Tag: life onboard

The impacts of climate change are becoming more apparent Today we visit the Weddell Sea, which lies to the east of the Antarctic Peninsula. Like the rest of the Southern Ocean, the body of water that surrounds Antarctica, it is home to diverse ecosystems that are filled with unique and astonishing wildlife. And like oceans everywhere, the impacts of climate change are becoming more apparent.As the world warms, its waters are warming, too. Increased temperatures have already led to changes in ocean life. For example, on the other side of the Peninsula, king crabs have invaded an area previously considered far too cold for their survival. The impact of the arrival of these predators, for the first time in millions of years, could be catastrophic for the surrounding ecosystem, which has evolved exotic and unique life forms that haveno defenses against crabs.Unfortunately, scientists are observing not only changes to the oceans' temperature but also to its chemistry. The Weddell Sea -- and the rest of the Southern Ocean -- is experiencing what scientists call ocean acidification. Currently, about a quarter of the carbon dioxide released each year by human activities is absorbed by the world's oceans. The Southern Ocean alone ...

Photographer Brian Skerry celebrates the sea and her creatures

Efforts to protect the world's oceans Delegates from 65 countries attending a United Nations-backed conference in the Philippines have agreed to step up efforts to protect the world's oceans from land-based activities, stressing the marine environment's central role in the transition to a low-carbon, resource-efficient green economy.The Manila Declaration was adopted yesterday on the final day of the Global Conference on Land-Ocean Connections (GLOC), co-organized by the Government of the Philippines and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).The four-day event brought together environment ministers, marine scientists, non-governmental organizations, representatives from financial institutions and other interested bodies, aiming to formulate new policies and actions to improve the sustainable management of oceans and coastal areas.Signatories to the declaration reaffirmed their commitment to developing policies to reduce and control wastewater, marine litter and pollution from fertilizers.The agreement contains a total of 16 provisions focusing on actions to be taken between this year and 2016 at international, regional and local levels.Among them is a call for countries to develop guidance and policies on the sustainable use of nutrients to improve the efficiency of fertilizers such as nitrogen and phosphorous. Doing so would bring economic benefits for farmers, while mitigating negative environmental impacts such as ...

The only sea without a land boundary! The Sargasso Sea is a vast patch of ocean is named for a genus of free-floating seaweed called Sargassum. While there are many different types of algae found floating in the ocean all around world, the Sargasso Sea is unique in that it harbors species of sargassum that are 'holopelagic' - this means that the algae not only freely floats around the ocean, but it reproduces vegetatively on the high seas. Other seaweeds reproduce and begin life on the floor of the ocean.A short animation showing global ocean currents and the location of the Sargasso Sea.Sargassum provides a home to an amazing variety of marine species. Turtles use sargassum mats as nurseries where hatchlings have food and shelter. Sargassum also provides essential habitat for marine species,such as shrimp, crab, and fish, that have adapted specifically to this floating algae. The Sargasso Sea is a spawning site for threatened and endangered eels, as well as white marlin, porbeagle shark, and dolphinfish. Humpback whales annually migrate through the Sargasso Sea. Commercial fish, such as tuna, and birds also migrate through the Sargasso Sea and depend on it for food.While all other seas in the world ...

CO2 affects marine life Might a penguin's next meal be affected by the exhaust from your tailpipe? The answer may be yes, when you add your exhaust fumes to the total amount of carbon dioxide lofted into the atmosphere by humans since the industrial revolution. One-third of that carbon dioxide is absorbed by the world's oceans, making them more acidic and affecting marine life.A UC Santa Barbara marine scientist and a team of 18 other researchers have reported results of the broadest worldwide study of ocean acidification to date. Acidification is known to be a direct result of the increasing amount of greenhouse gas emissions. The scientists used sensors developed at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego to measure the acidity of 15 ocean locations, including seawater in the Antarctic, and in temperate and tropical waters.As oceans become more acidic, with a lower pH, marine organisms are stressed and entire ecosystems are affected, according to the scientists. Gretchen E. Hofmann, an eco-physiologist and professor in UCSB's Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology, is lead author of the recent article in PLoS ONE that describes the research."We were able to illustrate how parts of the world's oceans currently ...

Leatherback sea turtle is the largest marine turtle in the world NOAA announced the designation of additional critical habitat to provide protection for endangered leatherback sea turtles along the U.S. West Coast. NOAA is designating 41,914 square miles of marine habitat in the Pacific Ocean off the coasts of California, Oregon and Washington.This designation will not directly affect recreational fishing, boating and other private activities in critical habitat. Critical habitat designations only affect federal projects that have the potential to adversely modify or destroy critical habitat. Critical habitat designations aid the recovery of endangered and threatened species by protecting habitat that the species rely on.NOAA and FWS have already designated critical habitat for leatherback turtles along Sandy Point Beach at the western end of the island of St. Croix, U.S.V.I., and in adjacent Atlantic coastal waters. NOAA is designating this additional critical habitat in the Pacific Ocean as a result of a petition to revise the existing critical habitat for leatherbacks to include important habitat off the U.S. West Coast. Once an Endangered Species Act petition is received, NOAA Fisheries must evaluate the petition and scientific information provided to determine if the petitioned action iswarranted. If it is, the agency ...

Need for new conservation measures in Easter Island to protect ocean You've heard of Easter Island, but you may not be familiar with its uninhabited neighbor. Salas y Gómez Island has been called one of the world's last untouched marine places.A recent expedition and new documentary demonstrate the stark contrast between these two islands -- and the need for new conservation measures in Easter Island to protect its sharks and marine life.Last year, Oceana and the National Geographic Society, in an unprecedented collaboration with the Chilean Navy, launched a scientific expedition to the waters that surround Salas y Gómez Island and Easter Island, over 2,000 miles west of the Chilean coast.The expedition was the team's second; the initial journey brought back such powerful scientific and photographic evidence of its ecological value that the Chilean government created a marine reserve around Salas y Gómez.The team found a glaring difference between Easter Island and Salas y Gómez. Although the two islands have identical environmental conditions, years of overfishing around Easter Island has taken a toll -- the team found that Salas y Gómez has approximately three times as many fish as its neighbor, and many more sharks. Sharks in particular are a ...

New study shows that CO2 has serious consequences for their survival Rising human carbon dioxide emissions may be affecting the brains and central nervous systems of sea fish, with serious consequences for their survival, according to Australian research.The researchers found that carbon dioxide concentrations predicted to occur in the ocean by the end of this century will interfere with fishes' ability to hear, smell, turn and evade predators.The Australian Research Council's Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies says it had been testing the performance of baby coral fishes in sea water containing higher levels of dissolved CO2 for several years."And it is now pretty clear that they sustain significant disruption to their central nervous system, which is likely to impair their chances of survival," says study co-author Professor Phillip Munday.In a paper published in the journal Nature Climate Change, Munday and his colleagues also detail what they say is world-first evidence that high CO2 levels in sea water disrupts a key brain receptor in fish.This causes marked changes in their behaviour and sensory abilities."We've found that elevated CO2 in the oceans can directly interfere with fish neurotransmitter functions, which poses a direct and previously unknown threat to sea life," ...

Rare all white penguin This penguin seems to have decided to go against the grain, sporting a cream tux instead of the traditional black and white as he waddles around Antarctica.This rare, nearly all-white leucistic Chinstrap penguin was snapped by naturalist David Stephens on Lindblad Expeditions' National Geographic Explorer at the Aitcho Islands this week.According to Expeditions, the penguin isn't quite albino as it has "pigmented eyes and a washed-out version of a Chinstrap penguin's coloring pattern."Chinstrap penguins usually sport a black-and-white coloring that offers camouflage while they dive for fish. "Many wondered about this unusual bird's chances of success," Stephens wrote to the press. "While odd coloration may make fishing a bit more difficult, leucistic birds are regularly found breeding normally."Another all-white marine creature was spotted recently off the southern coast of South America. The Associated Press reports the finding of an "extremely rare example of an albino dolphin among an endangered species" by Brazilian biologists.Over this past Christmas, baby Snowy, the all-white reindeer, took up residence in the UK. The chances of a snow white reindeer being born is one in 10,000 according to Snowy's owner, Mark Noble.Last year, Myanmar warmly welcomed two rare white elephants as a ...

Yeti Crabs & Ghost Octopus! Scientists doing their first exploring of deep-sea vents in the Antarctic have uncovered a world unlike anything found around other hydrothermal vents, one populated by new species of anemones, predatory sea stars, and piles of hairy-chested yeti crabs.It was "almost like a sight from another planet," said expedition leader Alex Rogers, a professor of zoology at Oxford University.Even in the eye-popping world of deep-sea vents, the Antarctic discoveries stand out, with the unfamiliar species of crabs found crowded in piles around the warm waters emanating from the seafloor. Many of the animals found at the vents have never been found at hydrothermal vents in other oceans, Rogers said. "To see these animals in such huge densities was just amazing," Rogers told LiveScience.In the dayless world of deep-sea vents, energy comes not from the sun but from the hydrothermal energy generated in the oceanic crust.The yeti crabs seem to cultivate "gardens" of bacteria on their chests, which are covered with hairy tendrils. These bacterial mats almost certainly provides the crabs with sustenance, Rogers said. In turn, predatory seven-armed sea stars stalk the periphery of the vents, snacking on unfortunate crabs."We were absolutely stunned to see the ...