Gulf corals adapt to warmer water, still in peril | Reuters

Gulf corals adapt to warmer water, still in peril Reuters

(Reuters) - Twenty years ago, divers in Dubai could swim through coral gardens teeming with brightly-colored fish and sea turtles. Today, says marine biologist Tom Goreau, dead reefs stand like gravestones for an underwater ghost town.
In the United Arab Emirates, some of the world's glitziest building projects, such as the opulent homes on one of Dubai's manmade palm-shaped islands, sit on these coral cemeteries.
"The best reefs were simply dumped on," said Goreau, who heads the U.S.-based Global Coral Reef Alliance. "Those areas that were supposed to have been protected areas were peddled off to developers. They're gone, wiped out."
Surviving reefs contend with desalination plants, necessary for supplying fresh water to the desert countries along the Gulf coast. The plants spew hot brine and chemicals into the sea, warming their surrounding waters and increasing salinity.
Twenty percent of the world's reefs are damaged beyond repair. Scientists are uncertain about what proportion of the Gulf's reefs have died. A Kuwaiti diving team recently reported that 90 percent of the coral off Kuwait's coast was dead or severely stressed. Qatar has also seen dramatic coral death.
Scientists worry pollution and construction continues at a rate that could kill Gulf reefs, which had proven resistant to rising temperatures and increased ocean salinity.
Coral reefs support a third of the Gulf's fish populations -- and local economies.
"We don't protect corals just because they're beautiful," said Rita Bento, marine biologist for the Emirates Diving Association. "Corals are a source of food, fishermen go there to fish. Tourism also -- places with good reefs that are protected have economic growth. We have a lot to gain from them."
The UAE is growing more aware of climate threats, adding government environment advisers to approve coastal construction plans. Abu Dhabi is sponsoring the development of what it calls the first zero-emissions city, Masdar.
Overfishing is another problem, but scientists say damage to reefs, where fish feed and breed, may also be behind what Dubai fishermen say is a 20 percent drop in their catch since 1990.
"It's not like it was years back. There were a lot of fish and it was so cheap," said one fisherman, dumping baskets of brightly striped fish off his tiny motor boat for market.
RED TIDE
Hamad al-Roomy, general manager of the Dubai Fishermen's Cooperative, says in 2008 Gulf waters were invaded by a red tide, or harmful algae bloom, often caused by a sudden temperature change.
"It hit like a nuclear bomb that kills everything around it," he said. "You could see the red tide coming. The fish were trying to escape. They'd just jump right onto the beach."
Red tides soak up oxygen, suffocating fish. Hundreds of thousands of fish were killed in a single day. Months later, residual algae killed swathes of coral on the UAE's east coast.

Some scientists think red tides could become more common due to the warming of Gulf seawater, which is occurring faster than anywhere else in the world, probably accelerated by pollution. Gulf Arab states have some of the world's highest per capita carbon emissions. World Bank and other data from 2006 and 2007 shows Qatar topping the table. Pollutants can take years to be flushed out of the Gulf, which is almost entirely sealed from the wider ocean except at the narrow Strait of Hormuz, through which passes 40 percent of the world's seaborne oil. SOURCE OF HOPE But scientists say it is not the amount of coral death in the Gulf that surprises them, it's how much has survived. Most corals cannot live in temperatures above 28 degrees Celsius (82 Fahrenheit), says Thabit Abdelsalaam, of the Abu Dhabi government's Environmental Agency. "Our corals live and survive at 37 degrees centigrade," he said. "That could be a source of hope around the world." The Gulf differs from most other seas where coral is found because at only 20,000 years old it is an evolutionary newcomer. "Corals haven't had time to adapt into new species... but here, they've already adapted to high temperatures," says Keith Wilson of the Emirates Marine Environmental Group. Researchers see a chance to learn how these corals adapted and to determine if this could be repeated elsewhere. "This is an area where we can travel to the future and see how climate change will affect things," Bento said. "I wish I had more answers for you, but we don't have enough research." Curbing pollution will not come easy in Gulf countries like the UAE, where oil money has built glittering villas and skyscrapers to replace the modest palm-frond homes of earlier generations. Growth in the Gulf means more desalination. The UAE alone produces 9 million cubic meters of water daily and is planning to build six more plants to add another 4 million cubic meters. "We can't stop development," said Abdelsalaam. "But we can make sure there's a balance between development and preservation of the environment." Graduate student Richard Wagner carried out a study on how UAE residents view the threat to coral reefs. Most do not care. "I told them that if the reefs die, most of their fish would die. They would say: 'we can just import more'." (Editing by Alistair Lyon and Janet Lawrence)

How Diving Leatherback Turtles Regulate Buoyancy - US News and World Report

How Diving Leatherback Turtles Regulate Buoyancy - US News and World Report

Leatherback turtles are remarkably versatile divers. Routinely diving to depths of several hundred meters, leatherbacks are occasionally known to plunge as deep as 1250m. The animals probably plumb the depths to avoid predators, search for prey and avoid heat in the tropics. However it wasn't clear how these mammoth reptiles regulate their buoyancy as they plunge down. Sabrina Fossette from Swansea University explains that no one knew how the turtles descended so far: do they swim down or become negatively buoyant and plummet like a stone? Curious to find out how nesting leatherbacks plumb the depths, Rory Wilson and his long time collaborator, Molly Lutcavage, decided to deploy data loggers containing triaxial accelerometers on leatherback females as they nested on beaches on St Croix in the US Virgin Islands. They found that leatherbacks probably regulate their buoyancy by varying the amount of air they inhale just before submersion and publish their discovery on Nov. 12, 2010 in the Journal of Experimental Biology at http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/content/abstract/213/23/4074.

'When you first see a leatherback turtle coming out of the water it's like a dinosaur it's really impressive,' says Fossette, having just returned from collecting data in the Indian Ocean. According to Fossette, Andy Myers, Nikolai Liebsch and Steve Garner attached accelerometers to five females as they laid their eggs, and then waited 8-12 days for the reptiles to return to the beach to lay more eggs having headed out to sea. Retrieving the accelerometers, the team found that only two of the five had collected usable data, but the data loggers that functioned showed 81 dives that the team could analyse ranging from 64m down to 462m.
Back in Swansea, Fossette, Adrian Gleiss, Graeme Hays and Rory Wilson analysed the temperature, pressure and acceleration data collected by the loggers. Describing the accelerometer data Fossette says, "You can almost see the animal swimming. It's the first time we could see the locomotor activity during those deep dives."
Extracting the acceleration data that showed the leatherbacks' movements, the team could see that the turtles dived deeply at an average angle of 41deg as they began their descent. Initially the turtles swam with each flipper stroke lasting 3s, but as they descended further they swam less hard until they stopped swimming all together, became negatively buoyant and began gliding down. At the bottom of the dive, the turtles began swimming as they heading to the surface and continued swimming until they regained buoyancy near the surface and began gliding again.
Fossette explains that many diving animals exhale before they leave the surface to minimise the risk of decompression sickness, however, leatherbacks do not. They dive carrying a lung full of air. Curious to find whether leatherbacks vary the amount of air that they inhale to regulate their buoyancy, Fossette and Gleiss compared the depths at which the turtles became negatively buoyant with the maximum depth that they reached. The team found that the deepest divers remained buoyant the longest and started gliding at deeper depths. So the turtles probably regulate their buoyancy before diving by varying the amount of air they inhale. Fossette also says, "The nesting turtles may glide for 80 percent of the dive's descent to optimise their energetic reserves, which is crucial for the production of eggs."
The team is now keen to look at the diving patterns of leatherbacks in their foraging grounds in the North Atlantic. Fossette explains that nesting turtles lose weight while foraging turtles are gaining weight and this could affect their buoyancy and diving behaviour. However, tagging a 400kg turtle in the ocean is a much bigger problem than tagging them on a beach.

Hunters Stalk the Lionfish - WSJ.com

Hunters Stalk the Lionfish - WSJ.com

KEY LARGO, Fla.—Fluctuations in the fish population are flummoxing marine scientists the world over. But few species elicit the solution served up for the lionfish.

The voracious lionfish hoovers up nearly everything in it's path, from shrimp and angel fish to lizards. The invasive breed from the Far East has bred by the thousands and spread from the Bahamas and Florida up to the Carolinas.

"Kill it and grill it!" says Sean Morton, superintendent of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, a 3,900-square-mile National Park that is entirely underwater. The park is licensing hundreds of scuba divers to exterminate red lionfish in "no-take" areas where other fishing and spearing isn't permitted. "We want people to get out there and kill as many as possible," he says.
The marine community is giving the same edict up and down the East Coast. Just as its fellow emigre from the Far East, the Asian carp, has shaken up the Great Lakes, the lionfish is taking on new territory.
The voracious species is breeding by the thousands, gorging on tropical fish near coral reefs and rapidly spreading from the Bahamas and Florida up to the Carolinas. The reddish-striped fish snarfs up nearly anything it can swallow, from crabs to shrimp to angelfish and other species divers like to see. Its prickly, venom-tipped spines fan out around its body and deter sharks and other predators.
Now, the hunt for red lionfish is heating up. The nonprofit Reef Environmental Education Foundation hosted its third "Lionfish Derby" over the weekend in the Florida Keys and handed out $3,350 in prize money to teams that brought in the most fish—109 were killed. Two derbies in the Bahamas the past two years netted more than 2,000 lionfish.
Near scuba spots, divers are increasingly submerging with spears, nets and protective gloves to try to battle the intruder—although divers say they still get stung through gloves. Websites, YouTube videos and Facebook pages describe how to catch and cook it.
"People have a sense that the waters they love are being invaded," says Renata Lana, a spokeswoman with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. This year, the federal agency launched an "Eat Lionfish" campaign, aimed at creating a taste for them at high-end restaurants.
Stalking the lionfish isn't easy. The fish, which grow up to about 18 inches, are fast and feisty, divers say. Plus, the tips of their fanned spines give a sting more painful than a bee's.
"They can get nasty," says Bob Hickerson, of Vero Beach, Fla., who has killed dozens in the past two years. "I've been charged twice, in the face," he says. He has designed a 14-inch spear that he has used in derbies this year, his team placing first in one and winning $1,600.
Scientists aren't sure just how the lionfish came to the eastern seaboard. One tale says six lionfish got loose when a beachside aquarium burst during Hurricane Andrew in 1992. The lionfish "almost certainly was released from an aquarium" of some kind, says Mark Hixon, a professor at Oregon State University's Department of Zoology who studies lionfish.
As they have moved from deep to shallow waters, lionfish are eating up parrotfish, which help keep algae from overgrowing coral reefs. Fishermen worry lionfish gluttony will keep sport fish away.
Jason Doty and hundreds of other scuba divers are experimenting with new ways to eliminate the legions of lionfish. "Six months ago, I hadn't seen one," says Mr. Doty, who owns the Salty Dawg Scuba N Surf in Lake Park, Fla. "Now, I kill 12 on one dive."
Mr. Doty hunts lionfish with a 2.5-foot miniature pole spear with a paralyzing tip. His dive shop is hosting a lionfish hunting derby in December, like dozens of others on the East Coast.
While he keeps a few lionfish in a tank in his shop, he's also tried feeding diced lionfish to eels from his boat, to lobsters on the beach, eating it as ceviche with his crew and giving fillets to sushi chefs in local restaurants.

Ciro de la Fuente

A scuba diver and a lionfish near sunken equipment in the Bahamas.

A few entrepreneurs are designing special gear for the fight. Gregg Waugh in Walterboro, S.C., who has speared 100 lionfish in the Bahamas, launched SafeSpear LLC in April to sell protective gloves and a 4-foot, 10-inch spear designed to shish-kabob lionfish without a diver having to touch the prickly fish. "We don't want people to have to get too close to 'em," says Mr. Waugh. "These are very aggressive animals. Even the smaller ones swim right toward you."
Lad Akins, operations director at REEF, complains about ill-trained vigilante hunters. "I've seen people shoot and miss the lionfish and spear a sea cucumber or sponge instead."
Lionfish are an "ambush predator" with fast reflexes, Mr. Akins says. "It's very, very quick at a short distance. When you get close to the fish to spear it, you often miss." The lionfish learns and adapts. "If it sees a spear go by, it's not going to stick around to give you a second chance," he says.
Scuba divers and fishermen are finding statistics stacked against them in their hand-to-spine combat. "This could become one of the worst marine invasive species in history," says Dr. Hixon of Oregon State. "We probably cannot completely eradicate lionfish. Only nature can do that."
Scientists agree hunting may help, but won't halt the incredible population boom of lionfish that have seen densities increase 700% between 2004 and 2008 in parts of North Carolina. A lionfish can produce more than 2 million eggs per year. "They are just too widespread," says Mr. Akins.
The government says one way to fight the fish is to create a market for eating them. NOAA calls the lionfish a "delicious, delicately flavored fish" with a taste and texture similar to grouper, snapper or hogfish. A few restaurants in the U.S. and the Caribbean are serving it.
James Clark, executive chef at Waterscapes Restaurant in Myrtle Beach, S.C., recently had a roasted lionfish on the menu, with a pumpkin chorizo puree and crab velouté for $22. "It's tough for me to get," he says. "Sometimes fishermen don't want to handle it on their boat."
Ms. Lana, who organizes the government's "Eat Lionfish" campaign, says fishermen still often "throw [lionfish] overboard because they are not aware what they can do with them." The government is promoting lionfish as a do-good dish that helps balance ocean ecology. It's one of the few fish, she says, people can eat out of existence with a "clear conscience."
Write to Paul Glader at paul.glader@wsj.com

Newport Aquariums New Scuba Santa Show Debuts Nov. 26 Zoo and Aquarium Visitor News

Newport Aquariums New Scuba Santa Show Debuts Nov. 26 Zoo and Aquarium Visitor News

By Rodger Pille
Newport, KY - One of the most unique holiday attractions in the country, Scuba Santa’s™ Water Wonderland, is getting refreshed and updated this holiday season.
Now in his eighth year of entertaining and delighting guests at Newport Aquarium, Scuba Santa will still arrive in the 385,000-gallon Surrounded by Sharks exhibit. But this year, he’ll introduce a new show where even the most beloved animals in the tank can magically talk to the crowds. Sitting in his magical underwater sleigh – pulled by sea horses! – Scuba Santa will even read a new underwater version of his celebrated “Twas the Night Before Christmas” poem, complete with special Scuba Santa twists!
“Scuba Santa’s Water Wonderland,” which begins on Nov. 26 and runs through Jan. 2, has become one of the Tri-state area’s favorite and most unique holiday traditions.
There are so many great things to see and do at the Aquarium every day, but Scuba Santa’s Water Wonderland also features holiday festivities, activities and decorations.
Visit Scuba Santa’s Post Office, where kids can write letters to Scuba Santa and deposit them in a special mailbox for speedy delivery.
Take part in the Reindeer Roundup game by helping Scuba Santa find all the reindeer hidden throughout the Aquarium.
Enjoy Extended Holiday Hours on select days during the event! (See below for details.)
Admission to Scuba Santa’s Water Wonderland activities is free with a Newport Aquarium ticket.
For a complete schedule of Scuba Santa’s Water Wonderland show times or for more information, visit www.newportaquarium.com or call (859) 261-7444.
Extended Holiday Hours: 9 a.m. – 6 p.m.
November 26-27
December 26 – January 2
Newport Aquarium showcases thousands of animals from around the world in a million gallons of water. You’ll be amazed at all there is to see and do, including fun and interactive activities, like touching a shark or meeting penguins. Newport Aquarium is a Herschend Family Entertainment company (www.hfecorp.com) and a member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), a leader in global wildlife conservation. Newport Aquarium is open to the public 365 days a year and is located only two minutes from downtown Cincinnati at Newport on the Levee.
To view Newport Aquarium's web page on Zoo and Aquarium Visitor, go to:  http://www.zandavisitor.com/forumtopicdetail-413-Newport_Aquarium

The Scugog Standard weekly newspaper

The Scugog Standard weekly newspaper

Chalk Lake legend turned into fact by diversby Blake Wolfe/The Scugog Standard

In the southwest corner of Scugog Township near the Uxbridge border, there lies an area of ecological significance known as Chalk Lake. And in addition to the environmental features of the area, the waters of the lake have yielded at least a glimpse into the past of human habitation along the shoreline.

Homes line the northern and western shores along Lakeridge Rd. and Chalk Lake Rd., and the area has been the site of family farms and human habitation for decades. A dance hall on the southern side of Chalk Lake, built in the 1930s, once hosted community get-togethers and still opens for special events from time to time.

Recently, the area just north of Chalk Lake has been the focus of concern for residents and politicians on both sides of the Scugog/Uxbridge boundary, as work continues at a clean fill dump site advertised as a future heliport and landing strip. The site came under fire after work continued despite negative soil sample test results, displaying excessive levels of a number of toxic chemicals, and prompting Scugog staff to pull the site’s permits.

Given the history of human habitation along its shores, Chalk Lake likely holds a number of secrets within its waters. This summer, however, one of those secrets may have been at least partially revealed.

Uxbridge resident and recreational diver Michael Bice came across the story somewhat by accident.

A recent member of the Chalk Lake neighbourhood, Mr. Bice recalled speaking with another resident about the area when the conversation turned to talk of a local woman, who, one winter in the late 1800s, disappeared beneath the ice of Chalk Lake with her wagon and team of horses while trying to cross the semi-frozen surface.

“She was never found. Obviously, they didn’t have scuba gear back then,” said Mr. Bice.

Eager to find the remains, Mr. Bice and son Dylan went snorkeling in the lake this past June.
The pair found a wagon at a depth of 30 ft. near the northern shore of Chalk Lake, which could very well belong to the woman in the story.

“The wheel spokes are long gone, but the metal frame is still intact,” said Mr. Bice. “It must have been down there a long time. Wood should last a long time in cold water, and the fact that it’s gone from this wheel means it was there for quite a while.”

As for plans to remove the wagon, Mr. Bice said that it is half-submerged in a foot of silt at the bottom of Chalk Lake. That silt also makes for poor visibility at times, which Mr. Bice said was only about four feet at the time of the dive. In addition, the wagon may serve its purpose where it lies.

“We have no plans to bring it up as it has more historical value in the location where it went through the ice,” said Mr. Bice.

The search had a spin-off effect. Working with a weighted rope dropped from a canoe, the Bices mapped the depths of Chalk Lake this summer. At its deepest near the centre, the lake hits a depth of 70 ft., said Mr. Bice.

Human activity on and around Chalk Lake is only the most recent part of the lake’s story. Formed 10,000 years ago by a receding glacier signalling the end of the last ice age (around the same time the Oak Ridges Moraine was carved out of southern Ontario), the kettle lake is the result of a leftover block of ice creating a water-filled depression in the earth.

According to Jane Sirois of the Ministry of Natural Resources, Chalk Lake is the fourth largest of 32 kettle lakes on the Oak Ridges Moraine, measuring approximately 19 hectares.
The largest kettle lake in Canada is in Puslinch, Ontario. It is approximately 160 hectares.

The lake’s surrounding wetlands also contribute base flow to a major headwater tributary of Lynde Creek.

Wildlife in the area is also abundant. According to Ms. Sirois, Chalk Lake and its surrounding environs boast a number of plant and animal species, including 25 ‘locally significant’ plant species - species in which “there are 20 or less occurrences within a local ‘eco-district’ such as the Oak Ridges Moraine.”

Fish species living in the waters of Chalk Lake include the brown bullhead, white sucker, largemouth bass, pumpkinseed, central mudminnow, bluntnose minnow and rainbow darter.
The lake and its surrounding wetlands also provide a stopover point for migrating waterfowl, said Ms. Sirois, who added that the lake supports “provincially significant” wetlands as well as a noteworthy fen community (a wetland that occurs on peat and calcium carbonate deposits), measuring approximately two hectares in size and fed by groundwater coming out along the southern edge of Chalk Lake.

“This fen community is one of only a few on the Oak Ridges Moraine,” she said. “It is also one of only a few dozen fens known to exist in southern Ontario south of the Canadian Shield.”

As for the story of the wagon, Mr. Bice has future dives planned in which he hopes to unveil more of the story.

“I’m positive that her bones will always be there,” said Mr. Bice. “They’ll be preserved in the cold water and it’s our quest to find them. Who knows what else is down there?”

Terrifying moment shark took a bite out of sea paparazzi | Herald Sun

Terrifying moment shark took a bite out of sea paparazzi Herald Sun

AN underwater photographer got the fright of his life when a shark snatched the camera from his hands.
The diver was left shaking while the tiger shark swam off with the camera between its teeth.
The 2m creature later dropped the camera several metres away on the sea bed off the Bahamas.
Tiger sharks are considered one of the most dangerous shark species in the world and are responsible for many recorded attacks on humans, second only to the great white shark.
Photographer Karin Brussaard, from the Netherlands, captured all the action on camera.
She said: "There were about six or seven tiger sharks down there and we couldn't believe our luck.
"We were having a great time photographing them all until one diver swam towards one of them trying to get a better shot.

"The shark suddenly seemed to get angry and snatched the camera right out of his hands. I couldn't believe it. It swam away with it and we all just looked on in amazement.
"Luckily it did drop it eventually and remarkably the camera only seemed to have a couple of scratches on it."

Underwater Sculpture Cancun and Isla Mujeres Underwater Art Museum

Underwater Sculpture Cancun and Isla Mujeres Underwater Art Museum

MUSA Museo Subacuático de Arte
In 2009 the first steps of a monumental underwater museum called MUSA (Museo Subacuático de Arte) were formed in the waters surrounding Cancun, Isla Mujeres and Punta Nizuc. The project founded by Jaime Gonzalez Cano of The National Marine Park, Roberto Diaz of The Cancun Nautical Association and Jason deCaires Taylor, will consist of over 400 permanent life-size sculptures, becoming one of the largest and most ambitious underwater artificial attractions in the world.
The Museum aiming to demonstrate the interaction between art and environmental science forms a complex reef structure for marine life to colonise and inhabit. Each of the sculptures is made from specialized materials used to promote coral life, with the total installations occupying an area of over 420sq metres of barren sea bed and weighing over 180 tons. The Cancun Marine Park is one of the most visited stretches of water in the world with over 750,000 visitors each year, placing immense pressure on its resources. The location of the sculptures will promote the recovery of the natural reefs, relieving pressure on them by drawing visitors away.
To date the underwater museum comprises of 4 installations; La Jardinera de la Esperanza, Coleccionista de los Sueños, Hombre en Llamas and The Silent Evolution all by Jason deCaires Taylor. The Silent Evolution. His most ambitious work to date, is a collection of over 400 life-size figurative works forming a timeline of the changes both visually and socially in humans over the past centuries. For more information see The Silent Evolution (pdf).
The third stage of the museum commencing in 2011 will involve commissioning local and international artists to contribute further sculptural installations and host special underwater cultural events celebrating the Arts and ScienceThe National Marine Park of Isla Mujeres, Punta Cancun and Punta Nizuc is located in the northern part of the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. The island of Cancun is in the shape of a “7” and is bordered to the north by the Bahia de Mujeres; to the east by the Caribbean Sea; and to the west by the Nichupte Lagoon. Cancun is Mexico’s largest tourist destination and boasts 146 hotels with a total of 28,808 rooms. The sculptures are located within the boundaries of The National Marine Park on sandy areas of substrate close to Isla Mujeres, Punta Cancun and Punta Nizuc.