Tag: life onboard

Additional Research Needed, Particularly on Subsurface and Arctic Applications The Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report on oil dispersants. It found that progress has been made regarding dispersants, but that additional research is necessary, particularly on subsurface and Arctic applications. It also recommends that interagency coordination be improved.On April 20, 2010, an explosion and fire onboard the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico led to the largest oil spill in U.S. history, releasing approximately 206 million gallons of oil into the Gulf over a period of nearly 3 months. When an oil spill occurs in coastal waters of the United States, responders have several options for managing the environmental impacts of the spill, including the use of chemical dispersants. Dispersants do not reduce the total amount of oil entering the environment;rather, they help break down oil into small droplets that can more easily mix into the water below the surface, increasing biodegradation rates and potentially decreasing the impact of spilled oil on the shoreline. However, because chemical dispersants promote the movement of oil below the surface, their use exposes the underwater environment and the ocean floor to more of the spilled oil, where it may also ...

New stdy shows that there may be cause for optimism The BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill temporarily worsened existing human-made problems in Louisiana's salt marshes such as erosion, but there may be cause for optimism, according to a new study.A study appearing online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found the 2010 spill killed off salt marsh plants 15 to 30 feet from the shoreline and this plant die off resulted in a more-than-doubled rate of erosion along the marsh edge and subsequent permanent marsh habitat loss. Vegetation farther from shore was relatively untouched by the incoming oil."Louisiana is already losing about a football field worth of wetlands every hour, and that was before the spill," said Brian Silliman, a University of Florida biologist and lead author of the study. "When grasses die from heavy oiling, their roots, that hold the marsh sediment together, also often die. By killing grasses on the marsh shoreline, the spill pushed erosion rates on the marsh edge to more than double what they were before. Because Louisiana was already experiencing significant erosive marsh loss due to the channelization of the Mississippi, this is a big example of how multiple human stressors ...

AUSREP - Changes to come into effect on July 1st The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) issued a notice announcing changes to the Australian Ship Reporting System (AUSREP). The changes incorporate the Automatic Identification System (AIS) technology into AUSREP and come into effect on 1 JulyThe purpose of this Marine Notice is to tell mariners about changes to the Australian Ship Reporting System (AUSREP) established by Marine Order 63(AUSREP) (MO 63) to take effect on 1 July 2012.AUSREPAUSREP is a ship reporting system designed to contribute to safety of life at sea and is operated by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) through the Australian Rescue Coordination Centre (RCC Australia) in Canberra. Consistent with Australia's obligations under the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), MO 63 provides a system for the reporting of the movement, or intended movement, of ships within the Australian ship reporting area (AUSREP area).Amendments to AUSREP AMSA is in transition from AUSREP to a Modernised Australian Ship Tracking and Reporting System (MASTREP) through Automatic Identification System (AIS) technology, which automates ships' positional reporting, increasing the timeliness and accuracy of data, covering a much larger area and numberof ships operating within the Australian ...

Animation video from Pew Environment Group and the Zoological Society of London

To protect ocean life, with limits placed on fishing and oil and gas exploration off the coast Australia announced plans to create the world's largest network of marine parks to protect ocean life, with limits placed on fishing and oil and gas exploration off the coast.The new reserves would cover 3.1 million square kilometres or more than one-third of Australian waters, taking in significant breeding and feeding grounds.The announcement, after years of planning and consultation, came ahead of the Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development next week in Brazil, which Environment Minister Tony Burke and Prime Minister Julia Gillard will attend."It's time for the world to turn a corner on protection of our oceans," Burke said in the lead-up to the conference, which marks the 20th anniversary of the Earth Summit that declared the environment a priority."And Australia today is leading that next step." he added."This new network of marine reserves will help ensure that Australia's diverse marine environment, and the life it supports, remain healthy, productive and resilient for future generations."The network will boost the number of reserves from 27 to 60, expanding protection of creatures such as the blue whale, green turtle, critically endangered populations of grey nurse sharks, ...

Algae blooms or oil pollution? Scientists are trying to find out why 119 bottlenose dolphins became stranded and died along the Texas coast in recent months, looking at possibilities ranging from algae blooms to oil pollution.The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has declared that the stranding of 123 dolphins in Texas between November and March was an "unusual mortality event" and called for the investigation.Heidi Whitehead, state operations coordinator of the Texas Marine Mammal Stranding Network, which is involved in the investigation, said on Tuesday that four dolphins have survived and are being rehabilitated."Beginning in November of 2011, we started seeing a higher number than average of marine mammal strandings on the Texas coastline," Whitehead said. "There is no cause that we have ruled out."Possible causes include algae blooms and pollution such as oil, she said. The strandings coincided with a harmful algal bloom in southern Texas, according to NOAA, and the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico was the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.But investigators may never know what caused the die-off.This is the fifth unusual mortality event in Texas and the first since 2008, according to NOAA. All involved bottlenose dolphins.This die-off affected ...

When a floating dock the size of a boxcar washed up on a sandy beach in Oregon, beachcombers got excited because it was the largest piece of debris from last year's tsunami in Japan to show up on the US West Coast.But scientists worried it represented a whole new way for invasive species of seaweed, crabs and other marine organisms to break the earth's natural barriers and further muck up the West Coast's marine environments. And more invasive species could be hitching rides on tsunami debris expected to arrive in the weeks and months to come."We know extinctions occur with invasions," said John Chapman, assistant professor of fisheries and invasive species specialist at Oregon State University's Hatfield Marine Science Center. "This is like arrows shot into the dark. Some of them could hit a mark."Though the global economy has accelerated the process in recent decades by the sheer volume of ships, most from Asia, entering West Coast ports, the marine invasion has been in full swing since 1869, when the transcontinental railroad brought the first shipment of East Coast oysters packed in seaweed and mud to San Francisco, said Andrew Cohen, director of the Center for Research on Aquatic Bioinvasions ...

60 per cent reduction in the volume of Antarctic Bottom Water Comparing detailed measurements taken during the Australian Antarctic program's 2012 Southern Ocean marine science voyage to historical data dating back to 1970, scientists estimate there has been as much as a 60 per cent reduction in the volume of Antarctic Bottom Water, the cold dense water that drives global ocean currents.In an intensive and arduous 25-day observing program, temperature and salinity samples were collected at 77 sites between Antarctica and Fremantle. Such ship transects provide the only means to detect changes in the deep ocean.The new measurements, which have not yet been published, suggest the densest waters in the world ocean are gradually disappearing and being replaced by less dense waters."The amount of dense Antarctic Bottom Water has contracted each time we've measured it since the 1970s," said Dr Steve Rintoul, of CSIRO and the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems CRC. "There is now only about 40 per cent as much dense water present as observed in 1970."The ocean profiles also show that the dense water formed around Antarctica has become less saline since 1970."It's a clear signal to us that the oceans are responding rapidly to variations in climate ...

International Day for Biological Diversity on May 22 Marking the International Day for Biological Diversity on May 22,Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon yesterday highlighted the fragile state of the world's oceans, urging greater protection for marine biodiversity."Oceans cover almost three-quarters of the surface area of the globe. They are home to the largest animal known to have lived on the planet - the blue whale - as well as billions upon billions of the tiniest of microorganisms. From sandy shores to the darkest depths of the sea, oceans and coasts support a rich tapestry of life on which human communities rely," Mr. Ban said in amessage to mark the Day."Yet, despite its importance, marine biodiversity... has not fared well at human hands," he added.The General Assembly proclaimed 22 May as the International Day for Biological Diversity, to increase understanding and awareness of biodiversity issues. The theme for this year's observance is marine diversity.In his message, Mr. Ban noted the impact of commercial over-exploitation of the world's fish stocks, with more than half of global fisheries exhausted and a further third depleted, and between 30 and 35 per cent of critical marine environments - such as seagrasses, mangroves and coral reefs - estimated ...

Two years since BP's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico