The ocean is facing its greatest ever challenge - overfishing, pollution and climate change are all threatening the health of a resource on which the whole world depends.
The crew of this ship is on a mission to try and save one of the most endangered sea creatures on the planet.
They’re in the middle of a marine protected area in Mexico - a conservation zone where certain types of fishing are banned.
Local fishermen are poaching a species of fish that is so highly prized in China, they can make tens of thousands of dollars in just one night.
With ocean life under threat from overfishing, pollution and climate change, could marine protected areas be the answer?
Near the Mexican fishing town of San Felipe, on the The Upper Gulf of California...
Conservation group, Sea Shepherd is working with the authorities to help enforce a Marine Protected Area - or MPA.
A designated section of ocean to be conserved, managed and protected.
Maintaining rich, diverse ecosystems is key for the health of the Ocean - and ultimately the survival of humanity.
But ocean life is under threat.
From plants to micro-organisms and animals, species are disappearing forever.
Marine Biologist Patricia Gandolfo and the rest of the Sea Shepherd crew are here to stop poachers.
Caught up in the nets of the criminal gangs and local fishermen is one particularly rare porpoise - the Vaquita.
Worldwide there are thousands of sea species currently threatened with extinction.
Losing just one species from the food chain can have a disastrous effect on an entire ecosystem.
After it’s sold on, the Totoaba’s swim bladder can fetch up to $100,000 a kilo in China, where it’s prized for its medicinal properties.
Critics disapprove of Sea Shepherds use of direct-action tactics in some of their campaigns, but in the Gulf of California, their presence is welcomed by the Mexican government.
Globally, the fishing industry employs 260 million people, but many more subsistence fishermen depend on the ocean for their income.
Local fisherman here claim protecting the ocean has limited how they can fish, destroying their way of life. Yet doing nothing may ultimately present more of a threat to their livelihoods.
Currently Marine Protected Areas make up only 3.6% of the world’s ocean but a growing number of scientists are calling for 30% to be protected by 2030.
Cabo Pulmo now has a thriving eco-tourism and diving industry.
The environmental rewards provided by the MPA to the local community have been valued at millions of dollars a year - Far more than they ever made from fishing.
The ocean is facing its greatest ever challenge - overfishing, pollution and climate change are all threatening the health of a resource on which the whole world depends.
Marine protected areas can come in many forms.
But if they are to be effective, they must align the need for conservation with the needs of those who depend on the ocean for survival.
In order to avoid disaster–and to ensure a sustainable supply of fish for the future–far more of our ocean needs urgent protection.
From National Geographic by Christina Nunez
Climate change is being more keenly felt by the sea's cold-blooded creatures.
As the world's average temperatures creep higher, marine animals are far more vulnerable to extinctions than their earthbound counterparts, according to a new analysis of more than 400 cold-blooded species.
With fewer ways to seek refuge from warming, ocean-dwelling species are disappearing from their habitats at twice the rate of those on land, notes the research published Wednesday in the journal Nature.
The study, led by researchers from New Jersey's Rutgers University, is the first to compare the impacts of higher temperatures in the ocean and on land for a range of cold-blooded wildlife, from fish and mollusks to lizards and dragonflies.
While previous research has suggested warm-blooded animals are better at adapting to climate change than cold-blooded ones, this study punctuates the special risk for sea creatures.
As the oceans continue to absorb heat trapped in the atmosphere from carbon dioxide pollution, bringing waters to their warmest point in decades, undersea denizens don't have the luxury of ducking into a shady spot or a burrow.
"Marine animals live in an environment that, historically, hasn't changed temperature all that much," says Malin Pinsky, an ecologist and evolutionary biologist at Rutgers who led the research.
"It's a bit like ocean animals are driving a narrow mountain road with temperature cliffs on either side."
Narrow safety margins
The scientists calculated "thermal safety margins" for 88 marine and 318 terrestrial species, determining how much warming they can tolerate and how much exposure they have to those heat thresholds.
The safety margins were slimmest near the equator for ocean dwellers and near the midlatitudes on land.
For many, the heat is already too much.
At the warm edges of the marine species' ranges, the study found, more than half had disappeared from historical territory as a result of warming.
The rate for these local extinctions is twice that seen on land.
"These impacts are already happening. It's not some abstract future problem," Pinsky says.
The narrow safety margins for tropical marine animals, such as colorful damselfish and cardinalfish, average about 10 degrees Celsius.
"That sounds like a lot," Pinsky says, "but the key is that populations actually go extinct long before they experience 10 degrees of warming."
Even just a degree or half-degree boost, he adds, can lead to trouble finding food, reproducing, and other devastating effects.
While some species will be able to migrate to new territory, others—coral and sea anemones, for example—can't move and will simply go extinct.
Wider impact
"This is a really heavy hitting paper because it contributes hard data to support the long-standing assumption that marine systems have some of the highest vulnerabilities to climatic warming," says Sarah Diamond, an ecologist and assistant professor at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio who did not work on the paper.
"This is important because marine systems can get overlooked."
Most humans are landlubbers, after all—though many of our foods and jobs are tied to seaborne economies.
Pinsky points to species such as Atlantic halibut, winter flounder, and ocean quahog that have disappeared from historical habitats and are important to fisheries.
In addition to cutting the greenhouse gas emissions that are causing climate change, he says that stopping overfishing, rebuilding overfished populations, and limiting ocean habitat destruction could help address species loss.
"Setting up networks of marine protected areas that act as stepping stones as species move to higher latitudes," he adds, "could help them cope with climate change going forward."
Beyond the sea
The Rutgers study reflects how important it is to measure not just temperature changes but how they affect animals, says Alex Gunderson, an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Tulane University in New Orleans who did not work on the study.
And that includes those who live on the land.
"Land animals are at lower risk than marine animals only if they can find cool shaded spots to avoid direct sunlight and wait out extreme heat," Gunderson points out.
"The results of this study are a further wake-up call that we need to protect forests and other natural environments because of the temperature buffer that they provide wildlife in a warming world."
Links :
- BBC : Nature crisis: Humans 'threaten 1m species with extinction'
- The Guardian : The Guardian view on extinction: time to rebel / Stop eating fish. It’s the only way to save the life in our seas
- Smithsonian : One Million Species at Risk of Extinction, Threatening Human Communities Around the World, U.N. Report Warns
NPR : 1 Million Animal And Plant Species Are At Risk Of Extinction, U.N. Report Says
ReplyDelete