Scientists discover new trigger for immense North Atlantic Ocean spring plankton bloom. On this July 4th week, U.S. beachgoers are thronging their way to seaside resorts and parks to celebrate with holiday fireworks.
But across the horizon and miles out to sea toward the north, the Atlantic Ocean's own spring and summer ritual unfolds. It entails the blooming of countless microscopic plants, or phytoplankton. In what's known as the North Atlantic Bloom, an immense number of phytoplankton burst into existence, first "greening," then "whitening" the sea as one or more species take the place of others. What turns on this huge bloom, what starts these ocean fireworks? Is it the Sun's warmth? In research results published online July 5 in the journal Science, scientists report evidence of another trigger. Largest Marine Reserves Network Unveiled. Australia’s most precious ocean environments will be protected by the world’s largest network of marine reserves created by the Gillard Government.
Environment Minister Tony Burke today released the Government’s final network of marine reserves which – once proclaimed under national environmental law – will increase the number of marine reserves from 27 to 60, expanding the national network to cover more than a third of Commonwealth waters. “For generations Australians have understood the need to preserve precious areas on land as national parks. Our oceans contain unique marine life which needs protection too,” he said. What’s Big, Blue, Hopes To Save Our Planet And Is Not Facebook? There have been a lot of complaints voiced over the last couple of years from people who wish entrepreneurs would address the world’s “real problems” or do “something bigger” rather than create “me too” applications and websites.
I’m not a fan of that sentiment but that’s really a whole other post I need to write. In all honesty, there’s a place and need in the world for all sorts of business visions – big and small. And after watching a “big vision” TED talk from a few years ago, it has changed my life. Jane McGonigal presented this idea: Millions of people around the world are becoming gaming and computer virtuosos. Through video games, people journey to alternate “worlds” where they have epic journeys and become heroes. While at a recent Wild-Aid fundraising event, I was thumbing through the live auctions and found a company called The Blu that is trying to do just that. Having been so enthralled by the concept, I was determined to meet the founders, so I sent this tweet: Research ship finds the world's oceans are 'plasticized' Expeditions to ocean gyres sometimes encounter 'ghost nets' - discarded fishing equipment that can tangle into a hazard for marine organisms.
A rainbow runner caught in the Pacific with a gut full of plastic particles. "Our consumption does have a life after our use that we have to take responsibility for," Eriksen says. The Algalita Marine Research Foundation and 5 Gyres' 2012 expedition is aboard the Sea Dragon, a 72-feet oceangoing yacht. Ocean 'garbage patches' are not visible by satellite and aren't floating islands. Rather, they are small bits of broken down plastic, spread across thousands of miles of open ocean.
On its second leg from Tokyo to Maui, the AMRF/5 Gyres expedition expects to encounter debris from the Japanese tsunami. Miriam Goldstein, a Scripps Institution of Oceanography researcher has studied plastic debris in the North Pacific Ocean Subtropical Gyre, and is concerned about its potential impact on biodiversity. 'The whalers have won absolutely everything': veteran activist. Roger Payne first came to prominence more than 40 years ago, when he and a colleague made the discovery that whales sing eerily beautiful songs as a way of communicating.
Their 1970 recording of whale sounds, Songs of the Humpback Whale, helped to galvanize the global anti-whaling movement, which led most countries to scrap their whaling fleets. Payne, the founder of the conservation group, Ocean Alliance, has continued his groundbreaking work on whales, including recent landmark studies showing how whales worldwide have high levels of pollutants — including DDT — in their bodies. He also is continuing a 40-year study of more than 2,000 right whales in Argentina, identifying individual whales by the markings on their heads. Japan uses $28.5m in disaster funds for whaling: claim. Japanese whaling fleet vessel Yushin Maru No. 3 cuts through the waves of the Southern Ocean in February.
Photo: Reuters A growing number of Japanese environmental and consumer groups are joining in protest against the use of disaster recovery funds to subsidise the loss-making whaling fleet. The government recently gave the whalers 2.28 billion yen ($28.5 million) as part of a special budget for recovery from the March 11 triple disaster. Mr Kaz Inadome from the Japanese Consulate said no money from the disaster relief funds collected in Australia had been used. All that money had gone to the Red Cross in Japan. Much of the extra funding will go towards security forces for the whaling fleet, which left Japan yesterday for the Antarctic, where conflict is expected with Sea Shepherd activists.
A total of 18 Japanese non-government organisations, including the Environmental Lawyers Federation and Consumers Union have signed on to a protest letter to Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda.