SeaMonster blog
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Breaking News: No High Seas commitment at Rio+20
According to an Oceansinc release, negotiators at the Rio+20 have already dropped any immediate promise to protect the high seas – those distant parts of the ocean beyond national boundaries. US, Canada, Japan, Venezuela and Russia have blocked relatively strong language in the conference text to protect the high seas and left Rio+20 with a decision…
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Arctic sea ice still loosing ground
Iv’e be following trends in arctic sea ice more than is probably healthy (or normal) since I worked on Hudson Bay with Polar Bears International last November. The graphics say it all. Read more about this here, here, and here.
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The NC sea level rise saga: reply to Dave Burton
Dave Burton of NC 20 published a reply here to recent post I did about natural and human-caused sea level rise, “Sea Level Rise 101“. This is a reply to his post and a clarification of some of his many misconceptions about sea level rise science. I want to start by saying that my interests in the NC…
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Top ten lionfish facts
From Death to lionfish 10 What’s with the name, lionfish? Nobody knows for sure how they got their name, but when they spread out their pectoral fins it sort of looks like a lion’s mane. And they are ferocious predators. The scientific name for the species is Pterois volitans (pronounced, Tare-oh-ease vol-eh-tawns). Pterois = wing or fin, from…
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Biodiversity and the battle for Planet Earth: The graphic novel
[Editor’s note: It’s been a big month for the science of biodiversity and an exciting time to be a part of it. Last week, Nature came out with its issue commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Rio meeting that first put biodiversity on the world’s radar screen and spawned the Convention on Biological Diversity. The…
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Good news for the Coral Sea
It’s been announced that Australian waters will soon be home to the world’s second largest no-take marine reserve. Half a million square kms of the Coral Sea will be out of bounds to the oil & gas industry as well as fisheries – it will include around one third of the coral reefs in the…
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The NC sea level rise saga: mid-week update
This story is moving rapidly – sadly mostly in the wrong direction. • The NC senate passed a slightly modified version of the houses bill Tuesday. The senates version states “rates shall only be determined using historical data, and these data shall be limited to the time period following the year 1900. Rates of sea-level rise may be…
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Marine reserves gather steam
This is a nice piece in the WaPost by the wonderful Juliet Eilperin about two new Marine Protected Area networks. One inaccuracy is that the piece conflates marine reserves and Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). Marine reserves are a sub-category of MPA in which no extraction or other harmful activities are allowed. I also remain very concerned about…
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Sea level rise 101
Based on the NC legislature’s decree about the science of sea level rise projections and some of the related propaganda we have seen from climate change deniers, I get the sense there is a lot of confusion about sea level rise. So here is a primer on what we know about sea level and climate…
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Coral microbes – the movie!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJPva6ZLuDc[/youtube]
Got any book recommendations?