Feds settle lawsuit, move to protect sea turtle habitat

Posted on May 4, 2013 by Bob Berwyn

First part of protection plan due July 1

A NOAA map showing the range of loggerhead sea turtles.

A NOAA map showing the range of loggerhead sea turtles.

By Summit Voice

FRISCO — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says it will protect loggerhead sea turtle feeding, breeding and migratory habitat in ocean waters by July 1, pursuant to a settlement agreement with conservation groups, including the Center for Biological Diversity, Oceana and Turtle Island Restoration Network and the U.S. government.

The agency also committed to finalizing critical habitat protection for marine habitat and nesting beaches by July 1, 2014. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently proposed critical habitat protection for loggerhead nesting beaches along Atlantic and Gulf coasts and will accept public comment until May 24. (more…)

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Ocean protection pays off for green sea turtles

Posted on April 30, 2013 by Bob Berwyn

Study confirms that turtles are using protected areas around Florida

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Green sea turtle. Photo courtesy Andy Bruckner/NOAA.

By Summit Voice

FRISCO — U.S. Geological Survey scientists say they’ve tracked endangered green sea turtles in Dry Tortugas National Park and the Florida Keys Marine National Sanctuary, showing that efforts to protect marine habitat are paying off.

The researchers confirmed the turtles’ use of the protected areas by tracking nesting turtles with satellite tags and analyzing their movement patterns after they left beaches. Until now, it was not clear whether the turtles made use of existing protected areas, and few details were available as to whether they were suited for supporting the green sea turtle’s survival.

“Our goal was to better understand what types of habitats they used at sea and whether they were in fact putting these designated areas to use. This study not only shows managers that these designated protected areas are already being used by turtles, but provides insight into the types of habitats they use most,” said the study’s lead author, USGS research ecologist Kristen Hart. (more…)

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Climate: Parts of western Atlantic reach record-high temps

Posted on April 27, 2013 by Bob Berwyn

NOAA documenting shift in marine species as water warms

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Looking down the East Coast from Cape Cod toward Long Island from the International Space Station. Visit this NASA Earth Observatory page for more information.

By Summit Voice

FRISCO — With sea surface temperatures at a 150-year high off off the mid-Atlantic and New England coastlines, scientists are document significant shifts in the distribution of commercially important marine species, with as-yet uncertain consequences for the entire ecosystem.

Those temperatures reached a record high of 57.2 degrees in 2012, exceeding the record high set in 1951. The average sea surface temperatures in the region — extending from the Gulf of Maine to Cape Hatteras, North Carolina — has typically been lower than 54.3 degrees during the past three decades, according to a NOAA advisory. (more…)

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Global warming threatens Atlantic cod stocks

Posted on April 23, 2013 by Bob Berwyn
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Atlantic cod are facing climate change pressure.

New study to take close look at climate impacts to commercially important cod fishery

By Summit Voice

FRISCO — With Atlantic cod already moving into waters around Spitsbergen — into Arctic cod territory — fisheries biologists are keeping a close eye the commercially important species to determine the consequences of climate-related migrations. Specifically, researchers want to how how the fish are responding to warmer and more acidic water, and at which stages of life the changes are most dangerous to them.

In the next two and a half years, biologists from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, together with scientists from Kiel, Bremen, Düsseldorf and Münster, will study all life stages of the fish and their genetic patterns: from spawn and the development of the larvae, through the juvenile fish and their favorite food, the copepod, to the mature parent fish. (more…)

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Oceans: USGS study helps inform rigs-to-reef plans

Posted on April 22, 2013 by Bob Berwyn
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A school of fish gather around the base of an offshore drill rig. Photo courtesy BSEE.

Few contaminants found in fish living around offshore drilling rigs

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — The idea of turning old offshore drilling rigs into artificial reefs has been floating around for a while, and USGS scientists recently reported that there’s no sign that fish living near the rigs are contaminated by oil from the drilling operations.

To help provide some baseline data for “rigs-to-reef” proposals in California, the agency compared contaminant levels in fish living around oil platforms with fish from nearby natural sites off the coast of California in the Santa Barbara Channel and the San Pedro Basin. The new and recent USGS reports are available online.

“As part of this study, we developed methods capable of detecting the extremely low levels of contaminants that we anticipated in these ocean fishes, especially since they avoid natural oil seeps,” said USGS scientist Robert Gale. “These results will assist decision-makers in helping to protect the environment off the coast of California.” (more…)

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Report eyes Pacific Northwest climate change threats

Posted on April 20, 2013 by Bob Berwyn

Marine sanctuaries try to prepare for rising sea level, ocean acidification and more extreme weather

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A new report identifies anticipated climate change impacts to the Olympic Peninsula. Photo courtesy NASA Earth Observatory.

By Summit Voice

FRISCO — Managers of the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary say they’ll use a new report to try and prepare the resources they steward for the coming impacts of climate change, including increases in sea level; extreme weather events such as winds, waves, and storms; and coastal erosion from those events.

The report also says the region may experience an increase in ocean acidity, rising water temperature, as well as more extreme weather patterns, including Pacific Northwest regional rainfall increases triggering 100-year magnitude floods.

“Climate change poses an increasingly grave threat to the health of the ocean, and its impacts will be felt in marine protected areas like the Olympic Coast sanctuary,” said  sanctuary superintendent Carol Bernthal. “This report begins our work to develop management strategies that will help us anticipate potential challenges and adapt to the changing marine environment through sound science, public outreach, and partnerships.” (more…)

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Environment: Draft federal plan for oil exploration off the Southeastern seaboard seen as flawed

Posted on April 19, 2013 by Bob Berwyn
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A new federal study could lead to new fossil fuel development in the Atlantic off the Southeast coast.

Impacts of seismic surveying to marine mammals a major concern

By Bob Berwyn

FRISCO — Conservation groups say a draft federal plan authorizing oil exploration off the Eastern Seaboard doesn’t do enough to protect marine mammals — and they have support from a bipartisan group of Florida lawmakers concerned about impacts to the economies of coastal communities.

At this stage, the issue is seismic testing with airguns to explore the ocean floor for potential oil deposits. The legislators from the U.S. House and Senate sent President Obama a letter urging him to reject the use of airguns.

According to a recent report from Oceana, an international ocean conservation group, the use of airguns for seismic surveying has widespread impacts on marine mammals, even at great distances.

“We are understanding more and more that the noise can disrupt entire populations,” said Oceana biologist Matthew Huelsenbeck, adding that the operations appear to planned in areas used by endangered northern right whales. (more…)

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Study: comprehensive ocean monitoring network needed

Posted on April 16, 2013 by Bob Berwyn
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Scientists say managing ocean resources requires better monitoring. Bob Berwyn photo.

‘To date, there have been few attempts to track biodiversity broadly in the ocean’

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — With the world’s oceans facing serious global warming threats, U.S. researchers say it’s high time to establish a national effort to monitor marine biodiversity.

Humans depend on the ocean for food, medicine, transportation and recreation, yet little is known about how these vast ecosystems spanning 70 percent of the Earth’s surface are functioning and changing. (more…)

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Circle of life: Marauding deep-sea monkfish prey on shallow-diving dovekies when the timing is right

Posted on April 11, 2013 by Bob Berwyn
Shallow-diving dovekies are opportunistically eaten by deep-sea dwelling monkfish.

Shallow-diving dovekies are opportunistically eaten by deep-sea dwelling monkfish. Photo courtesy Chris Melrose, NEFSC/NOAA.

Research aims to learn more about bird-eating fish

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — Everybody knows it’s a dog-eat-dog world out there, but when cute little seabirds start showing up in the stomachs of bottom-dwelling, deep-sea fish, biologists get curious.

So when USGS biologist Matthew Perry heard that New England fishermen were finding tiny dovekies inside monkfish, he decided to investigate how this previously unknown link in the ocean foodchain works.

“I was studying long-tailed ducks and thought, to avoid being eaten, these birds fly 30 to 50 miles to Nantucket Sound each night and return to the ocean in the morning,” said Perry, a research wildlife biologist at the USGS Patuxtent Wildlife Research Center in Maryland. “People ask why don’t dovekies fly to Nantucket Sound at night like the long-tailed ducks to avoid goosefish?  My explanation is that dovekies have small wings and can’t make the routine flight.” (more…)

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Environment: Air pollution can stunt coral reef growth

Posted on April 10, 2013 by Bob Berwyn

New study may help inform reef conservation effrot

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Bleached coral in the Caribbean. Photo courtesy NOAA.

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — Coral reefs are at risk from global warming, but regional aerosol emissions may also be a significant factor in how corals grow, according to a new study by scientists with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.

The research linked airborne particles caused by volcanic activity and air pollution to episodes of slow coral-reef growth. The findings came as part of an effort to to better predict the effects of climate change and human disturbance on reefs.

The data came from several coral cores drilled in reefs near the Atlantic entrance of the Panama Canal formed by the coral species Siderastrea siderea between 1880 and 1989, whereas samples from the Turneffe atoll in Belize showed growth fluctuations in the coral species Montastrea faveolata from 1905 to 1998. (more…)

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