Sea Notes

Saving Seahorses, Conserving Corals

Good news today for ocean wildlife, here at home in the United States and overseas in Cambodia.

In the U.S., Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced a new pilot program -- backed up with money -- to protect coral reefs in Puerto Rico from the impacts of sediment and nutrient runoff. Similar pilot projects are planned to protect reefs in Florida, Hawaii, the U.S. Virgin Islands and in Pacific Islands under U.S. jurisdiction.

The announcement came at a meeting of the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

A world away, Marine Conservation Cambodia is celebrating success in establishing the largest community managed marine area in the country to help restore habitat essential for Cambodia's rich marine life -- including seahorses.

As is true everywhere, community involvement is essential. So too is government action, and part of the success story is action by the Cambodian government to prohibit fishing for or trading of seahorses.

You don't have to go to Cambodia to help seahorses. If you're a California resident, go to our Take Action page and urge Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to support creation of marine protected areas in southern California that will protect essential habitat for many species, including Pacific seahorses.

A Sea of Hope

Time was when it didn't seem surprising that a river could catch fire because it was so polluted. And the idea that the Aral Sea -- once the fourth largest lake on the planet -- could dry up and blow away? It was unspeakably sad, but somehow not surprising.

Forty years after its most infamous fire, Ohio's Cuyahoga River is no longer the cesspool that burned 13 times over the course of a century. Today, says the New York Times, it is "a river reborn." Now the same thing is happening for the Aral Sea in Central Asia.

As Peter Leonard of Associated Press reports, there's again water in the vast inland sea, and the abundant fish it once produced are making a comeback. Migratory birds, too, are finding a home in its restored waters.

The picture's not a perfect one. While Kazakhstan is undertaking a recovery by diverting river water into the Aral Sea, neighboring Uzbekistan continues to channel the Aral's feeder rivers to irrigate its cotton fields. And it's exploring for oil and gas in the dry seabed rather than bringing back a lost ecosystem.

Still, half a sea is better than none. And the lessons of the Cuyahoga and the Aral highlight the potential for recovery in other waters -- if we give them half a chance. That's one reason we're working so hard to create marine protected areas in California's ocean waters, and around the nation.

 

The Hand of Man

Last week, during a talk about global climate change for staff at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, the speaker noted that there's not a single place left on Planet Earth that hasn't been touched in some way by human activities. 

Not one. The concept of pristine nature, apart from people, does not exist.

The point was driven home again on Friday by a new report published in the ournal Science affirming that people have had huge effects on marine wildlife for a long, long time.

Anthropologists from the University of Oregon and the Smithsonian Institution have documented big changes in coastal ecosystems around the world dating back to prehistoric times. Evidence highlights transformative changes everywhere from the Channel Islands of California to South Africa.

Some of the changes were good: Creating man-made structures along the coast that provided more habitat for shellfish, for example. Most were not. The anthropologists found that native people in the Channel Islands likely slaughtered enough sea otters to spark a dramatic increase in sea urchin populations. The evidence -- otter bones and urchin shells -- can be found in the kitchen middens left behind by coastal tribes.

Co-authors Torben C. Rick (Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History) and Jon Erlandson (University of Oregon) have written on the topic before. Erlandson also advanced the theory that settlement of the Americas was made possible because people settled the coasts and followed a "kelp highway" -- productive waters with abundant food.

Now it turns out they may have been systematically depleting those coastal waters. Erlandson argues that we need to understand the cascading ecosystem impacts from ancient times in order to know what it will take to preserve and restore coastal productivity today.

(You can read more here, courtesy of Cornelia Dean and the New York Times.)

New Ocean Protection for California's Coast

It's another great day for California's marine life! Around 5pm last night, the California Fish and Game Commission voted 3-2 to adopt a new network of Marine Protected Areas for the North Central Coast of California. As a result, 22 areas off the coast will now have some level of protection. With 13 of these sites designated as fully protected marine reserves, 11 percent of state coastal waters between Half Moon Bay and Mendocino County are now protected from fishing and other types of extraction.

The North Central Coast is the second California region to establish a network of Marine Protected Areas under the Marine Life Protection Act. By the end of 2012, it is anticipated that networks will be in place along the entire coast of California, setting an example to the world for ocean protection.

Thank you to all our ocean advocates. Together you submitted over 5,000 comments in support of the strongest possible protection for the North Central Coast.

However, we're not done yet! The process to select potential sites for protection is currently underway in Southern California. You can show your support at www.oceanaction.org.

Julie Packard: Obama's Big Blue Commitment

Monterey Bay Aquarium Executive Director Julie Packard's latest commentary for HuffingtonPost.com is live now.

Julie's got great things to say about President Obama's big blue commitment: his announced plan to begin crafting a coordinated national ocean policy. It's worth checking out!

Obama Takes Action for the Ocean!

Big day for the ocean! President Barack Obama created a federal task force to shape a coordinated national ocean policy. He gave it 180 days to report back with results.

Following in the steps of his predecessors, he also proclaimed June as National Oceans Month. All this comes at the conclusion of Capitol Hill Ocean Week -- a week during which a key piece of sea otter legislation cleared a significant hurdle.

Monday was World Oceans Day, so the timing could not be better.

You'll find all the details of the president's memo creating the ocean policy task force here. It explains the tremendous value that healthy oceans play in our lives, and outlines the grave threats the oceans face, from pollution and mismanaged fisheries to climate change.

The president directs the executive branch to develop "a unifying framework under a clear national policy, including a comprehensive, ecosystem-based framework for the long-term conservation and use of our resources."

Leading the interagency effort will be Nancy Sutley, who chairs the White House Council on Environmental Quality. She was formerly deputy mayor of Los Angeles for energy and environment, has a long record on environmental and natural resources policy, and has been expected to be a key player in shaping the Obama administration's policies on climate change and the environment.

Stay tuned as the recommendations move forward. It's a huge, huge step toward realizing the vision of two national ocean commissions for comprehensive ocean policy reform.

A Roadmap for Saving the Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is the largest on the planet. It's also beset by huge problems.

Now, at last, the scientific community is speaking with a single voice about the best ways to address the threats and preserve a healthy Pacific.

More than 400 leading scientists from nearly two-dozen countries have signed a consensus statement on the major threats facing the Pacific Ocean. The threats identified as the most serious and pervasive include overfishing, pollution, habitat destruction and climate change.

“This is first time the scientific community has come together in a single voice to express urgency over the environmental crisis facing the Pacific Ocean,” according to Meg Caldwell, executive director of the Center for Ocean Solutions, who will present the statement on Wednesday to government officials gathered at the World Ocean Conference 2009 in Manado, Indonesia.

In the consensus statement, the scientists warn that if left unchecked, the cumulative impacts of overfishing, pollution and habitat destruction—exacerbated by climate change—could have devastating consequences for coastal economies, food supplies, public health and political stability.

These threats affect all members of the Pacific Ocean community, said Stephen Palumbi, director of Stanford University’s Hopkins Marine Station and one of the principal organizers of the consensus statement.

Now, says Biliana Cicin-Sain, a professor of marine policy at the University of Delaware and coordinator of the Global Forum on Oceans, Coasts and Islands, Pacific nations have a roadmap by which they can chart "a new course of policy for the Pacific region."

The consensus statement was largely based on a synthesis of more than 3,400 scientific papers
on the threats and impacts to the Pacific prepared by the Monterey, Calif.-based Center for Ocean Solutions -- a collaboration among Stanford University, the Monterey Bay Aquarium and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute.

The center focuses on finding practical, enduring solutions to major challenges facing the oceans.

Julie Packard: The Untold Story of Climate Change

Julie Packard, our executive director at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, today posted the first of what we hope will be many commentaries for HuffingtonPost.com, the influential new media news site.

Julie's in Washington, DC, today as part of a team that's presenting recommendations to the Obama Administration on the best approaches to take to assure a future with healthy oceans.

The focus of her commentary is on what climate change is doing to the oceans, and what that means for ocean wildlife -- and for our own survival. The policies she's presenting with other members of two national ocean commissions include urgent action on climate change as central to U.S. ocean policy.

Let us know what you think -- and tell Julie, too, in the comments section at HuffingtonPost.com.

Seahorses!

Several seahorse items to share today. First, we're getting excited about the April 6 opening of "The Secret Lives of Seahorses" at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. The exhibit's really taking shape and guaranteed it's going to be fun to visit.

As part of the pre-opening activity, we launched a contest today in which a lucky winner and nine friends will enjoy a "Seahorse Soiree" in the exhibit. Details and a preview of "The Secret Lives of Seahorses" are available on our website. The contest ends April 30.

You can get deeper insights into lives of seahorses as a Facebook friend of Herbie Hippocampus, who's helping us share stories of seahorses -- from the inside.

The exhibit will feature amazing animals, including leafy sea dragons, dragon pipefish, ribbon pipehorses and potbelly seahorses, to name just a few.

It's also a place to learn what each of us can do to protect seahorses in the wild -- from choosing sustainable seafood (because seahorse habitat can be destroyed by thoughtless aquaculture developments and indiscriminate fishing practices) to supporting creation of marine protected areas that safeguard the coral reefs, mangrove forests and eelgrass beds where seahorses and their kin make their homes. California's only native seahorse, the Pacific seahorse, could benefit from this kind of protection.

We've also posted a new seahorse video on YouTube; check it out:

Blue Hope, Fish Crystals & Hot Algae

There are many places to find hope in a time when the dangers of rapid climate change are becoming all too evident.

One comes from marine explorer and advocate Sylvia Earle, a TED Prize-winner who issued a call for "ocean hope spots". She spoke eloquently about the ocean as "the blue heart of the planet" at the launch Monday of Google Ocean, and continues to advocate passionately to protect marine life.

Two others come in the form of new scientific insights that offer hope for the future of marine life -- and our own survival.

In the first case, researchers have documented that fish are pooping a LOT of calcium carbonate -- enough that they're a big player in maintaining a healthy chemical balance in the ocean. (The material, in the form of "gut rocks," is produced when fish absorb calcium as they ingest seawater,. The calcium is converted into calcium carbonate crystals in their gut. When the alkaline crystals are excreted, they buffer against ocean acidification and its ill effects.) Since the ocean is growing more acidic as it absorbs excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, the new finding -- published in the journal Science -- charts a course for addressing two threats at once. if we can keep fish populations abundant, the fish will help maintain a chemical balance that supports ocean life. And since we depend on the ocean for our oxygen and for food -- well, it's enlightened self-interest do all we can to keep that "blue heart" beating!

In the second case, a University of Miami researcher is looking for heat-resistant algae that might keep coral reefs from experiencing the deadly bleaching events that occur when corals expel their symbiotic algae when the seawater around them grows too warm. Warming seawater and coral bleaching events are linked to global warming.

It may not be a panacea, but some scientists think it could be a step in the right direction.