Wednesday, August 31, 2011

State Of The Ocean: 'Shocking'

Animated world ocean map (GIF), exhibiting var...Image via Wikipedia

Report Warns Of Mass Extinction From Current Rate Of Marine Distress

If the current actions contributing to a multifaceted degradation of the world's oceans aren't curbed, a mass extinction unlike anything human history has ever seen is coming, an expert panel of scientists warns in an alarming new report.

The preliminary report from the International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO) is the result of the first-ever interdisciplinary international workshop examining the combined impact of all of the stressors currently affecting the oceans, including pollution, warming, acidification, overfishing and hypoxia.

“The findings are shocking," Dr. Alex Rogers, IPSO's scientific director, said in a statement released by the group. "This is a very serious situation demanding unequivocal action at every level. We are looking at consequences for humankind that will impact in our lifetime, and worse, our children's and generations beyond that."

The scientific panel concluded that degeneration in the oceans is happening much faster than has been predicted, and that the combination of factors currently distressing the marine environment is contributing to the precise conditions that have been associated with all major extinctions in the Earth's history.

According to the report, three major factors have been present in the handful of mass extinctions that have occurred in the past: an increase of both hypoxia (low oxygen) and anoxia (lack of oxygen that creates "dead zones") in the oceans, warming and acidification. The panel warns that the combination of these factors will inevitably cause a mass marine extinction if swift action isn't taken to improve conditions.

The report is the latest of several published in recent months examining the dire conditions of the oceans. A recent World Resources Institute report suggests that all coral reefs could be gone by 2050 if no action is taken to protect them, while a study published earlier this year in BioScience declares oysters as "functionally extinct", their populations decimated by over-harvesting and disease. Just last week scientists forecasted that this year's Gulf "dead zone" will be the largest in history due to increased runoff from the Mississippi River dragging in high levels of nitrates and phosphates from fertilizers.

A recent study in the journal Nature, meanwhile, suggests that not only will the next mass extinction be man-made, but that it could already be underway. Unless humans make significant changes to their behavior, that is.

Thanks to Travis Donovan of the Huffington Post

Kathy Dowsett

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Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Blackbeard's Ship Confirmed off North Carolina

Wreck's large size, weapons that of 18th-century pirate, experts say.

After 15 years of uncertainty, a shipwreck off the coast of North Carolina has been confirmed as that of the infamous 18th-century pirate Blackbeard, state officials say.

The Queen Anne's Revenge grounded on a sandbar near Beaufort (see map) in 1718, nine years after the town had been established. Blackbeard and his crew abandoned the ship and survived.

Until recently, the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources emphasized that the wreck, discovered in 1995, was "thought to be" the Queen Anne's Revenge.

Now, after a comprehensive review of the evidence, those same officials are sure it's the ship sailed by one of history's fiercest and most colorful pirates.

"There was not one aha moment," said Claire Aubel, public relations coordinator for the North Carolina Maritime Museums. "There was a collection of moments and a deduction based on the evidence."

There were two main reasons for the team's certainty, Aubel said: the sheer size of the wreck and the many weapons that were found in the rubble.

No other ship as big as the Queen Anne's Revenge was known to have been in the area at the time, and a pirate ship would have been well armed, she said.

Shipwreck Loot Points to Blackbeard

Blackbeard achieved his infamous immortality in only a few years, operating in the Caribbean Sea and off the coast of colonial America before being killed in a battle with British ships in North Carolina's Pamlico Sound in 1718.

Some historians have speculated that he deliberately ran the Queen Anne's Revenge aground so that he could keep the most valuable plunder for himself.

Such loot has helped archaeologists link the wreck to Blackbeard since excavations started in 1997. Among the major recovered artifacts are:

—Apothecary weights stamped with tiny fleurs-de-lis, royal symbols of 18th-century France. Queen Anne's Revenge was actually a former French ship, Le Concorde, captured by Blackbeard in 1717. He forced Le Concorde's surgeon to join the pirate crew, and a surgeon at that time likely would have had apothecary weights.

—A small amount of gold found among lead shot. Archaeologists think a French crewman might have hidden the gold in a barrel of shot to conceal it from Blackbeard's pirates.

—A bell engraved with the date 1705.

ID of Blackbeard's Ship Never Really in Doubt

The disclaimer about the wreck's identity was more an acknowledgement of the strict code of scientific scrutiny than the result of any serious doubts about the ship's identity, said Erik Goldstein, curator of arts and numismatics—the study of coins and tokens—for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation in Virginia. Archaeologists working on the wreck were always sure of its identity.

State officials "were just being safe," Goldstein said. "At the beginning phase of an excavation, unless you find something like a ship's bell with the name engraved on it, it takes a little while to put the pieces together and gather documentary evidence. It was good, responsible behavior on the part of those folks."

There were two reasons for dropping the official doubt about the identity of the shipwreck, added David Moore, curator of nautical archaeology at the North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort.

First, the museum recently opened "Blackbeard's Queen Anne's Revenge," a greatly expanded exhibit of artifacts from the shipwreck. Had the confirmation of the ship's identity not been made, curators would have had to title the exhibition something like "Artifacts From the Purported Queen Anne's Revenge," Moore said.

Also, removing the official caveat could help the museum secure private funding to continue excavating the wreck, Moore said. Although the state legislature provides some funding, he said, tight budgets are cutting into that money.

Thanks to National Geographic and Willie Drye

Kathy Dowsett

Monday, August 22, 2011

Swimmers, Why You Swim Determines How Often You Need to Swim

Swimmers, How Often Do You Really Need to Swim?

How many times each week does a swimmer need to swim? The first thing a swimmer needs to do to answer that question is to ask another one, why are you swimming?

What is the main reason or primary goal of your time in the water? Do you swim to relax, or are you swimming for fitness? Maybe you are doing it for more than just fitness, you are swimming to do swimming races, or to do a triathlon? Here are some of my suggestions on how often you should swim.

I've seen swimmers that workout twice a week, one hour per swim, do better by making a little change to their swim workout routine. They swam three times each week for about 45-minutes per workout. They went from two hours of swimming to two and a quarter hours of swimming each week and got better.

Swim for Relaxation

If you are swimming because it relieves the stresses of life you face each day, then swimming as often as you want to is the way to go. Be careful that you do not swim fast (at a high intensity level) or too long every day and you need to be alert for signs of over-use injuries like swimmer's shoulder. Since swimming is serving as a way for you to cope with things, frequent, low intensity, short swim workouts are a great idea.

Swim for General Fitness

If your goal is general fitness, and swimming is all you are doing for your fitness program, I would suggest you add some dry things to the mix, like weight lifting, bicycling, or jogging, but that is certainly not a necessity. For a fitness swimmer, three to four swim workouts each week is a good goal. The swim workouts should have a mix of swimming durations and intensities: some days shorter, some days longer, some days easier, and some days should have more challenging, higher intensity swims. Again, be alert for an over-use injury.

Swim for Specific Swimming Fitness

If you are swimming because you want to be a better swimmer, then much like the general fitness swimmer, you will need to mix up your workout lengths and intensities. Swimming three to six times each week is the way to go. You should also do some form of dryland work to help with core strength, and while lifting weights may not be 100% specific, it can help, and you can do some specific exercise to decrease the chances of developing a swimmer's shoulder problem.

Swim for Training for a Triathlon, Aquathlon, or other Multi-discipline Sport

If you are doing a triathlon or another type of multisport race that includes swimming, and you do not have a swimming background, then you should swim three to five times each week. How long and how hard varies with the swim distance of the race you are training for, how far along you are in the training plan, and your ability. If you are an experienced swimmer, you can probably get away with swimming two to four times each week, again depending upon the race you are training for and how things fit in the overall training plan. And once more, be alert for shoulder pain or other over-use problems.

Whatever the answer is to the question of why you are swimming, I hope that getting into a swimming pool, lake, river or ocean for that swim leaves you feeling good when you are done. Swimming is a great way to make cardio and strength fitness gains. Enjoy the water.

thanks to

Kathy Dowsett

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Researchers: Soft Coral Builds Strong Reefs, Key To Health Of Oceans

Scientists have long believed soft corals, one of the many endangered elements of marine life, are only minor contributors to the structure of coral reefs. But that's not true, says new research from Tel Aviv University — and the preservation of soft corals is essential to the health of our seas.

Joint research by Tel Aviv University and the Academia Sinica, the National Museum of Natural Science of Taiwan, and National Taiwan University has revealed that soft corals, like stony corals, are one of the central building blocks of a reef, says Prof. Yehuda Benayahu of TAU's Department of Zoology at the George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences. A new in-depth analysis of reefs in the South China Sea has revealed that massive parts of the reefs are actually made from cemented microscopic skeletal elements of soft corals termed sclerites.

The finding, which recently appeared in the journal Coral Reefs, challenges conventional knowledge about soft corals and makes their conservation a priority. Like whales, dolphins, and stony corals, soft corals are a critically important component of the marine environment, Prof. Benayahu insists.

Building a home from flesh and bone

Reefs are ecosystems derived from biological organisms. They predominantly consist of cemented stony corals made of calcium carbonate. In contrast, the tissues of soft corals contain sclerites, which look like tiny pins or porcupine needles. In the reefs of Kenting National Park, located in South Taiwan, the researchers discovered that large structures originally believed to be comprised of stony corals were actually deposits of sclerites that been cemented to each other by calcium carbonate over time.

Soft corals were once considered a mere veneer of reefs, says Prof. Benayahu, not unlike a living ocean carpet. Once a soft coral colony disintegrates, the sclerites, each less than 1 millimeter in size, were thought to scatter and simply accumulate on the sea bed along with shells, sea urchin spines, and other smaller materials. But in fact, they are integral throughout the reef ecosystem and provide a home for creatures such as fish, snails, algae and many others.

Outside of the marine environment, soft corals also work to protect our human habitat. Boulders and reef structures made of cemented soft coral sclerites that form near shores act as natural wave breakers, Prof. Benayahu says, protecting land against erosion by the sea or ocean during typhoons or cyclones.

Carbon dioxide burning through our oceans

Not only is soft coral widespread, especially throughout the Indo-Pacific reefs, but it is also extremely rich in biodiversity. The genus Sinularia, the soft coral used in reef building, is composed of about 170 species worldwide. This is more than any stony coral genus, including 130 species of staghorn corals, the most populous. Given its spread and diversity, the group is certainly understudied, Prof. Benayahu says.

Soft coral is in danger of being wiped out of the marine environment. One major culprit is the rising acidity of our oceans, caused by heightened levels of carbon dioxide, says Prof. Benayahu. "As burning oil dissolves into the sea water, the water becomes more acidic, which then dissolves calcareous materials," he warns, including corals whose skeletons are made of calcite.

Soft corals need not only to be protected, but also further studied to understand their role in the entire ecosystem. Questions such as the rate at which soft corals can form reefs, especially as they face environmental challenges such as temperature changes, water acidity, and rising sea levels, still linger.

This investigation was led by Dr. Ming-Shiou Jeng of the Academia Sinica's Biodiversity Research Center, along with colleagues from the National Museum of Natural Science in Taichung and National Taiwan University, Taipei.


Thanks to Underwater Times

Kathy Dowsett

The picure above is of Prof. Yehuda Benayahu exploring a soft coral reef!!!!

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Scientists Warn of Unprecidented Marine Exctinctions

Scientists are warning that marine species are at risk of entering a phase of extinction unprecedented in human history.

A preliminary report arising from a ‘State of the Oceans’ workshop held at the University of Oxford in April, is the first ever to consider the cumulative impact of all pressures on the oceans. Considering the latest research across all areas of marine science, the workshop examined the combined effects of pollution, acidification, ocean warming, over-fishing and deoxygenation.

The scientific panel concluded that the combination of stresses on the ocean is creating the conditions associated with every previous major extinction of species in Earth’s history. And the speed and rate of degeneration in the ocean is far greater than anyone has predicted. As a result, although difficult to assess, the first steps to globally significant extinction may have begun with a rise in the extinction threat to marine species such as reef-forming corals.

“The findings are shocking,” says Dr Alex Rogers, Scientific Director of the International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO) which convened the workshop. “As we considered the cumulative effect of what humankind does to the ocean, the implications became far worse than we had individually realized. This is a very serious situation demanding unequivocal action at every level. We are looking at consequences for humankind that will impact in our lifetime, and worse, our children’s and generations beyond that.”

Marine scientists from institutions around the world gathered at Oxford University under the auspices of IPSO and the IUCN. The group reviewed over 50 of the most recent research papers by world ocean experts and found firm evidence that the effects of climate change, coupled with other human-induced impacts such as over-fishing and nutrient run-off from farming, have already caused a dramatic decline in ocean health.

Increasing hypoxia and anoxia (absence of oxygen, known as ocean dead zones) combined with warming of the ocean and acidification are the three factors which have been present in every mass extinction event in Earth’s history.

There is strong scientific evidence that these three factors are combining in the ocean again, exacerbated by multiple severe stresses. The panel concluded that a new extinction event was inevitable if the current trajectory of damage continues, and could be said to have already begun.

The report concludes that “Unless action is taken now, the consequences of our activities are at a high risk of causing, through the combined effects of climate change, overexploitation, pollution and habitat loss, the next globally significant extinction event in the ocean. It is notable that the occurrence of multiple high intensity- stressors has been a prerequisite for all the five global extinction events of the past 600 million years.”

It highlights these keypoints:

- The speeds of many negative changes to the ocean are near to or are tracking worst-case scenarios. Some are as predicted but many are faster than anticipated and accelerating.
- The magnitude of the cumulative impacts on the ocean is greater than previously understood.
- Timelines for action are shrinking: the longer the delay in reducing emissions, the higher the annual reduction rate will have to be and the greater the financial cost.
- Resilience of the ocean to climate change impacts is severely compromised by other stressors from human activities, including fisheries, pollution and habitat destruction.
- The extinction threat to marine species is rapidly increasing.

The authors also give a solution, but comment that society’s values are a barrier to implementing what needs to be done.

- Reduce CO2 emissions
- Reduce fishing to sustainable levels
- Establish a global system of marine protected areas.
- Reduce pollution
- Avoid, reduce or at least strictly regulate oil, gas and mineral extraction
- Assess, monitor and control other uses of the marine environment such as renewable energy schemes
- Activities to proceed only if they are shown positively not to harm the ocean
- UN global body to ensure compliance with the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea

Thanks to Scuba News

Kathy Dowsett