Visit this podcast for an update on El Nino 2010 http://www.thankyouocean.org/news/podcasts
El Nino 2010
February 9, 2010 by ccoimbraAquaculture May Be A Sustainable Seafood Choice
February 5, 2010 by ccoimbra
By Charmaine Coimbra
Managing the seafood we eat is another PITA. Bluefin Tuna, a sushi star vs. farmed striped bass, or grilled Chilean Sea Bass on the plate vs.farmed rainbow trout? Bluefin tuna commands top dollar. A recent catch brought in $176,000. That’s just one fish equating to the price of a home. Chilean Sea Bass, or Patagonian toothfish, is often pirated
Bluefin tuna
because a boatload could be worth $1 million. Consequently, overfishing threatens both culinary choices. You won’t find them on any sustainable seafood list—other than on the forbidden column.
And our once common fish like cod, grouper, haddock, rockfish, shark, snapper and swordfish are either overfished or laced with mercury.
Because 70% of this planet’s population depends on seafood for protein, Houston, we have a problem. This is another symptom of our seas’ unhealthy-and-growing-more-so condition.
To remove the PITA element of choosing sustainable seafood we’ll define the phrase :“Sustainable seafood (is) either fished or farmed in a manner that can sustain (maintain or increase) production in the future without harming ecosystems,” according to the Ocean Conservancy.
Aquaculture or fish farming, now provides more than 50-percent of the world’s consumed seafood.
(Photo by Chef Dakota Weiss, Hotel Shangri-la, Santa Monica: Sustainable herbed abalone, argan pommes puree, salted vanilla vinaigrette.)
As addressed by the Ocean Conservancy, “But without a (aquaculture) plan in place, all coastlines, from New England to the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific coast, are threatened by the potential harmful impacts of a poorly regulated industry. Current laws do not properly address the real and scientifically documented risks associated with fish farming, including:
- Nutrient and chemical pollution caused by excessive amounts of fish excrement, antibiotics and other chemicals that flow out of pens and can affect wild fish as well as the broader marine ecosystem
- Transmission of diseases to local fish and reduction of the health of wild populations caused when farmed fish accidentally escape from farming nets and compete with wild fish for food and habitat
- Entanglement of natural predators like seals, sea lions, sharks, birds and other marine wildlife in fish pens.”
For detailed information visit: http://www.oceanconservancy.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ftf_home
But there are solutions. From The Environmental Defense Fund, that writes,” Aquaculture, if done right, can put more seafood on more plates without harming the environment.” http://www.edf.org/page.cfm?tagID=16150
On the good news front, mega merchants like Target Corp will no longer carry farmed Atlantic salmon at any of its 1,700-plus stores across the United States. Target consulted the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program.
Other mass suppliers, according to Monterey Bay Aquarium, “ARAMARK and Compass Group (the two largest food service companies in North America) and Santa Monica Seafood (the largest seafood distributor in southern California and the Southwest) — are using their buying power to demand sustainable seafood from their suppliers.”
Safeway has also announced a forthcoming sustainable seafood program for its 1,700 stores.
Call to action
http://scaquarium.org/SSI/default.html
http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/cr_seafoodwatch/sfw_resources.aspx
http://www.wwfsassi.co.za/?m=1
http://www.supereco.com/company/south-african-sustainable-seafood-initiative/
Levianthian Rises, Challenges Neptune’s 911 Plea
January 21, 2010 by ccoimbraOpinion
by
Charmaine Coimbra
A few nagging words continue my reading material intrusion; they include carbonic acid and ocean acidification.
The volume of new ocean-related information that fills Neptune 911’s email account overwhelms me. It also validates this blog’s name.
Neptune, God of the Sea, may have joined the Neptune Society http://www.neptunesociety.com/as his domain battles our endless plunder of
the what keeps us and our planet alive—our oceans.
Our seas seem endless and invulnerable to intrusion. And the ocean wins when we go against its tide. But like a strong woman with endless energy and strength, abuse takes its toll and the once-strong woman becomes a victim that can no longer fight and survive on her own.
Ocean acidification is not new, but the growing effects fuel scientific concern that now leads most of my incoming email. NPR recently discussed the effect of ocean acidification along the Northern California coastline. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111807469
I found another informative piece at http://novascience.wordpress.com/category/climate-change/impacts-of-climate-change/ocean-acidification/
Meanwhile, other scientists challenge these concerns, such as this piece from the conservative think tank, The Heartland Institute. http://www.heartland.org/publications/environment%20climate/article/26815/Ocean_Acidification_Scare_Pushed_at_Copenhagen.html
Regardless, the ocean has a Texas-and-growing-larger-sized trash island, plastics are a real debacle for the seas and marine life, coral reefs die daily, fisheries face harvest-depletion, and marine life die-offs continue. Yet there’s an element that denies that we have an ocean that screams for help.
Leviathan rises and challenges Neptune’s will.
Fishing Line Entangles and Endangers California Marine Life
January 6, 2010 by ccoimbraWe hope that Last January’s Neptune 911’s first-ever post, which was about the nightmare that tossed fishing line brings to our marine life (http://neptune911.wordpress.com/2009/01/23/fishing-line-hooks-and-wraps-central-coast-pelican/) has brought mindfulness to some readers. But the latest news from the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, demonstrates that this issue is real and continues.
Last Sunday on the Piedras Blancas bluffs, a pregnant elephant seal had a wicked scar around her neck. I checked through my binoculars and it was nothing but a scar—a deep cut from trash of some sort that we humans toss into the sea—you know—that bin of trash that doesn’t relate to you or I. Fortunately her “choker” broke off. But that’s the exception, not the norm.
Here’s today’s Marine Mammal Center Release…
T he Marine Mammal Center continues to search for three California sea lions in San Francisco Bay that have entanglements around their necks. On the night of Jan. 1, a large sea lion that was entangled in fishing line was spotted on one of PIER 39s floating docks. Rescuers from the Center went out to the Pier but could not perform a rescue at that time due to nighttime conditions that were unsafe for both the injured animal and rescuers. In these cases, rescuers often only get one chance to safely net the animal and transport it back to land, so they perform rescues when it’s most optimal in order to ensure a successful and safe rescue and transport of the animal to the Center’s hospital in Sausalito. The Center will continue to keep watch for these animals and to respond to other marine mammals in distress within its 600 mile rescue range.
On Saturday morning – taking advantage of daylight – the team returned to the pier but the sea lion was gone. Volunteer Marjorie Boor patrolled the Bay Area waters via boat for hours to look for the animal – but did not spot it.
Subsequently that day, another sea lion appeared at Hyde Street Pier with an entanglement. The Marine Mammal Center’s water rescue team attempted two rescues of that animal, but upon the second try – the animal jumped off the dock and swam away. This animal and yet another sea lion appeared on Sunday. The third sea lion was spotted on a buoy near Belvedere. and the Hyde Street Pier sea lion appeared again at that pier. Rescue attempts were mounted for both of those animals, but both eluded rescuers. The Center will continue to keep watch for these animals and to respond to other marine mammals in distress within its 600 mile rescue range.
Entanglements
Sadly, about 8 percent of the patients rescued by The Marine Mammal Center in 2009 were rescued as a result of becoming entangled in fishing line, nets and other marine debris, causing them to strand. It is an all-too-common occurrence. You can help keep waterways clear of debris and other trash that can be harmful to seals, sea lions and other marine mammals. Learn how here at Save Our Seals – Save Ourselves.
California Sea Lions Hit Hard in 2009
December 4, 2009 by ccoimbraA Record Year for California Sea Lion Rescues
By
Bette Bardeen
Courtesy of Central Coast Natural History Association Nature Notes
The California Central Coast has seen an increased number of beach visitors this year, and not all are happy tourists. California sea lions have
Rescued California sea lion
been hit hard in the last several months by two distinct problems that have caused significant strandings on the coast – a shortage of food in the spring and early summer and a toxic algal bloom in the fall. Sea lions in distress have stranded in such large numbers that The Marine Mammal Center, which responds to rescue calls for 600 miles of coastline from Mendocino to San Luis Obispo, has made more rescues than any other year in its 35 year history. “We average 600 to 700 rescues in a normal year,” said Jim Oswald, spokesman for The Marine Mammal Center. “This year we had 1500 rescues by early October, over 1200 of which were California sea lions.” http://www.marinemammalcenter.org/
Scientists believe there are several reasons for this year’s sea lion strandings. More than 59,000 sea lion pups were born in the Channel Islands rookeries last year, almost double the normal number of births. At the same time these increased numbers of young sea lions were searching for food, spring breezes that normally cause upwelling stopped, with a devastating impact on the food chain. This lack of food came at a critical time for the sea lion population, and the effect was most severe on yearlings, which have little experience and less ability than adults to travel long distances for food. With their mothers headed back to the Channel Islands for this year’s births, the yearlings could not find enough food. Many ended up on the coast, emaciated and in distress. Others searching for food found themselves entangled in fishing lines and ocean debris, also in need of rescue.
“No one knows exactly why the upwelling stopped,” said Joe Cordaro, Wildlife Biologist with the National Marine Fishery Service, which is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Some scientists believe shifts in high latitude pressure systems may have caused the spring winds to die down prematurely, but are still analyzing this event. Fortunately the winds returned by late summer, and the cases of starving and emaciated yearlings dropped significantly.
More recently a new threat has impacted the California the sea lion population. About 40% of the sea lions stranded this fall are adults that have been diagnosed with domoic acid poisoning, which is caused by a toxic algal bloom. Sea lions eat anchovies and sardines that have fed on the algae, producing a neurotoxin that results in disorientation and seizures. “Though only 20% of the sea lions with domoic acid poisoning survive, every case helps add to our body of knowledge,” said Oswald. Domoic acid poisoning affects other mammals; in humans it is known as amnesic shellfish poisoning. According to The Marine Mammal Center, increased incidents of domoic acid poisoning may result from warming waters, excessive fishing, urban development, pollutant runoff or a combination of these factors. Algal blooms have been present in California waters every year since 1999, in varying degrees of severity.
Marine Mammal Center Rescue Triage & Treatment
The impact of domoic acid poisoning has been particularly severe in San Luis Obispo County. Volunteers at the Morro Bay triage location of The Marine Mammal Center have been working long hours rescuing animals, stabilizing them, and shipping them to Sausalito where they are treated.
An El Nino year is expected, with warmer waters bringing more potential problems. “This could be the tip of the iceberg if the El Nino continues to develop,” said Cordero. The last significant El Nino year a decade ago resulted in a then record number of marine mammal rescues for The Marine Mammal Center. The experience of the intervening years and an increase in the size of The Marine Mammal Center will help them respond to new challenges. In June the Center opened a new hospital, research and education center at its headquarters in Sausalito with increased capacity for treatment and research. Over 800 dedicated volunteers and four dozen staff are now involved in the process of rescuing and treating animals.
The new facilities of The Marine Mammal Center in Sausilito are open to the public seven days a week. “The public loves our new hospital,” said Oswald, “Over 30,000 people have visited since June. It is really rewarding to have people see our work.” From observation decks visitors can see feeding preparation and research areas and even view necropsies if they wish.
If you should encounter a sea lion or other marine mammal in distress, do not touch the animal. Call The Marine Mammal Center at 415-289-SEAL or locally at 771-8300, and trained volunteers will be dispatched from the Morro Bay location. Rescue hotlines operate 24 hours a day.
Bette Bardeen
Bette Bardeen devotes her time to California Central Coast Marine environments. She is a docent for Friends of the Elephant Seals www.elephantseal.org/ and the Morro Bay Museum of Natural History http://www.slostateparks.com/natural_history_museum/default.asp Bardeen also chairs the Docent Council for California State Park Docents.
Editor’s Note. It’s painful watching a California sea lion suffering from domoic acid poisoning, especially when there is nothing one can do. The following video shows the challenge of rescuing a California sea lion with domoic acid poisoning.
Waterway Sewage Deluge, Gulf Hypoxia, Hawaii’s Beaches Shrink
December 2, 2009 by ccoimbra
Excerpts from: As Sewers Fill, Waste Poisons Waterways
By CHARLES DUHIGG
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/23/us/23sewer.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print
…at Owls Head, a swimming pool’s worth of sewage and wastewater was soon rushing in every second. Warning horns began to blare. A little after 1 a.m., with a harder rain falling, Owls Head reached its capacity and workers started shutting the intake gates. That caused a rising tide throughout Brooklyn’s sewers, and untreated feces and industrial waste started spilling from emergency relief valves into the Upper New York Bay and Gowanus Canal.
“It happens anytime you get a hard rainfall,” said Bob Connaughton, one the plant’s engineers. “Sometimes all it takes is 20 minutes of rain, and you’ve got overflows across Brooklyn.”
…In the last three years alone, more than 9,400 of the nation’s 25,000 sewage systems — including those in major cities — have reported violating the law by dumping untreated or partly treated human waste, chemicals and other hazardous materials into rivers and lakes and elsewhere, according to data from state environmental agencies and the Environmental Protection Agency.
…As cities have grown rapidly across the nation, many have neglected infrastructure projects and paved over green spaces that once absorbed rainwater. That has contributed to sewage backups into more than 400,000 basements and spills into thousands of streets, according to data collected by state and federal officials. Sometimes, waste has overflowed just upstream from drinking water intake points or near public beaches. There is no national record-keeping of how many illnesses are caused by sewage spills. But academic research suggests that as many as 20 million people each year become ill from drinking water containing bacteria and other pathogens that are often spread by untreated waste
. …Around New York City, samples collected at dozens of beaches or piers have detected the types of bacteria and other pollutants tied to sewage overflows. Though the city’s drinking water comes from upstate reservoirs, environmentalists say untreated excrement and other waste in the city’s waterways pose serious health risks.
A Deluge of Sewage
…When a sewage system overflows or a treatment plant dumps untreated waste, it is often breaking the law.
Today, sewage systems are the nation’s most frequent violators of the Clean Water Act. More than a third of all sewer systems — including those in San Diego, Houston, Phoenix, San Antonio, Philadelphia, San Jose and San Francisco — have violated environmental laws since 2006, according to a Times analysis of E.P.A. data.
…Thousands of other sewage systems operated by smaller cities, colleges, mobile home parks and companies have also broken the law. But few of the violators are ever punished.
But widespread problems still remain.
“The E.P.A. would rather look the other way than crack down on cities, since punishing municipalities can cause political problems,” said Craig Michaels of Riverkeeper, an environmental advocacy group. “But without enforcement and fines, this problem will never end.”
Plant operators and regulators, for their part, say that fines would simply divert money from stretched budgets and that they are doing the best they can with aging systems and overwhelmed pipes.
New York, for example, was one of the first major cities to build a large sewer system, starting construction in 1849. Many of those pipes — constructed of hand-laid brick and ceramic tiles — are still used. Today, the city’s 7,400 miles of sewer pipes operate almost entirely by gravity, unlike in other cities that use large pumps. New York City’s 14 wastewater treatment plants, which handle 1.3 billion gallons of wastewater a day, have been flooded with thousands of pickles (after a factory dumped its stock), vast flows of discarded chicken heads and large pieces of lumber.
When a toilet flushes in the West Village in Manhattan, the waste runs north six miles through gradually descending pipes to a plant at 137th Street, where it is mixed with so-called biological digesters that consume dangerous pathogens. The wastewater is then mixed with chlorine and sent into the Hudson River.
Fragile System
But New York’s system — like those in hundreds of others cities — combines rainwater runoff with sewage. Over the last three decades, as thousands of acres of trees, bushes and other vegetation in New York have been paved over, the land’s ability to absorb rain has declined significantly. When treatment plants are swamped, the excess spills from 490 overflow pipes throughout the city’s five boroughs.
…New York’s sewage system overflows essentially every other time it rains. … in hundreds of places, sewer systems remain out of compliance with that framework or the Clean Water Act, which regulates most pollution discharges to waterways. And the burdens on sewer systems are growing as cities become larger and, in some areas, rainstorms become more frequent and fierce.
New York’s system, for instance, was designed to accommodate a so-called five-year storm — a rainfall so extreme that it is expected to occur, on average, only twice a decade. But in 2007 alone, the city experienced three 25-year storms, according to city officials — storms so strong they would be expected only four times each century.
“When you get five inches of rain in 30 minutes, it’s like Thanksgiving Day traffic on a two-lane bridge in the sewer pipes,” said James Roberts, deputy commissioner of the city’s Department of Environmental Protection.
Hypoxia and the Gulf of Mexico
http://www.gulfhypoxia.net/Overview/
Hypoxia, or oxygen depletion, is an environmental phenomenon where the concentration of dissolved oxygen in the water column decreases to a level that can no longer support living aquatic organisms.
Hypoxia in the northern Gulf of Mexico is defined as a concentration of dissolved oxygen less than 2 mg/L (2 ppm). This figure is based on observational data that fish and shrimp species normally present on the sea floor are not captured in bottom-dragging trawls at oxygen levels < 2mg/L. In other oceans of the world, the upper limit for hypoxia may be as high as 3-5 mg/L. Hypoxia occurs naturally in many of the world’s marine environments, such as fjords, deep basins, open ocean oxygen minimum zones, and oxygen minimum zones associated with western boundary upwelling systems. Hypoxic and anoxic (no oxygen) waters have existed throughout geologic time, but their occurrence in shallow coastal and estuarine areas appears to be increasing as a result of human activities (Diaz and Rosenberg, 1995).
The largest hypoxic zone currently affecting the United States, and the second largest hypoxic zone worldwide, occurs in the northern Gulf of Mexico adjacent to the Mississippi River on the Louisiana/Texas continental shelf. The maximum areal extent of this hypoxic zone was measured at 22,000 km2 during the summer of 2002; this is approximately the same size as the state of Massachusetts. The average size of the hypoxic zone in the northern Gulf of Mexico over the past five years (2004-2008) is about 17,000 km2, the size of Lake Ontario.
For comparison, the entire surface area of the Chesapeake Bay and its major tributaries measures about 11,000 km2.
Hawaii’s famed white sandy beaches are shrinking
By AUDREY McAVOY (AP) –
Nov 14, 2009 KAILUA, Hawaii —
Jenn Boneza remembers when the white sandy beach near the boat ramp in her hometown was wide enough for people to build sand castles. “It really used to be a beautiful beach,” said the 35-year-old mother of two. “And now when you look at it, it’s gone.” What’s happening to portions of the beach in Kailua — a sunny coastal suburb of Honolulu where President Barack Obama spent his last two family vacations in the islands — is being repeated around the Hawaiian Islands.
Geologists say more than 70 percent of Kauai’s beaches are eroding while Oahu has lost a quarter of its sandy shoreline. They warn the problem is only likely to get significantly worse in coming decades as global warming causes sea levels to rise more rapidly. “It will probably have occurred to a scale that we will have only been able to save a few places and maintain beaches, and the rest are kind of a write-off,” said Dolan Eversole, a coastal geologist with the University of Hawaii’s Sea Grant program.
The loss of so many beaches is an alarming prospect for Hawaii on many levels. Many tourists come to Hawaii precisely because they want to lounge on and walk along its soft sandy shoreline.
These visitors spend some $11.4 billion each year, making tourism the state’s largest employer. Disappearing sands would also wreak havoc on the environment as many animals and plants would lose important habitats. The Hawaiian monk seal, an endangered species, gives birth and nurses pups on beaches.
The green sea turtle, a threatened species, lays eggs in the sand. Chip Fletcher, a University of Hawaii geology professor, says scientists in Hawaii haven’t yet observed an accelerated rate of sea level rise due to global warming. Instead, the erosion the islands are experiencing now is caused by several factors including a steady historical climb in sea levels that likely dates back to the 19th century. Other causes include storms and human actions like the construction of seawalls, jetties, and the dredging of stream mouths. Each of these human actions disrupts the natural flow of sand.
But a more rapid rise in sea levels, caused by global warming, is expected to contribute to erosion in Hawaii within decades. In 100 years, sea levels are likely to be at least 1 meter, or 3.3 feet, higher than they are now, pushing the ocean inland along coastal areas. Fletcher says between 60 to 80 percent of the nation’s shoreline is chronically eroding. But the problem is felt particularly acutely in Hawaii because the economy and lifestyle are so dependent on healthy beaches.
The state is doing everything it can to keep the sand in Waikiki, for example, joining with hotels in the state’s tourist hub on a plan to spend between $2 million and $3 million pumping in sand from offshore. Sam Lemmo, administrator of the state’s Office of Conservation and Coastal 
Lands, says the state would need a variety of adaptation strategies for different beaches. It would likely have to abandon hope for beaches in posh Lanikai and suburban Ewa Beach on Oahu because they’re already lined with seawalls and are badly eroded. The same probably goes for shoreline next to highways or other critical public infrastructure, where seawalls already exist or may have to be built. Seawalls protect individual properties from encroaching waters but they exacerbate erosion nearby by preventing waves from reaching the sand needed to replenish the beach.
For undeveloped shoreline, the state wants to make sure these areas stay pristine. This happened recently when a Florida-based developer announced plans to build luxury homes on sand dunes in Kahuku on Oahu’s North Shore. “We just kind of went nuts, pulled out all the guns on that one, basically got them to back off,” Lemmo said. “We’re working pretty hard to keep any new development away from these areas.”
The University of Hawaii’s Sea Grant program is working with a consultant to develop a beach management plan for Kailua that would address how to deal with a 1 meter rise in sea level. The state hopes this will be the first of many site-specific management plans for Hawaii’s beaches.
A “triage,” strategy could be applied to Kailua, which is lined by multimillion-dollar homes but doesn’t have seawalls. Fletcher proposes identifying areas where a land conservation fund would buy five or six adjoining properties. The state would tear down buildings on these plots and allow the beach to shift inland. He said when erosion hits more sections of Kailua beach, there’s going to be a clamor to put up seawalls. “That will be a very important moment,” Fletcher said. “If we allow the first home to put up a seawall, then we’re probably dooming the entire beach over the course of a couple of decades . . . Ultimately the beach will disappear. Or we could have an alternative to that, to identify now some portions of Kailua shoreline where we want the beach to live.” Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved
The Great Garbage Patch — Time to Think Beyond Plastic
November 5, 2009 by ccoimbraby
Charmaine Coimbra
You ask, “How bad is this Great Garbage Patch in the Pacific Gyre?”
It’s still a work in study, with a nightmarish bit of data already published. According to a recent report from the Center for Ocean Solutions–a collaboration between Stanford University, including the Hopkins Marine Station, the Monterey Bay Aquarium and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute–a group of 30 scientists from around the Pacific reviewed more than 3,400 scientific articles and reports regarding the Pacific Ocean, “…the most pervasive and serious threats…(are) pollution …(including) plastic marine debris…habitat destruction…overfishing and exploitation…(and) climate change (from) Carbon dioxide (CO2) discharged to the atmosphere…”
The report is available at www.centerforoceansolution.org/initiatives_poi.html
Plastics in Great Garbage Patch from http://www.greatgarbagepatch.org/
The Great Garbage Patch is the subject of this blog.
Sea Studios Foundation in Monterey, Ca (www.seastudios.org) recently explained, “(The Great Garbage Patch)… is roughly the size of Texas, containing approximately 3.5 million tons of trash. Shoes, toys, bags, pacifiers, wrappers, toothbrushes, and bottles too numerous to count are only part of what can be found in this accidental dump floating midway between Hawaii and San Francisco.”
Visit http://www.greatgarbagepatch.org/
Why is the trash there?
David Robinson, captain of the marine research vessel Derek M Baylis, and managing director of Sea Life Conservation (www.sealifeconservation.org), gave the most direct and simple explanation last night in Morro Bay, CA, “Because the ocean is downhill from everywhere.”
While the shipping industry is a secondary source of trash in the ocean, the main source is you and I—including our demand from the plastics industry, that also loses nurdles (tiny round plastic bits that make plastic toys–see http://neptune911.wordpress.com/2009/08/18/mermaid-tears-another-nautical-disaster/ ) into the sea.
Consider a big event, like a tornado ripping through the Midwestern US, spewing tons of trash along creeks that drain into tributary rivers, that drain into, say, the Mississippi River, that drains into the Gulf of Mexico. Consider the winds along San Francisco Bay that catch a loose plastic bag, and a runaway plastic cup that continue their downhill plight into the Pacific Ocean. Consider an earthquake and a resulting tsunami along Indonesia that uproots more debris, and then with a few swift destructive waves, pulls more waste into the Pacific. Consider the abandoned plastic toys that get caught in an El Nino year flood somewhere in Washington State, that floats downhill, and eventually into Puget Sound, and out into the sea.
I think of the wind that grabbed an empty plastic bag that I reused for lunch, right out from my car when I opened the door. I chased the bag until the wind flipped it into the air and over a fence, and out of reach, and then free to float into the open sea. Multiply this seemingly minor accident by the millions of people who live along the Pacific Coast—both east and west. And suddenly we find ourselves Googleing a map of Texas as we try to conceptualize trash inundating those state boundaries.
Then someone asks what’s the problem with that, because the trash is out in the middle of nowhere? The old out of sight out of mind scenario.
I’m going to let Captain Charles Moore, who discovered this garbage patch explain in this video:
Robinson simplified this issue of why the plastic in the Great Garbage Patch is important, “It’s now a part of our food chain.” Aside from the fish that have consumed plastic #7, for instance, a polycarbonate plastic used for clear plastic “sippy” cups, electronics, medical storage containers, 5-gallon water bottles, and “sport” water bottles, we eventually consume the fish. The health effects of polycarbonate plastic include the leaching of bisphenol A (BPA), a known endocrine disruptor.
Here’s how the scientific community views BPA http://www.ehponline.org/realfiles/members/2004/7534/7534.html
“By mimicking the action of the hormone, estrogen, bisphenol A has been found to: effect the development of young animals; play a role in certain types of cancer; create genetic damage and behavioral changes in a variety of species. Bisphenol A is widespread–one study found BPA in 95% of American adults sampled.” (Italics, mine.)
If that statement doesn’t catch your attention, then go ahead and just make yourself a BPA and banana smoothie and get the suffering over with quickly.
This is a challenge that is best met by stopping the over-use of plastics now. Like Robinson said last night, “I don’t hate plastics. My helmet for cycling is plastic and it’s good. But plastic when utilized for a moment (like take out containers, Styrofoam coffee cups, single serving food items—yogurt, juice drinks, etc.) is the problem.” One momentary, single use item, like a polystyrene take out container, can last for 400 years. When he was asked how do we fix this garbage patch dilemma, Robinson noted that repairing the ecological disaster is monumental, but “First, we have to stop the flow of plastic, ” meaning stop the plastic bags, stop the polystyrene single use containers, rethink your everyday dependence upon plastic and – try spending one day a week without plastic at all.
Note: The Think Beyond Plastics Voyage will next stop in Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, Long Beach, Newport Beach and San Diego.
For more information about plastic bags and plastics, see the accompanying Pages in this blog.
Toxic Algae Blooms Poison Marine Life and Seabirds
November 4, 2009 by ccoimbraKiller Algae: Key Player In Mass Extinctions
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091019134716.htm
Editor’s Note: A recent toxic algae bloom has caused the deaths of California Sea Lions along the Central Coast of California. Neptune 911 is researching this local information and will report our research results in the near future.
ScienceDaily (Oct. 20, 2009) — Supervolcanoes and cosmic impacts get all the terrible glory for causing mass extinctions, but a new theory suggests lowly algae may be the killer behind the world’s great species annihilations.
Today, just about anywhere there is water, there can be toxic algae. The microscopic plants usually exist in small concentrations, but a sudden warming in the water or an injection of dust or sediment from land can trigger a bloom that kills thousands of fish, poisons shellfish, or even humans.
James Castle and John Rodgers of Clemson University think the same thing happened during the five largest mass extinctions in Earth’s history. Each time a large die off occurred, they found a spike in the number of fossil algae mats called stromatolites strewn around the plane…”If you go through theories of mass extinctions, there are always some unanswered questions,” Castle said. “For example, an impact – how does that cause species to go extinct? Is it climate change, dust in the atmosphere? It’s probably not going to kill off all these species on its own.”
But as the nutrient-rich fallout from the disaster lands in the water, it becomes food for algae. They explode in population, releasing chemicals that can act as anything from skin irritants to potent neurotoxins. Plants on land can pick up the compounds in their roots, and pass them on to herbivorous animals.
If the theory is right, it answers a lot of questions about how species died off in the ancient world. It also raises concerns for how today’s algae may damage the ecosystem in a warmer world.
”Algae growth is favored by warmer temperatures,” Castle said. “You get accelerated metabolism and reproduction of these organisms, and the effect appears to be enhanced for species of toxin-producing cyanobacteria.”
He added that toxic algae in the United States appear to be migrating slowly northward through the country’s ponds and lakes, and along the coast as temperatures creep upward. Their expanding range portends a host of problems for fish and wildlife, but also for humans, as algae increasingly invade reservoirs and other sources of drinking water.
Foam from ocean algae bloom killing thousands of birds
By Lynne Terry, The Oregonian
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/10/foam_from_ocean_algae_bloom_ki.html
October 22, 2009, 7:36PM
Red-Throated Loon Covered in Foam. P. Chilton Photo
A red-throated loon, covered in foam, lies in the sand near the Klipsan beach approach on the northern end of the Long Beach Peninsula. The bird was still alive when this photo was taken.A slimy foam churning up from the ocean has killed thousands seabirds and washed many others ashore, stripped of their waterproofing and struggling for life.
The birds have been clobbered by an unusual algae bloom stretching from the northern Oregon coast to the tip of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state.
“This is huge,” said Julia Parrish, a marine biologist and professor at the University of Washington who leads a seabird monitoring group. “It’s the largest mortality event of its kind on the West Coast that we know of.”
The culprit is a single-cell algae or phytoplankton called Akashiwo sanguinea. Though the algae has multiplied off the coast of California before, killing hundreds of seabirds, the phenomenon has not been seen in Oregon and Washington, and has never occurred on the West Coast to this extent, Parrish said.
“We’re getting counts of up to a million cells per liter of water,” she said. “Think about that. That’s pretty dense.”
Marine biologists said it is not clear why the algae are multiplying, though they do flourish in warm weather. Recent storms could have contributed to the problem, with crashing waves breaking them up.
Helping the birds
The Wildlife Center of the North Coast said it needs cash donations to buy fish to feed the birds, along with good used towels, large dog kennels to carry birds and bleach, as well as experienced volunteers. Contact the center via its Web site at www.coastwildlife.org or by mail at: Wildlife Center of the North Coast P.O. Box 1232 Astoria, OR 97103 The algae get whipped by the surf into something akin to a sticky soap that looks like the top of a root beer float. The foam can be deadly to seabirds because it washes off the natural oils that keep them waterproofed.
Without that protection, they get cold, wet, eventually dying of hypothermia.
When they wash ashore, they are covered in foam.
“It looks like they’re lying in a sea of bubble bath,” said Greg Schirato, regional wildlife program manager for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. He said thousands had died.
This algal bloom, unlike the toxins produced by blue-green algae, poses no threat to humans or pets. But the bloom could kill fish by clogging their gills, said Zachary Forster, phytoplankton specialist at the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.
“We haven’t seen any instances of that,” Forster said.
The first seabird die-off in the Northwest occurred in mid-September, with swarms of dead and dying birds washing up on beaches around Kalaloch on the Olympic Peninsula.
At least a thousand scoters, or sea ducks, were killed, Parrish said.
“Then it subsided and we thought it was over, but it started up again,” she said.
This time Oregon was hit as well.
On Tuesday, birds flooded ashore on the Long Beach Peninsula and on beaches as far south as Cannon Beach, prompting an outpouring of calls to the Wildlife Center of the North Coast near Astoria.
The center, the only wildlife rehabilitation facility serving the northern Oregon and Washington coasts, is working around the clock treating more than 500 birds.
“We’re in an emergency crisis mode,” said Dr. Virginia Huang, president of the center’s board.
Not only are volunteers retrieving struggling birds in northern Oregon and Long Beach, but officials from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife are also trucking them in from the Olympic Peninsula.
Barbara Linnett, a volunteer at the wildlife center, said the majority of seabirds that have poured in are common murres, common loons, red-throated loons and grebes.
The center feeds them vitamins and fluids to hydrate them, then puts them in shallow pools of water. Swimming in clean water — and preening — helps the seabirds rebuild their waterproofing.
Linnett hopes some of the birds can be released in a few days.
In the meantime, marine biologists from Oregon, Washington and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Service are watching conditions closely, hoping that this was a freak event.
The last time it occurred was in 2007 in Monterey Bay, when hundreds of seabirds were killed.
“That event enabled us to figure out what is happening here,” Parrish said.
Sustainable Seafoods In The News
October 20, 2009 by ccoimbraCalifornia passed a sustainable seafood bill. Yeah for Caliyfornia! Watch the two videos below.
Is Spiritual Connection To Planet The Cure?
October 15, 2009 by ccoimbraCommentary
by
Charmaine Coimbra
C. Coimbra Photo
Yesterday I basked in the salty spray cast from the silver Pacific coast waves gone wild from a latent South Pacific typhoon. The ocean’s majestic power (and probably a dose of negative ions) energized my spirit. Experiencing this spectacle of rampant waves that crashed into the sand then ripped back to the sea just to collide with another incoming wave ready to burst open inspired reverence. It was like watching a sacred ceremony inside a most holy of churches.
However, where I stood above this oceanic cathedral, discarded cigarette filters littered the ground like mindless graffiti splattered against an ancient floor. “What kind of person would do this?” I asked spouse. His reply was neither gentle nor kind. Then I wondered out loud, “Do you suppose that the issues that hurt our planet and ourselves will ever be resolved until we find our spiritual connection with the planet?” Spouse,
C. Coimbra Photo
the misanthropist, thought not. I, the blogger, determined to find a blogging path for Blog Action Day, www.blogactionday.org decided to put this question out to people on Facebook and my personal e-mail lists.
Requesting 50 words or less, I asked:
Is it vital to have a spiritual connection to this planet in order to effectively correct the environmental, social, and humanitarian challenges that we/the planet presently face?
Ava Champion from Jasper, GA emailed this:
“If we look around, we see us, some animals and a planet. EVERYTHING else comes from the planet. We are responsible for only two things: being born and dying. All that happens in between happens because of where we live, on planet Earth, dare I say Mother Earth? It is impossible to live each day without taking something from this completely giving Mother. Human history is only a fraction of the earth’s history and yet we act as though we are the only reason it exists. When the reality is that the earth would be better off without us. Spiritually, we are lacking. We are not capable of understanding how small we really are. But our Mother continues to give us more than we deserve. We must strive to care for her and each other. Do something good every day. Give something back. Gee, pick up some trash, recycle as much as possible, and do unto others and all that. It will never be enough, but a good mother loves unconditionally. She always gives us another chance.
Terry Mock from Redlands, CA, emailed this,
Yes! We must respect all living things on this planet. We must not destroy life-plants, animals, vegetation, sea life or we will destroy ourselves. We must protect the cycle of life and the air that we breathe. Do our actions promote life and beauty and preservation of our planet?
Jeremy Munds, an Iraq War Veteran and now an imagery analyst with the United States Army, stated,
C. Coimbra Photo
No, it is just Loyalty, Duty, Repsect, Honor and Integrity. I have two more but I don’t think that they pertain. They might, so I’ll include Selfless Service and Personal Courage. Spiritual connections, in my eyes, are not needed. The ability to do what is right, legally and morally, even when no one is watching, is what we need to correct things.
Edward Parone of Nambe, NM sent,
For millions of years the earth has contained and produced enough “food” – animal, vegetable, mineral — to nourish and sustain the creatures and plants who lived on it. But since the arrival of homo sapiens we have been steadily and literally eating the planet. No one can say for sure just how long it will take this over-population to exhaust all the resources that once sustained life, but at the rate we are going, it is not that far off in evolutionary time. Gobble gobble, chomp chomp, burn and drown – and it will all be gone.
Sarah Doni Swenson, who blogs http://oneheartmanygardens.blogspot.com/ wrote from Seattle,
We have a spiritual connection to Earth regardless of whether we acknowledge it. It is like gravity, which also exists invisibly, and independent of our beliefs. Our challenge is to awaken ourselves in mindfulness to our spiritual nature, which will open the doors to perception that we are all part of everything, and that to heal/hurt some means to heal/hurt all, our planet included. I’ve recently been researching remote healing (also called healing at a distance). If you’re skeptical, Google it and then draw your own conclusions about interconnectedness.”
Alexis Strong of Santa Fe, noted,
It’s not possible for everyone on the planet to have a spiritual connection with it – so we can only hope that the collective power of who do will transcend mankind’s destruction. I do believe, however, that the planet, in its billion plus years of life, will survive any assault, including the ongoing human one.
Jim Terr, writer, musician, actor, and all things creative, at http://www.jimterr.com/ sent from Santa Fe,
I’m not positive what a “spiritual connection” is, but anyone who can’t simply see that unless the earth and everyone on it survives, that none of us do, has probably got their head too far up Rush Limbaugh’s butt to figure 
seriously into the discussion – except as an obstruction.
____________________
Weather and Earth movements wove in and out of this morning’s national news which included generous bonuses to Wall Street giants, a violent attack by five boys against one boy who told the truth, health care issues posing the haves against the have-nots, nuclear proliferation, and terrorists’ attacks against civilization. Meanwhile the tiny issue of cigarette butts on the beach seems insignificant until one sees the common thread that fuses today’s news—R-E-S-P-E-C-T–or the lack thereof.
Spirituality is personal. Action is essential. Knowledge and education opens the door.
Call to action:
http://www.oceanconservancy.org/
http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/
ccoimbra
