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The smalleye stingray (Dasyatis microps), a giant of the sea, has been filmed for the first time. According to BBC, “The elusive creature, first discovered in 1908, has only ever been seen alive off Tofo in southern Mozambique.” This rarely observed stingray has been “collected from the estuary of the River Ganges . . . [and it's] caught very rarely by the demersal tangle net fisheries operating in shelf waters.” More images of the smalleye stingray can be found at Fishbase.org.
Via BBC
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Image by Lou Dematteis/Spectral Q/Handout via The Huffington Post
The ocean is a natural carbon sink: In addition to biotic carbon sequestration, the ocean naturally absorbs CO2. Consequently, when we burn fossil fuels, we release carbon that has been trapped for millions of years, and this excess carbon enters the Earth’s carbon cycle.
This anthropogenically-released excess carbon is what causes ocean acidification, and the oceans have become increasingly more acidic since the industrial revolution. More on this from Physorg.com:
The chemistry is very straight-forward: ocean acidification is linearly related to the amount of CO2 we produce. CO2 dissolves in the ocean, reacts with seawater and decreases the pH. Since the industrial revolution, the oceans have become 30 percent more acidic (from 8.2 pH to 8.1 pH). “Under a “business as usual scenario, predictions for the end of the century are that we will lower the surface ocean pH by 0.4 pH units, which means that the surface oceans will become 150 percent more acidic – and this is a ‘hell of a lot’ “, said Jelle Bijma, chair of the EuroCLIMATE programme Scientific Committee and a biogeochemist at the Alfred-Wegener-Institute Bremerhaven.
Obviously, the impacts on calcifying organisms are worrying, because as oceans become more acidic, there is a “reduction in availability of the calcium carbonate needed for calcified shells and plates.” Examples of calcifying organisms include bivalves, corals, and some plankton. Since calcifying organisms are important in maintaining ocean ecosystems, various stakeholders are concerned about the impacts of ocean acidification. The negative impacts on calcifying organisms have fishers worried about their livelihoods and recreational users of oceans, such as kayakers, are concerned about aesthetic impacts. As a result, to raise awareness, these stakeholders literally spelled out an S.O.S. on ocean acidification. More from Alaskajournal.com:
Commercial fishermen, recreational boaters and kayakers took to the waters of Kachemak Bay in Homer during the Labor Day weekend to spell out an SOS on ocean acidification and to ask the world’s help in saving ocean ecosystems.
Under warm and sunny skies, interspersed at times by fog, more than 100 fishing boats, sail boats, skiffs and kayaks positioned themselves on the bay to spell out “Ocean Acid SOS.”
. . .
“A lot of people have heard about climate change,” said Bob Shavelson, executive director of Cook Inlet Keeper, a nonprofit group dedicated to protecting the Cook Inlet watershed. “Few have heard about ocean acidification.”
Ocean acidification is caused by the excess carbon dioxide that has been released into the atmosphere since the industrial revolution, said Jeremy Mathis, a chemical oceanographer with the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The more the carbon dioxide is absorbed into the ocean, the more acidic the ocean becomes.
Mathis is one of a growing number of scientists speaking out on the dangers of ocean acidification to the ocean ecosystems. Research results released Aug. 11 by Mathis indicated that Alaska’s oceans are becoming increasingly acidic, and that could damage Alaska’s king crab and salmon fisheries. The results also matched his recent findings in the Chukchi and Bering seas.
Northern coastal oceans, such as those off Alaska, may be becoming more acidic than other oceans, and at a faster rate. Mathis said that the cold waters and broad, shallow continental shelves around Alaska’s coast could be accelerating the process of ocean acidification in the North.
Frigid waters can absorb more carbon dioxide, he said. The shallow waters of Alaska’s continental shelves also retain more carbon dioxide because there is less mixing of seawater from deeper ocean waters.
More on ocean acidification from NOAA:
The global oceans are the largest natural reservoir for carbon dioxide, and absorb approximately 30-50% of global anthropogenic CO2 emissions. In the future, increased CO2 uptake by the oceans is expected to reduce surface ocean pH by 0.3-0.5 units over the next century (Feely et al., 2004).
As carbon dioxide (CO2) reacts with seawater, fundamental chemical changes occur that cause a reduction in seawater pH (or acidification) and reduces the availability of chemical compounds which play an important role in shell creation for a number of marine organisms. Ocean acidification impacts the ability of marine calcifiers, such as corals and mollusks, to make shells and skeletons from calcium carbonate. This is due to a reduction in the availability of the chemical constituents needed for calcified shells and plates. As a result, ocean acidification could affect some of the most fundamental biological and geochemical processes of the sea in coming decades and be disruptive to the marine food web. Estimates of economic losses from coral reef degradation in the Caribbean alone range from $350-870 million/year by 2015 to coastal countries which currently receive annual economic benefits from fisheries, dive tourism, and shoreline protection services valued collectively at $3-4 billion/year (Burke and Maidens, 2004).
Data collected from ocean sampling in the Pacific Ocean from the southern to northern hemispheres confirms that the oceans are becoming more acidic, according to NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL). A recently completed field study from Tahiti to Alaska collecting data about the effects of ocean acidification on the water chemistry and marine organisms found evidence that verifies earlier computer model projections. These findings are consistent with data from previous field studies conducted in other oceans.
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Long-arm squids (Magnapinna spp.): The video below shows a long-arm squid that “was filmed [on November 11, 2007] off Perdido, a drilling site owned by Shell Oil Company, located 200 statute miles (320 km) off Houston, Texas in the Gulf of Mexico.” The squid is from the genus Magnapinna, and not a lot of data exists regarding this type of cephalopod. More about the genus Magnapinna can be found at National Geographic. The image was found here.
Photo source for attribution here
Vampire squid (Vampyroteuthis infernalis or “vampire squid from hell”) are found in deep ocean aphotic zones. Although these deep-sea cephalopods exist where humans rarely visit, anthropogenic pollution has been found in their environment and within the tissues of other deep-sea cephalopods. The image was found here. From Science Daily:“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.
. . .
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.
According to National Geographic, “The vampire squid can turn itself ‘inside out’ to avoid predators—as seen in a video . . . released by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute to emphasize the need to protect deep-sea species from the effects of human activities.”
Frilled sharks (Chlamydoselachus anguineus) are another rarely observed deep-sea creature, since these odd fish “generally remain thousands of feet beneath the water’s surface.” They are squid specialists and “eat not only weak-swimming deep-sea squids but also some surprisingly fast and powerful mesopelagic varieties.” The image was found here.
Megamouth shark (Megachasma pelagios): The megamouth shark recently made news when one was captured and consumed as a local delicacy. From National Geographic:In just a short time, one of the rarest sharks in the world went from swimming in Philippine waters to simmering in coconut milk.
The 13-foot-long (4-meter-long) megamouth shark (pictured), caught on March 30 by mackerel fishers off the city of Donsol, was only the 41st megamouth shark ever found, according to WWF-Philippines.
Fishers brought the odd creature—which died during its capture—to local project manager Elson Aca of WWF, an international conservation nonprofit.
Aca immediately identified it as a megamouth shark and encouraged the fishers not to eat it.
But the draw of the delicacy was too great: The 1,102-pound (500-kilogram) shark was butchered for a shark-meat dish called kinuout.
Barreleye: The Pacific barreleye fish (Macropinna microstoma) has been known since 1939, but trawled up specimens were in poor condition and did not reveal the fish’s weirdest characteristic—a transparent head. So, why does the Pacific barreleye fish have a translucent head? According to the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), “A new paper by Bruce Robison and Kim Reisenbichler shows that these unusual eyes can rotate within a transparent shield that covers the fish’s head. This allows the barreleye to peer up at potential prey or focus forward to see what it is eating.”The Research Institute also described other weird adaptations of these fish, such as their flat fins, small mouths, and “their digestive systems are very large, which suggests that they can eat a variety of small drifting animals as well as jellies.” Images: © 2004 MBARI
Photo source for attribution here
Photo source for attribution here
Hadal snailfish (Pseudoliparis amblystomopsis) are true deep-sea specialists. This species was captured on camera almost five miles below the ocean’s surface. Furthermore, until the video, the hadal snailfish had never been observed living, since it was only known from a handful of specimens trawled up over 50 years before. To survive in their deep-sea extreme environment, these fish must sustain immense pressure and conserve energy. From National Geographic News:The fish belong to a species previously known only from five pickled specimens trawled up by Russian scientists in the 1950s, said Monty Priede, director of Oceanlab at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, which co-sponsored the expedition.
“Not only have we shown these fish alive for the first time, but we have multiplied by five the total number known to science,” Priede said.
The fish are able to withstand pressures equivalent to “1,600 elephants on the roof of a Mini,” according to a press release. The largest of the 17 snailfish observed measure more than 12 inches (30 centimeters) long.
Photo source for attribution here
Image: Sea birds mistake marine litter for food and will even feed pieces of marine debris to their chicks. As a result, chicks starve to death. All that’s left after some breeding seasons are decaying carcasses containing all types of marine litter.Paragraph BREAK
Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director, wants to “reverse . . . [the] alarming quantities of rubbish thrown out to sea [that] continues to endanger people’s safety and health, entrap wildlife, damage nautical equipment and deface coastal areas around the world.” In addition to a ban, public education is certainly needed—especially in schools. From the United Nations Environment Programme:
“Marine litter is symptomatic of a wider malaise: namely the wasteful use and persistent poor management of natural resources. The plastic bags, bottles and other debris piling up in the oceans and seas could be dramatically reduced by improved waste reduction, waste management and recycling initiatives”.
“Some of the litter, like thin film single use plastic bags which choke marine life, should be banned or phased-out rapidly everywhere-there is simply zero justification for manufacturing them anymore, anywhere. Other waste can be cut by boosting public awareness, and proposing an array of economic incentives and smart market mechanisms that tip the balance in favor of recycling, reducing or re-use rather than dumping into the sea,” he said.
Of course Glenn Beck shouldn’t be taken serious, but his obtuse attitude towards efforts to remedy the problem of marine debris is ignorant and embarrassing. In this video, Glenn Beck demonstrates why he’s a Fox News snake oil salesman and not an environmental manager.
Image found here. Video via Gawker.
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