MarineBio Blog

The Ocean in Google Earth combines renderings of underwater terrain with regional information from marine biologists and oceanographers to enable Google Earth viewers to explore the ocean realm and learn about marine life and other ocean-related areas of interest.

Given that science has only explored a small percentage of the vast ocean, which makes up 71% of this planet, this will be a unique and useful tool to help people gain an understanding of the importance of the marine environment.

Oceans are rarely discussed in the media during this era of greening the planet. Climate change is focused on the impact it will have on land, overfishing is a tremendous problem in the ocean, but few people are aware. The ocean is viewed superficially by most of humanity – we see the surface and assume the ocean is invulnerable to over-exploitation.

This tool will allow those with access to the web an up close and personal look at all ocean regions as well as access to information through fact files and videos and the ability to track satellite-tagged animals such as whales.

This tool is available on the latest version of Google Earth.

To read how the concept was born and implemented see: Google Earth Fills Its Watery Gaps from today’s New York Times.

Just two weeks shy of his final day as President, George W. Bush announced today that 195,280 square miles will be designated as three new marine national monuments in the Pacific Ocean. Contrary to his resistance to sign the Kyoto Protocol and reduce greenhouse gas emissions and his other unpopular environmental policies, Bush is leaving a decent legacy when it comes to the ocean. This good news combined with the good news of a bill to ban shark finning in the US put forth in the new session of Congress (sea below) put a smile on my face!

From his press release:

On June 15, 2006, I established the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument, and on May 15, 2007, I instructed the U.S. delegation to the International Maritime Organization to submit a proposal for international measures to enhance protection of the Monument. On April 4, 2008, the International Maritime Organization adopted our proposal, and the Papahanaumokuakea Particularly Sensitive Sea Area (PSSA) was established.

On this occasion of the establishment of the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument, the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, and the Rose Atoll Marine National Monument, I confirm that the policy of the United States shall be to continue measures established in the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument to protect the training, readiness, and global mobility of U.S. Armed Forces, and ensure protection of navigation rights and high seas freedoms under the law of the sea, which are essential to the peace and prosperity of civilized nations.

The security of America, the prosperity of its citizens, and the protection of the ocean environment are complementary and reinforcing priorities. As the United States takes measures to conserve and protect the living and non-living resources of the ocean, it shall ensure preservation of the navigation rights and high seas freedoms enjoyed by all nations under the law of the sea, including in particular:

* The right of innocent passage in territorial seas, without requirement for prior notification to or permission from a coastal state.

* The right of transit passage for ships, submarines, and aircraft in straits used for international navigation; a right that may not be suspended, denied, hampered, or impaired.

* The right of archipelagic sea lanes passage in designated sea lanes and air routes, and passage routes normally used for international navigation in archipelagic nations.

* The exercise of high seas freedoms in exclusive economic zones, including the conduct of military activities, exercises, and surveys.

The United States shall recognize and apply navigation rights and freedoms under the law of the sea when establishing marine protected areas, just as it did in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument and in today’s Monument proclamations. The United States will exercise the same rights and freedoms in similarly protected areas and waters of foreign nations. In addition, the United States, through its executive agencies, shall provide for the readiness, training, and global mobility of U.S. Armed Forces in its establishment of marine conservation areas.

Management of Submerged Lands

The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) is the only United States territory that does not have title to the submerged lands beneath that portion of the United States territorial sea that is within 3 miles of the coastlines of the CNMI. It is appropriate that the CNMI be given the same authority as the other territories. In 2005, my Administration supported legislation that would have provided the CNMI with such ownership, consistent with what was granted to Guam, the Virgin Islands, and American Samoa in October 1974.

My Administration also recognizes, as was recognized in 1974, the need to reserve Federal title in certain submerged lands, including submerged lands for use by our Nation’s military, which is moving forces to the area from Okinawa, Japan. It is in the interest of the security of our Nation to reserve the necessary areas for national defense, while also ensuring the people of the CNMI have the benefit and enjoyment of the rights coming with ownership of submerged lands out to 3 miles.

To this end, I have asked the Secretary of the Interior to submit legislation that, subject to valid existing rights, transfers to the CNMI the existing rights and title of the Federal Government over submerged lands within 3 miles of the coast of the CNMI, consistent with that provided to Guam, the Virgin Islands, and American Samoa, and I urge the Congress to promptly pass such legislation.

I have also directed the Department of the Interior to develop legislation and procedures for the management and administration of recovery of mineral resources in areas of the Pacific, outside the Monument, that are not currently covered by existing offshore mineral resource law, including authority and procedures for obtaining royalties and assessing fees and for revenue sharing, as appropriate.

This is good news for marine conservation in general, but it was an easy move for Bush. His lack of attention to climate change, reflective of his political interests, is still a huge issue for both ocean and land. Further, his lifting of the moratorium on offshore drilling is not an ocean-friendly policy.

Still, this sets an excellent precedent for marine reserves and, if enforced, the designation could have a powerful impact on rapidly declining marine species. Like sharks.

Great news for sharks!

In a press release from Oceana today I learned that a bill was introduced during the new session of congress to ban shark finning in the US.

New Congress Jumpstarts Session with Introduction of Bill to End Shark Finning in U.S.

Congresswoman Bordallo Continues to Fight for Shark Conservation in 111th Congress

WASHINGTON – Oceana applauds Congresswoman Madeleine Bordallo (D-Guam) for introducing the Shark Conservation Act in the House of Representatives today. The Shark Conservation Act would require sharks caught in all U.S. waters to be landed whole with their fins attached. Under current law, fins and carcasses are only required to be landed in a specific ratio, although in some regions, fishery regulations require sharks to be landed with fins attached.

“Introduction of the Shark Conservation Act sets a precedent for protecting vulnerable and endangered shark populations in the U.S. and around the word,” said Beth Lowell, federal policy director at Oceana. “Congress should ensure fast passage of this important piece of legislation in both chambers to end shark finning in U.S. waters once and for all.”

The bill also allows the United States to take action against countries whose shark finning restrictions are not as strenuous, thus allowing the U.S. to be a continued international leader in shark conservation.

Congresswoman Bordallo, chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife and Oceans of the House Committee on Natural Resources in the 110th Congress, continues to fight for shark conservation in the 111th Congress. Congresswoman Bordallo originally introduced the bill in April 2008 and the U.S. House of Representatives passed the legislation in early July. The U.S. Senate followed by introducing similar legislation but did not take action on the bill before the session ended in December.

Similar regulations are already being enforced in the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico. The National Marine Fisheries Service (NFMS) requires all federally permitted shark fisheries in the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico to land sharks with their fins still naturally attached. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) also enacted new rules last year requiring all sharks caught in state fisheries from Maine to Florida to be “landed whole” with their fins naturally attached. Congressional action is now needed to standardize conservation requirements and ensure that sharks are protected in all U.S. waters.

“Requiring all sharks to be landed with their fins still naturally attached would be an enormous step forward in U.S. shark management,” said Elizabeth Griffin, marine wildlife scientist at Oceana. “This bill will set a gold standard for the rest of the world to follow and will allow for better enforcement and data collection, which are essential in stock assessments and quota monitoring.”

For more information about sharks and the threats facing their populations, please visit http://www.oceana.org/sharks.

David will give you a free MarineBio Society membership if you can name that quote…

I thought I’d post something different – or a least not as fish-o-centric as I normally post. It’s about a new era. It’s about the best buzzword ever – sustainability. Does it have any connection to the ocean? Well, yeah. Because one of the major problems facing the ocean is overconsumption. Overconsumption of coastal lands and therefore habitats, of discarded trash and plastics going where they don’t belong and into turtles throats and into the marine ecosystem where it doesn’t belong, of massive cruise ships dumping their sh…stuff straight into the ocean, of too many people on this planet consuming fish at an unsustainable rate, of too many cars consuming too much fuel, and too much electricity being burned resulting in acidification of our seas and the inability of mollusks to form their shells…you get the picture.

This is a post by a new friend of mine who is an excellent chef and a brilliantly refreshingly thought-provoking and funny writer. She ran two very successful restaurants in Atlanta for a long time and in that time she always brought sustainable food to the table – locally and organically grown. Here’s an excerpt from some of her writing:

But here’s a novel idea…How about subsidies for organic farmers instead of piling up the corn that’s making our nation obese?  How about making disgusting feedlots for cattle a thing of the past?  Take control!  Tell your grocery store manager,  your restaurant chefs and the Dept. of Agriculture, that you want more organic choices and local hormone free meats and dairy.  You don’t want to pay an arm and a leg for it and if you don’t see it, you’ll shop elsewhere. Vote with your feet.

She has a great blog and a great book out as well (and another in the oven). Check them out. These are the words from her blog that inspired this blog post. She’s all about doing the right thing ecologically speaking – and she’s not a hypocrite about it. She’s real, and I love that. We’re screaming at people to don’t! eat! shark fin soup! But we know we can’t scream at everyone to stop eating seafood! That’s ridiculous. The fishermen need a livelihood, the world needs protein, and we (I) eat fish ourselves! Yummy lean protein…not a bad thing. So I’ll end this post with a sustainable recipe because, what many of you don’t know about me is that I love to cook. I rarely have time for it these days, but putting together healthy, sustainable (there’s that word again), nutritious dishes relaxes me and let’s me flex my creativity in a different way. And, it helps me avoid eating processed food, which is not so good for our bodies or the environment. Anyway – back to the words that inspired this post:

Here’s a thought.

Is our economy really tanking like the news reports say? Is it really so bad that consumer spending is slowing? Is it a bad thing that the country who consumes more than most other industrialized nations (and certainly WASTES more than it’s share) is tightening it’s belt? Is it necessary to give billions of dollars to bail out Wall Street or the car industry a good idea, or should we maybe consider fixing what breaks or taking care of what we own? Is driving a ten year old car a problem? Do we really need to support the ever growing revenue of storage facilities or just use what we need? Is the idea of people not being RICH but just being comfortable, safe and happy an okay desire? Is the fact that people can’t get credit (where it isn’t deserved) really hurtful? Is living within our means a recession? Is the DOW dropping 10% on time or a curtain call for a depression? Will it really be so bad if we don’t go in droves to the coffee house to spend $5 on a coffee drink to fill yet another disposable bit of paper and trash? Is a leveling in the housing market a normal reaction to a bloated market that will finally call for renovation and community building instead of perpetuating urban sprawl and new developments that flatten small towns and rural areas? Will a foreign market that has grown from our addiction to cheap goods finally slow down and keep us from buying crap we don’t need at Dollar Stores and WalMart and maybe bring home manufacturing? If something costs more to make in the US will we buy less, but keep jobs here? Will we be a nation of entrepreneurs looking for ways to feed, clothe and repair things instead of a nation of importers who think that unemployment checks are the answer? Will we decide that spending hundreds of millions of dollars in the Mid East is really ridiculous when most people can’t afford to buy groceries? Will people who have multiple children who complain of the cost of every thing from gas to diapers on small incomes consider birth control? Will we consider taking care of ourselves instead of complaining about rising medical costs? Will we take a small parcel of our yards that we waste for lawns and watering and grow some of our own food?

I wonder. And I hope.

And now to continue with something completely different – but tying this post in to relevance for MarineBio:

And for some awesome links to more info:

http://chocolateandzucchini.com/archives/2008/08/sustainable_seafood.php – great food blogger and cookbook author writes about sustainable seafood
http://www.nrdc.org/water/oceans/gseafood.asp info on sustainable seafood +
http://www.nrdc.org/water/oceans/recipes/allrecipes.pdf – chefs sustainable seafood recipes
http://celebritychefs.suite101.com/article.cfm/fish_without_a_doubt – review of a sustainable seafood cookbook
http://www.nofishinmydish.com/index.html – awesome kid’s book on the benefits of less fish bought, less fish caught
http://www.worldwatch.org/node/4990 – tips on eating seafood sustainably

My recipe for spicy US Atlantic mahi mahi en papillote

serves 2

En papillote means baked in parchment paper, but you can also use aluminum/tin foil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F

Marinade:

Lime juice from 2-3 limes (fresh squeezed)
1/2 cup coconut milk
1 tsp Thai curry paste – red or green (1/2 tsp if you don’t like it spicy)
Cilantro leaves and stems – chopped
1 clove garlic – minced
1 tsp ginger – minced
2 tsp lemongrass – light parts, finely minced
green onions – chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

Fish:

1 pound US Atlantic pole or troll caught mahi mahi

Veggies:

Julienne the following (slice into thin strips)

1/2 red bell pepper
1/2 green bell pepper
1 carrot
1/2 small sweet or red onion
1/2 cup snow peas
2 green onions

Flavor:

2 tsp Butter
Reserved marinade
Chopped cilantro leaves
Crushed red pepper (optional)
Salt and pepper

1. Salt and pepper both sides of the fish and marinate for about 30 minutes, reserve 1/4 cup of the marinade to top fish before baking.
2. Divide fish into two portions and place on separate circles of parchment paper or foil large enough to cover and fold. Fold over fish and crimp sides leaving plenty of room at the top for air to circulate.
3. Top fish with veggies, butter, cilantro, red pepper, and salt and pepper to taste.

Bake at 400 for 15-25 minutes or until fish flakes easily with fork.

Enjoy with a good conscience!

The good news? A survey of how well the world’s coral reefs are being protected was conducted. The bad news? Less than 2% of the world’s coral reefs are being protected. This is the problem that I have with Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) – theoretically it’s a great idea. But when put into practice, it seems most MPAs are too small to make much of an impact.

Read on:

Global coral reef assessment built on NASA images

A first-of-its-kind survey of how well the world’s coral reefs are being protected was made possible by a unique collection of NASA views from space.

A team of international researchers using NASA satellite images compiled an updated inventory of all “marine protected areas” containing coral reefs and compared it with the most detailed and comprehensive satellite inventory of coral reefs. The global satellite mapping effort is called the Millennium Coral Reef Mapping Project and was funded by NASA. The study was reported on recently in the journal Science.

The assessment found that less than two percent of coral reefs are within areas designated to limit human activities that can harm the reefs and the sea life living in and around them. Countries around the world have created these protected ocean and coastal zones where human activities such as shipping, fishing, recreation and scientific research are restricted to varying degrees.

“The contribution of NASA images to this project was crucial,” says study lead author Camilo Mora, a marine biologist at Dalhousie University, Canada. “The satellite images allowed us to pinpoint where coral reefs are actually located within coastal marine ecosystems.”

The Millennium Project collection of global satellite images of coral reefs was first released in 2003; maps derived from these images were released in 2004. The images are now publicly available from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD. Landsat 7 was designed by NASA and launched in 1999. The Landsat Program is a series of Earth-observing satellite missions jointly managed by NASA and the Department of the Interior’s U.S. Geological Survey.

To achieve detailed, worldwide views of the very small and widely scattered reefs, the Millennium Project team analyzed nearly 1700 images taken by the Landsat 7 spacecraft over four years. Computer processing of these data resulted in the coral reef inventory and maps that revealed detailed information about the structure of individual reefs.

The new study found that while the number of marine protected areas has been increasing, the level of effective worldwide protection of coral reefs is small. The study also found that most protected zones are too small to provide protection for fish species that routinely swim outside the boundaries. Only a handful are big enough to protect fish and marine life that naturally range outside their boundaries.

“This research points out how much still needs to be done to protect coral reef ecosystems,” said Frank Muller-Karger, one of the developers of the Millennium Project at the University of South Florida’s Institute for Marine Remote Sensing in St. Petersburg. “Creating large reserves such as the new Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument is just such a step in the right direction.” On June 15, the United States created the largest protected marine area in the world, which includes 4,500 square miles of relatively undisturbed coral reef habitat.

“Natural resource managers around the world and conservation groups actively use these coral reef satellite views to advance a wide range of habitat protection projects,” says Serge Andréfouët, who developed the methods to create the Millennium coral reef maps. Andréfouët, co-author of the Science article, studies reefs with remote-sensing technology at the French Institut de Recherche pour le Développement in New Caledonia.

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For more information and related images, please visit on the Web: http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/lookingatearth/coral_assessment.html

Transparent jellyfish-like creatures known as a salps, considered by many a low member in the ocean food web, may be more important to the fate of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide in the ocean than previously thought.

In the May issue of Deep Sea Research, scientists report that salps, about the size of a human thumb, swarming by the billions in “hot spots” may be transporting tons of carbon per day from the ocean surface to the deep sea and keep it from re-entering the atmosphere.

Salps are semi-transparent, barrel-shaped marine animals that move through the water by drawing water in the front end and propelling it out the rear in a sort of jet propulsion. The water passes over a mucus membrane that vacuums it clean of all edible material.

The oceans absorb excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, including some from the burning of fossil fuels. In sunlit surface waters, tiny marine plants called phytoplankton use the carbon dioxide, CO2, to grow. Animals then consume the phytoplankton and incorporate the carbon, but most of it dissolves back into the oceans when the animals defecate or die. The carbon can be used again by bacteria and plants, or can return to the atmosphere as heat-trapping carbon dioxide when it is consumed and respired by animals.

Biologists Laurence Madin of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and Patricia Kremer of the University of Connecticut and colleagues have conducted four summer expeditions to the Mid-Atlantic Bight region, between Cape Hatteras and Georges Bank, in the North Atlantic, since 1975. Each time the researchers found that one particular salp species, Salpa aspera, multiplied into dense swarms that lasted for months.

One swarm covered 100,000 square kilometers (38,600 square miles) of the sea surface. The scientists estimated that the swarm consumed up to 74 percent of microscopic carbon-containing plants from the surface water per day, and their sinking fecal pellets transported up to 4,000 tons of carbon a day to deep water.

“Salps swim, feed, and produce waste continuously,” Madin said. “They take in small packages of carbon and make them into big packages that sink fast.”

In previous work, Madin and WHOI biologist Richard Harbison found that salp fecal pellets sink as much as 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) a day. The scientists also showed that when salps die, their bodies also sink fast—up to 475 meters (1,575 feet) a day, far faster than most pellets. If salps are really a dead-end in the food web and remain uneaten on the way down, they could send even more carbon to the deep.

Salpa aspera swims long distances down in daylight and back up at night in what is known as vertical migration. Madin, Kremer and colleagues Peter Wiebe and Erich Horgan of WHOI and Jennifer Purcell and David Nemazie of the University of Maryland found that the salps stay at depths of 600 to 800 meters (1,970 to 2,625 feet) during the day, coming to the surface only at night.

“At the surface,” Madin said, “salps can feed on phytoplankton. They may swim down in the day to avoid predators or damaging sunlight. And swimming up at night allows them to aggregate to reproduce and multiply quickly when food is abundant.”

Because of this behavior, salps release fecal pellets in deep water, where few animals eat them. This enhances the transport of carbon away from the atmosphere.

In 2004 and 2006, Madin and Kremer studied salp swarms in a different ecosystem, the Southern Ocean near Antarctica. Some scientists have reported larger salp populations there in warmer years with less sea ice. If this proves true, and if Antarctica’s climate warms, salp swarms could have a greater effect on phytoplankton and carbon in the Southern Ocean ecosystem.

Funding for this study was provided by the National Science Foundation, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Access to the Sea program at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

SOURCE: http://www.whoi.edu/mr/pr.do?id=14272