Hammerhead shark by Suneko

Shark Advocates International is giving a warm welcome to progress towards helping conserve sharks. This progress was made at the annual meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) this week.

There were a record number – six to be exact – proposals for shark measures, the parties of the ICCAT agreed to put a stop to the retention of oceanic whitetip sharks, prohibit exploiting of hammerheads, and set up a process for punishing countries who do not get with the program and accurately report catches and reduce fishing pressure on shortfin mako sharks. The proposals to stop the retention of abundant thresher and porbeagle sharks were thrown out as a measure to help ICCAT gain a stronger position to ban shark “finning” by prohibiting removing the fins of a shark at sea.

“ICCAT has taken significant steps toward safeguarding sharks this week, but much more must be done to effectively conserve this highly vulnerable species,” explained President of Shark Advocates International, Sonja Fordham, who serves on the US ICCAT Advisory Committee and has participated in ICCAT meetings since 2004. “We are particularly pleased with the agreements aimed at protecting oceanic whitetip sharks and reducing international trade in the fins of hammerhead sharks, as well as US efforts to conserve mako sharks.”

It’s good to see that progress is being made, and all parties involved are rather pleased that the meetings have gone so well so far. Hopefully, this means a better world for sharks.

White Snailfish

A brand new kind of fish has just been found in one of the dark “lifeless” areas of the ocean. It was previously thought that the area was devoid of fish, researchers say.

This new kind of snailfish was discovered making its home at an amazing depth of 7 kilometers, in the Peru-Chile trench in the South East Pacific.

Large groups of cusk-eels and rather large scavengers were also found making themselves at home at these depths, which is a scientific first, researchers added.

The discoveries, in some of the deepest darkest recesses of our planet, were made by a group of marine biologists hailing from the University of Aberdeen, in conjunction with experts from Japan and New Zealand.

The team set out on a 21 day voyage, during which they made use of various deep-sea imaging equipment to snap photos of the murky depths, some 4500 meters to an astounding 8 kilometers within the trench.

This voyage was the seventh such voyage as part of HADEEP, a research project cooked up by the boys over at the University of Aberdeen’s Ocean Lab and the University of Tokyo’s Ocean Research Institute, along with the backing of New Zealand’s National institute of Water and Atmospheric Research.

The use of the updated technology really gave researchers the boost they needed to discover this amazing find. Who knows what will be dredged up next? Science has been stale for such a long time, especially when you talk about the oceans, so it’s good to see some new discoveries being made right under our noses.

Great star coral (Montastraea cavernosa)

Researchers from the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology at the University and the Smithsonian have brought the first frozen Hawaiian coral bank into existence to try and prevent them from becoming extinct and to preserve their diverse population in Hawaii.

A faculty member over at the HIMB, and also a respected scientist with the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, Mary Hagedorn, is leading the lab at the HIMB research facilities on Coconut Island in Kaneohe Bay, Oahu, which is storing the frozen cells of the coral.

“Because frozen banked cells are viable, the frozen material can be thawed one, 50 or, in theory, even 1,000 years from now to restore a species or population,” explains Hagedorn. “In fact, some of the frozen sperm samples have already been thawed and used to fertilize coral eggs to produce developing coral larvae.”

Many people tend to forget that Coral reefs are living, dynamic ecosystems which afford precious services: They are the home to many offspring for marine animals and other invertebrates; they give natural protection from storms on the coasts; they take carbon dioxide out of our atmosphere; and they even might be sources for future medical wonders.

So, is it any wonder that it would be a good idea to keep them alive? By freezing them, we are saving them, and can keep them alive for up to 1,000 years. Think of all the wonderful things will be accomplished, by simply saving the coral.. Imagine if we had the same initiative when it came to everything?

BP

It has been over 3 weeks since BP has capped its spewing oil well. The skimming operations to help clean up the mess have all but ground to a halt, and researchers are saying that less than a third of the oil remains in the Gulf of Mexico.

That being the case, wildlife officials are finding more birds covered in the black sticky substance than ever. Fledgling birds are getting stuck in the viscous goo that is left behind after the cleanup efforts have passed on. Rescue workers are making initial visits to the rookeries they had initially avoided, lest they disturb the precious creatures during their nesting time.

What is really disturbing, is that before BP capped off their well on the 15th of July, an average of 37 birds were being pulled in dead or alive each day. Now, after the fact, that figure has doubled up to 71 per day. This information comes to us courtesy of a Times-Picayune review of the daily wildlife rescue reports.

The number of sea turtles discovered is even higher, with more of the poor things covered in the sticky black stuff being found in the last 10 days, than during the disaster’s first three months.

While the increase of oily turtles being found is still stumping researchers, the wildlife officials have said there are several things that could be contributing to the increase in the number of oiled birds being found since the leak was stopped.

Whatever the reasons, something has to be done about the situation, however, no efforts are being focused on that at this point in time.

How many fish species are there?

The first global census of life in the sea has logged some 230,000 species, however a ten year study on the subject performed by over 300 scientists warns of mass extinctions.

This ten year study has been the largest, most extensive study to attempt a stab at that age old question “Just how many fish are there in the sea?”

The ten year study, which was published today, is attempting to answer that question. It has analyzed the diversity, distribution and abundance of life in the world’s oceans. This study, dubbed The Census of Marine Life, hopes to give a ballpark estimate of the present marine life, and has estimated that there are more than 230,000 species living in our oceans.

“From coast to the open ocean, from the shallows to the deep, from little things like microbes to large things such as fish and whales,” explained Patricia Miloslavich of Universidad Simón Bolívar, Venezuela and co-senior scientist of the COML.
The study which was carried out also covers animals such as; crabs, plankton, birds, sponges, worms, squids, sharks and slugs.

Moe than 360 scientists from around the world got together and have spent the past ten years surveying 25 different regions, ranging from the Antarctic through the more temperate and tropical seas, to the Arctic, to attempt a head count of the different kinds of plants and animals.

The results of the study show that just about twenty percent of the marine species of the world are crustaceans such as lobsters, krill, barnacles, and crabs. Toss in Molluscs (such as squid and octopus) and fish (which include sharks) and that adds up to half of the number of species which are found in the oceans of the world.

The charismatic species often used in those ecological conservation campaigns – sea lions, turtles, whales and sea birds – make up less than 2% of the species in our world’s oceans.

Which is really interesting when you think about it.. We tend to only take notice of the species right on the surface, without really giving a second thought to those that dwell within the depths..

The surveys also pointed out the major areas of concern for the conservationist groups. “In every region, they’ve got the same story of a major collapse of what were usually very abundant fish stocks or crabs or crustaceans that are now only 5-10% of what they used to be,” explained Mark Costello of the Leigh Marine Laboratory, University of Auckland in New Zealand. “These are largely due to over-harvesting and poor management of those fisheries. That’s probably the biggest and most consistent threat to marine biodiversity around the world.”

The main threats that have been found up till now are; overfishing, degraded habitats, pollution and the arrival of invasive species. However, it was pointed out that more problems are on the horizon including; rising water temperatures, acidification thanks to global warming, and the expansion of areas unable to support life in the ocean.

Hopefully this survey will raise global awareness, and as a race, we can get together and start trying to preserve the abundant life, which is at the depths of our oceans.

The Lynx Nudibranch, known in scientific circles as Phidiana lynceus, is a rather interesting marine animal. It can be amazingly efficient at getting rid of hydroid pests, but it must have access to a continuous source of food. After this amazing sea creature digests the stinging hydroids, the Lynx Nudibranch is actually able to incorporate the eaten (and thus digested) hydroid nematocysts into its own set of spiked cerata, which it then turns around and uses it for its own protection.

It’s almost as if you were to eat a king cobra, and then somehow survived the ordeal, and then became deadly like the king cobra… Well, sort of but not really.. If you would like more information on the matter, there are many marine biologists who can explain the process to you.

Anyway the Lynx Nudibranch in question was recently captured on high definition video by Coral Morphologic. The video, placed on Vimeo’s HD Channel, shows the lynch nudibranch chowing down on hydroids on top of an oyster, known as Spondylus americanus.

The clip which was recently put up there by the crew over at Morphologic was so stunning it was given the honor of being among the best, and who can argue with that? Congratulations are in order all around.

The temperature of the ocean is key in determining just how productive and how much biodiversity there is in the ocean and also where it is.

There have been two separate studies in which researchers discovered that the ocean heating up has caused a massive decline in the amount of plant life in the ocean over the past 100 years. The studies also indicated that there is a link between the ambient temperature of the water of the ocean and the different patterns of marine biodiversity.

“We are just now understanding how deeply temperature affects ocean life,” explained Boris Worm, a biologist of Dalhousie University, and also co-author on both reports published in the July 28 edition of Nature. “It is not necessarily that increased temperature is destroying biodiversity, but we do know that a warmer ocean will look very different.”

In one of the studies performed which took a look at the historical amounts of algae concentrations over the last century, Worm and his associates have discovered that the rising temperatures of the oceans are directly related to the massive decline in marine algae, commonly know in scientific circles as phytoplankton. These phytoplankton also happen to be the base of the food chain for the ocean, and were responsible for creating oxygen on Earth.

The research seems to indicate that the marine algae has declined by about 40 percent since the 1950’s.
“I think that if this study holds up, it will be one of the biggest biological changes in recent times simply because of its scale,” explained Worm. “The ocean is two-thirds of the earth’s surface area, and because of the depth dimension it is probably 80 to 90 percent of the biosphere. Even the deep sea depends on phytoplankton production that rains down. On land, by contrast, there is only a very thin layer of production.”

The study focused on the phytoplankton is the first study to have looked at the changes over the past 100 years, on a global scale and using data from as far back as 1899. Some similar models have been made using the newly available data from satellites, however that data only goes back as far as 1979.

“One of the most important aspects of the new paper is that they’ve come up with the same answer but from a different approach than we saw from space,” explained Michael Behrenfeld, a marine biologist from Oregon State University. “I think that we should be concerned that this convergence of multiple approaches sees a reduction in the phytoplankton pigments as the ocean warms. If we continue to warm the climate we will probably see further reductions.”

So there you have it.. Global warming is having an adverse effect on our oceans.. I guess it’s time somebody stepped up to the plate to do something about it, however the issue has been ignored for so long, it might be very difficult to remedy the situation. Well, at least now there is solid “proof” that there is a problem, and it might finally provide the incentive needed for action to be taken.

Bowhead whales

No, they don’t need to take showers! Bowhead whales apparently have the ability to sniff the air!

This discovery could drastically change our theories on how baleen whales find their food, as researchers now have a sneaking suspicion that the bowhead whales actually sniff out swarms of krill, their main food source.

This discovery was made when scientists hacked open the body of a bowhead whale and noticed that there was olfactory receptors which linked to the nose and the brain.

Up until now, it was thought that whales, along with dolphins, had no sense of smell.

Professor Hans Thewissen, a Cetacean expert from the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine, and colleagues based in Alaska and Japan, stumbled upon this discovery while taking a gander at the size of the brain in bowhead whales.

The whales were reeled in as a part of the biannual Inupiat subsistence hunt, and Professor Thewissen’s team was granted permission to take a gander at the brain cavities, to figure out how much of the brain actually filled up the brain casing.

“Upon taking a brain out, I noticed that there were olfactory tracts, which, in other mammals, connect the brain to the nose,” Professor Thewissen explained, “I followed those to the nose, and noted that all the olfactory hardware is there.”

This really caught the scientists off guard.

“At first glance, it would appear that whales would not have much use for smell, since everything they are interested in is below the water,” Professor Thewissen explained, “Olfaction is, by definition, the reception of airborne molecules.”

He went on to explain that in most cetacean species which have been put under the microscope to date, which have mainly been whales with teeth like dolphins, sperm whales and orcas, the hardware needed for them to be able to smell was absent.
“Based on this most people assumed that no whale had a sense of smell.”

With a little more digging and prodding, and some extensive tests, it was confirmed that the discovery that the bowhead can indeed smell, is accurate.

Bowhead whales exhibit a large and developed olfactory bulb, which seems to be very similar in structure to the hardware other animals have which can also smell.

It was also discovered by researchers that the bowheads also have functional olfactory receptor proteins, and this is one quality that toothed whales are lacking. These receptors are what provide the biochemical infrastructure for them to be able to smell.
“It is remarkable that this animal, which appears to have very little use for olfaction, retained that sense,” Professor Thewissen said. “We speculate that they are actually able to smell krill and may use this to locate their prey. Krill smells like boiled cabbage.”

Also, unlike most other species of whale, the bowhead actually have separate nostrils, which leads scientists to think that they may be able to not only smell, but determine from which direction the smell is coming.

I guess this means the next time you go bowhead whale watching, remember to wear your deodorant.

Barnacles are capable of attaching themselves to virtually any underwater surface; from whale skin and turtle shells to ship hulls and pier structures. Just how they manage to keep themselves anchored has remained a mystery; a multimillion mystery since barnacles increase fuel consumption by adding additional drag to the submerged parts of marine vessels. Scientists knew that the barnacles used a type of glue, but they didn’t understand how it worked and why it was so strong.

Traditionally, toxic paint has been used to keep the barnacles away but dry-docking huge cargo ships every so often to have them repainted is naturally expensive. Also, the toxic paint is not only affecting the barnacles; it is causing problems for entire ecosystems and many countries have therefore decided to ban or limit the use of some of the most harmful ones.

Using modern techniques such as force microscopy and mass spectrometry, a team of scientists from Duke University’s Marine Laboratory in Durham has now managed to find out how barnacles stick to surfaces; a discovery which they hope will lead to the development of more environmentally friendly anti-barnacle remedies.

The research team unveiled that barnacle glue from the species Amphibalanus amphitrite binds together much the same way as red blood cells bind together when our blood clots. When our blood clot, several different enzymes work together to form protein fibres that bind the cells together. In barnacle glue, similar enzymes – known as trypsin-like serine proteases – do the same thing. Interestingly enough, one of these enzymes are remarkably similar to Factor XIII, and essential blood clotting agent present in human blood.

“We’ve found homologous enzymes in barnacles and humans, which serve the same function of clotting proteins underwater, despite roughly a billion years of evolutionary separation,” says research team member Dr Gary Dickinson.

Another team member, Professor Dan Rittschof, explains that this similarity does make evolutionary sense.

“Virtually no biochemical pathway is brand new. Everything is related and really important pathways are used over and over,” says Rittschof. “Really key parts of those pathways can’t change because if they do, the pathway fails and the animal dies.”

According to Dickinson, it wouldn’t be surprising to find this glue in other organisms besides the barnacles.

“The enzymes are highly conserved because they are very effective at what they do, ” says Dickinson. “There are bound to be a number of other organisms that use the same enzymes for the same purpose.”

For more information, read the article in The Journal of Experimental Biology.

http://jeb.biologists.org

Lack of iron is a limiting factor for plankton growth in many parts of the ocean, especially in the southern oceans and parts of the eastern Pacific. Scientists at the University of Leeds, UK, have now showed that acid in the atmosphere breaks down large particles of iron found in dust into small and highly soluble iron naonparticles; particles which can be easily absorbed and utilized by oceanic plankton.

Since plankton absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, more available iron could trigger increased movement of carbon dioxide from the air to the ocean.

“This could be a very important discovery because there’s only a very small amount of soluble iron in the ocean and if plankton use the iron nanoparticles formed in clouds then the whole flux of bioavailable iron to the oceans needs to be revised,” says Dr Zongbo Shi, lead author of the research from the School of Earth and Environment at the University of Leeds.

Polluting industries that causes a high degree of acidic particles to be present in clouds can therefore strangely enough simultaneously be combating global warming.

“Man made pollution adds more acid to the atmosphere and therefore may encourage the formation of more iron nanoparticles,” says Dr Shi.

“This process is happening in clouds all over the world, but there are particularly interesting
consequences for the oceans. What we have uncovered is a previously unknown source of
bioavailable iron that is being delivered to the Earth’s surface in precipitation,” says Professor Michael Krom, the principal investigator of the research, also at the University of Leeds.