SEA EYES

  

From top to bottom:

1. Parrotfish. Via.
2. Mandarinfish. Credit: Luc Viatour via Wikimedia Commons. 
3. Mantis shrimp. Credit: Nazir Amin via Wikimedia Commons. 
4. Triggerfish. Via. 
5. Yellow stingray. Credit: Keri Wilk.
6. Squid. Credit: wildxplorer at Wikimedia Commons.
7. Saltwater crocodile. Credit: Vassil via Wikimedia Commons. 
8. Spotted trunkfish. Credit: Laszlo Ilyes via Wikimedia Commons. 
9. Sea turtle. Credit: Benja Iglesis. 
10. Chambered nautilus. Credit: Hans Hillewaert at Wikimedia Commons.
11. Whitetip reef shark. Credit: Christian Loader.
12. Scallop (multiple eyes). Via.
13. Napoleon wrasse. Via. 
14. Sea lion. Via.
15. Penguin. Via.
16. Tiger shark. Via.
17. Minke whale. Credit: Bryant Austin.
18. Aerial of North Mali Atoll, Maldives. Via.

THE LAST GREAT WILDERNESS

A sea whip found deep on the slope of the Gulf of Mexico. Credit: Aquapix and Expedition to the Deep Slope 2007.

The next chapter in our thinking about the oceans is analyzed in a new paper in PLoS ONE.

The deep sea—largest of Earth's ecosystems and its last great wilderness—has been spared much of what's befallen the rest of the ocean in the last century, thanks to its remoteness. But not any more.

Technology is rapidly undressing this veiled realm, allowing us to exploit its fisheries, hydrocarbons, and minerals at depths below 2,000 meters/6,562 feet. The authors write:

[T]he challenges facing the deep sea are large and accelerating, providing a new imperative for the science community, industry and national and international organizations to work together to develop successful exploitation management and conservation of the deep-sea ecosystem.

Anemone attached to a carbonate boulder at 1,500 meters/4,921 feet depth in the Gulf of Mexico. Credit: Aquapix and Expedition to the Deep Slope 2007, NOAA-OE.

 
The paper represents the combined thinking of 11 researchers from around the world—Spain, UK, Norway, New Zealand, Mexico, US, and France—including some of the biggest names in deep-sea research. Coauthor Lisa Levin, recently made the Director of the Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, was featured in my biodiversity article in MoJo, Gone.

Based on their own extensive experience, combined with published scientific papers, the authors provide a semi-quantitative analysis of the scale of of human activities past, present, and future.

Synergies among anthropogenic impacts on deep-sea habitats. The lines link impacts that, when found together, have a synergistic effect on habitats or faunal communities. The lines are color coded showing the direction of the synergy. LLRW=low-level radioactive waste; CFCs=chlorofluorocarbons; PAHs= polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Credit: Ramirez-Llodra E, et al. PLoS ONE. DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0022588

 
They assessed 28 major anthropogenic impacts (above), grouped into 3 main categories—disposal, exploitation, and climate change. They then examined those effects on 12 deep-sea habitats (below). I've added links to explanations of the terms:

• Mid-ocean ridges, characterized by benthic sessile fauna and localised demersal and pelagic communities.
• Sedimentary slope (excluding other specific communities found on slopes such as cold-water corals, seeps, oxygen minimum zones), characterized by demersal fauna as well as epifaunal and infaunal benthos
• Canyons, with a high degree of habitat heterogeneity and diverse fauna varying with substratum: sessile benthos and demersal fauna characterize hard bottoms, while mobile epifauna, infauna and demersal fauna abound in association with soft sediments.
• Seamounts, characterized by sessile benthos and abundant localised pelagic communities.
• Cold-water coral habitats, including the frame building corals and associated species.
• Active hydrothermal vents, characterized by benthic fauna with a high degree of endemicity.
• Cold seeps, characterized by benthic fauna with a relatively high degree of endemicity
• Oxygen minimum zones abutting margins, characterized by specialized benthic fauna.
• Abyssal plains, characterized by mobile epifauna and infauna.
• Manganese-nodule provinces, specific habitat on abyssal plains, characterized by sessile and mobile epifauna and infauna.
• Trenches, characterized by demersal megafauna and infauna.
• Bathypelagic water column, characterized by mid-water species.

Deepwater Horizon oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico, 2010. (Top) photo of the oil being discharged in the water column; (Bottom) a coral in the deep Gulf of Mexico, with attached ophiuroid, covered with oil. Credit: Lophelia II 2010, NOAA OER and BOEMRE.

 
They conclude that a sea-change is underway:

Based on the current knowledge available in the scientific community and expert estimates, we suggest that the overall anthropogenic impact in the deep sea is increasing, and has evolved from mainly disposal and dumping in the late 20th century, to exploitation in the early 21st century...

During the remainder of the current century, we predict that the major impact in the deep sea will be climate change, affecting the oceans globally through direct effects on the habitat and fauna as well as through synergies with other human activities.

Unexploded ordinance on the seafloor in the Gulf of Mexico. Credit: Expedition to the Deep Slope 2007, NOAA-OE.

  
The deep-sea habitats most affected at present are:

1. Sediment slopes, mainly affected by fishing—trawling, longlining, and ghost fishing caused by lost or discarded gear
2. Cold-water corals, which are especially vulnerable to damage from fishing gear that can destroy whole communities
3. Canyons, mainly affected by fishing 
4. Oxygen-minimum zones, most threatened by by climate change and significant increases in hypoxia. 

Macro image of tiny octocorals at 1,500meters/4,921 feet in the Gulf of Mexico depth. Credit: Courtesy of Aquapix and Expedition to the Deep Slope 2007, NOAA-OE.

The paper provides a valuable summary of protected deep-sea habits worldwide. And it describes the biggest hurdle in the life-cycle of any protected ocean area—the ability of slow-funded science to keep up with the big money of industry and development. Add bureaucratic foot-dragging into the mix and the race to protect the real value of the deep becomes even more lopsided.
 
They authors close with a call to arms, suggesting that human encroachment into the deep sea creates a new conservation imperative... and that effective stewardship will require continued exploration, basic scientific research, monitoring, and conservation measures—all at the same time.

Conservation in the deep sea offers challenges in the form of knowledge gaps, climate change uncertainties, shifting jurisdictions and significant enforcement difficulties. With time, technological advances can help address these challenges. It remains to be seen whether new approaches must be developed to conserve the biodiversity and ecosystem services we value in the deepest half of the planet.

Credit: wrobell at Wikimedia Commons.

 
The paper:

• ♥ Ramirez-Llodra E, Tyler PA, Baker MC, Bergstad OA, Clark MR, et al. (2011) Man and the Last Great Wilderness: Human Impact on the Deep Sea. PLoS ONE 6(8): e22588. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0022588

♥ Open-access papers.

THE MEMORIES OF OLD FISHERS

There's an interesting paper just out in PLoS ONE assessing whether or not the memories of old fishers could be useful to science. Specifically, whether their recollections correlate with other fisheries data from recent decades.

The authors write:

Population declines and the extinction of marine organisms may be largely underestimated due to the difficulties involved in making scientific observations. However, data sources other than scientific time-series have proven useful in providing relevant information to marine scientists in cases that are normally considered "data-poor." Some studies have used traditional (or local) ecological knowledge to reconstruct temporal population trends and discover near-extinctions of marine fauna, while studies that compare the results from scientific research with evidence based on fishers' experience have shown that both sources of knowledge give similar results and can be used to detect the essential trends.

(Photo above by Steve Evans via Wikimedia Commons.)

(Monk seal. Via.)

To investigate, the researchers delved into the memories of 106 retired trawl fishers in Italy, Spain and Greece, seeking their impressions of the abundance of long-lived marine species—dolphins, whales, monk seals, marine turtles, and sharks—in the Mediterranean.

During the interviews, the old dudes (pretty sure they were all dudes) were asked to rank abundance of these animals group during three 20-year periods between 1940 and 1999.

 

Their perceptions were based on two indicators:

• Frequency of sightings
• Frequency of catches (incidental or intentional) 

(Via.)

Specifically, they were asked about:

• Intentional catches of dolphins 
• Intentional catches of turtles
  
• Sightings of dolphins, whales, seals, or turtles
• Relative catches of sharks/cartilaginous fishes

Their answers could be: "never," "occasional," "frequent," or "very frequent."

(Trends in catches and sightings of large marine fauna, all areas combined. Credit: Francesc Maynou, et al. PLoS ONE. DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0021818.t001. Larger view here.)

The results were interesting. And sad.

• The frequency of encounters between large marine fauna and fishers declined throughout the latter half of the 20th century.
• The decline continues at the beginning of the 21st century (except in Greece, where some dolphins are experiencing population increases).  
• The commercial catches of sharks and other cartilaginous fishes decreased significantly.  

The authors note that the abundance of monk seal and whales was already so low in the 20th century that the interview data were insufficient for a quantitative analysis.
  

(Angelshark. Photo by Philippe Guillaume via Wikimedia Commons.)

Here's what the fishers' memories revealed about recent extinctions:

[S]moothhounds Mustelus mustelus [a kind of shark] are likely to have disappeared in the Catalan Sea before 1979, and angelsharks Squatina squatina before 1959. In western Italy, angelsharks would have disappeared by the early 1980s near the mainland and the mid-1980s in Sardinia. Smoothhounds became functionally extinct in 1990 in Italy and Greece, with only sporadic records thereafter. The sturgeon Acipenser acipenser had become extinct in the North Adriatic by 1966.

(Photo by catrien via Flickr.)

Bottom line is that fishers are good observers and a largely untapped treasure trove of fish tales about the health of marine ecosystems.

If we accept that commercial trawl fishers are independent observers of the marine system, [our] results suggest that the abundance of large marine fauna has decreased considerably during the 20th century in the Mediterranean Sea (in agreement with the results of other studies), and therefore fishers' observations during a lifetime of professional activity can provide a qualitative measure of this decline.

(Photo via.)

Fish tails welcome too.

Maynou, F., Sbrana, M., Sartor, P., Maravelias, C., Kavadas, S., Damalas, D., Cartes, J., & Osio, G. (2011). Estimating Trends of Population Decline in Long-Lived Marine Species in the Mediterranean Sea Based on Fishers' Perceptions PLoS ONE, 6 (7) DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0021818

THE SECRET WORLD OF SAND

Julio / July from Rafa Herrero Massieu on Vimeo.

Maybe because I spent so many years filming on the Little Bahama Banks, I love the sandy-bottom ocean world. It looks empty, but isn't. 

Everything that emerges, submerges, appears, disappears, swims through frame, or swims out, is highlighted against a perfectly minimalist backdrop that looks featureless, but isn't.

(Photo by Moondigger via Wikimedia Commons.)

HAPPY INTERDEPENDENCE DAY

(Underwater fireworks. Credit: talentfrei79 via Flickr.)

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GLOW-IN-THE-DARK OCEAN

The images:

1) Firefly squid. Via.
2) Jellyfish. Via Flickr.
3) Ctenophore, Bathocyroe fosteri. Credit: Marsh Youngbluth via Wikimedia Commons.
4) Beroe ctenophore. Credit: Shane Anderson via NOAA.
5) Via.
6) Lanternfish, Lampanyctodes hectoris. Via.
7) Comb jelly. Via.
8) Antarctic krill, Euphausia superba. Credit: Uwe Kils via Wikimedia Commons.
9) Via.
10) Via.
11) The final image in this sequence struck me as the single most amazing photograph I've yet seen on the Internet. Here's the Wikimedia Commons' page description:

ARABIAN SEA (Feb. 2, 2011) A Sailor stands watch on the fantail of the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) as bioluminescent organisms and aircraft on final approach light the night around her. The Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group is deployed supporting maritime security operations and theater security cooperation efforts in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class James R. Evans/Released)

MANTA DANCE

Socorro Solmar V from Darek Sepiolo on Vimeo.

HAPPY WORLD OCEAN DAY

(Weedy sea dragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus. Credit: Richard Ling, Rling via Wikimedia Commons.)

In case in the middle of an ordinary dry Wednesday you've forgotten how extraordinary is our ocean planet, here are a few watery reminders.


The Blue Ocean in RED from Howard Hall on Vimeo.

(Squid, possibly the bigfin reef squid, Sepioteuthis lessoniana. Credit:Nhobgood at Wikimedia Commons.)



MAYO / MAY from Rafa Herrero Massieu on Vimeo.

(Giant anemone, Condylactis gigantea. Credit:Nhobgood via Wikimedia Commons.)


Antarctica from Darek Sepiolo on Vimeo.

(Kelp. Credit: FASTILY via Wikimedia Commons.)




This new product released by Google Earth and developed by oceanographers at Columbia's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory promises a dynamic look through darkness to the seafloor. I confess, the extinct filmmaker in me wants to get my hands on this video and edit in some heft. But you can see how cool the perspectives are—how the new layers make Google Earth more oceanlike.

(Great white shark, Carcharodon carcharias. Credit: Pterantula via Wikimedia Commons.)