Happy New Year!

Ancient premonitions about 2012 have penetrated pop culture (Hollywood not withstanding) and hung a dark, ominous cloud over the coming year.  However, the marine conservation community isn’t letting the Mayans get them down.  As evidence mounts for a dramatically changing climate, growing impacts of development, and continued resource exploitation, researchers and practitioners will be looking to promote their causes and make it a big year for the oceans.  Within the government, strategic planning and annual guidance developed years in advance help prioritize activities and projects. 

For NOAA, some of these priorities will include improving the capacity for science and energy development in the Arctic, evaluating newly implemented fisheries catch share programs, and enhancing the nation’s ability to prepare for and recover from extreme weather events.  Despite slim budgets, agencies and organizations around the country will pursue such diverse conservation issues ranging from illegal fishing, protecting corals, and studying ocean acidification.  Perhaps one positive outcome of budget shortfalls will be greater collaboration and teamwork.  Regardless, we wish for a good year for our world’s oceans, lakes, and coasts. 

Got any good New Year’s Resolutions for 2012?  In case you’re lacking inspiration, doubt your own resolve, or worry about commitment, here are a few simple things you can do for the ocean.  

• Learn your local recycling rules.  In DC, we can recycle most everything, but find guidance here. 
• Take reusable (or re-use plastic) bags to the market for fruits and veggies.
• Make a donation to one of the numerous NGOs for an annual membership and put it on your resume to advertise your loyalties. 
• Take eating utensils to the cafeteria – each fork matters! 
• And lastly and perhaps the most fun, talk with your friends and family about the ocean and coasts, and stay up-to-date by talking to us fellows about our numerous conservation and management projects! 

These simple activities will remind you why we’re all living miles away from the ocean and perhaps inspire our friends and family to think about the connections between human activities and environmental health the next time they take a seaside walk or coastal hike. 

Happy New Year!

Ocean Artists

Oil painting, Milenski

As we all know from experience, individuals express their passions in a variety of different ways.  When it comes to the ocean and its creatures, some advocate, some pursue answers through science, and others write stories or news articles.  For the creative among us, other forms of expression are also available.  A whole community of ocean lovers who raise awareness and inspire others to act on the ocean's behalf through art.  Paintings, photographs, sculptures, and jewelry are only the beginning.  

Courtney Mattison's Corals

Just like films can elicit our emotions and communicate simple and powerful concepts, still images and artistic renditions of the oceans and its creatures can become an invaluable conservation tool.  Check out these artists to get inspired yourself, and think further about ways that you can use your skills to share your passions with others.  Many of them are strong proponents of interdisciplinary work.  Click on the links below and see what interesting tips you can pick up from their bios and posted resumes.

Plastic bags, Helle Jorgensen

• Sophie Webb
• Courtney Mattison
• Bob Timmons
• The MacGillvray Group
• TheBlu
• Ocean Artists Society 
• The Wyland Galleries
• Washed Ashore
• Plastic Pollution Coalition Art Exhibit

Happy browsing and get your creative hat on!

Happy Holidays!

Marine scientists place the utmost importance on biodiversity within the oceans, coasts, and terrestrial ecosystems around the world. Diversity provides stability, resilience, and vitality within a system of complex ecological relationships.  In other words, animal and plant communities depend on variety.  But what about diversity within our own social spheres and systems?  Diversity is difficult to define in anthropological terms, but it is hard to argue that variety enriches our life experiences by exposing us to new and changing ideas that stimulate learning and creative thinking. 

This holiday season, let’s celebrate the diversity within our own communities.  Along with unique ethnic backgrounds, professional training, or regional upbringing, each of us have special holiday traditions, family rituals, travel plans, and even spiritual beliefs.  As the winter’s holidays come and go, think about all of the joy and solidarity enjoyed by people around the world celebrating winter and the coming of a new calendar year.  Whether you’re sitting around a Christmas tree opening stockings or lighting a family menorah, take a few moments to think of all the people in your communities (and everywhere, for that matter) who are celebrating unique and diverse traditions that bring warmth and happiness. 

Visit Wikipedia to learn more about seasonal holidays being celebrated around the world. 

Happiest holidays and get ready to compare and commiserate on best ocean-themed gifts you received from friends and family!

It's Summer Somewhere - Let the Science Begin!

As winter weather rolls into the District and work slows down for the holidays, it is important to remember that the chilly rain and biting wind aren’t felt everywhere.  In fact, ice and snow are melting throughout the Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica and it’s coastal islands.  Glaciers calve, snow melts, and sea ice slowly retreats as the ecosystem shakes off it’s cold slumber and comes to life.  In the Austral summer, phytoplankton blooms and stimulates feeding frenzies and bursting life that reverberates up the food chain.  Sea lions gulp down krill and bottom-dwelling sea stars and worms feast on the sunken remains;  penguins give birth to their chicks, seals nurse their pups, and large orca and humpback whales migrate to their feeding grounds.  

Not only do these areas come to life, but so do the passionate scientists that study them.  Starting in early December, countless Antarctic research groups begin the arduous trek to this incredible landscape, their minds filled with excitement and anxiety about the coming field season.  These groups spend months preparing and organizing supplies for the journey south, including personnel, medical exams, food supplies, and research equipment.  Despite the best preparation, working in such a dramatic and harsh environment often presents unforeseen challenges that encourage adaptability and a good-natured attitude. 

To all of the consortiums and groups shipping out, we wish you safe and fruitful field seasons!  Follow NOAA’s Antarctic Environment Division, the Long Term Ecological Research program from Woods Hole, and the British Antarctic Survey activities throughout the coming months.

Polar Fast Track - A Guinness Expedition

This past Wednesday marked a very important milestone anniversary: it has been 100 years since Roald Amundsen and his team of Norwegian explorers first made it to the South Pole.  To commemorate this momentous achievement, a team of adventurers are setting out to make history by traversing the continent in record time.  Oh, how the times have changed!

Breaking world records is never an easy feat, but in the rugged and unforgiving landscape of Antarctica, this three-man team certainly faces the challenge of a lifetime.  The mission: to set a new Guinness World Record for reaching the South Pole by beating the existing time of 2 days, 21 hours, and 21 minutes.  This type of an effort requires huge investments in planning - the team has been gathering supplies and putting the final touches on their tricked-out ride for weeks.  The group will certainly be traveling in style in the bright red Toyota Takoma that has been outfitted with solar panels and fuel-efficient converters to minimize environmental impacts.  But, it's whats on the inside that really counts: they will have 6 onboard mini cameras, solid-state laptops, a high-tech internet connection, and countless other bells and whistles to document the conditions and share the journey with their devoted fans following their progress from around the world.

It's a far cry from Amundsen's two-month journey aided by modest supply posts and dog sleds, but the fast-track expedition shows that humanity still has both a need for exhilaration and a respect for the power of nature.  Amundsen was one of the greatest explorers of his time, with dangerous expeditions to both poles and through the Northwest Passage.  Now that the world has been mapped a hundred times over, we must find newer and faster ways to experience and explore the thrilling dangers of the planet's extremes.  If your adventurous side needs indulging, live vicariously through these thrill-seekers by following their progress through their blog or on twitter and facebook.  

Knauss Brown Bag - Today!

Welcome back to the Knauss Brown Bag Seminar Series, where we've had back-to-back weeks of great presentations from our impressive fellows.

Louisiana coastal waterways.

This week, come hear Amy Scaroni (National Sea Grant Office) tell us all about the work that has inspired her to work toward managing for sustainable coasts and communities.  She will present on her dissertation work, which highlights the impacts of nutrient runoff from levees along the Mississippi River into the eutrophic waters of the Gulf of Mexico.  When anthropogenic activities isolate rivers from their historic flood plains, fewer nutrients are taken up and more flow into the growing dead zones downstream.  Amy's work has countless implications for coastal wetlands planning and restoration, so come on over and hear all the details from the source!

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Pirates Beware!

Heads turned yesterday when Senator Inuoye (HI-D) introduced a bill that would discourage illegal foreign vessels from docking in certain cities in the U.S.  While these vessels aren't committing violent acts off the coast of Africa, they are pirates in the basic sense of wreaking havoc on the environment and causing economic losses within marine communities and industries.  The legislation within the 2011 Port State Measures Agreement and Legislation is the first step in making it more difficult for these vessels to penetrate the trade market by disallowing them to make port.  And what are their commodities, you ask?  Why fish, of course!  If successfully passed, the Pirate Fishing Elimination Act will be the foundation for supporting domestic fishermen and processors.

Illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing is one of the largest challenges facing efforts to rebuild fish stocks and support sustainable resource management around the world, driven largely by a high demand for imports from large countries such as the U.S.  This legislation is bolstered by an agreement between the U.S. and European Union Commissioners signed in the summer that promises cooperative work to combat these pirate fishermen.  These agreements and legislation are huge milestones for NOAA, as the agency was responsible for drafting the legislation and will be the charged with implementing its provisions for enforcing licensing and reporting requirements.  Through NOAA, the U.S. will work to strengthen nations' abilities to enforce their fisheries management regimes in an attempt to discourage illegal activities.

It is true that the global marine community is far from ending IUU fishing or even curbing the $10-20 billion in annual losses, but the EU, Norway, Sri Lanka, and Myanmar have already ratified the agreement that has become known as "Not in Our Ports."  Big congrats to NMFS International Affairs for such an accomplishment.

Visit the NMFS homepage and stay tuned to hear the latest updates from Congress.

Integrity, of the Scientific Variety

Last week, Dr. Jane Lubchenco announced NOAA's new Scientific Integrity Policy, which was prompted largely by some of the recent climate data scandals and President Obama's statements directing agencies to develop official guidelines for protecting science from distortion or suppression.  Several years in the making, NOAA's policy is being received well among other agencies and policy experts.  While this might be seen as yet another bureaucratic document collecting dust on the shelf, this type of high-level statement should not be under-appreciated or taken lightly.

From SeaMonster and Bloomberg

How do you develop a policy that stands up for the rights of data and scientists?  How do you delineate the line between significance and non-significance?  Correlation and causation?  Advocacy and outreach?  Researchers face these sticky issues every time a journalist calls for information on their findings, where truths often get muddled in the process.  The purpose of the new policy is to allow NOAA scientists to speak openly about their work and promote transparency within the scientific community.  Clauses for protecting whistleblowers also encourage everyone to play a role in asking intelligent questions about the data we gather and synthesize.  A humorous reminder of what can go wrong when statistics go awry can be found on SeaMonster.

Red Light, Green Light

No, we're not talking Christmas decorations or a children's playground game.  Last week, NOAA released it's annual Arctic Report Card update for 2011, in which it uses a traffic signal analogy to depict the severity of observed changes within climate issue areas.  This year, the focus is on sea ice melting and the global heat balance of the planet, which is regulated by the polar ice cap.  The public service announcement video reminds us that one of the biggest challenges is understanding and predicting the strength of positive feedback loops, where changes only lead to further amplified changes until a tipping point is reached.  This year, issues scoring a red light status indicating significant changes include sea ice extent, atmospheric temperatures, and hydrology.

So many changes are occurring within the polar regions that it is difficult for researchers to even identify baseline information before a new baseline seems to take its place.  And, oftentimes benefits such as increased productivity within the food chain from having more open water areas are far outweighed by the downfall of diminishing sea ice cover.  Polar bears, walruses, and several seals depend completely on the sea ice for resting, mating, and raising their young.  While it will be a long time before no sea ice forms, even subtle changes impact these creatures.  Ice can form later in the season, and if there is less of it, more stressful competition for space would likely occur.  (Imagine bars closing in DC in an economic downturn - there just wouldn't be enough happy hours to go around!).  The animals are thinking, Hey, you, get off my cloud, don't hang around 'cause two's a crowd!  


Jokes aside, noticeable changes are happening and much of NOAA research is at the forefront of documenting these trends.  Walruses are hauling out on beaches instead of ice, and traditionally isolated bowhead whale populations are showing signs of genetic mixing.  In the face of budget cuts and denying funding for a Climate Service program, NOAA cannot continue to meet high public expectations of delivering influential research and knowledge.  One of the trickiest things to predict is how changes might actually benefit some species or areas (think previously mentioned damselfish!) and have strong negative impacts on others.  Visit NOAA's Arctic Page to see polar web cams, maps, and learn about the northern lights and how NOAA develops collaborations to document changes in the region.  Read the full Report Card here.

Fish News: Some Like it Hot

It's not every day that you hear good news coming out of applied climate research, but last week, researchers at James Cook University  discovered that some damselfish have an incredible ability to adapt to temperatures outside of their historical tolerance limits.  Sound fishy?  Of course, the devil is in the details, as they say.  When researchers first exposed the fish to water temperatures one to three degrees above their norm, they quickly became lethargic.  While this is a typical response (for humans as well as fish I would argue), researchers decided to take their work a step further and study the possibility for intergenerational adaptation, a concept with important climate change implications.

Once they determined that the fish slowed down in warmer waters, the researchers did not give up on the possibility of adaptation.  So, they took male and female fish and bred them in warmer waters for numerous generations and then carried out the same metabolic tests.  Not only did they find that the fish had regained their vigor, but they had done so within only one generation.  Surprisingly, the children of the original cohort had already adjusted to the warmer waters in no time at all!  

Of course, its not all good news.  Like all science, this work comes with its caveats.  Researchers admit that the fish that can tolerate warmer temperatures are in fact smaller than their parents.  And even this adaptive ability has only been seen in one species thus far.  The biggest implications of this finding is that adaptation could potentially keep up with climate change in some similar coral reef species.  Reef ecosystems are one of the most vulnerable to climate change from rising ocean acidity.  However, perhaps these findings provide some hope that the system and its strong linkages will be able to buffer against the most dramatic of changes.  Keep your eyes peeled for similar studies from the tropical research institutions around the world!

Got Pearls?

As Christmas nears, people across the country are flocking toward jewelry shops to purchase valuables for their loved ones; just like the commercials tell us, right?  Many people covet these ocean treasures, but how many stop to think where the precious gems come from?  Pearls are so ubiquitous that people often forget that they come from creatures as cryptic and unassuming as bivalves!  From slow growth to harvest, there is still a lot that we can learn about pearls and the creatures that make them.  Just as the trained eye can easily distinguish between the fake imitation and the real deal, we can all remember to appreciate and value natural products over manufactured ones.  However, just as for pearls, sometimes that line gets fuzzy.

Pearls come from both saltwater oysters and freshwater mussels and they begin forming when the animal wants to seal off its shell to ward off infections and parasites.  What an interesting immune system byproduct!  If only humans could do such tricky things when flu season comes around.  However, this process is actually very rare in nature (and thus valuable).  As with most valuable things, humans have devised ways to hasten the process.  Farming pearls involves transplanting donor tissues into host shells to cause the desired immune response. The imitation pearls are created through the stimulated build-up of calcium carbonate and can only be distinguished from their natural counterparts through X-rays.

Pearl farm operations of the world

Pearls have undeniably had a large role in beautifying society's elite for hundreds of years, a pattern likely to continue into the future.  As oceans warm and acidification levels rise, it will be interesting to see if and how pearl farmers have to adapt their strategies.  Either way, as with most products we purchase, it is good to think about where it came from and how it got into our hands.  If you're in the market for some jewelry this holiday season, think about options such as these sustainable pearls that you can trace from the source.

Knauss Brown Bag

After a brief respite for the Thanksgiving Holiday, our Knauss brown bag seminar series is back!  Come join us this Thursday in the NOAA Library to hear about all the hard work two of our fellows did before moving to DC.

First up, we'll hear from Ben Carswell, who is currently putting his marine science knowledge to work for the NOAA Marine Debris program.  Ben will tell us all about the impacts of tidal restrictions within marsh impoundments on young fish communities in the estuarine environments of South Carolina.  This work doubtless has important implications for future predicted sea level rise and beach enrichment.


Next, we'll learn from Jhonatan Sepulveda, who is currently working on Great Lakes habitat restoration.  He will teach us a little bit about the genetics of the yellow perch and what that fish can tell us about evolutionary past within glacial refugia of the Great Lakes.  When researchers peer into the genetic history of the past, we all learn more about the possibilities for populations and species evolving under environmental stressors of the future.

 Come learn more about these different issues in two very different areas of the country, ask inquisitive questions, and enjoy lunchtime treats.

See you there!

Field Notes: Knauss in Tampa

Last week, two Knauss fellows traveled to the sunshine of Tamba Bay to gather with experts from around the world for the 19th Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals.  The theme of this event was to share findings on the cumulative impacts of anthropogenic activities on marine mammals and their habitats.  Participants learned about everything from how sea lions feed in the Antarctic, how dolphins process directional sound, and how whales with smaller reproductive organs attract their mates (let's just say they must share some evolutionary threads with our greatest vocalists!).  Underlying the countless presentations and posters summarizing the results of hundreds of projects from around the world, there was a sense of passion and an urgent desire for conservation.  The closing plenary by Dan Costa reminded us that advanced technology and enhanced collaboration have truly refined our abilities to learn more about where and how these majestic creatures live and the threats we pose to their continued existence.

In terms of technology, the sky is the limit if you want to record hours of diving behavior to learn about what deep-diving elephant seals do hundreds of meters beneath the surface.  In one talk, the audience took a trip down into the depths through computer simulations that not only showed the animal's path but also depicted when their bodies tilt and lurch forward or even open their mouths to catch fish.  Many of these seals have been outfitted with critter cams so that we can actually experience what the animal sees as it swims farther and farther down to fill its belly.  Researchers have learned about these types of foraging strategies from pole to pole, where we can see how truly unique these life history patterns are within and between species, where sometimes females or juvenile animals have completely different feeding and swimming behavior compared to adult males and or a neighboring species.

This expansion of technology of course hasn't only been for tagging seals and whales.  Technological advances have also changed the way we do science because it allows for easier data collection and dissemination.  Research can now be shared between Russians and the U.S. in the Northwest and Alaska and monk seal aficionados can now easily communicate about recent events in the Mediterranean and Hawaii.  This type of unprecedented collaboration and group effort may require more patience and time, but certainly allows for a much broader perspective.  On a practical level, enhanced technology and powerful computing have also allowed us to analyze larger datasets with advanced statistical analyses that academics could only have dreamed of a few decades ago.  Again, while the subject matter remains the same, our ability to see subtle yet meaningful patterns is continuing to evolve through time.  Who knows what the next several decades will bring to marine and animal science!