Marine News Roundup

This weeks best marine news stories all in once place!

Keystone Pipeline Could Push Endangered Whooping Crane Into Extinction
The Canadian energy company TransCanada and the Obama administration is on the verge of approving a proposal that will place a route through which to move toxic, highly corrosive, sludgy crude oil on the same narrow corridor used by one of the world’s most endangered birds. If approved by the administration, the Keystone XL tar-sands pipeline will move a half million+ barrels daily of Canadian crude 1,700 miles from Alberta, Canada to the Texas coast as soon as 2013. The Whooping crane is one of the most highly endangered birds in the world and the cranes follow the proposed path of the pipeline annually each spring, as they migrate from Texas to their breeding grounds in Canada. Scientists are deeply concerned by the proposals and say that, in addition to the grave risk of catastrophic spill, Whooping cranes would be put at still further risk by the installation of aerial power lines that would be constructed to power pumping stations on the proposed pipeline route. The State Department has completely ignored the impacts of the proposed pipeline on the highly endangered Whooping crane and in so doing, ignored the requirements of the Endangered Species Act. The Obama administration could announce its decision whether to block this remarkably flawed proposal at any time.

Tesco Drops Biodegradable Bags
Tesco is eliminating a controversial type of additive which helped it to create biodegradable bags, according to news reports. A study backed by the UK's Department for Food, Environment and Rural Affairs suggested that bags containing oxo-biodegradable additives (OBD) could actually harm the environment. Tesco is replacing the bags with an alternative that is not biodegradable, but which does use 15% recycled material. Tesco handed out over two billion of the bags to customers last year.

The Great Garbage Patch exposed
Tim Silverwood sailed the wild seas with a research team in search of the North Pacific's heart of plastic. His journey started around four years ago when he travelled to India and saw huge levels of trash entering waterways and the ocean. This article is a personal account of what Tim found when he visited the North Pacific Garbage Patch. "Tiny shards of 'micro debris', just like the plastic sand of Kamilo Beach, glistened among a treasure-trove of biota almost like they were meant to be there. It doesn't take long to realise that the larger items we spotted were merely the forebears of future plastic sand. Time, friction, tide and the relentless sun would secure their fate. Despite the conditions, we completed dozens of trawls and found plastic in every trawl, from recognisable items like pen caps and a toothbrush to tiny pieces including the infamous 'nurdle', the pre-production pellets used in the manufacture of plastic." You can read more about the North Pacific Garbage Patch and the problems of plastics and other debris in the marine environment in our Marine Debris blog.

Marine survey uncovers a deep sea treasure trove
Building on UN Environment Program biodiversity assessments, the Sydney Centre for Policy Development has counted up the worth of nature hidden beneath the sea's surface. The first serious stab at the value of the ecological benefits to Australia of its huge marine domain is $25 billion. The greatest single value lay in the ocean's use as a carbon sink. The report also calculated dollar values of the oceans to the economy in recreational fisheries, providing ''nursery'' services to fish, and in disease control.

Arctic sea ice is melting at its fastest pace in almost 40 years
The Northwest Passage was, again, free of ice this summer and the polar region could be unfrozen in just 30 years. Arctic sea ice has melted to a level not recorded since satellite observations started in 1972 – and almost certainly not experienced for at least 8,000 years, say polar scientists. The German researchers said the record melt was undoubtedly because of human-induced global warming. Floating Arctic sea ice naturally melts and re-freezes annually, but the speed of change in a generation has shocked scientists – it is now twice as great as it was in 1972, according to the NSIDC, with a decline of about 10% per decade. Arctic temperatures have risen more than twice as fast as the global average over the past half century. The last time the Arctic was uncontestably free of summertime ice was 125,000 years ago, at the height of the last major interglacial period, known as the Eemian. This year, both the North-west and North-east passages were mostly ice free, as they have been twice since 2008. Last year (2010) tied with 2005 as the warmest year on record.

Endangered blue whale spotted off Boothbay Harbor
Naturalists from two whale watching companies based in Boothbay Harbor confirmed the sighting on Sunday afternoon of an endangered blue whale, the largest mammal on Earth. The whale was believed to be “logging” or sleeping in waters about 15 miles offshore from Boothbay Harbor. Blue whales can grow to enormous sizes, weighing on average 400,000 pounds and possessing tongues that weigh as much as an elephant. Whale watch boats based in Maine typically spot fin, humpback and sei whales in the Gulf of Maine.

Call for more marine parks
The Centre for Policy Development, releasing its report on marine economy security, says that Australia needs extra marine parks and increased fish stocks to protect ocean ecosystems from the effects of climate change such as acidity and rising temperatures. Ocean ecosystems add an extra $25 billion to the national economy each year including $15.8 billion a year in carbon storage, the report says. Researchers looked at the south-western region of Western Australia as a case study and found the region provided an extra $435 million a year in value than official figures showed. The report said extending a proposed marine protection area to cover coastal shelf, sea grass and coral reefs could protect a further $1.1 billion in economic benefits.

Dugongs and Turtles Face Mass Starvation After Storm
Northeastern Australia may have dried out after devastating floods hit the area early this year, but for dugongs and turtles off the Queensland coast, the natural disaster's effects seem to be just beginning. Hundreds of the animals have been washing up dead onshore near the Great Barrier Reef.
The green turtles and dugongs, vulnerable herbivores related to the Florida manatee, are believed to be victims of the aftermath of the floods and cyclone that hit Australia over the past year.

Coral reefs 'will be gone by end of the century'
A leading United Nations scientist has claimed that coral reefs are on course to become the first ecosystem that human activity will eliminate entirely from the Earth. He says this event will occur before the end of the present century, which means that there are children already born who will live to see a world without coral. The predicted decline is mainly downacidification, though local activities such as overfishing, pollution and coastal development have also harmed the reefs. He predicts that, that "we risk having no reefs that resemble those of today in as little as 30 or 40 more years". Though not all scientists agree with these precise timescales set, the crisis is clear, although there are signs that local conservation efforts can make a difference.

10 deadly animals you wouldn't want to meet
Another great blog from the BBC Earth team! Check on number 8 on their 'deadly animals you wouldn't want to meet' list: Aurelia Jellyfish. "The common jellyfish moves by pulsating its saucer shaped colourless body. Beware the tentacles which surround its body - they contain stinging cells which are used to catch prey."

Plan for marine nature reserves
Plans for a series of marine nature reserves off the coast of Plymouth and South East Cornwall have been submitted to government. They are among a total of 58 proposed “conservation zones” in the South West covering habitats from estuaries and coastal areas to deep water canyons. The aim is to develop a wider network of areas providing improved protection for marine life and habitats. Of the suggested sites (MCZs), 13 are in offshore areas and 32 in the inshore waters of the region. It is aimed at protecting a broad range of wildlife and habitats, including a type of nationally scarce lagoon worm, blue mussel beds, a shoaling fish known as smelt, seagrass beds, the pink sea fan, a fish known as the giant goby, a stalked jellyfish and long snouted seahorses. Next year the Government will following a public consultation, announce the final list of marine conservation zones which are being designated under the Marine and Coastal Access Act. The Marine Conservation Society welcomed the announcement, saying protected sites were desperately needed to conserve the seas around the UK coast to allow habitats and wildlife to recover from decades of degradation.

Twice as much litter fouling area's beaches
On a more personal note, I have been volunteering for the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) for nine years and during this time I have, among other things, arranged regular beach cleans on the Plymouth Local Group's adopted beach at Batten Bay. This weekend is the MCS Beachwatch weekend and we will be holding a cleanup at Batten Bay at 10.30am this Saturday, 17th September. Our local paper, The Herald, has published an article which, although it doesn't mention my name, directly quotes from my email to our volunteers. It's good to see the message getting out there and hopefully we will have a good turnout of volunteers on Saturday!

That's it for this week... Check back next Thursday for the next Marine News Roundup!

Marine Debris

When you think about being on the beach, you probably picture a beautiful sunny day, golden sands, shimmering seas, buckets and spades… But what about litter? Marine debris is prevalent on our beaches and includes any human-made waste that deliberately or accidentally ends up on our beaches and in our seas, such as plastic bottles, food packaging and clothing, as well as things like cotton bud sticks, balloons, fishing line, nets, crab pots and even sewage.

So where does all this litter come from? There are many sources, but the top four, consistently, are shipping, sewage, fishing and the public. Most of it is preventable, yet levels of debris are increasing every year. Results of Marine Conservation Society surveys indicate that there are, on average, nearly 2,000 items of litter per kilometre on Britain’s beaches. Beach litter is at its highest levels since records began – it has almost doubled in the last 15 years and rose by 6% between 2009 and 2010.

Litter can cause huge problems in the marine environment. Not only is it an eyesore, it can harm marine wildlife and beach visitors too. Beachgoers can be injured by items of marine debris and can become ill from swimming in seawater contaminated with sewage. Shellfish grown in sewage-contaminated water can cause food poisoning to consumers due to a build-up of toxins in their tissues. Marine debris costs local authorities thousands of pounds every year in lost tourism revenue and cleanup costs, and the fishing industry also loses out when their gear becomes fouled by debris and catches are contaminated.

Marine litter kills more than one million sea birds and 100,000 marine mammals every year through ingestion and entanglement. Discarded fishing nets cause problems through ‘ghost fishing’, whereby marine life continues to be caught by nets left behind in the sea. The animals cannot escape and suffer slow deaths whilst trapped. The nets also pose a threat to divers, who can become entangled and trapped in them. A recent story from Honolulu has highlighted the dangers of debris after nine Hawaiian monk seals were rescued from fishing nets and other marine debris, which they had become entangled in. One of the seals was a female pup caught up in an 800lb mess of buoys, fishing nets and clothes baskets.

Marine animals often mistake litter, such a plastic bags and balloons, for food. A recent study has shown that plastic is rapidly becoming a significant "food" item for fishes living in the northern Pacific Ocean. Turtles are particularly susceptible to ingesting plastic, as they frequently mistake floating plastic bags for jellyfish, their main food source. The plastic bags block their stomachs, frequently leading to death through starvation. Seabirds also ingest floating plastic litter, mistaking it for food – over 90% of fulmars found dead around the North Sea have plastic in their stomachs. A study by Scottish scientists has also found that 83% of Langoustines, also known as Scampi or Norway lobster, have indigestible plastic fibres in their stomachs, usually in the form of clogging balls.

In fact, plastics account for more than half of all litter items found on UK beaches and the number of plastic items found annually has increased by 135% since 1994. They are a particular problem because they persist in the marine environment for hundreds if not thousands of years. Every single piece of plastic ever made still exists today. Eventually, plastic breaks down into microscopic particles or ‘snow’, which may be consumed by filter feeding animals such as barnacles. Pollutants can also be attracted to the surface of plastics, posing a previously unrecognised threat to marine animals once ingested. These pollutants may be passed up through the food chain by bioaccumulation to fish, and ultimately to human consumers. The toxic substances released by plastics as they break down can also effect the growth and development of marine animals.

Plastics can accumulate in the marine environment across large areas and there are known trash vortexes in each of the five major ocean gyres. The North Atlantic Garbage patch was originally documented in 1972 and is estimated to be hundreds of kilometers wide, with a density of more than 200,000 items of debris per square kilometer. The existence of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch was predicted by researchers in 1988 and it was subsequently discovered in 1997. It is frequently referred to as an exceptional example of marine pollution but mostly consists of tiny plastic particles that are invisible to the naked eye; more like a "plastic soup". It is consequently difficult to estimate the size of the patch, but it is believed to range somewhere between 700,000 to 15,000,000 square kilometers in size. Researchers say that it is, “growing exponentially and threatening to become one of the greatest ecological disasters of our time”. It is estimated that 80% of the debris originates from land-based sources, and the remaining 20% from shipping. The Indian Ocean Garbage Patch, discovered in 2010, does not appear as one continuous field of debris. Researchers from the 5 Gyres Project are currently investigating this garbage patch, along with those in the South Atlantic and South Pacific.

So what can we do about all this debris in our oceans and on our beaches? At a local level, you can make sure you don’t leave litter behind on the beach and don’t drop it in the street, don’t flush litter down the loo, and don’t take part in events such as balloon releases. You can reduce the amount of waste you produce, reuse items and recycle as much as you can. You could even create your own art installation! You can support charities that work towards acheiving cleaner seas, such as the Marine Conservation Society (MCS), through membership or fundraising. You can get involved with local beach cleans – the MCS uses data from beach cleans around the UK to target litter at source, at local, national and international levels. Their Beachwatch Big Weekend takes place over the third weekend in September each year and coincides with Project AWARE’s ‘International Cleanup Day’. If you dive, you can take part in the Project AWARE ‘Dive Against Debris’ campaign. To tackle the issue of marine debris on a larger scale, the MCS wants:

• Government to formulate coherent marine litter action plans.
• Industry to improve water treatment storage capacity and combined sewer overflows to reduce the discharge of untreated sewage and sewage related litter to rivers and the sea during heavy rainfall.
• The public to reduce their use of plastic packaging, and reuse and recycle wherever possible. First steps can be as simple as avoiding plastic shopping bags, bottled drinking water and over packaged goods.

So next time you’re at the beach, take a good look around you. If you want to preserve that idyllic seaside experience for future generations and ensure our seas stay fit and healthy, make sure you don’t add to the already huge problem of marine debris in our environment. On a national level, more effective legislation and enforcement of litter laws is needed. But every piece of litter has an owner – every single person can make a difference and has a responsibility not to drop litter or flush it down the toilet. Remember: bag it and bin it; don't flush it!

Useful Links

Beach litter categories
5 Gyres Project
Project AWARE
Marine Conservation Society