This was a sobering week for anyone who cares about the oceans, and ocean wildlife. And certainly, it was a week of wake-up calls for anyone in denial about the cumulative effects of climate change on the health of our ocean planet.
The week also brought new evidence to light supporting the concerns raised by Seafood Watch and other environmental seafood watchdogs about the impacts that salmon farming are having on wild salmon populations.
You can't put a cheerful face on the news, but it should strengthen our resolve to do all that we can to make a difference for the future of the oceans. So, to begin:
Papers presented at the American Geophysical Union annual meeting in San Francisco warned of dire threats facing the Arctic and the world's tropical coral reefs. Authors of both of the papers used the phrase "canary in a coal mine" to describe imminent threats with planetary consequences.
"The Arctic is screaming," said Mark Serreze, senior scientist at the U.S. government's National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo. in warning that accelerated melting of summer sea ice could indicate a tipping point in global warming. Summer sea ice could vanish in as few as five years, scientists fear.
In a second paper, tropical researchers from around the world said that rising ocean temperatures and acidification of the oceans could mean the destruction of the world's coral reefs by 2050
"Coral reefs are, in a sense, a canary in the mineshaft," said Peter Sale, a Canadian coral expert and co-author of the paper in Science magazine. "Coral reefs are going to have a very slim chance of surviving the next 100 years and that means we're talking about the effective elimination of a whole ecosystem from the planet."
The third piece of dark news related not to climate change but to efforts to replace wild-caught seafood with fish farms -- in this case, salmon farms off the Canadian coast.
In a paper published in Science, scientists found that wild pink salmon whose migration routes take them past salmon farms in British Columbia are being wiped out by sea lice -- a parasite carried by farmed salmon in vast pens along the coast.
Pink salmon, the smallest and most abundant of the Pacific species, are particularly vulnerable because of their size, scientists concluded. Theirs is the first study to look at large populations of salmon and to show that the lice, more than a nuisance, are destroying entire river habitats that rely on the species.
So, what to do?
Certainly, pick up and use Seafood Watch pocket guides; and consider becoming a Seafood Watch advocate, or a member of the Ocean Action Team at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
Absolutely, take a look at your own carbon footprint and begin treading more lightly. There is some good news on this front, as even holiday lights displays are being converted to lower-energy LEDs. It's a small step, but an essential one.
And, as we blogged recently, estimates are that the United States and other developed countries can make significant energy savings without the need for new technology or dramatic changes in our way of life.
If ever there was a time to stand up and speak out, this is the time.
First, researchers from Stanford University and the Carnegie Institution for Science believe there's potential to use abandoned agricultural land to grow crops for conversion into biofuel -- easing the energy crunch without worsening the world food shortage or contributing to global warming.
In a week when Nobel Prize-winner Al Gore issued a challenge for the United States to to convert 100 percent of its energy production to green sources within a decade, these were all positive signs.
