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Hunter Cutting

New England fisheries hit hard by warming waters - 0 views

www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm

climate change impact oceans fisheries fish species USA New England eyewitness

shared by Hunter Cutting on 14 Jul 10 - Cached
  • A 2007 study by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration looked at codfish catch records over four decades. It concluded what fishermen who know this cold-loving fish would have predicted: As the bottom water temperature increased, the probability of catching a cod decreased.
  • Last year, a federal effort to coordinate research, the U.S. Global Change Research Program, found ocean warming already was forcing a migration of some species.
  • "The northward shifts we have seen in the area are due in part to climate change. We are starting to see some of the effects of global climate change in our area," said Janet Nye, a NOAA researcher working out of Woods Hole, Mass. She studied historical fish records and found that of 36 northwest Atlantic species, almost half had moved northward in 40 years as water temperatures warmed. She predicted the traditional stocks of cold-water fish are likely to be replaced by croaker and red hake, fish normally found farther south.
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  • Many fishermen switched to lobster as winter flounder, a cold-water fish once abundant in fishing boat holds, declined. But lobster stocks are stressed in some areas now. Biologists on a multi-state Fisheries Commission committee have found that warmer waters, disease and fishing have depleted lobster stocks, and they recently recommended a five-year ban on lobstering from Cape Cod to Virginia.
  • "One of the grim realities of global warming is that it is bringing change to fisheries. There are going to be regime changes in the oceans and management is going to have to adapt to that,"
  • Greg Walinski believes he has seen first-hand the workings of warmer waters on fish stock. The 53-year-old Cape Cod fisherman used to hunt for large bluefin tuna. "In the '80s and '90s we would get 60 to 80 giant bluefin in a season," he said. "But we started to see less and less. It got to a point where it wasn't even worth going out. Most of the big fish are up in Canada," he said. "We get the little bluefin that used to be further south."
  • He switched to cod, but in what seems to be a repeat of the pattern, Walinski said he finds himself chasing the fish further and further out. He now travels 120 miles in a 35-foot boat - an arduous and somewhat dangerous commute - to reach Georges Bank for codfish.
  • regulators say they have seen little evidence of a similar rebound in cod on the George's Bank, and some other cold-water species, like winter flounder and pollock, remain low.
Hunter Cutting

Increasing fish stocks in northern North Sea: fisherman - 0 views

fishnewseu.com/...-climate-change-warns-msp.html

fisheries Cod North Sea Scotland species oceans eyewitness

shared by Hunter Cutting on 02 Aug 10 - Cached
  • LIBERAL Democrat Fisheries spokesman and MSP for Orkney Liam McArthur is seeking assurances from the Scottish Government that fisheries scientists and others involved in establishing fish quotas do not penalise fishermen for stock reductions caused by climate change. Research by the Marine Climate Change Impacts Partnership shows climate change is causing some fish species’ distributions to move north, with some stocks having moved as much as 400 km north over the past 30 years.
  • McArthur said: “The reports from fishermen of increasing stocks of cod in the northern North Sea appear compatible with the results of this research. Indeed, the findings of this report further highlight how complex this issue really is.
Hunter Cutting

Rhode Island floods prompt cold water phytoplankton surge - 0 views

green.blogs.nytimes.com/...in-fearsome-floods-a-dividend

climate change impact Rhode Island USA flooding algal bloom

shared by Hunter Cutting on 04 Jun 10 - Cached
  • Torrential rains last month in Rhode Island led to widespread flooding, causing millions of dollars in property damage and leaving thousands homeless. The floodwaters also overwhelmed water treatment plants, spilling vast amounts of raw sewage into the rivers and streams that flow into Narragansett Bay. It sounds like the makings of an environmental nightmare, but in fact it’s just the opposite. To scientists’ delight, the sewage-laden floodwaters have caused a well-timed bloom of phytoplankton, the microscopic creatures that form the foundation of marine food chains. With more food available for fish, clams and other sea creatures, the bay’s fisheries industry is expected to benefit. The timing of the rains was fortuitous. In decades past, Narragansett Bay typically experienced a late winter/early spring algal bloom that fed creatures up and down the water column. But in recent years, the waters of Narragansett Bay have warmed greatly, interrupting this seasonal event. In particular, bottom-feeding fish like the flounder have suffered dramatic declines. The surge of freshwater and nutrient-rich sewage this spring, however, is mimicking the conditions of years past. Mark Berman, an oceanographer with the National Marine Fisheries Service, said the flood seemed to have sent the bay back to its  normal state.
  • Hunter Cutting on 04 Jun 10
     
    In Fearsome Floods, a Dividend - Green Blog - NYTimes.com
Hunter Cutting

Salmon, trout populations fall in Wales following hot, dry summers - 0 views

www.globe-democrat.com/...ing-threatens-trout-and-salmon

climate change impact Wales UK species Europe River Wye salmon trout fish

shared by Hunter Cutting on 04 Jun 10 - Cached
  • salmon numbers fell by 50 percent and trout numbers by 67 percent between 1985 and 2004, with the fish hit hardest following hot, dry summers such as during 1990, 2000 and 2003.
  • findings suggest warmer water and lower river levels combine to affect both species. As both trout and salmon favor cool water, they face potentially major problems if climate warming continues as expected in the next two to three decades.
Hunter Cutting

Ocean Ecosystems Transforming Due to Climate Change - 0 views

www.ouramazingplanet.com/ing-due-to-climate-change-0282

oceans ecosystems food chain penguins phytoplankton polar krill salps

shared by Hunter Cutting on 18 Jun 10 - Cached
  • Global climate change is fundamentally disrupting marine ecosystems, especially in the polar oceans, according to two new reviews of scientific research released Thursday in the journal Science.
  • Changes in temperature, ocean acidity and volume are affecting species from phytoplankton — the microscopic marine plants at base of the food chain — to polar bears, which may lose 68 percent of their summer habitat by 2100. "Climate change is affecting an enormously wide range of physical and biological aspects of the ocean," said John Bruno, a University of North Carolina marine ecologist and co-author of one of the reviews. "Once you start tweaking temperature, everything changes." Photosynthesis by phytoplankton is down six percent since the 1980s, and the organisms themselves are getting smaller thanks to warmer temperatures, the review noted.
  • Less plankton means less food for fish, which in turn means less seafood for human consumption. Phytoplankton also absorb carbon dioxide from the air and sequester it at the seafloor when they die and sink to the bottom of the ocean. Fewer phytoplankton could mean more human carbon dioxide emissions stay in the atmosphere, Bruno said, further exacerbating the climate change problem.
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  • The "canary in the coalmine" for all of these shifts is the polar oceans, said Oscar Schofield, an oceanographer at Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey and a co-author of the second review, which focuses on changes at the West Antarctic Peninsula. There, the authors found, temperatures have increased by 6 degrees Celsius in the past 50 years, more than five times the average change worldwide. Phytoplankton blooms are down 12 percent overall. Krill populations — important food for whales, penguins, fish and other large animals — are plummeting, with jellyfish-like organisms called salps, which don't make as good a meal, taking their place.
  • Above the surface, the polar Adélie penguin population has gone from tens of thousands of breeding pairs to just a few thousand, Schofield said. Temperate species of penguin like the Chinstrap and Gintoo are moving into the Adélie’s old turf. Particularly shocking, Schofield said, is how rapidly these changes are occurring. "It's not like it's happening over hundreds of years," he said. "It's happening over decades."
Hunter Cutting

Jellyfish blooms proliferating in warmer, saltier oceans - 0 views

www.jellyfishart.com/kb_results.asp

jellyfish species climate change impact Bering Sea oceans Arctic

shared by Hunter Cutting on 25 Jun 10 - Cached
  • while weather patterns are some of the most visible indicators of climate change, we are able to look at other patterns in the ecosystem as equally important measurements.  Among these patterns are jellyfish blooms, which are proliferating at an incredible pace. 
  • There are a number of factors contributing to the increase of jellyfish blooms, most of which are linked to global warming.  Jellyfish are thriving due to warmer and saltier waters as well as an increase in plankton growth.  In addition, overfishing has created a niche for jellyfish to exploit.  In years before predators were consuming much more of the ocean’s nutrients.  Now however, there is less competition leaving more for jellyfish.  This is also the case with agricultural runoff, where jellyfish are able to capitalize on the organisms feeding on the bacteria.  The current trend in climate change shows that the ice cover is melting much later in the spring, spawning more rapid and increased amounts of plankton growth.  There are various theories based on this evidence, but perhaps the strongest supports the idea that increased sunlight is favorable for the plankton.  This is especially true in colder regions such as the Bearing Sea, where scientists and fisherman alike have noticed drastic increases in jellyfish blooms.  But despite recent awareness, population control will only be a reality once the global climate patterns stabilize. For most, summer draughts mean hot days and dry gardens.  For jellyfish, however, it means saltier waters.  As rain becomes less frequent there is less fresh water entering the ocean.  Although it’s not the case with all jellyfish, most will benefit from a higher salt content.  This also relates to other predators and fish species, which are less tolerant of the salt increase and will often move from the coast into deeper, less salty waters.  As the ocean gets warmer and the water level rises, the jellyfish survival rate also goes up.  It creates the right conditions for jellyfish blooms to prosper, which results in a longer span of migration.  Now there are jellyfish species that are being labeled invasive.  Beachgoers have to swim with a new element of caution, unable to know which new species has moved in, and which has left. 
  • Hunter Cutting on 25 Jun 10
     
    A report from a commercial jellyfish aquarium manufacturer
Hunter Cutting

Increasing extreme weather pounds Cambodia - 0 views

www.caritas.org/...CambodiaClimateChange.html

climate change impact Cambodia extreme weather

shared by Hunter Cutting on 07 Jul 10 - Cached
  • Most people in Cambodia depend on farming for their livelihoods. 84 percent live in rural areas. Many live in high risk areas from flooding, droughts and cyclones. Kim Rattana of Caritas Cambodia said, "One of the biggest challenges we are facing in our development work is the increasing occurrence of natural disaster. What we have achieved over many years is being destroyed by storms and washed away by floods." Last year, Typhoon Ketsana destroyed hundreds of homes in Cambodia. Caritas Cambodia had to provide 30,000 people with relief items and food. Low water levels in the Mekong this year, the lifeline that runs through China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, are threatening the livelihoods of more than 60 million people who live along it. In Cambodia, drought has already destroyed harvests and made fishing very difficult.
  • People in Cambodia don’t have the resources to adapt. That means they are extremely vulnerable to extreme or unpredictable weather. Climate variability has also brought health risks for some of Cambodia's most vulnerable communities. People are vulnerable to diseases like dengue fever, typhoid and diarrhea. Cambodia’s Ministry of Health predicts that under changing climate conditions will increase incidence of malaria by as much as 16 percent. Poor infrastructures and high poverty rates make malaria treatment unaffordable for large segments of the population. Only 55% of the population has access to public health facilities.
Hunter Cutting

Mercury Levels In Arctic Seals May Be Linked To Global Warming - 0 views

www.sciencedaily.com/...090504165950.htm

climate change impact Arctic sea ice Arctic species seals

shared by Hunter Cutting on 14 Jun 10 - Cached
  • high mercury levels in certain Arctic seals appear to be linked to vanishing sea ice caused by global warming.
  • The scientists analyzed the mercury content in muscle samples collected from ringed seals between 1973 and 2007. They then compared the levels to the length of the so-called "summer ice-free season," a warm period marked by vanishing sea ice in the seals' habitat. They found that the seals accumulated more mercury during both short (2 months) and long (5 months) ice-free seasons and postulate that this is related to the seals' food supplies. Higher seal mercury concentrations may follow relatively short ice-free seasons due to consumption of older, more highly contaminated Arctic cod while relatively long ice-free seasons may promote higher pelagic productivity and thus increased survival and abundance of Arctic cod with the overall result of more fish consumption and greater exposure to mercury. Longer ice-free seasons resulting from a warming Arctic may therefore result in higher mercury levels in ringed seal populations as well as their predators (polar bears and humans).
  • Hunter Cutting on 14 Jun 10
     
    Science Daily
Hunter Cutting

Jellyfish swarm into warm waters off Ireland - 0 views

www.irishtimes.com/...1224273558296.html

jellyfish climate change impact oceans Ireland

shared by Hunter Cutting on 29 Jun 10 - Cached
  • SIGHTINGS OF exotic snake pipefish, swarms of jellyfish and an “unprecedented” rise in sea surface temperatures indicate climate change is having a significant effect on Ireland’s marine ecosystems, according to a new report.Swarms of jellyfish, increased wave heights off the southwest coast and a greater variety of warm-water species in Irish waters have also been recorded by the authors of the report published today by the Marine Institute.
  • The authors noted that increases of sea surface temperature – at a rate of 0.6 degrees a decade – have been recorded since 1994. This is “unprecedented” in the past 150 years, the Marine Institute says.This temperature rise has been linked to an increase in microscopic plants and animals, along with species of jellyfish. The institute says increased numbers of most warm-water fish species have been observed in Irish waters.
Hunter Cutting

Record rains in June for Iowa and Nebraska - 0 views

www.omaha.com/...707019849

climate change impact USA flooding extreme weather heavy rains Midwest Iowa Nebraska precipitation

shared by Hunter Cutting on 24 Jul 10 - Cached
  • The nation’s heaviest rains in June poured down on Nebraska and Iowa. Records were set across both states.Iowa recorded its rainiest June in 138 years and its second-rainiest month ever, exceeded only by the rainfall of July 1993, which led to that year’s “Great Flood.”Northeastern Nebraska saw the state’s heaviest rains, with some areas recording three times the normal amount. Some places got nearly 17 inches.Near Ericson — where nearly 13 inches fell — a dam burst, draining a popular fishing lake.
Hunter Cutting

Thousands emigrate as seas rise over Sunderbans - 0 views

www.merinews.com/...15827816.shtml

climate change impact sea level rise India Bangladesh Sunderbans Asia islands migration

shared by Hunter Cutting on 02 Aug 10 - Cached
  • Another community likewise affected equally, if not more, by climate change is the one which inhabits the Tropics in the Sunderban forests. Straddling the massive delta of Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna on the Bay of Bengal spreading across India and Bangladesh, Sunderbans are spread over an area of more than 10000 square kilometres. More than half of it has the world’s largest mangrove forests which have been declared as two different World Heritage Sites for the two countries. The forests are a
  • Another community likewise affected equally, if not more, by climate change is the one which inhabits the Tropics in the Sunderban forests. Straddling the massive delta of Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna on the Bay of Bengal spreading across India and Bangladesh, Sunderbans are spread over an area of more than 10000 square kilometres. More than half of it has the world’s largest mangrove forests which have been declared as two different World Heritage Sites for the two countries. The forests are also home to a substantial population of the threatened Royal Bengal Tiger.
  • A 2007 report of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (UNESCO) said that a 45 centimetres anthropogenic rise in the sea level by the end of the current century is likely to destroy 75 per cent of the Sunderban mangroves within the current century. However, certain inhabited islands have already disappeared having been overtaken by the sea. Among them are Lohachara and the New Moore islands. Another island, Ghoramara, has lost around half of its landmass turning more than half of the Island’s population of 12000 into climate refugees. They have all fled – some to the mainland and others elsewhere in Sunderbans. The remaining have had to give up cultivation in the fertile soil or gathering honey from the jungle and have taken to fishing. Researchers have heard the same story retold everywhere in the Sunderbans. As the sea-water comes in floods it destroys the crops, the soil takes on the sea’s salinity and renders it unproductive. Moving away and looking for a safer place is the only alternative to cope with the rising sea. Of late, such movements have, however, had to become devastatingly more frequent, stressing the once-simple rhythm of life of these poor people.
Hunter Cutting

Taiwan heat wave, climate change prompts call for warning system - 0 views

taipeitimes.com/...2003477873

Taiwan heat wave climate change impact

shared by Hunter Cutting on 14 Jul 10 - Cached
  • Over the last few days the temperature in Taiwan has shot up and the media has been awash with articles of how people can avoid the worst of the heat wave. The papers have also been full of stories about the number of heat-related deaths. Questions have been raised as to the potential health risks posed by the scorching heat, when in fact the best way to deal with this problem, and to reduce the health risks posed by climate change, is to establish some form of early warning mechanism.
  • Over the last century Taiwan’s average temperature has increased by between 1.1 and 1.4 percent, twice the global average. The temperature of the surrounding oceans has risen at a higher rate, having a considerable impact on the fishing ecology.
Hunter Cutting

Global warming driving 40 per cent decline in the ocean's phytoplankton - 0 views

www.independent.co.uk/...ans-phytoplankton-2038074.html

climate change impact species algae global oceans phytoplankton

shared by Hunter Cutting on 29 Jul 10 - Cached
  • The dead sea: Global warming blamed for 40 per cent decline in the ocean's phytoplankton Microscopic life crucial to the marine food chain is dying out. The consequences could be catastrophic
  • The microscopic plants that support all life in the oceans are dying off at a dramatic rate, according to a study that has documented for the first time a disturbing and unprecedented change at the base of the marine food web. Scientists have discovered that the phytoplankton of the oceans has declined by about 40 per cent over the past century, with much of the loss occurring since the 1950s. They believe the change is linked with rising sea temperatures and global warming.
  • If the findings are confirmed by further studies it will represent the single biggest change to the global biosphere in modern times, even bigger than the destruction of the tropical rainforests and coral reefs, the scientists said yesterday.
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  • Phytoplankton are microscopic marine organisms capable of photosynthesis, just like terrestrial plants. They float in the upper layers of the oceans, provide much of the oxygen we breathe and account for about half of the total organic matter on Earth. A 40 per cent decline would represent a massive change to the global biosphere."If this holds up, something really serious is underway and has been underway for decades. I've been trying to think of a biological change that's bigger than this and I can't think of one," said marine biologist Boris Worm of Canada's Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He said: "If real, it means that the marine ecosystem today looks very different to what it was a few decades ago and a lot of this change is happening way out in the open, blue ocean where we cannot see it. I'm concerned about this finding."The researchers studied phytoplankton records going back to 1899 when the measure of how much of the green chlorophyll pigment of phytoplankton was present in the upper ocean was monitored regularly. The scientists analysed about half a million measurements taken over the past century in 10 ocean regions, as well as measurements recorded by satellite.They found that phytoplankton had declined significantly in all but two of the ocean regions at an average global rate of about 1 per cent per year, most of which since the mid 20th Century. They found that this decline correlated with a corresponding rise in sea-surface temperatures – although they cannot prove that warmer oceans caused the decline.The study, published in the journal Nature, is the first analysis of its kind and deliberately used data gathered over such a long period of time to eliminate the sort of natural fluctuations in phytoplankton that are known to occur from one decade to the next due to normal oscillations in ocean temperatures, Dr Worm said. "Phytoplankton are a critical part of our planetary life support system. They produce half of the oxygen we breathe, draw down surface CO2 and ultimately support all of our fishes." he said.But some scientists have warned that the Dalhousie University study may not present a realistic picture of the true state of marine plantlife given that phytoplankton is subject to wide, natural fluctuations."Its an important observation and it's consistent with other observations, but the overall trend can be overinterpreted because of the masking effect of natural variations," said Manuel Barange of the Plymouth Marine Laboratory and a phytoplankton expert.
  • However, the Dalhousie scientists behind the three-year study said they have taken the natural oscillations of ocean temperatures into account and the overall conclusion of a 40 per cent decline in phytoplankton over the past century still holds true. "Phytoplankton are the basis of life in the oceans and are essential in maintaining the health of the oceans so we should be concerned about its decline."It's a very robust finding and we're very confident of it," said Daniel Boyce, the lead author of the study."Phytoplankton is the fuel on which marine ecosystems run. A decline of phytoplankton affects everything up the food chain, including humans," Dr Boyce said.
  • Phytoplankton is affected by the amount of nutrients the well up from the bottom of the oceans. In the North Atlantic phytoplankton "blooms" naturally in spring and autumn when ocean storms bring nutrients to the surface. One effect of rising sea temperatures has been to make the water column of some regions nearer the equator more stratified, with warmer water sitting on colder layers of water, making it more difficult for nutrients to reach the phytoplankton at the sea surface.Warmer seas in tropical regions are also known to have a direct effect on limiting the growth of phytoplankton.
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