State of the Oceans — Log 88
YOUR WEEKLY BRIEFING FROM PARLEY
This image by the NOAA and Dr. Kristin Laidre. Header image by Willian Justen de Vasconcellos
MARINE LIFE
The more we learn about our oceans and its inhabitants, the more we realize how little we know. Narwhals, known as the unicorns of the sea, have been difficult to study over the years – providing for minimal data on the creatures. Geophysicists at Hokkaido University in Japan recently dedicated time to study the soundscapes of glacial fjords, which are home to narwhals. Studying the noises of these mysterious whales will help to determine how climate change, shipping and other human activities will effect these creatures moving forward and we can best protect them.
In another recent study, scientists discovered that snapping shrimp (Alpheus heterochaelis), who are already famous for their loud, quick closing claws, have eyesight to match that speed. Due to the cloudy water environments they live in and hoods that extend over their eyes, researchers assumed these shrimp had trouble seeing. The new study reveals they in fact refresh their view 160 times a second – one of the highest refresh rates of any animal on Earth.
GLOBAL HEATING
On June 20, 2020, temperatures in the Russian town of Verkhoyansk – located north of the Arctic Circle – hit a record-breaking temperature of 38°C or 100.4°F. The World Meteorological Organization is examining new data to validate this recording, but has given tentative acceptance of this observation as legitimate, as it is consistent with regional data: the Arctic is warming at nearly twice the global average. The extreme heat threatens the the environment, wildlife and people. In early June, 20,000 tons of diesel tanks spilled over, likely as a result from the melting, due to a prolonged heatwave that started in January and is expected to last throughout August. The plants, animals and people of Siberia rely on cold weather – with many species specially adapted and conditioned to being cold. Robert Rohde, lead scientist for the climate research group Berkeley Earth said, “these record breaking moments should make us pay attention to the larger trend. The entire earth is heating up rapidly. Climate change is going to continue even though there are a lot of distractions in the world right now.”
POLLUTION
Since the beginning of the year, the world has been preoccupied by the COVID-19 crisis, leaving the top polluting industries – oil and gas, coal, aviation, and auto-manufacturing – pushing to turn the crisis to their advantage. Dips in greenhouse gas emissions, post lockdown, were short lived as these giant polluters have successfully been lobbying governments around the world to ease environmental rules, regulations and taxes, as well as opposing new ones. Since the pandemic hit, the Trump administration, among other governments, has used the pandemic to advance their anti-regulatory agendas – easing restrictions for fossil fuel industries by rewarding these heavily polluting corporations with billions of dollars in pandemic recovery funds, in the form of tax breaks, loans, and waivers of fees while ramping up regulations and taxes for renewable energy industries. Lauri Myllyvirta, of the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air, says that “whether COVID-19 ultimately helps set the world on a high-carbon path or a cleaner one depends on the choices leaders make now.”
DEEP SPACE
New research suggests the distant dwarf planet Pluto may have possessed an underground ocean since early on in its life, potentially improving its chances of hosting life. When looking at Pluto today, astronomers see a very cold, frozen world – a dwarf planet that they believe originated from cold and icy rock clumping together. Now, new data suggests that this may not be the case. Researchers analyzed the cracking in Pluto’s shell, and an enigmatic system of ridges and troughs – which a suggest an ocean developed long after Pluto formed, after ice melted due to heat from radioactive elements in its core. The dwarf planet now joins Jupiter’s moons Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, Saturn’s moons Enceladus, Titan and Mimas and Neptune’s Triton as potential sites for oceans in our solar system.
INNOVATION
Along the West coast of the US, whale entanglements in fishing lines rose from a mere 10 in 2014 up to 71 in 2016 – a huge threat to whale populations and other larger sea life in the region. In response to the crisis, the California Dungeness Crab Fishing Gear Working Group developed a risk assessment and mitigation program to help the group respond swiftly to potential problems. Based off data, the working group makes “near real time” recommendations to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to restrict when and where crabbers can fish. Since the development of the program, the number of whale entanglements has plummeted significantly, though are still higher than pre-2014 levels. So far in 2020, there has been only one reported entanglement and it was successfully freed.
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