Underwater Times: Global Warming Was More Common 50m Years Ago: 'Hyperthermal' Events Triggered By Deep Ocean Carbon Dioxide Releases
SAN DIEGO, California -- Bursts of intense global warming that have lasted tens of thousands of years have taken place more frequently throughout history than previously believed, according to evidence gathered by a team led by Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego researchers.
Richard Norris, a professor of geology at Scripps who co-authored the report, said that releases of carbon dioxide sequestered in the deep oceans were the most likely trigger of these ancient "hyperthermal" events. Most of the events raised average global temperatures between 2° and 3° Celsius (3.6 and 5.4° F), an amount comparable to current conservative estimates of how much temperatures are expected to rise in coming decades as a consequence of anthropogenic global warming. Most hyperthermals lasted about 40,000 years before temperatures returned to normal.
The study appears in the March 17 issue of the journal Nature.
"These hyperthermals seem not to have been rare events," Norris said, "hence there are lots of ancient examples of global warming on a scale broadly like the expected future warming. We can use these events to examine the impact of global change on marine ecosystems, climate and ocean circulation."
The hyperthermals took place roughly every 400,000 years during a warm period of Earth history that prevailed some 50 million years ago. The strongest of them coincided with an event known as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, the transition between two geologic epochs in which global temperatures rose between 4° and 7° C (7.2° and 12.6° F) and needed 200,000 years to return to historical norms. The events stopped taking place around 40 million years ago, when the planet entered a cooling phase. No warming events of the magnitude of these hyperthermals have been detected in the geological record since then.
Phil Sexton, a former student of Norris' now at the Open University in the United Kingdom, led the analysis of sediment cores collected off the South American coast. In the cores, evidence of the warm periods presented itself in bands of gray sediment layered within otherwise pale greenish mud. The gray sediment contained increased amounts of clay left after the calcareous shells of microscopic organisms were dissolved on the sea floor. These clay-rich intervals are consistent with ocean acidification episodes that would have been triggered by large-scale releases of carbon dioxide. Large influxes of carbon dioxide change the chemistry of seawater by producing greater amounts of carbonic acid in the oceans.
The authors concluded that a release of carbon dioxide from the deep oceans was a more likely cause of the hyperthermals than other triggering events that have been hypothesized. The regularity of the hyperthermals and relatively warm ocean temperatures of the period makes them less likely to have been caused by events such as large melt-offs of methane hydrates, terrestrial burning of peat or even proposed cometary impacts. The hyperthermals could have been set in motion by a build-up of carbon dioxide in the deep oceans caused by slowing or stopping of circulation in ocean basins that prevented carbon dioxide release.
Norris noted that the hyperthermals provide historical perspective on what Earth will experience as it continues to warm from widespread use of fossil fuels, which has increased carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere nearly 50 percent since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.
Hyperthermals can help scientists produce a range of estimates for how long it will take for temperatures to fully revert to historical norms depending on how much warming human activities cause.
"In 100 to 300 years, we could produce a signal on Earth that takes tens of thousands of years to equilibrate, judging from the geologic record," he said.
The scientists hope to better understand how fast the conditions that set off hyperthermals developed. Norris said that 50 million year old sediments in the North Sea are finely layered enough for scientists to distinguish decade-to-decade or even year-to-year changes.
Co-authors of the paper include researchers from the National Oceanography Centre Southampton at the University of Southampton in England and the Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, University of Bremen, Germany.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Wind farms kill whales: blubber on the green movement's hands
The Telegraph (UK) Politics Section: Wind farms kill whales: blubber on the green movement's hands
So wind farms don’t just despoil countryside, frighten horses, chop up birds, spontaneously combust, drive down property prices, madden those who live nearby with their subsonic humming, drive up electricity prices, promote rentseeking, make rich landowners richer (and everyone else poorer), ruin views, buy more electric sports cars for that dreadful Dale Vince character, require rare earth minerals which cause enormous environmental damage, destroy 3.7 real jobs for every fake “green” job they “create”, blight neighbourhoods, kill off tourism and ruin lives, but they also
KILL WHALES!
According to researchers at the University of St Andrews, the sound of offshore wind farms is likely to mess with the whales’ sensitive sonar systems and drive them ashore, where they get stuck on beaches and die.
Has anyone else noticed the gentle irony here? Well, let me explain with the help of my magic sledgehammer: save possibly the polar bear and the mighty snail darter there is no creature on the planet more totemic of green values than the whale. Saving whales is what greens do. Or rather what they used to do in the days when greens were actually interested in caring for the environment instead of, say, trying to destroy the capitalist system. But now, here they are actively promoting a form of renewable energy which in the process of producing next to no energy very expensively also does the most stupendous damage to the environment and the eco-system.
I wonder how long it will be before the University of St Andrews team which came up with this research is accused of being in the pay of big oil.
And I wonder what Greenpeace co-founder Dr Patrick Moore – who in the mid-70s risked his life on many whale-saving expeditions – makes of it.
Actually I know what he makes of it because I’m reading his brilliant book: Confessions of A Greenpeace Dropout – The Making of A Sensible Environmentalist (Beatty Street).
I can’t recommend it highly enough. Moore is the real deal: a PhD ecologist who got into the environmental movement because he loved nature rather than because he hated mankind. He wanted to make the world a better place and he did: in those early days, Greenpeace did valuable work opposing nuclear testing, drift net fishing, industrial pollution and large scale whaling. But then, as he recounts in the book, the environmental movement lost its way:
Since I left Greenpeace, its members, and the majority of the movement have adopted policy after policy that reflects their antihuman bias, illustrates their rejection of science and technology and actually increases the risk of harm to people and the environment. They oppose forestry even though it provides our most abundant renewable resource. They have zero tolerance for genetically modified food crops, even though this technology reduces pesticide use and improves nutrition for people who suffer from malnutrition. They continue to oppose nuclear energy, even though it is the best technology to replace fossil fuels and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. They campaign against hydroelectric projects despite the fact that hydro is by far the most abundant renewable source of electricity. And they support the vicious and misguided campaign against salmon farming, an industry that produces more than a million tons of heart-friendly food every year.”
And, no, he doesn’t think much of wind farms either:
“How can windmills be green when they require five times as much steel and concrete per unit of power produced compared to nuclear plants and when they occupy vast areas of land?”
URGENT!!!!! UPDATE!!!!!
It has been drawn to my attention that the man who led the St Andrews research team has violently, passionately and emphatically dissociated himself from the original Telegraph news item suggesting that his research showed wind farms to be deleterious to the health of whales. I am delighted to put this straight.
What this means is that, though at this stage we know for absolute certain that wind farms despoil countryside, frighten horses, chop up birds, spontaneously combust, drive down property prices, madden those who live nearby with their subsonic humming, drive up electricity prices, promote rentseeking, make rich landowners richer (and everyone else poorer), ruin views, buy more electric sports cars for that dreadful Dale Vince character, require rare earth minerals which cause enormous environmental damage, destroy 3.7 real jobs for every fake “green” job they “create”, blight neighbourhoods, kill off tourism and ruin lives, the possibility that they also lure whales to their doom remains at this stage an unproven hypothesis. (Just like Anthropogenic Global Warming theory, then.)
So wind farms don’t just despoil countryside, frighten horses, chop up birds, spontaneously combust, drive down property prices, madden those who live nearby with their subsonic humming, drive up electricity prices, promote rentseeking, make rich landowners richer (and everyone else poorer), ruin views, buy more electric sports cars for that dreadful Dale Vince character, require rare earth minerals which cause enormous environmental damage, destroy 3.7 real jobs for every fake “green” job they “create”, blight neighbourhoods, kill off tourism and ruin lives, but they also
KILL WHALES!
According to researchers at the University of St Andrews, the sound of offshore wind farms is likely to mess with the whales’ sensitive sonar systems and drive them ashore, where they get stuck on beaches and die.
Has anyone else noticed the gentle irony here? Well, let me explain with the help of my magic sledgehammer: save possibly the polar bear and the mighty snail darter there is no creature on the planet more totemic of green values than the whale. Saving whales is what greens do. Or rather what they used to do in the days when greens were actually interested in caring for the environment instead of, say, trying to destroy the capitalist system. But now, here they are actively promoting a form of renewable energy which in the process of producing next to no energy very expensively also does the most stupendous damage to the environment and the eco-system.
I wonder how long it will be before the University of St Andrews team which came up with this research is accused of being in the pay of big oil.
And I wonder what Greenpeace co-founder Dr Patrick Moore – who in the mid-70s risked his life on many whale-saving expeditions – makes of it.
Actually I know what he makes of it because I’m reading his brilliant book: Confessions of A Greenpeace Dropout – The Making of A Sensible Environmentalist (Beatty Street).
I can’t recommend it highly enough. Moore is the real deal: a PhD ecologist who got into the environmental movement because he loved nature rather than because he hated mankind. He wanted to make the world a better place and he did: in those early days, Greenpeace did valuable work opposing nuclear testing, drift net fishing, industrial pollution and large scale whaling. But then, as he recounts in the book, the environmental movement lost its way:
Since I left Greenpeace, its members, and the majority of the movement have adopted policy after policy that reflects their antihuman bias, illustrates their rejection of science and technology and actually increases the risk of harm to people and the environment. They oppose forestry even though it provides our most abundant renewable resource. They have zero tolerance for genetically modified food crops, even though this technology reduces pesticide use and improves nutrition for people who suffer from malnutrition. They continue to oppose nuclear energy, even though it is the best technology to replace fossil fuels and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. They campaign against hydroelectric projects despite the fact that hydro is by far the most abundant renewable source of electricity. And they support the vicious and misguided campaign against salmon farming, an industry that produces more than a million tons of heart-friendly food every year.”
And, no, he doesn’t think much of wind farms either:
“How can windmills be green when they require five times as much steel and concrete per unit of power produced compared to nuclear plants and when they occupy vast areas of land?”
URGENT!!!!! UPDATE!!!!!
It has been drawn to my attention that the man who led the St Andrews research team has violently, passionately and emphatically dissociated himself from the original Telegraph news item suggesting that his research showed wind farms to be deleterious to the health of whales. I am delighted to put this straight.
What this means is that, though at this stage we know for absolute certain that wind farms despoil countryside, frighten horses, chop up birds, spontaneously combust, drive down property prices, madden those who live nearby with their subsonic humming, drive up electricity prices, promote rentseeking, make rich landowners richer (and everyone else poorer), ruin views, buy more electric sports cars for that dreadful Dale Vince character, require rare earth minerals which cause enormous environmental damage, destroy 3.7 real jobs for every fake “green” job they “create”, blight neighbourhoods, kill off tourism and ruin lives, the possibility that they also lure whales to their doom remains at this stage an unproven hypothesis. (Just like Anthropogenic Global Warming theory, then.)
Friday, March 18, 2011
Sonar Linked To Beaked Whale Strandings
UnderwaterTimes.com: Report: Sonar Linked To Beaked Whale Strandings; 'Stopped Foraging Prematurely And Made Unusually Long And Slow Ascents'
WOODS HOLE, Massachusetts -- Scientists have long been aware of a link between naval sonar exercises and unusual mass strandings of beaked whales. Evidence of such a link triggered a series of lawsuits in which environmental groups sued the U.S. Navy to limit sonar exercises to reduce risk to whales. In 2008, this conflict rose to the level of the US Supreme Court which had to balance potential threat to whales from sonar against the military risk posed by naval forces inadequately trained to use sonar to detect enemy submarines. The court ruled that the Navy could continue training, but that it was essential for the Navy to develop better methods to protect the whales.
The knowledge most critical to protecting these whales from risk of sonar involves measuring the threshold between safe and risky exposure levels, but until now it has not been known how beaked whales respond to sonar, much less the levels that pose a problem. "We know so little about beaked whales because they prefer deep waters far offshore, where they can dive on one breath of air to depths of over a mile for up to an hour and a half," said Peter Tyack, a senior scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI).
Now, an international team of researchers reports in a paper led by Tyack the first data on how beaked whales respond to naval sonar exercises. Their results suggest that sonar indeed affects the behavior and movement of whales.
Tyack and his colleagues used two complementary methods to investigate behavioral responses of beaked whales to sonar: "an opportunistic approach that monitored whale responses to multi-day naval exercises involving tactical mid-frequency sonars, and an experimental approach using playbacks of simulated sonar and control sounds to whales tagged with a device that records sound, movement, and orientation," the researchers report in the current issue of the journal PLOS (Public Library of Science) ONE
That research team developed experiments to slowly increase the level of sonar at a tagged whale, to stop exposure as soon as the whale started responding, to measure that exposure, and to define the response. The experimental approach used tags to measure acoustic exposure and behavioral reactions of beaked whales to one controlled exposure each of simulated military sonar, killer whale calls, and band-limited noise.
"These experiments were very difficult to develop, and it was a major breakthrough simply to be able to develop a study that could safely study these responses," Tyack said. "All three times that tagged beaked whales were exposed experimentally to playback of sounds when they were foraging at depth, they stopped foraging prematurely and made unusually long and slow ascents to the surface, moving away from the sound.
Beaked whales use their own biosonar to find prey when they are foraging; this means that one can monitor cessation of foraging by listening for when they stop clicking. Once the researchers found that beaked whales responded to sonar by ceasing clicking, they were able to monitor reactions of beaked whales during actual sonar exercises on the range. The research was conducted on a naval testing range where an array of underwater microphones, or hydrophones, covered the seafloor, allowing whale sounds to be monitored over 600 square miles. "During actual sonar exercises, beaked whales were primarily detected near the periphery of the range, on average 16 km away from the sonar transmissions. Once the exercise stopped, beaked whales gradually filled in the center of the range over 2-3 days," they report.
A satellite tagged whale moved outside the range during an exercise, returning over 2-3 days post-exercise. "The combined results indicate similar disruption of foraging behavior and avoidance by beaked whales in the two different contexts, at exposures well below those used by regulators to define disturbance," the scientists report.
"This suggests that beaked whales are particularly sensitive to sound. Their behavior tended to be disrupted at exposure levels around 140 decibels (dB), so they may require a lower threshold than many current regulations that anticipate disruption of behavior around 160 dB, " said Tyack. "But the observations on the naval range suggest that while sonar can disrupt the behavior of the whales, appropriate monitoring and management can reduce the risk of stranding."
WOODS HOLE, Massachusetts -- Scientists have long been aware of a link between naval sonar exercises and unusual mass strandings of beaked whales. Evidence of such a link triggered a series of lawsuits in which environmental groups sued the U.S. Navy to limit sonar exercises to reduce risk to whales. In 2008, this conflict rose to the level of the US Supreme Court which had to balance potential threat to whales from sonar against the military risk posed by naval forces inadequately trained to use sonar to detect enemy submarines. The court ruled that the Navy could continue training, but that it was essential for the Navy to develop better methods to protect the whales.
The knowledge most critical to protecting these whales from risk of sonar involves measuring the threshold between safe and risky exposure levels, but until now it has not been known how beaked whales respond to sonar, much less the levels that pose a problem. "We know so little about beaked whales because they prefer deep waters far offshore, where they can dive on one breath of air to depths of over a mile for up to an hour and a half," said Peter Tyack, a senior scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI).
Now, an international team of researchers reports in a paper led by Tyack the first data on how beaked whales respond to naval sonar exercises. Their results suggest that sonar indeed affects the behavior and movement of whales.
Tyack and his colleagues used two complementary methods to investigate behavioral responses of beaked whales to sonar: "an opportunistic approach that monitored whale responses to multi-day naval exercises involving tactical mid-frequency sonars, and an experimental approach using playbacks of simulated sonar and control sounds to whales tagged with a device that records sound, movement, and orientation," the researchers report in the current issue of the journal PLOS (Public Library of Science) ONE
That research team developed experiments to slowly increase the level of sonar at a tagged whale, to stop exposure as soon as the whale started responding, to measure that exposure, and to define the response. The experimental approach used tags to measure acoustic exposure and behavioral reactions of beaked whales to one controlled exposure each of simulated military sonar, killer whale calls, and band-limited noise.
"These experiments were very difficult to develop, and it was a major breakthrough simply to be able to develop a study that could safely study these responses," Tyack said. "All three times that tagged beaked whales were exposed experimentally to playback of sounds when they were foraging at depth, they stopped foraging prematurely and made unusually long and slow ascents to the surface, moving away from the sound.
Beaked whales use their own biosonar to find prey when they are foraging; this means that one can monitor cessation of foraging by listening for when they stop clicking. Once the researchers found that beaked whales responded to sonar by ceasing clicking, they were able to monitor reactions of beaked whales during actual sonar exercises on the range. The research was conducted on a naval testing range where an array of underwater microphones, or hydrophones, covered the seafloor, allowing whale sounds to be monitored over 600 square miles. "During actual sonar exercises, beaked whales were primarily detected near the periphery of the range, on average 16 km away from the sonar transmissions. Once the exercise stopped, beaked whales gradually filled in the center of the range over 2-3 days," they report.
A satellite tagged whale moved outside the range during an exercise, returning over 2-3 days post-exercise. "The combined results indicate similar disruption of foraging behavior and avoidance by beaked whales in the two different contexts, at exposures well below those used by regulators to define disturbance," the scientists report.
"This suggests that beaked whales are particularly sensitive to sound. Their behavior tended to be disrupted at exposure levels around 140 decibels (dB), so they may require a lower threshold than many current regulations that anticipate disruption of behavior around 160 dB, " said Tyack. "But the observations on the naval range suggest that while sonar can disrupt the behavior of the whales, appropriate monitoring and management can reduce the risk of stranding."
Tsunami killed thousands of seabirds at Midway
Tsunami killed thousands of seabirds at Midway
HONOLULU (AP) — Thousands of seabirds were killed when the tsunami generated by last week's massive earthquake off Japan flooded Midway, a remote atoll northwest of the main Hawaiian islands, a U.S. wildlife official said Tuesday.
At least 1,000 adult and adolescent Laysan albatross were killed, along with thousands of chicks, said Barry W. Stieglitz, the project leader for the Hawaiian and Pacific Islands National Wildlife Refuges.
Many drowned or were buried under debris as waves reaching 5 feet (1.5 meters) high rolled over the low-lying atoll about four hours after the magnitude-9.0 earthquake struck Friday.
The white-and-black feathered Laysan albatross is not in danger of becoming extinct. About 1 million of the birds live at Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge about 1,300 miles (2,100 kilometers) northwest of Honolulu, making it the largest Laysan albatross colony in the world.
But Stieglitz said the deaths could account for a significant share of Laysan albatross chicks hatched during the current season.
"We may see just a slight decline in breeding birds next year, next year and the year after that," he said. "There will be a gap in the breeding population when these birds that would have grown up this year, would have matured and started breeding for the first time."
The waves hit each of the three islands inside the atoll.
Spit Island, about 15 acres (six hectares), was completely overrun. The tsunami washed over 60 percent of Eastern Island, an islet of nearly 370 acres (150 hectares). Waves also covered 20 percent of Sand Island, the largest of the three at almost 1,200 acres (485 hectares).
Biologists are less sure how many ground-nesting bonin petrels may have died, because these birds live in underground burrows and would have been buried in areas covered by waves. Stieglitz estimated the death toll would reach the thousands.
Since the bonin petrel feed at night, however, Stieglitz said he was hopeful many were out foraging when the tsunami hit before dawn.
Stieglitz said many wildlife populations rebound from natural disasters like this. But he said the tsunamis aren't helpful to species facing threats like climate change, a loss of habitat, and invasive species.
"When you start piling the natural catastrophe on top of invasive species invasions and all of these other things, it makes the population a lot less resilient and more susceptible to extinction," he said. "It's rather unfortunate timing, in our eyes. Not that there is ever a good time for this, but there are better times than worse times. And in this era, this is a worse time."
Read more:
HONOLULU (AP) — Thousands of seabirds were killed when the tsunami generated by last week's massive earthquake off Japan flooded Midway, a remote atoll northwest of the main Hawaiian islands, a U.S. wildlife official said Tuesday.
At least 1,000 adult and adolescent Laysan albatross were killed, along with thousands of chicks, said Barry W. Stieglitz, the project leader for the Hawaiian and Pacific Islands National Wildlife Refuges.
Many drowned or were buried under debris as waves reaching 5 feet (1.5 meters) high rolled over the low-lying atoll about four hours after the magnitude-9.0 earthquake struck Friday.
The white-and-black feathered Laysan albatross is not in danger of becoming extinct. About 1 million of the birds live at Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge about 1,300 miles (2,100 kilometers) northwest of Honolulu, making it the largest Laysan albatross colony in the world.
But Stieglitz said the deaths could account for a significant share of Laysan albatross chicks hatched during the current season.
"We may see just a slight decline in breeding birds next year, next year and the year after that," he said. "There will be a gap in the breeding population when these birds that would have grown up this year, would have matured and started breeding for the first time."
The waves hit each of the three islands inside the atoll.
Spit Island, about 15 acres (six hectares), was completely overrun. The tsunami washed over 60 percent of Eastern Island, an islet of nearly 370 acres (150 hectares). Waves also covered 20 percent of Sand Island, the largest of the three at almost 1,200 acres (485 hectares).
Biologists are less sure how many ground-nesting bonin petrels may have died, because these birds live in underground burrows and would have been buried in areas covered by waves. Stieglitz estimated the death toll would reach the thousands.
Since the bonin petrel feed at night, however, Stieglitz said he was hopeful many were out foraging when the tsunami hit before dawn.
Stieglitz said many wildlife populations rebound from natural disasters like this. But he said the tsunamis aren't helpful to species facing threats like climate change, a loss of habitat, and invasive species.
"When you start piling the natural catastrophe on top of invasive species invasions and all of these other things, it makes the population a lot less resilient and more susceptible to extinction," he said. "It's rather unfortunate timing, in our eyes. Not that there is ever a good time for this, but there are better times than worse times. And in this era, this is a worse time."
Read more:
Illegal fish trawlers are marine maverick's new target
Guardian.co.uk: Illegal fish trawlers are marine maverick's new target
"Don't make me out to be violent, or some kind of cowboy," says Pete Bethune, as he holds me in his steady, brown-eyed gaze.
Seven months on from his release from a Japanese prison, after being convicted for taking direct action against whaling ships and crew, we've met in a south London pub to discuss his new campaign group, Earthrace Conservation.
"When you look at [ocean] conservation issues, there are some gaping holes in Africa and Latin America," he says. Their poorly resourced navies and coastguards leave then very vulnerable to foreign vessels cleaning out their fisheries, he says. Take Somalia, for example, he says. "Big ships moved in about eight years ago or so and within four years nothing was left."
His resolve is as sharp as his crew cut and the Maori tattoos on his arm. "Prison had a way of focusing my mind, how you only get one chance in life," he says. "I am pretty lucky getting to do what I believe in."
He says the first step is working with local groups to provide knowledge and resources, to embarrass governments into taking action. He has just arrived from Trinidad, where with the help of a half-dead 50kg turtle bought for $100 at the local market, he and local activists wrung a pledge from the government to outlaw turtle killing.
Taking coastguards out to witness illegal fishing is another tactic, he says, as is just being present. While setting the round-the-world sailing record for a powerboat in 2008, he says poachers would sometimes just pull their nets and leave when they saw the boat.
Bethune's new organisation is based on fledgling local chapters of volunteers around the world, plus a six-man mission team. But where campaigning fails, as a last resort, that team will take direct action.
"In extreme cases, we need to go and catch these people, document what they do," he says. In the case of illegal fishing, Bethune says "I have no problem going in and sorting it. We will board and take control of a vessel".
How would he do that? "I am not going to give away our tactics but it's not hard and I have got a pretty special groups of lads - they are not a bunch of vegans." What are their backgrounds? "You can use your imagination."
In Japan, Bethune was given a suspended sentence of two year imprisonment after a night-time raid of the Shonan Maru 2, the whaling fleet's security vessel in February 2010. The previous month, his hi-tech speedboat, the Ady Gil, had been sunk at sea after a collision with a whaling vessel it seeking to impede. Bethune was subsequently expelled from the Sea Shepherd group for allegedly taking a bow and arrows onto the Ady Gil.
But he has kind words for his former colleagues: "I was really lucky to be involved in a really special campaign. I don't regret what I did and I don't regret the prison time. It served a purpose." Bethune thinks the Japanese whaling effort has only a 50-50 chance of resuming next year, due to the costs imposed by the protests. He adds that more "risk averse" campaign groups complement his work.
Bethune has recently been in Venezuela, where he says one sailor he encountered brandished an AK-47 assault rifle. Will his mission team be armed? "Any boat around Africa or Latin America - a major drugs route - is going to be armed. You're going to be pretty foolish if you are not armed. But I hope to work with local authorities." Earthrace Conservation will not own its own vessels beyond a couple of zodiacs, Bethune says, and is run on donations.
He is, he says more than once, "unafraid", but remains driven by his desire to protect the 80% of the planet's life that lives in the oceans.
"I expect to get into trouble. Will I bite off more than I can chew, get seriously injured? Maybe. But no-one else is fucking doing it. I don't want to sit on my arse and watch these things go down the drain."
"Don't make me out to be violent, or some kind of cowboy," says Pete Bethune, as he holds me in his steady, brown-eyed gaze.
Seven months on from his release from a Japanese prison, after being convicted for taking direct action against whaling ships and crew, we've met in a south London pub to discuss his new campaign group, Earthrace Conservation.
"When you look at [ocean] conservation issues, there are some gaping holes in Africa and Latin America," he says. Their poorly resourced navies and coastguards leave then very vulnerable to foreign vessels cleaning out their fisheries, he says. Take Somalia, for example, he says. "Big ships moved in about eight years ago or so and within four years nothing was left."
His resolve is as sharp as his crew cut and the Maori tattoos on his arm. "Prison had a way of focusing my mind, how you only get one chance in life," he says. "I am pretty lucky getting to do what I believe in."
He says the first step is working with local groups to provide knowledge and resources, to embarrass governments into taking action. He has just arrived from Trinidad, where with the help of a half-dead 50kg turtle bought for $100 at the local market, he and local activists wrung a pledge from the government to outlaw turtle killing.
Taking coastguards out to witness illegal fishing is another tactic, he says, as is just being present. While setting the round-the-world sailing record for a powerboat in 2008, he says poachers would sometimes just pull their nets and leave when they saw the boat.
Bethune's new organisation is based on fledgling local chapters of volunteers around the world, plus a six-man mission team. But where campaigning fails, as a last resort, that team will take direct action.
"In extreme cases, we need to go and catch these people, document what they do," he says. In the case of illegal fishing, Bethune says "I have no problem going in and sorting it. We will board and take control of a vessel".
How would he do that? "I am not going to give away our tactics but it's not hard and I have got a pretty special groups of lads - they are not a bunch of vegans." What are their backgrounds? "You can use your imagination."
In Japan, Bethune was given a suspended sentence of two year imprisonment after a night-time raid of the Shonan Maru 2, the whaling fleet's security vessel in February 2010. The previous month, his hi-tech speedboat, the Ady Gil, had been sunk at sea after a collision with a whaling vessel it seeking to impede. Bethune was subsequently expelled from the Sea Shepherd group for allegedly taking a bow and arrows onto the Ady Gil.
But he has kind words for his former colleagues: "I was really lucky to be involved in a really special campaign. I don't regret what I did and I don't regret the prison time. It served a purpose." Bethune thinks the Japanese whaling effort has only a 50-50 chance of resuming next year, due to the costs imposed by the protests. He adds that more "risk averse" campaign groups complement his work.
Bethune has recently been in Venezuela, where he says one sailor he encountered brandished an AK-47 assault rifle. Will his mission team be armed? "Any boat around Africa or Latin America - a major drugs route - is going to be armed. You're going to be pretty foolish if you are not armed. But I hope to work with local authorities." Earthrace Conservation will not own its own vessels beyond a couple of zodiacs, Bethune says, and is run on donations.
He is, he says more than once, "unafraid", but remains driven by his desire to protect the 80% of the planet's life that lives in the oceans.
"I expect to get into trouble. Will I bite off more than I can chew, get seriously injured? Maybe. But no-one else is fucking doing it. I don't want to sit on my arse and watch these things go down the drain."
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Terminology T'ursday: The A's Part 2
(Yes, T'ursday. Trying to get a little onomonopeaic there.)
Advanced Unmanned Search System - One of the world's first complex robots able to roam the seabed without a tether. AUSS was begun by the American Navy in 1973 for wide-ranging hunts for lost gear down to depths of 6.1 km (3.8 mi). Seventeen feet in length, it made 114 successful dives for the Navy before being turned over to private industry in 1994.
Akademik Mstislav Keldysh - The 422-foot mother ship of Russia's MIR twin submerisbles and one of the world's largest oceanographic research vessels.
Albatross - A large, web-footed seabird that spends most of its life in the ait.Algae - An ancient group of primitive plants ranging from unicellular Phytoplankton to kelp forests.
Alvin - The world's first submersible able to roam the deep seabed. Completed by the American Navy in 1964, and run by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, it was originally rated for a denth of 1.8 km (1.1 miles) but was eventually strengthened so it could descend down to 4.5 km (2.8 miles). The 25 foot craft can carry up to 3 people.
Amphipod - A small type of marine crustacean, swarm of which can move across the deep seabed like hordes of insects, feeding on carrion.
Bibliography
The Universe Below: Discovering the Secrets of the Deep Sea, William J. Broad. Simon & Schuster, 1997
Advanced Unmanned Search System - One of the world's first complex robots able to roam the seabed without a tether. AUSS was begun by the American Navy in 1973 for wide-ranging hunts for lost gear down to depths of 6.1 km (3.8 mi). Seventeen feet in length, it made 114 successful dives for the Navy before being turned over to private industry in 1994.
Akademik Mstislav Keldysh - The 422-foot mother ship of Russia's MIR twin submerisbles and one of the world's largest oceanographic research vessels.
Albatross - A large, web-footed seabird that spends most of its life in the ait.Algae - An ancient group of primitive plants ranging from unicellular Phytoplankton to kelp forests.
Alvin - The world's first submersible able to roam the deep seabed. Completed by the American Navy in 1964, and run by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, it was originally rated for a denth of 1.8 km (1.1 miles) but was eventually strengthened so it could descend down to 4.5 km (2.8 miles). The 25 foot craft can carry up to 3 people.
Amphipod - A small type of marine crustacean, swarm of which can move across the deep seabed like hordes of insects, feeding on carrion.
Bibliography
The Universe Below: Discovering the Secrets of the Deep Sea, William J. Broad. Simon & Schuster, 1997
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Canadian Government Invests In Geoduck Clam Industry
Underwater Times: Canadian Government Invests In Geoduck Clam Industry; 'This Promotion Is Absolutely Necessary'
OTTAWA, Ontario -- The Government of Canada is investing $195,000 to help the Underwater Harvesters Association increase exports of Canadian geoduck clams, announced the Honourable Gail Shea, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans and Member of Parliament for Egmont, Prince Edward Island.
"The geoduck clam is one of the most valuable commercial shellfish species harvested in Canada," said Minister Shea. "Our Government's support for this organization will allow the industry to build on its success and increase its export capacity."
The Underwater Harvesters Association will use this investment to help with the production of technical manuals for its clients and will support its participation in training seminars, trade shows and product promotions.
"The harvesters of geoduck in British Columbia are so pleased and grateful for the matching funds that we received from the federal government to ensure that we can actively promote Geoduck from Canada in our key export markets," said James Austin, President of the Underwater Harvesters Association. "This promotion is absolutely necessary to ensure that the value of our product and market share maintains a strong and positive position in today's extremely volatile and competitive marketplace."
Geoduck clams represent approximately 10% of the total value of all wild seafood caught in British Columbia. Hong Kong and mainland China are the largest markets for Canada, accounting for 95% of our exports of this product.
This federal investment is provided through the $88 million AgriMarketing program, under Growing Forward, which helps industry associations implement long-term international strategies which include activities such as international market development, consumer awareness and branding, and industry-to-industry trade advocacy.
OTTAWA, Ontario -- The Government of Canada is investing $195,000 to help the Underwater Harvesters Association increase exports of Canadian geoduck clams, announced the Honourable Gail Shea, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans and Member of Parliament for Egmont, Prince Edward Island.
"The geoduck clam is one of the most valuable commercial shellfish species harvested in Canada," said Minister Shea. "Our Government's support for this organization will allow the industry to build on its success and increase its export capacity."
The Underwater Harvesters Association will use this investment to help with the production of technical manuals for its clients and will support its participation in training seminars, trade shows and product promotions.
"The harvesters of geoduck in British Columbia are so pleased and grateful for the matching funds that we received from the federal government to ensure that we can actively promote Geoduck from Canada in our key export markets," said James Austin, President of the Underwater Harvesters Association. "This promotion is absolutely necessary to ensure that the value of our product and market share maintains a strong and positive position in today's extremely volatile and competitive marketplace."
Geoduck clams represent approximately 10% of the total value of all wild seafood caught in British Columbia. Hong Kong and mainland China are the largest markets for Canada, accounting for 95% of our exports of this product.
This federal investment is provided through the $88 million AgriMarketing program, under Growing Forward, which helps industry associations implement long-term international strategies which include activities such as international market development, consumer awareness and branding, and industry-to-industry trade advocacy.
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