million tonnes over the past 20 years, making it the world’s
fastest-growing food producing sector. FAO expects
wild-caught fish to grow modestly in volume terms while its
share of the market for human consumption declines to 38 per
cent in 2030.
While most fish farms are in Asia,
aquaculture's highest growth rates have of late been in
Africa and South and Central America, where its marginal
contribution to food security can be higher than elsewhere
precisely due to the fact that per-capita consumption of
fish in these emerging regions has traditionally been low.
Aquaculture, typically far less seasonal and volatile than
open-sea fishing, can help food waste be minimized and food
safety enhanced, and investments in cold-storage facilities
incentivized, all enabling supermarkets to plan and
guarantee procurement.
The seafood menu is also changing in many ways, as
exemplified by the fact that, for the first time in history,
more fresh tuna was flown to the US than to Japan.
Shifts in age-old patterns are likely to become a common
feature in the future of fish, especially as developing
countries increase their share of world imports. Since 2013,
salmon and trout have replaced shrimp as the most important
commodity traded in value terms.
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Elba Lunar Sonata
Image: NASA/ISS
Part of the astronaut experience is
seeing the planet transform from day to night in ways that
earth-bound people rarely see. A crew member aboard the
International Space Station took this photograph of the
northern Mediterranean Sea and some coastal Italian towns
and islands.
The reflection of the Moon on the sea surface—moonglint—reveals
highly complex patterns. The strongest reflection is near
the center of the Moon’s disc, which brightens the water
around the island of Elba. In these complex patterns, the
dark areas of the sea surface can sometimes make islands
(such as Montecristo and Pianosa) harder to see. (A similar
phenomenon happens in the daylight, as shown in sunglint
images of lakes in Brazil and aquaculture in the Nile
Delta.)
The reflection off sea surfaces captures many different
natural processes, but also some made by humans. North of
Elba, waves trailing behind ships make the classic V-shaped
pattern. The meandering line coming off Montecristo Island
is an “island wake,” a result of alternating vortices of
wind that develop on the downwind side of the island. This
wake is the strongest evidence that a northeast wind was
blowing (right to left in this image) on the night of the
photo. A shorter, meandering wind pattern is being shed off
Punta Ala on the mainland. Smoother surfaces, protected from
wind, are usually brighter because they are better mirror
for moonlight.
The sea surface also displays numerous tight swirls known as
gyres. The broad swath of parallel lines (image top left)
are probably part of the larger circulation of the sea,
which usually experiences north-flowing currents around
Elba. An animation of the larger swirls of the Mediterranean
can be seen here.
Astronaut photograph ISS037-E-15305 was acquired on October
17, 2013, with a Nikon D3S digital camera using a 180
millimeter lens, and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth
Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote
Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a
member of the Expedition 37 crew. The image has been cropped
and enhanced to improve contrast, and lens artifacts have
been removed. The International Space Station Program
supports the laboratory as part of the ISS National Lab to
help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the
greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make
those images freely available on the Internet. Additional
images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at
the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth.
Caption by M. Justin Wilkinson, Texas State U., Jacobs
Contract at NASA-JSC.
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Algal Bloom off Ireland Paints Claude Monet
Released 09/10/2012 5:27 pm on 23 May 2010
at a resolution of 300 m.
Resembling the brush strokes of French
Impressionist Claude Monet, electric blue-coloured plankton
blooms swirl in the North Atlantic Ocean off Ireland in this
Envisat image. Plankton, the most abundant type of life
found in the ocean, are microscopic marine plants that drift
on or near the surface of the sea.
While individually microscopic, the chlorophyll they use for
photosynthesis collectively tints the surrounding ocean
waters, providing a means of detecting these tiny organisms
from space with dedicated 'ocean colour' sensors, like
Envisat's Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS),
which acquired this image Credits: ESA
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P: 170116
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New Monitoring Technologies Promise to Let Marine
Wildlife off the Hook
Image:
The
Bertarelli Foundation
Conservation scientists are calling for
new approaches to biodiversity monitoring to reflect the
creation of a global network of large marine protected
areas, in research published today by the Zoological Society
of London (ZSL) and University of Western Australia (UWA),
funded by the Australian National Environmental Research
Program (NERP) and the Bertarelli Foundation.
By closing large tracts of ocean to fishing, the creation of
marine reserves in locations including Chagos, Chile and New
Zealand is removing what was traditionally the only reliable
source of data on fish populations available to managers in
these regions, highlighting a clear need for new non-lethal
approaches to monitoring.
The ZSL/UWA report suggests harnessing emerging technologies
including underwater action cameras in tandem with
established techniques like acoustic echo-location to
provide non-lethal monitoring of wildlife within these vast
new ocean sanctuaries. The study’s findings were based on
extensive literature review, combined with field trials of
technological approaches in the Indian Ocean’s 640,000 km2
Chagos Marine Reserve, the enforcement of which has been
supported by the Bertarelli Foundation.
Commenting on the research, lead author Dr Tom B. Letessier
from ZSL said: “Species including migratory sharks, tunas
and billfish are amongst the most iconic marine predators on
the planet, yet as our review demonstrates, the collapse in
their numbers since the 1950s now also make them some of the
most threatened.
“Most of what we know about these animals comes from decades
of commercial fishing records, which have historically been
the only data available for fisheries management. Recent
positive steps to create large marine reserves that exclude
commercial fishing have had the unintended consequence of
reducing the availability of these data, thereby requiring
new approaches to measurement. In addition to establishing
trends in large marine reserve size and coverage, our study
reviews existing methods used in the absence of fishing and
demonstrates non-lethal ways to complement them.”
Expanding on the significance of the study, co-author
Professor Jessica Meeuwig from UWA’s Oceans Institute
explained: “While the role of marine reserves in protecting
coastal ecosystems is now well-understood, far less is known
about the impact of these large reserves on highly migratory
species like sharks and tuna, which may roam across entire
ocean basins. If we are to demonstrate the success of these
new large sanctuaries, we need to think outside the box to
devise effective, non-lethal monitoring techniques in areas
where fishing is banned.”
Other announcements following on the heels of Chagos include
the 620,000 km2 Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary, announced by the
New Zealand government in September 2015, and the even
larger 631,368 km2 Easter Island Marine Reserve, plans for
which were unveiled by the Chilean government the following
month. With similar projects set to follow, the urgent need
for new, technology-driven approaches to non-lethal
monitoring of ocean biodiversity is clear.
Project donor Ernesto Bertarelli of the Bertarelli
Foundation said: “Advances in the sophistication and
affordability of technology give us the opportunity to
monitor and understand marine life within protected areas as
never before. This is crucial, not just to help monitor the
overall health of the ocean but to better understand the
role of MPAs in building wider resilience. That’s why we are
so excited to support this work.”
The research was published today in the journal Biological
Reviews and was funded by the Australia’s National
Environmental Science Programme and the Bertarelli
Foundation.
The Zoological Society of
London
Founded in 1826, the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) is
an international scientific, conservation and educational
charity whose mission is to promote and achieve the
worldwide conservation of animals and their habitats. Our
mission is realised through our groundbreaking science, our
active conservation projects in more than 50 countries and
our two Zoos, ZSL London Zoo and ZSL Whipsnade Zoo. For more
information visit
www.zsl.org
ZSL: Tom Jennings / tom.jennings@zsl.org / +44 (0)20 7449
6246
The University of Western
Australia
The University of Western Australia was established in 1911
as the State's first university and opened two years later
with 184 students in three faculties; Arts, Engineering and
Science. Today the University enrols over 24,000 students in
nine faculties: Architecture, Landscape and Visual Arts;
Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences; UWA Business School;
Education; Engineering, Computing and Mathematics; Law; Life
and Physical Sciences; Medicine, Dentistry and Health
Sciences; and Natural and Agricultural Sciences. The dual
strengths of research and research training set the
University apart as one of Australia’s leading
research-intensive universities. The Universities high
calibre researchers and graduate students are tackling some
of the world’s most pressing international problems.
The University of Western
Australia: Sylvia Defendi / sylvia.defendi@uwa.edu.au
/ +61 8 6488 7308
The
Bertarelli Foundation
The Bertarelli Foundation is committed to conserving the
ocean and promoting excellence in marine science. In 2010,
the Bertarelli Foundation helped the British Government to
establish the world’s largest Marine Protected Area in the
British Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos) and two years later
also supported the creation of the Turneffe Atoll Reserve in
Belize. They are currently working with the British
government to develop a blue belt around the British
Overseas Territories. In 2012, the Bertarelli Foundation
funded the largest scientific assessment ever completed of
Easter Island’s marine environment, prompting the Chilean
government to announce their plans to create the world’s
largest fully-protected marine park in the waters
surrounding Easter Island.
The
Bertarelli Foundation: Sophie Hulme / sophie@fondation-bertarelli.org
/ +44 (0)7973 712869
Readmore
Posted: December 19, 2015
Up
Spring Has Sprung in
South Atlantic in the Phytoplankton Communities
Image
Credit: NASA/Ocean
Biology Processing Group, NASA Goddard Space Flight
Center
The springtime phytoplankton
communities shown in this image were spotted between the
Falkland Islands to the west and South Georgia Island to
the east by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer
Suite (VIIRS) instrument aboard NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP
satellite on November 16, 2015.
(Editor: Sarah Loff:NASA)
Readmore
Posted on : November 25,
2015
Up
Central Baltic Sea Algae
Bloom Captured by Copernicus Sentinel
Copyright Copernicus Sentinel data (2015)/ESA
This red–blue–green composite image from Sentinel-2A taken
on 7 August 2015 has a spatial resolution of 10 m. It shows
an algal bloom in the central Baltic Sea. The algae is
concentrated in locations where the vertical and horizontal
water movements in the Baltic Sea generate the best nutrient
and light conditions for algal growth, which are then drawn
out by the water circulation.
Readmore
Posted on: November 18, 2015
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|
NASA to Fly, Sail North
to Study Plankton-Climate Change Connection
NASA’s C-130H
Hercules airborne laboratory begins research flights over the North Atlantic
Nov. 12 from St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada, the agency's North Atlantic
Aerosols and Marine Ecosystems Study (NAAMES).
NASA Image
This is how all
our planes should fly: equipped with all the systems, mechanisms,
mathematics, sciences and technology and imagination we have got,
filled with reference books, maps, notes, plans, papers, pens and
pencils, computers (and some tea and coffee) fuelled by dreams and
determined with the choice and love of seeking: the light, the knowledge,
the wisdom that would look like a plane, like this one.
NASA begins a five-year study this month of the annual cycle of
phytoplankton and the impact that small airborne particles emitted from the
ocean have on the climate-sensitive North Atlantic.
The North Atlantic Aerosols and Marine Ecosystems Study (NAAMES) will
collect data during ship and aircraft measurement campaigns and combine that
data with continuous satellite and ocean sensor readings. The first of four
seasonal research missions begins Nov. 6 and continues through early
December.
NASA’s C-130H Hercules airborne laboratory will begin research flights Nov.
12 from St. John’s International Airport in St. John’s, Newfoundland. The
flights will be coordinated with the research vessel (R/V) Atlantis,
operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole,
Massachusetts. Atlantis will provide detailed ship-based measurements of
plankton in the North Atlantic.
“We will be studying an ocean region that every year exhibits one of the
largest natural phytoplankton blooms on Earth,” said Mike Behrenfeld, NAAMES
principal investigator from Oregon State University in Corvallis. “These
plankton are also known to release organic compounds into the atmosphere
that can be measured as far away as Ireland. That makes the North Atlantic
an ideal place to study how plankton blooms are recreated each year by
ecological and physical processes, and how ocean biology is involved in the
sea-air exchange of organic aerosols and trace gases that may influence
clouds and climate.”
The C-130H will fly eastward to rendezvous with and overfly the
global-class, floating laboratory-ship Atlantis during its approximately
26-day research cruise. By combining ship, airborne, computer modeling,
sustained satellite and autonomous sensor data, scientists hope to improve
their predictions of ecosystem and aerosol changes in a warming ocean.
Plankton ecosystems in the ocean are strongly interconnected with climate
and life on Earth. Plankton production, responding to a warming climate,
results in environmental impacts such as changes in fisheries production,
uptake of atmospheric carbon dioxide, and ocean emissions of
climate-regulating aerosols. The ability to predict the consequences of a
warming ocean depends on resolving conflicting theories about what controls
plankton ecosystems and their aerosol emissions.
NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, has science and project
management responsibilities for NAAMES and science instruments onboard the
C-130H. The agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland,
leads project data management. The NAAMES ship and airborne
science-instrument teams involve more than 20 different research facilities
and academic institutions. NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility Aircraft Office in
Virginia operates the C-130H research aircraft to support airborne
scientific research activities.
The NASA C-130H and the R/V Atlantis supporting the NAAMES mission will be
available to the media at two different events this month. On Wednesday,
Nov. 4 from 10 to 11:30 a.m. EST, media can tour the Atlantis at Woods Hole,
located at 86 Water St. The C-130H will be available on Tuesday, Nov. 10
from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Newfoundland Time Zone, in Hangar #4 of St. John’s
International Airport, located at RCAF Road in St. John’s.
NAAMES is part of NASA’s second series of Earth Venture suborbital
investigations that provide an innovative approach to regularly address
Earth science research that accommodates evolving scientific priorities.
Earth Venture investigations are part of NASA's Earth System Science
Pathfinder Program, managed at Langley for NASA’s Science Mission
Directorate in Washington.
NASA researchers collect and study data from space, air, land and sea to
tackle challenges facing the world today, including improved environmental
prediction and natural hazard and climate change preparedness. NASA develops
new ways to observe and study Earth's interconnected natural systems with
long-term data records. The agency freely shares this unique knowledge and
works with institutions around the world to gain new insights into how our
planet is changing.
For more information about
NAAMES
For more information about
NASA’s Earth
Science activities
Steve Cole: Headquarters, Washington
stephen.e.cole@nasa.gov
Chris Rink : Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va.
757-864-6786
chris.rink@nasa.gov
( Editor: Karen Northon: NASA)
Posted on: November 6,
2015
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