An ocean dead zone is an area where there is not enough oxygen dissolved in the water to allow aquatic creatures to breath. To put it in perspective, imagine a person locked in a sealed chamber in which the level of oxygen is slowly but steadily decreased until they lie gasping for breath until they
Ocean acidification created by continuing anthropogenic climate change will result in a collapsing food web, according to new research from the University of Adelaide. The new findings are the result of analysis focused around determining the effects of climate change on the world’s fisheries, and on overall marine biodiversity. Image via NOAA “Humans rely heavily
Pollution and climate change have put 12 indigenous fish species on the brink of extinction in India. Research is being conducted in the area between Bengaluru and Melekote in 10 lakes by Dr. M. Ramachandra Mohan, HoD, Department of Zoology and some students. “Of the 12 species, five are under the vulnerable category and the rest are endangered.
Originally published on InspiredEconomist.com The world’s oceans are vast, floating dumps for plastic pollution. Without a serious plan for cleaning up the world’s oceans, this situation is dire and becoming worse every day. With a goal of retrieving and recycling 400,000 flip flops a year from the coast of Kenya, one small start-up in Nairobi
Today’s World Animal Day, celebrated across the globe since a 1931 convention of ecologists in Florence, Italy, conceived of it as a way to highlight the plight of endangered species. They chose October 4 because it’s the Catholic Feast Day of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals. Since then, people have used the
You saw the viral video last week of a huge fish gulping down a four-foot shark off the coast of Bonita Springs, Florida, right? Turns out that incident is a fairly common one. (If you missed the vid the first time around, here it is.) And here’s a similar scene from 2009, uploaded by dwhtyo,
So are you one of the quarter-million people who have seen the Japanese giant salamander on YouTube? If so, good for you. As you can see below, it showed up on twitter in Japan around noon on July 4, which must have been the 5th (Saturday) in the States, thanks to the International Date Line. The mainstream
WWF, thanks for this “worm in the apple” humor concerning sharks!
Not much of a fish feast for the anyone with overfishing and pollutants in the waters. Thanks to Catholic Online.
Farmageddon: The True Cost of Cheap Meat exposes a worldwide crisis in mega-farming. (Graphic from Sunday Times review by coauthor.) The authors, Philip Lymbery and Isabel Oakeshott, believe that the increasingly globalized food production industry threatens the quality of what we eat, our health, and the very land we live on. They say people now
The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) is a bit of a mouthful, but that’s rather the point. Penguins, seals and other land-based animals living on the Antarctic continent enjoy a privileged, if slightly chilly, position. The land they live upon is protected from human exploitation in a way no
Rising ocean temperatures are driving major changes in fisheries throughout western Europe, bringing warm water species typically seen in the Mediterranean to the coast of the United Kingdom. A new report card issued by European marine researchers details the ecological and economic impact that climate change is having on fisheries in the UK and Scotland —
A new study has found that rising human carbon dioxide emissions may in fact be affecting the brains and central nervous systems of sea fishes, decreasing their inherent ability to survive. Carbon dioxide concentrations predicted to occur in the ocean by the end of this century will interfere with fishes’ ability to hear, smell, turn
We’ve known for awhile that ocean acidification (which results from the burning of fossil fuels, just like global warming) is a huge concern for the oceans and many of the living creatures that rely on it (yeah,.. that’s a lot of the Earth’s living creatures). But what we knew was that it was a threat
New research conducted by a group of graduate students from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego has found that at least nine percent of fish found in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch located in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre contain plastic in their stomachs.
Researchers who have been manipulating a northern Wisconsin lake have been able to detect a warning signal for the impending collapse of an ecosystem.
Scientists from the University of Aberdeen in Scotland have photographed for the first time fish and shrimp at Europe’s deepest point, the Oinousse Pit, 5111 metres or 3.2 miles below the surface of the Mediterranean Sea, southwest of the Greek town of Pylos.
You can’t be surprised, given that our Congress people seem completely mad (and not just because of NCAA basketball), but, yes, they really are attacking the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and a number of iconic animals.
Luckily, Earthjustice, a leading non-profit public interest law firm dedicated to protecting the Earth and its resources, is working hard to rally U.S. citizens and stop the assault. And it’s come up with a really innovative, fun way of doing so.
While marine biologists are working to explain the millions of fish that washed up dead in the Los Angeles area at the King Harbor Basins on Tuesday, Redondo Beach officials are already stating that initial assessments suggest oxygen depletion is the cause of the massive amount of dead fish. According to the Los Angeles Times: City Manager Bill Workman said
If many of these plankton blooms are trending earlier each year, then the seasonal return/growth of the fish population in these areas is gradually becoming “out of sync” with the primary producers in this region. This may mean insufficient food supply to maintain robust fish populations.
Some top global warming and environmental news from the last day or so: Global Warming & Environmental Politics Time to Put People Ahead of Polluters Over on ecopolitology, Sierra Club’s Michael Brune had a good piece on why it’s time to put people ahead of polluters. Senate 2012 Race & Tea Partiers The conservative right
Some of the top climate change and environmental stories of the last day or so: Climate Science Graph of the Day: Greenland Ice Sheet Mass Changes Good info and graphs on the page above, but thought I’d share the 3 videos from the post here for you to check out just in case you don’t feel
Rome, Italy: The conflict between increasing demand for fish and failing fisheries has enormous implications for world food security and the state of our oceans, lakes and rivers, WWF said today. The global environment organisation was welcoming the latest State of the World’s Fisheries and Aquaculture (SOFIA) report, issued today in Rome by the UN
A recent analysis of catch data calls into question the accuracy of previous surveys of marine ecosystem health. Without accurate data, environmental policy makers may be unable to determine if current reforms to fisheries management are working, and further, if their picture of our oceans’ health is even roughly accurate. The new analysis was conducted
Somebody has gone through the trouble of mapping where numerous bird and fish deaths (as well as some other animal deaths) have been occurring in recent weeks (screenshot above). Check it out here: Mass Animals Deaths.
Jeremy Bloom of our sister site Red, Green, and Blue has a great follow-up to the mass bird death story that gets into the very likely possibility that the deaths are related to hydraulic fracking (the top possibility in my mind) as well as other interesting topics. Here’s the intro: Alfred Hitchcock must be smiling.
Our oceans, or more accurately, the creatures in our oceans, are in big trouble. Here’s some depressing news from Blue Planet Society: Our marine ecosystem is under threat like never before in the history of humanity. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) 33% of cartilaginous fishes and 15% of bony fishes
I recently found out that a shopping center in the UK is offering “fish foot massages.” Animal Aid writes: We have been informed that Queensmere Shopping Centre in Slough is offering ‘fish massages’. The fish are kept in small tanks, which people then put their feet into to be ‘massaged’. Please politely contact the shopping
Costco has responded positively to its shareholders’ suggestions in a letter posted on its website last month. Costco has, as of 2009, voluntarily disclosed more information about its seafood suppliers.
Additionally, Costco has begun working with suppliers of farmed salmon to insure compliance with the Salmon Aquaculture Dialogue and will partner with the World Wildlife Fund to monitor Thailand’s compliance with the Shrimp Aquaculture Dialogue.
The ‘bearded goby’ (Sufflogobius bibarbatus), a small, common, prey species of fish, has become adapted to the “toxic” conditions near the sea floor of this pelagic zone. Analysis of the fish’s gut has shown that up to 60% of its diet consists of jellyfish–a marine creature few animals prey upon due to their venomous stings. Remarkably, the fish has become the pivotal player in a newly emergent ecosystem.
Industrial fishing fleets can catch fish in numbers unimaginable to fishermen a few decades ago. The capabilities are more than unimaginable, though. They are also unsustainable. With bluefin tuna on the brink of extinction, fishing quotas are set for these giants of the sea in the European Union. But annual quotas can be caught in
Lake Tanganyika, the world’s second oldest and second deepest lake, is in the midst of unprecedented warming. [social_buttons]Geologists led by Brown University have determined that the massive freshwater lake has warmed significantly during the last century, leading to its warmest surface temperatures on record. Such a change to the lake’s makeup will likely affect fish
Four fishery stocks have been rebuilt to healthy levels. [social_buttons]The Atlantic scup, Atlantic black sea bass, and St. Matthew’s Island, Alaska, blue king crab and Atlantic swordfish, have all been rebuilt to healthy levels, and the report shows a continuing year-over-year improvement across the US. A lot of the time we focus on the big
The UK fishing fleet has to work 17 times harder today than it did in the 1880s to catch the same amount of fish. [social_buttons]Researchers from the University of York and the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) looked back through UK Government data to analyse the change in fish stocks since 1889. What they found was
[social_buttons] We have all been waiting for this day. Finally, shark repellent has arrived to the world… except this shark repellent is not used to save humans from sharks. No this shark repellent was made to save sharks from humans. With good reason, while only about 4 people die of unprovoked shark attacks each year,
[social_buttons] In 2003 “Nature” published a study showing that 90% of the large fish living in our oceans were fished out of existence. A group of scientists recently predicted, major seafood stocks will collapse by 2048. This is a staggering number, considering the technology and amount of people needed to cause overfishing is a relatively
[social_buttons] Two seperate scientific studies have revealed that global warming is leading to significant reductions in the size of sheep and fish species, more evidence that climate change is forcing a huge range of species to adapt to a hotter world. The first study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, investigated
[social_buttons] Britain’s largest water company has been fined £125,000 ($180,000), after polluting London’s River Wandle to such an extent that it wiped out twenty years of painstaking conservation work in a single day. The shocking incident occurred in 2007, when Chlorine escaped from a Thames Water sewage treatment works, killing most of the fish along
Water contamination by toxic chemicals appears to be the cause of a mutation which resulted in the deaths of thousands of bass larvae in Australia. The two headed fish survived a mere 48 hours before dying off en masse. Dr. Matt Landos of the Australian College of Veterinarian Sciences specializes in aquatic animals, and says
Officials at the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) are bracing themselves for a long-term wildlife study at the TVA spill site. The area was severely contaminated after a massive release of coal ash on Dec. 22, 2008. The spill originated from a holding pond belonging to the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Kingston Steam Plant on
Geared towards raising awareness of endangered ocean habitats, a new online tool allows viewers an in-depth peek at underwater reefs around the world. Google Earth has taken us up and out into the universe, and now they are taking us down and under the surface of the sea. The new Google Earth ‘layer’ will allow
I can see the Freecycle post now: OFFER: I have six million carp, good condition. Nothing wrong with them; just have more than I need. You must pick up. The State of Utah might just be posting like this something soon. Apparently, they’re in the market to unload a few carp–approximately six million–that are tearing
Editor’s note: Part two of the “Human Interaction with Nature” series focuses on human impacts on fauna. This post was written by Lindsay Crupper, and originally published on Friday, May 9, 2008. While it is obvious that climate change affects humans across the globe, it also affects the animal kingdom as well. For millions of
Technology can undoubtedly make the world a better place. Where, after all, would we be without the wheel, agriculture or email? Still, there’s almost always a flipside to technological advances. The wheel improved not only travel, but warfare. Agriculture made food more reliable for humans … but also, eventually, helped give rise to confined animal
