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15th August, 2008: Was it really a sea serpent?

Oarfish are large, greatly elongated, pelagic Lampriform fish comprising the small family Regalecidae. The occasional beachings of oarfish after storms, and their habit of lingering at the surface when sick or dying, make oarfish a probable source of many sea serpent tales.

Found in all temperate to tropical oceans yet rarely seen, the oarfish family contains four species in two genera. One of these, the king of herrings (Regalecus glesne), is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest bony fish alive, at up to 11 meters in length.

Above picture- An excellent example of one extremely long Oarfish.

The common name oarfish is presumably in reference to either their highly compressed and elongated bodies or the shape and use of their pelvic fins. The family name Regalecidae is derived from the Latin regalis, meaning "royal".

Although the larger species are considered game fish and are (to a minor extent) fished commercially, oarfish are rarely caught alive; their flesh is not well regarded due to its gelatinous consistency.

12th August, 2008: Cayman Trough search planned

Autosub6000 lifted into its recovery cradle after its first deep sea mission in the Atlantic in 2007. Photo: Courtesy of National Oceanography Centre, Southampton

British scientists are preparing to explore a “lost world” in the world’s deepest undersea volcanoes situated in the Cayman Trough in the Caribbean Sea.

Mr. Jon Copley will lead a team from the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, England, to explore a volcanic rift, 5,000 metres below sea level.

The likelihood of encountering mysterious creatures of the deep, a la Jules Verne, are high, Mr. Copley told the Caymanian Compass.

“If you come across animals deeper than 3,000 metres – and bear in mind this volcano is 5,000 metres deep – there is a 50/50 chance it will be something that no–one has ever seen before,” he said. Read more...

12th August, 2008: Conservation: Humpback whales make a comeback

Ian Sample, science correspondent - The humpback whale has moved from vulnerable to least concern, according to the IUCN Red List, meaning it is at low risk of extinction. Photograph: Jose Jacome/EPA

Humpback whales are making a comeback more than 40 years after a ban on commercial hunting was brought in to save them from extinction.

Marine biologists estimate that the number of humpbacks worldwide may have grown to more than 40,000 adults and about 15,000 juveniles, following the ban that began in the 1960s. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has revised its classification of the whales as "vulnerable" to "of least concern" on its latest annual list of endangered animals.

The southern right whale population has also begun to recover - the number of these is believed to have doubled from 7,500 in 1997.

Randall Reeves of the IUCN said: "This is a great conservation success and shows what needs to be done to ensure these ocean giants survive."

The success of these two species, however, contrasts with a worsening trend for other cetaceans, including whales, dolphins, sharks and porpoises, of which 10% are classified as endangered or critically endangered. Furthermore, the picture is unclear for more than half of the world's 44 cetacean species, because too little is known about their populations.

Smaller coastal and fresh water species, including the vaquita porpoise, finless porpoise, South American river dolphin and Irrawaddy dolphin, are increasingly at risk of extinction. Source

11th August, 2008: Snapper, hoki, tuna on the don't-eat list
The "sad" fish from the Greenpeace campaign, which was launched to raise awareness of threatened species. Photo / Greg Bowker

By Wayne Thompson - Popular eating fish such as snapper, hoki and tuna are in a Greenpeace guide aimed at persuading shoppers to avoid the most at-risk seafood species. The Red Fish guide was launched yesterday at Kelly Tarlton's Underwater World in Auckland.

It is part of an international consumer campaign which Greenpeace says has already seen supermarkets throughout Europe and the United States refusing to stock unsustainable species. Campaign manager Carmen Gravatt said all 12 species in the guide were at high risk of having been sourced from overfished stocks and caught using destructive fishing methods.

"New Zealanders have the power to help end the peril our oceans and fisheries are in. We are asking people to demand truly sustainable seafood from their retailer and use the guide." Greenpeace is calling for a global network of marine reserves covering 40 per cent of the oceans and for a cautious approach to managing fishing areas before the stock collapses. Shoppers should ask retailers where and how a fish was caught and whether the shop has a policy for sourcing only truly sustainable seafood.

The guide, for example, suggests avoiding orange roughy, saying they live for 100 years, do not reproduce until they are at least 20 years old and produce few eggs compared with other species, and bottom trawling methods used to catch them destroy ancient coral forests. It says snapper are a slow-growing and late-starting breeder and are under pressure from combined commercial and recreation catches.

Trawling for arrow squid kills threatened New Zealand sea lions and during the hoki fishing season hundreds of New Zealand fur seal and seabirds, such as albatross, are killed. Retail shops in Auckland at the weekend were selling snapper fillets for between $36 and $45 a kilo; hoki fillets cost $12/kg. Auckland Fish Market manager Tom Searle said it would be a shame if people were steered away from seafood, which offered health benefits.

"You can confidently walk into any fish shop in New Zealand and know that any fish caught in New Zealand that's in the shop is absolutely fine to eat, because the fishery is sustainably managed." Mr Searle said hoki stocks were closely monitored, arrow squid was one of the most sustainable species because of its short life and high reproductive rate, and orange roughy tuna and shark species were under management under a quota system.

The market did not sell Antarctic toothfish, hake and oreo. Mr Searle said tuna was popular with customers; it was a seasonal catch, caught by trolling. Milan Barbarich of Anton's Seafood said New Zealand's quota management system was recognised as one of the world's best.

"But Greenpeace and Forest & Bird would have you catching nothing." He said the snapper fishery had rejuvenated under 20 years of quota management.

Fisheries Minister Jim Anderton said Greenpeace should focus elsewhere in the world where stocks had been fished out rather than in New Zealand which had one of the "few sustainable wild fisheries". But he said the quota management system was "not perfect".

Greenpeace's 'red fish' to avoid:

Antarctic and Patagonian toothfish, arrow squid, flatfish, hake, hoki, orange roughy, oreo dories, sharks, shrimp and prawns, snapper, swordfish, tuna (except for skipjack). Source

10th August, 2008: The Ocean Revealed: Part 1

Seen from the shore, the ocean looks the same today as it did centuries ago: a vast shimmering silver-blue mirror of sky. This reflective veneer, however, masks an emptier, more polluted, warmer, and chemically changed sea. The collective weight of humanity presses upon the ocean now as never before, as we pull out too many fish and pour in too much garbage, fertilizer, and other pollutants. Our fishing and mining techniques scrape the bottom of the seafloor, raking up sea fans and crushing corals, destroying productive habitat. And by burning fossil fuels we not only raise the temperature of the water but also make it more acidic.

Why does this matter? Because the ocean supports all creation, in the sea and on land, including us. We are not as disconnected from this watery world as we may think. Tied to the shore, we also remain bound to the sea—by our need for food, oxygen, a stable climate, and the countless other life-sustaining services the ocean provides. We should understand something of how the ocean works, why we depend upon a healthy ocean, and why, despite all the damage that has been done, we can still be hopeful.

The Structure and Support of Oceans

We all know that the moon pulls the tides, rhythmically sliding the sea back and forth across the sand. But below the surface, seawater is traveling an epic journey around the globe, driven by the sun and wind, carrying heat and particles across the planet. It begins in the far north Atlantic, where strong winds cool and cause evaporation of the water. This leaves behind colder, saltier surface waters, which are more dense than the warmer, fresher waters below. The colder waters sink and flow south across the seafloor and into the Indian and Pacific oceans. As they travel, these waters warm, eventually rise upwards and after many centuries, flow back into the Atlantic, completing their lap around the globe. This is the giant ocean conveyor belt. It distributes heat from the tropics to the poles and transports nutrients throughout the ocean. Without it, life on earth would be very different. Southern Europe would not have a mild Mediterranean climate, for instance, which would affect growing seasons and crop production.

Winds also drive ocean circulation patterns. Winds blowing offshore (from land to sea) push warm surface waters away from the coast, causing deeper waters, full of nutrients, to rise up and fill the space—a process known as upwelling. The nutrients feed surfacedwelling single-celled algae called phytoplankton.

Phytoplankton comes from the root phyton for plant and plankton for wanderer. Like plants on land, the phytoplankton use nutrients, carbon dioxide and sunlight to make sugars through photosynthesis, creating oxygen as a “waste product.” These tiny algae, many too small to see without the aid of a microscope, produce half of all the oxygen made by plants on the planet. Without them, we wouldn’t have air to breathe. The oceanic food chain starts with phytoplankton— which are prey for bigger plankton—and moves up through fish and mammals. If you have ever dined upon fresh, wild, West Coast salmon, you have feasted upon the products of upwelling ecosystems.
Most of the seafood we eat comes from habitats near the coast—such as seaweed forests formed by giant algae called kelp, which can grow to be 60 feet tall—or from tropical coral reefs. These habitats provide sea life with food, shelter, places to breed, and hiding places for baby fish to grow.

These coastal ecosystems also protect our homes. Wetlands such as salt marshes and mangrove forests have dense root and plant structures that hold onto the soil, preventing erosion and absorbing the force of waves from storms. But since 1900, people have destroyed over 50% of worldwide wetlands for coastal development, timber, and fuel, or to make space for aquaculture farms. The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and 2005 Hurricane Katrina reveal the hidden costs, borne mostly by the poor, of wetland loss. In India, villages located behind healthy mangrove forests survived the tsunami; villages without mangroves were washed away by the waves. In the U.S., the loss of coastalmarshes exacerbated flooding damage done to the entire Gulf coast by Hurricane Katrina. Besides food and shoreline protection, people also benefit from the untold number of chemical compounds, many with disease-fighting qualities, found in the ocean. Many marine species still unknown to science could hold potential cures to illnesses such as arthritis, bacterial infections, and cancer.

Biological systems—the living parts of the ocean—supply all these services. But it is the chemical and physical structure of the water that allows life to thrive. Climate change alters the chemical and physical properties of the ocean, and threatens these life support systems on a global scale. Climate Change and the Sea Carbon dioxide, released mostly by the burning of fossil fuels, traps heat in the atmosphere, raising the temperature of the air and ocean. This increase in temperatures causes sea level to rise as warmer water expands and as glaciers melt and release more water into the ocean.

A higher sea level means higher tides and bigger storm waves—both of which cause beaches and cliffs to erode faster, washing away habitats where turtles and seabirds build their nests and people build their homes. Over half of the world’s population lives within 50 miles of the coast, and many, especially the poor, will be displaced as seawater floods their farms and taints the fresh groundwater supply. For residents of small island nations, such as Palau, these changes are already occurring, and there is no “higher ground” to go to. Warmer temperatures cause sea ice to melt sooner and faster. Marine life, including seals, walrus, polar bears, fish and penguins, depend on sea ice for hunting, birthing, resting, or feeding activities. Less sea ice makes it more difficult to catch a meal or care for their young. The ocean also absorbs carbon dioxide from the air—over one third of that produced since industrialization.

When carbon dioxide dissolves in seawater, it makes the water more acidic (by lowering its pH) and reduces the water’s number of carbonate ions. More carbon dioxide in ocean water leads to more carbon dioxide inside the bodies of marine animals, changing their internal pH. These animals must then spend energy balancing such chemical change, diverting energy away from their normal growth and reproduction. Also, fewer carbonate ions in the ocean water make it harder for corals, mollusks, and shelled plankton to build strong, thick shells and skeletons, which are made from carbonate. If we continue to follow current trends in fossil fuel consumption, scientists predict that oceans will be too acidic for corals and some seaweeds by 2050. Source

5th August, 2008: 'Extreme Water' Found at Atlantic Ocean Abyss

Located some 3 kilometers underneath the surface of the Atlantic Ocean,, scientists have discovered the hottest water ever found on Earth emanating from two black smokers called Two Boats and Sisters Peak. So hot, in fact, that the fluid has moved from being a fluid, to being a supercritical fluid.

A black smoker is a type of hydrothermal vent, a fissure in the planet’s surface, from which water heated by the geothermal heat from beneath issues in to the surrounding water. Geochemist Andrea Koschinsky, from Jacobs University in Bremen, Germany, and her team have been visiting these vents for several years, lowering thermometers in to them to gauge their temperature.

"It's water, but not as we know it," Koschinsky said of her discovery, referring to the fact that the fluid has gone supercritical.

When the temperature and pressures rise in a liquid, evaporation and/or boiling will occur. However, if both temperature and pressure is pushed to a critical point, the gas and the liquid will merge in to what is called a supercritical fluid. This has been done in laboratory and industrial settings, but never before has it been witnessed occurring naturally before.

And Koschinsky believes that this discovery could give us an idea how our oceans end up with traces of gold, copper and iron mixed in.

With the water maxing out at 464 °C for periods of 20 seconds, but settling at around 407 °C, the supercritical water acts different than normal water. It is far less dense than liquid water and vapor, and thus leaches elements like gold, iron, manganese and sulphur out of the rocks far more efficiently than liquid water.

Just why the vents are so hot is at the moment, a mystery. Koschinsky thinks that "the magma body underneath is probably enormous.” However her colleague, Colin Devey of the University of Kiel in Germany is less certain. "The explanation could be that there's lot of magma, but after a few more years of high temperatures, it's going to get to the point where it will be embarrassing how much magma there needs to be to maintain them for that long."

His explanation revolves around the idea that the vents that cool much more quickly in the Pacific, could indicate that the Pacific crust is more water-logged than the Atlantic’s crust. Vents are supposed to cool off after a year or so, but Two Boats and Sisters Peak could have been revitalized after a quake hit the surrounding region back in 2002.

If Devey is right? "If that turns out to be the case then we will have taken down some very, very holy grails," says Devey. Source

3rd August, 2008: Stinging Tentacles Offer Hint of Oceans’ Decline

Below: A jellyfish in the Mediterranean off the coast of the Spanish island of Mallorca.

BARCELONA, Spain — Blue patrol boats crisscross the swimming areas of beaches here with their huge nets skimming the water’s surface. The yellow flags that urge caution and the red flags that prohibit swimming because of risky currents are sometimes topped now with blue ones warning of a new danger: swarms of jellyfish.

Jellyfish at the Institute of Marine Sciences in Barcelona, Spain. Jellyfish have recently been turning up in places where they once were rarely seen, scientists say.
In a period of hours during a day a couple of weeks ago, 300 people on Barcelona’s bustling beaches were treated for stings, and 11 were taken to hospitals.

From Spain to New York, to Australia, Japan and Hawaii, jellyfish are becoming more numerous and more widespread, and they are showing up in places where they have rarely been seen before, scientists say. The faceless marauders are stinging children blithely bathing on summer vacations, forcing beaches to close and clogging fishing nets.

But while jellyfish invasions are a nuisance to tourists and a hardship to fishermen, for scientists they are a source of more profound alarm, a signal of the declining health of the world’s oceans. Read more here

31st July, 2008: Wellington’s marine reserve on home straight

Wellington’s south coast marine reserve comes a step closer today (July 31) with its formal announcement. Taputeranga Marine Reserve will be opened officially on September 7, 17 years after Forest & Bird started campaigning for it.

“Having Taputeranga Marine Reserve on Wellington’s doorstep will be a huge bonus,” Forest & Bird General Manager Mike Britton says. “With other marine reserves, as people have seen the growth of fish numbers and other marine life inside and outside the reserve, even opponents have become supporters.”

The reserve stretches along the south coast from Owhiro Bay Quarry gates in the west to Te Raekaihau point in the east, and includes Owhiro Bay, Island Bay and Houghton Bay. The 840-hectare area extends 2.3 kilometres out to sea to about 40m water depth, well beyond Taputeranga Island in Island Bay. It is shaped by three ocean currents and bears the brunt of southern ocean swells.

More than 180 fish species have been recorded in the area, and it is home to many varieties of shellfish, crayfish, crabs, starfish and smaller animals. About 400 types of seaweed flourish and seabirds such as little blue penguins and gannets live there. The Wellington Marine BioBlitz, coordinated by Forest & Bird in October 2007, found more than 600 species inside the proposed reserve in just one month, including at least 6 species new to science. Common dolphins, fur seals, orcas and whales are also visitors.

People are encouraged to visit the marine reserve to dive, swim, kayak and explore the beach but fishing or taking any marine life is not allowed.

The official opening will kick off Conservation Week on September 7, and will include a marine walk with talks and activities between Island Bay and Owhiro Bay quarry. It is organised by Forest & Bird, Department of Conservation, Island Bay Marine Education Centre, and others. As part of Conservation Week and the opening of the Taputeranga Marine Reserve, the Island Bay Marine Education Centre will be having an Open Day on Sunday, the 7th September.

25th July, 2008: Butterflies of the Sea: Flamboyantly Decorated Marine Animals
by CHAN LEE PENG_ These flamboyantly decorated marine animals leave us wondering how their unusually spectacular bright and colourful bodies protecting them from being attacked beneath the sea beds. Their dazzling and striking coloras make the marine lovers, aquarium enthusiasts, tide-poolers and even divers gaze at them in awe.

These marine animals are considered as one of the ocean's most beautiful creatures as they are flamboyantly decorated with extremely striking and brilliant color. They are grouped to the Class Gastropoda and belong to the Order Nudibranchia, in the Phylum Mollusca (molluscs or soft-bodied animals which include squids, octopi, abalones, shells, scallops, oysters, mussels, Chitons, and etc.). They are also known as Nudibranchs which means “naked gill” in Latin as they carry their exposed plume-like external gills on their backs. Unlike the snails, they do not have shell to cover their soft bodies from injuries and scratches. Despite the absence of the hard shells, they use a defend strategy called cryptic coloration or in a simple word “camouflage” to protect themselves.

Scientists believed that Nudibranchs are naked gill molluscs whose ancestors shrugged off their shells millions of years ago and thus Nudibranchs crawl through their lives as slick and naked creature when they are born. Approximately 3,000 species of these marine molluscs are found living particularly from shallow reefs to two miles beneath the sea floors all over the world. The species from the Family Chromodorididae alone are found to be more than 360 species distributed around the oceans of Caribbean, Mediterranean and Indo-Pacific. There are about 350 species of them being identified from the Great Barrier Reef.

Divers may come across these marine animals with their skins, muscles and organs sliding on trails of slime onto the sandy shallows and reefs to the ocean beds and coral heads. Some of them may be seen thriving in warm and cold waters but some even be seen billowing around deep-sea vents.

Though these naked sea slugs have a relatively large arsenal, their sizes are roughly of a human's index finger. Their average sizes can reach to about 50mm. That is why they always become a quick snack and an easy digested food for turtles, sea stars, humans, and even marine organisms. No matter how beautiful and dazzling coloration of their bodies, they live no longer than a year.

In contrast to their beauty, they are born blind as their tiny eyes discerning little more than light and dark. Despite of the blindness, they use their head-mounted sensory appendages called rhinophores and oral tentacles to smell, taste, and feel their world. Their chemical signals assist them to detect food sources like barnacles, small fish, eggs, and other tiny marine organisms. The adaptation of their brightly colored bodies is signals to warn their predators that they are tasteless or even deadly for them to feed on. Some may even have toxic glands just below the surface of their mantles to defend themselves from enemies. However, some species are able to swim swiftly and vigorously when disturbed.

As they are hermaphrodities in nature, and thus they have both male and female reproductive organs, they can fertilize one another. That means during mating, the partners fertilize each other that both become pregnant and lay eggs. They may lay eggs in tangled clumps, ribbons or even in coils depending on their specific species. They will lay up to two millions eggs at a time to double their reproductive success. Some of their young are born with mollusk shell to protect their tender bodies but their shells will quickly shed off thereafter.

Many types of these boneless species use the camouflage by blending their bodies to the colorful surrounding of the reefs while attracting their prey as their food source. This adaptation helps them from being spotted by other predators dwelling deep beneath the sea bed. As they are empowered with skin glands that produce potent poisons, some of them can even make sulphuric acid, and others may produce non-acidic substances. The species like orange peel Nudibranchs for example, secreting toxic chemicals to defend themselves. They will sting any marine creatures that they curious or suspicious by simply giving them a bite. They have no problems to eat toxic sponges or any other harmful marine animals without being suffered from toxicological consequences as they can alter the toxins by turning them into secretions that they will use against their potential predators. Specifically, when they dine on harmful marine organisms, they will reprocess and store the harmful substances from eating stinging-celled animals into their bodies which will be secreted from their skin cells or glands when attacked or disturbed. When threatened or in danger, some Nudibranchs will shed their cerata off to be attached to their predators firing nematocysts to enable them to escape from being captured.

They are carnivores and thus they feed on sessile invertebrates like sea fans, hydroids, sea anemones, bryozoans, barnacles, soft corals, ascidians, fish eggs, sponges and other species of marine organisms. Most of them are adapted for specific diet that may be restricted themselves to particular species of animals or plants. They have a ribbon of teeth called radula that are adapted to match their food choices. Nudibranchs which feed on sponge for example, have broad radulae together with several teeth to help them scraping while feeding on their prey. In contrary, Nudibranchs which feed on hydroids and bryozoans have narrow radulae but firm jaws to enable them crunching while eating. Some of the Nudibranchs will just rely on enzymes instead of teeth to break down their prey. It was reported that some Nudibranchs will change their colors in accordance to what they feed on. Source

25th July, 2008: Golden Ray photos of amazing mass migration

Looking like giant leaves floating in the sea, thousands of Golden Rays are seen here gathering off the coast of Mexico.

By Nick Allen: The spectacular scene was captured as the magnificent creatures made one of their biannual mass migrations to more agreeable waters. Gliding silently beneath the waves they turned vast areas of blue water to gold off the northern tip of the Yucatan Peninsula. Sandra Critelli, an amateur photographer, stumbled across the phenomenon while looking for whale sharks. See more here

24th July, 2008: New manta ray species discovered
After five years of study a marine biologist has confirmed that a larger and more elusive manta is in fact a distinct species. Until now it was thought that there was only one manta ray species.

The newly-discovered larger, migratory manta ray (top) and the common, resident species (below)

The newly-discovered species leads a different lifestyle to its smaller cousin and is migratory rather than residential.

Andrea Marshall is a PhD marine biologist sponsored by the Save Our Seas Foundation (SOSF) to advance scientific knowledge of the ray whose large triangular pectoral fins can span almost 8m in width and can weigh more than 2,000 kg.

She suspected the existence of a separate species and was able to confirm her theory through genetic and morphological analysis. There may even be a third manta species that exists across temperate, tropical and subtropical waters worldwide.

Marshall revealed her findings at the American Elasmobranch Symposium in Canada. In 2003 she moved to a small coastal village in southern Mozambique, to become the first marine biologist to study manta rays off the African coast.

Her observations of the unique spot patterns on the ventral surface of each ray enabled the identification of more than 900 individuals on a single reef, and she believes that southern Mozambique may boast the largest known population of manta rays in the world.

The discovery of a new species is likely to affect conservation ideas and policies about rays. The two species of manta have overlapping distributions and prior to Marshall's research they were thought to be one and the same kind.

The manta now confirmed as a distinct species is the larger of the two and shys away from divers rather than seeking interaction.

Little is known about its lifestyle or migration patterns and Marshall has only ever witnessed it arriving at sea-mounts or at particularly productive areas along a coastline to feed on plankton before disappearing back into the deep ocean.

Although both species are harmless the larger, migratory manta has retained the presence of a non-functioning sting in its tail.

Other differences between the two species lie in colour, skin texture and reproductive biology. The smaller of the two species is not migratory and is often encountered at coral reefs where they congregate to be cleaned by parasite-eating fish in locations such as Hawaii, the Maldives, Mozambique, Australia, Japan and the Island of Yap.

The more commonly known ray resides in the same areas year round making it particularly susceptible to fishing pressure. If resident rays continue to be fished unsustainably they face localised extinction.

The larger rays, migrants and ocean wanderers which makes conservation management difficult, are fished heavily particularly in southeast Asia, and thousands are killed each year.

Many fall victim to ghost nets and are killed alongside other marine creatures as by-catch. Rays are also threatened by habitat degradation, boat traffic and disturbance by divers.

Marshall has also uncovered some of the reproductive behaviour of these mysterious giants which are the largest of the ocean's 500 different species of rays and skates. Manta rays are now known to give birth to a single large offspring about 1.4m in size after a year of gestation and, once reaching maturity at about 4m across, typically produce a pup every other year.

They perform elaborate and sophisticated courtship displays, are highly social and inquisitive, and may communicate with one another using specific body posturing and possibly sound. Source

23rd July, 2008: Study Highlights Stormwater Effects On Harbour Sediments

A study showing sediment contamination in Wellington Harbour highlights the impact urban stormwater can have on the coastal environment and reinforces the importance of protecting the harbour from further contamination.

The Wellington Harbour marine sediment quality investigation, led by Greater Wellington and also partly funded by Wellington City Council and Hutt City Council, targeted 17 sites across the harbour making it the most comprehensive assessment of harbour sediment quality in 20 years.

It shows that contaminants such as heavy metals, hydrocarbons and pesticides have accumulated in the surface sediments of Wellington Harbour. The highest concentrations are found in inner Lambton Basin and Evans Bay where they are above national sediment quality guidelines. These areas offer little flushing of contaminants.

Greater Wellington Environmental Science team leader Juliet Milne said the contaminated sediment posed little risk to people, but could have adverse effects on sea-floor marine life.

"Although our examination of the organisms living on the sea floor didn't show any clear evidence of adverse effects, we can't conclusively say there are no effects at an individual species level or in areas closer to shore where sediment contamination will be higher."

Ms Milne said investigations show that urban runoff - from chemicals used in car cleaning products, dog droppings and toxic chemicals such as paint and oil being poured down stormwater drains - is a major contributor to harbour seabed contamination. "Runoff enters the harbour directly via stormwater outfalls or via urban streams that flow into the harbour."

Greater Wellington Regulatory Committee chair Sally Baber said the study reinforced the importance of protecting the harbour from further contamination.

"While some contamination is historical in origin, the contaminants are persistent and toxic and continue to enter our harbour via streams and stormwater drains. If we wait until we see adverse affects it may be too late for some species."

Cr Baber said Greater Wellington's new Regional Policy Statement, currently at draft stage, would direct regional and district plans to both ensure healthy marine ecosystems were sustained and move towards low impact urban design to reduce the volume and toxicity of contaminants entering stormwater drains.

However, she said everyone in the community had a role to play. "We all need to contribute to improving the situation by being really careful about what we allow to flow down our gutters and stormwater drains," she said. Wellington City Council's Environment Portfolio Leader Councillor Celia Wade-Brown expressed concern at the results of the study. The City Council has a range of measures to tackle the problem - including a new earthworks policy, 'public education' initiatives to raise awareness of the consequences of stormwater pollution, and a new resource-consent process to cover all stormwater discharges from the city into the harbour.

"Every Wellingtonian can take pride in our city's beautiful natural environment. This study is a reminder to the Council and the wider public that we must ensure that 'only rain goes down the drain'. By working together we can reduce stormwater pollution and help protect our harbour's marine environment. We have an amazing range of marine species of plants and animals. Let's not pollute their lives."

"Wellington can be the world's greenest little Capital if we all take more care!"

Hutt City Mayor David Ogden said that Hutt City Council was already taking a number of actions to address stormwater and stream contamination issues. These included a multi-million dollar contribution to the Waiwhetu Stream clean up project, a review of the district plan which includes consideration of stormwater management techniques, ongoing education programmes, and an active programme to improve quality of run-off from commercial premises particularly in the Seaview-Gracefield area.

17th July, 2008: Cool! Odd-Looking Marine Animals

see more here... follow the link at bottom of page to continue on a journey of new animals for you to experience....

15th July, 2008: One Third of Reef-Building Corals Face Extinction

One third of reef-building corals around the world are threatened with extinction, according to the first-ever comprehensive global assessment to determine their conservation status. The study findings were published today by Science Express.

Leading coral experts joined forces with the Global Marine Species Assessment (GMSA) – a joint initiative of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and Conservation International (CI) – to apply the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria to this important group of marine species.

“The results of this study are very disconcerting,” stated Kent Carpenter, lead author of the Science article, GMSA Director, IUCN Species Programme. “When corals die off, so do the other plants and animals that depend on coral reefs for food and shelter, and this can lead to the collapse of entire ecosystems.”

Built over millions of years, coral reefs are home to more than 25 percent of marine species, making them the most biologically diverse of marine ecosystems. Corals produce reefs in shallow tropical and sub-tropical seas and have been shown to be highly sensitive to changes in their environment. Read more...

14th July, 2008: Seas Striped With Newfound Currents

A worldwide crisscrossing pattern of ocean current striations has been revealed through measurements made by drifting buoys over a period of more than 20 years and through satellite readings of ocean velocity. Blue bands represent westward-flowing currents and red bands indicate eastward-flowing currents that move at roughly 1 centimeter per second. Credit: Nikolai Maximenko, University of Hawaii

By Brendan Borrell, Natural History Magazine: Sailors and scientists have been mapping ocean currents for centuries, but it turns out they’ve missed something big. How big? The entire ocean is striped with 100-mile-wide bands of slow-moving water that extend right down to the seafloor, according to a recent study.

Nikolai A. Maximenko of the University of Hawaii at Manoa and colleagues developed a precise new method for measuring the topography of the ocean surface by combining data from satellites and from the movements of more than 10,000 drifting oceanographic buoys. In doing so, the team generated detailed maps, in which they first noticed the peculiar striations. Some scientists initially dismissed the stripes as statistical artifacts, but Maximenko’s team dug deeper, looking for a similar pattern in water temperature measurements from two test areas in the Pacific.

Indeed, though barely detectable, the striated currents are real. They flow past each other in opposing directions at 130 feet per hour—just one-tenth to one-hundredth the speed of major ocean currents—and subtle changes in temperature demarcate their boundaries.

Maximenko says a new computer model has corroborated some features of the observed striations, but his team is still mystified by their orientation, location, and strength. The discovery is important, he says, because even weak currents can have large effects on global climate and on the flow of food and creatures in the oceans. Source

11th July, 2008: Scientists discover new reefs teeming with marine life in Brazil
Doubling the size of the southern Atlantic's largest reef system

Fort Lauderdale: Scientists announced the discovery of reef structures they believe doubles the size of the Southern Atlantic Ocean's largest and richest reef system, the Abrolhos Bank, off the southern coast of Brazil's Bahia state. The newly discovered area is also far more abundant in marine life than the previously known Abrolhos reef system, one of the world's most unique and important reefs, according to Eurekalert, the news service of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Researchers from Conservation International (CI), Federal University of Espírito Santo and Federal University of Bahia announced their discovery in a paper presented today at the International Coral Reef Symposium in Fort Lauderdale. "We had some clues from local fishermen that other reefs existed, but not at the scale of what we discovered," says Rodrigo de Moura, Conservation International Brazil marine specialist and co-author of the paper. "It is very exciting and highly unusual to discover a reef structure this large and harboring such an abundance of fish," he adds.

The Abrolhos Bank is considered one of the world's most important reefs because it harbors a high number of marine species found only in Brazil including species of soft corals, mollusks and fish found only in the Abrolhos shelf. The Mussismilia coral genus, a relic group remnant of an ancient coral fauna dating back to the Tertiary period that went extinct long ago elsewhere in the Atlantic, is the dominant coral of the Abrolhos reef, which is structured in unique mushroom-like shapes.

Researchers mapped the new reef structures in areas ranging from nine to 124 miles (15 to 200 km) off the coast and in depths ranging from 60 to 220 feet (20 to 73 meters) using a side scan sonar which produces a three-dimensional map of the marine seabed.

"Due to their relative inaccessibility and depth, the newly discovered reefs are teeming with life, in some places harboring 30 times the density of marine life than the known, shallower reefs," says Guilherme Dutra, Conservation International's director of marine programs in Brazil. "That's the good news. The bad news is that only a small percentage of marine habitats in the Abrolhos are protected, despite mounting localized and global threats."

Localized threats include over-fishing, coastal development and large scale land conversion to agriculture, shrimp farms, pollution, oil drilling and sedimentation. Global threats include climate change and ocean acidification.

Researchers acknowledged the conservation effectiveness of the present network of Marine Protected Areas in the Abrolhos. But it is very limited and not nearly enough vis-à-vis the mounting threats, they added.

The next phase of the Abrolhos project will be to study the marine life in the new reef structures.

"These studies reveal the complexity and connectivity of the reefs in the Abrolhos region and will support conservation planning," states Guilherme Dutra. Source

4th July, 2008: Greenhouse gases called threat to Pacific life
Ocean waters welling up from the depths along the Pacific Coast from Canada to Mexico are threatening a wide variety of marine organisms as carbon dioxide, the major greenhouse gas, saturates the water and increases its corrosive acidity, government scientists report.

The world’s oceans now absorb millions of tons of the global warming gas each year, and thus help to slow the pace of climate change, but the benefit is far outweighed by extreme and damaging changes in the water’s chemistry, according to seagoing oceanographers.

In separate recent reports in the journal Science and in congressional testimony, the scientists warn that the rate of “ocean acidification” is increasing, and say damage to some of the most important living organisms in the sea’s food web is becoming more apparent.

The acid can endanger all kinds of marine animals, from the shells of microscopic plankton to the beaks of giant squid, biologists are finding from laboratory experiments and seagoing studies.

Richard Feely, a chemical oceanographer in Seattle with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, estimates that the world’s oceans have become at least 30 percent more acidic since the Industrial Age began more than 200 years ago, and that if greenhouse gas emissions continue uncontrolled, the world’s oceans in this century will become 150 percent more acidic than they are today.

“While the changes are alarming, it’s nearly impossible to predict how this unprecedented acidification will affect entire ecosystems,” says Ken Caldeira, an atmospheric scientist with the Carnegie Institute’s Department of Global Ecology at Stanford.

Two teams, similar findings

Caldeira and his colleagues raise the issue today in Science. Only two weeks ago in the same journal, Feely’s team from NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory reported on their most recent ocean survey along the West Coast and over the continental shelf aboard NOAA’s oceanographic research ship Wecoma, sailing more than 2,000 miles from Queen Charlotte Sound in British Columbia to San Gregorio in Baja California.

During May and June 2007, the Wecoma’s researchers took repeated samples of the upwelling water that rose from the deep sea bottom onto the continental shelf, where depths range from 120 to 1,200 feet, and discovered that the water had been heavily saturated with carbon dioxide and acidified as it lay on the bottom for 50 years.

On another NOAA ship, the MacArthur II, water sampling by Feely’s team off the Golden Gate and along other sections of the Northern California coast revealed that the acidified water reached all the way to the surface, the scientists reported.

Each spring along the West Coast, winds from the northwest blow strongly across the sea surface toward the shore and generate strong upwelling currents, Feely explained. The upwelling, in turn, brings water saturated with carbon dioxide from the deep bottom toward the surface. Then, as the gas mixes with seawater, it becomes carbonic acid, and when that acidity of the water becomes strong enough, it can dissolve the calcium carbonate shells of many of the sea’s most important animals.

Scientists have already reported the severe damage that acidity in seawater is causing to corals - both the shallow coral reefs of the tropics and the lesser-known deepwater corals of the northern oceans that also require calcium carbonate to build their bony skeletal homes.

But mussels, oysters, crabs, urchins, squid, and the kind of microscopic carbonate-shelled plankton that form the diet of creatures ranging in size from krill to whales are also organisms that can fall prey to increases in the ocean’s acidity, according to Feely.

One tiny shelled organism, a swimming snail called a pteropod, is a major food source for juvenile Pacific Coast salmon and other fish, Feely noted, and their loss because of increases in the ocean’s acidity could in turn seriously endanger one of the most important commercial fisheries on the West Coast - not only salmon, but mackerel, herring and cod.

“We have little idea what ocean acidification will do to fish eggs or fish larvae, or how the loss of organisms at the base of the food chain might affect the larger fish that so many people have come to depend on,” Caldeira said last month in testimony to the House Subcommittee on Energy and Environment.
Research still in its infancy

Or as Feely put it in his own testimony before the same congressional committee: “Since ocean acidification research is still in its infancy, it is impossible to predict exactly how the individual species’ responses will cascade throughout the marine food chain and impact the overall structure of marine ecosystems.”

Sea urchins make ideal models for studying the effects of environmental stresses on the development of other marine animals, and their entire genome was sequenced only two years ago.

At UC Santa Barbara, Gretchen Hofmann, a leading marine biologist, has collected sea urchins from Antarctica and now cultures their embryos in her laboratory, where she varies the concentration of carbon dioxide in sea water to study its effects on the sea urchin genes.

As that concentration doubles and doubles again from 385 parts per million to 1,000 parts per million - the same rate of increase predicted by the International Panel on Climate Change for this century - acidification increases too, Hofmann said Thursday.

“We can see tipping points where genetic changes in the embryos occur all along the way as carbon dioxide in the water rises,” she said, “and at 1,000 parts per million, the entire metabolism of the embryos crashes, their genes shut deeply down, and they can't make their skeletons at all. Source”

1st July, 2008: Disappearing penguins set alarm bells ringing in the world’s oceans

Like the proverbial canary in the coal mine, penguins are sounding the alarm for potentially catastrophic changes in the world's oceans, and the culprit isn't only climate change, says a University of Washington conservation biologist.

Oil pollution, depletion of fisheries and rampant coastline development that threatens breeding habitat for many penguin species, along with Earth's warming climate, are leading to rapid population declines among penguins, said Dee Boersma, a University of Washington biology professor and an authority on the flightless birds.

"Penguins are among those species that show us that we are making fundamental changes to our world," she said. "The fate of all species is to go extinct, but there are some species that go extinct before their time and we are facing that possibility with some penguins."

19 Penguins species - 43 key penguin sites
In a new paper published in the July-August edition of the journal BioScience, Boersma notes that there are 16 to 19 penguin species, and most penguins are at 43 geographical sites, virtually all in the Southern Hemisphere. But for most of these colonies, so little is known that even their population trends are a mystery. The result is that few people realized that many of them were experiencing sharp population declines.

Survey required every 5 years
Boersma contends the birds actually serve as sentinels for radically changing environment. She advocates a broad international effort to check on the largest colonies of each penguin species regularly- at least every five years - to see how their populations are faring, what the greatest threats seem to be and what the changes mean for the health of the oceans.

"We have to be able to understand the world that we live in and depend on," she said. "It is the responsibility of governments to gather the information that helps us understand and make it available, but if they can't do it then we need non-governmental organizations to step up."
Largest breeding colony of Magellanic penguins
For 25 years, working with the Wildlife Conservation Society and UW colleagues, Boersma has studied the world's largest breeding colony of Magellanic penguins at Punta Tombo on the Atlantic coast of Argentina. That population probably peaked at about 400,000 pairs between the late 1960s and early 1980s, and today is just half that total.

There are similar stories from other regions. African penguins decreased from 1.5 million pairs a century ago to just 63,000 pairs by 2005. The number of Galapagos Islands penguins, the only species with a range that extends into the Northern Hemisphere, has fallen to around 2,500 birds, about one-quarter what it was when Boersma first studied the population in the 1970s.

The number of Adélie and Chinstrap penguins living on the Antarctic Peninsula, the northernmost part of the continent, has declined by 50 percent since the mid-1970s. Other species in Africa, South America, Australia, New Zealand, the Falklands Islands and Antarctica also have suffered significant population declines, Boersma said.

Emperor penguins breeding failure
She recounts watching in 2006 as climate anomalies wreaked havoc on breeding of the same population of Emperor penguins that was featured in the popular 2005 film "March of the Penguins." The colony bred in the same location as in other years, where the ice is protected from the open sea and wind keeps snow from piling up and freezing the eggs. But in September, with the chicks just more than half-grown, the adults apparently sensed danger and uncharacteristically marched the colony more than 3 miles to different ice. The ice they chose remained intact the longest, but in late September a strong storm broke up the remaining ice and the penguin chicks were forced into the water. While the adults could survive, the chicks needed two more months of feather growth and build up of insulating fat to be independent. The likely result of the climate anomaly, Boersma said, was a total colony breeding failure that year.

Galapagos penquins
Changing climate also appears to be key in the decline of Galapagos penguins, she said. As the atmosphere and ocean get warmer, El Niño Southern Oscillation events, which affect weather patterns worldwide, seem to occur with greater frequency. During those times, ocean currents that carry the small fish that the penguins feed on are pushed farther away from the islands and the birds often starve or are left too weak to breed.

Oil pollution
These problems raise the question of whether humans are making it too difficult for other species to coexist, Boersma said. Penguins in places like Argentina, the Falklands and Africa run increasing risks of being fouled by oil, either from ocean drilling or because of petroleum discharge from passing ships. The birds' chances of getting oiled are also increasing because in many cases they have to forage much farther than before to find the prey on which they feed.

"As the fish humans have traditionally eaten get more and more scarce, we are fishing down the food chain and now we are beginning to compete more directly with smaller organisms for the food they depend on," she said. "As the world's population continues to explode and more and more people live in coastal areas, the negative effects are growing for both marine and shore-based habitats used by a variety of species. There is an urgent need to begin monitoring those negative impacts," Boersma said.

Overpopulation
"I don't think we can wait. In 1960 we had 3 billion people in the world. Now it's 6.7 billion and it's expected to be 8 billion by 2025," she said. "We've waited a very long time. It's clear that humans have changed the face of the Earth and we have changed the face of the oceans, but we just can't see it. We've already waited too long.

"The Discovery Channel and public television are very popular for their nature programs, and those featuring penguins are especially popular. But we don't want to just have them in our television sets. We want to have them out in the world."

The research was funded by the Wildlife Conservation Society and other foundations and donors. Source

30th June , 2008: Lyttelton home to invasive marine pest
Five specimens of a marine pest first identified in New Zealand waters last month have been found in Lyttelton port, and a survey has been launched to see if it can be eradicated.

A single specimen of the Mediterranean fanworm was found on a vessel in the port last month during a routine surveillance check for certain target marine pests.
MAF Biosecurity New Zealand said today four further specimens had been found, indicating there was a "definite population'' of the organisms in the port.
The fanworm is one of the species the organisation looks out for due to its potential to spread and affect other marine species.
It poses no risk to human health.
A further, detailed, search of the area has been launched, to ascertain if eradicating the species is feasible, or whether management measures will be an advisable option.
The work is expected to take a week.
The survey will cover the Lyttelton Port area including the area immediately outside the port basin and Magazine Bay Marina. Source

23rd June , 2008: Exploited fish make rapid comeback in world's largest no-take marine reserve network

No-take marine reserves, in which fishing is completely banned, can lead to very rapid comebacks of the fish species most prized by commercial and recreational fisheries, reveals a new study of Australia's Great Barrier Reef published in the June 24th issue of Current Biology, a Cell Press publication.

The researchers found in most cases that coral trout—the major targets of commercial and recreational hook-and-line fisheries in Australia—bounced back in no-take reserves compared to fished sites in two years or less.

" We were surprised that we documented increases in coral trout density of 31% to 68% in such a short time," said study author Garry Russ of James Cook University in Queensland. "Others have seen such rapid increases in smaller-scale studies, usually at one or a few small reserves. The big surprise was that we detected a consistent, rapid increase in multiple large reserves spread over 1000 km offshore and 700 km inshore. This represents a positive and unprecedented response to reserve protection."

The new findings come from a joint study by scientists from James Cook University and the Australian Institute of Marine Science.

Australia's Great Barrier Reef Marine Park generates AU$5.8 billion annually from tourism and fisheries, the researchers said. In mid-2004, the Australian Government rezoned the park, placing more than 20% of each of 70 bioregions within it into the world's largest network of no-take marine reserves, covering more than 100,000 km.

The move sparked intense community interest and affected livelihoods, making monitoring of the new reserve network's effects imperative, the authors noted. In the new study, the teams used underwater visual census to survey reef organisms in new coral reef reserves and in control areas that remained open to fishing before and again 1.5 to 2 years after the reserves were put into place.

They found that the coral trout numbers were significantly higher in no-take reserves than in sites that remained open to fishing in four of five offshore regions and two of three inshore regions of the Great Barrier Reef.

The findings are probably due to decreased fishing mortality inside the new reserves, rather than increased fishing outside, they said. In inshore areas, where most recreational fishing occurs, the data showed increases in coral trout density inside reserves rather than decreases in adjacent fished areas after rezoning.

"Although preliminary, our results provide an encouraging message that bold political steps to protect biodiversity can produce rapid, positive results for exploited species at ecosystem scales," Russ said. "The people of Australia got what they wanted: more protection for an Australian icon. And it will help to boost tourism even more. It is an important lesson for the entire world." Source

19th June , 2008: Monsters of the deep still undiscovered

GIVEN their size, you might assume they had all been found by now. But scientists believe the world's oceans are still hiding giant underwater creatures which have yet to be discovered.

Marine ecologists have predicted there could be as many as 18 unknown species, with body lengths greater than 1.8 metres, still swimming in the great expanses of unexplored sea.

Using statistical modelling, they measured the rate at which new large sea creatures have been discovered since 1830 and found that the rate of discovery is still going strong, with new species being found every year.

Most recently scientists found a new species of jellyfish that is more than 3.5 metres long off the south coast of New Zealand, along with star fish up to a metre wide.

The first full-sized carcass of a colossal squid, a deep-sea monster four metres long, was revealed for the first time earlier this year. Read more here

18th June , 2008: Jellyfish outbreaks a sign of nature out of sync
PARIS - The dramatic proliferation of jellyfish in oceans around the world, driven by overfishing and climate change, is a sure sign of ecosystems out of kilter, warn experts.
"Jellyfish are an excellent bellwether for the environment," explains Jacqueline Goy, of the Oceanographic Institute of Paris. "The more jellyfish, the stronger the signal that something has changed."
Brainless creatures composed almost entirely of water, the primitive animals have quietly filled a vacuum created by the voracious human appetite for fish.

Brainless creatures composed almost entirely of water, the primitive animals have quietly filled a vacuum created by the voracious human appetite for fish.. AFP/Getty Images

Dislodging them will be difficult, marine biologists say.
"Jellyfish have come to occupy the place of many other species," notes Ricardo Aguilar, research director for Oceana, a international conservation organisation.
Nowhere is the sting of these poorly understood invertebrates felt more sharply than the Mediterranean basin, where their exploding numbers have devastated native marine species and threaten seaside tourism.
And while much about the lampshade-like creatures remains unknown, scientists are in agreement: Pelagia noctiluca - whose tentacles can paralyse prey and cause burning rashes in humans - will once again besiege Mediterranean coastal waters this summer.
That, in itself, is not unusual. It is the frequency and persistence of these appearances that worry scientists.
Two centuries worth of data shows that jellyfish populations naturally swell every 12 years, remain stable four or six years, and then subside.
2008, however, will be the eighth consecutive year that medusae, as they are also known, will be present in massive numbers.
The over-exploitation of ocean resources by man has helped create a near-perfect environment in which these most primitive of ocean creatures can multiply unchecked, scientists say.
"When vertebrates, such as fish, disappear, then invertebrates - especially jellyfish - appear," says Aguilar.
The collapse of fish populations boost this process in two important ways, he added. When predators such as tuna, sharks, and turtles vanish, not only do fewer jellyfish get eaten, they have less competition for food.
Jellyfish feed on small fish and zooplankton that get caught up in their dangling tentacles.
"Jellyfish both compete with fish for plankton food, and predate directly on fish," explains Andrew Brierley from the University of St Andrews in Scotland. "It is hard, therefore, to see a way back for fish once jellyfish have become established, even if commercial fishing is reduced."
Which is why Brierley and other experts were not surprised to find a huge surge in the number of jellyfish off the coast of Namibia in the Atlantic, one of the most intensely fished oceans in the world.
Climate change has also been a boon to these domed gelatinous creatures in so far as warmer waters prolong their reproductive cycles.
But just how many millions, or billions, of jellyfish roam the seas is nearly impossible to know, said scientists.
For one things, the boneless, translucent animals - even big ones grouped in large swarms - are hard to spot in satellite images or sonar soundings, unlike schools of fish.
They are also resist study in captivity, which means a relative paucity of academic studies.
"There are only 20 percent of species of jellyfish for which we know the life cycle," said Goy.
And the fact that jellyfish are not commercially exploited, with the exception of a few species eaten by gastronomes in East Asia, has also added to this benign neglect.
But the measurable impact of these stinging beasts on beach-based tourism along the Mediterranean has begun to spur greater interest in these peculiar creatures whose growing presence points to dangerous changes not just in the world's oceans, but on the ground and in the air as well. Source

18th June , 2008: Whale sharks faster and more active than thought

RESEARCHERS have discovered that whale sharks swim much faster than first thought, and they are seeking public help to track their movements.

While they may appear to be sluggish swimmers, the world's biggest fish have been found this week using their enormous weight and gravity to nose-dive to the ocean floor like hawks hunting mice.

Scientists from Murdoch University tracked the astonishing dive patterns using new technology which enables the whale sharks to be monitored eight times every second.

While the researchers have yet to trawl through the mass of data to work out the exact speed the sharks are travelling at, they say these ocean giants, some up to 18m long, are moving much faster than they do on the surface.

The discovery has been hailed as a breakthrough in understanding how these much loved but threatened creatures manage to find enough food to travel great distances across the world’s oceans without exerting all their energy.

“They glide down like an eagle or a falcon, using gravity to dive. They don’t use any fin kicks,” marine biologist from Murdoch University working at Ningaloo Reef, Brad Norman said. Read more here

15th June , 2008: Tag reveals the secret of UK sharks' long winter breaks
It is one of many ocean mysteries: where do basking sharks - the biggest fish in UK waters - go in the winter? A basking shark has been tracked with a satellite tag and was found to travel farther and deeper than known before, swimming more than 5,903 miles from British waters to the Canadian coast and diving more than half a mile down.

Research scientists are not sure why the 26ft-long female made the incredible trip, speculating she could have been looking for a mate, for a better food supply, or returning 'home' after a summer in British waters. Another option is that she was on a previously undiscovered migration route, prompting debate among some experts that basking sharks in Britain, North America, southern Africa and as far afield as New Zealand could be part of one big family. 'We're asking the questions - these are just some ideas we're thinking about why she chose to do what she did,' said Mauvis Gore of Save Our Seas Foundation, one of the team who took part in the project.

Basking sharks are the second biggest fish in the world, growing up to 39ft long and reported in shoals of up to a few hundred at a time. They are a common sight in British waters in summer and are thought to be one possible source for the myth of giant sea serpents, because when males follow a female up to nine snouts and fins rise out of the water in a line.

But until 10 years ago experts had no idea where they went in winter. Recent tracking suggested many dive deeper into the ocean or move a little way off shore on to the continental shelf.

For this study two sharks were fitted with satellite tags last summer and tracked for 100 days. One shark got no farther than the west coast of Scotland; the other, shark A, stayed near Cornwall for a short time, then headed to Newfoundland, where it dropped its tag.

The journey was more than three times the longest recorded by the species, something researchers think was possible because she was big enough to survive with little food. It is almost certainly not a one-off, though, said Jackie Hall from Manx Wildlife Trust and Manx Basking Shark Watch on the Isle of Man, and another member of the project team. 'We just didn't know about it before,' said Hall.

The discovery has raised hopes, too, that protection for the world's estimated 8,000 remaining basking sharks will be raised from national to international level.

'They are one of the great wonders of the British Isles,' said Douglas Herdson, of the National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth. 'It's great we're finding out about them, and the more we know the more we can conserve them.' Source

11th June , 2008: Derelict net entangled, killed 3,500 animals in 15 years

The Northwest Straits Initiative has known for years that lost and abandoned fishing gear damages habitat and kills marine species and tremendous amounts of old gear exist in Puget Sound.

But a new research study put some real numbers to that knowledge, finding that animals entangled in derelict fishing nets decompose in 10 days or less.

The study involved tagging and monitoring animals caught in four existing derelict fishing nets for one month. Divers monitored the nets at regular intervals, noting species, decomposition rate and tagging newly-entangled animals. The results showed some high kill rates, including just one of the nets monitored has killed more than 2,300 fish and 1,200 marine birds during the 15 years it was known to be derelict.

“During our normal removal operations, the number and type of entangled animals gives us a snapshot of the damage it has been doing,” Northwest Straits Commission director Ginny Broadhurst said. “Now we know that snapshot represents just about 10 days. The long-term impacts of this gear far exceeds what we’ve been able to record when we remove the gear.”

The number of fish, birds and invertebrates like crab was counted and calculated per day. No marine mammals were found in these four nets, although they have been found in other derelict nets in Puget Sound. The nets were removed at the end of the study.

“Finally, we have data demonstrating that derelict fishing gear is a major mortality factor and that removing it is a no-brainer,” said Joe Gaydos, Northwest Straits commissioner and a wildlife veterinarian with the SeaDoc Society.

The Northwest Straits Initiative has removed more than 870 derelict fishing nets (more than 200 acres) and estimates there are 4,000 more nets currently derelict in Puget Sound. In the removed nets were found more than 30,000 entangled animals, including 22 dead marine mammals, 378 dead birds, 1,022 live and dead fish, and 29,517 live and dead invertebrates.

More than 95 percent of the nets removed are estimated to have been derelict for more than five years. The Puget Sound Initiative has a goal of removing 90 percent of all derelict nets from Puget Sound by 2012.

The Northwest Straits Initiative is a citizen-driven, Congressionally-authorized program to restore and protect the valuable marine resources and habitats in northern Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Marine Resources Committees in seven counties set local priorities, investigate conditions, sponsor restoration and outreach projects, and recommend science-based marine-policy to their respective local governments. Source

10th June , 2008: Persistent Man-made Chemical Pollutants Found In Deep-sea Octopods And Squids

New evidence that chemical contaminants are finding their way into the deep-sea food web has been found in deep-sea squids and octopods, including the strange-looking “vampire squid". These species are food for deep-diving toothed whales and other predators.

In a study to be published in the journal Marine Pollution Bulletin, Michael Vecchione of NOAA Fisheries’ National Systematics Laboratory and colleagues Michael Unger, Ellen Harvey and George Vadas at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science of The College of William and Mary report finding a variety of chemical contaminants in nine species of cephalopods, a class of organisms that includes octopods, squids, cuttlefishes and nautiluses.
“It was surprising to find measurable and sometimes high amounts of toxic pollutants in such a deep and remote environment,” Vecchione said. Among the chemicals detected were tributyltin (TBT), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), brominated diphenyl ethers (BDEs), and dichlorodiphenyl-trichloroethane (DDT). They are known as persistent organic pollutants (POPs) because they don't degrade and persist in the environment for a very long time.
Cephalopods are important to the diet of cetaceans, a class of marine mammals which includes whales, dolphins and porpoises. Cephalopods are the primary food for 28 species of odontocetes, the sub-order of cetaceans that have teeth and include beaked, sperm, killer and beluga whales and narwhals as well as dolphins and porpoises.
Recent studies have reported the accumulation of POPs in the blubber and tissues of whales and other predatory marine mammals as well as in some deep-sea fish. Other investigators had speculated that the pollutants in marine mammals had resulted from feeding on contaminated squids. However, almost no information existed prior to this study about POPs in deep-sea cephalopods. Vecchione and colleagues wanted to see if whales had a unique capacity to accumulate pollutants or if they were simply one of the top predators in a contaminated deep-sea food web.
The researchers collected nine species of cephalopods from depths between 1,000 and 2,000 meters (about 3,300 to 6,600 feet) in 2003 in the western North Atlantic Ocean using a large mid-water trawl. Species were selected for chemical analysis based on their importance as prey and included the commercially important short-finned squid Illex illecebrosus, as well as cockatoo squid, “vampire squid”, and the large jelly-like octopus Haliphron atlanticus.
Twenty-two specimens were analyzed for a variety of contaminants. One of the chemical pollutants, TBT, is an additive used to control growth of organisms and is found in antifouling paints for boats, wood preservatives, and many other products. TBT is an endocrine disrupting compound and has been detected in whales and dolphins. It has been regulated worldwide since the late 1980s, but has been a concern because of its extreme toxicity to marine invertebrates in the coastal environment.
Other chemical contaminants found in the specimens include polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), found in all the samples, diphenyl ether (DPE), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and brominated diphenyl ethers (BDEs). The researchers also detected DDT, a pesticide banned in the U.S. in the 1970s but still used on a limited basis in some parts of the world to control diseases like malaria.
PCBs are a class of human-produced compounds used to insulate electrical transformers and capacitors and in coatings, sealants, adhesives, paints, wood floor finishes, and even in carbonless copy paper. PCB production was banned in the U.S. in the 1970s. BDEs have been used as flame retardants in a variety of household products, from plastics to foam in furniture and fabrics.
“The cephalopod species we analyzed span a wide range of sizes and represent an important component of the oceanic food web,” Vecchione said. “The fact that we detected a variety of pollutants in specimens collected from more than 3,000 feet deep is evidence that human-produced chemicals are reaching remote areas of the open ocean, accumulating in prey species, and therefore available to higher levels of marine life. Contamination of the deep-sea food web is happening, and it is a real concern.” Source

8th June , 2008: Natural lab shows sea's acid path

By Richard Black : Environment correspondent, BBC News website. Scientists study conditions at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea. Natural carbon dioxide vents on the sea floor are showing scientists how carbon emissions will affect marine life.

Dissolved CO2 makes water more acidic, and around the vents, researchers saw a fall in species numbers, and snails with their shells disintegrating. Writing in the journal Nature, the UK scientists suggest these impacts are likely to be seen across the world as CO2 levels rise in the atmosphere. Some of the extra CO2 emitted enters the oceans, acidifying waters globally.

Studies show that the seas have become more acidic since the industrial revolution. Research leader Jason Hall-Spencer from the University of Plymouth said that atmospheric CO2 concentrations were now so high that even a sharp fall in emissions would not prevent some further acidification. "It's clear that marine food webs as we know them are going to alter, and biodiversity will decrease," he told BBC News. "Those impacts are inevitable because acidification is inevitable - we've started it, and we can't stop it." Read more...

4th June , 2008: Sharkwater - a "Must see!" at the 2008 New Zealand International Film Festival!

"An eye-opening film...visually stunning... this movie will change the way you see our oceans."
- Bonnie Laufer, Tribute Magazine

For filmmaker Rob Stewart, exploring sharks began as an underwater adventure. What it turned into was a beautiful and dangerous life journey into the balance of life on earth.

Driven by passion fed from a lifelong fascination with sharks, Stewart debunks historical stereotypes and media depictions of sharks as bloodthirsty, man-eating monsters and reveals the reality of sharks as pillars in the evolution of the seas.

Filmed in visually stunning, high definition video, Sharkwater takes you into the most shark rich waters of the world, exposing the exploitation and corruption surrounding the world's shark populations in the marine reserves of Cocos Island, Costa Rica and the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador.

In an effort to protect sharks, Stewart teams up with renegade conservationist Paul Watson of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. Their unbelievable adventure together starts with a battle between the Sea Shepherd and shark poachers in Guatemala, resulting in pirate boat rammings, gunboat chases, mafia espionage, corrupt court systems and attempted murder charges, forcing them to flee for their lives.

Through it all, Stewart discovers these magnificent creatures have gone from predator to prey, and how despite surviving the earth's history of mass extinctions, they could easily be wiped out within a few years due to human greed.

Stewart's remarkable journey of courage and determination changes from a mission to save the world's sharks, into a fight for his life, and that of humankind. www.sharkwater.com

Festival dates around New Zealand
Auckland Jul 10 - 27
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New Zealand Film Festivals

Save Our Sharks Now! Our own page on the urgent need for shark conservation.

3rd June , 2008: Marine leeches provide clues on climate change

Mr Kolb diving for leeches in the Arctic Ocean

Elusive marine leeches in Antarctica are the focus of study on how climate change is affecting vulnerable fish species.

German-born doctoral researcher Juergen Kolb says it is proven that leeches transmit viruses and bacteria into host bodies, and that new strains are currently arriving in Antarctica.

“The situation is potentially quite dangerous. If conditions become warmer, we’ll get new types of pathogens being transmitted into fish. Not only can this cause harm or death of individual fish but lead to the collapse of entire fish populations,” says Mr Kolb. “Eventually this could threaten commercial fishing industries and the food sources that humans depend on.”

Based at Massey’s Institute of Natural Resources in Auckland, he is one of a handful of biologists world wide studying marine leeches.

A 4cm-long arctic leech caught and photographed by Juergen Kolb.

The bloodsuckers have generally been ignored by scientists because they are so hard to find and collect, he says. But gaining a better understanding of their biology and ecological importance could provide vital clues about the impact of climate change on fragile ecological systems and the survival of less adaptive animal species.

Although little is known about marine leeches in extreme environments such as Antarctica, their physiology is thought to be similar to fresh water and terrestrial leeches in warmer habitats.

Based on his earlier research on Arctic marine leeches, Mr Kolb says it is highly likely leeches will survive any rise in water temperature from global warming that would threaten other extreme cold water-adapted species more sensitive to change.

Mr Kolb began his studies at the University of Freiburg. In 2006 he sailed on a Norwegian scientific research vessel to Svalbard Archipelago – halfway between Norway and the North Pole – where he dived up to 35 metres deep in freezing waters. But difficult conditions meant he was able to collect only seven leeches, which were attached to seaweed, algae, fish and crabs. He then decided to continue his research from New Zealand because of its accessibility to Antarctica. He hopes to gather a much greater quantity of leeches, this time by an easier method of catching leech-covered fish off the Antarctic coast. He will carry out genetic analysis on the leeches to determine how closely they are related to other leech species.

Leeches, or Hirudinea, are a class of Phylum Annelida or segmented worms - most widely represented by the common earthworm. Leeches are divided into sections like an earthworm but with suckers at both ends. A leech is a thin tube of muscles around a cavity containing a gut and reproductive systems. It can flatten its body to avoid being removed from a host and, if necessary, swim in an undulating movement for kilometres.

“I’ve always been fascinated by parasites,” says Mr Kolb. “They are extreme in terms of their physiology and adaptation to their parasitic lifestyle. They are, by nature, ultimate survivors – if you are a fish you have a hard time killing a leech.” SOURCE

3rd June , 2008: Day for no plastic bags - Fiji leads by example!

FIJI'S first No Plastic Bags Day will be celebrated on Friday in a bid to ban the use of plastic bags in Fiji.

A turtle with a plastic bag caught in its throat!

With an estimated 250 million plastic bags floating in the Pacific ocean, the fight to ban the use of plastic bags in Fiji will be launched with the theme, No Plastic Bag Day, on World Environment Day this week.

Bio-degradable bags bearing the slogan - Plastic bags kill our ocean, but I will be offered instead at MH outlets.

"The message aims to let people know that users of biodegradable bags are promoting conservation and not contributing to environmental destruction," said a joint statement from several diplomatic missions and business houses

"Volunteers from the Econesian Association" of the University of the South Pacific (USP) will explain to MH customers why and how banning plastic bags from our ocean will contribute to conservation. In addition, Japanese volunteers will demonstrate how Japan got rid of plastic bags through using the Furoshiki" food wrapping method."

The concerted effort of some diplomatic missions and a number of local companies, including the Fiji Department of Environment, Foundation of the People's of the South Pacific International, Morris Hedstrom Supermarkets and Homemakers, follows revelation that 260 marine species were already in great danger with some on the verge of extinction. These species include marine turtles, humphead wrasse, conch shells, squids, jelly fish and some coral species, the statement said.

The joint statement by local companies and diplomatic missions including the French and Japanese Embassy and the European Union said plastic bags were the ocean's worst enemy not only because they polluted beaches and poisoned lagoons, but also because they kill valued marine life and resources.

Meanwhile, MH stores will issue cloth bags for groceries in place of plastic bags tomorrow. Source

29th May, 2008: Microbial stowaways: Are ships spreading disease?
Ships are inadvertently carrying trillions of stowaways in their ballast water tanks that could pose a risk to public health, according to newly published research.

When water is pumped out of ballast tanks, it can release disease-causing microbes, said Fred Dobbs, a marine microbial ecologist at Old Dominion University in Virginia.

"This is a very difficult thing to predict," Mr. Dobbs said Wednesday in a telephone interview.

"It isn’t an issue, of course, until the ship discharges its ballast water, and anything that’s lived throughout the course of the voyage will subsequently be dumped into receiving waters."

He was able to track Vibrio cholerae, the bacterium that causes cholera in humans, from an outbreak in Peru to Mobile, Ala.

"We had a pretty good smoking gun argument that ships were transporting these disease organisms from South to North America," said Mr. Dobbs, whose article, titled Ship ballast tanks: how microbes travel the world, appears in the recent edition of Microbiology Today.

Untreated cholera can be deadly.

"The deaths are occurring on the Indian subcontinent, principally, and in South America. There are various estimates between 10,000 and 50,000 people per year that die from the disease."

Other disease-causing microbes in ship ballast tanks, which Mr. Dobbs said are sampled very rarely, include Cryptosporidium parvum and Giardia duodenalis. Both can cause stomach upset. Researchers also found enterovirus in ballast water, which can cause mild respiratory illness and hand, foot and mouth disease.

"We’re playing ecological roulette . . . with transporting all these species everywhere all the time," Mr. Dobbs said.

He stressed there’s been no documented case of disease outbreaks associated with the ballasting activities of ships.

"In particular, in the U.S. and Canada, we’ve got a couple of things working in our favour. No. 1, the water is cool to cold, depending on how far up the coast you are. And we also have very good hygiene. People aren’t washing their clothes and taking drinking water from the same rivers in which there’s sewage pollution."

But ballast water could carry diseases deadly to fish and seabirds, he said.

"Red tide organisms can be transported by ships as well," said Mr. Dobbs, noting agents that cause paralytic shellfish poisoning can also stow away inside ballast tanks.

"That may be as much, if not more, of an issue for us to be considering. The upshot of this is, whether it’s at the U.S., state, Canadian, national or even the international arena, there are a series of standards that are either being proposed or, in fact, are already in force."

Those regulations stipulate what organisms can be discharged with ballast water.

"These are daunting technological and scientific challenges that, arguably, have been made, in some cases, by politicians who don’t appreciate the technical difficulties involved," Mr. Dobbs said.

Ultraviolet radiation and chlorine can be used to treat ballast water, he said. Ultrasound, heat, microwaves and hydrogen peroxide are also proposed fixes.

"There is filtration, which does a great job, but it can only get down to maybe about 25 micrometres, and your garden variety bacterium is one micrometre or less. So filtration isn’t going to get out bacteria."

Ships pump water into and out of ballast tanks to compensate for cargo, increase propulsion efficiency and maximize stability in rough seas.

Mariners are supposed to discharge their ballast water far out to sea, he said. But that can cost time and fuel, an outlay unscrupulous captains might be anxious to avoid. Skippers can also claim an exemption if seas are rough.

"Some shipping companies are very, very good, and others, it’s hard to know whether they’re good or not. If somebody wants to subvert the system, it’s usually possible." Source

28th May, 2008: Fanworm marine pest found at Lyttelton
MAF Biosecurity New Zealand has found a new marine pest, the Mediterranean fanworm, on a vessel in Lyttelton.

MAF said the pest was found as part of its routine targeted surveillance programme. Undertaken at ports and marinas where vessels enter New Zealand, the programme was designed to detect introduced pests early, to allow a greater chance of eradication or management.

Response manager, senior marine advisor Dr Peter Stratford said the fanworm was one of the species MAFBNZ looked out for, due to its potential to spread and impact on other marine species.

The fanworm posed no risk to human health.

Dr Stratford said the detection of a single mature individual fanworm was the first report of the species in New Zealand.

"At this point in time, it is too early to know the scale of what we are dealing with in Lyttelton, and indeed the course of action to be taken," he said.

"At the time the sample was taken, visibility was low in the harbour and the divers undertaking the work were not able to gain a clear picture of the spread of any species present.

"The next step for us is to establish how widespread the fanworm is, and determine any potential impacts on New Zealand's marine environment." - NZPA. Source

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