Sea Notes

Turtle Power

Two bits of good news for some of our favorite ocean creatures today.

 

We cheered with turtle supporters in the Gulf of Mexico at the news that longline fishing would be restricted there for at least six months. Longline fishing often results in bycatch – miles of baited hooks drifting in the open ocean catch more than just the fish they are targeting. Many loggerhead turtles which are protected under the Endangered Species Act have been caught in gulf waters in these longlines. Close to 1,000 turtles were hooked in 18 months, 799 were identified as loggerheads and more than 300 of the turtles were dead.

The decision was announced Thursday by the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council and was intended to give the Council and NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service time to formulate a long-term plan for the threatened loggerheads. It’s great news for the turtles and for the coalition of environmental group that spoke out on their behalf.

 

Leatherback turtles also gained allies this week in Australia, where officials changed the turtles’ classification from “threatened” to “endangered.” It’s unfortunate that these amazing ocean travelers are considered more at risk than ever, but Australian Environment Minister Peter Garrett is prepared to complement the “uplisting” with a “revised plan [that] would include more stringent measures” against illegally trapping the turtles – intentionally for their meat and eggs, or mistakenly in fishing gear. Leatherbacks make epic migrations – travelling across oceans from nesting sites to feeding and breeding waters.

 

If you love turtles but love to eat seafood too, you can make turtle-friendly choices at restaurants or fish counters by using the newly updated Seafood Watch pocket guides.

Suing the Belugas?

Can't help but steal a great headline from the New York Times editorial page, in its commentary on Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's lawsuit that would remove endangered species protection for beluga whales in Alaska's Cook Inlet. (You can see the belugas in this ABC Alaska News clip.)

The National Marine Fisheries Service extended protection to the population last October, noting that the population has not recovered from the impacts of past hunting. Pollution may also be a factor in the belugas' slow recovery.

It sounds like a situation similar to the plight of California's sea otters, which were hunted to the brink of extinction, finally given federal protection and whose population continues to recover more slowly than expected -- in part, perhaps, because of the impacts of coastal pollution.

The difference ? No one, least of all the governor of California, is suing to to overturn the federal protection sea otters enjoy. In fact, Californian's can donate to help protect sea otters through an income tax check-off option that was inspired by one legislator's visit to the sea otter exhibit here at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

In preparing to sue, Gov. Palin has challenged the science behind the listing, cited state efforts to help the belugas, and raised concerns about the possible impact the listing will have on economic development in Cook Inlet.

Not everyone agrees. The Anchorage Daily News quotes Craig Matkin, an Alaska marine mammal specialist with the North Gulf Oceanic Society:

"It seems the Palin administration only likes one kind of science -- the kind it agrees with. Every objective expert who's looked at this small and isolated (beluga) population agrees it should be listed."

Working Moms: Giant Octopus and Cuttlefish Both Lay Eggs

It may be the dead of winter, but for the Aquarium’s giant octopus and cuttlefish, it feels a little like spring. Both laid eggs in January, which are plainly visible to Aquarium visitors.

The giant octopus has deposited thousands of eggs, which look like small clusters of grapes, on the exhibit glass. In nature, the octopus will be very protective of these eggs for four to seven months, occasionally using its “siphon” to blow water on the eggs and keep them free of algae and debris, according to aquarist Adam Frantz.  

It’s unlikely that these particular eggs are fertile or will produce baby octopuses, however. This particular octopus has been at the Aquarium for almost a year, and it’s unlikely that she would hold onto a sperm packet for that long, or that the sperm packet would remain viable. The urge to lay eggs comes just once, and usually marks the end of the octopus’s life. It’s all part of the natural cycle for these magical and intelligent animals.

The cuttlefish, which are relatives of the octopus, were observed in courtship behavior in recent weeks, wrapping their “arms” around one another, according to aquarist Aaron Spotswood. Now pea-sized, white eggs can be seen on the bottom of the exhibit. Though baby cuttlefish have been raised in the Aquarium environment, these particular eggs are not thought to be viable. (If they were, a cuttlefish embryo would be visible through the translucent egg cases.) As with the octopus, the female cuttlefish’s egg-laying likely marks the end of her life. But for now, these chameleons of the deep are still happily flashing their colors for Aquarium visitors.

(If you're looking for still MORE information about octopuses, cuttlefish and their kin, check out our friends at Cephalopodcast, your blogging and podcast home for all things cephalopod.)

A Penguin's Best Friend

It’s well known that a dog will happily put his life on the line for his master. But now they’re playing the same protective role for a flock of endangered penguins in Australia.

 

The colony of fairy penguins on a south-coast Australian island has come under threat from predators such as foxes and wild dogs. Maremmas, a breed of Italian sheepdog, bond with the penguins and become part of the flock.

 

"We are now starting to see some great results," Middle Island Maremma Project manager Ian Fitzgibbons told Australia's AAP news agency. "We have had our best penguin count since we began in 2006 with over 80 birds counted in one night and I think we have about 26 chicks on the island too."

"We have seen the Maremmas barking when other animals come into the area," Fitzgibbon said. "And we have seen foxes visiting the area less frequently as a result of the Maremmas being on the island. They can smell them and sense that there's another dog on the island and they basically stay right away."

 

Just a few years ago, the penguin colony had been nearly decimated, falling from 5,000 to just 100 individuals.  

 

Even better, conservationists are now wondering if the conservation-minded canines can be enlisted to protect other species.

New hope for endangered species

There were two pieces of good news for our planet's endangered wildlife this week. As reported in The Economist, a group of scientists believe that the global extinction crisis may have been overstated. It had been predicted that up to 100 species a day could go extinct - half of all species in the lifetime of people now alive! Some scientists believe that this may not be the case. The downside, however, is that the lucky survivors are tiny tropical insects that few us know or care much about. The species that are being lost are the large birds, mammals and reptiles that conservationists and the rest of us were worried about in the first place. Still, good news is good news.

Last year, we asked our Ocean Action Team to take a stand, when the Bush Administration put forth a new proposal that sought to eliminate the requirement for independent scientific review of projects that could threaten endangered species. In addition, it also proposed that the Endangered Species Act could not be used as a tool to fight Climate Change. Just before leaving office, the Administration approved these changes to the legislation.

Fortunately, the new Administration has announced its intention to reverse this change. Sadly this will mean starting a new process, as the new rule took effect before January 20, but the House Natural Resources Committee is already on the charge! We'll be sure to watch how this goes and keep you informed. But thank you to all who took action on this important issue. On this occasion the voices of 250,000 members of the public were not enough to turn that tide last year, but fortunately, we were heard and the new tide is now turning.

Get on board

Adventurer, environmentalist and British millionaire David de Rothschild will be embarking on a unique voyage in April to draw attention to plastic trash in the Pacific Ocean and “raise awareness of the challenges our oceans and its inhabitants face.”

 

He has been consulting with boat designers and scientists in preparation for a 10,000 mile sailing trip from San Francisco to Sydney. The 60-foot catamaran (a boat with two hulls) “Plastiki” will be built mostly from recycled plastic bottles, and is also meant to be recycled when the journey is complete. A design challenge to be sure, considering the waves and weather the vessel will encounter. You can follow the preparations on his blog, hosted by National Geographic.

Along the way de Rothschild plans to cruise through the north Pacific gyre and get a close look at the Eastern Garbage Patch and other threatened habitats, and he hopes to have a satellite link so he can share his experiences in real time. He especially wants to engage young people, and his non-profit Adventure Ecology educates children about the environment of remote places around the globe. For company, he plans to invite a rotating crew of scientists, filmmakers and celebrities to see this remote part of the ocean, investigate the effects of pollution, and also “tell positive stories about communities who are learning alternative ways of creating income now that the fisheries have been closed due to over-fishing.”

It might just be crazy enough to work. We’ll stay tuned for more news from this eco-explorer!

Sea Change

 "We will restore science to its rightful place," said President Barack Obama in today's inaugural speech. Words that bring hope to the ocean science community, whose voice must now be heard if we are to bring about the necessary changes to halt the impacts of climate, overfishing, pollution and habitat damage to our oceans.

There has been some positive news on the science front this week for our oceans: the National Marine Fisheries Service just published its "annual catch limit rule". This rule creates a framework for fishery managers to establish annual catch limits, based on the best available science, in order to end overfishing in U.S. waters by 2011.

Last year, our Ocean Action Team and Aquarium visitors sent over 6,100 letters and postcards to the National Marine Fisheries Service asking them to support an end to overfishing in U.S. fisheries. This announcement represents an important step forward in U.S. fisheries management. We look forward to a successful implementation that can bring an end to overfishing.

A number of species on our Seafood Watch pocket guides are listed as avoid due to this issue. New 2009 pocket guides are now available, so be sure to download yours today to make ocean-friendly choices!

A whaley big meal

A few years ago, scientists at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) noticed a fuzzy coating on the skeletons of whales that had died and fallen to the sea floor. On closer examination, they found a whole new species of worm, that makes a living on expired whale bones.

Since that time, they have been astonished to find a number of different varieties of these "bone-eating" worms. The mystery was, how did they come to colonize the new fallen whales?

Some of these mysteries are now being revealed with the help of one our own husbandry staff, here at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Senior Aquarist Chad Widmer, who spends much of his time figuring out how to display new types of animals - especially jellies - has found ways to keep these worms in a laboratory setting. Chad explains, "I’ve been out several times with the MBARI group collecting bone eating worms.  Mainly I just want to pick through their trash because it is covered with jellyfish polyps! But I also figured out the husbandry requirements for keeping bone worms alive in captivity. In fact I developed the methods used by most bone worm researchers today. They used to be able to keep them for a week or two at the most.  And now they can keep them indefinitely."

The latest research "Queen of Decay" is editor's choice in this week's edition of Science magazine.

 

A Healing Act

Saving the oceans will take efforts on many fronts: big efforts by nations (like creating more marine protected areas), and countless small acts by individuals, whose collective impacts will make a difference.

That's why this story from the Los Angeles Times is so heartening. It's about a group of divers who banded together on Sunday to cut away parts of a fishing net enveloping a sunken trawler off Catalina Island. The net, which sank with the ship in 2006, is still snaring and killing sea life that comes to investigate the wreck.

Divers told the Times' Louis Sahagun they saw everything from sea lion skulls to the body of a shark trapped in the net.

"It's one of the spookiest things I've ever seen," dive organizer Kurt Lieber told Sahagun. (He founded the Ocean Defenders Alliance, a nonprofit marine conservation group based in Huntington Beach, and organized the clean-up effort.)

"It's a huge vessel encased in a net -- anything that swims into it gets trapped in its billows. The enormity of the task before us is daunting. We're making a little bit of difference today. But we have a long way to go."

Photos of the project by the Times' Bob Chamberlin show a multi-generational effort, with kids as young as 8 years old on deck, retrieving invertebrates and fishes from the net, then tossing the animals back into the ocean. (There's also video of the team at work.)

One day, one ship, one net. Now it's a bit less deadly to marine life today thanks to the determined efforts of one small group.

Are you doing something for the oceans today that can inspire others? You can share your story with a comment below. 

You can take action on lost and abandoned fishing gear on our website today. Let's help clear up these ghost fishing nets!

Is Madonna's Salmon Sustainable?

Seems that singer Madonna has embarked on a new health regime -- including a "retox" diet heavy on salmon in an effort to counteract the effects of aging. (She turned 50 last August.)

The unanswered question: Is the salmon wild-caught and sustainable? Or is she eating farmed salmon, a Red List species to Avoid, according to our Seafood Watch researchers?

We'll update if we learn more. If you have a conduit to Madonna, let her know that it's not helpful to improve her appearance at the expense of healthy oceans. Steer her toward our new iPhone seafood app, too.

Britney Spears might need Seafood Watch, too. She's also eating lots of salmon to stay trim, and her fondness for sushi includes unagi (on our Avoid list) and salmon skin roll.