Kris Holderied, who directs the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Kasitsna Bay Laboratory, says the ocean’s increasing acidity is “the reason fishermen stop me in the grocery store.” “They say, ‘You’re with the NOAA lab, what are you doing on ocean acidification?’ ” Holderied said. “This is a coastal town that depends on this ocean, and [...]
A recent assessment of submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) monitoring programs revealed a global decline in the underwater plants’ abundance even though they are recognized worldwide for their many important ecological functions such as providing essential habitat for many commercially important species of fish, shellfish, and invertebrates. North Carolina has the third largest total area of SAV between Maine [...]
A research paper published this week reveals that large die-offs of algae locally magnify ocean acidification. As the cells die and sinks to the bottom, the bacteria population that feeds on them swells in response, consuming more oxygen and releasing more carbon dioxide (CO2). The CO2 reacts in seawater to form acidic compounds that lower [...]
A new kind of witchy interaction is underway in the oceans, report the authors of a new paper in Environmental Science & Technology. William G. Sunda and Wei-Jun Cai created a model to predict how CO2 from water pollution—that is, runoff from chemical fertilizers (farms), human waste (sewage), and animal waste (feedlots, ranches), plus nitrogen [...]
Over the course of the last week, our “Saving the Ocean” video crew touched shores and reefs of the Bahamas, Florida and Mexico. Each time we landed on the sea floor, we quickly found lionfish. How could they have spread in the Atlantic so quickly after being nonexistent here just 20 years ago? Something that [...]
On August 29, researchers at the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS) published an analysis of NOAA Mussel Watch Program contaminant monitoring data for mercury and methylmercury levels and distributions around the Gulf of Mexico. Data gathered from oyster and sediment samples from Texas to Florida revealed relatively elevated mercury concentrations (hotspots) in the [...]
This August, neighboring scientists in Beaufort, NC organized and taught a course focusing on the fundamentals of acoustics: communication and hearing of marine mammals, measuring impacts of ocean noise, fisheries sonar, and measuring sound in the ocean. Along with lectures on active and passive acoustics from visiting scientists from universities and non-governmental agencies in California, Washington, Tasmania, United [...]
Lionfish removal efforts in some Mexican protected marine areas are controlling local populations, according to a collaborative study by NOAA and Mexico’s National Commission of Federally Protected Areas (known by its Spanish acronym CONANP, for Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas). The two groups monitored lionfish inside two MPAs along the Yucatán Peninsula during the summer of [...]