Overfishing is to Blame for Even More Problems

After reading Mr. McKinley’s extensive blogs on the overfishing of cod, these two articles caught my eye. Apparently, lack of fish isn’t the only problem that all the recent overfishing has caused.  Now that it has become much harder to catch the regular fish used for eating, namely cod, fishing fleets are now forced to troll the deep seas in order to find new and more abundant species to use for seafood.  As a result of this, many underwater ecosystems are now being irreparably damaged.

Groups of underwater volcanic mountains, or seamounts, are home to thousand of deep sea organisms like the orange ruffy or the alfonsino.  Many of these deep sea fish are now being fished for much more agressively due to the lack of the fish that usually serves as seafood.  However, this new fishing is beginning to destroy these previously untouched underwater habitats.  “There is an urgency, first of all, to deal with regulating those fisheries and secondly to get out there and look at those habitats before they are gone,” said Dr Alex Rogers, of the Zoological Society of London.

Although there are an estimated 100,000 large seamounts worldwide, there are only about 40 that we have scientific data on.  So not only are we endangering the lives of rare fish, but we are destroying habitats that have yet to be fully studied.  The seamounts are not only being harmed from the physical damage done by trawling, but also by the lack of fish, which not only live in the seamount, but are important to preserving the habitat. 

The bottom line is that humans need to stop worrying so much about making money, and realize that we are slowly destroying major parts of this world all for economic gain.  Instead of learning our lesson from the overfishing of cod, we are simply starting on new species which will soon be depleted just like the fish before them.  It’s not getting us anywhere, it only delays the inevitable.  

http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=11664

http://www.animalsvoice.com/PAGES/writes/editorial/news/features/trawling_harm.html

Increasing Ocean Acidity

In addition to the effect that global warming has on climates, it has also begun to affect the oceans in a just as dangerous way.  According to a report called Impacts of Ocean Acidification on Coral Reefs and Other Marine Calcifiers: A Guide to Future Research, there is “very clear evidence” that a variety of ocean organisms, from coral to sea snails to plankton, face an uncertain future due to ocean water made increasingly corrosive by the industrial emissions that also fuel global warming.

Over the past 3 decades, scientists have seen a steady increase in the absorbtion of greenhouse gases into the ocean.  Caron dioxide, one of these greenhouse gases, produces carbonic acid in seawater.  Usually, calcium found in the seawater buffers the effect of this acid, but the added impact from industrial emissions has overwhelmed the balance.

The overall pH of ocean water has dropped from 8.2 to 8.1 since 1800.  Although this may seem like a very small change that took place over a long time period, the drop of .1 has made the water 30% more corrosive.  In addition, scientists expect the pH to drop to 7.9 within the current century, making the water 150% more corrosive than it originally was.

This change in acidity will most affect sea creatures that rely on shells for protection, because increased acidity affects the calcium level in the seawater that the organisms depend on to build their shells.  Also, coral reefs, which serve as a habitat for many ocean organisms, are being affected by this change.  Coral reefs are made from  the calcium-carbonate skeletons of microscopic sea creatures.  The increasingly acidic waters slow the ability of sea creatures to secrete calcium carbonate, and at a high enough level will actually eat away at shells and coral.

In order to get a better grasp of how increasing acidity will affect individual organisms, the report lays out more  in-depth experiments that can be conducted over the next 5 to 1o years.  This includes tracking changes in the calcification of corals and shelled creatures, determining how seasonal and water temperature changes affect pH, and  examining changes to ocean ecosystems with small numbers of shelled sea creatures.

Studies show that the ocean water has not been this acidic for at least 650,000 years.  This means that today’s sea creatures have evolved for a great deal of time under current ocean conditions.  Because of this it is likely that sea creatures will adapt poorly to the ocean’s changes that are only becoming more and more frequent.

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2006-07-05-ocean-acidity_x.htm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3571152.stm

Human “Overgrazing” Is Catching Up To Us

A recent report put out by the World Wildlife Fund was able to summarize our planet’s predicament with natural resources in one simple sentence: “People are turning resources into waste faster than nature can turn waste back into resources.” The bottom line of this report was that if drastic lifestyle changes are not quickly implemented, by the year 2050 our world will need two planet’s worth of resources every year in order to sustain itself.

Many species populations such as a variety of fish and mammals are steeply dropping, falling by about one third from 1970 to present. This is directly due to human impact and huge overuse of natural resources, resulting in pollution, the clearing of forests, and overfishing. While humans are greatly harming other species, our population is still skyrocketing, rising from 3 billion in 1960, to 6.5 billion currently.

A quote from WWF Director-General James Leape does a good job of summing up humans’ effect on the earth in recent years: “For more than 20 years we have exceeded the earth’s ability to support a consumptive lifestyle that is unsustainable and we cannot afford to continue down this path.” What he is saying is that through our various ways of getting around environmental resistance, we are damaging other species and setting ourselves up for a harsh population crash.

America in particular is one of the top countries abusing the use of natural resources. An astounding statistic from the WWF’s report is that if everyone around the world lived similar lifestyles as those in the U.S., we would require 5 planets worth of natural resources to support us. The country placing the most “environmental stress per capita” is the United Arab Emirates. In addition to the U.S., other countries at the top of this list were Finland, Canada, the U.K., Australia, Russia, China, and Japan.

Further complicating the current situation with natural resources is the world’s booming population. Not only is the human population soaring, but this is negatively affecting a great variety of other animal populations. An index tracking 1,300 vertebrates found that most of the populations had fallen by about 30 percent, mainly due to loss of habitat to make room for human structures.

It is obvious that humans as a whole are on a steeply increasing “J curve.” However, the signs are unmistakable that we are reaching its peak and that a drastic and sudden population crash is just around the corner unless major changes are implemented worldwide.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061024/sc_nm/environment_wwf_planet_dc