Very Important Study to Be Published in Science Tomorrow

Photo: Boris Worm (Credit: Danny Abriel, Dalhousie University)

Thu Jul 30 12:40:45 2009 Pacific Time

Scientists Document Prospects for Recovery of Fisheries, Call for More Global Action

SANTA BARBARA, Calif., July 30 (AScribe Newswire) -- Scientists have joined forces in a groundbreaking assessment on the status of marine fisheries and ecosystems. The two-year study, based at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and led by Boris Worm of Dalhousie University and Ray Hilborn of the University of Washington, included an international team of 19 co-authors. It shows that steps taken to curb overfishing are beginning to succeed in five of the 10 large marine ecosystems that they examined. The paper, which appears in the July 31 issue of the journal Science, provides new hope for rebuilding troubled fisheries.

The study had two goals: to examine current trends in fish abundance and exploitation rates (the proportion of fish taken out of the sea) and to identify which tools managers have applied in their efforts to rebuild depleted fish stocks. The work is a significant leap forward because it reveals that the rate of fishing has been reduced in several regions around the world, resulting in some stock recovery. Moreover, it bolsters the case that sound management can contribute to the rebuilding of fisheries elsewhere.

Click here to read the full article.

Fumbling Towards Becoming a Scientific Diver Superhero

Sunset at Bamfield Marine Science Center

Note: Below are the field notes and pictures from Sarah Klain, a Masters student at the University of British Columbia who took part in some field research at Tofino and Bamfield this summer. While Sarah's story takes place away from the North Island, I thought that I would post anyway - I am sure there are North Islanders who can relate to her diving experiences. Thanks for sharing Sarah!
Story and photos: credit Sarah Klain.

Sea otters, a native species on the west coast of Vancouver Island, will likely re-colonize Barkley Sound in the next decade. I’m part of a UBC research team to study how kelp forest ecosystems will likely be transformed when otters, with their voracious appetites for urchins and shellfish, expand their range. Our study will also include how fisheries, recreation on the water and cultural values may change as sea otters become more abundant. Enticed by the adventure of diving in BC, I plunged into joining this team.

During the frenzy of field work, sleeping in meant rolling out of bed at 7:01 am, squeezing into four layers of long-underwear bottoms and five layers of fleece tops, downing rocket fuel coffee, scarfing cereal, and walk-skidding down the steep gravely hill to the Bamfield Marine Science Center dock by 7:29.

Fearless Leader Rebecca Martone

I slacked that morning relative to others on the dive team. The project leader Becca had been up for two hours preparing. Stefan, a fervent fishermen,had jigged for rockfish for his master’s research since before dawn and the never-complaining always-working field assistants Sarah and Jocelyn had already loaded half the tanks onto the dive boat. With quasi-bulging and too quickly tiring biceps, I lamely attempted to make up for my late arrival by carrying air tanks to the boat two at a time. After tanks, we loaded dive gear. Each of us had our personal pile of equipment necessary to dive and ward off hypothermia when immersed in the chilly waters of West Vancouver Island. Forgetting a single item-- hood, mask, BC, regulator, dry suit, dry gloves, booties, nearly 40 pounds of weights or fins --would forfeit the dive. Becca’s caffeinated brain checked items off as she counted and double-checked equipment, printed data sheets, lugged gear, and completed the myriad tasks necessary to get a team of five divers, including herself, into the water for kelp forest and rocky reef surveys.

Equipment for Surveys

The muffled drone of the motor en route to the Barkley Sound study site provided needed respite from the bustle of preparing the boat. When we reached the dive site, it was constantly apparent that I had only recently completed my scientific dive course. Fumbling with everything, I had trouble dressing myself. I needed help zipping my dry suit. I pressed my self-inflate button on my drysuit only to realize I had forgotten to fasten the essential dry suit hose. I relied on others to fix my mask under my hood and help me pull on my tight dry gloves over the rigid plastic collars around my wrists. Feeling like a toddler, I swallowed any pride in trying to be self-sufficient and relied on the team to make sure I would be able to breathe underwater and stay mostly dry (water trickled down my neck when looking around too eagerly). With our broad shouldered black drysuits, we were a team of undersea ninjas. Laden with the gear that engulfed our bodies, we resembled futuristic astronaut superheroes, perhaps sketched in a comic book predating space travel.

Superhero Dive Ninjas?

My awkwardness was relieved when I descended at the edge of my known universe since this was my first dive in a kelp forest full of species I had only recently studied in books. Drifting downwards while hearing only the sound of my bubbly breath relieved the weight of self-consciousness about my morning tardiness, newness to scientific diving, worries about forgetting gear and anxiety over learning over 40 species too slowly. While underwater, my tension mostly dissolved as I recorded and measured species while reveling in the colorful riot of life that surrounded and at times entangled me. Bull kelp and giant kelp wrapped around my legs, arms, and hoses while I swam through the undersea forests. Just like a Chinese finger trap, the more I struggled, the more ensnared I became. Sometimes I resorted to cutting myself free with the dive knife that contributed to the superhero look. Usually extraction only required calmness as the surge often gently disentangled the fronds if I stopped fighting the kelp and focused on my survey.

Red Urchin

Our surveys of kelp forests and rocky reefs will answer questions about the cast of undersea characters (biodiversity) and the roles they play (food web structure). The lead characters in the motley crew of Barkley Sound include kelp and spiny red urchins that actually range in color from deep purples to pink. Sculpins, fish that resemble curmudgeony old men, made eyes at us. Striped and textured sea stars, kelp, algae, elegantly feathered and multi-colored sea slugs called nudibranchs, crabs, abalone, rockfish and more filled thequadrats (squares) and transects (lines) that we surveyed. Our research involved identifying, counting and measuring plants as well as animals, particularly commercially harvested species, to compare sites with and without sea otters.

Sea star collection cooler

After completing the dive surveys, I progressed from feeling like a toddler to a young child. I could understand the foreign sounding Latin names of species and stutter a handful of them myself. I advanced from my what-have-I-forgotten fretting over personal gear to helping with group equipment. Perhaps, after a few thousand more dive surveys, I’ll advance to superhero scientific diver status.

Collecting specimens from kelp forests

This integrative project, spearheaded by Kai Chan and Russell Markel, involves several investigators including Chris Harley, Jon Shurin, Evgeny Pakhomov, Rebecca Martone and Anne Salomon.

Vermilion sea star

CNN Report: coral almost as genetically complex as humans

Bubblegum Coral: NOAA

Over the past few weeks our office has been abuzz with talk of corals, as our very own Jennifer, Dorthea, and John team up with world-renowned scientists to embark on the Finding Coral Expedition on the Pacific North Coast. I came across an interesting article published by CNN last week about the genetic complexity of corals. Corals have been in existence for so long, and yet we still know relatively little about them. The research that Dr. Weis and her colleagues are doing is useful in helping us understand the importance of these interesting creatures and why they must be protected.1

May 29, 2009 (CNN) -- Advances in the study of coral in the last few years has led a group of scientists to conclude that corals almost rival humans in their genetic complexity and their relationship to algae is key to their survival.

"We've known for some time the general functioning of corals and the problems they are facing from climate change," said Virginia Weis, a professor of zoology at Oregon State University and an author of a report published in the journal Science.

"But until just recently, much less has been known about their fundamental biology, genome structure and internal communication. Only when we really understand how their physiology works will we know if they can adapt to climate changes, or ways that we might help."

The study found that corals have sophisticated systems of biological communication that are being stressed by global change. Disruptions to these communication systems, particularly between coral and the algae that live within their bodies are the underlying cause of the coral bleaching and collapse of coral reef ecosystems around the world, say the report's authors.

Corals have been a highly successful life form for 250 million years. They are tiny animals and polyps that exist as genetically identical individuals, and can eat, defend themselves and kill plankton for food. In the process they also secrete calcium carbonate that becomes the basis for an external skeleton on which they sit.

These calcified deposits can grow to enormous sizes over long periods of time and form coral reefs -- one of the world's most productive ecosystems, which can harbor more than 4,000 species of fish and many other marine life forms.

But corals are not self-sufficient, say the authors of the report.

Within their bodies they harbor highly productive algae -- a form of marine plant life -- that can "fix" carbon, use the energy of the sun to conduct photosynthesis and produce sugars.

What scientists are learning, however, is that this relationship between corals and algae is also based on a delicate communication process from the algae to the coral, telling it that the algae belong there, and that everything is fine. Otherwise the corals would treat the algae as a parasite or invader and attempt to kill it.

"Even though the coral depends on the algae for much of its food, it may be largely unaware of its presence," said Weis. "We now believe that this is what's happening when the water warms or something else stresses the coral -- the communication from the algae to the coral breaks down, the all-is-well message doesn't get through, the algae essentially comes out of hiding and faces an immune response from the coral."

The predicted acidification of the oceans in the next century is expected to decrease coral calcification rates by 50 percent and promote the dissolving of coral skeletons, the researchers noted in their report.

Some estimates have suggested 20 percent of the world's coral reefs are already dead and an additional 24 percent are gravely threatened.


1. Heather's note - It is important to note the distinction between the corals that we are studying and the corals that Weis studied in this article, as deep sea corals are not dependent on algae like shallow water corals are. The direct citation of Weis' article in science is as follows:
What Determines Coral Health?
Weis and Allemand
Science 29 May 2009: 1153-1155
DOI: 10.1126/science.1172540

Name a New Jellyfish Species

Image Credit: Marijke Wilhelmus

I don't want to fill this blog solely with stories of jellyfish, but I couldn't resist telling all you scientists and scientist-wannabes about this great opportunity. You could have the chance to create a new species name for the bonaire banded box jellyfish pictured above.

Visit the Year of Science site to learn about the jellyfish and to read the specific naming guidelines. Then, be inventive and submit your suggestion for a name by June 14. Once the species name is selected, it will be used in data banks, encyclopedias, and scholarly articles. Just think: you could ingrain your brainchild into academic thought forevermore. And you didn't even have to get a PhD to do it!

Good luck!

Ecosystem Based Management

Ecosystem-based management is an environmental management approach that recognizes the many interactions within an ecosystem, including humans, rather than considering single issues, species, or ecosystem services in isolation. (Christensen et al. 1996, McLeod et al. 2005)

EBM was initially applied to terrestrial space; but in recent years, there has been increased interest in EBM for management of marine space as well. If you are just learning about EBM, you might be able to benefit from the EBM Roadmap tool, developed by the Ecosystem Based Management Tools Network.

This Roadmap provides information that will help to answer questions about what it really means to take an ecosystem-based management (EBM) approach; how your organization can help move EBM from concept to implementation; and how you can contribute to EBM as part of your work. The website also offers opportunities for further reading, if you just can't get enough of EBM.



Christensen, N. L., A. Bartuska, J. H. Brown, S. Carpenter, C. D'Antonio, R. Francis, J. F. Franklin, J. A. MacMahon, R. F. Noss, D. J. Parsons, C. H. Peterson, M. G. Turner, and R. G. Moodmansee. 1996. The report of the Ecological Society of America Committee on the scientific basis for ecosystem management. Ecological Applications. 6:665-691

McLeod, K. L., J. Lubchenco, S. R. Palumbi, and A. A. Rosenberg. 2005. Scientific Consensus Statement on Marine Ecosystem-Based Management. Signed by 221 academic scientists and policy experts with relevant expertise and published by the Communication Partnership for Science and the Sea

Giant Blue Whales are Back on the West Coast!

The first known migration of giant blue whales from the coast of California to areas off British Columbia and the Gulf of Alaska since commercial whaling ended in 1965 has been documented by marine mammal scientists.

A blue whale spouts off Moresby Island, British Columbia. Photo by: John Calambokidis, Cascadia Research Collective.

In all the years that I have been, “messing about in boats,” from the Gulf Islands to Alaska, I have seen most of the marine mammals that frequent our coast, including close encounters(not intentionally!) with grey whales, humpbacks and orcas, but I've never seen a blue whale.

Researchers from Cascadia Research Collective in Washington, NOAA's Southwest Fisheries Science Center in California, and Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans used the blue whale’s distinctive pigmentation patterns of their skin color and the shape of the dorsal fin to positively match individuals seen in the north Pacific with those off of California.

Researchers identified individual blue whales by the shapes of their small dorsal fins. (Photo by John Calambokidis courtesy Cascadia Research Collective)

Reaching lengths of nearly 100 feet, the blue whale is the largest animal on Earth today and the largest known to have ever existed.

They were nearly hunted to extinction throughout the world and are currently listed as endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, the Canadian Species at Risk Act, and on the authoritative IUCN Red List.

During the early 1900s in the North Pacific and along the West Coast as far south as Baja California, blue whales were nearly wiped out during commercial whaling activities. Because they were the largest whales, blue whales were a prime target for whalers.

John Calambokidis of the Cascadia Research Collective, who has a long history of blue whale research, said of this study, "We document 15 blue whale sightings off British Columbia and in the Gulf of Alaska made since 1997, and use identification photographs to show that whales in these areas are currently part of the California feeding population."

The scientists are still not certain why blue whales are now beginning to migrate from southern California to the North Pacific Ocean, although changing ocean conditions may have shifted their primary food source of krill further north.

Living between 70 and 80 years, blue whales reproduce every two or three years. There are an estimated 5,000 to 12,000 animals surviving today, with the largest population of approximately 2,000 off the U.S. West Coast.

Click here to view the research paper, "Insights into the population structure of blue whales in the Eastern North Pacific from recent sightings and photographic identification."

On a similar note click here to see one of the first underwater videos of a blue whale calf in the waters off Puerto Rico.

Robotic Fish to Study Pollution

Click here to watch a video of a robotic fish that has been developed to monitor water pollution. This WiFi and GPS-equipped fish can integrate and swim with schools of real fish.
Lets hope that if this fish swims in the open ocean, it will be able to avoid predators, as I am sure technology like this doesn't come cheap!

So, Vern, Whatever Happened to those Rivers Inlet Sockeye

I moved from Rivers Inlet to Sointula in 1993 and even today I’m often stopped on the dock or at the Co-op store where someone invariably asks me, “So what happened to the Rivers Inlet (or Smith Inlet) sockeye, Vern?” This always leads to an interesting discussion as to the cause of the collapse of one of the largest sockeye runs on the B.C. coast. The fishing heritage of Sointula has been involved with the salmon runs in Rivers Inlet for generations, just as the Wuikinuxv people have relied on the sockeye arriving literally at the door step of their longhouses for some nine thousand years.

Since 1996 there have been only thousands of sockeye returning instead of hundreds of thousands.

http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=51.669984,-127.32588&z=10&t=h&hl=en

The link above will get you to a Google image of Rivers Inlet and the foot of Owikeno Lake.

A number of causes for the decline of sockeye salmon in this seemingly pristine fjord have been put forward. Overfishing, logging around the larger spawning streams in Owikeno Lake and varying ocean conditions due to changes in climate might have all played a role in causing the stock to collapse. What is even more alarming is that after the complete closure of the sockeye commercial fishery in 1995 the stock failed to rebuild.

Most of the commercial salmon fishermen that I’ve spoken with have not been up to Rivers Inlet for over a decade now and have often asked if anything is being done to determine the cause of the collapse of a once very productive fishery.

There are people working diligently in Rivers and Smiths to try and figure out why the sockeye returns have declined so precipitously.

The Rivers and Smith Salmon Ecosystems Planning Society was formed to bring together different parties and interests to pursue the common goal of stewardship for salmon and their ecosystems. www.rsseps.ca

Recent studies by Rick Routledge and his team of graduate students from SFU along with members of the Wuikinuxv and Gwa’sala-‘Nakwaxda’xw Nations are trying to figure out through a combination of traditional knowledge and science why the salmon have all-but-disappeared from this region. Their studies have focused on early marine survival of sockeye. Evidence so far seems to indicate increased mortality in the early marine phase of the sockeye life cycle as one of the reasons for the decline of the Rivers Inlet sockeye population.

http://www.stat.sfu.ca/~routledg/rivers.htm

It’s all a matter of timing.

When Owikeno Lake sockeye smolts, which are usually about half the size/weight of other nursery lake smolts, emigrate downstream to the inlet it is critical for them to grow quickly before heading out to the open ocean. If they are lucky, when they emerge from the Wannock River they will encounter a bloom of zooplankton (in turn fed by a phytoplankton bloom) comprised of mussel and barnacle larvae and other tiny crustaceans. However, if there has been heavy fresh water discharge from the Wannock resulting in an extensive layer of nutrient-poor, sometimes glacially turbid lake water covering much of the inlet, then the smolts will be under fed and under size by the time they migrate to the open ocean.

To substantiate and extend these preliminary findings, the current ecosystem will have a focus on understanding the driving forces of spring-summer plankton productivity.

Further studies on the whole Owikeno Lake/Rivers Inlet ecosystem are planned and valuable financial assistance has been provided by the Tula Foundation.

http://www.tula.ca/RESEARCH/coastalecology.html

For most people, the enduring mystery of salmon is their epic struggle upriver as they fight to spawn and continue the life cycle. But for those who study salmon in the ocean, who harvest salmon and whose ancient cultures still rely on salmon to this day the ocean biology of Pacific salmon is equally grand and considerably more mysterious. Answering some of the questions about what salmon do in the ocean and why they are motivated to do so may also be of considerable importance to maintaining the health of our fisheries, particularly given recent sharp downturns in ocean survival for most salmon stocks in southern BC.

Coral Coldwater and the Finding Coral Expedition!

I am excited to announce that on June 8, 2009, Living Oceans Society will launch the Finding Coral Expedition. On this expedition, a blue-ribbon team of scientists will dive in mini subs to explore the dark depths of Canada’s Pacific in search of some of the most important, yet poorly-understood, organisms in the ocean: deep sea corals.

When most people think of corals, they think of tropical coral reefs. Recently, however, scientists have realized that there are vast amounts of coral growing in cold, dark waters away from the tropics. The deep sea waters off of the coast of British Columbia have these deep sea corals, which are known to provide critical support for many other marine species.

You can join the expedition on Facebook by adding Coral Coldwater (our unofficial expedition mascot) as your friend. Through Coral, you can follow the expedition’s progress - plus learn more about the trials and tribulations of a single, middle-aged deep sea coral just trying to make a go of it in the increasingly difficult world of the deep sea.

You can add Coral as your friend and after becoming friends with her, please invite your other Facebook friends to join the Finding Coral Expedition by adding Coral Coldwater as their friend too. Then, together, we will set out on the sea and search the darkest depths of Canada’s Pacific until we find Coral.

Living Oceans Society is working with Fisheries and Oceans Canada to develop strategies and policies to protect critically important ecosystem features like deep sea corals. However, these strategies and policies won’t be of much use if we don’t even know where those corals are, and what roles they play in the marine ecosystem. Living Oceans Society has spent the past five years asking the government to protect deep sea corals, with little success. This is why we’ve decided to take the initiative by jump-starting deep sea coral research.

Another mathematical look at ocean life

For you math-junkies who just couldn't get enough of Margaret Wertheim's depiction of corals as a mathematical model, check out this recent article by Jorge Picado that provides a mathematical description of seashells and snails.

WWF Releases Results of a Planning Participation Study

Last week, the World Wildlife Fund released the results from a marine planning / community preparedness survey it took last summer and fall in the North Coast communities of Prince Rupert, Terrace, Haida Gwaii and Kitimat. While this survey was not taken in our Northern Vancouver Island communities, the questions that were asked in the survey are very relevant to our experience on the coast as well. The survey results showed that people on the coast usually have very direct linkages to the ocean environment:
"Nearly half of all respondents (48 per cent) said they depend on the marine environment for work while 53 per cent indicated that the ocean is a significant source of food and 65 per cent indicated that it is an important recreation resource. A further 58 per cent said that the marine environment plays a vital role in their cultural traditions and even more so (67 per cent) in family traditions." 1

Another interesting finding from this research is that while 65% of the respondents indicated that they have been involved in a marine planning or consultation processes in the past, only a quarter of them agreed that this involvement had been a positive experience.

While Mike Ambach of WWF in Prince Rupert says that this survey was not specifically designed to fit in with PNCIMA, I do hope that WWF will be able to find some synergy between the two. Most of the concerns brought up by coastal residents in this survey, such as declining fish stocks, climate change, and poor fisheries management could be addressed with an inclusive PNCIMA process.

Have you taken part in marine planning consultations before? Was it a positive experience? What are your suggestions for Fisheries and Oceans Canada as it begins the PNCIMA consultation and planning process?

Carbon Dating of Deep-Sea Corals

New research from Lawrence Livermore, Stanford University, and the University of California at Santa Cruz has determined that deep-sea corals off the coast of Hawaii are much older than previously assumed. In fact, this new research shows that deep-sea corals might be the oldest living marine organism in the world.

Gerardia (gold) coral (Photo: NOAA Hawaiian Undersea Research Lab)

Most significantly, the researchers found samples of Leiopathes sp., or deep-water black coral, that dated as old as 4,265 years. They also found samples of Gerardia sp., or gold coral, that were dated at up to 2,742 years old. This research was published in the early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA.

We have many deep-sea corals and sponges here on the Pacific North Coast, but like in Hawaii, our corals are threatened by harmful fishing practices, such as bottom trawling, that destroy the ocean floor. Deep-sea corals are also threatened by natural and man made changes in surface ocean conditions - such as ocean acidification and changing ocean temperatures.

Reference: E. Brendan Roark, Thomas P. Guilderson, Robert B. Dunbar, Stewart J. Fallon, and David A. Mucciarone. Extreme longevity in proteinaceous deep-sea corals. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2009; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0810875106

The Coolest Deep Sea Fish Ever...

... according to me.

Just when I think that the ocean can't amaze me any more than it already has, it goes and does it again:

http://www.youtube.com/user/MBARIvideo

Check out this video made by the Monterey Bay Aquarium.


This deep sea fish, called the barreleye, or macropina microstoma, "has extremely light-sensitive eyes that can rotate within a transparent, fluid-filled shield on its head. The fish's tubular eyes are capped by bright green lenses. The eyes point upward [...] when the fish is looking for food overhead. They point forward when the fish is feeding. The two spots above the fish's mouth are olfactory organs called nares, which are analogous to human nostrils." 1

Corals : When is it appropriate to harvest them?

Recent news releases have announced the discovery of new chemicals in corals that function as antibiotics for microorganisms. As our bodies become increasingly more resistant to traditional antibiotics, the antibiotics derived from corals may begin to take the place of our usual pharmaceuticals. Experts are also saying that in addition to potentially providing new antibiotics, corals may also help scientists to develop ways to make older drugs more effective. This is important news because over the years, doctors have been warning patients of the potential long-term dangers of relying too heavily on antibiotics to fix ailments and illnesses that don't require the drugs. (Anyone seen the "Not All Bugs Need Drugs" TV commercials running lately?)

While this is very exciting news for science and human health, I am a little hesitant to sing these findings from the mountaintops just yet. I have some reservations about harvesting drugs from corals, and perhaps this is simply because I don't have enough scientific information about the subject. How are these chemicals harvested from coral? Does the harvesting of corals for drugs damage the marine ecosystem? Is there current regulation of who should and should not have access to the harvesting of corals? How can we ensure that pharmaceutical companies also have a stake in a healthy ocean environment?

Perhaps this is, in fact, a win-win situation for all. Many coral conservation organizations, such as, Too Precious to Wear, highlight the antibiotic-producing capability of coral as an important reason why we should preserve coral in its natural environment and not incorporate natural coral as a part of our wardrobe or in our home decorations. A quick search of the internet did not show this issue to be too highly contentious or polarized: most of the articles that I came across were positive and hopeful.

How to you feel about using corals to develop pharmaceuticals? Is this is a good thing or a bad thing? Do you have any news or journal articles on this topic that you would be able to share?

Comments are welcome!

Pacific Ocean Shelf Tracking Project

A POST Scientist checks the growth of a tagged salmon smolt

Photo Credit: POST Photo Gallery [www.postcoml.org]

The Pacific Ocean Shelf Tracking Project (POST) is a resource for "tracking the movement and estimated survival of marine animals along the West Coast of North America, using acoustic transmitters implanted in a variety of species, and a series of receivers running in lines across the continental shelf."1 POST began its tracking work in 2001, focusing specifically on finding out what happens to salmon when they leave the rivers and enter the ocean. Today, with additional funders, POST has expanded from just studying salmon migration to tracking a vast array of marine life on the West Coast.

An acoustic unit is deployed. Each unit is equipped with a yellow flotation device, white acoustic modem, and black acoustic receiver. Photo Credit: POST Photo Gallery [www.postcoml.org]

Tools such as the Pacific Ocean Shelf Tracking project are helpful in understanding key aspects of the biology of marine species and our oceans. When I look at POST from a marine planning perspective, I am reminded that our entire ecosystem is important to planning; and that fresh water systems are indeed quite connected to the rest of the ocean.

To learn more about POST, and to watch an informative video about how it works, visit: http://www.postcoml.org/

Fossils

A fossil found on a highway construction site near Courtenay has been identified as an 80-million year old ancestor of the current-day vampryoteuthis, better known as the Vampire Squid. This recently-discovered specimen, now known as nanaimoteuthis jeletzkyi, garnered the attention of marine fossil experts around the world, including Dr. Kazushige Tanabe at the University of Tokyo in Japan.

Rick Ross, the Comox man who discovered the fossil and co-wrote a paper about it with Dr. Tanabe, will be giving a lecture tomorrow night (February 19) at the Courtenay Museum at 7 pm. If you're in the neighbourhood, you should check it out!

Read more about the fossil here. And check out this BBC clip of the modern-day Vampire Squid:

Sounds of the Sea

When I am reveling in peace and quiet on a boat in the middle of the ocean on a calm day, or alone on a strip of beach, it is easy to forget how loud the ocean actually is. The other day, I stumbled upon a pretty neat educational tool that I thought I would share: the University of Rhode Island's Audio Gallery for Discovery of Sound in the Sea. Just click on the species of your choice, and prepare to be amazed.

Whale Wonder - Tubercles

photo credit: J.G. Brouwer

Whale encounters are always awe inspiring. Folks from afar flock here for such opportunities provided by local whale watching companies. Fishermen often have whale encounters that provide a pleasant pause to a long days work. Unfortunately, some encounters are less rewarding.
I have had many pleasurable encounters but will never forget the morning when I ran offshore from Langara Island in the pre-dawn night to be on the spot for some prime time chinook fishing. I sat steering while sipping coffee and tying hoochies. With one red eye on the sounder and the other on the radar screen during the hour + run out from the harbour, there didn't appear to be much of interest in the darkness. As dawn began to break I slowed the boat to trolling speed, woke up the crew and headed outside to the cockpit to set my gear. Behind my boat the flat calm ocean looked like a pot of oatmeal boiling in honey as the spouts of more sleeping humpback whales that I could count spread back to a horizon being set afire by the rising sun. That encounter was enhanced by the knowledge that not many people would ever be fortunate enough to have a whale watching experience like that. By the time my sleepy crew hit the deck, the sun was up and the whales were spreading out and beginning to sound for their breakfast. The magic of the moment had passed.
Part of my astonishment comes from wondering about these creatures; their anatomy and biology. I was reminded of my encounter and am now even more astonished by these leviathans after coming across this interesting bit of information from Dr. Frank Fish about why a humpback's flipper is shaped the way it is. Check for yourself at; http://www.rexresearch.com/whalewing/whalewing.htm

Shark Fin - The Ivory of the Sea

The Year of the Ox is upon us! The Chinese New Year festivities began this year on January 26 and will run all the way to February 15. Vancouver is a city that is well known for its large Chinese population and for its yearly Chinese New Year celebrations. But one part of these celebrations that we could all do without? Shark Fin Soup.

This "delicacy" is essentially a chicken or pork-based broth mixed with dried shark fin cartilage. Apparently shark fin does not have a flavor, and is just used in soup for the texture. Costing anywhere from $30 to $300 a bowl (depending on the type of shark, the location served, and which source I choose to quote), to some, eating or serving this soup is a symbol of wealth and prestige. To others, this soup is seen to have health benefits. While shark fin soup is consumed year round by those rich enough to afford it, it is mainly seen as a celebratory or ceremonial dish - often served at marriages, New Year celebrations, and other important gatherings.

Shark finning is a particularly crude, cruel, and wasteful practice that usually involves slicing off the fin and throwing the rest of the live shark back in the ocean, leaving this magnificent predator to die a slow and painful death.



In addition to the unacceptable cruelty inflicted upon sharks through the extraction of their fins, academics are concerned that the practice of shark finning is also utterly devastating to our ocean ecosystem.* In light of all the bad media that shark finning has gotten in the past couple of years (ABC News, CNN, BBC, and Sharkwater to mention just a few of the outlets covering this issue...), it is amazing that shark finning and the serving of shark fin soup in restaurants is not yet banned worldwide.

In 2007, the Food Network showed the Iron Chef Japan 'shark fin' episode, complete with American commentators oohhing and ahhhing over the prestige and the price of this featured ingredient. Shark fin soup is still served in at least 15 restaurants in Vancouver, and just this year, the Canadian supermarket chain Loblaws marketed a shark fin soup for the 2009 Chinese New Year crowd. (The product was pulled from the shelf just days after its release, due to the massive public outcry.)

Killing sharks for their fins is just like killing a grizzly bear for its gallbladder, or an elephant for its tusks. So why don't we treat it as such?



*[Brierly, Andrew S. "Fisheries Ecology: Hunger for Shark Fin Soup Drives Clam Chowder off the Menu", Current Biology, Vol. 17, No. 14. (17 July 2007), pp. R555-R557]
[Myers et al. "Cascading Effects of the Loss of Apex Predatory Sharks from a Coastal Ocean", Science 30 March 2007: 1846-1850]