Sunday, January 31, 2016

Week in Review: Shark and Fishing Hotspots Overlap, Humpback Sanctuary Won't Expand, and More!

1. Study Finds Shark Hotspots Overlap with Commercial Fishing Locations

A study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences revealed that sharks are at risk of being overfished by commercial fishing vessels in in the North Atlantic. During a four-year period from 2005 to 2009, researchers from University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science and UM Abess Center for Ecosystem Science and Policy tracked more than 100 sharks from six different species in the North Atlantic while concurrently tracking 186 shipping vessels. Both the ships and the sharks followed the ocean fronts characterized by warm water temperature and high productivity. Both the blue and mako sharks, two of the most heavily fished species, were tracked in this study. Blue sharks were estimated to be vulnerable to potential capture 20 days per month, while the mako sharks' potential risk was 12 days per month. Every year, tens of million of ocean-dwelling sharks are caught by commercial fishing operations each year. This research proposes that, in order to conserve the shark species, measures such as catch quotas or size limits will be necessary.   Read more...

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2. Hawaii Humpback Whale Sanctuary Won't Be Expanded

This week, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration withdrew its proposal to expand the size and focus of the Hawaiian Islands Humpback National marine Sanctuary. The six year planning developed designs to enlarge the sanctuary from 1,366 square miles to 1,601 square miles in order to expand the number of  protected species. The national sanctuary was established in 1992 and is one of the world's most important humpback whale habitats. Opposition to this proposal came from residents concerned that the expanded sanctuary would restrict recreational ocean use and hurt business . Read more...

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3. Video From a Whale Shark's Point of View



This National Geographic article discusses the expedition to deploy a  Crittercam on the gentle giants of the ocean, the whale shark. These cameras provide 6 hours of footage on the view of the activity of the whale shark which still remains a bit of a mystery. To watch some of the video and learn more about how the Crittercams are attached to the whale sharks, click here...


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4. Satellites Show Florida Beaches Becoming Darker, and That's Good for Sea Turtles!

Have you ever been in a Florida hotel on the beach and heard the request to draw your blinds during the evening? If so, this is a method to support turtle nesting season. New research, that actually started as a high school science project, confirmed that the density of sea turtle nests on Florida beaches is reduces where artificial lights along the coast deter nesting females. The scientists use satellite-derived data to determine what areas need more effective management of artificial light. it appears that the light mitigation policies are working in Florida and loggerhead, green, and leatherback turtle nests have increased.  Read more...

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5. Intact Nature Offers Best Defense Against Climate Change


A paper published in Natural Climate Change, discusses how certain adaptive strategies may have a negative impact on nature which in turn will impact people in the long term. According to CSIRO's principle research scientist Dr. Tara Martin, " in response to climate change, many local communities around the world are rapidly adjusting their livelihood practices to cope with climate change, sometimes with catastrophic implication for nature". The paper states that intact native forests have been shown to reduce the frequency and severity of floods, while coral reefs can reduce wave energy by an average of 97% to provide defense against storm surges.   Read more...



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6. Sperm Whales Taken from Skegness Beach to Landfill



Last weekend, three sperm whales were found washed up on the Lincolnshire coast of England. Scientists took autopsy samples to determine root cause for the death of the whales. The whales were then transported by large construction equipment and buried in a local landfill. Potential cause for these deaths have not been released. Read more...




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Be sure to "LIKE" http://facebook.com/SeaSave to ensure our "Week in Review" is delivered to your newsfeed every Thursday. 

Sea Save Foundation is committed to raising awareness of marine conservation. The Week in Review is a team effort produced by the Sea Save staff to provide a weekly summary of the latest in marine research, policy, and news.

Saturday, January 23, 2016

Week in Review: Studying Shark's Social Lives to Expose Their Friendly Side and More!


1. Studying Shark's Social Lives to Expose Their Friendly Side

A study began a year ago to investigate if sharks engage in the same kind of social behaviors as humans. The research, conducted by a team at the Behavior, Ecology and Evolution of Fishes Laboratory at Macquaire University, was collected over a three month period of time at Jervis bay, on the New South Wales coast of Australia. The subject of the study were 250 Port Jackson sharks. The sharks were tagged with passive integrated transponders (PIT) and acoustic tags. The study continues to develop to collect more data and compile conclusions.  Read more...

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2. Greenhouse Gas Can Escape the Deep Ocean in Surprising Way

This week, an article was published in Marine Chemistry and reports that carbon dioxide can emerge from the deep ocean in a surprising way. The research team was comprised of scientists from Mote Marine Laboratory, Georgia Institute of Technology, and the Laboratorie de Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement in France. The study focused on the organic matter deposits that can be found as deep as 16,400 feet in the ocean. Bacteria feed on this muck and release carbon dioxide. The new finding in this process is that bacteria use metal ions to release carbon dioxide. Read more...


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3. Jason Ocean Height Mission Blasts Off 



Jason-3, a US-European satellite, was launched this week. This satellite will be used to track currents, tides, winds, wave heights, and storms.The goal of this mission is to create a data set on sea level rise to an accuracy of better than 4cm. The satellite will provide detail into the elevation of the ocean surface. This information provides scientists with information on the temperature, salinity, and current direction and speed.   Read more...





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4. Ten Years After the Thames Whale, How Are Britain's Sea Mammals Faring?

The British Isles are home or visited by 29 species of whales, porpoises, dolphins, and sever species of seals in its waters. A good example of one of those visitors was the northern bottlenose whale who swam up the River Thames in front of the Houses of Parliament.  A few days after the first sighting, the whale died from a combination of dehydration, physiological stress, cardiovascular collapse and organ failure. An article written on The Conversation discusses the state of the British marine mammals and the impacts that climate change and human activities have made on the species.  Read more...

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5. Robot Subs Inform Protection of English Deep-Sea Corals


Robot subs inform protection of English deep-sea coralsScientists at the National Ocean Centre (NOC), head-quartered in Shouthampton, England, used data collected from a variety of marine robots to develop conclusions on how to improve the management of cold-water coral reefs. The team was able to map and image steep and overhanging rock walls that hosted extensive coral communities. Previously, those areas were over looked by ship-based instruments.  Read more...



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6. More Plastic Than Fish in the Sea by 2050 


Plastics in the sea, today and in 2050For years there have been articles on the huge impact that plastic pollution has on the ocean. This week, the Ellen MacArther Foundation released a report entitled "The New Plastics Economy: Rethinking the Future of Plastics". The report reveals that plastics production has increase twentyfold since 1964 and is expected to quadruple by 2050. According to the foundation's research, " at least 8m tonnes of plastics leak into the ocean- which is equivalent to dumping the contents of one garbage truck into the ocean every minute". By 2025, the ocean is expected to contain one tonne of plastic for every three tonnes of fish, and by 2050, more plastics will be in the ocean than fish. To read the detailed report, click here...




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Sea Save Foundation is committed to raising awareness of marine conservation. The Week in Review is a team effort produced by the Sea Save staff to provide a weekly summary of the latest in marine research, policy, and news.

Friday, January 15, 2016

Week in Review: Half of Plastic Trash in Oceans Comes from 5 Countries and More!

1. Half of Plastic Trash in Oceans Comes from 5 Countries

Picture of a seal on top of a net removed from the ocean
More than half of the plastic trash in the ocean come from five countries in Asia or the Pacific Islands. Approximately 60 percent of the plastic trash in the sea originated from China, Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia, and Thailand. The quickly growing infrastructure, lack of waste management regulations, and vast areas of poverty. Humans leak 8 million metric tons of plastic into the ocean every year. According to Nicholas Mallos, director of Ocean Conservancy's marine debris program, " at this rate, we would expect nearly one ton of plastic for every three tons of fish in our oceans by 2025". Read more...

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2. Sea Lion Pups Washing Ashore Because Ocean Can't Support Them

This year the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach rescued a record-setting 534 sea lions. Every year, 99.8% of the U.S sea lion population breeds in their rookeries on the Channel Islands. The rest of the year is spent foraging for food. This year, El Nino has impacted sardine and anchovy populations which are critical items to sea lions' food supply. The population flux of both of these fish populations have impacted the reproductive rates of sea lions. Sea lions are now being found ashore because they are foraging for food in an empty ocean and become disoriented, emaciated, and starving. Although humans are supporting the recovery of these sea lion pups, we may just be providing a band aid to a much larger ecosystem issue.  Read more...

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3. Great White Shark's Predatory Behavior Captured

Great White Shark imageHere at Sea Save, we love sharks! Each and every one of them! Thanks to new footage by an undersea drone, we get to learn some additional hunting behaviors of the great white shark. The behavior captured by the drone cameras supports the idea that white sharks dive down as far as 200 meters in order to use light to their advantage. Some sharks had different reaction to the drone and, instead of biting, gave the UAV an aggressive nudge with their snout. To read the full symposium paper published in Journal of Fish Biology click here... Read a synopsis from The Guardian here...

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4. Baby Fish May Get Lost in Silent Oceans

This week, an article was published in the journal Biology Letters that revealed how ocean acidification can disorient larval fish and alter marine soundscapes. According to the study co-author, Sir Ivan Nagelkerken, "along with chemical and other cues, because of sound's ability to travel long distances underwater, it is used as a navigational beacon by marine animals, particularly larvae".  As ocean acidification increases, kelp forests may be replaced by turf algae which introduces animals like shrimp who produce sounds. Although ocean acidification is known to increase the size of fish ear bones and potentially increase the hearing range of larval fish, the hearing was reared in future carbon dioxide levels.  Read more...

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5. Northwest Atlantic Ocean May Get Warmer, Sooner


Northwest Atlantic Ocean may get warmer, soonerA new study done by NOAA's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) suggests that future warming of ocean waters off the Northeasters U.S. may be greater and occur at a faster rate than previously projected. The study, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research,  uses a model with higher resolution than the global climate models to project global and regional climate change. This model is able to reflect the ocean circulation and sea floor bathymetry in complex areas like the Gulf of Maine and the U.S. Northeast Shelf. Read more...



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6. More Whales Die in Tamil Nadu

The Indian state of Tamil Nadu has seen 73 short-finned pilot whales die after washing ashore. The whale mortality rate has not been this high since 1973 when 147 whales died. According to whale expert Dr Kumaran Sathasivam,"pilot whales are very social animals  and they live in groups. They are very aware that some of the group members are in distress on the shore, possibly dead, so they don't wish to go back into the sea".  Read more...




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Be sure to "LIKE" http://facebook.com/SeaSave to ensure our "Week in Review" is delivered to your newsfeed every Thursday. 

Sea Save Foundation is committed to raising awareness of marine conservation. The Week in Review is a team effort produced by the Sea Save staff to provide a weekly summary of the latest in marine research, policy, and news.

Saturday, January 9, 2016

Week in Review: Is Shark Finning Finally on the Decline?

1. Tides Are Turning for the Shark Fishermen of Indonesia and India

Indonesia has a total of 118 different species of sharks which marks the world's highest diversity of sharks. Every year, 73 million sharks are killed for their fins and traded around the world. Combined, Indonesia and India comprise around 20% of the global shark catch. 

According to Indonesia's official statistics agency, the country exported 248.7 tons of shark fins in 2014 which is 51% less than 514.3 tons it exported in 2012. In India, shark-fin exports in the first 10 months of fiscal year, 2014-2015, reached only 66 tons, compared with 122 tons in 2013-2014. 


So why are we seeing this decline?

China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan are the primary consumers of shark-fin soup. In 2013, both Beijing and Hong Kong banned serving shark at state and government functions. This has set a precedence for many hotels and restaurants. Garuda Indonesia Airways and Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific Airways have also stopped transporting shark fins. IN 2013, vendors in a Chinese shark-fin trading hub saw a 82% decline in sales and around a 50% decrease in prices. 

Although there is a decrease in this trade, there is still work to be done. According to the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization report, global shark-meat exports have increased 30% since 2012. To read more about the changes to shark fishing in Indonesia and India, read the Time article here...

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2. A Crushing Bite Gives Sea Otters Their Cute Mugs

This, week a team of zoologists from Texas A&M released their research on otter feeding in PLOS ONE. Some otters, like giant and North American river otters catch fish and other squirmy prey with their jaws, while the Asian small-clawed otters and sea otters nab hardened prey with their hands before crushing through those exterior defenses with expanded cheek teeth. All sea otters have unique behaviors and habits. The scientists found that every otter type has a different skull shape which influences their dietary habits and fitness. Read more...

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3. Could Renewable Energy Be Stored in Balloons in the Ocean?
The on-shore Hydrostor facilities house a system of air compressors and turbines to convert energy to compressed air and back.

As the world generates more renewable energy, we are challenged with how to store this energy to power homes during off- peak times. A company called Hydrostor has come up with an storage solution that could be an alternative to battery storage. Hydrostor has investigated the possibility of Underwater Compressed Air Energy Storage (UW-CAES). The excess energy generated from solar and wind  charges an air compressor and the compressed air is transferred into massive balloons in the ocean. Because of the water pressure, the air inside will compress. The deeper the balloons, the more air they can hold. To extract the energy, air would  be released from the balloon to spin a turbine.   Read more...

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4. 'Kidnapped' Sharks Use Their Noses to Navigate Back to Shore

This week, a journal article in PLOS ONE  revealed interesting findings on the leopard sharks. Researchers caught and released leopard sharks and blocked the noses of some of their samples. The scientist observed that the sharks with an impaired sense of smell had trouble finding their way back to shore. It is common knowledge that sharks are excellent navigators but it is unclear what sense actually plot the course. the study raises more questions about the actual smell that the sharks use to navigate.   Read more...

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5. Whale Shark Return Highlights Challenges of Conservation

This week, Fisherman in the Ayeyarwady Region and Ngapali in southern Rakhine State of Myanmar have reported whale shark sightings. The sharks are swimming close to the surface and getting entangled in the fishing nets in the area. One fisherman killed the 10 to 13 foot long shark and sold it's parts on the black market. According to section 39 of the 1990 Myanmar Marine Fisheries Law, killing a whale shark is illegal.  Read more...

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Thank you for the most successful year end fundraiser in our history. We appreciate all of the donors who supported us with a $60,000 match and the hundreds of our loyal followers who helped us be worthy of that gift! Great things will continue to happen in this New Year! Love from the Sea Save pod!


Be sure to "LIKE" http://facebook.com/SeaSave to ensure our "Week in Review" is delivered to your newsfeed every Thursday. 

Sea Save Foundation is committed to raising awareness of marine conservation. The Week in Review is a team effort produced by the Sea Save staff to provide a weekly summary of the latest in marine research, policy, and news.