Environmental News January to February 2016

New Federal Rules to Protect Captive Whales and Dolphins
Date: February 2, 2016
By: Public News Service
Wildlife conservation groups are speaking out against a new federal rule that is supposed to improve conditions for captive marine mammals, including dolphins and orcas, saying the rule actually weakens some existing protections. The U.S. Department of Agriculture just released a proposal to further regulate conditions such as the water temperature and features required in the animals' enclosures.
Read more here.

Ships’ Noise is a Serious Problem for Killer Whales and Dolphins
Date: February 2, 2016
By: The Guardian
Noise emanating from passing ships may disturb animals such as killer whales and dolphins far more than previously thought, with new research showing that the animals’ communication and ability to find prey could be hampered by the underwater din.
Read more here.

Study Finds Toxic Pollutants in Fish across the World’s Oceans
Date: January 28, 2016
By: Environmental News Network
A new global analysis of seafood found that fish populations throughout the world's oceans are contaminated with industrial and agricultural pollutants, collectively known as persistent organic pollutants (POPs). The study from researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego also uncovered some good news- concentrations of these pollutants have been consistently dropping over the last 30 years.
Read more here.

The Architecture of a Financially Sustainable Marine Protected Area
Date: January 21, 2016
By: The Daily Catch- The Terramar Project
A big question in the ocean conservation world is: Who is going to pay for all these new, greatly needed marine protected areas? Governments, public, private, or world organizations? Ocean CREST Alliance’s answer to accomplish marine protected area success: We must design and operate them like any other successful business venture by factoring in financial sustainability from the beginning. Ocean CREST Alliance has developed a unique property and operations program that provides both a vehicle for marine protected areas to be financially sustainable while operating sustainably within Nature and the community that it serves.
Read more here.

The World Has Discovered a $1 Trillion Ocean
Date: January 21, 2016
By: Bloomberg Business
As chairman of investments at Guggenheim Partners, Scott Minerd thought he had a realistic view on how big an economic challenge climate change poses.
Then, at a Hoover Institution conference almost three years ago, he met former U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz. Minerd recalled him saying: “Scott, imagine that you woke up tomorrow morning, and the headline on the newspapers was, 'The World Has Discovered a New Ocean.’” The opening of the Arctic, Shultz told him, may be one of the most important events since the end of the ice age, some 12,000 years ago.
Read more here.

Bluefin Tuna, Once Bountiful, Now in Peril
Date: January 21, 2016
By: NBC News Bay Area
When you mention tuna, most minds probably swim to the ubiquitous cans of the fish, or maybe a delectable piece of sashimi decked out with roe and wasabi. But when Stanford biology professor Barbara Block contemplates tuna, her mind goes to images of bluefin tuna — the massive, speedy fish that regularly traverse oceans in a single year.
Read more here.

2015 a ‘Tipping Point’ for Climate Change
Date: January 18, 2016
By: Phys Org
When future generations write the history of humanity's faltering quest to repair Earth's climate system, 2015 will have its own chapter.
Nature, along with the usually fractious family of nations, conspired to make it a landmark year: almost certainly the hottest on record for the planet as a whole, and a rare moment of unity when 195 states pledged to curb the carbon pollution that drives global warming.
Read more here.

Ocean Heating Doubles
Date: January 18, 2016
By: Science News
The ocean is taking heat. That’s the conclusion of a new study that finds that Earth’s oceans now absorb heat at twice the rate they did 18 years ago. Around half of ocean heat uptake since 1865 has taken place since 1997, researchers also report online January 18 in Nature Climate Change.
Read more here.

Philippe Cousteau Talks Sex-Crazed Sea Slugs
Date: January 15, 2016
By: Mental_floss
Nudibranchs (pronounced NEW-dih-branks) are highly toxic, bright-colored sea slugs and some of the ocean’s most ornate critters. With more than 3000 species, nudibranchs can take many forms. Some look like Pokémon while others look more like an agitated Wilford Brimley.
Read more here.

Obama Halts New Coal Mining Leases on Public Lands
Date: January 14, 2016
By: The New York Times
The Obama administration announced on Friday a halt to new coal mining leases on public lands as it considers an overhaul of the program that could lead to increased costs for energy companies and a slowdown in extraction.
Read more here.

Climate Change Called World’s Biggest Economic Risk
Date: January 14, 2016
By: CBS News Money Watch
The World Economic Forum, which meets annually in Davos, Switzerland, began ranking global risks just over a decade ago. And this year, the environment has reached the top of the list.
Read more here.

Obama Blasts Climate Deniers and Calls for a Clean Energy Revolution
Date: January 12, 2016
By: Mother Jones
Fresh off the historic Paris climate change agreement, President Barack Obama used his final State of the Union address Tuesday night to urge Congress to finally act on global warming.
Read more here.

NASA To Take On The Seas With Plans To Save Coral Reefs
Date: January 11, 2016
By: Tech Times
Although NASA primarily looks outside our planet's atmosphere to observe and learn about the mysteries of outer space, the world's oceans, which cover 71 percent of the Earth's surface, remain largely unexplored.
Read more here.