Conservation

Number Of Florida Loggerhead Nests On Track To Reach Record High This Year

Currently considered a threatened species, loggerhead sea turtles have been teetering towards being classified as endangered for many years. However, this summer there seems to be good news for these turtles. Instead of the depressingly low number of nests we have seen in recent years, the number of loggerhead nests this season is relatively high.

Along the southern Atlantic coast of Florida are the most densely populated nesting sites for loggerhead sea turtles. One nonprofit that studies these animals is the Loggerhead Marinelife Center in Juno Beach. The nonprofit keeps track of the sea turtles that nest on approximately 9.5 miles of beaches. In their area, a total of 10,977 loggerhead nests were found last season. This year, they have already logged 7,757 and the season is not even halfway over. According to the director of the center, Tom Longo, “we’re on pace to be over 20,000 this year. That’s a record for loggerheads.”

On other parts of the coast, the record-breaking trend continues. The turtles have been under protection for decades, so it seems like those years of effort may be paying off for the turtles. Protection includes certified biologists moving sea turtle eggs into better locations when the nest is in a bad spot and the exclusion of predators like raccoons and coyotes.

Hopefully this year will finish out strong for the loggerhead sea turtles!

Conservation

Five New Coral Reefs Discovered In The Gulf Of Mexico

Although many coral reefs are dying around the world, there is a glimmer of hope. Scientists have found five new coral reefs in the Gulf of Mexico that are beginning to build, even as other reefs are dying elsewhere in the world.

The new coral reefs are named Corazones, Pantepec South, Piedras Altas, Los Gallos, and Camaronera. These newly discovered reefs are near older reefs that form the Reef Corridor of the Southwest Gulf of Mexico. In total, these new reefs are part of a corridor that stretches at least 310 miles. The biological importance of this corridor cannot be understated.

Coral reefs provide habitat and breeding grounds for many ocean dwelling creatures. The researchers who discovered these reefs are working to protect them before oil and gas companies move into the region.

Leonardo Ortiz Lozano, one of the researchers that discovered the reefs says, “We want the coral corridor to be officially recognized to protect it from the fossil fuel industry. What’s most important is that these sites are where hundreds of fishermen receive their nourishment and work. It’s important to protect these sites, but it’s necessary to maintain the fishing industry.”

Protecting coral reefs around the world is a top priority as many face the threat of demise.

Conservation

NOAA Offers Reward For Information About A Recent Dolphin Spearing

Featured Image: The Epoch Times

In May, a dolphin was found dead in the waters near the upper Captiva Island. The body of the dolphin had been badly battered but spear marks were easily identified. Under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, it is illegal to harass a dolphin and harming the animal in any way is expressly forbidden.

The dolphin has a six inch gash near its eye that had clotted blood. The body was taken in for a necropsy to try to discern the extent of its injuries. The results showed that the dolphin was impaled in its head with a spear or a spearlike object.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, at least 26 dolphins have been victims of violence in the Gulf of Mexico since 2002. Most of these dolphins were impaled in some way or shot by a gun. This particular dolphin was last seen swimming around fishing boats begging for food scraps. Unfortunately, when dolphins are fed by humans their behaviors change for the worse. For this reason, it is illegal to feed wild dolphins.

If you have any information about the details surrounding the death of this dolphin, please report it to NOAA. There is a $38,000 reward for information that leads to the capture of the perpetrator. You can call the NOAA enforcement hotline at 1-800-853-1964.

Conservation

Regulations Aim To Protect Whales From Getting Entangled In Fishing Gear

Featured Image: Pacific Standard

The Dungeness crabbing industry has a strong presence in Oregon waters. However, the whales that call these waters home are struggling to live in the same environment, with many whales becoming entangled with crabbing gear over the course of the crabbing season.

As of July 16th, 12 whales have been entangled, mostly with commercial fishing and crabbing gear. In response, the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission has recommended several options to decrease the number of entanglement cases.

A few of the recommendations include new gear identification tags and equipment removal requirements before the end of the season. The assistant project leader of Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife shellfish program says”our primary goal is to have gear in Oregon’s waters marked so we can identify which fisheries may be coming into contact with whales. Right now we’re just in a tracking process of being able to identify which gear may be coming into contact with whales and when.”

If approved, the new regulations will go into effect on January 1, 2020. The goal of the agency is to work with crabbing and fishing industries to create safer waters for the whales without harming the livelihoods of these fishermen.

Conservation

Tour Group Spots Mass Stranding Of Whales In Iceland

Featured Image: Livescience.com

Earlier this month, dozens of pilot whales littered a remote beach in Iceland after a mass stranding. Unfortunately, by the time the animals were spotted they were already deceased. The original sighting was made by tour group in a sightseeing helicopter that happened to pass over the remote area.

The pilot of the helicopter, David , had this to say, “We were flying northbound over the beach and then we saw them. We were circling over it, not sure if it was whales, seals, or dolphins. We landed and counted about 60, but there must have been more because there were fins sticking out of the sand.”

The gruesome scene was hard to see and it was too late to call for help. It is still unclear why the whales stranded. According to Edda Eliabet Magnusdottir, a marine biologist, “the most important thing to look at is that these are deep sea whales common at the continental margin. They mainly feed on s quid, which is why they’re good at diving deep. When they enter shallow waters, most of them have a tendency to become disoriented. They use echolocation for orientation, for finding one another, estimating the depth, and so on. But a sloping, sandy bottom appears to increase their disorientation. There are numerous examples of them having beached where there is such a sandy, sloping bottom. ”

In a similar incident, dozens of pilot whales stranded on St. Simon Island in Georgia this month.

Conservation

Clipper The Whale Killed By Boat Strike Off The Coast Of Canada

Featured Image: Andersen Cabot Center For Ocean Life

In 2016, Clipper the whale was spotted with her calf by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The healthy female had given birth to a calf but the pair was struggling to leave the shallow water. As they drifted closer to shore, everyone was worried that the calf would not survive. However, the pair eventually made it back out to sea and continued their journey.

Unfortunately, Clipper died in the Gulf of St. Lawrence earlier this year after being hit by a ship. Clipper is one of six North Atlantic Right Whales that have died in Canada this summer.

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officials, say, “given the vulnerability of the North Atlantic right whales to extinction, recent news from Canada on the deaths of six North Atlantic right whales along with two new entanglements has alarmed conservation leaders. With fewer than 100 breeding females left in the population, and only 7 right whale calves sighted during the 2019 calving season, preventing right whale deaths is of vital importance.”

The total population of North Atlantic right whales continues to dwindle each year, bringing the species perilously close to complete extinction. Their plight stems from decades of unrestrained whaling operations that left the population in shambles. Although Canada has speed regulations and fishing management strategies in place to protect the whales, researchers and activists hope that more stringent regulations will be put in place to further protect the endangered species.

Baby Animals

Global Warming Has Halted The Birth Of Male Sea Turtles

The negative impacts of global warming on the world’s oceans are well known. Ice caps are melting, coral is bleaching and sea turtles are all being born female. Wait, what was that last one?

The Science Of Sex Ratios

The sex of sea turtles is determined by the temperature of the sand in which the eggs incubate. Warmer sand means more females, but typically both sexes are represented in turtle nests. This is not the case anymore in Florida, where researchers have found that in 7 of the last 10 years 100% of the hatchlings were female.

Florida is of vital importance to three turtle species: leatherback, loggerhead, and green turtles. In recent years, all three of these species have been producing all female nests. This trend becomes even more striking when you consider that leatherback turtles nest early in the year, while green turtles nest closer to fall. These species should have more male offspring because they nest during cooler months, but even they have been affected by overall rising temperatures.

It’s Not Just Florida Either

Australia’s Raine Island is the biggest green sea turtle nesting ground in the Pacific. A 2018 study showed that the ratio of turtles born here was 116 females to one male. The study showed that 40 years ago, nests were also mostly female, but the ratio at that time was 6 to 1. In contrast, turtles born in the last 20 years were 99% female. A third study conducted with green turtles in Guinea-Bissau, West Africa showed similar results.

All Hope Isn’t Lost

Sea Turtles are an incredibly resilient species. They have existed in some form for 200 million years, withstanding multiple extinction events. The species is good at adapting to changes in their habitat, and one male turtle can impregnate many females. So the biggest question isn’t whether the species is capable of evolving, instead it is whether they can evolve as fast as the climate is changing.

Conservation

Exciting New Technology Being Tested To Combat Ocean Plastic Pollution

Featured Image: Business Insider

The Plastic Scourge

In recent years, it has become common knowledge that plastics, especially single use ones, are harming the world’s oceans. Right now, there are more pieces of plastic in the ocean than there are stars in the Milky Way. There are five massive “patches” in the world where plastic pollution has concentrated. The largest of these patches lies between California and Hawaii and is the size of Texas. It has gotten so bad that by 2050 scientists project that all the plastic in the ocean will outweigh all the fish.

Animals like turtles and whales cannot distinguish between food and plastic. As a result more and more animals are being found dead with huge amounts of plastic in their stomachs. In March, a dead whale was found to have 88 pounds of plastic in its belly. Ingestion isn’t the only way ocean plastics are harming marine life. Every year about 100,000 animals die from plastic entanglement. Luckily, some enterprising scientists are working on solutions to end, or at least mitigate, the amount of plastic currently wreaking havoc in the ocean.

FRED To The Rescue

Interns from the University of San Diego are currently testing a new invention called FRED, or the Floating Robot for Eliminating Debris. FRED is a solar powered robot with a conveyor belt that moves trash from the water into a collection bin. FRED features a camera on the inside of its roof which serves as the eyes for the operator controlling the robot from shore.

The version currently being tested is the second-phase of a four-phase project. If everything goes as planned, phase 4 will come online in 2023. The current prototype can run for 3 to 5 hours, but designers aim to create a version that can run 24/7.

BIG Problem, Nano Solution

On the other side of the world, researchers published a paper detailing a different solution to the same problem. A study recently published in Matter, details a new type of nanotechnology that might help break down the plastic in the ocean. Researchers created tiny “nano-coils” that create chemical reactions that can break down the microplastics in the ocean by converting plastic into carbon dioxide and water.

The nano-coils are microscopic tubes shaped like bed springs. The coils are made of carbon and coated with nitrogen and manganese. The latter two elements interact with the nano-coils to create reactive oxygen molecules. These molecules then attack and break down microplastics.

Researchers added the nano-coils to water samples and observed a 30-50% reduction in microplastics in an 8 hour period. The coils can then be removed from the water using magnets for reuse.

Like FRED, this technology is still at the proof of concept stage, but it is still an exciting step towards a healthier, less polluted ocean.

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