Tag: fish

Study: Rising Ocean Temperatures – 2 articles

Oceanographic Magazine discusses how rising ocean temperatures due to climate change may shrink the breathable ranges of marine animals.  For information regarding co-authors and to read the full study, “Metabolic trait diversity shapes marine biogeography,” click here.

The Guardian discusses Israel fish deaths linked to rapid warming of seas. Bacterial infection alongside speed of temperature rise may have triggered mortality, suggests study. The same pattern emerged in two earlier documented mass coral reef fish deaths in Kuwait Bay in 2001 and western Australia in 2011. Both were immediately preceded by rapid warming spikes, suggesting that the rapid onset of warming, regardless of the final temperature, might trigger widespread mortality, the researchers wrote in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

 

Study: Ocean warming has seafloor species headed in the wrong direction

Science Magazine discusses how ocean warming has seafloor species headed in the wrong direction.

As the world warms, many species of plant and animal will have to find new—often cooler—places to live. But things are trickier for sedentary marine creatures like snails, worms, and clams, according to a new study. It finds that in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean, many species are spawning earlier in the year, when currents take their larvae southward and into warmer waters—the wrong direction. For some of them, including the sand dollars beloved by beachcombers, this means their range is shrinking.

Overall, they found that the extent of possible habitat increased for most species; as the ocean warms, cooler waters in the north become more habitable for species that live farther south. Yet species’ actual ranges have shrunk by about 10% on average compared to the period spanning the 1950s to the 1980s, they report today in Nature Climate Change.

Study: Pink salmon could prosper in warmer Arctic

Alaska Public Media – NPR discusses how pink salmon could prosper in warmer Arctic, per a new study.

Scientists like to say that climate change is creating winners and losers in Alaska: Some species will struggle, while others could benefit from warmer habitats.

One of those climate change winners could be pink salmon in the Arctic, according to a new paper published by U.S. and Canadian scientists in a journal called Deep Sea Research Part II.

The study provides new evidence that global warming could produce higher numbers of pink salmon in the region, by making previously too-cold rivers and streams more hospitable for spawning.

Report: Plastics Are Messing with Fish Physiology

Hakai Magazine discusses how Plastics Are Messing with Fish Physiology. A systematic review exposes the dangers of tiny plastics and the hidden bias at the heart of plastic research.

The oceans are full of microplastics, yet scientists have a limited understanding of just how these tiny particles impact fish. Part of the issue is that plastic particles in the sea are often covered in microorganisms and chemical pollutants such as oil, and isolating plastic from these contaminants can be difficult.

Now, a systematic review of 46 research projects has assessed the toxicity of pristine plastics on fish, finding that the smallest plastics have the biggest impact, particularly when it comes to behavior and neurological functions.

In the new work, Hugo Jacob and Marc Besson, marine biologists at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Monaco, focused on studies of microplastics and nanoplastics smaller than 0.1 micrometers in size. The scientists analyzed research that examined the impacts of feeding uncontaminated plastic to fish, noting in particular how the plastics affected their biological functions and systems.

Advance of Russian oil could mean death to life in great Arctic bay

The Barents Observer discusses how the advance of Russian oil could mean death to life in great Arctic bay. The unprecedented development of petroleum resources in and around the shallow waters of the Ob Bay threatens a unique ecosystem.

The Arctic summer season is short and there is plenty of drilling,  digging and construction works to be done before ice again covers these far northern waters. The Gulf of Ob has over the last years become centerpiece in the Russian oil industry’s drive towards the North.

The extensive development of the area could have fatal consequences for marine life, and environmentalists now sound the alarm. They especially fear that ongoing dredging ultimately could eliminate rare local fish stocks.

Milne Ice Shelf Ecosystem, We Hardly Knew Ye

Hakai Magazine discusses the collapse of the Milne Ice Shelf ecosystem. When the last of the Arctic’s ice shelves collapsed in early August, it took a newly discovered ecosystem with it.

The Milne Ice Shelf contained startling secrets that were just beginning to be discovered. In early August, the floating glacier, flowing out of the northern tip of the northernmost island in Canada, lost nearly half of its area in just two days, taking a recently discovered community of creatures with it.

The ice shelf held back the last epishelf lake in the northern hemisphere. That ecosystem—an isolated body of fresh water floating on top of the sea and trapped behind the ice—had been part of a long-term monitoring effort and may have survived the shelf’s collapse, although researchers won’t know for sure until next summer.

The ROV came back with video of an unbelievable assortment of creatures living inside the chamber: soft corals, brittle stars, polychaete worms, sea anemones, hydroids, even an Arctic cod swimming above mud-flecked blue ice. All that life was found in just the 30 square meters they were able to explore. Other measurements showed fresh water was getting in somehow; likely, Muller says, fed by the enigmatic epishelf lake farther inland.

3 articles on Alaska mining and oil extraction’s horrific effects

CNN discusses why it’s a bizarre time for Trump to open Alaska’s Arctic refuge up to oil drilling. The world is swimming in excess oil. Crude prices are weak. Oil companies are starving for cash. And climate change fears are palpable. It’s a bizarre time for the Trump administration to move forward with controversial plans to open Alaska’s pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge up to drilling. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt predicted Monday that the administration’s oil and gas leasing program in Alaska’s Coastal Plain could “create thousands of jobs” and mark a new chapter in American energy independence.

Bill McKibben, in The New Yorker, discusses how, in Alaska, Trump doubles down on environmental vandalism.

Rolling Stone discusses Trump’s ransacking of Alaska. Inside the fight to protect Bristol Bay and the Tongass National Forest — the biggest wild salmon run on Earth and the largest intact temperate rainforest on the planet.

 

2 articles on the problems facing salmon.

The Narwhal discusses how the Yukon River salmon count comes up 20,000 short, halting First Nations fisheries. Warming, disease and high waters blamed for disappearance of thousands of Chinook salmon that entered river in Alaska but never made it across Yukon border. Almost 20,000 Chinook salmon expected to cross the Alaska border into Yukon this summer likely won’t make it — a situation that has prompted an advisory committee to urge nearly all First Nations in the territory to refrain from fishing the species for the rest of the year.

Reuters discusses how Alaska’s salmon are shrinking, and climate change may be to blame. Alaska’s highly prized salmon – a favorite of seafood lovers the world over – are getting smaller, and climate change is a suspected culprit, a new study reported, documenting a trend that may pose a risk to a valuable fishery, indigenous people and wildlife. The study, led by University of Alaska at Fairbanks (UAF) scientists, found that four of Alaska’s five wild salmon species have shrunk in average fish size over the past six decades, with stunted growth becoming more pronounced since 2010. [No study link provided.]

The muddy waters of US ocean protection

The Daily Climate discusses the muddy waters of US ocean protection. The century began with a great deal of optimism around marine protected areas as tools to protect the oceans. Two decades later, conservation goals and fishing interests remain at odds.

More than half of the United States is underwater: a sunken landscape of canyons, volcanic ranges, coral reefs, and kelp forests.

That’s been true since 1983, when then-President Reagan proclaimed national sovereignty over the ocean within 200 miles of the coastline, and banned foreign fishing fleets from fishing them.

The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, which provides guidelines for the management of U.S. fisheries by eight regional councils, aims to protect species from overfishing so the U.S. can derive the maximum economic benefit from them year to year. That mandate doesn’t always fit with conservation goals, which are pursued through a matrix of federal agencies and programs that work with, and sometimes parallel to, the Magnuson-Stevens Act.

Rising water temperatures threaten fish populations

The Durango Herald discusses how rising water temperatures threaten fish populations. Drought, lower flows pose serious challenges to aquatic life in Southwest Colorado.

With rising temperatures and prolonged drought, Southwest Colorado’s rivers and streams are increasingly running lower and warmer, creating an uncertain future for fish and other aquatic life.

“Fish don’t sweat,” said Jim White, an aquatic biologist with Colorado Parks and Wildlife. “So if you’re a cold water fish, and the water temperature keeps rising on you, you don’t have a lot of options to cool off.”