Ooona River is a small community living on Porcher Island on BC’s north coast. The river here was almost devoid of coho in the 1980′s. After over 30 years of stream enhancement work, and a community hatchery being built, it now sees runs of up to 400 coho, and 20,000 pinks.
NASA’sinteractiveImages of Change gallery “features images of different locations on planet Earth, showing change over time periods ranging from centuries to days. Some of these effects are related to climate change, some are not. Some document the effects of urbanization, or the ravage of natural hazards such as fires and floods. All show our planet in a state of flux.”
So, there’s apparently research coming out now about microplastics being found in people’s bloodstreams and the possible negative effects of that and I feel the need to get out ahead of the wave of corporate sponsored “be sure to recycle your bottles!” or “ban glitter!” campaigns and remind everyone:
It’s fishing nets. It’s fishing nets. It is overwhelming fishing nets It always has been fishing nets.Unless regulations are changed, it will continue to be fishing nets.
The plastic in the ocean in largely discarded nets from industrial fishing. The microplastics are the result of these nets breaking down. The “trash islands” are also, you guessed it. Mostly fishing nets and other discarded fishing industry equipment.
Do not allow them to continue to twist the story. Do not come after disabled people who require single use plastics. Do not come after people using glitter in art projects and makeup. These things make up a negligible amount of the issue compared to corporate waste, specifically in the fishing industry. Do not let them shift the blame to the individual so they can continue to destroy the planet and our bodies without regulation.
Industries are incredibly resistant to taking responsibility for their own waste, to the point where “consumers are responsible for industrial waste” is somehow considered a sensible, ethical, worthy sentence.
It is actually perfectly reasonable to say that “industries are responsible for industrial waste” and “the effects of industry can, should and must be fixed by industry” and “Industry can, should and must be held responsible for its impacts on the commons, such as air, water, oceans and land.”
Don’t let people say the answer to this is to just abstain from seafood, either. Many fish and squid SHOULD be sustainable food sources (a few still are!) and it is not consumer demand by itself that’s impacting biodiversity; it’s the inefficient wasteful methods, again the corporate greed stage in the process, and the fact that the old discarded nets continue killing more wildlife than they ever caught for market. For YEARS.
That doesn’t mean consumers are responsible as a body. Frankly, non-biodegradable plastic is not a material that should be made in such quantity in the first place.
This is the last of my native flora photos from last year’s Hawaii assignment. Fittingly this is from the final shoot and perhaps strangely my favorite of all. This is Nototrichium sandwicense, an endemic species in the Amaranthfamily known in the indigenous language as Kului. The flowers’ white-light color is rather tame, but they remain attractive for the fluffy character and produce a pleasing cyan to green tone when exposed to my ultraviolet light. The leaves may be my absolute favorite thing about this plant though. Especially when grown in bright and dry conditions, the leaves become heavily pubescent, tiny hairs creating a translucent silvery sheen overlaying the green leaf surface. They prefer to grown in dry conditions and are naturally present on many of the islands, growing in various well-drained soils at low to moderate altitudes. If I could choose just one of the plants I photographed to grow at home in California, it would be this species!
For some bonus fun, check out the ant in the final picture. She and her associates were wandering all over the flowers, creating quite a lot of frustration for me. In the end there was one frame where one ant was both somewhat in focus and stationary enough to get a good look at how the body fluoresces under 365nm UV.
This is my last native Hawaiian flower to share. I’ll be taking a short break from posting UVIVF images, but I’ll return with some invasive species I photographed the first night there and probably some infrared images down the line as well!
Thanks to Hana Hou! magazine (in particular Matt Mallams!) for bringing me in on this assignment and both the Lyon Arboretum and Hui Ku Maoli Ola for all the help in providing subjects and sparing the time to talk about things. I hope I’ll have another opportunity in the future to come visit!
Gossypium tomentosum, Ma’o, or Hawaiian cotton, is an another endemic member of the mallow family (Malvaceae). It is grown as a small shrub, a groundcover, and is enjoyed for its silky flowers and silvery leaves. Sadly, like many of the other Hawaiian plants I’ve been sharing, it is endangered and has been extirpated from at least one of the Hawaiian islands largely as a result of continued coastal development.
Besides the loss of beauty, variety, and ecological diversity, the extinction of a species always has potential to make lost traits which would have perhaps more conventional value. This cotton illustrates this as even while its population continues to decline, its genes persist in commercial cotton crops after being bred with them to confer enhanced insect and pathogen resistance. While for some the abstract consequences of extinction have no impact, there remain more concrete losses which should leave any person concerned.
Achyranthes splendens (Ahinahina in Hawaiian) is an endangered Hawaiian endemic plant in the same family as amaranth. This species occurs only on the Hawaiian islands, growing at low to moderate altitudes typically along western and southern coasts in relatively dry habitats. While the inflorescence I had to photograph is missing flowers (they fall off pretty rapidly and easily) the flowers when blooming are light green and barely distinct from the rest of the inflorescence without quite close inspection. They are not as much appreciated for the flowers as they are for the beautiful tomentose foliage which presents a shifting metallic sheen overlaying the green leaf tissue. Sadly, like many Hawaiian plants, this easily-grown species is still threatened by habitat loss, and with its decreasing population may follow in the steps of its relative Achyranthes atollensis which was made extinct through civilian and military development in 1964.
Happy #NationalTeachersDay to the talented leaders of education in the United States! We are especially appreciative of all the incredible teachers and instructors that incorporate marine science, conservation, and exploration into their yearly curriculums.
The NOAA Office of National Marine Sanctuaries aims to provide teachers with resources and training to support ocean literacy in America’s classrooms. Interested in incorporating our resources into your curriculum? Visit https://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/education/teachers/.
Are you interested in learning about Our Blue Legacy?
The Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act was signed on October 23, 1972, creating one of the oldest and largest networks of underwater parks in the world. Today the National Marine Sanctuary System covers more than 620,000 square miles of protected ocean and Great Lakes waters in 15 national marine sanctuaries and two marine national monuments. On October 23, 2022, the sanctuary system celebrates its 50th anniversary and is using the opportunity to, among other things, issue the Our Blue Legacy report summarizing its impacts and accomplishments as it looks forward to the next 50 years.
Whaling stretches far back in human history, with evidence dating back to the Middle Ages, to Indigenous and cultural uses over the last several thousand years, to the emergence of a global commercial whaling industry over the last two centuries. Commercial whaling in American waters came to an end on Dec. 31, 1971, and the last whale to be taken for commercial harvest was a sperm whale taken near San Francisco Bay, in what is today Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary. Thanks to the Endangered Species Act, Marine Mammal Protection Act, National Marine Sanctuaries Act, and other legislation, many of the waters that were once killing grounds for whales are now a haven for wildlife of all kinds.
Explore The Power of Wow in our latest web story highlighting incredible scientific discoveries in ocean parks
From even before the passage of the Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act of 1972 (MPRSA), it was clear that science was intended to be central to the creation and management of national marine sanctuaries. “Scientific value” is one of the qualities of an area that helps judge its special national significance and thus its fitness as a sanctuary, and in 1984 Congress added a mandate to the MPRSA for NOAA to conduct research as necessary to meet the purposes of the act. From these beginnings the sanctuary system has developed an outstanding science legacy. One measure of its achievements is the half-century of discovery of new things—such as shipwrecks, artifacts, species, habitats, and natural processes—that inspire, amaze, and awe us. Let’s explore the power of wow!
We’re sharing some of our favorite National Volunteer Month features from recent years. 2017’s two-part web story how citizen science and other volunteer programs help engage the public in the care of their national marine sanctuaries. These volunteers are involved in Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary’s Sanctuary Ocean Count, which offers the community a chance to monitor humpback whales from the shores of Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi and Kauaʻi.
New Release: Ocean Acidification Resource Collection
What is Ocean Acidification?
The ocean absorbs the extra carbon dioxide we emit into the atmosphere when we burn fossil fuels, like coal, oil, and methane gas, and that changes the chemistry of the ocean. We call this “ocean acidification.” The change in chemistry is reducing the amount of calcium carbonate in the ocean. Just as humans need calcium to build their bones, sea creatures need calcium carbonate to build strong skeletons and shells. Ocean acidification changes the chemistry of the ocean and causes “osteoporosis of the sea,” which prevents animals at the bottom of the food chain from building and maintaining the protective shells they need to survive.
Explore this new collection of NOAA videos, lesson plans, webinars, web stories, virtual reality, and much more.
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