Squid Ink

Carbon dioxide is polluting the ocean: tackling ocean acidification under the Clean Water Act

Submitted by eloury on Wed, 2010-12-01 15:58
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Animals like corals that depend on calcium carbonate to construct their skeletons are on the frontlines of the ocean's rising acidity. (photo: M. Fox)

by Melissa Foley, Science Early Career Fellow and Erin Loury, Science Communication Intern.

Ocean acidification, or the increase of low-pH, corrosive ocean waters, certainly qualifies as a process that impairs water quality.   Now the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has created guidance to address ocean acidification under the Clean Water Act. 

On November 15th, the EPA released a Memorandum to guide regions and states in reporting the impacts of ocean acidification under Section 303(d) of the Clean Water Act, which requires states to submit a list of impaired water bodies that do not meet water quality standards, and develop total maximum daily loads (TMDLs) for these waters.  A TMDL is a calculation of the maximum amount of a pollutant that a body of water can receive and still safely meet water quality standards.  In the case of ocean acidification, the main pollutant in question is carbon dioxide (CO2).  Read more...

Stanford Researchers Dissect Squids with Kids in Washington, D.C.

Submitted by eloury on Wed, 2010-11-10 17:16
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A family in Washington, D.C. dissects a Humbolt Squid with Stanford's Squids-4-Kids program (photo: J. Stewart)

  by Julie Stewart, MARINE curriculum intern

I never thought that I could talk about Humboldt squid for seven and a half hours nearly non-stop. Or that I could do it for two days in a row. But it turns out that I can –­ this is how I spent October 23rd and 24th in Washington, DC at the first annual USA Science and Engineering Festival.

My Ph.D. advisor Dr. William Gilly and I went to the festival to represent Hopkins Marine Station and Stanford University through our outreach program called Squids-4-Kids. (Read more in the Stanford Daily) This is a program we formed along with our colleagues at NOAA Fisheries in Santa Cruz to send Humboldt squid to classrooms all over the nation. We also go to local classrooms and conduct dissections, which is a really fun way to interact with kids and get them interested in marine biology. We were joined in DC by Ken Baltz (one of our colleagues at NOAA) and Katharine Dickson (a undergraduate cephalopod enthusiast!). Throughout the course of the two-day festival we dissected seven Humboldt squid on the National Mall, about half way between the Capitol and the Washington Monument. (Read more....)

Status Update for California's Wetlands: Some Loss, Some Gain

Submitted by eloury on Fri, 2010-10-22 13:55
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Researchers in the mudflats of the Morro Bay Estuary. (photo: Mike Baird)

by Erin Loury, Science Communication Intern

Buffer in a storm, migratory rest stop, water filter, crucial habitat and protected nursery ground – California’s wetlands perform many roles at that special zone where land and water meet.  Neither fully terrestrial nor completely aquatic, these unique habitats grace every California landscape, from desert playas to mountain meadows.  Now the California Natural Resources Agency has released the second State of the State’s Wetlands report (pdf), which summarizes efforts to protect, monitor, and restore our wetlands between 1999 and 2009.  

This current chapter in the wetlands story unfolds against a historical backdrop of great destruction: between 1780’s and 1980’s, California lost over 90% of its wetland area. The 2.9 million acres that remain encompass mostly freshwater sources, such as lakes, vernal pools, marshes and springs.  Recognizing the many valuable services that wetlands provide, California voters have approved at least five bond measures, and invested billions of dollars over the past ten years to protect and restore wetlands.  The report notes substantial wetland increases in San Francisco Bay, along California’s south coast, in the Central Valley and in the Sierras. Read more... 

Aloha from the 2010 Great Marlin Race!

Submitted by ahemphill on Thu, 2010-08-05 17:23
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George Shillinger, Director, Marine Spatial Planning Initiative

Kona, Hawai'i.  For the past four days, Dr. Randy Kochevar and I have been searching for the elusive blue marlin Makaira nigricans that frequent the waters off Kona during summer months. We are working with teams of international anglers (USA, Japan, Australia, New Guinea, etc.) to deploy pop-up satellite tags (PSATS) on 10-15 blue marlins, one of the most highly prized saltwater big game fish, as part of the Great Marlin Race 2010.  

 Read more...

Surveying the Davidson Seamount: Where are the Humbolt Squid?

Submitted by eloury on Wed, 2010-08-04 10:17
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No trace: researchers found no signs of the Humbolt Squid on a recent trip to the Davidson Seamount, an extinct underwater volcano offshore from Monterey. (photo (c) 2003 MBARI)

Julie Stewartby Julie Stewart, MARINE curriculum intern

The NOAA research vessel MacArthur II recently journeyed to the Davidson Seamount, an extinct underwater volcano about 80 miles offshore from the Monterey Peninsula. Our mission was to conduct surveys of the marine mammals and seabirds in the area.  The seamount is about 26 miles long by 8 miles wide, and comes as shallow as 1.5 kilometers below the surface (the seafloor otherwise sits around 3.5 kilometers deep). This is a very productive area: as deep currents hit the seamount, they are redirected up towards the surface, so there are high concentrations of krill and other plankton that provide food for higher predators.

While remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) have documented some of the seafloor (discovering amazing soft corals, among other things), little was known about the marine mammal and seabird populations so far from shore.  Read more...

The Pacific's Past Sets the Stage for a Voyage into its Future

Submitted by ahemphill on Fri, 2010-07-23 17:23
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Vaka canoe patroling Suva Harbor, Fiji (photo: Arlo Hemphill, Center for Ocean Solutions)

Arlo Hemphill by Arlo Hemphill, Communications Specialist 

Suva, Fiji.  The islands of the Pacific are separated by thousands of miles of deep, blue ocean. From space, they amount to little more than random specks of sand and rock adrift in a vast watery world.  Yet ancient mariners were able to navigate these then unchartered waters and populate the lonesome specks, becoming the Pacific Islander peoples of today.  Unfortunately, their tradition of open ocean navigation has been all but lost in modern times.  That is until recently.
  Read more...

Obama announces a National Ocean Policy to guide our management of the ocean

Submitted by eloury on Tue, 2010-07-20 12:59
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Obama's new National Ocean Policy charts a sustainable course of ocean conservation and management for future generations (photo:Steve Lonhart, SIMoN NOAA)  

by Erin Loury, Science Communication Intern

Some good news for the oceans! On July 19th, President Obama signed an Executive Order that establishes a National Policy for the Stewardship of the Ocean, Coasts, and Great Lakes. The Executive Order adopts the Final Recommendations of the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force (pdf), also released on July 19th after a year of research and deliberation. The Order and Recommendations highlight the importance of ecosystem health and biological diversity to human well-being, acknowledge the threats of climate change and ocean acidification, and call for the implementation of comprehensive coastal and marine spatial planning.

Both the Order and the Final Recommendations invoke the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and the environmental crisis in the Gulf of Mexico as “a stark reminder of how vulnerable our marine environments are, and how much communities and the Nation rely on healthy and resilient ocean and coastal ecosystems.”

“Until now, there has been no cohesive, strategic vision for where the country is going with respect to ocean health and ocean resource management,” said Matthew Armsby of the Center for Ocean Solution’s (COS) marine spatial planning team on the significance of this Order.  “We’ve had many different laws and policies, but the nation’s resource managers lacked a meaningful prioritization of ecosystem health and sustainability.  Read more...

Tribute to a “Climate Warrior” – Stephen Schneider dies at 65

Submitted by eloury on Tue, 2010-07-20 08:19
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Stephen Schneider, a leading climate expert from Stanford University, is dead at 65.

by Erin Loury, Science Communication Intern

The world of climate change science mourns the loss of a great spokesman.  Stephen Schneider, a leading climatologist, died July 19th at the age of 65.

Schneider, a professor at Stanford University, served on the international research panel on global warming that received the 2007 Nobel Prize along with former Vice President Al Gore.  He also worked closely with Center for Ocean Solutions staff during the 2009 climate negotiations in Copenhagen.  According to his wife, Stanford professor Terry Root, Schneider suffered a heart attack while onboard a plane as it landed in London.  Read more...

Fiji’s Call to Arms for the Pacific

Submitted by ahemphill on Thu, 2010-07-01 16:13
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Fiji's Pacific Coast (photo: Arlo Hemphill, Center for Ocean Solutions)

Arlo Hemphill by Arlo Hemphill, Communications Specialist 

Suva, Fiji.  Thunderous clapping from the seated meke dancers, a solo chant and then silence as a lone dancer, dressed in the grass skirt-like liku vau, delivers a bowl of kava to Meg Caldwell, Center for Ocean Solutions' Executive Director and one of a dozen special guests of honor at this traditional Fijian ceremony.  Ms. Caldwell is seated next to Joketani Cokanasiga, Fiji’s Minister of Fisheries, Forests and Agriculture, who greets the guests assembled from across the Pacific basin with a call to arms, a challenge for all the Pacific - nations and citizens alike - to work in unison in response to the major threats on the largest of our planet’s oceans.  The call now made, the bowls of kava are downed, and the dancers retake center stage, leading the group into a night of revelry and celebration of our shared future.  Read more...

Gulf oil spill overlaps critical bluefin tuna habitat during spawning season.

Submitted by eloury on Fri, 2010-06-25 15:12
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This map shows the track (yellow line) and daily positions (dots) of an electronically tagged giant bluefin tuna, which spent March 23-May 24, 2009, in the Gulf of Mexico. The track is overlaid on the area of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill as of May 24, 2010 (black). (Credit: Tag-A-Giant Foundation and Stanford University)

Erin Louryby Erin Loury

Science Communication Intern/M.S. Candidate at Moss Landing Marine Labs

The Gulf of Mexico oil spill may spell big trouble for the Atlantic bluefin tuna, one of the most commercially valuable species that is already beleaguered by overfishing.   The area of the Deepwater Horizon spill coincides with critical bluefin spawning grounds, which the fish return to with amazing fidelity, a new study finds.

Dr. Steven Teo of the University of California at Davis and Dr. Barbara Block of Stanford University recently published a paper in the journal PLoS ONE, which reveals pronounced differences in habitat use between bluefin and yellowfin tuna in the Gulf of Mexico.  Using electronic tagging and fisheries catch data, Teo and Block discovered that bluefin are highly specific in their habitat use.  These giant fish select cool, productive water masses in the slope waters of the northern Gulf of Mexico, with a site fidelity reminiscent of salmon returning to their natal streams.  In contrast to yellowfin tuna, which are more widely distributed throughout the warm Gulf waters, "The bluefins' habitat requirements are relatively exact, so we can predict with reasonable accuracy where bluefin tuna are likely to be spawning at any given time based on oceanographic data,” Dr. Teo said. 

Unfortunately, this predictive power leads to a troubling prognosis in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Read more...