Marine Environment | savingwater.co.za

Shrinking sea could disrupt weather patterns

Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 03 Sep 2011

Arctic sea ice cover has already shrunk to its third lowest level on record this year, in an irreversible trend that may see an ice-free summer around 2030, said the head of the world’s main monitoring centre.

The Arctic is on track to be completely ice-free in summer at some point this century

The sea ice area will be reduced further in the next two weeks but was unlikely to beat a 2007 retreat in a 32-year satellite data record, said Mark Serreze, director of the US-based National Snow and Ice Data Center.

While sea ice does not raise sea levels when it melts, just as melting ice in a glass of water, an ice-free summer would have implications for the exploitation of resources in the area, scientists say. It could also disrupt weather patterns or cause the Greenland ice sheet to melt more rapidly.

Exxon Mobil Corp and Rosneft signed an agreement on Tuesday to extract oil and gas from the Russian Arctic, in exploration which may be assisted by the recent trend of summer sea ice retreat north of Russia.

“The numbers today are saying that if all further melt stopped right now it would be the third most in the satellite record,” Serreze said today.

“We just dropped below 4.6 million square kilometres and that’s what we had in 2010 (at the minimum). We’re continuing the overall pattern of loss, and there’s still a couple of weeks to go in the melt season.” Continue reading Shrinking sea could disrupt weather patterns

Dead turtles wash up on Australian beaches

Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 12 Aug 2011

WWF has received numerous reports from aboriginal groups on the north-eastern coast of Australia of large numbers of sick, starving and dead turtles washing up on beaches. The reports come following the loss of sea grasses after Cyclone Yasi and floods hit the area back in February.

Five species of marine turtle are classified as endangered or critically endangered

The increase in turtle deaths for April may be more than five times higher this year compared to the same time last year.

“If these numbers are accurate, then this is a shocking development for the Great Barrier Reef” said WWF’s Conservation on Country Manager Cliff Cobbo. “We urgently need clarification from the Queensland Government on how many turtles are being found dead along the Great Barrier Reef coast”.

Turtle hospitals in Townsville, Queensland are being overwhelmed with sick and starving animals and do not have the resources to handle the number of turtles expected to need emergency care over the next 18 months.

Some local aboriginal groups have been so concerned by what they are seeing they plan to suspend issuing hunting permits within their saltwater country.

CEO of the Girringun Aboriginal Corporation, Phil Rist, said large numbers of dead turtles and dugongs had been found in recent weeks and that strandings are occurring on a weekly basis. Continue reading Dead turtles wash up on Australian beaches

Polar bears at risk over melting ice

Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 19 July 2011

Polar bear cubs that swam long distances had a 45% mortality rate

Polar bear cubs forced to swim long distances with their mothers as their icy Arctic habitat melts appear to have a higher mortality rate than cubs that didn’t have to swim as far, a new study reports.

Polar bears hunt, feed and give birth on ice or on land, and are not naturally aquatic creatures. Previous reports have noted individual animals swimming hundreds of kilometres to reach ice platforms or land, but this is one of the first to show these swims pose a greater risk to polar bear young.

“Climate change is pulling the sea ice out from under polar bears’ feet, forcing some to swim longer distances to find food and habitat,” said Geoff York of World Wildlife Fund, a co-author of the study.

York said this was the first time these long swims had been quantitatively measured, filling a gap in the historical background on this iconic Arctic species.

To gather data, researchers used satellites and tracked 68 polar bear females equipped with GPS collars over six years, from 2004 to 2009, to find occasions when these bears swam more than 50km at a time. Continue reading Polar bears at risk over melting ice

Global ecosystems disrupted by decline of large predators

Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 15 July 2011

The decline of large predators and other “apex consumers” at the top of the food chain has disrupted ecosystems across the planet.

The removal of predators like sea otters has consequences for all of us

The finding is reported by an international team of scientists in a paper in this week’s issue of the journal Science.

The study looked at research results from a wide range of terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems and concluded ”the loss of apex consumers is arguably humankind’s most pervasive influence on the natural world.”

According to lead author James Estes, a marine ecologist and evolutionary biologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, large animals were once ubiquitous across the globe. They shaped the structure and dynamics of ecosystems.

Their decline, largely caused by humans through hunting and habitat fragmentation, has far-reaching and often surprising consequences, including changes in vegetation, wildfire frequency, infectious diseases, invasive species, water quality and nutrient cycles.

Plummeting numbers of apex consumers are most pronounced among the big predators, such as wolves on land, sharks in the oceans, and large fish in freshwater ecosystems. There also are dramatic declines in populations of many large herbivores, such as elephants and bison.

The loss of apex consumers from an ecosystem triggers an ecological phenomenon known as a “trophic cascade,” a chain of effects moving down through lower levels of the food chain. Continue reading Global ecosystems disrupted by decline of large predators

Western Gray whales threatened by ongoing industrial activities

Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 13 July 2011

Several governments attending the International Whaling Commission meeting say oil and gas development poses a grave threat to Western gray whales.

Addressing the opening day of the 63rd annual IWC meeting, representatives raised concerns over expanding oil and gas operations off Russia’s Sakhalin Island, a key feeding ground for the critically endangered whales and their calves.

“The UK is deeply concerned that ongoing industrial activities around Sakhalin Island continue to provide a threat to the population,” said UK Minister for Natural Environment and Fisheries Richard Benyon.

There may be fewer than 130 Western gray whales remaining. The loss of just one or two breeding females each year could lead the whales to extinction.

Last summer three seismic surveys were conducted near the whales’ primary feeding habitat. Seismic surveys, used to detect subsea oil deposits, involve shooting large pulses of sound into the ocean floor and can cause the whales to abandon the area.

The US expressed its concern over the cumulative impacts of oil and gas operations off Sakhalin Island, where there are multiple off-shore oil and gas platforms. Continue reading Western Gray whales threatened by ongoing industrial activities