Waves of Change: Blog

This views expressed in this guest blog do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of People for Puget Sound.

As we approached the whale on Arroyo Beach that April morning, I was filled with anticipation. This was my first gray whale stranding with the NW Marine Mammal Stranding Network. Kristin Wilkinson, NOAA’s marine mammal stranding expert, told me, “Be prepared for the media – this is the fourth dead gray in two weeks.”

Kristin and orca researcher, Jeff Hogan, immediately began to assess the animal and take measurements. I noticed Jeff’s young son, dwarfed by the massive body, wide-eyed as if trying to take it all in. Why had the whale died on our Salish Sea shore? I could not ignore the gnawing feeling that somehow we had played a part.

The thin whale, a male measuring 37 feet, was estimated to be 3-6 years old (a gray whale’s lifespan is 50-70 years). The massive creature needed to be towed to a remote location where biologists could perform their work. As we left, Kristin began making calls, arranging the logistics for a move and necropsy. A volunteer from MaST* offered his boat and towed the body to a restricted island south of Tacoma.

Two days later, boats carrying biologists and volunteers from WDFW’s Marine Mammal Investigations Unit, Cascadia Research, NOAA Fisheries and other local stranding networks landed on the island. Crates of gear and coolers were shuttled onto shore and the business of unraveling a mystery was begun. Cascadia researcher Jessie Huggins was perched high atop the back of the whale cutting blubber samples. Dyanna Lambourn, WDFW biologist, examined vital organs amidst seeming miles of intestines. Others were collecting and labeling samples, entering data. It was an impressive sight.

Cascadia’s renowned cetacean researcher John Calambokidis explored the contents of the whale’s stomach. He noted there was a significant amount of algae with little evidence of food. Hereached his hand inside the whale and removed a piece of plastic. Then, a length of rope, a golf ball, a plastic bag, a piece of cloth. Another piece of plastic, more cloth. Duct tape. A towel. Electrical tape.Fishing line. More rope. Surgical glove. Plastic funnel. More plastic bags. A huge piece of fabric – it was half a pair of sweatpants. Work around us stopped and everyone gathered, stunned. Over twenty plastic bags in all were removed from the whale’s stomach. John shook his head. In 20 years examining over 200 whales, he said he had never seen anything like this.

Suddenly, I felt sick. I struggled not to cry. I couldn’t stop thinking of the nursery in San Ignacio Lagoon where mother gray whales, named friendlies by locals, lifted their calves up beside our small skiff. Some of those females still bore harpoon scars. The gentle grays were old enough to remember whalers who once called them “devil fish” because they so fearlessly fought to protect their young. In
the lagoon, I was overwhelmed at the whales’ trust as we reached out to touch them. And now, I thought, we have betrayed that trust. With our reckless obsession with plastic, our careless abandon with trash and chemicals.

My emotions were swirling. I knew all about that monstrous mass of plastic floating in the Pacific. Plastics break down into micro-particles, in some places far outnumbering per square inch the plankton that sea life depends on. These particles attract storm runoff containing flame-retardants and PCBs like a magnet – entering the food chain. The plastic toxins are ingested by marine mammals and stored in their blubber, contaminating our orcas and seals. Our Northwest orcas are the most toxic marine mammals in the world.

These plastics will contaminate our oceans for hundreds and hundreds of years. Plastic bottle caps that fill the stomachs of sea birds. Plastic grocery bags, mistaken for food, that suffocate sea turtles and other mammals. Plastic rings and box straps that strangle and mutilate. Plastic nets and fishing gear that choke and drown. We have all read the statistics – countless marine mammals, sea
turtles and sea birds are impacted each year by our plastics and marine debris. Many thousands die. And now, this beautiful, majestic whale was dead before me**. A whale who sieved the floor of Puget Sound searching for food – but instead, found only our human trash and plastic bags.

I will never forget this young whale. We can honor him and wake up to the toll that plastics take on our marine life by the simple act of choosing reusable bags. Like good stewards, we can change our habits – and ensure that future generations can say they share this world with whales and seals and seabirds.

 

Guest Blogger Robin Lindsey is a photographer and the co-founder of Seal Sitters MMSN. She is co-author with Brenda Peterson of the children’s book Leopard and Silkie - a story of the friendship of two seal pups and a boy who protects them. Please visit Seal Sitters website and blog for more information about the marine mammals of Puget Sound,  pollution, volunteer opportunities and  NOAA's Marine Mammal Stranding Network.

Achieving the three pillars of sustainable development – economic development, social development, and environmental protection – is impossible without oceans, coasts, and small island States.  The world’s oceans play a central role in global climate processes, are a major source of energy, an important means of transportation, provide sustainable livelihoods as well as the essential elements for life, including food, medicines, and freshwater, and are an important source of cultural and spiritual value to millions of people around the world.

Yet, climate change, unsustainable fishing practices, and the rampant destruction of marine ecosystems, habitats and species, among other impacts, are threatening the oceans’ ability to continue to provide these services.

A new vision for the sustainable development of oceans and coasts

Chapter 17 of Agenda 21, formulated and adopted at the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), provided for an integrated and precautionary approach to the protection and sustainable development of oceans and coasts.  At the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), the world’s political leaders further committed to specific targets and timetables on the ecosystem-based approach and integrated management of oceans and coasts.  The Rio+20 Conference provides an important opportunity to take stock on progress made, or lack thereof, on these major ocean commitments, and craft a new vision for the sustainable development of oceans and coasts.

The Global Ocean Forum, which was first mobilized in 2001 to help governments place issues related to oceans, coasts, and small island developing States (SIDS) on the WSSD agenda, is working together with ocean leaders from governments, international organization, non-governmental organizations, scientific institutions, and the private sector to seize the opportunity to achieve a significant ocean outcome at Rio+20 through:

Launching of the “Rio+20 Friends of the Ocean”, an informal collaboration of individuals, agencies, and organizations interested in working together for a strong outcome for oceans and coasts at Rio+20.  Get involved by contributing to the Friends of the Ocean blog (http://globaloceanforum.org/) and becoming a “Rio+20 Friend of the Ocean” by filling out the registration form found at: http://www.globaloceans.org/sites/udel.edu.globaloceans/files/FriendsOftheOcean.pdf.
Drafting sets of policy analyses to assess progress made on the major ocean-related commitments from UNCED and the WSSD, and issue recommendations for advancing oceans and coasts through the major themes of the Rio+20 Conference (see draft plan for assessments at: http://www.globaloceans.org/sites/udel.edu.globaloceans/files/Rio20assessments-DRAFT.pdf).
 The new vision embodied at UNCED represented a major paradigm shift that changed the world and many of us around the world.  Twenty years later, we must take advantage of Rio+20 as an opportunity to assess where we began and what we have achieved, and to craft the way to a new future where we can all live and prosper in health and harmony with the oceans– the ‘blue’ in the Green Economy.

Become a Friend of the Ocean by filling out the Rio+20 Friends of the Ocean Registration Form:  http://www.globaloceans.org/sites/udel.edu.globaloceans/files/FriendsOftheOcean.pdf

When 27 marine experts from a half-dozen countries met in England this April for a workshop on the state of the oceans, they knew the news would not be good.

But seeing the data on overfishing, acidification, chemical pollution, temperature increases, coral reef extinction and climate change, and -- most importantly -- seeing all the data together gave even the most sober academic among them a cause for concern.

In a new report, the group finds that human impact is changing the ocean in ways faster than predicted, and not for the better. There is significant concern that sensitive ecosystems may suffer devastating consequences if things don't change quickly and the scientists are ringing an alarm.

We talked with one of the participants in the workshop and author of the upcoming "State of the Oceans" report, Professor Chris Reid from the Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science & University of Plymouth:
 

When scientists use phrases like "mass extinction" and "conditions not seen in 55 million years," it is likely to make headlines. For an excellent roundup of coverage, see Charlie Petit's Knight Science Journalism Tracker for the raft of State of the Ocean stories. Click here to see a summary of findings, here to see a press release and here to see a summary, including several small YouTube clips from some of the scientists who attended the workshop that produced the findings.

Follow @Hari on Twitter, or Like his page on Facebook.

There are billions upon billions of creatures in the 7-mile deep oceans. Amongst them live the supremely graceful, beautifully designed, super-predator and most feared animal on Earth – Carcharodon carcharias or great white shark.

Of the 368 species of shark great whites are the most awesome and dangerous, and the largest game fish in the world.

Great white sharks are not the largest fish or the largest shark. The largest shark is a whale shark, a tropical plankton eater. Great whites, however, are considerably larger and heavier than any other predator shark.

Both shark and tree ancestors’, interestingly, date back to the Devonian period some 350 million years ago.

Sharks and their relatives the skates, rays and chimaeras are cartilaginous fish (they contain no bones). They have multiple gills along the sides or bottom of the head.

Great white offspring develop in the uterus and are nourished by the yolk of the egg. After the eggs hatch within the oviduct they ingest nutritive fluids. The unborn embryos compete for survival – embryos eat their siblings – until only one is left in each of the paired oviducts.

As a result great white shark females tend to grow larger than males and give birth to a small number of large pups. There are few predators large enough to attack these babies and they have a high probability of pup survival.

Records from the Bay of Fundy in the 1930s suggest that great whites can grow as long as 36 feet and can weigh as much as 2,663 pounds.

Great whites have been compared to nuclear submarines or fighter jets and rightfully so. Their skin is covered with dermal denticles (skin teeth) likened to sandpaper roughness. The tooth-like prickles extend from the tip of the snout to the end of their tail, and offer protection against minute parasites and hungry predators (when mature there are none). Denticles also reduce water turbulence by increasing laminar flow along the shark’s surface. Interestingly, Speedo Swimwear now makes swim suits for Olympic athletes that mimic the shark’s skin; that is, repelling water molecules enabling world-class athletes to set new records in the pool.

The snout of great white’s is conical and their eyes possess binocular vision. The underside of the snout has two separate troughs strictly for smelling, they are extremely sensitive to chemical odors. In fact, a substantial part of their brain is devoted to the sense of smell.

A series of dark holes peppering the top and underside of the snout resemble a five o’clock shadow. The tiny, jelly-filled capsules, called ampullae of Lorenzini, are sensitive to electrical discharge as minute as .005 microvolts. This enables great whites to detect a heart beat of prey buried in sand from a faint electrical field or the action of a gill or a swimming muscle of another animal.

Great whites have black eyes containing no protective membrane. When they bite the eyes roll back into the head to protect them when any contact or collision is imminent. Contrary to popular belief they have good eyesight and can discriminate color.

Sharks have ears and are able to delineate low frequency vibrations produced by wounded or struggling fish as far as 820 feet away.

Great whites contain 26 upper and 24 lower teeth as hard as granite and strong as steel. The lower teeth pin the prey whilst the upper teeth with their razor sharp serrations sever the flesh like a saw-blade.

Shark teeth are grown on a dental conveyor belt and at any one-time one third of the teeth are being replaced. During the 20-year life span, a great white may grow thousands of teeth.

Great whites and their relatives the makos, porbeagle, thresher sharks and unrelated tunas have evolved to functionally become warmer-blooded animals.

Oxygenated blood from the gills is fed to the muscles via large subsurface coetaneous arteries. The blood is warmed as a result of contact with the swimming muscles. Warm blood significantly improves performance of a predator in pursuit of prey.

One quarter of the great whites entire weight is comprised of its liver, which is five times more buoyant than water.

Great whites are surface feeders, they are pale on the underside with varying gray shades on their top half. This pattern of counter shading is used by the military for aircrafts operating low over the ocean.

The tail of the great white provides low speed torque – once underway it moves almost effortless with a top speed of about 15 miles per hour.

Great whites are opportunistic feeders. They eat dolphins, sea lions, whales and prefer harbor, elephant, fur and lion seals.

Diminishing numbers of great whites are distributed in South Africa, South Australia, New Zealand, central California, Chile and eastern Canada. They occur in Florida and Hawaii but not often.

Great whites infrequently attack humans. Bull sharks are the most common assailants. An increase in attacks in California is due to short surfboards. Arms and legs gyrating mimic flailing seals.

There are an unknown number of great whites. They occur singly in pairs or larger numbers. Twenty-first century affluence in the Orient has created an insatiable demand for shark fin soap. So shark populations are being decimated.

Great white sharks are the largest predators that the laws of physics allow on modern Earth – this perfect predator is most worthy of global protection.

Australia, Radio 1, National: Ockham’s Razor – http://drreese.com/resources/audio/2011_02_13-OckhamsRazor.mp3

BP Gulf oil spill http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiVKm_HXmck

Earth Dr Reese Halter is an award-winning Science Communicator: Voice for Ecology, conservation biologist at Cal Lu University and public speaker. His latest best-selling book is The Incomparable Honeybee http://www.amazon.com/Incomparable-Honeybee-Economics-Pollination-Manifestos/dp/1897522606/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1253317679&sr=1-1 He can be contacted throughhttp://DrReese.com

In 1970 Dave was a student at California Lutheran University and held the position of Religious Activities Commissioner in the Student Government.

With the support of Rev. Gerry Swanson, the College Chaplain, and the assistance of two other students, Will Hall and Susie Struck, Dave reallocated his budget to celebrate the first Earth Day.

So many good ideas soon surfaced that the event quickly became a week-long celebration and included, not only the college community, but the entire city of Thousand Oaks, California.

The week long program included:

• Clifford Humphrey, founder of Ecology Action and dubbed "Grandfather of the Recycling Movement". His photo pushing a globe in a baby buggy made the cover of New York Times magazine that first Earth Day 1970.

• Beach clean-up and party

• Tree planting at the campus chapel and service for the Earth

• Free community movie, featuring the story of John Wesley Powell's exploration of the Grand Canyon in the Walt Disney movie. "The Ten Who Dared", along with a Donald Duck cartoon about littering.

• Lecture on air pollution from professor from Oxnard

• Lecture on population, pollution, and survival from Dr. Wayne Davis.

• Danny Cox, who provided an outdoor concert and picnic preceded by a litter clean-up day.
Some of the key issues of the day, were how to stop pollution (especially litter), recycling, air pollution, and toxic chemicals being used in fertilizers.

The first Earth Day attracted an estimated 20 million participants in programs across the nation. The event was so politically popular that that Congresspersons and Senators scrambled to find a place to give a speech to their constituents as Congress was closed for the day.

Soon after, strongly bipartisan efforts worked to establish the U.S. EPA, and pass environmental legislation, such as the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species Act.

The Earth Day efforts were supported by business and labor, Republicans and Democrats, farmers and city dwellers; and the rich and the poor of our nation.

In fact, being for a more clean and healthy environment was so politically popular that Sen. Jacob Javitz from New York expressed concern that people were working so hard for the environment that they might forget other issues like poverty, hunger, and the war.

Reese remembers his first Earth Day planting lemon and orange trees in Marin County. I remember thinking that someday these bee-pollinated fruit trees would give us such a wonderful bounty of citrus; and today those trees yield such a plentiful crop that we give more than three quarters of them away as gifts from the Earth.

Fast forward 20 years from the first Earth Day, and the issues were beginning to become more complex, though a spirit of optimism and plans for large-scale international cooperation for solutions still prevailed.

In 1987 the Bruntland Report, Our Common Future, had been published outlining a global agenda and potential solutions through international cooperative efforts.

That same year, the Montreal Protocol, provided the world with a great example of how international cooperation could solve serious environmental problems and addressed the pressing issue of the depletion of the ozone layer and put the planet on track to recover by the year 2050.

In 1989, our colleague, Dr. Noel Brown, former Director of UNEP for the North American Region and U.N. Headquarters in NY, was instrumental in achieving the success of the Montreal Protocol. He spoke of the upcoming challenges of climate change and the hopeful possibility that the U.N. would give the Earth actual rights and empower a new group to enforce those rights of the Earth.

This new spirit of international cooperation set the tone for the 20th Earth Day anniversary in 1990, where people were preparing for the upcoming Earth Summit in 1992. In the short 20 years, Earth Day had gone from a largely U.S. event with 20 million people to an international event with 200 million participants from 145 countries.

The issues now included climate change, deforestation, population, conserving biodiversity, a possible new Earth Charter, and a program for sustainable development.

In 1992, the optimism and previous foundation of international cooperation was weakened considerably at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. While the Earth Summit did move forward with a Climate Convention and Biological Diversity Convention, there was opposition to both. The Forest Convention was watered down to a statement on Forest Principals, the Earth Charter was reduced to a short Rio Declaration, and population was removed from the agenda altogether. Despite these setbacks, Agenda 21 was put in place as a global blueprint to move the world to sustainable practices and governance.

Fast forward to 20 years later to 2010, the 40th anniversary of Earth Day.

Scientists have now identified limits to the Earth's systems. In an article in Nature, Johan Rocstrom and his co-authors argue that to avoid catastrophic environmental change, humanity must stay within defined planetary boundaries. If one boundary is transgressed, then safe levels for other processes could also be under serious risk. The planetary boundaries include: climate change, ocean acidification, atmospheric aerosol loading, chemical pollution, land system changes, ozone depletion, overload of phosphorus and nitrates, and decreasing fresh water resources.

While the problems are more serious, needing more urgent attention, with more serious consequences, we no longer have the global community acting together to work toward solutions. Republicans have chosen to discard science in favor of corporate economic interests and protecting the wealthy. Further attempts are being made to divide business and labor, and wealth is increasingly being transferred to the wealthy at the expense of the poor, elderly, disabled, and the environment.

That was then. Now is Earth Day 2011

In a strange metaphor, Earth Day this year falls on Good Friday as if we are being reminded that the Earth is being crucified by the collective actions of humanity.

We are reminded, though, Good Friday is followed by Easter, a day set in the Christian Calendar by the cycles of nature, the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring Equinox.

There are many signs of hope that it is not too late to change direction to one of greater international cooperation and sustainability.

Some positive Earth Day signs of hope include:

• The Earth Day Network, now has 22,000 partners in 192 countries promoting green education, a green economy, and this year has adopted as its theme, "A Billion Acts of Green".

• The United Nations has now declared April 22nd as International Mother Earth Day and the issues of Rights of the Earth are once again being discussed.

• Tourism, the largest industry in the world, now has a Global Sustainable Tourism Council with a criteria for the tourist industry from around the world to operate more sustainably. This initiative came from a coalition of the United Nations Environment Programme, The U.N. Foundation, the U.N. World Tourism Council, and the Rainforest Alliance.

• Large corporations are working to become more "Green" and providing the public with more "Green Messaging". As an example, the Walt Disney Company deliberately opened the Animal Kingdom in 1998 on Earth Day. From the beginning they brought conservation messages and environmental education to its attractions at the theme park. Each year The Animal Kingdom celebrates Earth Day with many activities for both the young and old at heart. The underlying theme of the park is conservation and preservation, and is based on a quote by Walt Disney, "I have learned from the animal world, and what everyone will learn who studies it is, a renewed sense of kinship with the earth and all its inhabitants." More recently, the Walt Disney Company launched the DisneyNature program, releasing a new film each Earth Day. To date the Earth Day releases have included the films, "Earth" in 2009, "Oceans" in 2010, and "African Big Cats" in 2011. "Penguins" is scheduled for Earth Day 2012 and "Hidden Beauty: A Love Story that Feeds the Earth" is scheduled for release in 2013.

• California Lutheran University, where Dave led the first Earth Day Celebration in 1970 and where Reese currently lectures, will have a week-long celebration of Earth Day. Activities will include: a new online pledge that all faculty, staff, and students are being encouraged to complete, a promotion for using local and organic food, a water conservation display, an acoustic music concert (no electricity), giving reusable water bottles to students, installation of new sustainable water fountains where water bottles can be filled up and the fountains will count and display the number of refills, disposable bottles saved from landfills, and a blessing of bikes, skateboards, and feet for alternative transportation by campus pastors.


While Cal Lutheran continues the Earth Day tradition now beginning this 5th decade of Earth Days since its 1970 program, it is working year round for a sustainable campus. Its current plan calls for a path forward to become climate neutral, improve on its energy, transportation, waste, water systems, implement sustainable procurement plans, improve buildings and landscaping, and enhance the environmental curriculum of the college.

Cal Lutheran seems to be on a path where Earth Day is every day, a path we encourage the global community to join.

It was the collaboration of Republicans and Democrats, business and labor, farmers, and city dwellers, and education from colleges and universities that helped translate the first Earth Day into meaningful public policy.

This cooperative problem solving approach is needed again to face the challenges of the planetary boundaries so all humanity can live more sustainably and respect nature.


Dr. David Randle is President & CEO of the WHALE Center. Dr. Reese Halter is an Earth Doctor; Science Communicator: Voice for Ecology, conservation biologist at Cal Lu University and public speaker. Contact through www.DrReese.com

Signs of Horrors to Come?

In the latest of repercussions from the BP debacle in the Gulf of Mexico, we got word of baby dolphins washing up dead on the shores Mississippi and Alabama — at ten times the normal rate of stillborn mortality.  The Sun Herald reports that 17 babies less than 3 feet in length have been found, premature or stillborn.  Unfortunately, that’s only part of the story.  The ocean recycles very efficiently; many more dead babies likely never made it to the shore. This being the first of the babies to be born since the spill, we have no real idea how far-reaching the devastation may be.

Dr. Moby Solangi, director of the Institute of Marine Mammal Studies, confirmed that the death rate is highly abnormal, and informs that it appears that most were born premature.  Some were aborted at that time, others were stillborn.  Other points made are that some of the bruising that might have made it appear to be trauma was likely from the mothers trying to push the babies to the surface and get them to breathe.

It is not uncommon to sight one, maybe two stillborn dolphins a year.  That there have been a score found on shore already is pretty solid proof that this is a significant anomaly.  It may also be a warning that we, too, are at risk from the oil and Corexit.  Just because we don’t live IN the water doesn’t mean it’s not affecting us as well.

This is amongst the results of the use of Corexit and the oil spill itself.  We see it because we notice something as large as a baby dolphin floating on in to shore.  To be sure, many millions of other living things have been lost, and their offspring dead.  As Protect The Ocean warned last summer, the use of Corexit has made a tragic event  into a full-blown disaster of epic proportions.  We are just now beginning to see the effects of this myopic decision.  Corporate greed must never be allowed to choose and control the choices made in our planet’s waters again.

Scientists continue to discover even greater areas of Gulf floor covered in oil that was kept from rising by Corexit.  In the places where it is found, what should be breeding grounds for the next generation of ocean flora and fauna to come, the ocean floor is lifeless, dead.   Some may want to claim that this is not empirical proof.  We cannot afford to wait for any more decisive evidence than has already been seen.

Remember: As go the oceans, so go we all.  What happens in the Gulf effects every one of us, eventually.  Please support efforts to ban the use of Corexit in the States and abroad, as has already been successfully done in the UK a decade ago.

As the dolphin families mourn the loss of their infant children, we mourn their loss as our own, and hope that the ocean is able to recover soon from the horrors we have released upon it.