Stakes in the seas are high, but in at least one case, an interest in ocean health can lead to cooperation between unlikely teammates ...
... the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution held an international conference on the possibility of mitigating global warming by seeding the ocean with iron, a controversial procedure which would theoretically boost phytoplankton populations ...
... meanwhile, the scientist behind the theory that the earth is a living organism suggested installing a series of giant pipes in the oceans to circulate water, creating algae blooms, under the theory that the algae would consume carbon dioxide and promote cloud production ...
... a corals watchdog group said that just five percent of Philippine coral reefs are still in pristine condition due to overfishing and coral bleaching ...
... the island nation of Palau was noted for its conservation efforts, which fueled tourism, as its coral reefs are among the best in the world for diving ...
... a leaked internal report prepared for the European Union by outside experts called European fisheries "poor," with one author noting that the last 25 years had seen "an unparalleled period of decline" ...
... Israelis and Jordanians joined forces to build an artificial reef in the Red Sea ...
... a Russian engineering firm launched satellite monitoring of a bay where oil is harvested, and which is also the home to grey whales, among the rarest creatures on earth with just 100 to 300 estimated left in the western Pacific ...
... four Philippine fishing ships were caught poaching in Indonesian waters ...
... the Sierra Leone patrol navy stymied an attempted raid on two Chinese fishing ships by eight armed Guinean pirates ...
... the British government expressed interest in expanding its claims on the ocean surrounding the Falkland Islands from a 200-mile perimeter to 350 miles. An international boundaries researcher said, "Some states might ask why a big power is entitled to huge stretches of the ocean's resources thousands of miles away from its land, but that's the way the laws" ...
... scientists at the University of Arizona created maps that displayed what landmass would be flooded by a one-meter rise in sea levels, noting that it would inundate many American historic sites ...
... and the Bangladeshi head of state said a one-meter rise would displace 25 to 30 million of the low-lying country's population, calling it "climate Armageddon" ...
... a new U.S. federal report on sea turtles found that, despite gains in the 1990s, the loggerhead population was now declining ...
... the New England Fisheries Management Council voted to protect habitat for juvenile Atlantic cod in 4,500 acres near Plymouth, Mass ...
... a third dead blue whale was found floating off the coast of southern California in two weeks ...
... and Oceana was named a charity that "deserves your dollars" by business forecaster Kiplinger.
Tweet for the bees
James Bond calls for more marine protected areas
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Earth Shaman Posted 5:08 pm
29 Sep 2007
Earth Shaman
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Sam Wells Posted 10:11 am
30 Sep 2007
As to mercury, I'd like to clarify to say that elemental mercury is actually fairly stable - it is methyl mercury that is the problem (mercury fume or "Mad Hatter's Disease" does not exist in aquatic environments). Methyl mercury is an industrial by-product (acetaldehyde production) as well as associated with COAL-FIRED POWER PLANTS.
I'm not going to say flasks of mercury in the ocean are good or bad, but that coal power plants, drill rigs, industrial dumping, and other sources of methyl mercury are much more effective in bio-accumulation of marine species, bottom to top.
Onward through the fog
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caniscandida Posted 3:20 pm
30 Sep 2007
It is good news, apparently, that the joint Israeli-Jordanian project to construct solid foundations for coral reefs in the Gulf of Aqaba has had initial success. "Build it, and they will come!," "they" in this case being the corals, fish and other organisms that make up a reef ecosystem. (Though we shall have to wait and see if what might be a global problem facing all coral reefs presents itself there too.) To say nothing of the human side of the story: it is always swell, and far too rare, to see Israelis cooperating with Arab neighbors on something positive and peaceful having nothing to do with any of the region's sources of conflict.
As for diving and coral-reef-watching in the waters off Palau, sorry to sound reverse-snobbish, anti-travel, anti-hedonist and anti-sensationalist, but I cannot see how all that air travel is justified for that single destination. Now, if the stop in Palau were just part of a South Seas/Southeast Asian itinerary, featuring a number of sites of naturalist, scientific, aesthetic and cultural interest, then that would be another story.
The area designated as a marine reserve for hatchling and juvenile cod, at the New England Fisheries Management Council meeting in Plymouth, MA, is not near Plymouth itself, but is around a seafloor channel between Cape Cod and the Georges Bank, which is some distance out in the Atlantic. If you draw a line ESE from Boston, and another line SW from Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, where they intersect is close to the center of the Georges Bank.
Or, really, 3a. It is a pity that in this case, the fishermen and their allies are opposed to the designation of the reserve -- which of course was explained and supported by Oceana among others -- , and claim that the borders of the area were not determined with a sound scientific basis.
Chickens are our cousins! So are fish! So are other sentient animals! Let us learn to be kind.
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Colin Wright Posted 6:26 pm
30 Sep 2007
I'm always been suspicious of the geo-technical engineering ideas, mainly because they would just provide cover for people to go on polluting as before. But I'm starting to feel desperate enough to consider them as stop-gap measures along with massive carbon abatement.
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suzannah Posted 1:41 am
02 Oct 2007
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Colin Wright Posted 6:39 am
04 Oct 2007
There I found out that the tubes are about 10 m in diameter with a one-way valve. Tens of thousands are envisioned. But critics have pointed out that the tubes could end up releasing more CO2 into the atmosphere. We will have to wait for more study.
I wonder why you just couldn't sprinkle the DMS cloud seeder on the ocean surface?
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suzannah Posted 11:51 pm
04 Oct 2007
My favorite fantastic climate change idea is the one where we launch trillions of tiny mirrored satellites to block a small percentage of the sun's rays. Compared to the giant ocean tubes, it's simpler, less invasive and seems less likely to mess up a the earth's largest ecosystem.
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amazingdrx Posted 1:14 am
05 Oct 2007
"the scientist behind the theory that the earth is a living organism"
Please don't lend this nuclear power proponent any credibility. He deserves recognition for his idiotic support of nuclear power everytime his traitorous name is mentioned.
http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog
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