Posts by Paul:
The Great Pacific Plastic Garbage Patch
April 6th, 2010Until recently, many people had never heard about or seen pictures of a massive floating patch of discarded plastic waste larger than Texas floating in middle of the Pacific Ocean. Victims include sea birds, fish, sea turtles, ocean mammals, and ultimately humans, creators of the “Throw-away Society.”
Kate Bradshaw, writing for Maui Time, estimates the massive floating plastic patch is twice the size of Texas:
The Great Garbage Swirl http://www.mauitime.com/Articles-i-2009-01-29-68584.113117_The_great_garbage_swirl.html
Please invest seven minutes to watch this riveting presentation concerning this deadly problem by Captain Charles Moore, who is credited with having discovered this symptom of a planet gone mad: Captain Charles Moore’s Presentation http://www.ted.com/talks/capt_charles_moore_on_the_seas_of_plastic.html
The article below, by Jacob Silverman, provides additional information, and links to numerous sources illustrating how humans have turned the world’s largest ocean into the world’s largest “landfill”.
Pacific Ocean = World’s largest “Landfill” http://science.howstuffworks.com/great-pacific-garbage-patch.htm
Finally, this Wikipedia link provides detailed diagrams of how the ocean currents distribute out plastic waste into massive patches:
Wikipedia Link To Ocean Plastic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_Garbage_Patch#Plastic_photodegradation_in_the_ocean
What We Can Do:
1. Become informed. Read the above links or explore on your own.
2. Support conservation efforts toward recycling plastics.
3. Use less plastic! For example, don’t purchase water in those small bottles, which clog landfills or end up floating in the ocean. Instead, fill re-usable containers, and/or install home-based water purification systems.
This Chris Jordan photo (http://www.chrisjordan.com), showing a dead albatross on Midway Atoll, illustrates the point. Clearly seen in the decayed bird’s stomach are a plastic cigarette lighter, bottle caps and miscellaneous plastic trash.
Albatross, killed by ingesting floating plastic
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Sea Turtles In Crisis
February 6th, 2010PUT SEA TURTLE FLYING OVER SANTA ROSA WALL HERE
All sea turtle species (green, hawksbill, Kemp’s ridley, leatherback, loggerghead, and olive ridley) are officially classified as either “threatened” or “endangered.” They are in trouble for many reasons. One is natural predators: Turtles are menu favorites for tiger sharks, and hatchlings are devoured by sea-birds as they scamper across the beach seeking safety in the waves.
Hawksbill Turtle Flying Over Santa Rosa Wall
But their most significant threat is from earth’s number one apex predator: humans. Coastal development destroys nesting and foraging habitats. Shore lighting confuses turtles’ navigation ability, since they rely on moonlight and starlight. Commercial fishing gear (gillnets, baited long-lines, trawl nets, etc.), kill thousands of turtles every year as wasted “bycatch.” Finally, tens of thousands are taken directly by humans annually for eggs, meat, and decorative jewelry.
For more about threats to sea turtles, visit this link:
http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/species/turtles/threats.htm
Sea turtles have been called “Ambassadors of the oceans” because these world-wide travelers migrate thousands of miles during their long, estimated 80-year, life spans. Since they cross both coastal and deep sea environments on their journeys, they are an important indicator of the ocean’s health. Females return to the same beach on which they themselves began their perilous life, to lay their eggs. Odds of reaching sexual maturity are against them: only about 1 in 1000 will survive to breed.
One of the many benefits sea turtles provide for other reef residents is food, in a symbiotic relationship. For example, this 30-second YouTube clip I shot in Cozumel shows two buddies, a hawksbill turtle and a French angelfish, enjoying a sponge lunch together. As you watch the turtle chew a chunk of sponge, one of its favorite foods, the angel fish snaps up the floating crumbs.
As divers, we feel privileged to visit these magnificent creatures in their home environment. Check out this short YouTube video and watch a friendly hawksbill spend a few moments with our lucky dive group in Cozumel.
divers swim with a hawksbill
WHAT CAN WE DO?
Do not purchase jewelry made from sea-turtle shell, or eat food products from sea turtles.
Contact U.S. Government officials and urge strong support and enforcement of the ESA (Endangered Species Act).
Visit numerous websites supporting sea turtle conservation efforts (you can find them on Google), and join or donate to their cause.
Two good web sites with great information on how to help:
http://www.cccturtle.org/
http://www.widecast.org/
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Whales, Dodging Those Deadly Harpoons!
December 11th, 2009Whales, Dodging Those Deadly Harpoons! The title for this month’s conservation article was inspired by a line from a Jimmy Buffett tune, Treat Her Like A Lady, about respecting the ocean.
Whales worldwide will head for the deep, like this diving Tonga humpback, as they attempt to evade Japanese, Icelandic, and Norwegian harpoons over the coming months.
Paul J. Mila Photo © Tonga, South Pacific
Whales, already endangered from years of ruthless hunting, are facing new threats to their very existence on our planet. Japan, Norway and Iceland currently lead efforts to subvert, and ultimately overturn, the International Whaling Commission’s commercial whaling ban.
All species, including humpback, fin, and minke, are slated for attack by Japan, Iceland, Norway, and several other whaling countries. Strangely, even blue whale meat, identified by DNA analysis, appears in Japanese meat markets, despite Japanese denials that their “scientific” whaling program targets severely threatened blue whales.
Attempting to overturn the IWC ban on commercial whaling, Japan has even resorted to bribing small island nations, through “economic development grants,” to gain their votes on the IWC. In the case of Tonga, the attempted bribery has a more overt purpose: to gain permission to slaughter humpbacks in the Tongan whale sanctuary, where humpbacks give birth and mate. To its credit, Tonga has resisted.
Japan resorts to political and diplomatic, as well as economic, pressure to influence more economically developed nations. Japan’s most recent success in this area has been cowing the Australian Government into inhibiting Sea Shepherd’s ability to fight Japanese whaling in Australia’s own backyard, the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.
When all else fails, Japan simply exploits a loophole in the IWC ban, permitting limited whaling for “scientific purposes.” However, this is nothing more than an obscene ruse to cover up Japan’s commercial whaling activities. Legitimate scientists know how to conduct non-lethal research on whales.
Noted commercial photographer Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert, on assignment with Greenpeace International in the Southern Ocean, risked his life in front of the Japanese whaler Yushin Maru’s deadly harpoons, taking the photos for his dramatic story, Death Of A Whale. It shows Japanese “scientists” aboard the Yushin Maru, preparing a Minke whale for their brand of “scientific research”.
Click on the title or link below, to read Jeremy’s gut-wrenching first-hand account of witnessing this bloody carnage, up close and personal:
Death of a Whale http://www.epuk.org/First-Person/15/death-of-a-whale
For additional information about Jeremy and his work, please visit his website:
http://www.jeremysuttonhibbert.com/
Many people, myself included, thought killing a whale was a quick proposition with an explosive harpoon. Jeremy shows through dramatic photos and moving words, this is not always the case.
As you read Jeremy’s account of whaling’s brutal reality, consider that the suffering creature on the end of the harpoon is an intelligent, sentient being, possessing a brain more complex than a human brain, which lives in social groups with family bonds. Setting aside arguments over the debatable validity of “sustainable whaling” (estimating a theoretical number of whales that can be killed annually without extincting the species), ask yourself whether it is morally and ethically permissible to kill such an advanced being.
WHAT WE CAN DO:
1. First, the obvious: don’t purchase whale products, or support organizations that traffic in whale products.
2. Contact your local Congressional Representative and let him/her know your feelings on this issue, and that you want the U.S. to vote in favor of extending the IWC commercial whaling ban.
3. Let the whaling nations know your thoughts about their actions. Google a country name (Japan, Norway, or Iceland), along with the word “Consulate” or “Embassy”. You’ll get a list of cities having consulates or embassies, with contact information. Select one near you and send a message.
4. Support anti-whaling conservationist organizations, such as Greenpeace, www.greenpeace.org
and Sea Shepherd, www.seashepherd.org
Sea Shepherd Conservation Organization, headed by Captain Paul Watson, is more confrontational than many conservationist organizations. Japan has proclaimed the Sea Shepherds are international outlaws, pirates, and terrorists, even as it slaughters endangered whales in the designated Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary. The Sea Shepherds interfere with Japan’s illegal whaling activities using various aggressive tactics, such as ramming Japanese harpoon vessels conducting whaling operations.
In Conclusion, some good news, and reason for hope:
A November 11, 2009 Online New York Times article by Jonathan Leake reports that blue whales might be coming back! These 100-foot giants of the sea numbered between 350,000 and 400,000 in 1900, but human whaling reduced their population to approximately 5,000 by 1960, with almost no recovery during the past 50 years. Recent blue whale sightings in areas where they had not been seen for many years have given scientists reason for optimism. However, the story indicates it is still premature to draw a final conclusion regarding the blue whales’ prospects. But one point is certain: for the species to recover, the commercial whaling ban must continue.
Click the title to read the full article: Blue Whale Comeback
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Where Have All The Sharks Gone?
October 24th, 2009
“Fins to the left . . . Fins to the right, and you’re the only bait in town.”
If we don’t change our behavior toward sharks, someday they might only exist in the lyrics of a popular Jimmy Buffett tune.
When divers encounter sharks they usually have good stories to tell. Unfortunately, it’s a pretty rare occurrence these days. The need for shark conservation is critical, for reasons we’ll discuss here.
A contributing factor to the severe decline in shark populations is that many people have a negative perception about sharks. Barbara Bridges, President & CEO of Stealth Pilot Productions, and a member of the LinkedIn Group Ocean Champions, explains why sharks suffer from a serious public relations problem:
“In the past twenty years television specials have contributed much toward saving wilderness and wild species–including establishing the need for marine protected areas. The lamentable exception to these preservation efforts are sharks–the wolves of the sea. Discovery Channel’s ‘Shark Week’ still uses a highly exploitative, blood-in-the-water approach to filming these Alpha predators. Sharks are just as necessary to maintaining a healthy marine environment as plankton, coral, the smaller species of food fish, or whales. Discovery Channel, while ostensibly ‘celebrating all wildlife’, annually contributes to countless shark deaths worldwide by promulgating widespread panic and fear.”
The story of one particular shark typifies their plight.
Diving in Cozumel, my dive operator Alison told me about a young nurse shark that she thought had been born with a deformed nub of its front dorsal fin (nurse sharks have a second dorsal fin, back toward the tail). Hence, Alison named him Stubby. Over the years we watched Stubby grow from a 4-foot youngster into an 8-foot adult. Fully grown nurse sharks can attain 14-feet.
Diving Cozumel’s Yucab Reef one morning, we were preparing to ascend when Alison spotted Stubby below us, hunting along the coral. We descended and watched him corner his prey in a small cave. Our group of four divers formed a semi-circle at the cave opening. We watched Stubby thrash his long tail, forcing himself into the narrow opening to devour whatever he had trapped, probably a lobster. After several minutes Stubby’s body shuddered, then relaxed as he consumed his meal. When he wiggled backward out of the cave, he was sporting a “remora beard.”
Stubby was startled to see a bunch of bubble-blowers around him. He turned quickly and I shot another photo (below) as he swam away, right between my legs! I was sure glad his dorsal fin was “stubby”!
One day a couple of years ago, Alison told me she had seen Stubby trailing a fishing leader from his lower jaw. Shortly afterward, Alison never saw him again. Perhaps as an adult, Stubby had expanded his hunting range out of Cozumel’s protected park, and had been taken by a fisherman. Or, Stubby might have been captured by an illegal poacher within the park.
I recently contacted Alison for background on this article. She hopes Stubby migrated north, and is happily swimming somewhere else. But Alison said, “I do not know why once reaching full adulthood he would begin to gradually move northward. There is a lot that I don’t understand about nurse shark behaviour; I just observe. The only thing for certain is that I really, really miss Stubby 
”
The most likely scenario, however, is that Stubby’s fate has been the fate of too many other sharks: overfishing. In a mere 30 years, humans have reduced the world-wide shark population by 90%. As the demand in Asia for shark-fin soup and other shark by-products increases, the pressure on their dwindling population intensifies.
THE SCOREBOARD: Millions of sharks (conservative estimates range between 10 and 20 million; higher estimates range from 70 to 100 million) are killed annually by long-line commercial fishermen seeking tuna and other fish, drowned in gill nets and drift nets, intentionally slaughtered by shark finners, or killed in shark sporting tournaments and by other “recreational” fishing activity.
Sharks, on the other hand, kill approximately 10 humans per year. That’s less than die from lightening, bee stings, and food allergies. If you shout “SHARK!” on a crowded beach you’ll clear the water in a minute. Yell “PEANUTS!” in a restaurant and I doubt much would happen.
A 2008 NY Times article illustrated the threat to sharks:
The key point to consider: Extinction is a one-way street; there is no re-wind and no replay!
WHAT CAN WE DO?
First, the obvious: Don’t eat or purchase shark products.
Most important: Support efforts to ban shark fishing. Many countries, such as Palau, have done this.
Websites where you can get more information:
Shark Conservation Act of 2009
To find additional websites about shark conservation, Google “Shark Decline”.
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