BBC: World's oceans in 'shocking' decline

[China]

World's oceans in 'shocking' decline

The oceans are in a worse state than previously suspected, according to an expert panel of scientists.

In a new report, they warn that ocean life is "at high risk of entering a phase of extinction of marine species unprecedented in human history".

They conclude that issues such as over-fishing, pollution and climate change are acting together in ways that have not previously been recognised.

The impacts, they say, are already affecting humanity.

The panel was convened by the International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO), and brought together experts from different disciplines, including coral reef ecologists, toxicologists, and fisheries scientists.

Its report will be formally released later this week.

"The findings are shocking," said Alex Rogers, IPSO's scientific director and professor of conservation biology at Oxford University.

"As we considered the cumulative effect of what humankind does to the oceans, the implications became far worse than we had individually realised.

"We've sat in one forum and spoken to each other about what we're seeing, and we've ended up with a picture showing that almost right across the board we're seeing changes that are happening faster than we'd thought, or in ways that we didn't expect to see for hundreds of years."

These "accelerated" changes include melting of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, sea level rise, and release of methane trapped in the sea bed.

Fast changes

"The rate of change is vastly exceeding what we were expecting even a couple of years ago," said Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, a coral specialist from the University of Queensland in Australia.

"So if you look at almost everything, whether it's fisheries in temperate zones or coral reefs or Arctic sea ice, all of this is undergoing changes, but at a much faster rate than we had thought."

But more worrying than this, the team noted, are the ways in which different issues act synergistically to increase threats to marine life.

Some pollutants, for example, stick to the surfaces of tiny plastic particles that are now found in the ocean bed.

This increases the amounts of these pollutants that are consumed by bottom-feeding fish.

Plastic particles also assist the transport of algae from place to place, increasing the occurrence of toxic algal blooms - which are also caused by the influx of nutrient-rich pollution from agricultural land.

In a wider sense, ocean acidification, warming, local pollution and overfishing are acting together to increase the threat to coral reefs - so much so that three-quarters of the world's reefs are at risk of severe decline.

Carbon deposits

Life on Earth has gone through five "mass extinction events" caused by events such as asteroid impacts; and it is often said that humanity's combined impact is causing a sixth such event.

The IPSO report concludes that it is too early to say definitively.

But the trends are such that it is likely to happen, they say - and far faster than any of the previous five.

"What we're seeing at the moment is unprecedented in the fossil record - the environmental changes are much more rapid," Professor Rogers told BBC News.

"We've still got most of the world's biodiversity, but the actual rate of extinction is much higher [than in past events] - and what we face is certainly a globally significant extinction event."

The report also notes that previous mass extinction events have been associated with trends being observed now - disturbances of the carbon cycle, and acidification and hypoxia (depletion of oxygen) of seawater.

Levels of CO2 being absorbed by the oceans are already far greater than during the great extinction of marine species 55 million years ago (during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum), it concludes.

Click on the link for the full article

[NavyDave]

I better go to the Fishermans Wharf and stock up on Grouper and Tiger Shrimp.

[AsburySkinsFan]

Nothing to see here continue on about your business...the world will survive....with or without us.....oh wait....

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

Look at the Chesapeake Bay. That's the future.

[757SeanTaylor21]

I like watchin whale wars cause they stop the over killing. I mean 1000 whales a year im sure their not even producin that much a year

[Vilandil Tasardur]

I despise whale wars, but not because they stop whaling.

This story is really quite sad. I firmly believe there will be a mass extinction over the next 1-2 millennia that could drastically alter how we live on earth.

[Destino]

The backward looking ideologies of the world will never allow a thing to be done about this until after the human impact is felt by populations deemed important.

[youngestson]

No kidding.

You just can't keep on scouring the oceans of the world year after year and expect them to regenerate. The world just does not work that way.

[Destino]

Look at the Chesapeake Bay. That's the future.

From: http://www.vdh.virginia.gov/epidemiology/DEE/PublicHealthToxicology/Advisories/index.htm

Feel free to click on the map and see how many fish you can't eat from Virginia's rivers!

As for the Chesapeake:

But clearly we need the EPA weakened and less strict pollution controls.

[Heisenberg]

Unfortunately you'll continue to have a lot of people like NavyDave cracking jokes about a serious article like this one.

[Vilandil Tasardur]

[oisn1]

I better go to the Fishermans Wharf and stock up on Grouper and Tiger Shrimp.

Yup enjoy it now, you're a little too old, but for me, my grand or great-grand kids may one day ask how those mythical fish tasted. But honestly, I got mine so screw the future, right ND?

[Skins24]

Look at the Chesapeake Bay. That's the future.

Yum!!

Crabs have made a huge comeback. (Oysters, nature's filters, too)

More crabs = bliss

Also, the Bay's health has improved. Even slight improvements show that it can be done.

[Riggo-toni]

I've stated in previous threads - for all the attention global warming gets, we're doing far worse much more rapidly and possibly irreparable damage to our oceans and water systems.

[Hubbs]

Sad. I actually credit ES - especially Peter - for making me more aware of environmental issues. I'm definitely worried about what the next century will bring. Hopefully we'll figure out ways to not only stop doing as much damage, but actually start making some positive changes. We already do a little bit of that with reforestation and such, but it's such a tiny fraction of all the bad we're doing.

[pjfootballer]

That looks like it's Russia and China's fault.

[Prosperity]

extinction from overfishing? we must be really good at fishing, I figured that overfishing would just lead to ridiculous price spikes that would allow repopulation (since fishing would not be profitable)

I'm more worried about all these dead zones from pollutants. Seafood is awesome, let's not ruin it

[Hubbs]

extinction from overfishing? we must be really good at fishing, I figured that overfishing would just lead to ridiculous price spikes that would allow repopulation (since fishing would not be profitable)

I'm more worried about all these dead zones from pollutants. Seafood is awesome, let's not ruin it

Hold on. Why would fishing not be profitable if fish were worth more?

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

This is a problem that really needs to be addressed at the global level. For example, Japan is playing a major role in the extinction of tuna in the Atlantic. Which is kind of crazy when you consider where Japan is located.

[Vilandil Tasardur]

Hold on. Why would fishing not be profitable if fish were worth more?

His theory was that if you over fish enough, then there aren't enough to make a living off of by fishing, thereby leading to a resurgence in their numbers.

The reason that doesn't work is because we don't live in a world where single fishermen go out to catch fish and sell them in a market. In a given market, the fish are from several key companies that do the fishing. When one fish gets to low numbers, they just move on to the next and then the next. People never go bankrupt or have to get out of the fishing business in real life because the companies are too large to fail if numbers dwindle; they will simply find another way to profit. We aren't talking about mom and pop fishermen here who will have to move on if there is nothing to catch.

Also, the theory doesn't address the environmental affects of several successive seasons in which the populations are scary low. It seems reasonable to saw "population will drop until they cannot be commercially fished and then rise back up." But you are forgetting that the period of time there where the population is low could lead to serious problems with the food chain.

[NavyDave]

Yup enjoy it now, you're a little too old, but for me, my grand or great-grand kids may one day ask how those mythical fish tasted. But honestly, I got mine so screw the future, right ND?

I never say screw the future. Liberals make it seem as though its only the USA's fault or that if only we stop our actions it will fix everything.

Now if we develop cloning technology that can quickly replenish the vanishing plankton and fish, we will see it called Franken Fish as people did with genetically altered grain (Franken Food) that we sent to 3rd world nations that would have fed refugee but made Europe look bad and take a hit financially for not selling grain at price gouging levels.

When we (as in the USA) can develop a means of oxygenating the dead zones in the oceans after the clean up, the next issue will be there are less things environmentally to snivel about.

Tofu bacon, Tofu shrimp and soybean burgers are the wave of the future.

---------- Post added June-21st-2011 at 12:35 PM ----------

This is a problem that really needs to be addressed at the global level. For example' date=' Japan is playing a major role in the extinction of tuna in the Atlantic. Which is kind of crazy when you consider where Japan is located.[/quote']

Haven't they ignored restrictions on overfishing for Tuna and ignored calls to stop Whaling?

[twa]

Heh

http://www.climate-resistance.org/2011/06/a-deep-sea-mystery.html

[Destino]

Heh

http://www.climate-resistance.org/2011/06/a-deep-sea-mystery.html

"heh" indeed. He wants only scientists to attend a meeting putting together a global report... because the people that actually fund the research, collect the research, formulate policy, and advocate aren't qualified. That's amazingly stupid.

[PeterMP]

Heh

http://www.climate-resistance.org/2011/06/a-deep-sea-mystery.html

Does anybody really doubt that the sea life is having major issues?

I mean I guess people can argue about how bad they thought things were before as to whether the decline is now shocking, but there's a lot of literature about the general idea that the oceans are in trouble.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/aug/14/pollution.endangeredhabitats

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=phytoplankton-population

http://www.physorg.com/news191605233.html

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20110526/ARTICLE/110529545/2055/NEWS?p=all&tc=pgall&tc=ar

[TradeTheBeal!]

I know I'm getting old and kinda cynical these days, but the way I see it is this. Humanity, as a whole, simply doesn't have the will and foresight to avoid causing it's own (near)extinction and the collateral extinction of many other species, we are simply too greedy and self-centered. Many of us like to talk a big game about moderation and conservation and future generations, myself included, but it's just mostly lip service. I truly believe that we will exhaust every resource, burn every tree, and consume every animal until there is nothing left or die trying. It's just what we are.