MarineBio Blog

There’s hope for polar bears, and other species at-risk due to global warming, if they are listed as a threatened or endangered species by the US Dept. of the Interior. The Bush administration, currently in violation of the Endangered Species Act for missing the deadline for a listing decision, has until May 15th based on a ruling by Judge Claudia Wilken. The decision to list the polar bear as an endangered species was due in January 2008, but the Bush administration claimed that they needed more time. After two more months passed without a decision, Greenpeace, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Center for Biological Diversity sued the Dept. of the Interior to force them to make a ruling. According to Kassie Siegel who authored the scientific petition to protect polar bears

“The polar bear needs protection now, which is why we asked a federal judge to end this delay… By May 15th, the polar bear should receive the protection it deserves under the Endangered Species Act, which is the first step towards saving the polar bear and the entire Arctic ecosystem from global warming.”

Judge Wilken ruled that the decision to list the polar bear on the endangered species list go into effect immediately, waiving the normal 30-day waiting period. This decision was based on a pending proposal to allow oil industry operations in the Chukchi Sea – a critical polar bear habitat. Federal protection under the Endangered Species Act will subject oil industry proposals to increased scrutiny. In addition, Senator John Kerry introduced a bill that would stop leasing and drilling activity in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas until the impacts of drilling on polar bears are fully understood. Though polar bears are at-risk due to disturbances in their habitat, global warming is a bigger threat. The IUCN cites global warming as the number one threat to polar bears; therefore, listing polar bears as an endangered species will be a landmark decision as polar bears will become the first species cited as endangered due to global warming.

The NRDC website explains why climate change is a threat to polar bears:

Global warming, caused by the build up of man-made carbon dioxide, is causing Arctic sea ice to melt at an alarming rate. Over the past three decades, over a million square miles of sea ice — an area the size of Norway, Denmark and Sweden combined — has disappeared. This trend could prove catastrophic for the polar bear. Without protection, the polar bear could become the first mammal to lose 100 percent of its habitat to global warming.

The polar bear is considered a marine mammal — like walruses, seals and whales — because its main habitat is sea ice. They need that ice as a platform for hunting, for travel to denning areas to give birth, and for mating. As their sea ice melts and their food sources decline, polar bears are forced to swim further and further to ever-distant ice floes. During these extremely arduous swims, polar bears are increasingly drowning. And scientists predict that as the movement of sea ice increases, some bears will lose contact with a main body of ice and drift into unsuitable habitat, making it impossible to return.

As temperatures increase, scientists also expect that more rain will fall during the Arctic’s late winter and spring. Unseasonable rains have already caused the snowy dens that shelter polar bear mothers and their newborn cubs to collapse, killing all the bears inside. What’s more, as a result of the decrease in sea ice, polar bear females may not gain enough weight to reproduce cubs with enough insulating fat, jeopardizing their ability to survive.

In the spring of 2006, three adult female polar bears and one yearling were found dead. Two of these females had no fat stores and apparently starved to death. Even worse, scientists project that by 2012 — just five years from now — most female polar bears in Western Hudson Bay may not be able to reach the minimum 417 pounds of body mass needed to successfully reproduce. Some polar bears have even been recorded cannibalizing other bears, including a female polar bear in her maternal den. This extreme behavior has never been observed in decades of polar bear study.

Make your voice heard. There are a number of petitions online where you can let the Bush administration know that polar bears need protection. Sign them all!

NRDC - polar bear petition to support the Kerry bill

We Can Solve It - petition to list the polar bear as an endangered species

Polar bear central petition to stop global warming and preserve critical habitat (Canada)

Sierra club action alert for polar bear protection

Statement from Chris Mann, Pew Environment Group, on OCEANS 21 

Release Type: Pew Press Release
Pew Contact: Justin Kenney, 215.575.4816

Washington, DC - 04/23/2008 - Statement from Chris Mann, Senior Officer and Director of the Campaign for Healthy Oceans, Pew Environment Group, on OCEANS 21:

Today, the U.S. House Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife, and Oceans is marking up the Ocean Conservation, Education, and National Strategy for the 21st Century Act (OCEANS 21). To date, this bill represents the most comprehensive package of ocean conservation reforms recommended by two blue-ribbon panels. “Almost five years after the Pew Oceans Commission and the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy warned that our oceans were in serious trouble, Congress is finally poised to act.”

“OCEANS 21 establishes a national policy to protect, maintain and restore the health of our marine ecosystems. It creates a process by which federal, state and local government agencies can better coordinate their activities to achieve goals and milestones for improving ocean health. This bill also gives the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, for the first time, a clear, statutory mission to carry out ocean observation, research and conservation.”

“For too long, decisions affecting our oceans have been made with little regard for the health and productivity of the broader marine ecosystem. OCEANS 21 will change that.”

And, in other Pew News:

Penguins on the Brink?

Belleville News-Democrat
Author: Gerald Leape

04/23/2008 - Antarctic penguins have fascinated people since they were first discovered by Magellan’s expedition in 1520; the expedition historian called them “strange geese,” while the crew used the fearless birds as a source of food. Today, thanks to a combination of man-made climate change and increased fishing for krill - the bread and butter for many penguin species - these flightless birds are up against threats far greater than that posed by Magellan’s hungry sailors.

The next few months may prove critical for the penguins, as a series of scientific conferences, culminating in an international policy meeting this fall, could make their lives easier - or perpetuate challenges for which millions of years of evolution never prepared them.

Although the Antarctic was once thought largely immune to the ravages of global warming, a steady stream of recent research has painted quite a different picture. According to the British Antarctic Survey, surface temperatures in Antarctica have risen by nearly 3 degrees Centigrade (5 degrees Fahrenheit) over the last 50 years - about 10 times the global average. Alarmingly, research by leading biologists has found that many of the iconic animals who call the Antarctic home, including several species of penguins, are experiencing sharp population declines.

Along the northwestern coast of the Antarctic Peninsula, the population of Adelie penguins, one of the best known of all penguin species for their classic tuxedo-like look, has plummeted 65 percent over the past 25 years. And king penguins, according to a recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could be extinct within the next two decades. Researchers have also indicated that emperor, chinstrap and gentoo penguins - which, along with Adelies, are the only four penguin species that breed on the Antarctic continent itself - might not be far behind.

While global warming is destroying their habitat, man now is also competing with penguins for their principal food: a tiny, yet invaluable shrimp-like animal known as Antarctic krill. Measuring only a couple of centimeters in size, krill comprise the largest biomass in the Southern Ocean and serve as a key element in the Antarctic food chain - providing food for scores of penguin, whale and seal species. Yet even krill have to eat, and with a reduction in sea ice due to the warmer water associated with climate change, krill cannot find enough plankton on which to forage. This, in turn, sets in motion a chain reaction felt throughout the Antarctic food web.

The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, an organization comprising 25 member nations whose vessels fish in Antarctic waters, manages krill in the Southern Ocean. Last year the commission, which includes the United States, took important steps to regulate krill fishing by strengthening the system used to gather information from fishing vessels about the amount of krill caught each year. But with growing interest in krill as a source of feed for farmed salmon and of omega-3 oils for health supplements, we risk a significant expansion of fishing that could potentially undo these reforms.

The commission has been a pioneer in the management of marine resources. It is critical, moving forward, that it manages fishing not just with the goal of protecting the fish, but also with the objective of ensuring the survival of other parts of an ecosystem that depend on them - as penguins do on krill.

Over the next several months scientists and diplomats from many nations will hold a series of meetings, as policymakers prepare for the commission’s annual gathering this fall. The Bush administration should ensure that the commission follows through on its pledge to implement its new polices for managing krill fishing.

It is also critical that the United States act quickly to cut its own carbon pollution and lead the world in implementing a new international treaty to avoid the worst impacts of global warming.

For decades, the United States has been a leader in protecting the Antarctic and its vast natural resources from short-sighted commercial exploitation. By holding the commission’s actions to its words, the White House can ensure that the international commission continues to employ broad, science-based approaches to the management of marine resources well past the date when President Bush leaves office.

We may have moved beyond using the Antarctic’s “strange geese” as food ourselves, but we’ll need to regulate carefully our consumption of the penguin’s own food if we want to stop the march into danger for these beloved birds.

Gerald Leape directs The Pew Charitable Trusts’ Antarctic Krill Conservation Project.

A Global Map of Human Impacts to Marine Ecosystems

We can all change our behavior for a week, or a day - why not Earth Year? Or Earth Decade? Or Earth Millenium! I know, Earth Day/Week is a good opportunity to raise awareness. So… why didn’t I blog last week? Because I was too busy swapping incandescent for flourescent lightbulbs? Because I was composting? No… because I was in a conference at a large downtown Atlanta hotel where, being aware of the fact that it was Earth Week, I cringed at all the excess. Did we consume water poured into glasses out of pitchers? Nope, small bottles of water and canned soft drinks were provided - waste (at least the coffee was served in mugs not styrofoam). Was my hotel room temperature a nice, even no heat or A/C necessary in the gorgeous spring weather? Nope, it was frosty with the A/C blasting. Did I even have the option to re-use my towels? Nope, all 12 of them were swapped out each day. Um, I’m not that dirty. The human impact on this planet is huge - and getting bigger all the time. National Geographic recently aired a series called “Tracing the Human Footprint” that discusses the first map that traces human impact on Earth. This is great! It’s scary and fascinating to know what we’re inflicting on Planet Earth. Even more relevant to MarineBio is a global map of human impact on the ocean published by the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS), a research center of the University of California, Santa Barbara. In answer to the question “why map the human impact to the world’s oceans?” The NCEAS says:

What happens in the vast stretches of the world’s oceans - both wondrous and worrisome - has too often been out of sight, out of mind. The sea represents the last major scientific frontier on planet earth - a place where expeditions continue to discover not only new species, but even new phyla. The role of these species in the ecosystem, where they sit in the tree of life, and how they respond to environmental changes really do constitute mysteries of the deep. Despite technological advances that now allow people to access, exploit or affect nearly all parts of the ocean, we still understand very little of the ocean’s biodiversity and how it is changing under our influence. The goal of the research presented here is to estimate and visualize, for the first time, the global impact humans are having on the ocean’s ecosystems. Our analysis, published in Science, February 15, 2008 (no subscription required), shows that over 40% of the world’s oceans are heavily affected by human activities and few if any areas remain untouched.

No need to say anymore - check it out for yourself!