A sea change: how one small island showed us how to save our oceans

A community effort involving thousands of volunteers keeps the Isle of Man’s beaches plastic-free.
Photograph: Neil Farrin

From The Guardian by Sandra Laville

In just 10 years, the Isle of Man has rid its beaches of plastic and earned Unesco status as a world leader in ocean protection.
So how did it do it?

Standing on a windswept beach on the north-west coast of the Isle of Man, Bill Dale looked out on to plastic bottles, cartons and packaging forming a thick carpet covering the shingle.
It was 2007, the global plastic binge was already well under way, but the millions of tonnes of waste seeping into the oceans as a consequence had not reached the public consciousness.
“I was with a friend and we thought, ‘Let’s just clean up this one beach.’
We had no idea then of the scale of the problem.”

It took six weekends, working long hours, to collect all the plastic litter.
“We shifted 30,000 plastic bottles and large pieces of plastic,” said Dale.
“You would pick one piece up, and underneath was another and another in layers.
Some of the stuff went back 20 years.”

 Isle of Man with the GeoGarage platform (UKHO chart)

Today, as Dale stands outside an Edwardian summerhouse in the west of the island at Niarbyl bay, he believes Manx beaches are the cleanest in Europe.
But the regular sweeps of the 100-mile coastline, conducted by his charity Beach Buddies, are just one facet of the island’s approach to ocean protection that makes it a global leader.

In the charity’s visitors’ book, alongside comments from schoolchildren, teachers and parents, there is a signature that stands out: that of Dr Han Qunli, a senior figure within the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco).
It was after his visit that the Isle of Man joined the likes of Mauritius, Menorca, Jeju in South Korea and Noosa in Australia in being singled out for a commitment to protecting and enhancing the coastal environment and biodiversity.

The Isle of Man does not have its own energy supply and imports natural gas from Europe

picture CROGGA

The island’s determination to protect the coastal environment from the multiple threats of plastic pollution, climate change and overfishing has earned it the status of a Unesco biosphere region, designated because it is an outstanding example of a place where people and nature work in harmony.
It is the only entire island jurisdiction to be granted the status.

One indication of the islanders’ commitment to a better marine environment is the numbers that turn out for Beach Buddies.
It has attracted 10,000 volunteers over the years – 12% of the Manx population.
Dale said: “We have kids who come with their schools to do a beach clean, then tell their parents: ‘Dad, I want to go and do a beach clean on Saturday,’ and they bring their parents here.
These beaches are virtually self-cleaning now.”

For marine biologist Dr Fiona Gell, who grew up on the Isle of Man, the grim reality of what is happening to the world’s oceans is all too familiar.
She has spent her life studying the damage being done to the sea’s flora and fauna, and has seen first-hand the devastation that means just 13% of the world’s oceans are untouched by the impact of humanity’s footprint.

Now a marine scientist at the Department for Environment, Food and Agriculture in the Isle of Man government, she heralds the steps being taken on the island as proof that all is not entirely lost.

In 2011, there were just two protected marine areas in the seas off the island.
But in the past seven years Gell and her team have been instrumental in throwing a protective ring around the island, increasing the number of marine protected areas to 10, which cover 50% of the inshore waters.
From the Calf of Man, a tiny island off the south coast where seals sunbathe on the rocks and basking sharks swim in the summer, to Ramsey Bay in the north, these marine nature reserves restrict trawling and dredging by fishermen and other damaging activities, in order to protect sealife habitats.

Looking out over Ramsey Bay, which in 2011 became a marine nature reserve covering 94 sq km, Gell points out the location of seagrass beds, horse mussel reefs and maerl beds that are once again thriving.
“Seagrass has declined globally in a really scary way, particularly in the UK, since the 1920s,” said Gell.
“It looks like a green meadow under the sea and has a really high level of carbon storage.
It is also really important for juvenile scallops.”

The Calf of Man, a small island on the Isle of Man’s south west coast, where seals sunbathe on the rocks and basking sharks swim.

 The Calf of Man island with the GeoGarage platform (UKHO chart)

Each marine feature being protected and enhanced by the reserve creates diverse habitats that allow scallops, juvenile cod, lobster and other fish to thrive.
And while in many areas the fishing industry finds itself at loggerheads with environmentalists, fishing businesses on the Isle of Man – which fish for king and queen scallops, brown crab, lobster and whelk – have been involved in drawing up the protective marine belt around the island, even if some had to be heavily persuaded at first of the case for the protection zone.

Dr David Beard, chief executive of the Manx Fish Producers Organisation, is also a marine biologist.
“Back in 2009, Ramsey Bay had been overfished, there was very little stock left in there and the industry volunteered that area to be closed for a period of time,” he said.

“It was an important source of both king and queen scallops from a value point of view and because the whole area supplies the spats [young scallops] to other areas in the Irish sea it affects the recruitment of the other stocks.”

The bay encompasses one of the most restricted fishing areas in the coastal waters, where dredging or trawling for scallops is banned throughout the year, except for two weeks before Christmas when up to 30 boats are allowed to go out.
Each year the fishermen carry out a stock survey, so by the time they are allowed to fish they know the location of the highest quantities of scallops.

“They get the highest value for the least impact,” said Beard.
“It is a very low-carbon action because they know where to go and they are allowed to trawl for 20 minutes maximum, and it means there is less impact on the seabed.
The fishermen know that if they destroy the seabed by overfishing you prevent the spat from settling, so you destroy the fishing, and it is a vicious circle.”

Gell has been instrumental in trying to bring the public and fishing industry along with the conservation efforts.
“We are trying not to impose from the top,” she said.
“Each marine protected area comes from a lot of engagement with the local people.
We go out all over the island to villages and towns and hold stakeholder meetings, with maps to discuss why an area needs to be protected, and to involve people and bring them onboard.
It is a slow process but when I look back to 2008 and see what we have achieved I think it shows that people working together in communities can make a difference.
“We have to stay optimistic. From my experience here over the past 10 years, I think we have shown people can get involved in a real community approach and can make a change.”

Isle of Man firm wins permission to search seabed for gas and oil (see BBC)

The area where surveys will be carried out spans 266 sq km (165 sq mile) 
(Block 112/25, also called the "Crogga Field" is the area the company has the licence to search)
image via Crogga

As one of 52 Unesco island and coastal biosphere areas, the Isle of Man is focusing now with partners in Menorca, the Maldives, the Philippines and other islands on eliminating single-use plastic from their shores.

If that eventually puts Bill Dale out of a job, he could not be happier.

Links :

• BBC : Isle of Man 'not complacent' about climate change
• Isle of man : New Marine Nature Reserves go live / Oil and gas exploration licence awarded
• Isle of Man today : Gas extraction from Manx seas could be good for the Isle of Man's bank balance - but will it do environmental damage?

Sir Robin Knox-Johnston: a force of nature

It's 50 years since Sir Robin Knox-Johnston sailed non-stop around the world.

To mark this unique anniversary, Sir Robin talks to Neil Sackley about his epic voyage and why he did it.

Hybrids

Hybrids - Film from HYBRIDS
When marine wildlife has to adapt to the pollution surrounding it, the rules of survival change.  

Ancient Black Sea shipwreck is unprecedented discovery

 An ancient Greek trading ship dating back more than 2,400 years has been found virtually intact at the bottom of the Black Sea, the world's oldest known shipwreck, researchers say.

From National Geographic by Kristin Romey

Archaeologists say the 2,400-year-old ship is so well preserved that even the mast and rowers' benches have survived for millennia.

Archaeologists are heralding the discovery of an unusually intact ancient shipwreck, found more than a mile below the surface of the Black Sea off of the Bulgarian coast.
The 2,400-year-old wooden vessel features elements of ship construction, including the mast and rowing benches, that until now have not been preserved on ships of this age.

The Black Sea is considered to be one of the world’s finest under water laboratories due to the anoxic (un-oxygenated) layer which preserves artefacts better than any other marine environment.

(Read more about the Black Sea Maritime Archaeology Project.)

 The 23-metre (75ft) vessel, thought to be ancient Greek, was discovered with its mast, rudders and rowing benches all present and correct just over a mile below the surface, off the coast of Bulgaria
GeoGarage platform (NGA chart)

An announcement of the discovery, made by the Black Sea Maritime Archaeology Project (MAP), first appeared in the Guardian.
MAP has discovered more than 60 historic shipwrecks during a three-year survey of the Black Sea.
(See more shipwrecks discovered by the Black Sea Maritime Archaeology Project.)

The 75-foot-long ship, documented by a Remote Operated Vehicle (ROV) equipped with cameras, appears similar to merchant vessels depicted on ancient Greek vases.

The 'Siren Vase' showing Odysseus at the mast.

The Trustees of the British Museum

A small piece of the wreck was raised and radiocarbon dated to around the fifth century B.C., a time when Greek city-states were frequently trading between the Mediterranean and their colonies along the Black Sea coast.

Black Sea MAP Maritime Archaeology Project documentary footage

While older intact sailing vessels have been recovered from Egyptian burial sites on land, it is unusual for submerged ancient wrecks to be preserved so well.
The unique preservation of the 2,400-year-old ship is due to the unusual water chemistry of the Black Sea and the lack of oxygen below 600 feet.
This anoxic layer, which makes up nearly 90 percent of the sea’s volume, prevents physical and chemical processes that cause organic decay to take place.

For anyone who prefers their #archaeology in a spin. Same wreck, different view, still amazing. @BlackSeaMAP @ISBSArchaeology @RPachecoRuizSea @felix_pedrotti #Roman #shipwreck pic.twitter.com/XvGtR5ciNR

— Soton Archaeology (@sotonarch) October 24, 2018

National Geographic Archaeologist-in-Residence Fredrik Hiebert, who has searched for Black Sea shipwrecks on an earlier National Geographic-sponsored expedition, says the new discovery reinforces the idea that the anoxic waters of the Black Sea “are an incredibly rich museum of human history.”
“This wreck shows the unprecedented potential for preservation in the Black Sea, which has been a critical crossroads of world cultures for thousands of years,” Hiebert says.
“It’s an incredible find.”

Links :

• BBC : Shipwreck found in Black Sea is 'world's oldest intact'
• National Geographic : This is why Black Sea shipwrecks are such a unique find

Remote Hawaiian Island wiped off the map

East Island in French Frigate Shoals is critical habitat for Green Sea Turtles, Monk Seals, and many types of sea birds.

The Coastal Geology Group from SOEST, University of Hawaii, is investigating the age, origin, evolution, and current status of this island, and Gin Island, to improve understanding of how they may respond to current and future sea level rise.

From HuffingtonPost by Chris d'Angelo

“This event is confronting us with what the future could look like,” one federal scientist said about the loss of East Island, caused by Hurricane Walaka.

A powerful hurricane in the eastern Pacific washed away an 11-acre island in the French Frigate Shoals, part of a national monument in the remote northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

 Location of the East island in the French Frigate Shoals

with the GeoGarage platform (NOAA chart)
see also Google 'streetview' imagery (2013)

Approximately a half mile long and 400 feet wide, East Island was the second-largest islet in French Frigate Shoals ― an atoll some 550 miles northwest of Honolulu ― and a key habitat for the critically endangered Hawaiian monk seal, the threatened Hawaiian green sea turtle and several species of seabirds.

The island’s dramatic vanishing act was first reported by Honolulu Civil Beat and confirmed by HuffPost.
Satellite images distributed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service show the spit of white sand almost entirely erased, scattered out onto the reef to the north.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

from Chip Fletcher Facebook
 

East Island was destroyed by storm surge from Hurricane Walaka, which roared through the northwestern Hawaiian Islands as a powerful Category 3 storm this month.
Seven researchers, including three studying green sea turtles on East Island, were forced to evacuate from French Frigate Shoals before the storm.

 National Weather Service / Via NOAA

Charles Littnan, the director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s protected species division, told HuffPost it will likely take years to understand what the island’s loss means for these imperiled species.
The biggest concern, he said, is the persistent loss of habitat, which has been identified as a significant threat to monk seals and green sea turtles.
Nearby Trig Island was also lost beneath the surface this year, not because of a storm but from high wave activity.
“These small, sandy islets are going to really struggle to persist” in a warming world with rising seas, Littnan said.
“This event is confronting us with what the future could look like.”

French Frigate Shoals is the nesting ground for 96 percent of the Hawaiian green sea turtle population, and approximately half lay their eggs at East Island.
Historically, it has been the “single most important” nesting site for the turtles, he said.

All nesting females had left by the time Walaka hit, so the storm likely had little if any impact on the adult population.
But NOAA scientists estimate that 19 percent of this year’s nests on East Island had not yet hatched and were swept away by the storm.
And 20 percent of the turtle nests on nearby Tern Island, the largest island in the French Frigate Shoals, were lost.

 The island played an important role for wildlife, including the critically endangered Hawaiian monk seal, a species that numbers just 1,400 individuals.

Photograph: Fish & Wildlife Service

The island was also a critical habitat for the federally protected Hawaii monk seal, one of the most endangered marine mammals on the planet.
Roughly 80 percent of the population of just over 1,400 seals live in the northwestern Hawaiian Islands, a remote archipelago that is surrounded by the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument.

courtesy of Friends of Hawaiian Islands National Wildlife Refuge

In a typical year, 30 percent of monk seal pups are born at East Island.
In 2018, 12 pups were born there, and NOAA said it believes that all but maybe one had been weaned before the storm hit.
Littnan said that monk seals are known to move into the water to ride out storms but that scientists won’t know if there was significant mortality until they are able to return to the area to survey the population next year.

Athline Clark, NOAA’s superintendent of Papahanaumokuakea, described the satellite images as “startling” and said that while the long-term implications are not clear, the island’s loss will have significant effects on future nesting and pupping cycles.

Before disappearing, East and Trig islands accounted for 60 percent of the monk seal pups born at French Frigate Shoals, according to NOAA.

Chip Fletcher, an associate dean at the University of Hawaii’s School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, told HuffPost that after an initial “holy shit” moment, he realized the island’s disappearance makes sense.
“This is not surprising when you consider the bad luck of a hurricane going into that vicinity and sea level rise already sort of deemed the stressor in the background for these ecosystems,” he said.
“The probability of occurrences like this goes up with climate change.”

This month the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the leading United Nations consortium of researchers studying human-caused climate change, issued a dire warning about the threats the world now faces.
Failing to overhaul the global economy and rein in carbon emissions would come with devastating, perhaps irreversible effects, the IPCC found.

The scientific community — including experts at NOAA — has long warned that anthropogenic climate change influences extreme weather events.
The 2015 National Climate Assessment concluded that “hurricane intensity and rainfall are projected to increase as the climate continues to warm.”

Phil Klotzbach, a hurricane expert at Colorado State University, said the central Pacific is one area where a lot of models forecast that climate change will trigger more frequent and stronger hurricanes.
He said Walaka rapidly intensified at an “impressive rate,” from a tropical storm with 40 mph winds to a major hurricane with winds of 120 mph in just 30 hours.
After reaching Category 5 strength, it weakened as it made its way north toward the national monument.
“The complete loss of the island is very impressive,” Klotzbach said after viewing the photos.

From satellite imagery and observations during a flyover of East Island and Tern Island, Littnan said, NOAA scientists expect that all the islets in French Frigate Shoals were completely washed over by the storm surge.
It’s unclear if any others experienced significant damage.

There’s no telling if East Island will return.

Whale Skate Island, French Frigate Shoal (taken on May 5, 2012)
courtesy of Jim Lewis. Pacific Project 5univ. Hawaii Museum)

 Whale & Skate islands with the GeoGarage platform (NOAA chart)

An islet named Whale-Skate Island, also once an important habitat for Hawaiian monk seals, vanished from French Frigate Shoals in the 1990s and has not reappeared.

Clark, Fletcher and Littnan said scientists are already exploring what, if anything, can be done to intervene to protect these vulnerable habitats and increase the resilience of the affected species.
Those efforts could include pumping sand back above the ocean’s surface to restore islets.

“We’re going to have to look at really creative ways to help support these species to persist into the future,” Littnan said.

Links :

• RT : Hurricane swallows Hawaii island whole
• The Guardian : Hawaiian island erased by powerful hurricane: ‘The loss is a huge blow’
• Slate : Hurricane Walaka Caused a Hawaiian Island to Disappear