tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-224241442008-05-23T15:26:14.566-07:00Mark Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10333424116503463839noreply@blogger.comBlogger609125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22424144.post-28848928121291052462008-05-23T08:11:00.000-07:002008-05-23T08:31:45.950-07:00

Seawater that dissolves skeletons? Sounds like a horror movie, but it's now reality. Scientists found CO2-spiked seawater closer to land than expected. It's an excess CO2 scenario that the climate change deniers can't deny, because it doesn't rely on climate. It's simple chemistry, more CO2 in the ocean means higher acid, and eventually it'll corrode shells and skeletons of marine animals.

Mark Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10333424116503463839noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22424144.post-60033482651442385442008-05-22T20:23:00.001-07:002008-05-22T20:37:00.378-07:00

Wow, look at that picture! An orca drives a dolphin out of the water during a chase. Reporters suggest this is the first time people have ever observed orcas hunting their cousin, the dolphin. Off South Africa, 6 people watched a group of 5 orcas cooperate in hunting and killing a dolphin. Then they got in the water with the orcas, who wouldn't? The dolphin in the picture was a lucky one

Mark Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10333424116503463839noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22424144.post-71055814617008017612008-05-21T22:20:00.000-07:002008-05-21T22:20:17.513-07:00

Going with the crowd can be risky for juveniles, especially when it involves a FAD. It can lead to death by capture in a purse seine net, or perhaps to an ecological trap that can harm the group. Fish Aggregating Devices (FADs) are floating objects that attract large and small tuna. Fishermen rely on this poorly-understood aggregating behavior of tuna and use FADs to exploit populations that

Mark Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10333424116503463839noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22424144.post-17642952754213422682008-05-20T12:12:00.000-07:002008-05-22T20:43:06.510-07:00

Face to face with fish bigger than me, maybe 20 of them. Wow. I was swimming along in water about 20 feet deep, and there they were, all around me. Double wow. Not every one bigger than me, but all of them 4-6 feet long, maybe more. Shiny silver tarpon, milling around. They let me come almost within touching distance, then slipped slowly away. I hung around with them for 5 or 10 minutes

Mark Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10333424116503463839noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22424144.post-75136817744261902752008-05-17T14:46:00.000-07:002008-05-17T14:46:59.432-07:00

Buy a sex change in Atlanta airport? Really? Check the photo. The guy on the right seems to be in a hurry, I wonder if he's late for his appointment. OK, I don't know Atlanta very well. I'm just flying through on my way to Key West, and I'm amazed to find a shop with a big sign that says NEW SEX CHANGE. It just looks like a newsstand, with people buying magazines. Then I get it...NEWS

Mark Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10333424116503463839noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22424144.post-8380673114328066632008-05-17T14:20:00.000-07:002008-05-17T14:28:34.224-07:00

Would you pay $1000 for a fish to eat? If you want a whole king salmon from the Copper River today, that's what it'll cost you. First of the year Copper River salmon are in Seattle, but supplies are down and prices are up because of bad weather. At some markets, prices were as high as $50 per pound--$1000 for a 20 pound king like the one in the picture. Those are nice fish, but that's too

Mark Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10333424116503463839noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22424144.post-2130990215513486612008-05-15T23:17:00.000-07:002008-05-15T23:34:39.664-07:00

A small fish now provides a great example of rapid evolution, thanks to an accidental experiment. Pollution control turned Seattle's murky Lake Washington into a beautiful clear lake. Good for us, but the lake's threespine stickleback was suddenly visible to hungry trout. They had to do something quickly if they wanted to survive...evolve. And they did. Threespine sticklebacks in Lake

Mark Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10333424116503463839noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22424144.post-3875975933026884262008-05-14T19:01:00.000-07:002008-05-14T19:01:00.870-07:00

If you love the ocean, then you love plankton. That's why a plankton deficit matters. Plankton feeds everything, including whales, dolphins and fish. Last fall, the normally rich waters of George's bank were not so rich, and a plankton deficit was to blame. The normal fall plankton bloom didn't happen. Perhaps more worrisome, a long-term warming trend is continuing in the region. Some

Mark Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10333424116503463839noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22424144.post-75010741459873441112008-05-13T21:45:00.000-07:002008-05-13T21:51:21.006-07:00

Now here's some good news, toxic pollution levels are going down in our coastal ocean waters. The results come from the US government's Mussel Watch program that has tracked pollution over more than two decades. Toxic pollutants that are decreasing include the following serious problem pollutants: DDT, PCBs, and tributyl-tin. Not everything is peachy keen, some pollutants are still

Mark Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10333424116503463839noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22424144.post-89351819979144938562008-05-13T21:30:00.000-07:002008-05-13T22:08:52.001-07:00

There is an online poll at the bottom of the Saipan Tribune website today asking "Do you support the proposal to create a Marine Monument in the northern (Mariana) islands?" Click the link and scroll down for the poll. You might want to tell them what you think. Swing by the Saipan Blog if you want more info before you vote, and Angelo will give you the word.

Mark Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10333424116503463839noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22424144.post-64757370948400575622008-05-12T15:24:00.000-07:002008-05-12T15:30:04.646-07:00

Who wins when a diving pelican hits a swimmer? The swimmer, a 50 year old woman, got a nasty gash on her face. The pelican died. It's a very unusual event, not to be confused with Hitchcock's "The Birds," which incidentally was filmed in beautiful Bodega Bay where I used to live. The birds there are quite normal.

Mark Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10333424116503463839noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22424144.post-75520451378427575252008-05-11T20:57:00.000-07:002008-05-11T21:00:24.393-07:00

Open the taps and flood the Grand Canyon with a great torrent of water. What a great deal for fish, if only it happened more often. It's like brushing the Grand Canyon's teeth, it's a good idea, and it's necessary for river health. If it happened more often, and was combined with the other flow patterns the river needs, then we'd be doing ecosystem-based management. But as a one-off, this

Mark Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10333424116503463839noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22424144.post-36661158593991713482008-05-09T22:47:00.000-07:002008-05-09T22:49:11.670-07:00

Greenpeace protesters disrupted the Brussels Seafood Show last week, locking themselves to booths, broadcasting messages, and unfurling banners. Why? Greenpeace said "we got our message out today directly to fish suppliers that unless fisheries go sustainable then neither those who trade in fish, nor our fish stocks, have a future." But did they really get their message out to fish suppliers

Mark Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10333424116503463839noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22424144.post-7236657171401895822008-05-08T09:45:00.000-07:002008-05-08T10:29:50.533-07:00

This is the way to advance seafood sustainability! There is now a Common Vision for Sustainable Seafood that is supported by a wide range of conservation groups and seafood businesses. For more information, here is the press release announcing the new effort. If you're a seafood business person and you're interested in helping to advance a shared vision for sustainable seafood, please

Mark Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10333424116503463839noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22424144.post-10197657032331564952008-05-07T20:46:00.000-07:002008-05-08T09:16:18.861-07:00

What was your first taste of conservation? Love of nature? My guess is that your senses were involved before your brain. Maybe you saw something fantastic, or had a blissful time soaking up nature in a beautiful place. Then what happened? You saw a threat and got worried or even angry about harm to nature? If you're like me, you fell in love with nature first, and only later had your

Mark Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10333424116503463839noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22424144.post-84495414290158847012008-05-06T19:10:00.000-07:002008-05-06T20:58:58.065-07:00

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is in the news again. Today, the Washington Post profiles a citizen hero who saw the nasty mess and is trying to do something about plastics in the ocean. Or, if you prefer your news with a sharper edge and a foul tongue, then check out the sharp reporting of VBS-TV as they sail into the Garbage Patch and pull no punches regarding what they find. Why all the

Mark Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10333424116503463839noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22424144.post-50103527827981521182008-05-06T13:44:00.000-07:002008-05-06T13:44:20.128-07:00

Watch out, jumbo squid may be coming to an ocean near you. They're coming at me at least, moving north into Oregon and Washington's ocean waters. And this may be just one more result of climate change. Some worry that the voracious predators will harm already-depleted salmon populations, but we humans should not deflect the credit for that achievement. It's much more fun to ponder the

Mark Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10333424116503463839noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22424144.post-55829805452686522302008-05-05T15:59:00.000-07:002008-05-05T16:25:35.762-07:00

is on an island, thank goodness...far from parts well traveled, in unchartered waters beyond the Sea of Certainty, on the Island of Doubt. This outpost of Scienceblogs.com welcomes all who dare to abandon all dogma. Stop by for the best of ocean blogging if you can do without dogma.

Mark Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10333424116503463839noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22424144.post-480115695865268542008-05-05T11:01:00.000-07:002008-05-05T11:22:36.996-07:00

Give me sunshine and CO2 and I'll make a highly useful and convenient energy source. Sounds too good to be true? Well it isn't. You can kiss climate change goodbye, thanks to a blue-green algae from the ocean. Umm...that is if all the kinks can be worked out. But hey, it's a great concept that deserves a chance. Scientists produced genetically modified cyanobacteria that convert

Mark Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10333424116503463839noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22424144.post-27364998578817732482008-05-03T14:30:00.000-07:002008-05-03T23:17:07.869-07:00

A bad behavior spree by a sea otter that took indecent liberties and actually killed up to 20 young seals a few years back seems more extreme than the much-noted recent example of a a seal that attempted to mate with a penguin. Somehow, the heinous otter crimes have gone unnoticed. The story is that at least two sea otters sexually assaulted young seals and killed the victims through drowning

Mark Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10333424116503463839noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22424144.post-71751905134819933702008-05-02T11:43:00.000-07:002008-05-02T11:43:49.240-07:00

Bad news from the deep dark and scary ocean, a new sea monster is rising from the depths and threatening people. Or at least it's threatening our uses of the ocean. It's toxic water with no oxygen, and it's getting worse thanks to global warming. Low oxygen dead zones are not a new thing, but a new study says that the dead zones are getting bigger and scarier, probably because of global

Mark Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10333424116503463839noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22424144.post-53805955159523749962008-05-01T11:46:00.000-07:002008-05-01T11:46:43.224-07:00

Some stranded people were rescued from a remote Pacific Island. The question is: why would anyone want to leave? No, it's not Gilligan's Island, it's Palmyra. It's beautiful, pristine, perfect, and why would anyone want to leave? I suppose it would get old after a while, but I'd love the chance to find out how long I'd have to be there before I got tired of it and wanted to leave.

Mark Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10333424116503463839noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22424144.post-75624570693609781392008-04-29T22:31:00.000-07:002008-04-29T22:31:22.774-07:00

Will our oceans get hammered by climate change? Is it true that corals are already being harmed by climate change? The US Congress wants to know, and decided to ask a panel of experts in a hearing today. The answers? Climate change is already harming oceans, and corals are the canaries in the coal mine, showing impacts before most other ocean life. Climate change is first an ocean issue.

Mark Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10333424116503463839noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22424144.post-42193369337212417922008-04-29T09:47:00.000-07:002008-04-29T09:53:15.619-07:00

Yes, it's true for corals just like people. Share the love and you'll be glad you did. Saving corals is an economic miracle. Worldwide, corals generate $9.6 billion per year in money that people can put in their pockets, thanks to coral-related tourism alone. That's a lot of love that corals give us. Will we return the favor and do what it takes to save corals? Or will we piss away all

Mark Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10333424116503463839noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22424144.post-48680269504867225722008-04-29T09:30:00.001-07:002008-04-29T09:38:16.769-07:00

Hold onto your hats, it's Coral Week at Deep-Sea News. Did you know that some corals glow? Or why some places have more corals? Well, join your genial hosts Craig (right), Peter, and Kevin, along with some special guest bloggers, as they tell you some strange and wonderful things about corals. And who is that man in the photo anyway, looking so Neptune-ish? Go to Deep-Sea News and find

Mark Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10333424116503463839noreply@blogger.com