Acid in the Seas

"Worldwide emissions of carbon dioxide from fossil fuel burning are dramatically altering ocean chemistry and threatening marine organisms, including corals, that secrete skeletal structures and support oceanic biodiversity. A landmark report released today summarizes the known effects of increased atmospheric carbon dioxide on these organisms, known as marine calcifiers, and recommends future research for determining the extent of the impacts."

"The report, "Impacts of Ocean Acidification on Coral Reefs and Other Marine Calcifiers," warns that oceans worldwide absorbed approximately 118 billion metric tons of carbon between 1800 and 1994. Oceans are naturally alkaline, and they are expected to remain so, but the interaction with carbon dioxide is making them less alkaline and more acidic. The increased acidity lowers the concentration of carbonate ion, a building block of the calcium carbonate that many marine organisms use to grow their skeletons and create coral reef structures."

Slowing skeletal growth
"Experimental studies, such as those conducted by one of the report's authors, Chris Langdon at the University of Miami, show that coral calcification consistently decreases as the oceans become more acidic. This means that these organisms will grow more slowly, or their skeletons will become less dense, a process similar to osteoporosis in humans. As a result, reef structures are threatened because corals may be unable to build reefs as fast as erosion wears away the reefs."

Threats to major ecosystems

"Several other major ecosystems that are supported by marine calcifiers may be particularly threatened by ocean acidification. These include cold-water reefs, which are extensive structures that provide habitat for many important fish species, particularly in the coastal waters of Alaska."

GREENHOUSE CORAL
MARCH 16,2007 BY THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA

Coral might be the slowest-growing crop ever farmed by the University of Florida, but researchers say damaged reefs could be repaired faster if they perfect methods to cultivate the marine organisms.
UF experts are raising seven species of coral at the Tropical Aquaculture Laboratory in Ruskin, and next week they will dive to check the progress of farmed corals returned to the wild last year.
The dive takes place at a reef near Key West where a freighter ran aground in 1993, said Craig Watson, director of the Ruskin lab. Almost 160 cookie-sized coral fragments were placed there last year. The reef is within the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, a protected area that comprises most of the Florida Keys.
If you grow coral in a greenhouse in a land-based system and put it in the wild, will it survive??Watson said. There are those who say no, because it won't be acclimated to those conditions where it grew and it can survive elsewhere. We don't believe that, we are setting out to prove that wrong.?
Researchers and the marine sanctuary staff hope to create a network of nonprofit organizations, businesses and individuals to raise coral and contribute specimens to repair damage from events such as vessel groundings and anchorings, said Lauri MacLaughlin, a resource manager with the marine sanctuary. The sanctuary includes Western Sambo Reef and Ecological Reserve, location of the restoration effort.
The dream is that corals rescued from human impact or coastal construction projects be used to help restore reefs elsewhere in the sanctuary,?MacLaughlin said.
Corals are tiny invertebrate animals that resemble sea anemones. Dwelling in colonies, they produce a skeleton-like structure composed mostly of calcium carbonate; only the outermost portions are alive. Though corals feed by capturing minute organisms, they co-exist with algae that provide additional food and give the coral color.
The UF project involves seven coral species commonly found in Florida, the only state in the continental United States with extensive reefs near its coasts, Watson said. Overall, the state is home to more than 100 coral species. Coral growth is estimated to range from one foot to 16 feet every 1,000 years.
Fragments placed at the Key West site had been managed in one of three ways, Watson said. One set was raised in a Ruskin greenhouse, held in tanks of artificial seawater. Another was cultured at a Mote Marine Laboratory facility at Summerland Key, using an outdoor system with seawater pumped from offshore. A third was placed on the damaged reef almost immediately after harvest. Each fragment is numbered so it can be tracked.
Colonies of larger fragments are being held in a rooftop greenhouse at The Florida Aquarium in Tampa, said Ryan Czaja, a supervisor who handles day-to-day care of the colony. The aquarium obtained two grants that fund the work; it is the organization leading the project.
Czaja was part of a team that collected all the coral from its original home, an underwater sea wall at a U.S. naval base in Key West Harbor. Planned offshore sea wall construction threatened to encase or destroy existing corals, so the state and the sanctuary granted a collecting permit.
"It was tough diving,"Czaja said. "We were out in the channel and there was a lot of water flow, visibility was about four feet without nothing dangerous or we wouldn't have been down there. Checking the fragments?health is a rigorous task, said Kathy Kilgore, a Ruskin lab veterinarian, one of five divers making the trip.
Kilgore will assess the health of each fragment, using protocols developed by veterinarians Roy Yanong, a faculty member at the Ruskin lab, and Ilze Berzins, vice president of biological operations at the Florida Aquarium and a UF/IFAS adjunct faculty member.
The inspection protocol is an essential part of the project, Watson said, because researchers want to minimize the possibility coral fragments returned to the wild will introduce diseases to new areas.
Most coral pathogens are identified by signs or appearance,Watson said. Based on that we developed the health certification with Roy and Ilze, utilizing a ruthless visual ?if it doesn't look fantastic it is not certified.
The fragments, attached to the reef with epoxy, are scattered over two areas, each measuring several hundred square meters. Others will photograph and map the site.

Oil-spill remnants endanger sea life
Florida tugboat leaks diesel fuel into ocean after collision with marker near Bella Bella
CATHRYN ATKINSON
Special to The Globe and Mail

Stormy weather is driving worries that a major fuel-oil spill near Bella Bella, B.C., may contaminate the rich kelp, crab and clam beds on which the coastal community depends.
Heavy rain and 45-kilometre-an-hour winds were hampering estimates of how much diesel fuel had leaked after the spill from an American tugboat that ran aground early Monday near the tiny fishing community on British Columbia's central coast. The storm is expected to remain in the area until at least tomorrow.
It was originally feared the ship had lost up to 49,000 litres from a single crack in a forward fuel tank of the Sea Voyager, a 174-tonne steel tug owned by Florida-based Crowley Marine Corp.
The vessel hit a large, fixed navigational light at Serpent Point, 15 kilometres south of Bella Bella, about 1 a.m. on Monday. The light was operating at the time.
"We haven't yet determined the volume of the spill yet," said Stephen Wilson, Crowley's manager at the command centre set up at the Shearwater resort on Denny Island, 13 kilometres from Serpent Point.
"We're on the positive side of this apart from the weather," he added. "The vessel is secure, and we're on the salvage side of the project. We haven't been able to fly over today [Wednesday] because the pilots won't go up."
He added that teams were looking for evidence the oil had reached shore, but hadn't found any by midafternoon yesterday.
The Sea Voyager was en route through the Inside Passage to its home port of Valdez, Alaska, after routine maintenance at Crowley's marina in Seattle when it hit the navigational light, the only aid to shipping in the area.
The tug was floated off the rocks in high tide at 3:40 a.m. yesterday and was secured to a larger Crowley tug, the Hunter, which had been sent from Seattle to assist in the Sea Voyager's recovery. The remaining fuel was transferred to the larger vessel.
Three of the Sea Voyager's seven crew members had already returned to Seattle, Mr. Wilson said, because they had been due to be relieved. The other four were still on board the tug. They had been taken to the Hunter after the accident but returned to the Sea Voyager once it had been secured. All crew have been interviewed by Canadian investigators in Shearwater, he added.
Charlie Nalen, Crowley's vice-president of environment and safety at the company's Jacksonville, Fla., headquarters, said the tug's mate, not the captain, was at the helm at the time of the accident.
"We're still working with Coast Guard Canada as to why the vessel went off course and hit a marked rock," he said.
Mr. Nalen described the diesel spilled as a "very light oil that dissipates quickly."
Vancouver's Burrard Clean Operations was on site to assist in the cleanup, he added.
American firm Polaris Laboratories, a private company that monitors contaminated sites, will be part of continuing tests of the effects of the spilled fuel and were also on location.
"It is looking good," said a relieved Randy Carpenter of the Heiltsuk Nation fisheries program, the aboriginal group that runs traditional fishing, butter clam and cockle beds, and crab fisheries near the accident site.
"The guy [from Polaris] said it usually takes a month for the diesel to dissipate," he said.
Mr. Carpenter said the one concern for the Heiltsuk Nation was that members wanted more involvement in monitoring the ongoing effects of the spill and did not want to see samples from the water and shore taken to the United States. He said they had been tentatively approached by Crowley to participate in collecting samples.
"It's so they wouldn't have to fly up from Seattle every time," he said. "What they want to do now is probably good, but we don't really like it being sent to the United States to be tested. We're going to e-mail them on that."
Ian McAllister, one of the directors with the Raincoast Conservation Society, said the Bella Bella community had been musing as to "why a big, modern ocean-going tug hit the only aid to navigation in the area. Everybody's shaking their heads.
"It reaffirms our concern of the lifting of the oil and gas moratorium on the coast here."
Bella Bella is located in the middle of the Great Bear Rainforest, an 18,000-square-kilometre wilderness area three times the size of Prince Edward Island.
The B.C. government unveiled a plan in February of 2006 to protect the ecologically sensitive region, which is home to many at-risk species, including the genetically unique spirit bear, a member of the black bear family with white fur.

Yesterday, I have bought two books. One's called "Harvest for Hope" by Jane Goodall. I have started to read it and I've found it's a great book. Hardly had I thought about the food we eat will bring disastrous effects on the earth. Hardly had I though about the meal it serves on the table comes from. Is it under multinational corporations' control? We are what we eat. We human beings need eating to survive. But can every one of us do a little to make a great change to our world? for example, by eating organic and shopping at farmers' markets and so on.

A book to inspire everyone's mind...
A book to guide us to a more mindful eating...
That's the book we modern humans need most...

Sharks in Danger
February 23, 2007 By IUCN

http://www.ocean.com/resources/sharkdanger.jpg

"Pelagic sharks are taken incidentally in high seas tuna and swordfish fisheries, and increasingly targeted as new markets for their meat develop and demand for their valuable fins grows. Bans on shark's finning?Slicing off a shark valuable fins -- have been adopted for most international waters, but lenient standards and lacking enforcement hamper their effectiveness."

"Sharks in general are especially susceptible to overfishing because most species grow slowly, mature late, and produce few young. Whereas some pelagic sharks, such as the blue shark, have dozens rather than the usual handful of pups, they still have low reproductive rates when compared to most other fish species."

"The status of scalloped hammerhead shark was heightened from Near Threatened to Endangered. Hammerhead sharks are among the species most likely to be finned as their fins are highly prized for the Asian delicacy, shark fin soup."

Comment:
Sharks are always imaged as fast, powerful and wide ranging species in pelagic ocean. However, it's not the fact at all. The leading scientists have conclued that several species are now threatened with extinction on a global scale. All three species of thresher sharks, known for scythe-like tails that can be as long as their bodies - were listed as Vulnerable globally.

Sharks are especially subject to overfishing because most species grow slowly, mature late and produce few young.

Besides, an increasing new market target for their meat and their fins makes the situation from bad to worse. "Slicing off a shark valuable fins have been adopted for most international water." And little regulations and efforts would have been take.

To most Asian people, including me, "shark fin soup" is the valuable food that is a kind of meal used to celebrating special events, for exmaple wedding party, birthday party and so on. It is also a sysmbol of prosperity and power. We know the nutritional content is not that high that many subsitutes can replace. But we eat them for getting fortunate meaning. Maybe it's our traditional customs. It's sad that I had made the situation more worse. It's high time to change my mind and tell the real truth to my family and my friends around me.

Seafood Consumption Reaches Record Levels in 2004
November 9, 2005 By NOAA

NOAA photo
Seafood consumption rose for the third straight year in 2004, as Americans ate a record 16.6 pounds of fish and shellfish per person, the NOAA Fisheries Service announced today. This and more agency data will be officially released next week in the 2004 edition of its annual publication, "Fisheries of the United States."
This is the third year in a row that U.S. per capita seafood consumption has increased. The 2004 figure is up from 16.3 pounds per person in 2003, an increase of two percent. In 2001 the rate was 14.8 pounds per person, and in 2002 it was 15.6 pounds per person.
"Seafood is a safe and healthy food choice for all Americans and, as this trend shows, the demand keeps rising," said Bill Hogarth, director of the NOAA Fisheries Service.
"The administration's National Offshore Aquaculture bill is one way to meet this demand with seafood that is either harvested or grown right here in the United States."
Of the total 16.6 pounds consumed per person, a record 11.8 pounds were fresh and frozen finfish and shellfish, up 0.4 pounds from last year. Canned seafood consumption dropped 0.1 pounds to 4.5 pounds per capita. These rates reflect a continuing trend toward fresh and frozen seafood consumption. In 2000, Americans consumed 10.2 pounds of fresh and frozen seafood and 4.7 pounds of canned seafood per capita.

Shrimp continues to be a favorite among American seafood eaters. A record 4.2 pounds of shrimp were consumed per person last year, up 0.2 pounds from 2003.
Another record figure was consumption of fillets and steaks, up 0.3 pounds to 4.6 pounds per person. Conversely, canned tuna consumption fell 0.1 pounds to 3.3 pounds per person. A total of 4.8 billion pounds of seafood was consumed in the U.S. in 2004.
The NOAA Fisheries Service's calculation of per capita consumption is based on a"disappearance" model.The total U.S. supply is calculated as the sum of imports and landings minus exports, converted to edible weight. This total is divided by the total U.S. population to estimate per capita consumption.


NOAA statistics

NOAA Fisheries Service has been calculating the nation's seafood consumption rates since 1910 to keep consumers and the industry informed. This information is published every year in the NOAA Fisheries Service annual report, "Fisheries of the United States," which will be available on the NOAA Fisheries Service Web site upon publication next week.
The NOAA Fisheries Service is dedicated to protecting and preserving the nation's living marine resources and their habitat through scientific research, management and enforcement. NOAA Fisheries Service provides effective stewardship of these resources for the benefit of the nation, supporting coastal communities that depend upon them, and helping to provide safe and healthy seafood to consumers and recreational opportunities for the American public.
NOAA, an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce, is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety through the prediction and research of weather and climate-related events and providing environmental stewardship of the nation's coastal and marine resources.


Comment:
We consume seafood faster than its reproduction.
As seafood is safe and healthy food choice for all of us, the demand keeps rising. Overfishing, overexploitation, is the demand-driven problem. If we change our taste, is it the best way to solve the root of the problem?

The Changing North Atlantic
February 23, 2007 By National Science Foundation

NOAA
Atlantic Cod

Ecosystems along the continental shelf waters of the Northwest Atlantic Ocean--from the Labrador Sea south of Greenland all the way to North Carolina--are experiencing large, rapid changes, report oceanographers funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) in the journal Science.
While some scientists have pointed to the decline of cod from overfishing as the main reason for the shifting ecosystems, the paper emphasizes that climate change is also playing a big role.
"It is becoming increasingly clear that Northwest Atlantic ecosystems are being affected by climate forcing from the bottom up and overfishing from the top down," said Charles Greene, an oceanographer at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y, and lead author of the Science paper. "Predicting the fate of these ecosystems will be one of oceanography's grand challenges for the 21st century."
Most scientists believe humans are warming the planet by burning fossil fuels and changing land surfaces. Early signs of this warming have appeared in the Arctic. Since the late 1980s, scientists have noticed that pulses of fresh water from increased precipitation and melting of ice on land and sea in the Arctic have flowed into the North Atlantic Ocean and made the water less salty.
At the same time, climate-driven shifts in Arctic wind patterns have redirected ocean currents. The combination of these processes has led to a freshening of the seawater along the North Atlantic shelf.
"Long time-series measurements, as well as research on large-scale ocean processes, are the key to improving our understanding of ecosystem shifts," says Mary Elena-Carr, program director in NSF's biological oceanography program. "This study brings together the important components: the atmosphere, freshwater flow, changes in currents and biological responses, all necessary to predicting future ecosystem responses to climate change."
Under normal conditions in summer months a warmer, less salty layer of water floats on the surface (warmer, less salty water is also less dense and lighter). This surface layer is known as a "mixed" layer, because wind-driven turbulence mixes the water and creates a uniform temperature, salinity and density to depths that can range from 25 to 200 meters.
Similar to the flow of heating and cooling wax in a lava lamp, when the air temperature cools during autumn, temperature and density differences lessen between the surface mixed layer and the cooler, saltier waters below. As the density differences get smaller, mixing between the layers typically increases and the surface mixed layer deepens.
But Greene cites recent scientific studies that reveal the influx of fresh water from Arctic climate change is keeping the mixed layer buoyant, inhibiting its rapid deepening during autumn. A gradual rather than rapid deepening of the mixed layer has impacted the seasonal cycles of phytoplankton (tiny floating plants), zooplankton (tiny animals like copepods) and fish populations that live near the surface.
Normally, when the mixed layer deepens rapidly during autumn, phytoplankton numbers decline because they spend less time near the surface where they are exposed to the light necessary for growth. But with the mixed layer remaining relatively shallow, phytoplankton populations stay abundant throughout the fall. In turn, zooplankton that feed on phytoplankton have increased in number during the fall through the early winter. Herring populations also rose during the 1990s, which some scientists suspect may be because of more abundant zooplankton to feed on.
Greene's paper also cites a link between the collapse of cod fisheries in the early 1990s and an increase in bottom-living species such as snow crabs and shrimp, which cod prey upon. Without cod, other animals that live in the water column and feed on zooplankton, including herring, may have increased.
While the herring story is still unclear, the authors contend that the crash of cod populations does not explain why phytoplankton and zooplankton populations at the base of the food chain have risen during autumn.
"We suggest that, with or without the collapse of cod, a bottom-up, climate-driven regime shift would have taken place in the Northwest Atlantic during the 1990s," Greene said.

Comment:
Most scientists care about the decline of cod population and its resultant shifting ecosystems in Northwest Atlantic Ocean. The main reason of the decline of cod population is overfishing and climate change.

Climate change, for example warmer temperatures, will make the ice and gaciers in Arctic and Greenland melt. It contributes to the rising sea level. But more importantly, the more saline water can hold more carbon dioxide. If more freshwater pour to the sea from the ice melting, the less saline water can hold less carbon dioxide and so intensify the global warming effect. Besides, the less saline sea water will change the original ecosystems. It's a dramatic change of ecosystem in Northwest Atlantic Ocean.

I have just been the talk "Communities, Coasts & Crises: "Managing Together on a Blue Planet" by Professor Anthony Charles. It was a great talk.

"Community-based mangement approach" that we care our environment starting from a local basis is the first and foremost step to take care of our ocean habitat. It is an ideal solution. BUT the main point is that it's not a must to join it. If some fishermen don't join it and keep destroying the ocean habitat, who has the right to stop them? Society is so real and harsh, at least to me. We concern about our benefits. Because we are nothing without the natural resources. We need to earn a living. And we feed on the natural resources. To think deeply, how many of us would purely think about the environmental conservation without any self-interest? For example, fishermen earn their lives by catching fishes. If fishing stocks declines, they are risky to loose their way of lives. They see the risk and they start to think about the environmental protection. To set up some rules, they need to obey with them together. At the first glance, they seem to be responsible on using natural resources more sustainably. But is it the main reason they obey the rules? Maybe... If one of the fishermen don't follow the rule, the remains would probably be angry with it. Since they are losing the chance to gain more when one of the fishermen won't follow.

We know our "Oceans in Crisis"; we know "Fisheries Declining"; and we know the "Pressure on the coast rising". These things are always the hot issue not only in Canada, but all over the world. But I wonder how many of us purely want to conserve and protect our blue planet. Perhaps I think too extemely. However, the reality always tells me that human world is so complicated and selfish. That's we are!!!!!!!!!!! That's the hidden part of civilization!!!!! (It's my stupid opinion.)

Chemosynthesis vs. Photosynthesis

Ecosystems depend upon the ability of some organisms to convert inorganic compounds into food that other organisms can then exploit. In most cases, primary food production occurs in a process called photosynthesis, which is powered by sunlight. In a few environments, primary production happens though a process called chemosynthesis, which runs on chemical energy. Together, photosynthesis and chemosynthesis fuel all life on Earth.

Additional information
All photosynthetic organisms use solar energy to turn carbon dioxide and water into sugar and oxygen. There is only one photosynthetic formula:
CO2 + 6H2O -> C6H12O6 + 6O2

Photosynthesis occurs in plants and some bacteria, wherever there is sufficient sunlight - on land, in shallow water, even inside and below clear ice.

All chemosynthetic organisms use the energy released by chemical reactions to make a sugar, but different species use different pathways. The vent bacteria used in the example above oxidize hydrogen sulfide, add carbon dioxide and oxygen, and produce sugar, sulfur, and water:
CO2 + 4H2S + O2 -> CH20 + 4S + 3H2O

Other bacteria make organic matter by reducing sulfide or oxidizing methane. Chemosynthetic bacterial communities have been found in hot springs on land, and on the sea floor around hydrothermal vents, cold seeps, whale carcasses, and sunken ships.


This is a great link.
http://www.learningdemo.com/noaa/ (lesson 5, Chemosynthesis and Hydrothermal Vent Life)

A September 2005 report revealed that the polar ice cap has shrunk by more than 20 percent since 1979, losing an area the size of Colorado in the preceding year alone.


Recently I have joined the StopGlobalWarming.org throught the Internet. And today, I have received an email about "HELP SAVE POLAR BEAR FROM GLOBAL WARMING". By showing your support, it can urge the Bush administration to hold public hearings so Americans across the country can express their support for protecting the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act.



http://www.stopglobalwarming.org/sgw_read.asp?id=140481222007



Global Warming: The Final Verdict
by: Robin McKie 22 January 2007

And there is a nws about Global Warming. A draft copy of the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that it is the work of several thousand climate experts who have widely differing views about how greenhouse gases will have their effect.

"Although the final wording of the report is still being worked on, the draft indicates that scientists now have their clearest idea so far about future climate changes, as well as about recent events. It points out that:
12 of the past 13 years were the warmest since records began;

Ocean temperatures have risen at least three kilometres beneath the surface;

Glaciers, snow cover and permafrost have decreased in both hemispheres;

Sea levels are rising at the rate of almost 2mm a year;

Cold days, nights and frost have become rarer while hot days, hot nights and heatwaves have become more frequent.

And the cause is clear, say the authors: 'It is very likely that [man-made] greenhouse gas increases caused most of the average temperature increases since the mid-20th century,' says the report."

http://www.stopglobalwarming.org/sgw_read.asp?id=140481222007


It is indisputable that "We are the masters of our own destruction". Global warming is the matter of you and me. It's never too late to get a start to conserve and protect our environment. I know and so I do.

More polar bears giving birth on land

Posted on Wed, Jan. 24, 2007
DAN JOLINGAssociated Press

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Pregnant polar bears in Alaska, which spend most of their lives on sea ice, are increasingly giving birth on land, according to researchers who say global warming is probably to blame.

The study by three scientists for the U.S. Geological Survey suggests the state's bear population could be harmed if the climate continues to grow warmer. Though bears are powerful swimmers, at some point they might have to cross vast stretches of open water to reach habitat on shore suitable for building dens in which to give birth.

From 1985 to 1994, 62 percent of the female polar bears studied dug dens in snow on sea ice. From 1998 to 2004, just 37 percent made dens on ice. The rest dug snow dens on land, according to the study.

Researchers "hypothesized that the sea ice changes may have reduced the availability or degraded the quality of offshore denning habits," said wildlife biologist Anthony Fischbach, lead author of the study. In recent years, Arctic pack ice has formed progressively later and melted earlier each season, he said.

The study is under review by the Geological Survey. Fischbach spoke about the findings Monday at the Alaska Marine Science Symposium.Scientists estimate the Beaufort Sea polar bear population at 1,526. In the study, researchers used satellite technology to track 89 bears in northern Alaska that led them to 124 dens between 1985 and 2004.

http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/16529460.htm



Relevant News:

Polar bear cub survival wanes as climate warms
11/16/2006
Reuters
"Polar bear cubs in Alaska's Beaufort Sea are much less likely to survive compared to about 20 years ago, probably due to melting sea ice caused by global warming, a study released on Wednesday said."

http://urlsnip.com/251481


photo taken from Toronto Zoo 2006

coca cola


Will we need to go to the Zoo to see the polar bear?
Will we see the polar bear only from the images?
We care our lives but who cares their lives?
We can hardly estimate how global warming will bring to our lives and our surrounding environment. But we are sure that what it brings should be profound and devastating.

more information about polar bear:
http://www.answers.com/polar+bear&r=67

"Nova Scotia's 7,600 km of coastline include an astonishing variety of habitats including estuaries, tidal rivers, wetlands, mudflats, beaches, rocky headlands and coastal islands that provide habitat, food, refuge and breeding grounds to a variety of marine and terrestrial species.

The coast is Nova Scotia's most valuable asset, providing vital ecological functions, such as protection against pollution, storm surges, flooding and coastal erosion, as well as economic, social and recreational benefits. The coast is also where many people go to relax and feel connected to the natural world."

http://www.ecologyaction.ca/coastal_issues/coastal_issues.shtm

YES!! It's definitely true. When I had came to Halifax, I had searched the information about how Nova Scotia looks like; how the environment I would have studied for a year. When I first saw those beautiful photos displaying on the screens, I couldn't imagine how amazing the nature is! I did feel so fascinated that I would have stayed in such a pretty city. Til now, I still think so.

HOWEVER, when I read some articles about Nova Scotia's coastal issue and marine issue. Those statistics and surveys...I can't believe such a wonderful environment is degrading and deteriorating by our activities, by the poorly managed regulations and monitors.

http://www.ecologyaction.ca/coastal_issues/coastal_reconnect.htm

There's a lot we can do. But it's ever easier speak than act.
To protect and conserve our environment, it needs our real participation and donation.
Therefore, I'm now thinking about how I can do to our environment, like the assignment "Show what you know by what you do" in Ocean Use and Management course.

The Caribbean Sea

Location-The Caribbean Sea is located at 9-22ºN and 89 to 60ºW.The countries found to the south of the Caribbean is Venezuela, Columbia, and Panama. The countries found to the West are Coasta Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras,Guatemala,Belize,and the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. The countries found to the north are the Greater Antilles Islands of Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, and Purto Rico. The land that is found to the east is the Lesser Antilles Islands.

Size-The extent of of the Caribbean is about 1,063,000 square miles or 2,754,000 kilometers. The Caribbean’s greatest depth is called the Cayman Trench, between Cuba and Jamaica. It is about 25,216 feet or 1,686 meters below sea level.

Climate-The climate is generally tropical, but it depends on the local variations depending on mountain altitude, water currents, and trade winds. Rain is about 10 inches a year 25 millimeters on the island of Bonaire off the coast of Venezuela to 350 inches a year in parts of Dominica. The hurricane season is from June to November., but thy are most common in September. The yearly average is eight such storms. The Caribbean has less hurricane than the western Pacific and the Gulf of Mexico.

History-The first European to enter the Caribbean was Christopher Columbus. He touched land in the Bahamas in 1492. He convinced himself that he had discovered a new route e to Asia. He continued south and found a Spanish colony on the island of Hispaniola.

Bibliography: Encyclopedia Britannica online, September 21, 2000

http://www.east-buc.k12.ia.us/00_01/BW/kg/kg.htm

Great Link: Caribbean Sea
http://www.answers.com/topic/caribbean-sea

http://www.cep.unep.org/

http://www.cep.unep.org/issues/sub_issues.htm

http://www.envirolink.org/

Caribbean Sea

Caribbean Sea, arm of the Atlantic Ocean, partially enclosed on the north and east by the islands of the West Indies, and bounded on the south by South America and Panama, and on the west by Central America. The name of the sea is derived from the Carib people, who inhabited the area when Spanish explorers arrived there in the 15th century. The Caribbean is 2,400 km (1,500 mi) long east and west and 640 to 1,400 km (400 to 1,400 mi) wide. It has an area of 2,718,000 sq km (1,049,000 sq mi). At the northwestern extremity it is connected with the Gulf of Mexico by the Yucatán Channel, a passage 190 km (120 mi) wide between Cuba and the Yucatán Peninsula. The Windward Passage between Cuba and Haiti is a major shipping route between the United States and the Panama Canal. Many gulfs and bays indent the coastline of South America, notably the Gulf of Venezuela, which carries tidal waters to Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela. With a few exceptions the entire Caribbean Basin is more than 1,830 m (more than 6,000 ft) deep. Large areas of the sea exceed 3,660 m (12,000 ft) in depth; the greatest depth measured thus far is Cayman Trench (7,686 m/25,220 ft) between Jamaica and Cayman Islands. Navigation is open and clear, making the Caribbean a major trade route for Latin American countries. The main oceanic current in the Caribbean Sea is an extension of the North Equatorial and South Equatorial currents, which enter the sea at the southeastern extremity and flow in a generally northwestern direction. A popular resort area, the Caribbean Sea is noted for its mild tropical climate.

http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761571085/Caribbean_Sea.html#461511805

Global Warming and Warm Weather: Connected?
by: Bill Blakemore 7 January 2007

It was expected to reach into the 70s today in New York City. Cherry blossoms were blooming in Washington, D.C.Is there a connection between the January heat wave that is sweeping the East Coast and man-made global warming?Scientists say yes -- in this way: What they know for sure is the warm winter fits the pattern, exactly, that has long been predicted for manmade global warming of more and more frequent unseasonable warm spells. While there were freak weather events like this in the past, even before the Industrial Age started pumping out more greenhouse gases, they were rare. But in recent decades they have increased. There has been "a fairly rapid rise of globally average temperatures, also temperatures in the United States, since about the mid-1970s," said David Easterling of the National Climate Data Center. The records from the National Climate Data Center show that over the last 55 years, especially the last 20, the number of unusually warm days and warm nights has steadily increased. The supercomputers that predicted all this decades ago have grown even more powerful. What do they project for the years immediately ahead, if greenhouse gas emissions are not drastically cut worldwide? "Over the next two or three decades, we will see a trend of just more frequent warm spells and less frequent cold snaps," said Jerry Meehl, a climatologist. But these changes are not limited to just warm weather. Colorado's third big snowfall in a month also fits a pattern long predicted for global warming. The warmer the air, the more moisture it can hold, which leads to heavier precipitation of rain or snow. Scientists say there are always immediate causes contributing to warm spells, such as the current warm El Nino patch that's appeared again in the Pacific.But El Nino, like everything in earth's climate, is influenced one way or another by manmade global warming.Climate scientists in the United Kingdom calculate that the current El Nino, combined with the additional warming effect of the increasing manmade greenhouse gases mean a better-than-even chance that 2007 will be the hottest year on earth since records have been kept. Already, the 10 hottest years on record have been in the past 11 years.


Can we feel the ever-changing and unpredictable weather?
The global climatic systems have lost its original routines. It changes that we can hardly predict and estimate. How do the changing climate influence the natural landscape and habitats? How do we react to the climatic change? We might think that the climatic system is dynamic and interactive with other elements. When the climate changes, all things, including abiotic and biotic factors change, and finally living organisms. It is a chain of reactions when only one element changes. We might think that there would be a self mechanism to re-balance and regulate the changing conditions, like evolutionary theory. "The fittest survive." and those organisms which cannot adjust to the changes subject to compel. However, i just wonder whether it is still a nice place to live in, with many species being extincted and so on. I just wonder whether we human beings will finally lose our civilization when facing keen competition for resources. Are we stepping closer to the doom of the world?

Agency Affirms Human Influence on Climate
(Quotation from the article)

"A contributing factor to the unusually warm temperatures throughout 2006 also is the long-term warming trend, which has been linked to increases in greenhouse gases," the release said, emphasizing that the relative contributions of El Niño and the human influence were not known.

Still, the climate agency's shift in language came as a surprise to several public affairs officials there. They said they had become accustomed in recent years to having any mention of a link between climate trends and human activities played down or trimmed when drafts of documents went to the Commerce Department and the White House for approval.

Mr. Bush has made two speeches on climate. He first expressly accepted that humans were contributing to global warming in a news conference in Denmark in July 2005 on the way to an economic summit in Scotland, saying, "Listen, I recognize that the surface of the Earth is warmer and that an increase in greenhouse gases caused by humans is contributing to the problem."

http://www.stopglobalwarming.org/sgw_read.asp?id=201441102007


"The United States, with only four percent of the world's population, is responsible for 22% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions."

That's really a terrifying number. The US has always declared themselves as a civilized country. But why does it produce almost a quarter of the world's greenhouse gas emissions? The US people should be more educated to know about how greenhouse gas contributing to global warming. They do know about it.

But what driving us mad is that President Bush made 2 speeches on climate. And the White House and the commerce Department have trimmed the drafts of documents when there are any mentions of a link between climatic trends and human activities. They are trying to hide the real facts to the general public. They are trying not to bear the responsibiluty and acknowledge what they do to the environment. They are cowards. When will they have the courage to acknowledge their fault? When will they have courage to right the wrong?

Today, I have heard that Halifax pours untreated sewage to the sea. And those people who swim in the harbour will easily get infected. It's really shocked me. As Dr. Cathy said, HRM has the ability to have a better sewage system. Canada is a well-developed country. We do have a good sense about the environmental conservation. But why do we still pour untreated sewage to sea? It's ridiculous.

From my point of view, Halifax is a really nice harbour city. It's so different than where I come from, Hong Kong, the same as a harbour city. Halifax is less disturbed. People here can share the beautiful and more natural views. I do like the natural beauty of Halifax. But what's a pity, they are risky to put our wonderful nature in danger. That's the thing I really don't want to see.

Studiny aboard is really eye-opening, especially in Canada, such a pretty country with lots of natural habitats. These all have brought me a good memory and impression about Canada.


taken from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia



Hong Kong Night's view


It's so different from the world I am used to live in (cemented forest). The things surrounding me are all tall buildings and busy vehicles. How serious air pollution level is always entangled Hong Kong, even though it's named as an international city all over the world. To me, Hong Kong has been risky to loose its pronounced status. Every time when I hear the news about the global warming, the ice melting and so on. My heart is freezing. It is not beacuse I'm afraid of the doom of the world, but becasue I am heartbreaking that why we still keep deteriorating our world. We do feel the changing climate caused by global warming. We know about its existence. The more I learn about the oceans, or our environment, the more I have concerned about our world. It always alerts me to re-think what I can do to the environment, not only in Hong Kong, but to the world.

Ocean Myths:

Ocean is the subject we know a little. Hardly can I imagine we've better known about the moon than our oceans on the earth. We've only explored less than 5% of the ocean. It is hard to imagine we are living on the tiny land surrounded by the great ocean. But we've just known little about it. And more importantly, it's so hard to determine how important and influential the ocean brings to our daily lives, for example, oxygen and water.

http://thankyouocean.org/learn.php

The Oceans: A Physical Geography

Water covers 71% of the earth's surface. And 97% of the water is salty. We human beings are too little to know the oceans. And it must be so interesting to discover our ocean world, which is closer to us and brings influential effects to our daily lives.

And I think that course should and will bring another meaning to me. As being an exchange student from Hong Kong, I'm glad to learn about the oceans in Halifax, such a beautiful coastal city in Nova Scotia.