Tag: marine environment

As the Earth warmed coming out of the last ice age, the rate of plankton production off the Pacific Northwest coast decreased, a new study has found, though the amount of organic material making its way to the deep ocean actually increased. This suggests that during future climate warming, the ocean may be more efficient than previously thought at absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere – at least in some regions – but raises new concerns about impacts on marine life. Results of the study are being published online today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The ocean absorbs carbon dioxide like a sponge; scientists say that about one-third of all CO2   emitted historically by burning fossil fuels is now in the ocean. “This is a good news/bad news situation,” said Alan Mix, an Oregon State University oceanographer and co-author on the study. “It helps to slow the rise of CO2 in the atmosphere, but it makes the ocean more acidic.” A major uncertainty has been how life in the ocean will respond to increasing CO2   and global warming. Growth of phytoplankton (microscopic plants such as diatoms) near the sea surface converts carbon dioxide into organic matter. When ...

Demonstrating leadership and commitment to environmental sustainability, Barbados Port Inc. has committed to work in partnership with RightShip to develop an incentive program encouraging more efficient vessels to their port. During the 1st Hemispheric Seminar on Port Legislation held in Montevideo on the 24-25 November David Jean Marie, CEO of Barbados Port and Anuj Chopra, RightShip’s Vice-President - Americas, signed a letter of intent to develop a port incentive program using the RightShip and Carbon War Room Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Rating. The port incentive program rewards vessels with better energy efficient ratings. Measuring their carbon dioxide emissions, vessels are rated from A (most energy efficient) to G, with rewards – often in the form of reduced port fees – to the more efficient vessels. RightShip will begin the process by benchmarking vessel arrivals over time to set a baseline for displaying trends in carbon dioxide emissions. “In this way we tailor the incentive program to ensure maximum benefit for the port community” explains Chopra. “Understanding current CO2 emissions of vessels, both in-port and for their entire journey, is a key factor in our program management.” Lauded as a champion of environmental sustainability in the region, David Jean Marie was quick ...

Responding to adoption by the International Maritime Organisation of the long-awaited Polar Code, aimed at regulating shipping in Polar Regions, a coalition of environmental groups criticized the measures for not going far enough to adequately protect the fragile Arctic and Antarctic environments. While the new code is a positive step forward- for the first time there will be mandatory rules for management of shipping in Arctic and Antarctic polar waters – it is insufficient to properly protect Polar environments from the increased levels of shipping activity that are anticipated as sea ice recedes in the face of global warming. In Arctic waters, the Polar Code fails to address the need to phase out the use of heavy fuel oil (HFO); an HFO spill has been identified as the highest risk posed by shipping. HFO was previously already banned in Antarctica for this reason. The Code will contain regulations requiring that ship operators limit entry into ice according to the ability of their ship to resist ice pressure, but major concerns remain due to the fact that non-ice strengthened ships will still be allowed to operate in ice covered waters. Of further concern is the impact of shipping on wildlife. While ...

Scientists direct a remotely operated vehicle deep in the ocean from the mission control room aboard NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer NOAA announced the appointment of 13 members to a new federal Ocean Exploration Advisory Board that will provide guidance to NOAA and the nation on the exploration of our ocean. “This distinguished board will advise NOAA on priority areas for exploration, investments in new technologies, and a strategic plan for greater understanding of our planet’s last frontier,” said NOAA Chief Scientist Richard W. Spinrad, Ph.D., who will serve as liaison to the board for NOAA Administrator Kathryn Sullivan, Ph.D. “I congratulate these individuals on their selection, and look forward to working with them to achieve the next generation of ocean exploration.” The new members represent government agencies, private sector leaders, academic institutions and not-for-profit institutions involved in all areas of ocean exploration, from advanced technology to citizen exploration. Detailed biographies for the new members and more about the OEAB can be found online.  Through its Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, NOAA coordinates the only federal program that systematically explores our largely unexplored ocean -- to address national marine environmental, economic and national security priorities, to catalyze new areas of ...

The earth’s climate appears to have been more variable over the past 7,000 years than often thought. This is the conclusion of a new study forthcoming online this week in the U.S. scientific journal “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences” (PNAS). In the study, scientists from the Potsdam-based Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, and Harvard University show that sea surface temperatures reconstructed from climate archives vary to a much greater extent on long time scales than simulated by climate models. The consequence: either the analysed climate archives supply inaccurate temperature signals, or the tested models underestimate the regional climate fluctuations in the Earth’s recent history. In order to reconstruct climate history, it is necessary to study natural climate archives since, in terms of the Earth’s history, humankind has only very recently begun measuring the planet. There have been instrumental measurements of ocean temperatures for only around 150 years now. For periods prior to that, scientists have to rely on “proxies”, i.e. indicators enabling indirect conclusions to be drawn about climate data from earlier times. Such climate archives generally refer to spatially limited areas and differ in their temporal resolution. They may also include significant ...

HELMEPA’s seminar “Keeping abreast of Requirements; Ensuring Effective Environmental Management” was held in Piraeus on 4th-5th November and was kindly hosted in the auditorium of Associate Corporate Member Neda Maritime Agency. The seminar drew the participation of 33 individuals, comprising land-based staff and merchant marine officers from 13 HELMEPA member-companies, the Panhellenic Seamen’s Federation and the Hellenic Coast Guard. Invited by HELMEPA, LCDR Christopher Brunclik, Chief, Inspections Department, Coast Guard Activities Europe, presented on the major Environmental Regulations with which foreign-flagged vessels must comply when sailing in US waters. Alternate Management Systems, the US Coast Guard’s ballast water management systems type-approval process, Vessel General Permit, as well as the requirements relevant to low sulphur fuels available on vessels entering the North American ECA, were among the key issues that dominated the discussions that ensued. Members of the audience benefited from clarifications on topics pertinent to the implementation of Regulations and the exchange of opinions and experiences. Participants were also further updated on various developments across a series of topics presented by expert HELMEPA member-company speaker-representatives; in particular, Ms P Chrysanthi, QSE Manager & DPA–EMR at Andriaki Shipping, presented on the proper maintenance of the Oil Record Book, Mr S Petronios, ...

Satellite measurements of ocean temperature (illustrated by color) from July 28th to August 4th and the direction of currents (white arrows) help show where radionuclides from Fukushima are transported.  Large scale currents transport water westward across the Pacific.  Upwelling along the west coast of North America in the summertime brings cold deep water to the surface and transports water offshore.  Circles indicate the locations where water samples were collected.  White circles indicate that no cesium-134 was detected.  Blue circles indicate locations were low levels of cesium-134 were detected.  No cesium-134 has yet been detected along the coast, but low levels have been detected offshore. (Image Credit: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)   Monitoring efforts along the Pacific Coast of the U.S. and Canada have detected the presence of small amounts of radioactivity from the 2011 Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant accident 100 miles (150 km) due west of Eureka, California. Scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) found the trace amounts of telltale radioactive compounds as part of their ongoing monitoring of natural and human sources of radioactivity in the ocean. In the aftermath of the 2011 tsunami off Japan, the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant released cesium-134 and other ...

When scientists on a boat in the Gulf of Alaska pulled their net in August, they saw something stunning: a live ocean sunfish. Mostly found in the tropics or temperate waters, these giant 6-foot-long snub-bodied creatures are incredibly rare in Alaska. And that was just the start. Four days later, one of the same researchers saw a warm-water blue shark circling near another sunfish. Days after that, the boat hauled up yet another living sunfish. "No one had ever talked about seeing one alive," said Wyatt Fournier, research fish biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "Not only did we get two aboard in one week, but my commercial fishing buddies started telling me they were bumping into them when fishing for salmon." The waters of the Pacific Ocean have been so unusually warm this year that fishermen and researchers from Alaska to California have spied a host of bizarre visitors, from thresher sharks that rarely make it north of Vancouver, B.C., to the northernmost recorded sighting of a skipjack tuna. Portions of the North Pacific haven't seen sea temperatures this high in at least a century of record-keeping. In some areas, waters are more than 5 degrees Fahrenheit above ...