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08 Feb 2012: Louisiana Report Urges State
To Brace for 3 Feet of Sea Level Rise

A new report released by the administration of Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal projects that the state’s already vulnerable coastline could face 3 feet of sea level rise by the end of the century. Based on current sea rise models, a science panel with the state’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority suggests that rising seas and coastal land changes will increasingly expose lowlands to storm surges, with some regions facing as many as 4 feet of sea level rise. Their report, part of ongoing efforts to guide coastal zone management, urges state officials to integrate the latest data on sea level rise into planning and engineering activities. “We’re going to have to make adjustments and deal with it,” Denise Reed, a coastal geologist at the University of New Orleans told the Associated Press. The state has lost about 1,900 square miles of land since the 1930s and loses about 25 square miles annually. Although the report does not acknowledge climate change, a former science advisor to five Louisiana governors welcomed a report on sea level rise in a state where most elected officials have been largely dismissive of global warming.
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01 Feb 2012: Earth’s First Plants
May Have Triggered Ice Ages, Study Says

The first plants to colonize the planet about 470 million years ago may have plunged Earth into a series of ice ages, according to a new study. Writing in the journal Nature Geoscience, a team of researchers suggests that the earliest plants — including the ancestors of today’s mosses — caused silicate rocks, such as granite, to release calcium and magnesium ions. This process removed carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and formed carbonate rocks in the oceans, a phenomenon that would have caused the global climate to cool by about 5 degrees C, researchers say. In addition, because new plants also extracted phosphorous and iron from the rocks, the plants would carry those elements into the seas after they died, fueling the growth of plankton that would ultimately sequester carbon at the sea bottom. “Although plants are still cooling the Earth’s climate by reducing the atmospheric carbon levels, they cannot keep up with the speed of today’s human-induced climate change,” said Exeter University researcher Timothy Lenton, the study's lead author.
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25 Jan 2012: South Pacific ‘Free-for-All’
Decimating Fish Stocks, Report Says

Years of lax oversight, corruption, and political rivalry have allowed industrial fishing fleets from Asia, Europe, and Latin America to decimate fish stocks across the southern Pacific, a “free-for-all” that has pushed one critical species to the brink, according to a new report by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). With governments ignoring the threat of overfishing and heavily subsidizing the fishing industry, fleets have plundered the waters off Chile and Peru and have fished heavily right up to protected Antarctic waters. Stocks of jack mackerel — an oily fish that is a staple in Africa and a vital component in fishmeal for aquaculture — have declined by more than 90 percent, from an estimated 30 million metric tons to less than 3 million metric tons, in just two decades. According to Daniel Pauly, an oceanographer at the University of British Columbia, the jack mackerel decline could portend a collapse in fisheries worldwide.
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24 Jan 2012: Real-Time Fisheries Information
Could Reduce Waste, Company Says

A Japanese fisheries company has equipped some of its boats with technology that enables crews to publish details of catches online in real time, an innovation they say could significantly reduce waste and allow for more sustainable management of fish stocks. Using webcams and laptop computers on four fishing boats, the company, Sanriku Toretate Ichiba, allows fishermen to match their catch to consumer demand, and enables customers to buy fish before it even reaches port. The system could also allow fishing crews to dump live fish back into the sea if there is not ample demand on shore, the company says. “The hard reality is most caught produce goes to waste and in extreme cases this results in fishermen increasing their catch to compensate for lost revenues,” said Kenichiro Yagi, the company president. Some experts question whether such technologies are feasible at industry scale, particularly in the case of large trawlers, whose harvesting processes are often lethal to fish as soon as they’re caught.
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23 Jan 2012: Ocean Acidity Rise Unprecedented
in Past 21,000 Years, Researchers Say

Carbon dioxide emissions caused by human activities over the last century have increased the acidity of the world’s oceans far beyond the range of natural variations, which may significantly impair the ability of marine organisms such as corals and mollusks to form their skeletons or shells, a new study says. Using computer modeling to simulate climate and ocean conditions from 21,000 years ago to the end of the 21st century, an international team of researchers calculated that current saturation levels of aragonite — a form of calcium carbonate and key indicator of ocean acidification — have already dropped five times below the pre-industrial range of natural variability in several critical coral reef regions. As the acidity of seawater increases, the saturation level of aragonite drops. If human combustion of fossil fuels continues at current rates, saturation levels can be expected to decrease further, possibly reducing calcification rates of some marine organisms by more than 40 percent within the next century, researchers say. “Our results suggest that severe reductions are likely to occur in coral reef diversity, structural complexity and resilience by the middle of this century,” said Axel Timmermann, a researcher at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and lead author of the study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change.
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12 Jan 2012: Quota Market to Save Whales
Proposed by U.S. Researchers

A team of U.S. researchers has suggested that a system of tradable quotas for whales could significantly reduce the number of the animals killed each year. Writing in the journal Nature, researchers from the University of California, Santa Barbara and Arizona State University propose that putting a price on whales will allow conservation groups to “purchase” some whales and prevent whalers from killing them. While they acknowledge that critics will argue that a species should be protected “irrespective of its economic value,” the authors say previous efforts to reduce whaling have failed because of this lack of accounting for economic value. Despite a global moratorium on whaling, the number of whales killed annually has more than doubled since the 1990s, with nearly 2,000 now harvested per year. The authors propose splitting the majority of quotas between whaling and non-whaling nations, with the rest auctioned off to benefit whale conservation. According to their calculations, the per-whale price would be about $13,000 for a minke and $85,000 for an endangered fin whale.
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09 Jan 2012: U.S. Imposes Catch Limits
On All Managed Fisheries For First Time

For the first time ever, the U.S. this year will impose catch limits for all 528 federally managed species, a new policy one official said will become an “international guidepost” for sustainable fisheries practices. After years of political wrangling, a coalition of lawmakers, environmental groups, fishing groups, and scientists were able to insert language into a reauthorized version of the Magnuson-Stevens Act — which governs all U.S. fishing — that will include annual limits on all fish stocks by the time the 2012 fishing year begins for all species. Some species, including mahi-mahi and wahoo, will have catch limits for the first time. “This simple but enormously powerful provision has eluded lawmakers for years and is probably the most important conservation statute ever enacted into America’s fisheries law,” Joshua Reichert, managing director of the Pew Environment Group, told The Washington Post. Because the new limits were achieved in cooperation with regional fisheries councils, advocates predict a greater probability of success.
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04 Jan 2012: Teeming Ecosystem Found
Near Vents in Southern Ocean

Researchers exploring deep-sea hydrothermal vents near Antarctica in the Southern Ocean say they have discovered an ecosystem teeming with life, including hundreds of hairy-chested yeti crabs, stalked barnacles, and what could be a new species of octopus. Using a remotely operated vehicle to scan the sea bed near the East Scotia Ridge, located several miles under the ocean’s surface, a team of British scientists observed hundreds of yeti crabs clustered near the vents, where the water can reach temperatures of 752 degrees F (400 degrees C). Unlike yeti crabs discovered previously near hydrothermal vents in the South Pacific, these new crabs were found in greater numbers and had mats of hair covering their undersides, said Alex Rogers, an Oxford University researcher and lead author of the study published in the journal PLoS ONE. The researchers also photographed a pale octopus they say could be a new species related to Vulcanoctopus hydrothermalis, which has been found at other vents around the world. “The animals existing at these vents are almost all new to science,” Rogers said.
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From NASA Satellites: The Year in Images

The past year will go down as one in which extreme weather, and major natural disasters, took a heavy toll across the globe. Some of the most unforgettable images of these events — and of the planet’s natural cycles — were taken high above Earth by NASA satellites. In March, satellite photos captured the devastation of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami. Satellites also documented the continued melting of polar ice, the ever-widening footprint of human civilization, the beauty of a 500-mile-long phytoplankton bloom, and the enduring forces that have shaped the planet for eons, from volcanoes to wind storms. View some of the memorable images of 2011.
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22 Dec 2011: Ocean Acidification Varies
Widely Across Globe, New Study Shows

The deployment of sensors in 15 regions of the world’s oceans shows an extremely wide variation in how rapidly waters are becoming acidified, according to research conducted by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Scripps scientists have deployed more than 50 of the sensors, which measure pH and temperature in the top 230 feet of the ocean, as part of a continuing study to see how rising atmospheric CO2 levels are impacting the world’s oceans. Initial findings show great variation in ocean acidification. Around Antarctica and the Line Islands of the South Pacific, for example, there is limited variation in pH. But in regions where large upwellings bring CO2-laden water to the surface from the deep, such as off the coasts of California and the U.S. Pacific Northwest, the waters are more acidic. Indeed, in some regions, Scripps scientists measured levels of acidity that were not expected to be reached until the end of the century, according to the study, published in the journal PLoS One. Acidic waters can inhibit organisms, such as oysters and coral reefs, from forming shells. Scripps scientists said their long-term study will help document how marine organisms are responding to changes in ocean pH.
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Interview: Defender of Whales
Sees Only a Tenuous Recovery

Biologist Roger Payne first came to prominence more than 40 years ago, when he and a colleague made the discovery that whales sing eerily beautiful songs as a way of communicating. Since then, he has continued his groundbreaking work on whales, including recent studies showing that whales worldwide have high levels of pollutants in their bodies. In an interview with Yale Environment 360, Payne talks about current threats to whale populations, including the continued killing of whales by Japan and other nations, and discusses the mystery of the songs sung by whales, whose haunting strains have the power, he says, to move people to tears.
Read the interview
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13 Dec 2011: Huge Methane Plumes
Are Discovered in Arctic Ocean

Russian scientists sampling the waters of the East Siberian Arctic Shelf have discovered enormous plumes of methane, some more than a kilometer wide, bubbling up from the thawing seabed. Igor Semiletov, an oceanographer from the Russian Academy of Sciences, said a research cruise late this summer detected more than 100 of these extensive methane “fountains” in an area of less than 10,000 square miles. Semiletov, who has been studying the region’s seabed for 20 years, said the scale and volume of the plumes far surpasses anything he had seen previously and could indicate that slushy methane hydrates on the seabed are thawing at an intensifying rate as Arctic Ocean ice disappears and sea temperatures rise. In 2010, Semiletov estimated that the emissions of methane — a powerful heat-trapping gas — bubbling from the seabed in this region were about 8 million tons a year, but he said the recent expedition has shown that methane releases could be far higher. “We carried out checks at about 115 stationary points and discovered methane fields of a fantastic scale,” Lemiletov told the UK’s Independent.
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06 Dec 2011: ‘Merging Tsunami’ Doubled
Destructive Power Along Japanese Coast

A detailed analysis of satellite data shows that the devastating tsunami that struck the coast of northeastern Japan last March doubled in intensity because two wave fronts generated by an undersea earthquake merged before making landfall. Researchers from NASA and Ohio State University discovered that three satellites — all carrying radar altimeters that can measure sea level changes to within a few centimeters — passed over the tsunami waves as they formed last March 11. The rare coverage by several satellites enabled the researchers to determine that ocean ridges and undersea mountain chains helped create two large tsunami waves that merged into one enormous wave as the tsunami bore down on the coast. Such a huge wave was able to travel long distances without losing power, according to the researchers, who presented their findings at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco.
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29 Nov 2011: Carbon Sinks in Estuaries
Have Been Degraded by Industrial Activity

The ability of the world’s estuaries, salt marshes, and mangrove swamps to sequester carbon has been seriously degraded by industrial activity, according to a study by Australian researchers. Scientists at the University of Technology, Sydney, examined layers of estuary sediment in Sydney’s Botany Bay for the past 6,000 years. They found that sea grass abundance has declined sharply, while quantities of micro-algae have soared. Increasing nitrogen deposition and pollution are the main culprits in destroying seagrass beds, which have the capacity to store as much as 100 times more carbon than micro-algae. The researchers dated the sediments using radiocarbon dating and determined the plant makeup of the Botany Bay estuary by examining isotopic ratios of seagrass versus micro-algae. Reporting in the journal Global Change Biology, lead researcher Peter Macreadie said the results show the importance of preserving and restoring so-called “blue carbon habitats” in wetlands and estuaries. The partial loss of these carbon sinks has “severely hampered the ability of nature to reset the planet’s thermostat.”
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28 Nov 2011: World's Largest Marine Reserve
Proposed in Australia’s Coral Sea

Australia has proposed the creation of the world’s largest marine park in the Coral Sea, a 382,000-square-mile area where fishing would be limited and oil and gas exploration would be banned. The so-called Coral Sea Commonwealth Marine Reserve would begin in waters about 36 miles off Australia’s northeastern coast, an area known for its array of coral reefs, sandy cays, sea plains, and canyons. According to Tony Burke, Australia’s Environment Minister, the waters of this area have become increasingly vulnerable to overfishing and habitat degradation. “In the space of one lifetime, the world’s oceans have gone from being relatively pristine to being under increasing pressure,” Burke said. According to the plan, 196,000 of the reserve square miles will be designated as “no take” areas where fishing is banned. Larissa Waters, a Queensland senator and Green Party member, said the plan doesn’t go far enough, with only two out of every 25 reefs receiving “full protection.”
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18 Nov 2011: Award-Winning Fisheries Design
Reduces Bird Mortality by 90 Percent

A new system for longline fishing that reduces seabird mortality by nearly 90 percent in tuna fisheries was named the winner of the World Wildlife Fund’s (WWF) Smart Gear contest, an international competition that recognizes innovations to reduce by-catch mortality in the fishing industry. The fishing line, designed by Japanese tuna vessel captain Kazuhiro Yamazaki, uses a double-weight lead configuration to increase the sinking rate of the gear, and thus makes it more difficult for foraging seabirds to chase the baited hooks. According to WWF, the fishing line was used more than 95,000 times in 2010, reducing seabird bycatch by 89 percent with no injuries to fishers and no effect on fish catch rates. Hundreds of thousands of seabirds, including albatrosses and petrels, are killed every year when they are hooked on long-line fishhooks and drown. The runner-up designs include a pressure-activated tool that releases unintended fish catches at lower depths rather than at the surface, which reduces mortality, and gill nets fixed with lights to scare off sea turtles that might otherwise become entangled.
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09 Nov 2011: River Basins Can Hold
Carbon for 17,000 Years, Study Says

Researchers say the soils and sediments of the Ganges-Brahmaputra basin are able to store carbon for thousands of years, a fact they warn could portend increased rates of carbon dioxide emissions as such vulnerable regions are exposed to the effects of climate change. Using radiocarbon dating, scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) found that organic carbon can remain for 500 to 17,000 years, despite extraordinarily high rates of physical erosion and sediment transport within the basin that drains the Himalayas. Downstream, within the Gangetic floodplain, the carbon resides from 1,500 to 3,500 years. The longer the carbon remains within the soil, the longer it is kept out of the atmosphere, said Valier Galy, a WHOI researcher and one of the authors of the study published in Nature Geoscience. But as rising temperatures destabilize soils and “ancient” carbon stored within the Ganges basin and elsewhere in the world, this could lead to more carbon dioxide being emitted into the atmosphere, hastening warming.
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19 Oct 2011: Trawlers Kill 2,000 Sharks
For Fins in Colombian Marine Sanctuary

As many as 2,000 sharks have been slaughtered for their fins in the protected waters of Colombia’s Malpelo wildlife sanctuary, government officials say. A team of researchers studying sharks in the region reportedly witnessed a fleet of about 10 fishing trawlers in the waters around Malpelo, a rock island about 500 kilometers from the mainland. “When the divers dove, they started finding a large number of animals without their fins,” said Sandra Bessudo, environmental advisor to Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos. “They didn’t see any alive.” A Colombian navy ship later reported seizing an Ecuadorian fishing boat containing an illegal catch, including sharks and other species. The remote 8,570-square-kilometer sanctuary — which is home to hammerhead, Galápagos, and whale sharks — attracts illegal fishing boats that trap the sharks and strip their fins, before dropping them back into the water. In Hong Kong, where shark fin soup is considered a delicacy, 22 million pounds of shark fins are traded annually and a bowl of soup can fetch £63.
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18 Oct 2011: Bluefin Tuna Trade Exceeded
Legal Quotas by 141 Percent, Study Says

A new analysis commissioned by the Pew Environment Group has found that the amount of eastern Atlantic bluefin tuna traded on the global market last year exceeded the official fisheries quota by 141 percent. According to the report, that gap was significantly wider than in 2008 — when the amount of bluefin tuna caught and traded exceeded quotas by 30 percent — and suggests fundamental flaws in existing mechanisms to manage fisheries of the endangered fish. Three years ago, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas adopted stricter enforcement and trade regulations on tuna caught in the Mediterranean Sea and the eastern Atlantic, including lower catch limits and a paper-based documentation system. However, the total amount of Atlantic bluefin tuna traded between 2009 and 2010 exceeded 70,600 metric tons, more than twice the legal quota of 35,306 for the two years. Saying the existing paper-based system is “rife with fraud and misinformation,” Lee Crockett of the Pew Environment Group called for an electronic documentation system by 2014, saying it would provide better information that could be more easily shared and cross-checked.
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14 Oct 2011: Ocean Changes Could Diminish
Phytoplankton’s Role as Carbon Sink

Warming seawater temperatures and ocean acidification could diminish the capacity of a critical species of phytoplankton to pull carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it in the deep ocean, the world’s biggest carbon sink, according to a new study. Under typical conditions, the phytoplankton Emiliania huxleyi develops plates of calcified armor called coccoliths while floating in the ocean’s upper layers before eventually sinking, a process responsible for about 80 percent of inorganic carbons trapped at the bottom of the sea. In a study published in the journal Global Change Biology, researchers at San Francisco State University found that exposure to higher levels of carbon dioxide, which makes seawater more acidic, and higher ammonium levels altered the phytoplankton’s biology and growth. Signficantly, they found that the coccoliths formed under those conditions were “incomplete or hollow,” containing lower amounts of inorganic carbon and making them less likely to sink. “Without this, the carbon is more likely to be recycled into the Earth’s atmosphere,” said Jonathon Stillman, an assistant professor of biology and lead author of the study.
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