Tag: Oceans

Closing Thought–09Oct19

We all know about, if not we should, about all the pollution in the oceans of this world. Of course all think something has got to be done to curb this trend…..one cruise line will do their part…..

When it comes to the environment and sustainability, cruise ships and many cruise ship operators get failing grades when it comes to controlling carbon emissions, recycling, and treating water, waste, and sewage.

But thanks to new technology and the scrutiny of passengers, government agencies, and environmental groups, the tide is beginning to turn.

Norwegian cruise operator Hurtigruten just launched the world’s first hybrid electric-powered expedition ship, the 530-passenger MS Roald Amundsen. The vessel is named for the Norwegian explorer who was the first person to navigate the Northwest Passage by boat and the first person to cross Antarctica and reach the South Pole.

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/travel/first-electric-cruise-ship-hopes-turn-tide-war-against-ocean-n1062581

I think that it is noble to switch from petrol to electric but will that curb the amount of pollution dumped into our oceans?

The cruise ships seem to be a problem in themselves…

Princess Cruise Lines Ltd. has been hit with a record-setting criminal penalty for deliberate pollution. The California-based cruise line — a subsidiary of Carnival Corporation, the largest cruise company in the world — pled guilty to felony charges for illegal dumping of oil contaminated waste. It will pay a $40 million fine as part of a plea agreement, the Department of Justice reported.

The case came to light after an engineer reported that employees aboard the Caribbean Princess were using a “magic pipe” to dump oily waste off the coast of England in 2013 in order to save money. It is inarguably troubling, not least because the chief engineer’s response to the whistleblower was to attempt a cover up. (The same man was known by the crew as a broccino corto, the DOJ notes, an Italian phrase for an exceptionally frugal man whose arms are too short to reach his wallet.) The ship had a long history of environmental violations, going back at least to 2005.

https://psmag.com/news/how-cruise-ships-are-polluting-our-oceans

Like I said before…I am not so sure that the pollution problem will be solved by the switch to electric.

Thoughts?

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Where’d It Go?

(Heavy sigh)…….finally the weekend has arrived and the peace and solitude that I so enjoy will be mine….at least for a couple of days………

I recall a couple of years ago I read a report about all the “junk”, plastic and crap, that is floating around our fragile oceans…….one report said there was a huge floating island in the Pacific made up of plastic and stuff and that it would eventually make it to the US west Coast……

News update!

Newser) – Millions of tons of plastic thought to be floating around the world’s oceans have gone missing. But that’s not the good news one might think. According to a new study, marine animals could be ingesting our garbage, reports the Verge. Up to 99% of the most microscopic plastic particles in the ocean is missing, says a study co-author. Science Mag reports that they went looking for it between 2010 and 2011 around five large ocean gyres—the most famous such island of waste is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch—and augmented their search with studies of 3,070 samples from other expeditions, according to LiveScience. What did they find? That there is at most 40,000 tons of plastic in our oceans, even though humans produce 300 million tons of plastic a year, and 0.1% of that ends up in the oceans via rivers, floods, storms, or ships, says Science Mag.

The ocean’s plastics are microscopic—ground to tiny pieces by waves and solar radiation until it looks like fish food. A scientist not associated with the study says it’s “indisputable” that lanternfish and other small fish are eating the plastic—and it’s impossible to know exactly how much. These small fish, which are likely ingesting toxins like DDT, PCBs, or mercury, are then gobbled by commercial fish. “We are part of this food web,” says a study co-author. Scientists say further research is needed, especially since estimates about how much plastic is entering the ocean is 50 years old. (Some of our plastic is even turning into rocks.)

Okay readers!  Where do you think it has gone?

The ‘Dead Zones’

Coming to a body of water near on you.

Dead zones – areas of oxygen-depleted bottom waters – are spreading at an alarming rate in coastal waters, killing off huge amounts of marine life, a new study has found.

In a paper published today in Science, Robert Diaz, a biological oceanographer at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, and Rutger Rosenberg, a marine ecologist at Sweden’s Göteborg University, identified more than 400 dead zones worldwide, affecting an area of more than 95,000 square miles, an area roughly the size of Oregon. The number and size of these dead zones are far greater than previously estimated.

While some dead zones occur naturally, many are caused or exacerbated by chemical fertilizer runoff, fossil fuels, and rain. The fertilizer, which is rich in nitrogen compounds, is washed away from farmlands into rivers and ends up in the ocean. Burning fossil fuels produces airborne nitrogen oxides, which the rain washes into the ocean.

The nitrogen compounds feed massive algae blooms. When the algae dies, it sinks to the ocean floor where it is consumed by microbes, which also consume oxygen in the process. As the oxygen is depleted, creating a condition called hypoxia, marine life that can flee does, and life that cannot – some fish but also clams, crustaceans, and other bottom dwellers – die of asphyxiation. At that point, microbes that live in oxygen-free environments begin to thrive and produce hydrogen sulfide, a poisonous gas. Most dead zones are seasonal, as the algae thrives in warm water.

Pacific Is Becoming More Acidic

Waters along North America’s Pacific coast are becoming more acidic, posing a threat to marine life, federal scientists reported Friday — adding that while that fits global warming scenarios, no one had expected the acidification to happen so soon.

Acidification describes the process, natural or manmade, of ocean water becoming corrosive as a result of carbon dioxide being absorbed from the atmosphere.

The researchers said anthropogenic, or manmade, emissions of carbon dioxide are likely to blame since the acidified water that is being “upwelled” seasonally from the deeper ocean is from the last 50 years, a period when the burning of fossil fuels raised CO2 levels dramatically.Ocean acidification may be seriously impacting marine life on our continental shelf right now,” study co-author Richard Feely said in a statement released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which co-sponsored the study along with NASA and the National Science Foundation.

Feely, a NOAA oceanographer, noted that while the ability of oceans to absorb carbon dioxide helps mitigate warming, “the change in the ocean chemistry affects marine life, particularly organisms with calcium carbonate shells, such as corals, mussels, mollusks, and small creatures in the early stages of the food chain.”

NOAA echoed the experts’ findings. “Acidification of the Earth’s ocean water could have far-reaching impacts on the health of our near-shore environment, and on the sustainability of ecosystems that support human populations,” said NOAA assistant administrator Richard Spinrad.

Oh great!  Just the news we need and a president that thinks it is from cow farts.