Sea Notes

The CIA Goes Green

The move toward green building is more than a distant dream. It's clearly a trend, on its way to becoming the norm in new construction.

Need evidence? Here's Exhibit A: The newest buildings housing the Central Intelligence Agency in northern Virgina are LEED silver- and gold-certified by the U.S. Green Building Council.

In addition to planting vegetation on the roof to slow storm runoff and reduce energy consumption, the structures use 20 percent recyled materials in their construction and waterless urinals in the restooms to reduce water consumption. The CIA is also promoting the use of public transportation, bicycles and carpooling.

Its first green buildings opened last year, and another is now under construction.

Each of these steps will reduce the carbon footprint of the office buildings, and keep pollutants out of rivers and streams. All of this is good for the health of the ocean.

So, add the CIA to the roster of green building advocates, a line-up that includes Wal-Mart (among many others).

Just up the road from us in Monterey, the new California Academy of Sciences building aims to be "the greenest museum on Earth."

Begs the question: What's stopping the rest of us from doing this much -- and more?

There'll be no o-toro tomoro'

We've been blogging a lot about bluefin tuna recently. Whether it's reports of mercury, or new data about bluefin populations, the bottom line is the same. We're fast running out of the ocean's lean supreme hunting machine. So there's good news from Europe, as major retailers announce their own boycott of Mediterranean-caught bluefin in attempt to draw attention to the overfishing crisis taking place in their backyard.

WWF is calling upon others to join the ban, until the situation is under control, with stricter annual limits set on the fishery. They were speaking out at the Seafood Choices Alliance annual Seafood Summit; a perfect platform to address industry leaders in the seafood arena, and especially those in Europe, as this year for the first time, the Summit is being held outside the U.S. in Barcelona, Spain.

Fishing for bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean may seem distant to us in the U.S., however, satellite tagging of these ocean voyagers show that they traverse the Atlantic ocean basin on a frequent basis, returning to the Med only to spawn. These same fish can be found spending their summers cruising the waters off the coast of North Carolina.

To learn more about the amazing migrations of bluefins in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, you can visit the Tag-A-Giant Foundation website, or the Tagging of Pacific Predators (TOPP) website.

Feebate, Anyone?

In the old days, it would have been called the carrot and the stick approach. Offer an incentive for doing the right thing, and impose a penalty for doing the wrong thing. If you're driving a donkey cart, it's a great way to get the donkey moving forward. If you're a parent, it works well to earn your kids' cooperation.

And if you're the state of California -- and you call it a "feebate" -- it might just be the ticket for weaning car buyers off their gas-guzzlers.

The State Assembly will vote this week on a bill that would impose a one-time surcharge of up to $2,500 on each gas-guzzling car registered with the Department of Motor Vehicles, and award a registration rebate of up to $2,500 for fuel-efficient cars.

Classic carrot and stick economics. Classic market-based incentive.

The bill (AB 493) was defeated in the Assembly last year when seven Los Angeles Democrats abstained under lobbying pressure from auto dealers -- who fear declining sales of less fuel-efficient vehicles.

But the re-introduced bill could go the other way this time because of public demands for action on climate change.

"We put 1.8 million vehicles a year on the road in California," Assemblyman Ira Ruskin (D-Redwood City), the bill's author, told the Los Angeles Times. "We have to find ways to get more clean cars on the road and more dirty cars off. There's no time to waste if we're to avoid the catastrophes ahead from global warming."

That includes catastrophic impacts on the ocean.

Ruskin drafted the bill with the help of the Union of Concerned Scientists. The legislation has now been endorsed by the San Jose Mercury News in an editorial, and by the Los Angeles Times.

If you're a Californian, there's still time to weigh in with your legislator.

Sad State of Salmon

Salmon may be identified most closely with the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, but these days California chinook salmon are caught by sport and commercial anglers from California to Puget Sound.

Change that "are" to "were" -- at least for 2008.

Today, a news report from The Associated Press documents an "unprecedented collapse" of the spawning population returning to rivers in the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys in California. That could mean severe restrictions on sport and commercial salmon fishing this year.

The report, based on an internal memo sent to members of the Pacific Fishery Management Council and obtained by The Associated Press, discloses that only 90,000 returning adult salmon were counted in the Central Valley in 2007, the second lowest number on record. The population was at 277,000 in 2006 and 804,000 five years ago.

That amounts to an 88 percent decline in the spawning population from the high five years ago.

Unspecified "ocean conditions" are cited as the culprit. Based on published research, climate change may underlie the less hospitable ocean conditions for salmon, compounding the impacts of dams and siltation on salmon habitat.

In his e-mail to council members, Donald McIsaac, the agency's executive director, said he wanted to give them "an early alert to what at this point appears to be an unprecedented collapse in the abundance of adult California Central Valley ... fall Chinook salmon stocks. The magnitude of the low abundance ... is such that the opening of all marine and freshwater fisheries impacting this important salmon stock will be questioned."

The agency's own press release details the situation further, and talks about options -- including widespread closures to fishing this season.

Wild-caught salmon from California, Oregon and Washington is currently listed as a "Good Alternative" by Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch program, the Blue Ocean Institute and other seafood rating organizations.

But you'll be finding fewer of those fish on menus and in markets -- and in the rivers along the Pacific coast.

It's another reason to take responsibility for reducing your own carbon footprint. A good place to start: get involved in one of the Focus the Nation teach-ins about climate change on Thursday, Jan. 31. There are more than 1,600 to choose from across the United States.

Monday's Photo: Seahorses

So many sea creatures excite the imagination, but few generate such a sense of delight as seahorses. The 34 known species vary from each other in many ways, and share many traits in common. They're fishes, (though they don't look like it), they're found in ocean waters around the world, they form faithful pairs -- and the dads get pregnant!

For all their charm, they also face threats -- chiefly because they're fished heavily to supply the market for traditional Asian medicines. Nearly 95 percent of all seahorses taken from the wild are sold as medicine. That adds up to 60 tons a year -- more than 20 million seahorses.

Fortunately, seahorses have some effective friends, notably the folks at Project Seahorse. They work around the world to conserve seahorses and their habitats while respecting people. By partnering with subsistence fishermen who catch seahorses for a living, they're creating fishing preserves and developing alternative ways for the fishing communities to make a living.

Part of Project Seahorse's work includes a photo contest, in which the image above of pygmy seahorses by Samuel Taylor was the grand prize winner and the smaller photo of a potbelly seahorse by Melissa Rushby was the second prize winner. Images like these help inspire a love for seahorses, and build support for the work of Project Seahorse.

If you're a seahorse fan, check out their site and support their work. You can also see seahorses in person at an aquarium near you (including Monterey Bay Aquarium when we re-open our Splash Zone family exhibit galleries on March 17).

Bad-News Bluefin

Atlantic bluefin tuna populations are being decimated, as we've talked about before. And the situation for bluefin elsewhere in the world isn't much better. That's why bluefin tuna is on the red list of the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch program -- and of nearly every other seafood advisory group, too.

Now comes another reason to skip the bluefin: It's potentially dangerous to your health. Marian Burros of the New York Times reported this week that tuna sushi sampled in New York City is laden with mercury, and eating it regularly will expose you to mercury at levels beyond what's deemed safe by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Administration. Ten of the 13 sushi samples the Times sent in for testing contained bluefin tuna.

'Nuff said. Take bluefin off the menu, and tell your sushi chef to stop serving bluefin and other "Avoid"-list seafood.

Photo by Tony Cenicola, New York Times

What has 8 arms and a potato head?

Answer: the giant pacific octopus at an aquarium in the U.K, who is making news across the pond this month due to his fascination with a new toy -- Mr. Potato Head, a Christmas gift which he now refuses to be parted from!

Many aquariums like to use puzzles and toys to enrich the lives of the more intellectual critters in their care. Octopus are known for their intelligence and willingness to be stimulated and engaged. At the Monterey Bay Aquarium we often use puzzles filled with food for our octopuses.

Question: Octopuses or octopi? If you are talking about more than one octopus of the same species, then it's octopuses. But different species - i.e. giant pacific and a two-spot, then it's octopi. Who knows how this kind of thing gets decided?

Click here to see a video of an octopus at the Baltimore Aquarium working with a number of objects, including Mr. Potato Head. Obviously a popular gift item this year!

Song of the Sea

We know that whales sing, and that their songs can be heard across ocean basins. Now it turns out that the ocean itself makes music.

New research published in the British journal Proceedings of the Royal Society document  the source of a "seismic hum" between the Labrador Sea and Iceland. It's a place where waves collide and send vibrations to the sea floor, creating a hum that can be detected thousands of miles away.

The paper about "microseisms" by Sharon Kedar of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California confirms an old prediction that oceans can be powerful generators of seismic activity, and reinforces work she had previously published in the journal Science.

According to a BBC report, the research team looked for a similar hotspot in the North Pacific, but found that the ocean column under stormy waters was too deep to show a similar effect.

Researchers hope that a better understanding of the music of our sphere generated by the waves will throw new light on everything from the rate at which aquifers recharge, to the strength of El Niño conditions or changes underground that may foreshadow earthquakes.

Stay tuned......

Friday's Featured Film: Revenge of the Sushi?

Admittedly, not about the ocean. Definitely not soul-stirring, though I suppose you could call it "sole-stirring." Thanks to the Washington Post for this item about a hot springs spa in Tokyo that offers a Dr. Fish pedicure and manicure.

"In a reversal of the food chain, the fish dine on you -- or at least parts of you," notes writer Andrea Sachs.

Of course, there's video on YouTube -- though perhaps not from the featured  Ooedo-Onsen-Monogatari spa. It appears from the number of clips posted online that Doctor Fish pedicures are all the rage in Asia, and in Turkey where the nibbling fish originate. (Serious note: The fish are used as a treatment for psoriasis, as well as beauty treatments.)

Andrea's writing is priceless, as is the video:

"In a culture where food and fashion seem straight out of science fiction, Doctor Fish is hardly extraordinary. Strangely enough, the spa's finned employees, which are imported from Turkey and are known scientifically as Garra rufa, have a taste for dry, flaking human skin. The fish act like living pumice stones, nibbling off the dead epidermis and leaving behind baby-smooth skin. (Thankfully, they don't have a piranha streak.)"

Indeed.

Of Pirates and Plunder

Today's pirates are after more than Spanish galleons and gold doubloons. The world's bounty of ocean fishes is falling prey to a global pirate fleet. And who pays the price? Ocean ecosystems and poor subsistence fishermen in the developing world.

A report by Elisabeth Rosenthal in Monday's International Herald Tribune documents the scale of the problem and the impacts pirate fleets are having in Africa.

"So much of fishing is motivated by consumer demand," said Rupert Howes, chief executive of the Marine Stewardship Council, a private global group, who is quoted in the article. "The world wants more seafood at a time when 50 percent of stocks are exploited as hard as we can and 25 percent overexploited. There is a real disconnect."

The result, according to Rosenthal's story:

"In Europe, the imbalance between supply and demand has led to a thriving illegal trade. About 50 percent of the fish sold in the EU originates in developing nations, and much of it is laundered like contraband, caught and shipped illegally beyond the limits of government quotas or treaties. It is a well-financed, sophisticated smuggling operation, carried out by large-scale mechanized fishing fleets able to sweep up more fish than ever, chasing threatened stocks from ocean to ocean."

Pirates are also sweeping Chilean sea bass (aka Patagonian toothfish) from the sea, as Bruce Knecht documented in his book Hooked: Pirates, Poaching and the Perfect Fish.

Threats like these underlie the work of the Marine Stewardship Council to certify sustainable wild fisheries that can meet some of the growing global demand for seafood. It's also the motivation for all the work of the aquarium's Seafood Watch program, and similar work by our many allies.

Because the impacts of wildlife depradation fall so heavily on the world's poor, one organization -- the Environmental Justice Foundation -- is working internationally just on just that dimension of the problem.

Together, let's see if we can sweep the pirates from the sea.