Environmental News August 2 to August 15, 2016

Via sensor or struggle, seals offer ocean of insight into climate change undereas
Date: August 15, 2016
By: Michele C. Hollow, Fusion
“When the top predators in the ocean have a hard time surviving that means the whole system is disrupted,” Johnson said. “Initially, there was a lot of skepticism regarding climate change. The seals and sea lions are showing us a different picture—that climate change exists.”
Read more here.

Scientists to monitor deep-sea plankton for ocean health
Date: August 15, 2016
By: Asian Review
Researchers from some 20 countries will set up a global network of hundreds of buoys to measure plankton activity, using these microscopic plants to gauge the impact of resource development and fishing on the health of marine ecosystems.
Read more here.

We Dump Pollution in the Ocean, and It’s Making Us Sick
Date: August 13, 2016
By: Malcolm Johnson, Nature World News
Earlier this year, images surfaced of toxic algal blooms in Florida, caused by pollution dumped in a lake, making people sick, but there are other issues in the Ocean that are damaging our health.
Read more here.

Is the Ocean’s Chemistry Keeping Us Healthy?
Date: August 13, 2016
By: Michael Ciaramella, Surfing Magazine
Yes. There are tens of millions of different types of bacteria in a single liter of ocean water. We are constantly surrounded by these organisms, obviously externally, but we also inadvertently get water inside of us through our mouths, noses, ears, etc. We believe that surfers are so immersed in the ocean environment that they literally have a different microbial profile than any random person walking down the street.

Read more here.

Navigating oceans of data variability to forecast climate change
Date: August 13, 2016
By: Graham Lloyd, The Australian
After almost two decades of dispute over its existence, the pause in the rise of global surface temperatures that began in 1998 finally has worked its way to the forefront of climate change research.
Read more here.

California changing domoic acid protocols for upcoming crab season
Date: August 12, 2016
By: Susan Chambers, Seafood.com NEWS
Anticipating potential harmful algal blooms that could produce domoic acid in Dungeness and rock crab fisheries, leaders and lawmakers in the US state of California are changing management and outreach efforts to avoid a repeat of the disastrous 2015-16 season.
Read more here.

‘Trash Man’ Nick Mallos: How sailing teams fight ocean plastic
Date: August 12, 2016
By: Lew Blaustein, GreenBiz
The Ocean Conservancy is a 44-year old nonprofit that creates science-based solutions for a healthy ocean and the wildlife and communities that depend on it.
Plastic ocean waste — a serious, festering yet underreported environmental problem that affects the public and economic health of millions around the world — is one issue the organization is tackling.
Read more here.

Island Sea Lions Offer Clues to Mysteriously Missing Mammals
Date: August 11, 2016
By: Laura Parker, National Geographic
The Falkland Islands, isolated in the far reaches of the southwest Atlantic Ocean, once boasted one of the world’s largest populations of southern sea lions. Now, they have one of the smallest. Hunting is the main reason for historical declines of seals and sea lions worldwide, but the Falklands population never recovered even though commercial hunts ended more than half a century ago.
Read more here.

Brazil’s Amazon Hot, Dry and Ablaze
Date: August 10, 2016
By: Environmental News Service
Brazil’s National Space Research Institute, INPE, registered over 53,000 forest fires in the country up to Friday, and warns that the hot, dry weather may make things worse, if law enforcement efforts are not increased.
Read more here.

Climate Change and Warming Oceans are Making Us Sick, Literally
Date: August 10, 2016
According to a new study, marine bacteria is growing in increased abundance because it flourishes in a warm environment. This increased level of bacteria poses an increased risk to human health, and as ocean waters continue to warm, these risks increase as well, the Huffington Post reports.

Read more here.

Healthy Fish, Healthy Folks
Date: August 10, 2016
By: Douglas M Rader, Ph.D., Huffington Post
Throughout history, people living near any sea coast have relied on fish as a key dietary staple. Middens of kitchen and household wastes left behind on all continents provide strong evidence of the long and deep linkages between people of the shores and the sea. Now, new science published in the top-tier journal, Nature, makes abundantly clear that fish continues to serve an even more important role in human nutrition than experts have previously appreciated.
Read more here.

Acid Oceans Killing Antarctic Food Web
Date: August 9, 2016
By: Environmental News Service
An acidifying ocean absorbing too much carbon dioxide from the atmosphere could have a major impact on phytoplankton – the staple diet of krill – with serious repercussions for the entire Antarctic ecosystem, scientists from the Australian Antarctic Division have found.
Read more here.

Deep-ocean research off Bermuda maps a mountain and its ‘algal forest’
Date: August 5, 2016
By: Ron Meader, MinnPost
Anyone with an interest in deep-ocean exploration or seagoing adventure will likely find something to admire in this week’s first reports from the Nekton Mission’s work off Bermuda.
Read more here.

Trash Skimmers Make Their Debut
Date: August 4, 2015
By: James Merolla, Newport This Week
Over the last decade, Newport waters have seen some of the most prestigious yacht races in the world and have been visited by every conceivable type of vessel from the gracefulTall Ships, to massive cruise ships, private mega-yachts, and efficient state-of-the-art research vessels.
In those 10 years, local waters have also hosted nearly 50 tons of garbage.
So, what’s the best thing that Rhode Island’s largest recreational pool needs? Why, two large trash skimmers to clean up the mess, of course.
Read more here.

Changing tides: institute tracks products’ impacts on coastal waters
Date: August 2, 2016
By: Baila Lazarus, Business in Vancouver
The next time you toss your fleece jacket into the laundry consider this: tiny micro-beads of plastic may start making their way through our water systems into the ocean food chain only to end up in your salmon dinner.
Read more here.