RelevanSea ~ A Marine Conservation Blog

"In the end we will conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught." ~ Baba Dioum. Please contact me at [email protected] for any questions or requests.

[marine-conservation]

The World’s Second Largest Reef Is in Danger

The government of Belize has announced a drilling plan in the barrier reef. Here’s the latest on what we know.

Belize, what are you doing?!

On October 18th, Belize announced plans for the start of oil offshore exploration across a vast stretch of its waters. The seismic testing will occur very close (about 1km away!) from the Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System World Heritage site, which has been listed as in danger by UNESCO and is the second largest barrier reef in the world. 

On top of the probable damages from seismic testing, WWF has warned that an oil spill anywhere within Belize's waters could be catastrophic for residents whose livelihoods depend on healthy marine and coastal ecosystems. 

In February 2012, about 96% of the local population actually voted “NO” to offshore oil in Belize, very well aware of the importance of the country’s natural resources for ecotourism and its fishing industry. Over half of Belizeans depend on the reef and the marine ecosystem for livelihood. Even late last year, Belize committed to ban oil exploration within the World Heritage site, but still has not passed the ban into law.

This seismic oil exploration is at the moment a very contentious issue in the country, as it appears none of the stakeholders were consulted beforehand and no environmental impact assessment was put into place. Testing was supposed to start today (October 20th) but it appears to have started even earlier, to the anger and dismay of the locals and further fueling rumors of corruption that could be behind all of this.

You can keep updated through Oceana Belize’s Facebook page, where they have been live broadcasting many town hall meetings and presentations. 

[marine-conservation]

Great Barrier Reef Obituary Goes Viral, To The Horror Of Scientists

"The message should be that it isn’t too late ... not we should all give up."

A few days ago, an article published in Outside and entitled “Obituary: Great Barrier Reef (25 Million BC - 2016)” went viral and was shared over one million times. That article just sent the very sad message that the GBR was dead and nothing could be done about it. 

However, this very pessimistic and sensational article wasn’t right. Yes, the GBR is in bad shape and it just faced its worst bleaching episode, but it’s not dead yet! We should be focusing on the positive, on all the efforts governments and individuals can do to help the reef instead of throwing in the towel already. Maybe the author intended it to be a wake-up call, but I didn’t see many people take it as that. By stating that the reef is dead, people will move on to other things. 

Thankfully, scientists have spoken up, just like Terry Hughes, director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies.

“We can and must save the Great Barrier Reef ― it supports 70,000 jobs in reef tourism,” he said. “Large sections of it (the southern half) escaped from the 2016 bleaching, and are in reasonable shape. The message should be that it isn’t too late for Australia to lift its game and better protect the GBR, not we should all give up because the GBR is supposedly dead.”

On top of that, the article is riddled with mistakes and never gives us any citations or scientific articles to prove its claims. Neither does it say it’s an opinion piece. Sadly, while marine scientists know better, many people in the general public took the article for face value and hit the “share” button as fast as possible without bothering to look for sources. 

It is always important to remain skeptical when these sensationalistic headlines appear, and keep to keep our eyes open for literature cited or a scientist’s perspective. Either way, we must keep our hopes up and continue our efforts to fight the impacts of climate change and to help the reef recover.

[marine-conservation]

Landmark Paris Climate Pact to Take Effect in 30 Days

A key threshold for the Paris climate pact has been surpassed, meaning it's nearly ready to take effect.

This is fantastic, and also very impressively quick. It really shows that world leaders are beginning to fully grasp the urgency of climate change and its immediate impacts. 

[marine-conservation]

Combating the Invasive Lionfish—by Wearing Them

The venomous and invasive lionfish, native to the Indo-Pacific, is a serious threat to endemic species in the Caribbean and up the Atlantic coast. For several years, people in Sarteneja, Belize, have been harvesting the fish to eat—and now they're using the fish's spines to make jewelry.

A great feature by National Geographic on lionfish jewelry and the work Blue Ventures is doing in Belize to help develop that business and for the local community to keep hunting lionfish. 

[marine-conservation]

France becomes the first country to ban plastic plates and cutlery

The ban, to take effect in 2020, is part of a program aimed at making France a model for reducing environmental waste.

Another great step in the right direction to reduce single-use plastics and plastic pollution in the ocean!

[marine-conservation]

Sound pollution and the impact on whale populations

When people hear ocean pollution, they immediately think of the visible ones like plastic pollution, oil spills or sewage run-offs. But sound pollution, this invisible threat, is just as devastating to numerous marine animals, especially whales. Remember ‘The Silent World’ from Jacques Cousteau? Well, our oceans aren’t so silent anymore.

Historically, noise levels in the oceans were low enough that whales were able to use their sonar to communicate with each other or to hunt for food. Increased ship traffic, acoustical seismic testing for oil exploration, the use of military sonar, and even small boats in high concentrations have all contributed to the growing sound pollution in the oceans. 

Sound travels farther and about five times faster in water than in air. All these high intensity sounds also travel at a higher energy level so they are louder than they would be above the surface. This increased cacophony has made the use of sonar, echolocation and underwater communication between whales extremely difficult. Imagine basically walking around on the airport runway with airplanes landing and taking off every minute or so trying to have a conversation with a friend....except that it’s even louder, and it never stops. 

(Source)

Susan Parks, a biology professor at Syracuse University, compared right whale calls recorded off Martha’s Vineyard in 1956 and off Argentina in the 1977, with those in the North Atlantic in 2000. Parks and her team were astonished with the results. They discovered that North Atlantic right whales actually shifted their calls up an entire octave over the past half century in an attempt to be heard over the unending and increasing low-frequency sounds of commercial shipping. Furthermore, right whale songs used to carry off 20 to 100 miles, but now those calls travel only five miles or so. 

Another interesting tidbit of Park’s research came after 9/11. With the commotions and confusion following the attacks, ship traffic drastically dropped for a while. Her team continued recording whale calls during that time, and they could not believe what they heard. Actually, they didn’t hear much. The acoustic fog that had settled on the oceans for decades had suddenly lifted. Furthermore, they analyzed stress hormones found in collected whale poop, and they found that they had considerably dropped. It was obvious that during that brief period of time, whales had finally relaxed. 

If whales can’t hear each other as well, they need to spend more time and energy moving around and travelling to ‘quieter’ places in the oceans in order to feed or mate. This seems small, but a prolonged exposure to excessive noise can lead to permanent behavioral changes and thus a long-term impact on population numbers and mortality rates. Additionally, loud sounds have direct impacts on whale hearing, stress levels as we have seen above, and in some extreme cases may cause internal bleeding and death. 

(Source: National Geographic. Click for full size.)

A study published in 2014 in the journal PLOS One found that manmade noise pollution can literally make whales go insane. Moreover, scientists have also found that beaked whales are extremely sensitive to sound pollution. They tend to dive too deep when they hear loud noises, then resurface too quickly and can die from the bends. Other studies have blamed military sonar and mapping sonar by oil companies for mass strandings of marine mammals.

What can we do about it? Governments are slowly starting to become conscious of the problem, and some are trying to slow ships down or to re-direct traffic to areas not ecologically significant to marine mammals, but of course this comes with a lot of opposition from the companies, as even a detour of five miles off course can increase costs and time. Many NGOs like Oceana and Greenpeace are also campaigning against the use of seismic blasts for exploration drilling. Technologies are also being developed to drastically reduce the noise from ships and geological surveying. We still need to continue raising awareness on the problem so further political action can occur and some international standards can be set.

You can check out this interesting interview with Christopher Clark, a prominent bioacoustics researcher. Clark goes into more details about seismic blasts and the precise impacts noise pollution may have on whale populations. It’s a great read.

[marine-conservation]

Obama to designate the first-ever marine monument off the East Coast, in New England

The area along the continental shelf is home to many species of deep-sea coral, sharks, sea turtles, seabirds and deep-diving marine mammals, such as beaked whales and sperm whales.

Hooray for New England!

[marine-conservation]

Look at this cute little googly-eyed stubby squid, and enjoy the nerdy excitement of the scientists onboard the Nautilus. 

This little guy is a Rossia Pacifica and is a species of bobtail squid. This species inhabits the north Pacific, between Japan and Southern California. It usually rests on the seabed semi-buried in soft sediment during the day as it is nocturnal. At maturity, stubby squids grow to about 6cm long and live for only two years as both male and female die after mating. This one was spotted at 900m deep. 

The video was shot by a remotely-operated submersible by researchers aboard the E/V Nautilus, a vessel exploring areas of the ocean off the shore of California. The team uses remotely operated vehicles to film the ocean floor. They are the same guys who have previously stumbled on a very curious sperm whale a few months ago

Check out their YouTube account full of the cool encounters they witness during the expedition (seriously, do it. I’ve been sucked in for the past 2 hours)!

[marine-conservation]

272-Year-Old Shark Is Longest-Lived Vertebrate on Earth

Greenland sharks also don't reproduce until they're around 150 years old, a new study says.

Yet another reason why sharks are the coolest! 

A new study published in Science from scientists at the University of Copenhagen have estimated that Greenland sharks can live up to be 400 years old! The team used radiocarbon dating and analyzed the ages of proteins built up in 28 female sharks' eye lenses, and thus was able to estimate their ages. This revealed a life span of at least 272 years. Since they live to be so old, they don't reach sexual maturity until they're about 150.

The largest shark in the study was 16.5 feet (five meters) in length and was estimated to be approximately 392 years old. There is some uncertainty with this number though but the researchers did determine with a 95% certainty that this shark was between 272 and 512 years old, and most likely around 390.

Greenland sharks can be found swimming slowly throughout the cold, deep waters of the North Atlantic. They are essentially blind but have a fantastic sense of smell which allows them to hunt. This new finding makes these sharks the longest-living vertebrates on the planet, beating the 211-year-old bowhead whale which was holding the previous record.

You can find the full study in Science.

[marine-conservation]

South Florida News : Miami-Dade Styrofoam Ban - ALL AT SEA

“Birds, filter-feeding organisms, and fish often mistake foam particles for food and many sea birds are found dying of starvation with their bellies full o

Woohoo! Awesome news for the Miami area, which uses A LOT of styrofoam. It was already banned in the city of Miami Beach, and now it has expanded to Miami-Dade.

[marine-conservation]

‘Dory’ Bred in Captivity for First Time

Breeding the popular blue tang in captivity is an important step toward protecting wild fish and reefs from destructive practices.

Remember my article a few weeks ago about Finding Dory and not purchasing a ‘Dory’ for your aquarium as it hurts the wild population?

Well, things may be changing for the better. On July 19, 2016, scientists from the University of Florida Tropical Aquaculture Lab announced that blue tangs have been bred in captivity for the first time.

This breakthrough is good news as it means that aquarium hobbyists and marine life exhibits may soon have a source for blue tangs that doesn’t rely on wild fish, often captured by illegal and destructive means. 

For now, this finding is still in its early stage and all the blue tangs you will see for sale are still taken from the wild. Don’t get a Dory quite yet, and if you really want one, be patient and hopefully you will be able to get a captive-bred one fairly soon.

[marine-conservation]

Whale sharks now listed as endangered

In a news release earlier this month, the IUCN revealed that increasing anthropogenic pressures (such as fishing and boat strikes) have caused the rapid decline of whale shark populations and that they should now be considered as endangered. 

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is the world's main authority on the conservation status of species. The IUCN Red List evaluates the extinction risk of thousands of species based on a precise set of criteria, and the resulting evaluation aims to convey the urgency of conservation of a species to the public and policy makers.

Previously, whale sharks were ‘vulnerable’ to extinction, but their status has now been updated to ‘endangered.’ Their numbers have more than halved over the last 75 years as these sharks continue to be fished and killed by ship propellers.

Dr. Simon Pierce and Dr. Brad Norman, two prominent whale shark scientists have spent decades studying the animals and have co-authored the assessment that led to IUCN’s update.

“In our recent assessment, it was established that numbers have decreased more than 50 per cent in three generations – which we estimate to be about 75 years,” Norman explained. “The numbers on a global scale are really concerning.”

The main stressor to these gentle giants is the intense fishing pressure in several countries, including China and Oman, especially for shark-fin soup. Some other nations such as India, the Philippines and Taiwan have started implementing conservation plans and have ended large-scale fishing of whale sharks. While these efforts are admirable, it is now really important to push for more regional protection in these countries and to push other countries to try to save this species.

Whale sharks have been hard to study and to keep track off as they are quite cryptic and disappear into the open ocean fairly quickly. However with the use of modern technology and tagging devices, it has become a lot easier to follow them, collect information on them, but also to realize what kind of threats they are facing. 

The species is just one step away from being critically endangered, an IUCN listing that is very hard to come back from.

“We cannot sit back and fail to implement direct actions to minimize threats facing whale sharks at the global scale,” said Norman, “It is clear that this species is in trouble.”

[marine-conservation]

Coral Reefs Doing Better Than Expected in Many Areas

A new study found "bright spots" where corals are thriving, despite global bleaching events.

Some positive news to start off the week right!

[marine-conservation]

Shark Week ‘16 starts tonight!

Tonight’s line-up:

Tiger Beach (8/7c)

Dr. Neil Hammerschlag is the world's leading tiger shark expert. Now, he's on a quest to answer what he calls the trifecta of tiger shark science: where do these giant sharks mate, where do the pregnant females gestate, and where do they give birth? He hopes to find answers by tagging and tracking 40 individuals across a shallow area off the Bahamas called Tiger Beach. Second only to great whites, the tiger shark's killing power and voracious appetite is legendary - and Neil has to deal with some aggressive sharks while on expedition.

The Return of Monster Mako (9/8c)

Professional shark tagger Keith Poe, and marine biologists Greg Stunz, Matt Ajemain and their team use state-of-the-art technology to try to document a live-predation of a thousand-pound mako shark -- what fishermen call a "grander." Granders are enormous makos that make a kind of transformation when they reach 10 feet and 1000 pounds - they become more secretive and begin to hunt bigger prey, like seals. And they're hard to find on the East Coast - until Joe Romeiro and team jump in the water after dark and come face to face with them.

Isle of Jaws (10/9c)

In 2016, award-winning shark cinematographer Andy Casagrande discovered that great white sharks had strangely and completely disappeared from the Neptune Islands off South Australia. Where did the sharks go? Searching west along the known great white migration route, he stumbles upon an incredible discovery - a concentration of all male great white sharks off an uncharted island. Andy calls in marine biologist Dr. Jonathan Werry, and together they get up close and personal with a dozen large great whites in the hopes of solving two of the most closely guarded of all the great white's secrets… where they mate and where they have their young. Within this program, viewers will be able to immerse themselves into the adventure with virtual reality by using the DiscoveryVR app.

Check out the full TV Schedule here.

[marine-conservation]

Find Dory, but don’t buy her!

Finding Dory, the sequel to Finding Nemo, is coming out today, June 17th 2016. A few years ago, Finding Nemo was such a massive success that it drove demand for pet clownfish through the roof, and resulted in hurting the wild population, instead of fostering an appreciation for marine animals in their natural habitats. Over 90% of the clownfish sold came from the big, blue sea! Let’s avoid doing the exact same thing with Dory, shall we?

The case of Dory, or the case of blue tangs, is a bit different from clownfish. A “Finding Nemo effect” and a similar pet-trade boom could have catastrophic results for this species.

First of all, blue tangs aren’t bred in captivity. Blue tangs are pelagic spawners, meaning that they need sufficient space to breed and mate in mid-water columns. Once the eggs are hatched in captivity, it is extremely difficult to keep them alive. This means that every blue tang you will see in tanks or at the pet store has been taken from the wild. 

Second of all, chances are they were taken illegally. Regulations and their enforcement vary from country to country, but live saltwater fish like Dory are too often illegally collected using sodium cyanide as a liquid stun gun. For clownfish, scientists have witnessed local extinctions in areas they were collected in, and to the destruction of reefs and other species with this method.

Moreover, very little is actually known about the species. Subsequently, researchers don't know if the blue tang population would be able to withstand increased demand after the movie release.

Behavioral ecologist Culum Brown works on fish cognition and welfare, and he reveals what is known about the species in an interview with NPR:

"You'll be shocked to discover that we actually know very little about cognition in blue tangs. Correction ... make that nothing. But that is true for the vast majority of the 32+ thousand species of fish out there.

"We know that their skin reflects light at 490nm (deep blue) and they tend to get lighter at night (this is under hormone control). They have very sharp spines on either side of their tail which erect when [the fish are] frightened. They have a huge distribution (Indo-Pacific) but are under threat from illegal collection. They graze algae on coral reefs, which is a very important job because it prevents the corals from being over-grown."

So what can you do to save Nemo and Dory?

If you must have a clownfish in your tank, make sure it was bred sustainably in captivity and not taken from the wild. As for having a Dory, you get it, it’s a big no-no. Keep Dory on the reef.

The aquarium industry harvests more than 1 million clownfish from their natural habitats every year so they can be sold as pets. This overharvesting, along with other stressors like global warming, is likely leading to the depletion of clownfish populations in places like the Philippines and the Great Barrier Reef.

Captive breeding has proved to be a sustainable alternative that can meet the demands for ornamental fish like Nemo, without hurting the reef’s populations. Tank Watch is also an app that helps you identify the captive-bred (good) from the wild-caught (bad) fish. 

While you go out and see this movie over the weekend, remember to educate yourself on the many species represented (including a whale shark and a beluga whale!). Many of them are under some sort of threat in the wild. All of these species are better off out in the sea, so if you fall in love with one of them and instead of taking Dory out of the ocean, I hope you moviegoers will support research, education and conservation!

[marine-conservation]

The Great Barrier Reef: a catastrophe laid bare

Australia’s natural wonder is in mortal danger. Bleaching caused by climate change has killed almost a quarter of its coral this year and many scientists believe it could be too late for the rest. Using exclusive photographs and new data, a Guardian special report investigates how the reef has been devastated – and what can be done to save it

“Surveys have revealed that 93% of the almost 3,000 individual reefs that make up the Great Barrier Reef have been touched by bleaching, and almost a quarter – 22% – of coral over the entire reef has been killed by this year’s global bleaching event. On many reefs around Lizard Island and further north there is utter devastation.”

(Photographs by The Ocean Agency)

More pictures - Coral Graveyard: The aftermath of bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef

[marine-conservation]

All Florida Whole Foods will start carrying invasive lionfish today

After biting at the idea of catching and selling lionfish, Whole Foods Market announced they are really going to do it. All Florida Whole Food Markets...

YAY! YAY YAY! Oh this is such an exciting news! 

Lionfish is essentially THE most sustainable fish you could buy and eat here. Lionfish is an invasive species in the Caribbean and Atlantic ocean, and they have taken over the entire ecosystem. They do not have any natural predators, and have been reproducing uncontrollably while eating up many other species of fish. And they eat, A LOT.

The state of Florida has set no limit on the number of lionfish that may be taken, and you don’t even need a fishing license. Since 2010, the Florida Keys Natural Marine Sanctuary does give out licenses to divers to kill lionfish inside the property. The REEF organization hosts a series of lionfish Derbies with prizes awarded for spearing lionfish, and they’ve even published a cookbook. Many other locations in the Caribbean are also encouraging divers to come spear their lionfish in an attempt to control the populations. If there is one species that all conservationists encourage you to kill, it’s this one.

I hope this spreads out to supermarkets all around the east coast! Sadly, lionfish have already been found all along these coastal waters as well, even all the way up to Massachusetts. 

Save a reef, kill a lionfish!

(Courtesy of USGS)