Strong Data on Ocean Acidification researched in the Pacific

An extensive survey of pH levels in the Pacific Ocean confirms that ocean acidification is making an impact on marine life. This team of scientist first started measuring acid levels in 1991. When compared with samples taken in 2006, a very significant change was seen in the 2,800 miles they surveyed. Samples were  taken down to the ocean floor; as expected, acidification is strongest in the top layers of the ocean. The team has predicted that if business continues as usual ocean acidity could triple by the end of the century. Read More>>

 

Pacific Oysters in Trouble

Washington state produces one-sixth of the nation's oysters, these oysters are also a major source of revenue for the area. In 2005 many of the oysters failed to reproduce, and this has continued to happen over the past five years. Now, scientist are starting to link ocean acidification to the decline in the oyster population. Those who rely on fishing oysters for a living are starting to realize that something needs to change. Read More>>

 

Undersea Eruption Seen, Recorded for First Time

Seafaring scientists have for the first time witnessed and filmed the explosion of a fiery undersea volcano erupting huge chunks of molten rock into the sea 4,000 feet beneath the surface of the South Pacific. The extraordinary event, captured on video by a remote-controlled undersea submersible, should give science a new understanding of how the ocean floor and the Earth's crust have been formed since the Earth was formed, the scientists say. Read More >> 

 

Environmental Research Robots Funded for Development 

Autonomous Underwater Explorers (AUE's) will be developed through a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation.  The AUE's will providedense sampling at small scales to give scientists new information on physical properties of microscopic plants, algal blooms, oil spills and ocean currents. The information provided will help scientists determine best sites and reasons for marine protected areas. An outreach program will have middle and high-school students building and deploying the AUE's. Read More>>

Abrupt Reversal in Arctic Cooling

A report from an international team of climate scientists has concluded that the global cooling trend in progress until the Industrial Revolution was abruptly reversed, giving clear indication that human actions have had an effect on climate change. Scientists studied sediment cores, glacier cores and tree rings in the Arctic to determine plant growth rate trends and determine historical patterns of cooling and warming. The seven-year study shows that natures behavior over the last 150 years supports the climate change theory. Read More>>

U.S. Shuts Down Arctic Fishery

On August 20 the U.S. prohibited fishing in a swath of waters north of the Bering Strait that are not currently fished, but which melting Arctic ice is expected to make more appealing in years to come. This should allow time to create a sustainable fishing plan for the waters when they do eventually become fished. Read More>>

Ice Melt Could Lead to Massive Waves of Climate Refugees

Lester R. Brown from solveclimate.com describes simply and clearly the potential threat of sea level rise from melting ice in Greenland and Antarctica. With this type of warming, some research models suggest that the ocean could be ice free by 2050, resulting in sea level rise of over 40 feet (634 million people live along coasts at or below 10 meters above sea level). Positive feedback loops -- situations where a trend already under way begins to reinforce itself -- could accelerate the melt. Read more >>

Census of Marine Life Maps an Ocean of Species

Los Angeles Times, August 2, 2009 -- The first comprehensive effort to identify and catalog every species in the world's oceans, from microbes to blue whales, is a year from completion. But early discoveries have profoundly altered understanding of life beneath the sea, senior scientists say.

New tracking tools, for example, show that some bluefin tuna migrate between Los Angeles and Yokohama, Japan; one tagged tuna crossed the Pacific three times in a year. White sharks forage even farther for food, commuting between Australia and South Africa.  Read More >>

Roz Savage, Ocean Rower, Between Two Atolls

Friend of Sailors for the Sea, Roz Savage, in the midst of her trans-Pacific row, must make a choice:  Tuvalu or Tarawa? Both are tiny targets in a very, very big ocean, and if she misses landfall it's a long way to the next possible pitstop. What better way to illustrate the impact of climate change than a stop at Tuvalu? At 13 feet above sea level, it is slowly disappearing. Tarawa, on the other hand, carries some faint reassurance that winds and currents might allow landfall. Read more about Roz and find out which way she goes here.

Melting Ice Could Lead to Massive Waves of Climate Refugees

Lester R. Brown from solveclimate.com describes simply and clearly the potential threat of sea level rise from melting ice in Greenland and Antarctica. With this type of warming, some research models suggest that the ocean could be ice free by 2050, resulting in sea level rise of over 40 feet (634 million people live along coasts at or below 10 meters above sea level). Positive feedback loops -- situations where a trend already under way begins to reinforce itself -- could accelerate the melt. Read more >>
 

Massachusetts Releases Draft of Ocean Management Plan

After nearly a year of hearings, stakeholder meetings and planning sessions, the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs released the first draft of a comprehensive ocean management plan for Massachusetts state waters, the first of it's kind in the nation. Next steps in the process will be several public meetings and a period for public review and comment, with a final plan due by December 31, 2009. Read more >>

 

Obama Announces creation of Ocean Policy Task Force

Last week, President Obama announced the creation of an Ocean Policy Task Force, which will take a comprehensive approach to national ocean policy. Under this plan, the 140 laws and 20 agencies managing U.S. oceans will be pulled together to focus attention on the problems facing the oceans, and the solutions that may be created through collaboration. Sailors for the Sea is a strong supporter of comprehensive ocean management, and we have long been a partner in the development of the first statewide comprehensive ocean-use management plan in the nation as required by the Mass. Oceans Act. Read More >>

Sailors for the Sea Signs Joint Letter to EPA about Ocean Acidification

On June 15th, the Center for Biological Diversity sent a join letter signed by, among others, Oceana, Blue Ocean Institute and Sailors for the Sea, to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency asking the EPA to strengthen its water quality criteria, and to include guidance on ocean acidification in publications and outreach. Read full letter here.

The End of the Line Draws Dramatic Attention to Overfishing

The world's first major documentary about the devastating effects of overfishing, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, is not screening around the world at festivals and theaters. The film shows these effects, and points to simple and doable solutions that can help the endangered ocean species recover. To read more about the film and see the trailer, go to www.endoftheline.com.

World's Scientists Urge U.N to Address Ocean Acidification

70 of the world's science academies warned that the rising acidity of the oceans not be left off the agenda at the United Nations Copenhagen climate negotiations in December. The statement issued by the Royal Academy and 69 other nations' academies emphasizes that ocean acidification is irreversible and, on current emission trajectories, suggests that all coral reefs and polar ecosystems will be severely affected by 2050 or even earlier. 
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EPA Reviews Ocean Acidification Impacts under Clean Water Act

In response to a petition and threatened litigation by the Center for Biological Diversity, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has agreed to review how ocean acidification should be addressed under the federal Clean Water Act. Ocean acidification, the "other CO2 problem," results from the ocean's absorption of excess CO2 in the atmosphere, which increases the acidity of the ocean and changes the chemistry of seawater.
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OCEANS 21 Act

HR-21, the Oceans Conservation, Education, and National Strategy for
the 21st Century Act, is known as Oceans-21. It would establish a
comprehensive National Oceans Policy and guiding principles for use and
management of U.S. coasts, oceans, and Great Lakes and their resources and would implement key recommendations of the Pew Oceans Commission report (the same report that sparked the creation of Sailors for the Sea). Sailors for the Sea officially supports HR-21 and has cosigned the NRDC sign-on letter in support of HR-21 as it moves to the full House Natural Resources Committee. Massachusetts has pioneered this type of legislation at a state level with the Oceans Act of 2008.
Read more about HR-21 here and here.

Massachusetts Comprehensive Oceans Management Act

Governor Deval Patrick signed into law the Oceans Act of 2008, which will create ground rules for all oceans-related projects proposed. The Act considers all the varying conservation, development, and energy needs for which different people and animals depend on the oceans. This is the first management and protection plan for a state in this nation and makes Massachusetts a leader in ocean policy.
Read more >>

Census of Marine Life

More than 2,000 researchers from eighty different countries are sweeping the sea floor to uncover the unknown and reveal just how little humankind knows about the oceans and the life they contain.  From the arctic to the abyssal plains, the ten-year project will add thousands of named species to the mere 230,000 (out of how many million?) that currently make up that list.

Launched by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the $650 million project will be completed in 2010, by which time who knows what new discoveries will be made?  The oceans have given us bioluminescent beings and ecosystems that thrive off of hydrothermal vents, rather than oxygen created by photosynthesizing plants.  One expedition in the Census has already had the opportunity to explore the floor beneath the Larsen Ice Shelf-something never before possible-only to find hundreds of organisms like herds of sea cucumbers crawling across the seafloor.  How they thrive in this harsh, aquatic climate, no one knows, but the watery depths certainly have much more to teach us about our own planet if we can keep them intact and healthy long enough to learn.
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Jumbo Squid Aplenty

Their historic range was restricted to the Pacific coast of South America, but hordes of jumbo squid (Dosidicus gigas) are eating their way up the coast of California, and as far north as Alaska.  Whether due to warmer ocean temperatures or to a decrease in tuna populations (that fish feeds on juvenile squid and competes with adults for food), it is likely that this population expansion is the result of human actions - be it global climate change or overfishing.  As temperatures continue to rise, biologists anticipate that aggressive predators will ruin other marine habitats.
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Cleaner Boston Beaches

Governor Deval Patrick announced his goal-and steps toward achieving that goal-of improving the beaches of coastal Massachusetts.  From more solar powered trash compactors and motorized surf rakes to (in the same spirit as Sailors for the Sea's Clean Regattas program) distributing free trash bags to beachgoers, the new policies should result in beaches and seas with far less debris and trash, making them "the jewels we know they can be."
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Boston No Discharge Zone

Boston's Mayor Menino intends to file an application to have the whole of Boston Harbor designated a No Discharge Zone, meaning all boats will be prohibited from discharging waste, treated or untreated, directly into the water.  If passed, this will be the second major U.S. port to have such a designation.  While this would be a milestone in cleaning up the Harbor, it should not be seen as a signal to rest all other efforts, such as seeking more effective pre-treatment technologies.

Green Ferries

US ferry operators are reducing their impact on water and air quality through the use of marine hybrid engines, solar power (instead of diesel) for electricity when at the dock, and low-sulfur diesel fuel (mandated by the EPA).  Hopefully this idea will become common practice among all vessels.  Ports need to take on their share of the responsibility as well by converting their piers (particularly cruise ship piers) so as to provide alternative energy for ships that currently run their engines for electricity while in port.
Read More >> and here

Paddling for Change

Margo Pellegrino left Miami in an outrigger canoe on May 7th for a 2,000 mile paddle to raise awareness of ocean issues and inspire others to take responsibility for the stewardship of the seas.  She is stopping each night along the way to rest and hold press events to bring attention to issues like the depletion of the ocean's fish populations.  She expects to arrive at her destination, Camden, ME, on July 21.
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Chief of Green

More and more large corporations are hiring chief sustainability officers to keep them environmentally responsible, and make them money in the process.  These companies are not only interested in creating eco-friendly products, but marketing the newfound reputation they garner by doing so.  This appears to be one more step in the very positive direction of making "green" in action synonymous with "green" in the wallet.
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