Photo: Yomiuri Shimbun/AFP/Getty Images From: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/01/0119_060119_jellyfish.html
Imagine pulling up your nets hoping to get a good catch, only to find swarms of Nomura jellyfish 6 feet in diameter, 450 pounds, with hoards of venomous tentacles tainting and killing all your fish. Yay, what a good way to start the day.
In this article, Japanese fishermen are experiencing just this. 2,000 species of jellyfish are experiencing larger populations which are broadening their range and arriving earlier in the season. Scientists speculate that this is due to a change in climate and jellyfish, such as the havoc-wreaking Nomura, are traveling to higher latitudes than usual. Places beyond Japan are experiencing the jellyfish’s sting such as China, Ireland, the Philippines, and Chesapeake Bay.
In the Yellow Sea, it has been concluded that jellyfish are are becoming more dominant due to runoff from agriculture and sewage. This runoff causes the fish population to decline and also sparks larger plankton blooms, paired with the 3 degree warming over the past 25 years – jellyfish are taking over. Not only are these jellyfish attacking the fish industry, but also stinging humans. The Japanese are trying to take advantage of the jellyfish uprising and catch them to make pickled plums or jellyfish ice cream, though the jellyfish industry will never outrank their fishing industry in terms of sushi.
How important is this issue in terms of the health of our ocean? What do you propose should be done?
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We all know how important plants and forests are to take carbon out of our air, but this article sheds light on how important our underwater forests are. Plankton near the surface of the ocean takes almost 2 billion tons of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere every year, but it has no way to store it permanently. However, there are plants such as the Mangrove Forests, salt marshes, and sea grass beds that are able to store the carbon in the sea floor. In fact, these plants are responsible for storing away nearly 1,650 million tons of carbon dioxide (about half of the world’s emissions) a year, despite the fact that they only cover 1% of the world’s seabed.
Achin Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General tells us that “We already know that marine ecosystems are multi-trillion-dollar assets linked to sectors such as tourism, coastal defence, fisheries and water purification services. Now it is emerging that they are natural allies against climate change.” Unfortunately, these marine forests are quickly disappearing; around 7% are being lost every year (this is 15 times faster than the tropical rain forest deforestation!). If we could preserve these marine forests, they would be able to reduce the emissions in our atmosphere by 25%, keeping the global warming below 3.5 degrees Fahrenheit.
Do you think this is the best solution to global warming that we have now (even though it has been here all along)?
Do you think it is possible for these plants to slow and even stop global climate change?
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What swims, holds l20 barrels of oil, and has a tongue that weighs as much as an elephant? A blue whale of course. These amazing creatures once reached a population of 400,000 until hunting excess caused the population to sink down to 5,000 in the 1960s. Even with a hunting ban put in place, their numbers have continued to stay the same throughout the past 50 years. Surprisingly though, they are beginning to come back to their old feeding grounds.
In this article, some scientists think that this occurrence is due to competition for food where they are currently located, while others think that a change in ocean currents have changed the krill concentrations – a major food source for blue whales. Both of these possibilities would cause the whales to move elsewhere and therefore head back to old migratory and feeding grounds. Hopefully, if the hunting ban continues to be in place and the going back to old feeding/migratory grounds proves beneficial – the blue whale population will be back on the rise.
How else do you think we could aid in the blue whale population rebound? Or should we? How will returning back to old grounds help the population rise?
I was reading this article, it was about this restaurant in Hong Kong, they would get an import of fish or sea animals and they would put the in glass boxes or put them out to buy. When they do this there still alive and eventually they die. The worst part is that there are more fish swimming in small tanks then they are in the whole dang ocean.
They eventually started to import about 90 % of seafood. The scientists say that this is bad because we are eating the fish out of existence. They also say that it’s becoming harder to find fish in quantities that they required from boats or ships or however the get the fish.
What will happen in the next ten years will a lot of sea life be extinct?
Will we eventually be out of jobs if this keeps happening?
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Early Tuesday morning more than 2,000 box jellyfish were found washed up on Oahu South Shore. They covered the shore from Waikiki beach to Ala Moana beach park where about 175 people were treated for stings. Only one man out of all those people actually had to go to the hospital because of trouble breathing. It is said that it happens seven to ten days after a full moon and Tuesday was the peak of this incident. Beach goers should watch for warning signs posting on beaches or talk to lifeguards before entering water especially if allergic to jellyfish stings, if stung wash out with Vinegar.
Does this occur in any other place besides Hawaii?
Why do jellyfish wash ashore after a full moon?
If you’d like to view the full article go here.
In Oregon and Washington state, there is a very large algae bloom. It isn’t exactly known why the algae is blooming, but recent storms have whipped them up and pushed them onto the shore. When they are mixed into the water, the algae becomes sticky and soap-like. This is a problem because it can remove the waterproofing of seabirds. Without this waterproofing, the seabirds can get hypothermia.
This type of algae doesn’t pose a threat to humans, but it has a possibility of killing fish by clogging their gills up. So far, thousands of different birds have died because of the algae foam. The only way for a seabird to get its waterproof coating back is when volunteers from local wildlife shelters take them in, feed them vitamins and let them preen themselves while they sit in a freshwater tank.
Could this foam have any serious effects on the ecosystem?
Can anything really be done at all by humans, or are we only able to watch?
