Our Oceans are Under Attack

kinda says it all

with good management the red sea corrals have survived even if all the big fish are gone
we could potentially reseed the larger species eventually
if we have a viable population to reseed them from
that Alaskan fishery might just be that viable population
at least for cold water areas
B

 

About the three, ten, twenty, mile radii - Lions see above water about fifty ft., less below. The zones are completely political. I don't believe a pollock is "smart" but that is a different discussion. Pollock are junk food to a lion but they will eat them ( I've watched lions eat everything from octopi to a biologist butt). They are no fur seal or leopard seal for mean but in their range, they are the bad boys until the orca show up. In general, shell fish and finfish run in opposite cycles (an over-simplification, but imagine being a baby crab or a shrimp in a world with LOTS of hungry cod and pollock). The water south of the Aleutians is warm lately ( I don't know about north thereof ) and that favors finfish, including pollock.
When fishing a targeted species in a capelin bloom, the capelin are everywhere falling out of the stomachs, dead on the water, etc.. My lunch is often these dead or dying capelin without slowing down work a high energy pick-me-up. I'm surprised they aren't THE sushi fish for western pallets with the unique taste - maybe not firm enough.

 

Anywhere I write "capalin" - "capelin" is the correct spelling.

 

as someone who studied marine biology I have found the fishermen to be one of the best sources of information on a given species. There contributions to the conservation of the sea will be invaluable. Basically it cant be done without them so supporting them in the one decent fishery we have left is crucial to its conservation, the whole thing will work far better if we leave the adversarial roles its so easy to slip into outside and if everyone sits down and works things out so we can all enjoy a nice fresh chunk of whale meet some day. Basically the Alaskan fishery is our one chance to get it right. I for one hope like hell we grab that chance with a death grip

 

Thank you Boston, mark775, & others, this is interesting and I know not of those regions - Alaska and the Red Sea (I know where, but not much else) - Boston could you just post the utube or whatever as a link, as the broadband here or something else unknown, just kicks those embedded links off and I cannot watch more than a couple of seconds... Cheers

 

Ocean Currents

I want to thank everyone as well for presenting some very interesting discussions to this subject thread.

Here is a bit of other news about ocean current studies:

Study finds surprising new pathway for North Atlantic circulation

Oceanographers have long known that the 20-year-old paradigm for describing the global ocean circulation – called the Great Ocean Conveyor – was an oversimplification. It’s a useful depiction, but it’s like describing Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony as a catchy tune.

The ocean conveyor paradigm says the Gulf Stream-warmed ocean releases heat to the atmosphere in the northern North Atlantic, leaving ocean water colder and denser as it moves north. The cold waters sink and flow southward along the 'deep western boundary current' that hugs the continental slope from Canada to the equator. To replace the down-flowing water, warm surface waters from the tropics are pulled northward along the conveyor’s upper limb.

But while the conveyor belt paradigm establishes the melody, the subtleties and intricacies of the symphony of global ocean circulation largely remain a puzzle.

Now, research led by oceanographers at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and Duke University have teased out a new piece of that puzzle, expanding our understanding of this circulation model. Using field observations and computer models, the study shows that much of the southward flow of cold water from the Labrador Sea moves not along the deep western boundary current, but along a previously unknown path in the interior of the North Atlantic.

The study by co-principal authors Amy Bower, a senior scientist in the WHOI Department of Physical Oceanography, and Susan Lozier, a professor of physical oceanography at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment, will be published in the May 14 issue of the research journal Nature.

...more here:
http://www.powerboat-world.com/index.cfm?nid=57200

 

now thats pretty darn interesting mate
One of the first studies I was involved in at Woods Hole was something similar. we made the passage from Newfoundland to the Irish coast and back dropping buoys along the way and hoping to retrieve them later for data analysis. Back then we didnt have gps or satellite links so the buoys had to be manually collected. The gist of the study was to determine the strength volume of mid ocean currents in the north Atlantic. We had some pretty wild rides retrieving some of those buoys.

 

Jellyfish Blooms increasing

Early action could be crucial to addressing the problem of major increases in jellyfish numbers, which appears to be the result of human activities.

New research led by CSIRO Climate Adaptation Flagship and University of Queensland scientist, Dr Anthony Richardson, presents convincing evidence that this ’jellyfish joyride’ is associated with over-fishing and excess nutrients from fertilisers and sewage.

'Dense jellyfish aggregations can be a natural feature of healthy ocean ecosystems, but a clear picture is now emerging of more severe and frequent jellyfish outbreaks worldwide,' Dr Richardson says.

'In recent years, jellyfish blooms have been recorded in the Mediterranean, the Gulf of Mexico, the Black and Caspian Seas, the Northeast US coast, and particularly in Far East coastal waters.

'Mounting evidence suggests that open-ocean ecosystems can flip from being dominated by fish, to being dominated by jellyfish,' Dr Richardson says.'The most dramatic have been the outbreaks in the Sea of Japan involving the gargantuan Nomura jellyfish which can grow up to 2 m in diameter and weigh 200 kg.'

The new research, by Dr Richardson and colleagues at the University of Miami, Swansea University and the University of the Western Cape, has been published in the international journal; Trends in Ecology and Evolution, in time for World Oceans Day on 8 June.

'Fish normally keep jellyfish in check through competition and predation but overfishing can destroy that balance,' Dr Richardson says. 'For example, off Namibia intense fishing has decimated sardine stocks and jellyfish have replaced them as the dominant species.'

Climate change may favour some jellyfish species by increasing the availability of flagellates in surface waters – a key jellyfish food source. Warmer oceans could also extend the distribution of many jellyfish species.

'Mounting evidence suggests that open-ocean ecosystems can flip from being dominated by fish, to being dominated by jellyfish,' Dr Richardson says 'This would have lasting ecological, economic and social consequences.

'We need to start managing the marine environment in a holistic and precautionary way to prevent more examples of what could be termed a ‘jellyfish joyride’.'


...interesting science site http://www.csiro.com.au/

An outbreak of giant Nomura jellyfish off the coast of Japan in 2003 made life difficult for local fishermen. Image credit – Y.Taniguchi, Niu Fisheries Cooperative. CSIRO Release Ref 09/96

 

just read this and thought it belonged included in this thread
somewhere in this thing I'm sure myself or someone else mentioned the dire circumstances of blue fin tuna
this article although lacking in the details of the decline
does define the severity of the problem when countries start lining up to place a give world fishery on moratorium

speaking of which we have a few fishermen on here
over the years Ive come to think that the fisheries simply dont tend to come back no mater a moratorium or not
anyone know of one that has
curious
Mark
maybe
anyone

 

There needs to be a commercial fishing moratorium on a number of species in the atlantic. Cod, haddock,pollack, are currently non-existent in Long Island Sound. This despite cleanup measures that put the water quality in a much better position than before the disappearance of these fish. While there has been limited success with Atlantic salmon in the Connecticut River few other fresh water spawning fish have been able to recover. Currently drag nets scour the bottom of the Sound each spring and remove everything. When the larger predators, Blues & Stripers migrate in they take care of the rest. But their numbers are also in decline. Herring is on the no catch list also for about 5 years now. The variance of the bottom in the Sound makes it an ideal estuary for many species of fish to flourish but commercial overfishing and the pollution of the 50's-70's have decimated the populations of all the native fish and discouraged the return of large numbers of the big predators, fish go where the food is. As a example, Porgy, or Scup, now have a size limit of 11 1/2 inches in Connecticut waters, I believe this is a 3 year old fish. There is also a daily catch limit a fraction of a few years ago. While a very tasty fish, they were considered by many to bait a few years ago and you could take 50 per day. Ten years ago flat fish could be taken by the boatload, now you only get one if he is lost. The early scouring of the sounds bottom each year removes so many of the smaller bait species that it is affecting water quality and the mollusk populations. So much of the food cycle has been disrupted that recovery is probably decades away unless a complete ban on commercial fishing in the sound is put in place for several years. Connecticut, Rhode Island and New York also have to get their act together on uniform size and limit regulations. The current ones are a hodge podge and a nightmare for sport fishermen to comply with as the fish are reluctant to carry photo ID's as to where their home terrritory is. While the Sound is a small pond in a big ocean its location and topography play an important role in fish stocks for all of the western portion of the North Atlantic. A concerted and well studied effort there could point the way to recovery of fish stocks in the entire Atlantic.

 

I too had noticed the decline in migrating schools of tuna around the islands of Melanesia, and I guess that conjecture could be supported by many others who have an interest in other areas/regions including most of the Great Barrier Reef...

 

recently as reported on CNN today Brittan France and the USA have all called for a ban on the international trade of blue fin tuna under the endangered species act

I hate to say I told ya so but if the shoe fits

both the Mediterranean blue fin and the atlantic blue fin are at critical numbers

the several year classes mentioned were subsequently not protected from over-harvesting and as a result
both the EU and the USA as well as numerous Mediterranean states have called for listing Tuna as endangered and under that protection banning it from national and international trade

its an interesting note that
of the worlds 17 major fisheries 10 have now collapsed
6 are at peak exploitation and are in significant decline
with only the Alaskan fishery holding steady

 

Fisheries can be managed on an individual basis.
The "tragedy of the commons" is death to fisheries. Governments should sell rights and establish ownership thereof. Unowned oceans mean lost biomasses.
The bluefin thing didn't just happen. When I was a kid, they were in need of protection.
Draggers are the very Devil because they don't just catch fish - they catch entire habitats. The corals, sponges, seapens, mussels, etc. that are the basis for an ecosystem are simply crushed or removed.

 

"Climate change may favour some jellyfish species by increasing the availability of flagellates in surface waters – a key jellyfish food source. Warmer oceans could also extend the distribution of many jellyfish species."

Brian,
the 3300 Argo bathythermograph buoys deployed throughout the world’s oceans since late in 2003 have shown a slight cooling of the oceans over the past five years, directly contrary to the official theory that any “global warming” not showing in the atmosphere would definitely show up in the first 400 fathoms of the world’s oceans, where at least 80% of any surplus heat would be stored.

Press release from the University of Rochester, August 14, 2009:

"Physicists at the University of Rochester have combed through data from satellites and ocean buoys and found evidence that in the last 50 years, the net flow of heat into and out of the oceans has changed direction three times.

These shifts in the balance of heat absorbed from the sun and radiated from the oceans correlate well with past anomalies that have been associated with abrupt shifts in the earth’s climate, say the researchers. These anomalies include changes in normal storm intensities, unusual land temperatures, and a large drop in salmon populations along the western United States.

The physicists also say these changes in ocean heat-flow direction should be taken into account when predicting global climate because the oceans represent 90 percent of the total heat in the earth’s climate system.

The study, which will appear in an upcoming issue of Physics Letters A, differs from most previous studies in two ways, the researchers say. First, the physicists look at the overall heat content of the Earth’s climate system, measuring the net balance of radiation from both the sun and Earth. And second, it analyzes more completely the data sets the researchers believe are of the highest quality, and not those that are less robust.

”These shifts happened relatively abruptly,” says David Douglass, professor of physics at the University of Rochester, and co-author of the paper. ”One, for example, happened between 1976 and 1977, right when a number of other climate-related phenomenona were happening, such as significant changes in U. S. precipitation.”

Douglass says the last oceanic shift occurred about 10 years ago, and that the oceans are currently emitting slightly more radiation than they are receiving.

The members of the team, which includes Robert Knox, emeritus professor of physics at the University, believe these heat-flux shifts had previously gone unnoticed because no one had analyzed the data as thoroughly as the Rochester team has.

The team believes that the oceans may change how much they absorb and radiate depending on factors such as shifts in ocean currents that might change how the deep water and surface waters exchange heat. In addition to the correlation with strange global effects that some scientists suspect were caused by climate shifts, the team says their data shows the oceans are not continuously warming—a conclusion not consistent with the idea that the oceans may be harboring ”warming in the pipeline.” Douglass further notes that the team found no correlation between the shifts and atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration.

”An interesting aspect of this research is that no reference to the surface temperature itself is needed,” says Knox. ”The heat content data we used, gathered by oceanographers, was gleaned from temperature measurements at various ocean depths up to 750 meters.” The team also found that the radiative imbalance was sufficiently small that it was necessary to consider the effect of geothermal heating. Knox believes this is the first time this additional source of heat has been accounted for in such a model.

The team notes that it’s impossible to predict when another shift might occur, but they suspect future shifts might be similar to the three observed. Both Douglass and Knox are continuing to analyze various climate-related data to find any new information or correlations that may have so far gone unnoticed."


Cheers.

 

Hmmmph, Guillermo, you have a lot of nerve expressing a view contrary to the dogma of AGW Koolaid Club, even if it is backed up by facts and verifiable observational data. After all, everyone knows computer models programed with pre-ordained conclulsions are more politically correct and reflect enlightended "thinking".