Articles by "oceans"
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April 18, 2020 , , , , , , , , ,

Whether our homes are near or far from the oceans, our lives depend on them.


Oceans supply half the oxygen we breathe, and provide food and livelihoods for more  than a billion people. They are also home to a wondrous array of wild species, from tiny plankton to the biggest creature that’s ever existed – the blue whale.

But our oceans are in crisis. 

Centuries of overuse and neglect threaten to leave us with a vast blue wasteland. It’s time to change the way we see our oceans – from places where we take what we want and dump what we don’t, to a shared resource of immense value and fragility.

Our oceans in crisis

The oceans may seem endless, inexhaustible and indestructible but the truth is they are in serious trouble.

We’ve already lost half our coral reefs and mangroves − some of the most productive habitats on Earth. And we’ve pushed many crucial fish stocks to the point of collapse, threatening people’s livelihoods and food security – and harming other species including seabirds, turtles and dolphins.
Coastal areas are more densely populated than anywhere else on Earth and are where some of the most valuable natural resources are found. So it’s no surprise this is where the problems are most acute. And the loss of reefs, mangroves and sea grass beds leaves coastal communities vulnerable to erosion, storm damage and food shortages.
Pollution – from plastics to oil spills to agrochemicals – also harms nature and contaminates food chains. And climate change is making the ocean hotter and more acidic, which could spell disaster for coral reefs, polar regions and the rich variety of life they support.

An ocean of opportunity

The extraordinary diversity of life in the oceans, the services they provide to us, and the joy and wonder they inspire, are priceless. But oceans also have a massive economic value.
At a conservative estimate, the goods and services the oceans provide – from fishing to tourism and coastal protection – are worth at least US$2.5 trillion per year. That would make the oceans the world’s seventh largest economy. And they could play an even bigger role in supporting people in developing countries – but only if we use them sustainably.
Protecting the oceans pays huge dividends – and we know they can often bounce back. We’ve seen fish stocks recover thanks to better management, while marine protected areas have created jobs and boosted tourism by reviving nature. 
Source: WWF

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April 18, 2020 , , , , , , , , ,

What causes ocean pollution? 

  • Plastics take 500-1000 years to degrade; currently 79% is sent to landfills or the ocean, while only 9% is recycled, and 12% gets incinerated. 
  • Styrofoam cups take 50 years to biodegrade, Aluminum cans take 200 years, Nappies cups take 450 years, Plastic bottles take 450 years, and Fishing lines take 600 years. 
  • Popular items found: Cigarette filters (32%), Food packaging (9%), Bottle caps (8%), Tableware (6%), Bottles (plastic) (6%), Plastic carrier bags (5%). 
  • Cigarette filters are the most common item collected from beach pickups, more than 60M in 30 years – that’s just the ones we found. 
  • In 2018’s international coastal cleanup day, 2.4 million butts of cigarettes got collected. 500 billion plastic bags get used every year - on average, the working life of these bags is 15 minutes. 
  • Annually we discard 1 Trillion plastic bags worldwide; joining them together would circle the globe 4,200 times. 
  • Annually we use 500 Billion plastic bottles – This means there are 66 times as many bottles as there are humans on the planet. 14% of our garbage is from these bottles, under half are collected for recycling, but only 7% become a new bottle. 
  • 60% of the materials that form our cloths are plastic forms (Nylon, acrylic, polyester, etc). 
  • In a typical laundry wash, 700,000 microplastic fibers come off into the water. 
  • Annually, the U.S. disposes of 27.4 Billion nappies, many of which end up in our landfills and ocean. Annually, the U.S. discards 2 Billion razors and 1 Billion plastic toothbrushes. 
  • In the UK and US alone, 500 Million plastic straws get thrown away annually. 

How much plastic is in the ocean? 

  • 300 Million tons of plastic gets created yearly, and this weighs the same as the entire human population, and 50% is single-use only.
  • An estimated 8 Million tons of plastic enters our oceans every year. 
  • There are 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic waste estimated to be in our oceans. 269,000 tons float, 4 billion microfibers per km² dwell below the surface. 
  • 70% of our debris sinks into the ocean's ecosystem, 15% floats, and 15% lands on our beaches. In the past 10 years, we’ve made more plastic than the last century. 
  • By 2050, the pollution of fish will be outnumbered by our dumped plastics. 
  • In various studies, plastics made up 60-90% of the marine pollution found. 
  • Ocean crusaders estimate there to be 46,000 plastic pieces in our waters per mile (squared). 
  • As plastic decomposes over 100’s of years, it breaks into micro pieces and can spread all over the planet. 
  • Other than incinerated plastics, the entire volume we ever created is still on our planet in some form. 
  • Plastic bags are illegal in Kenya. People found using, selling, or manufacturing them risk 4 years of incarceration and a $40,000 fine. 
How long does plastic last in the ocean? Well, plastic was only invented in 1907, and mass production started between 1940s and 1950s.
Unfortunately for our oceans, every bit of plastic that was ever created still exists in some form as it takes 100’s of years to decompose, and even when it does, it merely turns into micro pieces then microfibers.   
In terms of the effects of plastic pollution on marine life - These plastics floating in our ocean or sinking to the bottom and turning into microfibers are particularly hazardous to fish, mammals, and sea life in general. 
They absorb toxins and chemicals from other forms of water pollution to become even more dangerous to the animals ingesting them.
Sources: PlasticOceans, OceanCrusaders, EarthDay, SAS, EcoWatch, GlobalCitizen 

Where does most the Ocean pollution come from? 

  • 90% of the global ocean debris comes from 10 rivers alone. 
  • 8 in Asia: Amur, Indus, Pearl, Yangtze, Yellow, Ganges, Hai He, Mekong; 
  • 2 in Africa: Niger and the Nile. 
Top 10 rivers   
  • 1,469,481 tons - Chang Jiang (Yangtze River) 
  • 164,332 tons - Indus 
  • 124,249 tons - Huang He (Yellow River) 
  • 91,858 tons - Hai He 
  • 84,792 tons - Nile 
  • 72,845 tons - Meghna, Brahmaputra, Ganges 
  • 52,958 tons - Zhujiang (Pearl River) 
  • 38,267 tons - Amur  
  • 35,196 tons - Niger 
  • 33,431 tons - Mekong   
As mentioned earlier, there was an estimated 8 million tons of plastic ending up in our oceans every year, and one Dr. Christian Schmidt and his team set out to find how it gets there as part of a critical task of finding out the causes of ocean pollution through their entry points.   
In the last decade, researches spent a great deal of time analyzing the waste in the water around some 57 large rivers that flow into our oceans. 
From studying the river and surrounding landscape, they were able to estimate that 10 rivers are the hosts of 90% of the plastics getting dumped into the oceans.   
The estimates were made by Schmidt and his team calculating waste quantities per cubic meter, then pairing them against the other 57 in the study… these 10 had the highest counts of plastic:   
Eight of the rivers sending this volume of plastic are from Asia: The Amur, Indus, Pearl, Yangtze, Yellow, Ganges, Hai He, Mekong, and in Africa. The other two are - the river Niger and the Nile.   
Sources: UN Environment 

How does ocean pollution affect humans? 

  • Coastal water contamination is responsible for 250 million clinical cases of human diseases annually. 
  • Only 1 in 20 adults bathing are at risk from becoming ill after a single bathing visit in waters considered ‘acceptable’ by microbial standards. 
  • At the current rate, by the end of the century, our waters will be 150% more acidic than now. 
  • 80% of sewage discharged into the Mediterranean Sea is untreated. 
  • Contaminated shellfish is the cause of 50,000-100,000 deaths annually due to damaged immune systems and cancer. 
  • People that primarily eat seafood as their diets like indigenous people of the Canadian Arctic and Greenland are found to be contaminated by POPs (Persistent Organic Pollutants). 
  • 100% of the population of East Greenland has blood contamination. 
  • The direct medical and health costs of polluted waters are $16 Billion globally each year. 
  • Economic losses due to non-indigenous species getting introduced into the ocean are in the 100’s of million dollars. 
  • 70% of the oxygen we and other land animals is directly from the sea. 
It’s no illusion that to survive, man needs a harmonious relationship with the planet's oceans, in fact, over 70% of the oxygen we breathe is directly created by marine plants. What we do on land impacts what goes on offshore, for example, 30% of our CO2 emissions are absorbed by our oceans, and our waste disposal greatly influences the toxicity of its ecosystem and wildlife.   
When looking at ocean pollution effects on humans, the plastics, metals, and chemicals found in polluted water contaminate our very own seafood and water supplies. This can cause a variety of severe problems for us, such as nervous system damage, kidney issues, and reproductive or hormonal issues.   
How ocean pollution affects humans: The bacteria in the water reacts with the metals we dispose of like mercury, transforming them into their most toxic forms. This, in turn, is absorbed by a variety of marine plant life – which is a typical food of the fish we consume, so in turn, this toxic waste boomerangs back up the food chain to us after we dispose of it. Exposure to this poisonous methylmercury has been linked heavily to causing heart disease, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.   
Even ingesting the polluted waters, we’ve created in some beaches can cause rashes, diarrhea and stomach aches.   
Sources: WorldOceanNetwork, WWF, NRDC


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April 05, 2020 , , , , , , ,
The findings suggest that Earth's southernmost continent was once home to temperate, swampy rain forests teeming with life.


Antarctica is now a harsh land of ice and snow, but has not always been that way.
Earth’s southernmost continent long ago was home to temperate, swampy rain forests teeming with life, scientists said on Wednesday based on pristinely preserved forest soil they retrieved by drilling under the seafloor off Antarctica’s coast.
The sediment core obtained by scientists working aboard the research icebreaker RV Polarstern in the Amundsen Sea near the Pine Island Glacier dated to about 90 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period when dinosaurs were the dominant land animals.
The researchers estimated based on the soil content that this location, 560 miles (900 km) from the South Pole, experienced average annual temperatures of about 53-55 degrees Fahrenheit (12-13 Celsius) and average temperatures during the warmest summer months of about 68-77 Fahrenheit (20-25 Celsius).
That is exceptionally warm for a location near the South Pole, where the average annual temperature now is around minus 40 Fahrenheit (minus 40 Celsius).
A modern temperature analogue may be New York City, according to marine geologist Johann Klages of the Alfred Wegener Institute’s Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research in Germany, lead author of the research published in the journal Nature.
The dark-brownish gray soil was composed of fine-grained silt and clay bearing remains of fossil roots in a dense network, pollen and spores spanning 65 types of plants, with individual cell structures clearly visible.
“If you would go to a forest near you and drill a hole, it would probably look pretty similar,” Klages said.
Klages said the plants included conifers, ferns and flowering plants. While they did not find any animal remains, Klages said there likely were dinosaurs, flying reptiles called pterosaurs and many insects. Dinosaur fossils from Antarctica have been known for years.
The soil came from nearly 90 feet (27 meters) beneath the seafloor under ocean depths of about 3,300 feet (1,000 meters). It was obtained using a seafloor drill rig.
The research underscores the dramatic climate changes Earth has undergone in the past - and is currently undergoing today.
The soil core sample dated from 93-83 million years ago, Klages said. This dates from the planet’s warmest period of the past 140 million years, with sea levels about 560 feet (170 meters) higher than today.
The rainforest environment is all the more remarkable, the researchers said, considering that the region annually experiences a four-month polar night when there is no sunlight to nurture plant life. Klages said no ice sheets were present at the time though seasonal snow fall was likely.
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April 05, 2020 , , , , , , , ,
Despite being treated as humanity's rubbish dump for decades, the oceans of the world are proving remarkably resilient, says a new scientific review.

Building on that resilience could lead to a full recovery within three decades, the researchers argue.
Climate change, and the challenges of scaling up existing conservation efforts, are the big hurdles, they say.
The researchers caution that the window for action is now very narrow.
  • UN panel signals red alert on 'Blue Planet'
  • Ocean plastic tide 'violates the law'
  • Ocean plastic could triple in decade
The oceans have been exploited by humans for centuries, but the negative impacts of our involvement have only become clear over the last 50 years or so.
Fish and other marine species have been hunted almost to extinction, while oil spills and other forms of pollution have poisoned the seas.
Over the last few decades, the growing influence of climate change has bleached corals, and seen the ocean's acidity increase. This was documented in last year's special report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
This new review recognizes the scale of the problems but also points to the remarkable resilience of the seas. Humpback whale numbers have rebounded since the ban on commercial whaling.
The proportion of marine species assessed as threatened with global extinction by the IUCN has dropped from 18% in 2000 to 11.4% in 2019.

"Our study documents the recovery of marine populations, habitats and ecosystems following past conservation interventions. It provides specific, evidence-based recommendations to scale proven solutions globally," said lead author Carlos Duarte, who is professor of marine science at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Thuwal, Saudi Arabia.
"We know what we ought to do to rebuild marine life, and we have evidence that this goal can be achieved within three decades. Indeed, this requires that we accelerate our efforts, and spread them to areas where efforts are currently modest."
The researchers identified nine components that are key to rebuilding the oceans: salt marshes, mangroves, seagrasses, coral reefs, kelp, oyster reefs, fisheries, megafauna and the deep ocean.
The scientists recommend a range of actions that are required including protecting species, harvesting wisely and restoring habitats.



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"We now have the skills and expertise to be able to restore vital marine habitats such as oyster reefs, mangrove swamps and salt marshes - which keep our seas clean, our coasts protected and provide food to support entire ecosystems," said co-author Prof Callum Roberts from the University of York, UK.
"Science gives us reason to be optimistic about the future of our oceans, but we are not currently doing enough in the UK or globally," he added.
A big challenge is climate change, which is raising sea levels and making the waters more acidic. The amount of warming that has already taken place will likely make rebuilding tropical reefs quite difficult.
"If we don't tackle climate change and raise the ambition and immediacy of these efforts, we risk wasting our efforts," said Prof Duarte.
"We also need to move closer toward reducing pressure on fish stocks, and tackle elements of pollution, such as plastic litter,"
Another big question is money. The new study estimates that it will costs $10-20bn a year to rebuild marine life by 2050. But the review also points out that for every dollar invested, the expected return would be $10.
The authors acknowledge that governments have many other issues on their minds right now but they believe that rescuing the oceans is a very achievable goal.
"Failure to embrace this challenge, and in doing so condemning our grandchildren to a broken ocean unable to support high quality livelihoods is not an option," added Prof Duarte.
The study has been published in the journal Nature.
Source: By Matt McGrath
Environment correspondent (BBC NEWS)

Date: 1 April, 2020

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April 04, 2020 , , , , , , , , ,
The largest turtle in the ocean, the leather back gets its name from its tough, rubbery skin.
Migrating long distances a year, the turtle can cross the Pacific Ocean.
But with threats like getting tangled in fishing gear, the future for one distinct population looks "dire," say conservation groups.
At the current rate of decline, the critically endangered Eastern Pacific leather back turtle will vanish within 60 years.
We have just 10 years left to put measures in place to save it, says a group of conservation scientists and organisations including Fauna & Flora International (FFI).
"We have it within our power to protect these animals and enable them to thrive, but all those who have a hand in shaping their future need to work together to do so," said Alison Gunn, programme manager for the Americas and the Caribbean at FFI.

Leather back turtles are found across the world. While considered a single species, populations found in different oceans are reproductively distinct. The Pacific leather backs are most at risk of extinction, with both Eastern Pacific and Western Pacific leather backs continuing to decline.
Key nesting habitats in the Eastern Pacific are in Mexico and Costa Rica, with some isolated nesting in Panama and Nicaragua. Over the last three generations, there has been a greater than 90% decline in the female nesting population.
"If this particular population goes they're completely irreplaceable, because they're unique to this particular part of the oceans," said Alison Gunn. "There's a lot of conservation action happening right now. We need to increase the collaboration that's already happening in order to ensure that this population is not lost."

Key interventions

If conservation efforts are targeted and scaled up at high-priority sites, and projects are quickly implemented and maintained, the Eastern Pacific leather back population can eventually stabilize and increase, according to a population model.
Two things must be achieved in the next 10 years to save the Eastern Pacific leather back:
  • Avoiding the deaths of 200-260 leather backs a year caused by "bycatch" of turtles in fisheries
  • Producing 7,000-8,000 more hatchlings a year through better nest protection and improved incubation conditions.
Leather backs are the largest of all sea turtles, weighing up to 2,000lb (900kg) and reaching over 6ft (2m) in length.
The population of leather backs in the Eastern Pacific has declined by more than 90% since the 1980s, which qualifies as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
The study is published in the journal, Scientific Reports.

Source: By Helen BriggsBBC News, science and environment (BBC NEWS)Date: 4th April, 2020

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