When it comes to echoing human speech, parrots are the superstars of the animal world—but a killer whale named Wikie may not be far behind. The 14-year-old orca showed off her vocal skills by imitating her trainer’s words, saying things like “Amy” and “bye-bye.” Researchers got her to do this by first training her to obey a hand signal that meant “copy this,” which, for instance, was used to instruct her to copy another orca squirting water into the air. Then, they presented her with sounds she had never heard before—five sounds from other orcas and six phrases spoken by trainers—and asked her to repeat them. In all trials, Wikie responded to the command by uttering something that roughly matched the sound that she was asked to copy, the team reports today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Sometimes it took as many as 17 tries to get it right, but she got four of them on her first try, including the human phrases “hello” and “one, two, three.” Orcas form tight-knit groups in the wild, each with their own dialect, so scientists think that their ability to learn new sounds may be key to how they communicate and interact with one other.
In just a few short years, 90% of the kelp forests in northern California have disappeared.
In 2018, a team of scientists, managers and resource users teamed up to create a Bull Kelp Recovery Plan that outlines specific research, monitoring, restoration and community engagement strategies to address the severe kelp loss off California’s Sonoma and Mendocino counties.
There is no single path to recovery, but, through a foundation of partnerships, we’ve identified multiple actions to protect and restore kelp forests so they can continue to sustain marine ecosystems and coastal communities for years to come.
Is action on climate change the only sure way to preserve the world’s coral reefs?
The majority of coral reefs around the world are not only threatened by global warming. Agriculture effluents such as pesticides, overfishing, untreated sewage, and siltation due to deforestation all contribute to the serious degradation of coral reefs such as the Great Barrier Reef of Australia.
The latest Food for Thought articlefromICES Journal of Marine Science explores building up resilience and adaption of social-ecological systems of coral reefs, by drastically reducing local stressors.
Waves of dead sea animals - whales, salmon, sardines, and clams - have been piling up on Chile’s Pacific beaches over the last few weeks. What’s going on?
(Miles of dead clams were found on the beaches of southern Chile. Photo by Alvaro Vidal/AFP/Getty Images)
Last year, scientists could not explain why close to 300 whales turned up dead on remote bays of the southern coast of the country.
In March of 2016, the country faced a huge algal bloom which strongly impacted the salmon farming industry. This surge in algaekilled an estimated 40,000 tons of salmon in the Los Lagos region — equal to about 12% of Chile’s annual production and enough to fill 14 Olympic-sized pools. Thousands of tons of dead salmon ended up being dumped in the sea 80 miles offshore.
This month, about 8,000 tons of sardines washed up at the mouth of the central Queule River while thousands of dead clams piled up on the coast of Chiloé Island. On Santa Maria Island, cuttlefish have washed up dead in the thousands.
The authorities are putting the blame on the red tide, and have banned fishing in the affected regions, putting thousands of fishermen out of work.
Ared tide is a harmful algal bloom which like its name indicates turns the water red, while potentially producing an elevated concentration of toxins.
It is a common and naturally recurring phenomenon in the waters of Chile, but scientists estimate that this current outbreak is unprecedented, extending further north than usual. Many point to an unusually strong El Niño weather pattern this year as a key factor.
El Niño is a disruptive weather phenomenon that comes with warming sea surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific. Warmer waters can lead to greater quantities of algae, which kills others species by consuming oxygen in the water or filling it with toxins.
The red tide makes the mussels, clams, and other fish essentially poisonous, and thus is heavily influencing the local economies and livelihood of thousands. Fishermen around the island of Chiloé are now protesting and accusing the government of failing to alleviate the economic losses they have suffered.
“We think that a common factor in the deaths of creatures in southern Chile, in the salmon farms and in fish off the coast is the El Niño phenomenon,” the Chilean fisheries institute IFOP said in a statement to AFP.
While the government is quick to put the blame on the red tide and El Niño, scientists suspect there may be other factors in play. Warmer waters from El Niño do foster ideal conditions for algae to grow, but a significant nutrient input can also help trigger the bloom.
Laura Farias, an oceanographer at Chile’s Concepcion University, suggested in an interview thatthe growth of fish farming in Chile’s southern Patagonia region could be to criticize for killing the salmon and clams.
“There are studies indicating that in Patagonia the greater occurrence of toxic blooms could be a consequence of aquaculture,” she said.
(8,000 tons of sardines were washed up at the mouth of the Queule river. Photo found on Facebook: Armada de Chile)
Incidentally,artisanal fishing unions are attributing the size of this year’s red tide on pollution by the farmed salmon industry. Chiloé residents blame the salmon industry and the government for the contamination, alleging that this oversized red tide began just after 4,000 tons of dead salmon were dumped 80 miles offshore from the island.
Other disagree, and argue the dumping of the salmon has no correlation:
“The bloom of algae is linked to the change in ocean conditions fostered by El Niño. The relationship to the dumping of the salmon has no scientific basis,”explained Universidad de Concepcion agricultural researcher Renato Quiñones.
While no scientific data is available yet, it is probably a combination of natural reasons (El Niño weather pattern, seasonal algal bloom) aggravated by unnatural causes (fish farming run-off and pollution) that is resulting in the overwhelming and heartbreaking die-off of the local marine wildlife.
In a study published in the journal Global Biogeochemical Cycles on May 2, 2016, scientists from the University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science found that the limestone that forms the foundation of coral reefs along the Florida Reef Tract is dissolving at a very rapid rate during the fall and winter months on many reefs in the Florida Keys. The research also showed that the upper Florida Keys were the most impacted by the annual loss of reef.
For this study Dr. Chris Langdon and his team collected water samples in 2009 and 2010 along a 124-mile (200-kilometer) stretch of the Florida reef, from north of Biscayne Bay to the Looe Key National Marine Sanctuary in the Atlantic Ocean, about five miles off Big Pine Key in the Lower Keys. This data establishes a baseline of the health of the reefs, which could then be used for future studies that look at changes along the reef tract.
The team found that reef dissolution in the fall and winter months is a significant problem on reefs in the upper Keys, where the loss of limestone is exceeding the amount the corals are able to produce in the spring and summer on an annual basis. The northern-most reef is already net erosional (-1.1 ± 0.4 kg CaCO3 m-2 y-1) and mid-reefs to the south were net depositional on an annual basis (0.4 ± 0.1 kg CaCO3 m-2 y-1) but erosional during the fall and winter. Only the two southern-most reefs were net depositional year-round.
“The reef needs a certain amount of carbonite production every year to stay in place,” Landgon says.“if it’s in excess of that, the reefs grow. When it reaches zero, they are holding even. When it switches to negative, that’s when they start wasting away.”
On top of supporting most of the biodiversity in the oceans, coral reefs are also crucial for the economies and tourism industries of coastal countries. In Florida, it is estimated that the reefs have an asset value of $7.6 billion, and they support over 70,000 jobs.
(The thickets of staghorn corals (A. cervicornis) are gone today replaced by a structure-less bottom littered with the decaying skeletons of staghorn coral. Photo by Chris Langdon)
The results of this study indicate that parts of the Florida Reef Tract have already crossed the tipping point for carbonate production and other parts are getting close. Moreover, the area has suffered greatly over the last few years due to warmer sea surface temperatures, and heavy coral bleaching episodes that resulted in a significant loss of corals and in the spread of diseases.
Since the data for the study were collected in 2009 and 2010, it is now necessary to conduct a similar analysis to see how the reefs are faring today. Considering that the worst bleaching years on record in the Florida Keys were 2014-2015, it is very possible that the reefs are in a worse state nowadays.
This discovery just goes to show how much we still have to learn about our wonderful oceans!
A big team of scientists publishedtheir findings on April 22, 2016, in the journal ScienceAdvances (you can access the paper for free!). It is quite an astonishing find, as the reef is located in very muddy and polluted waters, but it also stretches over 600 miles!
The reef ranges from depths of 30m to 120m, and consists primarily of sponges and rhodoliths (a type of marine algae that resemble coral), rather than corals. Researchers found over 60 species of sponges, 73 species of fish, spiny lobsters, sea stars, hydroids, and other marine organisms.
Reef ecosystems are known to thrive in very clear and shallow water, with plenty of sunlight and oxygen flow, with stable salinity conditions and low nutrients.
This reef is somehow thriving right below the freshwater outflow of the Amazon river, where vast quantities of sediments coming down the river are swept to the sea. The muddy plume is even visible from space! On top of that, light is very low and almost non-existent, levels of oxygen are also very poor, and nutrients levels are through the roof (333,000 nutrients per second as it flows).
(Scientists shown with specimens they collected from the newly discovered reef. Photo credit: F. Moraes/Courtesy of Carlos Rezende (UENF) and Fabiano Thompson (UFRJ))
Fabiano Thompson, one of the authors of the paper, told Discovery News,“There were some studies back in the 1950s that suggested the presence of reefs, but none pinpointed the reef bodies, dimensions, locations, and compositions.”
Until this study, nobody really had followed up on these. The researchers were originally primarily focused on sampling the mouth of the Amazon. However, Dr. Moura, primary author of the study, had read an article from the 1970s that mentioned catching reef fish in that location, and he wanted to try to locate the reefs. The team first used multibeam acoustic sampling of the ocean bottom to find the reef and then dredged up samples to confirm the discovery.
They then organized another expedition with a full team and took a Brazilian Navy research vessel back to the site in 2014, when they were able to collect and fully describe the findings for the study.
The video below is provided by Science Advances and shows scientists and marine biologists “sampling the plume, subplume, and reefs off the Amazon river mouth during the NHo Cruzeiro do Sul cruise.”
This paper could provide insight how tropical reefs respond to suboptimal and marginal reef-building conditions, which may become more prevalent with the onset of climate change.
“The paper is not just about the reef itself, but about how the reef community changes as you travel north along the shelf break, in response to how much light it gets seasonally by the movement of the plume,”said Patrica Yager, an associate professor of marine sciences at the University of Georgia.
“In the far south, it gets more light exposure, so many of the animals are more typical reef corals and things that photosynthesize for food. But as you move north, many of those become less abundant, and the reef transitions to sponges and other reef builders that are likely growing on the food that the river plume delivers. So the two systems are intricately linked.”
(Map of the Amazon shelf showing the benthic megahabitats and seasonal influence of the river plume. Click here to enlarge)
Sadly,this location is already threatened. Parts of the area have been sold by the Brazilian government to the petroleum industry in 2013 for oil exploration and drilling. Some exploratory blocks are already producing oil in close proximity to the reef, with many more to come.
As a result, the scientists are calling for further studies of the area in order to properly map its marine life diversity, as they have only sampled about 10-20% of it.
A research team studying biodiversity at the Hannibal Bank Seamount off the coast of Panama has captured unique video of thousands of red crabs swarming in low-oxygen waters just above the seafloor.
No one had ever observed this species so far south, and to find a species at the extreme of their range and to be so abundant is very unusual.
These crabs migrate up and down the water column and are favored prey for yellowfin tuna. They are also an important food source for a variety of other fish, birds, and marine mammals.
Aswe are witnessing the slow dying of the biggest living entity on our planet, the Great Barrier Reef, it is time to take action.
10 things you can do to save the oceans-this includes reducing your carbon footprint, using less plastic, make sustainable seafood choices, and spread the word!
In really surreal science news of the day, researchers have now found a way to watch how hundreds of individual cells work together to maintain and regenerate skin tissue, thanks to a genetically engineered line of technicolor zebrafish.
(To the naked eye, this genetically engineered zebrafish has a magenta tone (top). But under a microscope, every cell has a distinct color, thanks to a new labeling technique called Skinbow (bottom). Photo credit: Chen-Hui Chen, Duke University)
Ken Poss, a professor of cell biology at Duke University, and his lab have spent the last few years creating “Skinbow,” a mutant zebrafish with fluorescent markers embedded in the DNA code of its skin cells. Their study was published on March 21st, 2016 in Developmental Cell, and is available for free download: Multicolor Cell Barcoding Technology for Long-Term Surveillance of Epithelial Regeneration in Zebrafish.
Each of Skinbow’s color markers can be expressed in three different ways, resulting in red, green, or blue fluorescence. With three color options and roughly a hundred copies of the gene per cell, the total number of colors any cell can take on is probably in the thousands.
The research team has now been able to observe tissue regeneration by scraping a few cells off the fish’s fin, and visualize the healing process on a cellular level. Any color patterns that develop during tissue regeneration are inferred to arise from a single cell.
“It is like you have given each cell an individual barcode,”said Chen-Hui Chen, a postdoctoral fellow in Poss’s lab and lead author on the study. “You can precisely see how individual cells collectively behave during regeneration.”
Listen to Ken Poss discuss the experiment:
“One thing we weren’t expecting is that within a few hours of injury, cells that are spared acquire some mobility on the surface,”Posssaid in an interview with Gizmodo. “They also expand in size, some doubling. Then there’s a quick wave of replacement—you can see new cells emerging from the layer underneath.”
What is even more fascinating is that cells behaved differently in function of the injury. For example, following fin amputation, pre-existing cells were initially recruited from below the amputation plane to cover the wound. Then, new cells were generated at a rapid pace, and in the end some cells at the tip of the regrown tissue temporarily grew in size to provide surface coverage.
(Here, the multicolor cells are evident on the exposed portion of a dissected scale. Photo credit: Chen-Hui Chen, Duke University)
Poss is hopeful that the Skinbow technique can be extended to other species in the future, even humans. It obviously would involve getting the right set of genetic tools, and developing a way to image tissue continually over time, but Poss is hopeful that doctors may be able to use this technology to visualize how human tissue responds to new cancer drugs, or treatments meant to accelerate healing.
In a study published earlier this month in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, scientists from the University of Chicago have shown for the first time that pectoral fins in at least one species of fish possess neurons and cells that are extremely sensitive to touch.
(A pictus catfish. Photo Credit: Adam Hardy, University of Chicago)
Of course, we are well aware of how sensitive and finely-tuned the human fingertip is, and how and even slight touches convey a great deal of information about our physical environment. It turns out that some fish use their pectoral fins in pretty much the same way.
The team studied the pictus catfish, a bottom-dweller from the Amazon River. Their question was simple: can fish feel things with their fins? Well, it looks like it!
Scientists used the flat end of a pin as well as a brush to stimulate the fish’s pectoral fins while measuring the resulting neural activity. They observed that not only the fish’s neurons responded to the touch, but they also conveyed information about the pressure being applied as well as the motion of the brush!
There have been studies showing that fish possess the sense of proprioception, meaning they are aware of where their fins are relative to their bodies. This study however, is the first to show that fish fins can sense touch, and are able to sense light pressure and subtle motion, similar to mammalian skins.
“Like us, fish are able to feel the environment around them with their fins,“said Melina Hale, another one of the authors. "Touch sensation may allow fish to live in dim environments, using touch to navigate when vision is limited.”
An analysis of the cellular structures of the fin revealed the presence of cells that closely resemble Merkel cells, which are associated with nerve endings in the skin of mammals and are essential for touch.
The team is currently conducting the same experiment with other species of fish (like flounders), but they are confident that such sensitivity to touch exists in other bottom-dweller fishes, and could be useful in nocturnal or deep-sea environments as well.
Blacktip sharks are also, in some way, what we would call “snow birds.” Like many retired Canadians and Northeasterners, blacktips migrate down south every winter to get out of the cold and enjoy the Florida weather conditions.
Over10,000 blacktip sharks have been spotted this week swimming swiftly along the east coast of Florida, around the Palm Beach area. While this year’s migration has been picked up by many national media outlets, this is not a new phenomenon, and it happens every year during the winter months, where this particular species likes to migrate to warmer waters.
(Each one of these black dots is a 2-meters blacktip shark. Photo credit to @sharkmigration on Instagram)
This year however, they are further north than usual, and have been spotted as close as 100m off the beach. They usually like to venture further south, around the Miami and Fort Lauderdale area, but it looks like they have elected Palm Beach this year for their hangout spot. The sharks are also a little late compared to normal, with the species normally showing up in the area in mid-January.
There’sspeculation that this shift could be triggered by El Niño keeping the East Coast unseasonably warm at the end of last year, as well as ocean temperatures increasing further from the equator. The sharks are probably finding the waters around Palm Beach perfectly suitable, and may not feel the need to keep swimming south.
Shark scientists at Florida Atlantic University (FAU) have been doing aerial surveys of the migration since 2011, and have also recently started tagging numerous blacktips to figure out why they are there, how long they stay, or from where they come.
“This is a particularly compelling migration, because it happens so close to shore in such clear waters, and because it happens in such a popular winter destination for people,” explainedlead scientist Stephen Kajiura of FAU.
Kajiura hopes to understand why the sharks have stayed in the Palm Beach County area this year, and has tagged 32 sharks so far. He is hoping to tag 60 sharks in total so he can observe where exactly the sharks go in their migration patterns. This is the second year he and his lab have tagged sharks with geolocating transmitters.
(FAU Shark Migration team tagging one of the blacktip sharks with a NOAA dart tag. Photo credit to FAU Shark Migration Facebook Page)
Despite the close proximity of the sharks to the beaches, nothing has been closed off so far, and the local population is very well aware of this annual phenomenon and what precautions to take to avoid any incident.
The sharks are usually in the area from January to mid-March, and then are expected to swim slowly back north through the Carolinas.
Just when you thought octopuses couldn’t get any more fascinating, they do!
A paper published on January 28th, 2016 in the journal Current Biology found that there is more to octopuses changing colors than camouflage or anti-predator behavior. Using close to 53 hours of recorded video and 186 interactions in a heavily octopus-populated area in the waters of Australia, the scientists found that some displays of colors are signals that actually mediate combative interactions with one another.
(Octopus in foreground turn pales when retreating from confrontation with another octopus, seen standing tall and menacing in the background. Photo by David Scheel)
This is the first study to document the use of signals during aggressive interactions among octopuses.
David Scheel recalls for NPR the first time he observed this behavior: “I took a look fairly early on at one sequence in which one octopus approaches another in a fairly menacing way. He gets all dark, stands up very tall, and the other octopus crouches down and turns very pale. And then, when the approaching octopus persists, the other one flees. And this is immediately followed by the first octopus approaching a third octopus that’s nearby. And the third octopus turns dark and doesn’t crouch down. He just stays where he is, holds his ground.”
Excerpts from the paper:
Interactions in which dark body color by an approaching octopus was matched by similar color in the reacting octopus were more likely to escalate to grappling.
Darkness in an approaching octopus met by paler color in the reacting octopus accompanied retreat of the paler octopus. Octopuses also displayed on high ground and stood with spread web and elevated mantle, often producing these behaviors in combinations.
(Source: Scheel et al. 2016)
“[An aggressive] octopus will turn very dark, stand in a way that accentuates its size and it will often seek to stand on a higher spot,”explainedProfessor Godfrey-Smith to the BBC.
The scientists in this research actually dubbed the pose “Nosferatu”because the spread of the octopus’s web was reminiscent of a vampire’s cape, and they looked like Dracula was approaching his prey.
In the end, the color displays ultimately are correlated with the outcome of the interaction.
(Source: Scheel et al. 2016)
Scientists don’t exactly know why octopuses engaged in such heated and feisty exchanges. “It could be an attempt by one or more animals to control territory, as we saw males excluding males but not females, but this isn’t always the case,” Professor Godfrey-Smith said.
It had been previously thought that octopuses were mostly solitary creatures, and changes to body color and shape were viewed as tactics to avoid predators or to hide. This study however not only shows a very interesting range of behavior, but also may indicate complex social signaling.
Octopuses actually have a pretty exciting and dramatic social life after all.
The video above shows a dark-colored octopus, standing in the Nosferatu pose before attacking another dark-colored octopus, which eventually turns white and retreats.
Coral reefs are among the most dynamic and diverse ecosystems on the planet. They provide a safe habitat for hundreds of marine species, along with numerous resources necessary for the economic survival of smaller nations. Nevertheless, ocean acidification is one of the greatest threats that coral reefs face nowadays. It is now necessary to understand the problem, and to act quickly to limit the consequences potentially insuperable if coral reefs were to disappear.
How does a coral reef form?
Coral reefs are natural structures essentially built by hard coral colonies. Each coral is an invertebrate animal constituted of polyps. A polyp is an organism made of a mouth, stomach, wall and tentacles used for feeding and defense. Most of the corals are made of hundreds of those polyps, each genetically identical. Each polyp secrete its own exoskeleton made of calcium carbonate. Thus, hard coral species build reefs with the slow accumulation of these calcareous skeletons. Corals are furthermore considered as one of the biggest natural well of carbon on our planet.
The above video shows detailed and close-up shots of coral polyps feeding.
Why are coral reefs important?
Coral reefs have among the richest biodiversity on the planet, and provide ecological niches to numerous animals that find protection and food within the reef. According to the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration(NOAA),more than 25% of the world’s marine biodiversity is found around coral reefs, as well as over 4,000 different species of fish.
Corals are also a necessity for many coastal countries. Coral reefs offer a natural barrier against erosion and flooding following strong weather events (hurricanes or typhoons, for example). Furthermore, coral reefs are of an invaluable economical importance, and supply essential goods and services such as food, raw material, water filtration, and tourism. Over 30 million people depend exclusively on those reefs for their subsistence and housing, particularly the populations living on coral islands or atolls (Wilkinson 2008).
It is difficult to calculate the exact monetary value of such an ecosystem, but according to estimations from experts at Diversitas in 2009, the goods and services supplied by coral refs have an average annual value of about $172 billion.
How are coral reefs threatened?
Corals are very sensitive animals, and do not tolerate big changes in their environmental conditions. They now have faced for multiple years various threats, such as overfishing, pollution, bottom trawling, warming sea surface temperatures, or ocean acidification.
It is possible that by the middle of the century, corals become incapable of surviving in numerous regions of the world due to ocean acidification, and that their dissolution will be faster than their rebuilding(Guinotte and Fabry 2008). As I explained in the first article on this topic, the more acidity increases, the more energy is required to form a skeleton, and corals thus become more vulnerable.
In 2008, Clive Wilkinson explained that the world had already lost over 20% of coral reefs. In 2011, a report from the World Resources Institute indicated that 75% of coral reefs were at risk of entirely disappearing. In July 2015, a team of international scientists lead by Dr. Jean-Pierre Gattuso of the Laboratoire d’Océanographie de Villefranche published a worrying studyon the future of our oceans. If we continue with the ‘business as usual’ approach and if the CO2 emissions increase at the same rate, we can expect irreversible consequences on the marine ecosystems.
Without corals, the marine biodiversity will sharply decrease, as it will equal a huge loss of habitat, food and protection for many species. Moreover, the sectors of tourism and fisheries in numerous local and national economies will highly suffer from the disappearance of coral reefs. Finally, coastal regions will inevitably face increased beach erosion,floods, and damages in towns located close to the oceans.
What can we do?
All hope is not lost yet. A team of scientist has already shown that some corals are capable of regulating their own pH levels internally(McCulloch et al. 2012). Moreover, scientists in many countries, like Ken Nedimyer in Florida, have successfully established coral nurseries to grow endangered coral species (see photo), and to insure the presence of numerous and different genotypes within the reef. These corals are then transplanted onto older reef sites, previously destroyed by storms, diseases or bleaching events, so the reef can rebuild. Additionally, scientific research on corals and their resistance to such events continues across the world.
(Photo of Acropora cervicornis trees at the CRF coral nursery down in the Florida Keys. Photo by Allan Bright)
In France, l’Initiative française pour les récifs coralliens (IFRECOR), dependent on the Ministère de l’Ecologie, has been committed since 1999 to ensure the protection and sustainable management of coral reefs in French waters.
Everything in our environment is connected, and it is therefore possible to help coral reefs indirectly in our daily life. Don’t hesitate to check out the Lemonsea article on 5 things you can do to fight ocean acidification. No action is too small.
A few days ago, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) proposed to downgrade the manatee from an ‘endangered’ to ‘threatened’ status under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Indeed, the West Indian manatees populations have been steadily increasing, and the agency has stated that the species should no longer be considered endangered.
(Photo by David Roche)
Endangered listing means that a species is “currently in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range”, while a threatened listing states that the species “is likely to become endangered within the foreseeable future.”
This marine mammal was originally listed under the ESA about 50 years ago, as the manatee population was on the brink of extinction due to overhunting and collisions with boats. During the first aerial surveys in the 1990s, officials counted close to 1,300 manatees in Florida. Nowadays, officials have counted over 6,300 in Florida alone, and scientists estimate that 13,000 manatees live in their natural range of the Caribbean and the northern coasts of Colombia, Venezuela and Brazil.
The manatees will remain protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act,which makes it illegal to harass, feed, hunt, capture, collect, or kill any marine mammal or part of a marine mammal, and which improves the response rate to strandings or mortality events.
I think this is very encouraging to see that the efforts triggered by the ESA listing have worked, and could work for many other species. I have also read that the agency has guaranteed this would not dismantle slow-speed zones or lessen other protections for the species. This change only reflects the improvements in the population numbers in recent years.
(Photo by me or one of my coworkers)
Manatee conservation groups are, however, not thrilled about this proposed downgrading in the ESA listing, and call this decision a misguided and premature one. Dr. Katie Tripp, director of science and conservation for the Maitland, Florida-based Save the Manatee Club, has warned that declassification may potentially lead to undoing all of the good that protection efforts have achieved so far. Tripp also argues that many other threats the manatees population face have not been reduced enough to guarantee the welfare of manatee populations, such as pollution and increased human interaction.
For now, this proposed re-listing is open for public comments until April 7th.
Remember this just a kind of a “draft” of a fuller deal that will be adopted by 2020. It basically creates a binding process by which countries individually pledge to change course from “business as usual” on greenhouse gases and deforestation. I won’t get into too much details, as I found the infographic posted below that summarizes the key points pretty well, and a lot of other media outlets have covered it.
This deal firmly suggests that all countries cut down their emissions to limit GW to 2C above pre-industrial levels. But we all know that we are already on track to go past that based on the emissions that have already been emitted. So what’s the point of that language if it’s too late? Well, if we have that as a goal, at least countries can shame one another in bilateral negotiations or peer-pressure each other into reaching that target.
This agreement finally acknowledges that we can’t solve this the way we thought we could. This was the first time that there was so much diplomacy and commitment to basic science and development, with countries finally admitting that well… they don’t know how to fix this, and that they need to all work together. I think the sole fact that 195 countries AGREED on something is mind-blowing and that in itself is a success.
(Source: Agence France Press)
Why is the language so vague when it comes to GHG emissions?
One of the biggest complaints was that the deal doesn’t really give a number to aim for to reduce GHG emissions. It just says to pretty much make a change “as soon as possible.”
The main reasons this Agreement isn’t legally binding and doesn’t give us that number we were all looking for is because of the climate deniers within the Republican party. The US contingent got everyone to agree to change the word “shall” to “should” in the text. If “shall” had remained and thus required accountability, it would have had to go through Congress and realistically, would have gotten killed there by the Republicans. These climate deniers do yield a disproportionate influence over global and international climate change policy.
Many European heads of delegations present in Paris fully admitted that the reason why rich countries aren’t required cuts to emissions is literally because of Congress, the Senate and the Republican party. The specter of the Republican party was all over these talks, and reaches way beyond the American borders.
Climate change coverage in the USA
I was really disappointed by the lack of media coverage of the COP21 here in the United States. Many media outlets brush climate change to the side because it doesn’t have this “immediate” threat that other issues present and many view it as a boring topic, but it is so short-sighted to ignore climate change altogether.
Climate change is such a touchy issue in the USA. There is such amessed up debate in this country with one half of the conversation trying to cope with reality, and the other side with its head buried in the sand and pretending nothing is wrong. I mean come on! California is essentially out of water, the Northeast faced its harshest winter ever last year while this year it was in the mid 60s on Christmas day, there have been terrible floods in the South, we just had the strongest hurricane ever recorded, and South Florida is slowly going underwater every time there is a high tide because of sea level rise.
Climate change will affect (and is already affecting) the economies of the world, geopolitical strategies, and will likely engender wars over water and resources in the future. Themigrant crisis will only become more exacerbated as our planet warms up. Nevertheless, as long as people don’t see it as a direct threat to national security, I am afraid it still won’t get the attention it needs. We don’t have anymore time to debate on people’s opinions of climate change and ask whether they believe it or not. It’s a scientific fact, it’s already happening.
I think that if we want something big to happen to fight climate change and for politicians to actually do something, it will have to come from us, from grassroots organizations and NGOs. It will have to come from us pressuring the people we elected to make changes and to listen to our voices. This video was done before the COP21, but this segment at the end pretty much sums it up:
Whether it be the expansion of knowledge on deep-sea coral species or the modern usage of online mapping tools, Black and African American scientists have played a crucial role in propelling marine science to new levels.
Here we recount some of their achievements throughout history as NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries celebrates African American History Month. We highlight three scientists who were pioneers within their fields and paved the way for modern day marine scientists, and introduce three scientists currently conducting research that improves our knowledge and ability to manage resources in marine sanctuaries.
Group photo at the bow of the R/V Robert G. Brownlee
A full day on the canoes!
Teambuilding skis
Sternwell silliness as campers wait to pull in the net
Dissecting squid and studying their anatomy
Big bat ray caught in the net!
The Underwater Investigator camp for entering 6th-8th graders is a week-long program that is sure to inspire curiosity about the various fields within marine science. This summer campers will explore a different marine science field each day, including marine ecology and conservation, biodiversity, physical and biological oceanography, biomimicry, and will even learn what it takes to be an aquarist. They will practice scientific data collection on land by using real scientific equipment and they will also create their own quadrat, a research tool used to collect data to survey the biodiversity and health of a habitat. Campers will also spend a fun day canoeing to nearby Bair Island where they will investigate mud-dwelling invertebrates, examine the hydrology of the slough, and check out native and non-native plants that make this wetland such a unique habitat.
Their camp week culminates in a fun 2-day-long trip aboard our research vessel, and campers and staff even sleep aboard the boat! Campers will board the boat at 9am on the Thursday of their camp week and participate in various marine science studies as they venture to Sausalito for field trip activities. They will then have free time playing games and exploring the area while we barbecue dinner. Campers will then board the boat and watch a movie as we head to the Marina Bay Yacht Harbor for the overnight portion. On Friday campers will use scientific equipment to sample fish from the Bay, examine invertebrates from the mud, and study plankton underneath a microscope. This fun-filled week is packed with action!
Currently all of the Underwater Investigator sessions are full but campers can still be registered for the waitlists.
Naturalists in 2015 dissected squid; this summer we are dissecting sea stars!
Habitat restoration
What’s in the bucket?!
Our Naturalist program is for entering 4th and 5th graders who have attended an Explorers camp. The Naturalist campers will dive deeper into life and processes of the San Francisco Bay and Pacific coast, learn research methods and discuss current issues in our world’s marine ecosystems. By learning how to be naturalists, these devoted marine scientists will become familiar with the skills and passion needed to be a life scientist during their fast-paced camp week.
Naturalists have an amazing and fun week ahead of them. Activities include:
Preserved sea star dissection to examine the water vascular system.
Creating a quadrat, a tool used to quantify the number of species and amount of new species within a designated area. This tool is essential for studying biodiversity and the health of an area. Campers will keep the quadrat they create!
Learning how to take fish data by identifying and taking measurements on the fish caught. This data goes into a database which other organizations have access to.
Examining Phyla and the features of different groups of animals which made scientists group them together.
… and much more!
All Naturalist camps (except for the shortened July 5th camp week) have:
2 days at our site to study live animals from our aquarium and to engage in other science projects both indoors and outside
2 field trips (reached by school bus) that feature different habitats (shortened July 5th week has 1 field trip)
1 day aboard our ship that includes fishing, studying plankton, sampling mud, and learning about nautical navigation
2 staff plus a volunteer for every 15 campers
Flexible curriculum that engages multiple learning styles
Naturalist campers will be visiting two field trip sites: the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary Visitor Center and the Pescadero Marsh Natural Preserve. On both of these excursions campers will learn about the habitats, perform experiments to better understand the conditions of each location, and examine animal life.
There are 4 weeks of Naturalist camp available during the summer. If your entering 4th or 5th grade camper has attended an Explorer camp during a previous summer we encourage them to join this fast-paced program. Campers also have the option of being in an Explorer camp earlier in the summer and signing up for Naturalists later on to compound the information and dive deeper into marine science.
Join us for this awesome experience as campers dive into marine science and explore our local marine habitats. Camps run Monday through Friday, 8:30am-3pm with extended care available until 5:30pm.
NATURALIST SCHEDULE:
July 5-8 *special overnight opportunity available
July 18-22
August 1-5
August 8-12
*We have a special option for the shortened 4th of July camp week of Naturalists: an optional overnight is available on the Thursday (July 7th) of camp for an additional $50. Campers will bring their overnight materials (clothes, sleeping bags, etc) and we will camp in the MSC. Food will be provided. Campers will watch a marine science themed video TBD, tow for night plankton and examine under a microscope, learn how scientists navigated using the stars, and more!
Marine Camp 2016: Naturalist Sneak Peak. Returning campers dive deeper into marine science. Our Naturalist program is for entering 4th and 5th graders who have attended an Explorers camp. The Naturalist campers will dive deeper into life and processes of the San Francisco Bay and Pacific coast, learn research methods and discuss current issues in our world’s marine ecosystems.
Entering 2nd-5th graders have two camp options: Wetland Explorers (discussed in a blog from 2 weeks ago found HERE) or Ocean Explorers, a camp of similar structure but focusing on a different habitat. Ocean Explorers camp is about “whole world’s ocean” and how we are connected to it. Campers will learn about various habitats such as the highly productive kelp forest, the harsh sandy beach, the ever-changing rocky shore and the dramatic open ocean which is strongly characterized by physical factors. Diverse populations of marine algae and animals are found along the rocky coast as well as in the open ocean. Wind, sunlight, tides and other physical factors create a complex environment, and the animals that are a part of northern California’s coastal community have incredible adaptations for survival.
Ocean Explorer camp, as well as MSI’s other camp options, is geared toward California’s science standards taught during the school year, and is fun and interactive. Hands-on lessons, animal touching, games, crafts, songs and more are themed toward the material to engage campers to embrace the communities along our nearby coastline.
Tidepool findings
Always a fun time on the boat!
Looking for more creatures
Nice jaws!
All Ocean Explorer camps have:
2 days at our site to study live animals from our aquarium and to engage in other science projects both indoors and outside
2 field trips (reached by school bus) that feature different habitats
1 day aboard our ship that includes fishing, studying plankton, sampling mud, and learning about nautical navigation
2 staff plus a volunteer for every 15 campers
Flexible curriculum that engages multiple learning styles
Campers will be going on two field trips during their week at camp: Bean Hollow State Beach and the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary Visitor Center. Bean Hollow (along the coast about 17 miles south of Half Moon Bay) offers ample opportunity for tide pool exploration and other activities. Campers will be able to find hermit crabs, black turban snails, sea anemones, purple shore crabs, sea stars with 5-6 arms, and more! This region also offers a coastal walk where campers can spot common native and non-native coastal plants, and even find a harbor seal haul-out where these marine mammals are commonly seen resting on the rocks.
The second field trip is a visit to the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary Visitor Center in San Francisco. Located near Crissy Field, this facility has been transformed from old Coast Guard Buildings and is found along the beach. Campers will explore the region looking for crabs along the shoreline and taking part in crab population surveys. They will also drag a plankton net through the water and compare the coastal plankton to that found in the south Bay at our facility. Campers will also take part in a marine debris project with the Ocean Conservancy; they will contribute to a survey in which they will account for and tally the number of trash items found. The data will be entered into a database and submitted to the Ocean Conservancy, which will be compiled and become a part of a report for the city of San Francisco and contribute to the global project placed by the Ocean Conservancy.
Join us for a week full of fun, lessons, games, and interactive activities that are sure to excite your camper and inspire their love for the life within the California coastline and open ocean. Camps run Monday through Friday, 8:30am-3pm with extended care available until 5:30pm. Camp July 5th-8th still has spots available!
Diet: Small crustaceans, parasitic organisms found on larger fish, plankton
Size: Up to 3 inches
Range: Western Atlantic Ocean—Florida to northern South America and the Caribbean Sea
Despite their tiny size, Fairy basslets are hard to miss. With their bright purple and yellow bodies, it’s easy to spot these darting flashes of color. Fairy basslets are coral reef inhabitants and can generally be found under ledges or in caves.
“Fairy basslets are known to swim upside-down under ledges and along cave ceilings. They live in colonies and defend their territory from other species and even from other fairy basslets. Male fairy basslets guard and care for the eggs and the nest.”
Males find and establish nest sites before they participate in spawning activity. They find small crevices and holes in the reef and line them with algae, to cover the opening. Then, at dawn, female basslets will come to the nesting sites and deposit their eggs in a nest. After 10-11 days, the male’s guard duty is complete and the eggs hatch. “Then the larvae are believed to proceed to the planktonic stage until they are sufficiently heavy to resettle on the reef.”
Something interesting about Fairy basslets is that they are all born female, but can change sex to male. Males are more colorful than females and darken when they are ready to mate. Males also become a little bit larger than the females.
Fairy basslets are a beautiful and fun fish to observe! Take the time to admire them if you ever happen upon them.
Opportunities are abound in the Wetland Explorer camp for 2nd-5th graders. This camp explorers our local habitats and the animals that inhabit our incredible backyard. Campers will explore the life found in our local estuary, marshes, sloughs and mudflats. With Bair Island Ecological Reserve across the waterway from Marine Science Institute, campers will be inspired and curious about the vast array of wildlife this area offers. This shoreline habitat makes the Bay ecosystem healthier by providing homes for diverse animals that live only in this habitat, migratory birds that use the marsh as a pit-stop along their route, and by acting as a sponge by filtering pollutants and heavy metals from run-off.
During their week learning about the San Francisco Bay’s wetlands, Wetland Explorers will discover the animal life that calls our estuarine habitat home. This camp is geared toward California’s science standards taught during the school year, and is fun and interactive. Campers will touch animals and participate in hands-on activities, games, crafts and songs tailored toward the material.
All Wetland Explorer camps have:
2 days at our site to study live animals from our aquarium and to engage in other science projects both indoors and outside
2 field trips (reached by school bus) that feature different habitats
1 day aboard our ship that includes fishing, studying plankton, sampling mud, and learning about nautical navigation
2 staff plus a volunteer for every 15 campers
Flexible curriculum that engages multiple learning styles
The first field trip is to the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park in San Francisco. Here campers will tour the only square-rigged ship left in the San Francisco Bay area, the Balclutha. Built in 1886, the Balclutha was a cargo ship that traveled around the world and now resides in San Francisco as a National Historic Landmark. Campers will learn sea shanties and learn how the San Francisco Bay became one of the world’s largest and most important seaports. Campers will also explore birdlife and invertebrates through activities with binoculars and on the docks at the aquatic park. Kelp crabs, giant bay anemones and nudibranchs as large as your hand will fascinate Wetland Explorers as they compare the invertebrate life in this North Bay area with that found on our docks in the South Bay.
The second field trip is to the Pescadero Marsh Natural Preserve, which includes the only extensive wetland along the coast of the San Francisco peninsula. This area hosts extensive flat hiking trails where campers will utilize binoculars and bird field guides to spot some of the 60 species of birds that nest in the marsh (and 200 that fly through it!) and the importance of the marsh as a breakpoint along the Pacific Flyway. They will also use field guides to identify and differentiate between native and non-native plant species. We can even spot harbor seals as they surface, or leopard shark fins as they search along the bottom for food during low tide!
The Wetland Explorer camp is an excellent option for young scientists to learn about our nearby marine habitats. All Instructors have a degree in Marine Biology, Environmental Science, Education or a related field, and many have field research experience and will emphasize different aspects of the curriculum. Each instructor has their own unique teaching style so no two weeks of camp are the same.
Join us for this unique experience as campers explore the science that is practically in their backyard. Camps run Monday through Friday, 8:30am-3pm with extended care available until 5:30pm.
If you were scuba diving along the rocky reefs of Southern and Western Australia, you might never spot one of the beautiful Leafy sea dragon! For a couple of different reasons. First, these fish are rare. And second, they are camouflaged to blend in perfectly with the seaweeds and seagrass around them!
Leafy sea dragons are related to sea horses, and have a similar body type—except they don’t use their tail to grip things like sea horses do. And they have some extra frills that seahorses do not. “Sea dragons are some of the most ornately camouflaged creatures on the planet. Adorned with gossamer, leaf-shaped appendages over their entire bodies, they are perfectly outfitted to blend in with the seaweed and kelp formations they live amongst.”
Leafy sea dragons have small dorsal and pectoral fins that they use to awkwardly swim through the water. Although a lot of the time, they enjoy just letting the current carry them, like the seaweed they are mimicking.
Something interesting about Leafy sea dragons is that the males are the ones that do the child-bearing! The females deposit their eggs on a brood patch the males have on the underside of their tails. The eggs are fertilized in this process, and then the males carry them for 4-6 weeks until they hatch. Luckily for the parents, the work is then done. Baby sea dragons are independent from birth.
Due to their excellent camouflaging skills, Leafy sea dragons have very few predators, outside of humans. Humans love to catch them and keep them as pets because they are such beautiful creatures. Australia currently has a ban on hunting/fishing/disturbing Leafy sea dragons in the hopes that their numbers will increase.
