Orion Sonar DA/Turn
Link: Orion
The Orion Navy Sonar is a dual-low frequency piece of sonar technology
United States Navy Fact File 13 (November, “Orion- Tow Side Scan Sonar”,
http://www.navy.mil/navydata/fact_display.asp?cid=4300&ct=4&tid=197, Accessed: 6-26-14, MSM)
Orion is a dual frequency
) two body towed side-scan sonar system. The sonar is mounted
in a neutrally buoyant tow body which trails aft of the weighted umbilical depressor which
decouples the sonar from vessel surface motions providing a more stable platform improving
the quality of collected data. The
sonar system is towed behind a vessel at slow speeds
Sonar signals are processed producing both an analog and digital display in
order to identify potential targets. The low frequency is primarily used for searching while the
higher frequency provides extremely fine details. Acoustic pingers may be deployed in order
to assist an ROV in relocating a target at a later date. Data and sensor control signals are
multiplexed,
(57/240 kHz
two body
, generally
from 1 - 3 knots depending on the required depth.
converted to digital signals and transmitted along the 36,000-foot fiber optic tow cable. Experience shows that the system is capable of swath widths of 300 meters for objects torpedo-sized, 1800 meters for
aircraft debris fields, and a maximum swath of 3000 meters for bathymetry and large ship wrecks. ¶
Orion mainly uses dual frequency active sonar- kills whales, dolphins, and
marine life
NRDC, non-profit international environmental advocacy group, October, 6, 2008
(Natural Resources Defense Council, nation's most effective environmental action group, “Lethal ¶ Sounds: The use of military
sonar poses a deadly threat to whales and other marine mammals,” ¶ http://www.nrdc.org/wildlife/marine/sonar.asp, Accessed June
26, 2014, S.D.Y.)
Whales and other marine mammals rely on their hearing for life's most basic functions, such ¶
as orientation and communication. Sound is how they find food, find friends, find a mate, and
¶ find their way through the world every day.¶ So when a sound thousands of times more ¶
powerful than a jet engine fills their ears, the results can be devastating -- and even deadly.¶ This is the
¶
reality that whales and other marine mammals face because of human-caused noise ¶ in the ocean, whether it's the sound of airguns used in oil exploration or subs and ships emitting ¶ sonar.
Manmade sound waves can drown out the noises that marine mammals rely on for their ¶ very
survival, causing serious injury and even death.¶ If you’ve ever seen a submarine movie, ¶ you probably came away with a basic understanding of
how sonar works. Active sonar systems ¶ produce intense sound waves that sweep the ocean like a
floodlight, revealing objects in their ¶ path.¶ Some systems operate at more than 235 decibels, producing sound waves that can ¶ travel across tens or even
hundreds of miles of ocean. During testing off the California coast, ¶ noise from the Navy's main low-frequency sonar system was detected across the breadth of ¶ the northern Pacific Ocean.¶ By
the Navy's own estimates, even 300 miles from the source, these ¶ sonic waves can retain an
intensity of 140 decibels -- a hundred times more intense than the ¶ level known to alter the
behavior of large whales.¶ “There is no question that sonar injures and ¶ kills whales and dolphins.” – Joel Reynolds, NRDC senior
attorney¶ The Navy’s most widely ¶ used sonar systems operate in the mid-frequency range. Evidence of the danger caused by ¶ these systems surfaced dramatically in 2000, when whales of four
different species stranded ¶ themselves on beaches in the Bahamas. Although the Navy initially denied responsibility, the ¶ government's investigation established that mid-frequency sonar caused the
strandings.¶ After ¶ the incident, the area's population of Cuvier's beaked whales nearly disappeared, leading ¶ researchers to conclude that they either abandoned their habitat or died at sea. Similar
beached whales have
suffered ¶ physical trauma, including bleeding around the brain, ears and other tissues and large
bubbles ¶ in their organs.¶ These symptoms are akin to a severe case of "the bends" -- the illness that can ¶ kill scuba divers who surface quickly from deep water. Scientists
believe that the mid-frequency ¶ sonar blasts may drive certain whales to change their dive patterns in ways
their bodies ¶ cannot handle, causing debilitating and even fatal injuries.¶ Stranded whales are only the most ¶ visible symptom
of a problem affecting much larger numbers of marine life. Naval sonar has ¶ been shown to disrupt feeding and other vital
behavior and to cause a wide range of species ¶ to panic and flee. Scientists are concerned
mass ¶ strandings have occurred in the Canary Islands, Greece, Madeira, the U.S. Virgin Islands, ¶ Hawaii and other sites around the globe.¶Many of these
about the cumulative effect of all of these impacts ¶ on marine animals.¶ Even the Navy estimates that increased sonar
training will significantly ¶ harm marine mammals more than 10 million times during the next five years off the U.S. ¶ coast alone.¶
Link: Navy Sonar
Sonar empirically kills dolphins, whales, and all marine life
Slocum 09 (John, Reporter for the Scientific American, “Does Marine Sonar Kill Marine Animals?”, The Scientific American,
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/does-military-sonar-kill/, June 09, Accessed: 6-26-14, MSM)
for many whales, dolphins and other marine life, the use of underwater sonar
lead to
death. Sonar systems
generate slow-rolling sound
waves
These sound waves can travel for hundreds of miles
under water, and can retain an intensity of 140 decibels as far as 300 miles from their source. ¶
These rolling walls of noise are no doubt too much for some marine wildlife. While little is
known about any direct physiological effects of sonar waves on marine species, evidence
shows that whales will swim hundreds of miles, rapidly change their depth (sometime
Unfortunately
ranging) can
(short for sound navigation and
injury and even
—first developed by the U.S. Navy to detect enemy submarines—
topping out at around 235 decibels; the world’s loudest rock bands top out at only 130.
leading to bleeding from the eyes and ears), and even beach themselves to get away from
the sounds of sonar .¶
34 whales of three different species became stranded and died
along North Carolina’s Outer Banks during nearby offshore Navy sonar training.
In January 2005,
Other sad examples around the coast of
the U.S. and elsewhere abound, notably in recent years with more sonar testing going on than ever before. According to the nonprofit Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), which has campaigned vigorously to ban use of the technology in waters rich in marine
recent cases of whale strandings likely represent a small fraction of sonar’s toll, given that
severely injured animals rarely make it to shore ¶
wildlife,
.
In 2003, NRDC spearheaded a successful lawsuit against the Navy to restrict the use of low-frequency sonar off the coast of
California. Two years later a coalition of green groups led by NRDC and including the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), the League for Coastal Protection, Cetacean Society International, and Ocean Futures Society upped the ante, asking the federal
Navy documents estimated
that such testing would kill 170,000 marine mammals and cause permanent injury to more
than 500 whales, not to mention
deafness for at least 8,000 others.
the Navy’s
in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act
and the Endangered Species Act ¶
the Supreme Court ruled that the Navy
should be allowed to continue the use of some mid-frequency sonar testing
“The
decision places marine mammals at greater risk of serious and needless harm
¶
Environmental groups are fighting the battle against the sonar, lobbying the government to
curtail testing, at least during peacetime, or to at least ramp up testing gradually to give
marine wildlife a better chance to flee affected areas. “The U.S. Navy could use a number of
proven methods to avoid harming whales when testing mid-frequency sonar
courts to also restrict testing of more intense, harmful and far ranging mid-frequency types of sonar off Southern California’s coastline.¶ In filing their brief, the groups cited
which
some
temporary
Coalition lawyers argued that
testing was
.
Two lower courts upheld NRDC’s claims, but
for the sake of national security.
,” says NRDC’s Joel Reynolds.
still
,” reports IFAW’s Fred O'Regan. “Protecting
whales and preserving national security are not mutually exclusive.” ¶
Navy Sonar alters marine behavior resulting in marine mammal suicide
Abate et al, Associate Professor of Law who specializes in environmental law
and physics, 2002 (Randall, “NEPA, National Security, and Ocean Noise: The Past, Present, and Future of regulating the
impact of navy sonar an marine
animals”, http://www.agriculturedefensecoalition.org/sites/default/files/file/us_navy/17S_3_2010_Journal_of_International_Wildlife_Law_Po
licy_NEPA_The_Past_Present_Future_Regulating_Impact_of_Navy_Sonar_on_Marine_Mammals.pdf, MSM)
Marine mammals depend on sound much like humans depend on sight
hearing is indispensable for the most basic functions in marine mammals
Sound is how marine mammals find
their way through the world every day Marine mammals’ reliance on
sound for survival has made these species vulnerable to the Navy’s use of
sonar
the harmful effects of human-generated
sound on marine life have become a subject of great concern in matters
.35 Unimpaired
, such
as communication, individual recognition, predator avoidance, prey detection and capture, orientation, navigation, mate selection, and mother—offspring bonding.“
¶
.37
. Human-generated sound was not known as a potential threat to marine mammals until the 1970s.“ In recent years,
concerning national defense.
active sonar has been
linked to numerous whale strandings throughout the world. The link
between the Navy’s use of
sonar and marine mammal mortality has
been conclusively established the Navy’s own consultants concluded
that “the evidence of sonar causation is completely convincing and
that therefore there is a serious issue of how best to avoid/minimize
future beaching events Strandings have occurred throughout the world
with stranded animals found with bleeding around the brain, emboli in
the lungs, and lesions in the liver and kidneys, symptoms resembling a
severe case of decompression sickness, or “the bends strandings of
whales may represent “only the tip of the iceberg, because these injuries
occur at sea and substantially larger numbers may be dying offshore The
most notorious example of these impacts involved the mass strandings of
whales and other marine mammals linked to the Navy’s use of sonar
March 2000, sixteen whales
stranded over 150 miles of shoreline
These beachings occurred within twenty-four hours of US. Navy
ships using sonar in those same channels
in every whale
examined, hemorrhaging in and around the ears and other tissues related
to sound conduction or production, such as the larynx and auditory fats,
some of which was debilitative and potentially severe. It is now accepted
that these mortalities were caused, through
the Navy’s use of
sonar
other cetacean species have also stranded in
connection with the Navy’s use of sonar“.
¶
” Widely used by the Navy for decades and currently on over 50 percent of its vessels, mid-frequency
“
mid-frequency
.“ In fact,
, in our opinion,
?“2
,
“
?“ Worse still,
.“
¶
.“
midfrequency
from at least three different species
along the
northern channels of the Bahamas.
mid-frequency
. Postmortem examinations found,
¶
¶ an unknown mechanism, by
mid-frequency
¶
?” Although these strandings have mostly involved Whales,
Possible triggers for the strandings include a behavioral response that causes deep divers to alter their diving behavior, which then results in
¶
decompression sickness-like behavior Public awareness of the impacts of ocean noise grew stronger in 1995 when, after urging from NRDC, the Navy disclosed the development of SURTASS LFAS. After a five-year administrative review process, including a programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (“EIS”), a Navy-sponsored scientific research
program using the LFA system at significantly reduced source levels, and tens of thousands of public comments opposed to the proposed deployment, NMFS issued a Final Rule. This rule granted a “small take” permit pursuant to the MMPA allowing the Navy to seek and obtain annual authorization to use LFA in 75 percent of the world’s oceans. NRDC
and others once again sued?0 The war against the Navy’s use of sonar was in full swing.
¶ A fiashpoint of controversy in the past decade, the Navy’s use of SURTASS LFAS “can affect marine mammals across hundreds of miles because of the power and intensity of the sound waves.” 5‘ This noise “can agitate nerve endings deep within the skin or cause
¶ The sounds emitted by SURTASS LFAS “overlap with
gas bubbles to form in the gastrointestinal tract, even at long distances, around the Navy’s LFA sonar system.” In addition, the use of this sonar “can cause the air-filled tissue in the lungs to vibrate sympathetically, a condition called resonance that, in its extreme form, may lead to hemorrhaging.”53
The harmful effects of the Navy’s use of
sonar
include potential masking of marine mammals’ ability to hear natural
sounds at similar frequencies, including calls from conspecifics
echolocation
and environmental sounds
¶
sounds used by large whales and may affect their hearing, physiology, or behavior?"
SURTASS LFAS
,55
, SE sounds of ondontocetes,S7
such as surf noise.”
Navy admits Sonar kills marine life
Malakoff 02 (David, Deputy News Editor specializing in coverage of science policy, energy and the environment, “Navy
admits sonar killed whales”, 1-7-02, http://news.sciencemag.org/2002/01/navy-admits-sonar-killed-whales, Accessed: 6-28-14,
MSM)
the U.S. Navy has concluded that it killed at least six whales in an accident involving
common ship-based sonars. The finding
may complicate
Navy plans to field a powerful new sonar system designed to detect enemy submarines at
long distances ¶
marine mammal scientists have suspected that sonar pings produced by
military ships may have played a role in a half-dozen unusual strandings of beaked whales,
toothy marine mammals that often feed deep in the ocean
researchers discovered the
In a landmark study,
, announced late last month by the Navy and the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS),
.
For decades,
. In each case,
beached whales shortly after nearby military sonar exercises,
¶
On 15 March 2000
marine mammal researchers Ken Balcomb and Diane Claridge
woke up to find a beached beaked whale outside their seaside home on Abaco Island in the
Bahamas
They soon counted 17 other stranded marine mammals in nearby
waters, some with
bleeding ears
Government
scientists launched an investigation after learning that the strandings had occurred within 24
hours of a nearby Navy training mission ¶
the acoustic
assault appears to have left some dazed and confused, causing them to swim ashore or
become vulnerable to shark attack.
¶
but the remains were always too decayed to reveal evidence of sound-energy injuries.
, however, independent
(Science, 26 January 2001, p. 576).
apparently
. They managed to collect tissue samples--including whole heads--from six of the animals that had died.
.
In an interim report released 20 December 2001, Navy and NMFS scientists conclude that the strandings were caused by an "unus ual combination" of
factors, including sea-bottom contours and water conditions that may have channeled and magnified sonar pings. While the researchers could not pinpoint exactly how the sound energy injured the whales' ears or tissues,
The Navy says that, in the future, it will try to avoid using sonar in similar situations during training runs, and it hopes to fund more research.
The study's result
"doesn't surprise" Naomi Rose, a marine mammal expert with the Humane Society of the United States in Gaithersburg, Maryland. "There is no way t he Navy could have avoided owning up," she says. But she believes the report is "carefully worded" so that it does
not give ammunition to critics of SURTASS LFA, the new, lower frequency sonar system the Navy plans to deploy. NMFS is expected to announce s oon whether it will give the Navy a permit to operate that system, but some environmental groups have
threatened to sue to block the sonar's deployment.
Navy Sonar Specifically kills whales
Kumagai, correspondent for Spectrum Radio, 06, (Jean, “Drowning in Sound”,
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=1611761, 4-2006, Accessed: 6-29-14, MSM)
On a cold, gray day in January¶ 2005, along a remote stretch of beach on North
Carolina’s Outer Banks, dozens of¶ pilot whales began to run themselves onto the sand.
Eventually 34 of the jet-black,¶ two-ton animals lay dead. The following day, three more
whales—a newborn Minke¶ whale and two dwarf sperm whales—washed up nearby. ¶
speculation
quickly zeroed in on a single culprit:
military sonar. The US. Navy had been conducting a training exercise in the area around the
time of the event, and an initial report by the National Marine Fisheries Service, which
investigates strandings, listed sonar as a cause for the incident
It was a haunting sight.
Although whales can
strand for various reasons, including sickness and disorientation, public
over the North Carolina stranding
possible
(the final report on the stranding was due out as this issue went to press). The
Navy stated that the exercise took place about 100 kilometers from where the whales beached, too far to have had any effect. More than a year after the stranding, though, doubts still linger. ¶ Not too long ago, the very idea that intense sound could do
bodily harm to ocean creatures would have seemed bizarre, even to those who study marine mammals for a living. “If you had asked anyone 15 years ago, even 10 years, everybody would have said, ‘That’s a crazy idea,’ says Robert Gisiner, program
Gisiner and other whale experts say they have no
doubt there’s a link between
sonar systems and
whales.
the
International Whaling Commission (IVVC) and the Pentagon’s IASON scientific advisory panel
have noted with concern sonar’s harmful effects on cetaceans.
¶
in 1996, 12 Cuvier’s beaked whales washed up along a 4o—ki10rneter
stretch of beach in western Greece,¶ following a NATO training exercise in the Mediterranean
Sea.
on the heels of a Navy exercise, four different species of whales stranded in the
Bahamas. And in 2.002, after a number of beaked whales stranded during a multinational
naval exercise in the Canary Islands, necropsies found hemorrhaging around the animals’ ears
and lungs and unusual gas bubbles in the blood and internal organs.
they
occurred over large areas and involved species that rarely strand in groups. By some counts,
dozens of other whale strandings and an unknown number of whale deaths have been linked
to military sonar
¶
the whales-versus-sonar controversy has spun into a
public relations nightmare for the Navy
¶ The Navy
contends that it needs so-called active
sonar to detect the latest generation of “quiet” submarines
Active sonar systems emit intense waves of acoustic energy into the water and then listen for
the returning signals, and they are “the only way to detect diesel subs in certain situations,”
says Capt. William Toti
manager for marine mammal science and technology at the Office of Naval Research (ONR), in Arlington, Va. Now
, at least
certain types of
certain types of
In the last couple of years,
—
groups not necessarily known for their nature-friendly stances—
journey of surprises,” Gisiner says.
also
“It’s been a
Among the “surprises”:
Four years later,
Also anomalous about all three strandings was that
[see photo, “Dead Calm”].
What’s less surprising, perhaps, is that
. Environmental groups, most notably the Natural Resources Defense Council, in New York City, have taken the Navy to court, and letter and e-mail
campaigns—not to mention the occasional stranding—ensure the issue is never out of the news for long.
, for its part,
—diesel— powered machines that, when running on batteries, generate virtually no noise.
, the officer in charge of the Fleet Anti—Submarine Warfare Command, based in Norfolk, Va. Forty countries now have such subs, although the United States is more concerned about those that
might acquire the vessels in the future, Toti says.¶ The sonar controversy has also focused attention on a broader issue: oceans everywhere are getting noisier because of commer— cial shipping, underwater oil and gas exploration, and other human
activity, and scientists have no clear idea what harm these man— made noises pose to whales and other sea creatures. “The strand— ings are important because they raise the profile of noise,” says Sarah Dolman, science officer with the Chippenharn,
England—based Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society. “But they may be just the tip of the iceberg.”¶
Yes- Sonar does kill Marine Life
Ovitz 12 (Kimberly, Collegian columnist, “Acoustic pollution threatens marine life”, The Daily Collegian, 2-12-12, http://dailycollegian.com/2012/02/12/acousticpollution-threatens-marine-life/, Accessed: 6-28-14, MSM)
For thousands of years, the depths of the ocean were unreachable by humankind
humans have made considerable achievements in underwater
research, our knowledge of the oceans remains quite minimal in relation to its vastness
noise is a common phenomenon underwater and a most integral one. Marine animals’
dependence on noise for communication forces us to recognize a serious and substantial
human impact on the underwater community: noise pollution.¶ Increasing industrial and
military interest in the ocean has spurred human penetration into the depths like never
before, leaving significant destruction in its wake. In waters surrounding the United States and
around the globe, the existence of anthropogenic noise pollution in marine habitats has
already displayed severe consequences and is of growing concern. The source of this pollution
is
specifically, U.S. military testing
noise pollution has
harmful, even deadly effects on marine life, the industries
continue to act with utter
disregard for the effects of their marine noise emissions.¶ Noise is a common occurrence
below the ocean surface as a product of meteorological forces, marine communication and
marine animal mating. Sound travels swiftly over vast expanses of underwater terrain, making
it an integral means of marine mammal communication. This sound emission is crucial to the
survival of marine mammals and other species for the purposes of mating, locating food
sources, and communicating threats
acoustic pollution,’ directly interferes with this
system of communication and death
can result
consequences vary
from disorientation to fleeing of habitat, physical bodily harm and death.¶ The primary cause
of noise pollution
extensive SONAR
testing initiatives to detect submarine threats, run by the United States Navy.
Navy
SONAR use is drastically more intensive, as is the impact on animal life ¶
After several incidents resulting in the
death of hundreds of Humboldt squids off of the coast of Oregon in 2004 and then again in
2008, biologists reached the conclusion that their deaths were caused by noise trauma
¶ Naval SONAR testing poses
threats to other
species, particularly marine mammals. Naval SONAR is incredibly powerful, emitting sound
vibrations capable of traveling hundreds of miles underwater. This noise causes many marine
mammals and fish to drastically alter their behavior. The effects of this acoustic pollution can
be widely implicated in mass beachings and deaths of whale populations. Following United
States Naval SONAR testing in the early 2000s, numerous whales of several different species
fled to the ocean surface with bleeding ears – a result of rapid ascent and decompression
sickness. These incidents have occurred in response to several different periods of testing,
¶ A myriad of periodicals have
published literature emphasizing the negative impact of acoustic pollution on marine
environments
the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of U.S. naval testing instead of protecting marine
life. Despite direct acknowledgement of the extensive harmful effects of SONAR testing, the
U.S. Navy has continued to knowingly conduct tests while hundreds of thousands of marine
animals are put at risk.¶
We have claimed a right to a world of which
– either a dark abyss or tropical
seascape, which only seaman’s tales described. Though more recently
. Like on land,
varies, but
largely the result of shipping industries, oil drilling industries and
. Despite significant evidence that
mentioned above
. Anthropogenic noise, or ‘
and destruction
. Depending on the origins and degree of acoustic pollution,
even
s
include sound emissions from shipping industry boats and reflection seismology, utilized in mapping the ocean floor for both oil drilling purposes and
Shipping noise emission serves as a chronic
source of pollution, and while not as acutely severe, can often interfere with marine life habitat when high-traffic shipping passages and migratory paths overlap, resulting in constant disorientation of marine creatures. Reflection seismology and
.
Seismic air guns used by oil-seeking vessels also poses a
significant threat. These guns emit loud forceful pulses of sound into the ocean for the purpose of assessing oil drilling locations on the sea floor.
. These powerful
seismic gun pulses even have the potential to completely destroy Cephalopod structures (like that of squid and octopuses).
similar
most
notably in the Bahamas in 2000, the Canary Islands in 2002, Washington State in 2003, and North Carolina in 2005, each incident substantially adding to the death toll.
. Simultaneously, they demand increased accountability for industries with high levels of noise emission. Despite the clear relationship between anthropogenic sound emission and harm experienced by marine species, on Nov.
12, 2008
These incidents bring rise to serious concerns for marine life in light of industrial and military interests. These actions characterize first world and industrial mindsets as destructive and careless. A
human-over-nature complex emerges; who actually has the right to international waters? I’m positive that the answer is not humans.
we know nothing about and refuse to protect. Our military action in marine waters poses just
another example of arbitrary military excess, waste and destruction at the expense of
countless living creatures, which many ecosystems and human systems rely on for
sustenance.¶ It is our national responsibility to regulate our military and industry and the
affect they have on international marine environments. International waters are not solely
available for U.S. usage and degradation, and their misuse is representative of grave
disrespect for lives other than our own
it is our responsibility to set a standard of accountability for acoustic pollution emissions. ¶ If
this degradation continues unchecked, the consequences will be immense, and if an initiative
to limit this anthropogenic disturbance is not implemented soon, depleted and endangered
species may cease to exist all together. Acoustic pollution is yet another type of pollution and
‘emission’ for human populations to be held accountable for.
. Like carbon emissions and many environmental issues before, acoustic pollution is one caused by first world interests, yet experienced by countless others.
Thus,
Hopefully we can prove more stringent and effective in controlling noise emissions than we
have been for carbon ones. ¶
Sonar kills millions of whales and dolphins—
Webre, Seattle Exopolitics Examiner, 2011
(Alfred, Alfred Lambremont Webre, JD, MEd is a futurist and author of 'Exopolitics: Politics, Government and Law in the Universe' a book that founded the field of Exopolitics – the science of relations among intelligent civilizations in the
multi-verse, “Author: U.S. Navy destroying dolphins & whales, attacking Earth’s life frequency”
http://www.examiner.com/article/author-u-s-navy-
destroying-dolphins-whales-attacking-earth-s-life-frequency
, accessed June 30, 2014, GAG)
the 5-year
sonar testing program announced by the U.S. Navy is having a
destructive effect far beyond what the
media are reporting The
environmental impacts of the U.S. Navy sonar-testing program
include the
annihilation of 13 million sea mammals, including
cetaceans such as dolphins and whales
In an exclusive ExopoliticsTV Interview with Alfred Lambremont Webre, Patricia Cori, author of Before We Leave You: Messages from the Great Whales and the Dolphin Beings, has stated that
conventional analysis and
.
estimated
. According to Ms. Cori, the cetaceans being targeted by the U.S. Navy sonar program carry out an important
role in maintaining the frequency of vibration of the Earth’s oceans and hence of the planet itself. Ms. Cori demonstrated a series of mandala frequency patterns generated from the sound music produce by dolphins and whales by scientist Mark
Fisher. It is this cetacean sound music that, according to Ms. Cori, in turn has a frequency effect on the ocean waters, lifting it to higher vibrations. Intelligence, Ms. Cori states, is associated with higher vibrational fields, and hence
t
he
cetaceans are performing a function of sustaining higher intelligence in the natural ecology. The effects of the U.S. Navy sonar targeting, which may be far beyond weapons testing into operational targeting and genocide of cetaceans, is to lower
the vibrational field of the Earth and slow its elevation and transition into a more evolved dimension.
Low Frequency is primarily used to search the plane. Orion and CURV-21
Produce Both High and Low Frequency, which are extremely dangerous to the
whales, fish, and dolphins
US Navy, is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces, “ORION TOWED SIDE SCAN SONAR, Navy.mil,
http://www.navy.mil/navydata/fact_display.asp?cid=4300&ct=4&tid=197, Nov. 22, 2013, PZ
Orion is a dual frequency (57/240 kHz) two body towed side-scan sonar system. The sonar is mounted in a
neutrally buoyant tow body which trails aft of the weighted umbilical depressor which decouples the sonar from vessel surface motions providing a
more stable platform improving the quality of collected data. The two body sonar system is towed behind a vessel at slow speeds, generally from 1 - 3
knots depending on the required depth. Sonar signals are processed producing both an analog and digital display in order to
identify potential targets. The low frequency is primarily used for searching while the higher
frequency provides extremely fine details.
Low-Frequency Sonar Harms and is likely to kill marine life
The Ocean Mammal Institute NO DATE (“The US Navy's Low Frequency Active Sonar: Cause for
Concern”, http://www.oceanmammalinst.com/mgpaper.html, Accessed: 6-26-14, MSM)
Low frequency active sonar
is a dangerous technology that has the potential to kill, deafen
and/or disorient whales, dolphins and all marine life, as well as humans, in the water. It is the
loudest sound ever put into the world's oceans. The U.S. Navy was planning to deploy it in
80% of the world's oceans at a level of 240 decibels in order to detect quiet submarines. Some
other countries have similar technology.
(LFA sonar)
In 1996 LFA sonar during NATO exercises in the Mediterranean was correlated with a stranding of beaked whales.
Impact (General)
Marine ecosystem imbalance risks extinction
Craig 3 - Associate Dean for Environmental Programs @ Florida State
University [Robin Kundis Craig, “Taking Steps Toward Marine Wilderness Protection? Fishing and Coral Reef Marine Reserves in Florida
and Hawaii”, http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1289250, McGeorge Law Review, Winter 2003, MSM)
¶Biodiversity and ecosystem
function arguments for conserving marine ecosystems also exist, just as they do for terrestrial
ecosystems, but these arguments have thus far rarely been raised in political debates. For example, besides significant tourism
values - the most economically valuable ecosystem service coral reefs provide, worldwide - coral reefs protect against storms and
dampen other environmental fluctuations, services worth more than ten times the reefs' value for food production. n856 Waste
treatment is another significant, non-extractive ecosystem function that intact coral reef ecosystems provide. n857 More generally,
"ocean
ecosystems play a major role inthe global geochemical cycling ofall the elements that
represent the basic building blocks ofliving organisms, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus,
and sulfur, as well as other less abundant but necessary elements." n858 In a very real and direct sense,
therefore, human degradationof marine ecosystems impairs the planet's ability to support life .¶
Maintaining biodiversity is often critical to maintaining the functions of marine ecosystems. Current evidence shows that,
in general, an ecosystem's ability to keep functioning in the face of disturbance is strongly
dependent on its biodiversity, "indicating that more diverse ecosystems are more stable." n859 Coral reef ecosystems are
particularly dependent on their biodiversity. [*265] Most ecologists agree that the complexity of interactions and degree of
interrelatedness among component species is higher on coral reefs than in any other marine environment. This implies that the
ecosystem functioning that produces the most highly valued components is also complex and that many otherwise insignificant
species have strong effects on sustaining the rest of the reef system. n860 Thus, maintainingand
of marine
restoring the biodiversity
ecosystems is critical tomaintaining and restoring theecosystem servicesthat they
provide. Non-use biodiversity values for marine ecosystems have been calculated in the wake of marine disasters, like the Exxon
Valdez oil spill in Alaska. n861 Similar calculations could derive preservation values for marine wilderness.¶ However, economic
value, or economic value equivalents, should not be "the sole or even primary justification for conservation of ocean ecosystems.
Ethical arguments also have considerable force and merit." n862 At the forefront of such arguments should be a recognition of how
little we know about the sea - and about the actual effect of human activities on marine ecosystems. The United States has
traditionally failed to protect marine ecosystems because it was difficult to detect anthropogenic harm to the oceans, but we now
know that such harm is occurring - even though we are not completely sure about causation or about how to fix every problem.
coral reef ecosystem should inspire lawmakers and policymakers to admit
that most of the time we really do not know what we are doing to the sea and hence should be
preserving marine wilderness whenever we can - especially when the United States has within its
territory relatively pristine marine ecosystems that may be unique in the world
Ecosystems like the NWHI
( ) Marine Environmental disorder cause extinction
Ehrlich and Ehrlich 2013—Associate director of the Center for Conservation
Biology at Stanford University. Bing Professor of Population Studies in the department
of Biological Sciences at Stanford University and president of Stanford's Center for
Conservation Biology. Paul and Anne, “Can a collapse of global civilization be avoided?”,
http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/280/1754/20122845.full#ref-1
Environmental problems have contributed to numerous collapses of
civilizations in the past. Now, for the first time, a global collapse appears likely. Overpopulation,
overconsumption by the rich and poor choices of technologies are major drivers; dramatic cultural change provides the
main hope of averting calamity.¶ population consumption environment agriculture climate culture¶ Previous Section¶ Next
Section¶ 1. Introduction¶ Virtually every past civilization has eventually undergone collaps e,
a loss of sociopolitical-economic complexity usually accompanied by a dramatic decline in
population size [1]. Some, such as those of Egypt and China, have recovered from collapses at various stages;
others, such as that of Easter Island or the Classic Maya, were apparently permanent [1,2]. All those previous
collapses were local or regional; elsewhere, other societies and civilizations persisted unaffected. Sometimes, as in the
Tigris and Euphrates valleys, new civilizations rose in succession. In many, if not most, cases, overexploitation
of the environment was one proximate or an ultimate cause [3].¶ But today, for the first time,
humanity's global civilization—the worldwide, increasingly interconnected,
highly technological society in which we all are to one degree or another,
embedded—is threatened with collapse by an array of environmental
problems. Humankind finds itself engaged in what Prince Charles described as ‘an act of
suicide on a grand scale’ [4], facing what the UK's Chief Scientific Advisor John Beddington
called a ‘perfect storm’ of environmental problems [5]. The most serious of
these problems show signs of rapidly escalating severity, especially climate
disruption. But other elements could potentially also contribute to a
collapse: an accelerating extinction of animal and plant populations and
species, which could lead to a loss of ecosystem services essential for human
survival; land degradation and land-use change; a pole-to-pole spread of
toxic compounds; ocean acidification and eutrophication (dead zones); worsening of
some aspects of the epidemiological environment (factors that make human populations susceptible to infectious
diseases); depletion of increasingly scarce resources [6,7], including especially groundwater,
which is being overexploited in many key agricultural areas [8]; and resource
wars [9]. These are not separate problems; rather they interact in two gigantic complex
adaptive systems: the biosphere system and the human socio-economic
system. The negative manifestations of these interactions are often referred to as ‘the human
predicament’ [10], and determining how to prevent it from generating a global collapse is
perhaps the foremost challenge confronting humanity.¶ The human
predicament is driven by overpopulation, overconsumption of natural resources
and the use of unnecessarily environmentally damaging technologies and socioeconomic-political arrangements to service Homo sapiens’ aggregate
consumption [11–17]. How far the human population size now is above the planet's
long-term carrying capacity is suggested (conservatively) by ecological footprint analysis [18–20]. It
shows that to support today's population of seven billion sustainably (i.e. with business
as usual, including current technologies and standards of living) would require roughly half an
additional planet; to do so, if all citizens of Earth consumed resources at the
US level would take four to five more Earths. Adding the projected 2.5 billion
more people by 2050 would make the human assault on civilization's lifesupport systems disproportionately worse, because almost everywhere
people face systems with nonlinear responses [11,21–23], in which environmental
damage increases at a rate that becomes faster with each additional person.
Of course, the claim is often made that humanity will expand Earth's carrying capacity dramatically with technological
innovation [24], but it is widely recognized that technologies can both add and subtract from
carrying capacity. The plough evidently first expanded it and now appears to be
reducing it [3]. Overall, careful analysis of the prospects does not provide much
confidence that technology will save us [25] or that gross domestic product
can be disengaged from resource use [26].¶ Previous Section¶ Next Section¶ 2. Do current trends
portend a collapse?¶ What is the likelihood of this set of interconnected predicaments [27] leading to a global collapse in
this century? There have been many definitions and much discussion of past ‘collapses’ [1,3,28–31], but a future global
collapse does not require a careful definition. It could be triggered by anything from a ‘small’ nuclear war, whose
ecological effects could quickly end civilization [32], to a more gradual breakdown because famines, epidemics and
resource shortages cause a disintegration of central control within nations, in
concert with disruptions of trade and conflicts over increasingly scarce
necessities. In either case, regardless of survivors or replacement societies, the world familiar to
anyone reading this study and the well-being of the vast majority of people
would disappear.
Impact Modules
Impact Module-- Whales
Whales are specifically key to ocean ecosystems
Estes, international expert on sea otters and a specialist in the critical role of
apex (top level) predators in the marine environment, 2006 (James, “Whales, Whaling, and Ocean
Ecosystems”, http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=daY_utPoJGAC&oi=fnd&pg=PA379&dq=%22whales%22+AROUND+(25)+%22keystone+species%22&ots=5H5_ZZFFj&sig=k_jK3Vi9mfJ_M5fJTqvWnK6KUzg#v=onepage&q=keystone%20species&f=false, 2006, Accessed: 6-29-14, MSM)
Whales are Hugely Important to Ocean Ecosystem Functioning
evidence point towards
an ecologically significant role for whales in marine ecosystems . First, even if we assume low estimates of past abundance.
¶
Several lines of
simply by virtue of their energetics, whales must have been important consumers (Williams. Chapter IS oi this volume). For example, off the Northeast Continental Shelf of the United States.
six whale species (right. tin, sei, minke, humpback, and sperm) currently command roughly 848% of net primary
productivity (based on Kenney et al. 1997). If these whale populations were to triple in magnitude, which is not unreasonable given that these six species average at only 34% of
their global historic levels (Table 30.2]. these whales could consume 24-54% of all primary productivity in thc arca. lel ct al. (Chapter 16 in this volumc) estimate a similar scenario for the North
Pacific, when: large whale species currently consume 9% of the net primary production—nearly 7 times less than historic consumption rates of 62% in the same geographic area. Although it is
unlikely that whale populations will grow homogenously worldwide. rising whale numbers will certainly alter energy flows and species composition in many marine communities.¶ In addition to t'uud
whales also impact ecosystems in a variety of other ways. including substrate
disturbance and sediment re-suspension. For example, gray whales use suction to gather prey {rum the sea floor
and in doing so crcau: large disturbances (llighsmith ct al., Chapter 23 of this volumc), in some feuding areas plowing through over 30%0l
the floor (Oliver and Kvitck 1984). In the northeastern Bering Sea. gray whales msuspcnd 120 million m3 of sediment annually. which is twice the amount introduced by the Yukon River
Web effects due to consumption.
(Johnson and Nelson 1984). I’ilskaln and colleagues (1998) speculate that sediment mixing, in this case trom biogenic perturbation, could shilt organic matter between aerobic and anaerobic
environments and greatly alter primary productivity. Sediment disturbance will release significant organic material as well as ammonium and nitrate into the water column (Pilskaln et al. 1998].
The disturbances created by this feeding also generate open habitat patches, which are then
exploited by a diverse fauna of scavench populations (Oliver and Slattery I985). Whale carcasses have been
shown to support a diversity of marine life totaling more than 350 species in the northeast
Pacific. They serve as important habitats for polychactcs. mullusks, cmstaceans. and bottom-dwelling. chemouulotrophic
¶
organisms, as well as nutrient sources for scavenging fish and sharks. A large whale carcass (>30 tons] can support successional communities for up to 80 years or more before being totally
decomposed (Smith, Chapter 22 of this volume). The combination of the mass and longevity of these whale carcasses makcs them extremely important havens for biodiversity in dccp-sca
ecosystems (loncs ct al. 1998].¶ Perhaps most compelling is the large number of experiments pointing out that predators commonly have a cascade of eftects that reverberate through ecosystems
There is no reason to expect whales, especially top predators
such as killer whales, to be any less influential than keystone predators in other systems .
as a result 0! trophic interactions (l’aine, Chapter 2 of this volume).
Unfortunately, in the absence of manipulative field experiments, inferences about trophie impacts of whales an: not straightforward. One approach has been to take advantage of human-induced
changes in marine food webs and then. through either statistical techniques or models. draw conclusions about the role ol' whales. For example, the food web model analyzed by lissington
(Chapter 5 of this volume) suggests that the decline of sperm whales in the tropical and subtropical l’acilic led to a shilt toward pelagic systems dominated by squid and small tuna. Using analyses
of population trend data as opposed to a food web model. Worm el al. (Chapter 26 0| this volume] provide a plausible scenario by which the
decline of whales in the IQSOs and
led to ground fish dominated systems. The concordance of marine mammal declines in the Bering Sea and possible prey switching by killer whales
hunting whales led to major shifts in
species interactions with reverberations throughout marine ecosystems. Although more research is
needed in this area. the weight of evidence to date suggests that whales profoundly alter the
composition and functioning of oceanic ecosystems.¶
l960s
(Estes. Chapter 1 of this volume; Estes ct al. 1998; Springer ct al. 2003) is yct another line: of cvidcncc suggesting that
Whales are key to krill populations.
Krulwich, an NPR science correspondent, April 5, 2014
(Robert Krulwich, Robert Krulwich works on radio, podcasts, video, the blogosphere. He has been called "the most inventive network reporter in television" by TV Guide. He is
the co-host of Radiolab, a nationally distributed radio/podcast series that explores new developments in science. For 22 years, Krulwich was a science, economics, general
assignment and foreign correspondent at ABC and CBS News., “The Power Of Poop: A Whale Story”, NPR, http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2014/04/03/298778615/thepower-of-poop-a-whale-story, Accessed 6/28/2014, RJS)
This, I would think, should be self-evident: Generally speaking, big creatures eat smaller
creatures that, in turn, eat even smaller creatures, like this ... A big fish eating a smaller one
eating the smallest one. And just as obviously, one would expect the food chain to be pyramidshaped: a few big creatures at the top eating more middle-sized creatures in the middle, that
eat many, many, many little creatures at the bottom, like so: Food pyramid Which brings me to
a curious exception — a real life mystery — discovered a few years ago. A marine biologist,
Victor Smetacek, was thinking about giant whales — blues, humpbacks and especially the
baleens. Baleen whales eat lots of krill, little crustacean critters that look like itty-bitty lobsters.
Krill, in turn, eat even smaller, almost microscopic varieties of plankton, diatoms and
zooplankton. An open mouthed whale. So that follows the classic "biggies eat the littlies"
pattern. But what about the few-to-many pyramid? Well, here, when Smetacek looked closely,
something wasn't right. The problem was with the middle group — the krill. A krill. We know
how much whales eat today. We know that a hundred years ago, there were lots more whales in
the southern oceans. We can guess what the whale population was in 1910. If we multiply the
number of whales back then times the size of their meals, we can imagine how much krill had to
be in the ocean. It comes out to 1.5 billion tons of krill. As it turns out, that's a whole lot of krill.
Too much for Professor Smetacek. Krill need iron to grow and multiply. Given what we know
about ocean chemistry, Smetacek wrote, there's not enough iron in the southern ocean water to
support that many krill. So either the whales had smaller meals a century ago, or somehow the
oceans got an extra kick or boost of iron to create more krill. Nobody was willing to consider a
food pyramid that looked like this: An oddly shaped food pyramid with too many big animals on
top, and not enough animals in the middle. ... with too many big animals on top, and not
enough animals in the middle. The 'Whale Poop Hypothesis' And that's when Smetacek
proposed what he delicately called in his paper, the whales' extra nutritious "manuring
mechanism." (Or, as it's come to be known, his "whale poop hypothesis.") It begins with this
obvious observation: Whales poop. In fact, they poop mightily. Whales poop mightily.
Smetacek proposed that because baleen whales prowl the seas consuming immense quantities
of krill, they might, during digestion, concentrate their food into iron-rich deposits which, when
the time comes, they eject back into the ocean. Nobody had looked closely at whale poop, but
following Smetacek's article, marine biologist Stephen Nicol found, to quote him, "huge
amounts of iron in whale poo." Poop With 10 Million Times More Iron Nicols' team analyzed 27
fecal samples from four species of baleen whales, reported New Scientist. "He found that on
average whale faeces had 10 million times as much iron as Antarctic seawater." Basically, that's
iron concentrate. And strategically emitted — which would have to be up near the ocean
surface, where the sun shines — that extra iron would create blooms of phytoplankton, which
would then be eaten by krill, leading to a boost in the krill population, leading to ... yes ... bigger
whale dinners! Pooping near the ocean surface can lead to a bigger dinner for whales. And this
led Smetacek to think you could start with an enormous population of plankton, a few whales
and a few krill, and slowly but surely the whales will multiply, pooping more iron into the ocean
to produce more krill, which produces more whales, then more krill, then more whales, then
more krill, until you could support an ocean teeming with whales. Then, if something nasty were
to happen, like ocean-going terrestrials invent boats, harpoons, trawlers, nets and kill masses of
whales — instead of the krill population expanding ("Hooray! Those giants who eat us are gone
— let's multiply!"), the krill population might shrink. ("Oh no! Those big animals who gave us
iron are gone! We're going to starve.") And guess what? When Antarctica's great whales were
nearly destroyed in the 1960s, the krill population, instead of expanding, collapsed, by some 80
percent. Smetacek got it right. Whales do, in fact, garden the ocean, fertilizing the seas to grow
their own food. Whales recirculate the iron. Even the bits that slip down to the dark bottom get
pulled back up by whales. Sperm whales dive to terrifying depths, 3,000 feet below, to hunt
iron-rich prey like giant squid. Pressed by the weight of the ocean, their digestion stops; they
don't excrete. They consume the iron below, hold it in, climb back to the surface, and that's
where they poop. Every sperm whale, it is said, draws 50 tons of iron to the surface every year.
Recycling Yourself Into Abundance So who knew? A couple of centuries ago, the southern seas
were packed with baleen whales. Blue whales, the biggest creatures on Earth, were a hundred
times more plentiful than they are today. Biologists couldn't understand how whales could feed
themselves in such an iron-poor environment. And now we may have an answer: Whales are
extraordinary recyclers. What whales consume (which is a lot), they give back. As science writer
J.B. MacKinnon writes in his book The Once and Future World, "Whales may have been boosting
the productivity of the entire ocean, making their own extraordinary abundance possible."
Krill are the foodsource of a variety of Antarctic species.
Gascon and Werner, part of the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition (ASOC),
October 2005
(Virginia Gascón & Rodolfo Werner, Virginia Gascón González is ASOC's Marine Coordinator. She holds a Degree in Law from Universidad Autonoma (Madrid) and two Masters in International Law from the Free
University (Brussels) and Georgetown University (Washington, DC). From 1997 to 2002, she consulted for the World Wildlife Fund International and US, as well as other environmental groups, on various
environmental policy and fisheries issues. She also has experience as a lawyer and University teacher. She now coordinates ASOC's marine campaign work from Puerto Madryn, Argentina, Dr. Rodolfo Werner
Kinkelin was born in Argentina and devoted many years of his career as a biologist to the study and conservation of marine Patagonian wildlife. He graduated as a biologist at the University of Buenos Aires
(Argentina), obtained a Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Munich (Germany) and conducted postdoctoral work in marine zoology at the University of Guelph (Ontario, Canada). From 1997 to 2004, he
consulted for the World Wildlife Fund International and US, and other international organizations on marine conservation issues such as marine protected areas, fisheries, policy, and marine mammals. Besides of
contributing to ASOC's work, he is currently the Coordinator of the Forum for the Conservation of the Patagonian Sea and Areas of Influence, an initiative that includes regional and international organizations
devoted to the conservation of this geographic area. ,“Antarctic Krill: a case study on the ecosystem implications of fishing”, ASOC, Accessed: 6/28/2014 RJS)
The Antarctic marine ecosystem is largely dependent on Antarctic krill as the key prey item.
Most species in the Antarctic are one or two trophic levels away from krill. Antarctic krill is a
major component of the diet for a variety of species, and many rely on krill almost entirely
(Alonzo et al. 2003). For many marine mammals and sea birds, particularly in the South Atlantic,
krill is the most abundant food source. Areas of highest krill concentration are often close to the
land-based breeding colonies of krill-eating birds and seals (Croxall 2003). These predators
depend on krill being within reach of their colonies in order to feed and rear their offspring
during the Antarctic summer. For example, there are clear links between krill abundance and
the reproduction and survival of penguins in Antarctica (Alonzo et al. 2003). Fig. 3 - A simplified
representation of the Southern Ocean food web linkages that are centred around krill as
presented in Everson, 2000b Antarctic krill: a case study on the ecosystem implications of fishing
– Virginia Gascón and Rodolfo Werner – Page 7 Key species that directly depend upon krill for
food Seabirds: In general, seabirds are significant consumers of krill. The differences in the
annual amount of krill taken differ between species and specific locations. The following
penguin species are dependent to a great extent on Antarctic krill (Croxall 1984): Adelie Penguin
(Pygoscelis adeliae); Chinstrap Penguin (Pygoscelis antarctica); Macaroni Penguin (Eudyptes
chrysolophus); Gentoo Penguin (Pygoscelis papua). Three species of albatrosses feed on krill,
including the Black-browed Albatross (Diomedea melanophris). Photo: © Claudio Suter. Three
species of albatrosses feed on krill, although the percentage of contribution of krill to their diets
differs between species. These species are as follows: Black-browed Albatross (Diomedea
melanophris); Light-mantled Albatross (Phoebretia palpebrata); Grey-headed Albatross
(Diomedea chrysostoma). Petrels in general, feed extensively on Antarctic krill. The contribution
percentage of krill to their diet varies depending on the species, but seems to be very high in
smaller petrel species (Everson 2000b). The main species of petrels dependent on krill for food
are: Southern Giant Petrel (Macronectes giganteus); Northern Giant Petrel (Macronectes halli);
Antarctic Petrel (Thalassoica antarctica); Cape Petrel (Daption capense); Snow Petrel
(Pagodroma nivea); Diving Petrel (Pelecanoides spp); White-chinned Petrel (Procellaria
aequinoctialis). The smaller storm petrels (Oceanites spp) and prions (Pachyptila spp) feed on a
wider range of crustaceans, including krill, although the emphasis of their diet is towards
copepods (Prince and Morgan 1987). Seals. All species of Antarctic seals, besides the Southern
Elephant Seal (Mirounga leonina), feed to some extent on krill (Laws 1984). These species are:
Crabeater Seal (Lobodon carcinophagus); Leopard Seal (Hydrurga leptonix); Weddell Seal
(Leptonychotes weddelli); Ross Seal (Ommatophoca rossi); Antarctic Fur Seal (Arctocephalus
gazella). The Gentoo Penguin (Pygoscelis papua) is very vulnerable to changes in krill availability.
Photo: © Claudio Suter. Antarctic krill: a case study on the ecosystem implications of fishing –
Virginia Gascón and Rodolfo Werner – Page 8 Whales. The main whale species that feed
predominantly on krill are the following (Everson 2000b): Minke Whale (Balaenoptera
acutorostrata); Blue Whale (Balaenoptera musculus); Fin Whale (Balaenoptera physalus); Sei
Whale (Balaenoptera borealis); Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae). Fish. There is good
evidence of several species of fish that feed on krill in the Southern Ocean (Kock 1992). The high
concentrations of some fish species in certain areas might have a local impact on krill
populations. In spite of this, the overall consumption of krill by fish in the Southern Ocean is
unlikely to have a significant impact compared to the consumption incurred by whales, seals and
birds (Everson 2000b). The Crabeater Seal (Lobodon carcinophagus) is one of the Antarctic seals
that have krill as part of their diet. - Photo: © Claudio Suter. Squid. Some species of squid, also
present in the Southern Ocean, are known to feed on krill. Although it is estimated that the
amount of squid in the Southern Ocean might be very large, accurate data on the current
population size of squid are not available (Everson 2000b). This precludes any conclusion in
regards to the impact of squid on krill stocks. Antarctic krill:
Whales are important to the ocean ecosystems; they prevent the marine food
chain collapse.
Grant, a contributor to Ocean Focus, a chartable organization dedicated to the promotion of the
world’s oceans and marine life “The importance of whales and why we should care”, Ocean
Focus, http://oceanfocus.org/focus-areas/threatened-species/whales/, 2011, PZ
whales can be seen as partly responsible for shaping the behaviour
and morphology of their prey. Whales therefore, are very important to ocean ecosystems.
whales are responsible for consuming large numbers of krill and fish and as a result, they play an
important role in influencing community structures (the marine food chain). Not only do they influence
through their predatory behaviour, they also support communities as a food source.
In the co-evolution of predator and prey,
Within the ocean
ecosystem,
For example, when a whale dies, it rapidly sinks to the bottom of the ocean
and becomes a huge food source for numerous other marine species.
When some whales feed, they drive their prey to the surface making it
easier for seabirds to catch fish. Studying marine ecosystems and the effects upon it, is a very complex process. It still isn’t exactly known what effect removing whales would have on the wider ocean ecosystem, and this is an area that
There is also evidence of commensal relationships with other species (one species benefits and the other is neutral), such as sea birds.
all apex predators play a crucial role in
maintaining the health of ecosystems by controlling populations beneath them in the food
chain.
requires further study. However, we do know that the removal of any apex (top) predator will not be beneficial to the marine environment,
as
Impact Module—Dolphins
Navy Sonar kills dolphins
McAvoy, reporter for Associated Press covering the environment and military,
2013 (Audrey, “Navy: Training, testing may kill whales, dolphins”, USA Today, http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/08/30/navytesting-dolphin-deaths/2742319/, August 2013, Accessed: 6-30-14, MSM)
Navy training and testing coul
the next five years,
d inadvertently
kill hundreds of
whales and
dolphins and injure thousands over
mostly as a result of detonating explosives underwater, according to two environmental impact statements released by the military Friday.¶ The Navy said that the studies focused on waters off the East Coast,
the Gulf of Mexico, Southern California and Hawaii from 2014 through 2019, the main areas that the service branch tests equip ment and trains sailors.¶ The studies were done ahead of the Navy applying to the National Marine Fisheries Service for permits for its
activities. The Navy said that it if hadn't done so and was later found to have harmed marine mammals, it would be found in violation of federal environmental law and have to stop its training and testing. ¶
would
come from
explosives, though some might come from testing
sonar
Most of the deaths
or animals being hit by ships.¶ Rear Adm. Kevin Slates, the Navy's energy and environmental readiness division director, told reporters this week the Navy us es
simulators where possible but sailors must test and train in real-life conditions.¶ "Without this realistic testing and training, our sailors can't develop or maintain the critical skills they need or ensure the new technologies can be operated effectively," Slates said in a
computer models show it may kill 186 whales and dolphins off the
East Coast and 155 off Hawaii and Southern California ¶
conference call with reporters on Wednesday.¶ According to the reports,
.
The Navy said it developed the estimates by totaling the hours it will test and practice with sonar, torpedoes,
missiles, explosives and other equipment over five years. Experts then combine the data with what's known about the marine ma mmals and then use computer modeling.¶ Off the East Coast, there could be 11,267 serious injuries and 1.89 million minor injuries like
the testing and training might also cause marine mammals to change their
behavior — such as swimming in a different direction — in 20 million instances.¶
the naval activities may cause 2,039 serious injuries, 1.86 million temporary injuries and
7.7 million instances of behavioral change.¶
the Navy was
underestimating the effect its activities on marine mammals ¶
temporary hearing loss. The reports said
Off Hawaii and Southern California, the
reports said that
But Michael Jasny, senior policy analyst at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said
.
For example, he pointed to a study by government and private sector scientists published
just last month in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society showing mid-frequency active sonar can disrupt blue whale feeding. The study says feeding disruptions and the movement of whales away from their prey could significantly affect the health of individual
These smaller disruptions short of death are
themselves accumulating into something like death for species and death for populations
whales and the overall health of baleen whale populations.¶ Jasny said the Navy's ocean activities are "simply not sustainable." ¶ "
," Jasny
said.¶ One of the statements covers Hawaii and Southern California, while the other covers the East Coast and Gulf of Mexico.
Knowledge of Dolphins is key to medicinal biodiversity
NOAA 2010 (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, “Dolphins’ Health Shed Light on Human and Ocean Health,
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2010/20100218_dolphins.html, February 18, 2010, Accessed: 6-30-14, MSM)
diseases found in
dolphins are similar to human diseases and can provide clues into how human health might be
affected by exposure to contaminated coastal water or seafood ¶ Dolphins and humans are
both mammals, and their diet includes much of the same seafood that we consume
they are exposed to potential ocean health threats such as toxic algae or poor water quality
24 hours a day
Our ecological and physiological
similarities make dolphins an important ‘sentinel species’ to not only warn us of health risks,
but also provide insight into how our health can benefit from new medical discoveries.” ¶
“Marine animal and ecosystem health are connected to public health and well-being,
A panel of governmental, academic and non-profit scientists speaking today at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) unveiled research suggesting that
.
“
. Unlike us, however,
,” said Carolyn Sotka of the NOAA Oceans and Human Health Initiative and lead organizer of the session. “
” said Jane Lubchenco,
Ph.D., under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator. “NOAA is committed to better understanding these connections and building the partnerships necessary to have healthy oceans, including healthy dolphins.” ¶ A dolphin is
prepared for release after examination and tagging.¶ A dolphin is prepared for release after examination and tagging.¶ High resolution (Credit: NOAA)¶ NOAA is the principal stewardship agency responsible for protecting dolphins in the wild and supports a
network of national and international projects aimed at investigating health concerns. A few of these case studies highlighted today at AAAS illustrate how studying disease processes, or pathologies in dolphins, could lead to future prevention or treatment of some
diseases in humans. Equally important is the knowledge gained with regards to overall population health, which can lead to improved management and science-based guidelines to mitigate disease outbreak in both people and animals. ¶ — ¶
Unprecedented Contaminant Levels in Coastal Dolphins Warn of Potential Health Risks¶
bottlenose dolphins inhabiting estuaries along the Georgia coast have the
highest levels of polychlorinated biphenyls ) ever reported in marine wildlife.
Researchers from
NOAA and its partner institutions recently discovered that
(PCBs
The term PCB encompasses a suite of
persistent contaminants that have been banned in the United States since the late 1970s due to documented adverse health effects. The extraordinarily high levels of PCBs measured in the dolphins, a maximum concentration of 2900 parts per million, may be
suppressing their immune function.¶ The unique signature of the PCB compounds found in these dolphins is consistent with contaminants of concern at a Superfund site near Brunswick, Ga. Scientists are equally concerned about the high PCB levels in dolphins
sampled near a marine protected area approximately 30 miles from Brunswick. This suggests that the contaminants are moving along the coast through the marine food web.¶ “When we received the lab results for the Georgia dolphins, we were alarmed by the
contaminant levels and set out to investigate how these heavy chemical burdens were affecting their health,” states Lori Schwacke, Ph.D., with NOAA’s Center for Oceans and Human Health at the Hollings Marine Lab and co-lead investigator on the team. ¶ Last
August, the team conducted a dolphin ‘capture-release medical physical’ on this population and found decreased levels of thyroid hormones, elevated liver enzymes and indications of suppressed immune function.¶ A pilot study is being undertaken by the National
Center for Environmental Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), to examine potential environmental contaminants in residents of nearby coastal communities. The researchers are investigating whether coastal dolphin populations and huma n
communities sharing the same seafood resources experience similar exposures. ¶ Dolphins May Offer Clues to Treating Diabetes in Humans ¶ Research conducted in part by the non-profit National Marine Mammal Foundation (NMMF) has uncovered evidence that
bottlenose dolphins may be the first natural animal model for type II diabetes. Further study of their genome may elucidate a possible treatment for a disease that accounts for an estimated 5 percent of all human deaths globally, according to the World Health
Organization.¶ These studies have found that healthy dolphins appear to readily turn on and off a diabetes-like state as needed. This “switch” mechanism is likely driven by the dolphins’ very high-protein and very low-carbohydrate fish diet. Analyses have revealed
that a fasting mechanism in dolphins may trigger a series of changes in serum chemistries that matches those seen in humans with diabetes.¶ “While some people may eat a high protein diet to help control diabetes, dolphins appear to have developed a diab eteslike state to support a high protein diet,” according to Stephanie Venn-Watson, Ph.D., director of clinical research for NMMF. “Shared large brains that have high blood glucose demands may explain why two completely different species - humans and dolphins - have
humans and dolphins share similar chronic
disease outcomes associated with diabetes such as insulin resistance, hemochromatosis
and kidney stones ¶
¶
developed similar physiological mechanisms to handle sugar.” ¶ Additional evidence collected from this study shows that
.
Model for Epilepsy Discovered from Marine Exposure to Toxic Algae
may
(iron overload)
NOAA researchers found that for the first time exposing laboratory animals to a toxin produced by blooms of microscopic ocean algae can
induce seizures and eventually lead to epilepsy in almost all of the animals tested. Establishing this novel linkage of oceans and health offers a new perspective to researchers and clinicians studying human epilepsy. ¶ Working with the Marine Mammal Center in
Sausalito, Calif., and other partners, scientists initially suspected a marine environmental cause of epilepsy by studying marine mammals and other wildlife with seizures that washed up on California beaches over the past decade. ¶ The seizures were found to be
caused by exposure to domoic acid, a neurotoxin produced by the Pseudo-nitzschia australis alga. After realizing that some sea lions were stranded with seizures when there were no harmful algal blooms, researchers started to believe that domoic acid poisoning
may have progressed to chronic epileptic disease.¶ Chief of Harmful Algal Blooms & Analytical Response at NOAA's National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, John Ramsdell, Ph.D ., conducted laboratory experiments to validate the field observations seen in sea
lions. His research team exposed laboratory rats to domoic acid at levels similar to what a sea lion or dolphin might ingest in the wild by eating contaminated fish. ¶ “Within six months of the initial exposure, 92 percent of laboratory rats tested developed epileptic
disease that worsened over their lifetime,” said Ramsdell. “The domoic acid itself is not directly causing the epilepsy, but triggers a brief period of seizures that leads to changes in the brain, resulting in spontaneous and reoccurring seizures, the hallmark of
epilepsy.”¶ The type of epilepsy in the rat model resembles human Temporal Lobe Epilepsy, as confirmed by at least one human case traced back to eating mussels contaminated with the domoic acid toxin.¶ This research could provide important insight into how
dolphins and other species, including humans, respond to domoic acid poisoning. Stranded dolphins with high domoic acid levels do not survive long enough for treatment and study. It is possible that the acute initial poisoning may lead to sudden death; however,
these new findings indicate those animals that survive an initial bout of seizures are likely to develop neurological disease with changes in behavior and increasing severity of spontaneous seizures. This new information can help guide future research and emergency
Dolphin Viruses May Have Human Health Implications¶
the Marine Animal Disease Lab at the University of Florida have discovered at least 50 new
viruses in dolphins, the majority of which have yet to be reported in any other marine
mammal species ¶
By studying dolphin viral ecology, we learned more about how viruses infect
human and land animals. This research could lead to preventing outbreaks of disease.” ¶ One
of these viruses
was found to be common in bottlenose dolphins and likely
represents the first natural model of papillomavirus outside the human species.
the virus has historically produced great health risks including cervical tumors or cancer in
women, especially women with multiple types of the papillomavirus. This new study shows
that while dolphins also host multiple types of papillomaviruses they don’t appear to get
cancer
Further research into the genome of this virus in dolphins may help understand,
manage and prevent cervical cancer in humans.¶ Thirteen additional RNA-based viruses that
cause intestinal disease and encephalitis in humans have also recently been discovered in
dolphins, whales and other marine life.
RNA-based viruses have
the ability to quickly adapt, rapidly mutate and jump from animals to people, posing potential
threats to public health. Another virus identified in the dolphins had incorporated part of a
similar human virus into its DNA make-up, making it a very probable candidate to infect
humans ¶ ¶
The effect of viruses, toxic algae, contaminants and other stressors on
dolphins may pose a risk to populations through decreased survival rates, impaired
reproduction and increased risks to catastrophic epidemics. Active surveillance and
investigations of these threats by NOAA and partners is critical to conserve and protect
marine mammals, the ecosystems in which they live, and public health
response efforts during the next harmful algal bloom event.¶
.
A team of researchers and veterinarians from
“We know that the ocean harbors a huge diversity of viruses; but we have very limited knowledge as to which viruses dolphins are susceptible to and how they develop the disease,” said Hendrik H. Nollens, Ph.D.,
research lead of the UF team. “
, the human papillomavirus,
Commonly known as HPV in humans,
, only genital warts.
Much like West Nile, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and influenza,
.
—
These cases and the two other studies presented at AAAS today highlight the role of dolphins as important sentinels of ocean and human health. Teri Rowles, Ph.D., NOAA’s lead veterinarian, and Director of NOAA’s Marine Mammal
Health Stranding and Response Program, said, “
.”
Mutating viruses coming. We should maximize knowledge from medicinal
biodiversity to lower the risks.
McNeely ‘6
Jeffrey A McNeely Chief Scientist IUCN. Gland. Switzerland – from the chapter “Risks to People of Losing Medicinal
Species” – from the book – Conserving medicinal species : securing a healthy future p. 22-24
Human diseases and the species to treat them are influenced profoundly by global ecosystem
changes
,
,
the
that are taking place. Urbanisation alters the dynamics of disease transfer as an increased density of hosts typically increases chances of transmission (e.g., influenza); large scale development projects may alter host dynamics or disease
dynamics or both (e.g., irrigation projects increasing the incidence of schistosomiasis); climate change may alter the range of vector-bome diseases (e.g., malaria); human expansion into new territories may expose people to newly discovered diseases (e.g.,
haemorrhagic fevers such as the Ebola virus in Africa); and translocations of ballast water, changes in water temperature and marine pollution may cause toxic red tides which can promote the spread of bacteria and viruses such as those that cause cholera and
Viruses are a particular problem because they
are so difficult to cure;
global changes that are affecting many parts of the world are expected to expand the
ranges of many viruses that are potentially dangerous to humans
A particularly worrisome mechanism is genetic exchange
hepatitis A. Globalisation is, more broadly, bringing with it a series of new threats to both medicinal species and environmental health.
while vaccines for viruses such as smallpox, polio, and Yellow fever have proven effective, even very substantial investments to find a cure for AIDS have thus far proven only marginally effective. Even
worse, the
. Moving into wilderness areas brings people into contact with a wider range of
viruses, while air travel carries viruses around the globe, as a sort of excess baggage.
between viruses
with two viruses picking up genes from each other, enabling the virus to
produce a new outer coat and evade the human immune system
infecting people and wild or domestic animals,
the
so
(Miller. 1989). This is the main mechanism by which influenza pandemics arise,
often involving an influenza virus that infects humans and one that is carried by ducks, including wild ducks, and other species of birds. As humans spread into more nesting areas of wild birds, opportunities for this genetic exchange may increase. As indicated by
recent outbreaks of avian influenza in many parts of Asia, this is a very real threat. Becoming part of the global economy appears to have encouraged many people to believe that human health is no longer dependent on a healthy natural world. Health has become a
personal issue, with both prevention and cure centred on the individual (McMichael et al. 1999). However, health is also a characteristic of populations, and looking at the issue from the larger perspective of society can lead us in a very different direction. Of course,
it is the individual who finally contracts any particular disease, but the risk of doing so is influenced significantly by the ecological context within which the population lives. Climate change is likely to affect the ecology of many diseases and insect and arthropod
disease transmitters (vectors) such as those responsible for malaria, dengue, schistosomiasis, yellow fever, onchocerciasis, lymphatic filariasis. leishmaniasis, and American and African trypanosomiasis. Increases in the incidence of viral tick-borne encephalitis in
Sweden have been linked already to recent milder winters and the earlier arrival of spring. Pollution is a significant global change factor that is threatening many species of animals. In the US, for example, some 27% of vertebrates and 66% of the invertebrates on the
Federal Endangered Species List are damaged by pollutants; and almost all of the 70 species of threatened mussels are harmed by pollutants (Wilcove et al.. 1998). Agricultural pollutants that enter lakes and rivers as run-off from farming operations are the worst
problem (Richter et al; 1997), but the problem of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) affects many plant and animal species. The previous discussion may have left the impression that in some cases animals are disease reservoirs which are best done without, and
the loss of medicinal species carries numerous hazards for people
Surely, an optimist might
argue, alternative medicines can be found
But that
argument misses the point: the loss of medicinal species can have profound influences on
human health
While lab researchers certainly discover remarkable
pharmaceuticals nature is even better and many
active ingredients are highly
unlikely to be found in the lab
some wild plants can be even worse (Anderson et al., 2004). However,
. Again,
this discussion will introduce briefly a few points for consideration. With the formidable array of threats discussed above, many medicinal species are at significant risk of extinction.
, and biotechnology is finding new ways of producing pharmaceuticals that do not necessarily depend on a wild source.
many aspects
of
, of which losing a source of medicine is only the first.
are
,
able to
of the pharmacologically
(Chrvian, 2002). For example, the 500 species of cone snails (Conidae) each have an estimated 50-100 distinct toxins to immobilise prey. The toxins are highly selective in their
receptor binding sites, making them very valuable to biomedical research, with over 2600 studies published since 1980. However, of the estimated 50,000 conotoxins, only about 100 have been investigated so far, leaving many more to be studied for their benefits
to human health. These species are being harvested heavily for both their toxins and their attractive shells, posing a very real threat to the survival of at least some populations. Chrvian et al. (2003) conclude that 'cone snails may contain the largest and most
Scientists know many species that have
medicinal value but many more have not yet been surveyed. While we will never know
what we have lost before we knew about it, conserving maximum biodiversity would seem a
sound risk-adverse strategy
clinically important pharmacopoeia of any genus in nature. To lose them with be a self-destructive act of unparalleled folly."
,
already
of the
species
the
in maintaining future options.
Those outbreaks risk extinction.
Yule ‘13
(et al; Jeffrey V. Yule – Herbert McElveen Professor of Applied and Natural Sciences At the School of Biological Sciences, Louisiana
Tech University, Published April 2nd – Humanities 2013, 2, 147–159; doi:10.3390/h2020147)
Since the 40s humans
have been relatively sheltered from the threat that
disease
once posed Modern
antivirals have controlled pathogens that once devastated human
populations but these drugs often remain effective only briefly
rapid global travel create a situation in which emerging pathogens can move much more
efficiently between hosts Rates of
mortality from emerging infectious diseases may
depend on
biodiversity
which suggests that protection from novel
disease
may be
an overlooked benefit of biodiversity We have assumed that humanity’s
future will unfold in a way that avoid
global disasters
An equally reasonable
but less optimistic assessment could take exception to that
things could go badly
19
,
in industrialized nations
.
infectious
antibiotics and
,
. Unprecedentedly large, dense human populations characteristic of modern societies
coupled with
.
the levels of
future human
that remain in unpopulated regions,
infectious
what has been, until recently,
.
s any of a number of
for Homo sapiens sapiens.
position. A variety of
wrong for humanity
. Global human N may not stabilize at or below where it stands now without being pushed there by some form(s) of crisis that result from humans exceeding global K. As a result, anthropogenic factors from
the intentionally harmful (e.g., warfare) to the unintentionally disastrous (e.g., agricultural practices leading to topsoil erosion and desertification) could occur singly or in conjunction with one another, with a variety of natural disasters (e.g., volcanic eruptions,
e.g., outbreaks of
disease that move easily
and cannot be treated
speculation about the future of humanity
more interesting if it proceeds on the
assumption that the species will be
successful beyond the short
term. However , it
earthquakes), and with disasters that straddle the boundary of natural and anthropogenic, the sorts of scenarios that otherwise could have been avoided or their impacts lessened with more forethought (
through dense human population centers
readily
is inherently
at least moderately
may not and potential failure of our species has considerable
,
the
infectious
due to pathogen drug resistance). Although we cannot rule out such eventualities,
- to medium-
biological
implications.
Future diseases address normal take-outs. They’ll mutate; spread globally; and
if they burn-out, they’ll be more explosive. We’ll need cures from medicinal
biodiversity.
McNeely ‘6
(et al; Jeffrey A McNeely Chief Scientist IUCN. Gland. Switzerland – from the chapter “The Future of Medicinal
Biodiversity” – a section from the book: Conserving Medicinal Species Securing a Healthy Future – available at:
https://portals.iucn.org/library/efiles/edocs/2006-022.pdf)
particularly worrisome
is
exchange between viruses
with the two viruses picking up genes from each
other enabling the virus to produce a new outer coat and evade the human immune system
The introduction of new agricultural practices, or expansion of existing practices, can also increase epidemiological risks through changing ecological relationships. A
mechanism
genetic
infecting people and wild or domestic animals,
,
so
(Miller, 1989). This is the main mechanism by which influenza pandemics arise, often involving an influenza virus that infects humans and one that is carried by ducks, including wild ducks, and other species of birds. Many believe the recent outbreak of H5N1 avian
genetic exchange are likely to increase with global air
travel enabling the virus to spread around the world, before its symptoms are expressed
Because populations
exposed to
a new infectious organism tend to experience disease in an explosive manner rather than
lower-level outbreaks of disease
these
are likely to be especially
dangerous
influenza arose this way. As humans spread into more nesting areas of wild birds, opportunities for this
,
. Animal
populations that are displaced by habitat alteration can provide new habitats for pathogens or can carry their pathogens to new areas and new species.
of humans or animals
the
sporadic and
that characterise endemic infectious organisms,
'invasive species'
. Thus, habitat fragmentation, already identified as a major threat to biodiversity, can also increase both human and wildlife susceptibility to introduced diseases (MEA, 2005b). Some health concerns resulting from habitat degradation
relate to specific biomes. Infectious diseases have often been associated with wetlands, leading to their modification as a public health measure. Other kinds of water resources development may increase the risk of disease. Four main diseases are commonly
associated with water development projects - schistosomiasis, lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis and malaria - because of their wide distribution and serious symptoms. Many other diseases, such as cholera, dysentery, and encephalitis, are also linked to water. As
demand for more water development projects increases and natural wetlands are modified to provide greater flows of economic benefits, an ecological approach has been recommended to wetlands management and health assessment (Zimermann, 2001; MEA,
2005b). This will involve dealing with an entire landscape, addressing spatial boundaries, and ensuring that cross-boundary interactions are incorporated in planning decisions. Tropical forests are not amenable to intervention for control of insect vectors, and it often
is difficult to establish effective health care and surveillance systems to serve the needs of indigenous or migrant populations. Where health care systems do exist, they are likely to be less able to respond to ecosystem changes projected over the next few decades,
especially if resources for public health continue to diminish. Thus, changes associated with diseases of the tropical forest and its interface, and the consequences of continuing forest loss to human and wildlife health, will be less predictable in t he future. The
As the rate of change continues to
accelerate, we should expect more uncertainty in the future. This implies that medicinal
biodiversity is likely to be even more important
to help people address the challenges of
new diseases
impacts of deforestation and climate change are particularly potent combinations that create conditions conducive to the emergence and spread of disease.
in the future,
and living conditions.
rural
Impact Module—Fish
ALL types of sonar frequency harmful to fish
North American Ocean Coalition, NO DATE (“Ocean Noise: Adverse Impacts on Fish and Fisheries,”
¶
http://assets.oceancare.org/downloads/ ocean_noise_and_fishes.pdf, Date Accessed, 06/29/14, AN)
¶
studies leave no doubt that intense sound hurts fish and ¶ damages fisheries
the viability of fish eggs was reduced in one study when the eggs ¶ were ¶ exposed to
moderately loud sound for several days
¶
¶
¶ military
sonar poses a threat to fish ¶
¶
¶
internal injuries, eye ¶
hemorrhaging and mortality in commercially caught ¶ fish.
¶
¶
Three decades of controlled scientific
. Even
(Banner and Hyatt, 1973).
also
. In
a study done by the British Defense Research
Many of
the studies relate to the use of air guns for geological and oil and gas exploration but
Agency, exposure to sonar-type signals caused
auditory damage,
Fishermen in Plymouth, England report
precipitous drops in catch rate since the Royal
Navy
located a training range there. ¶ In some parts of the ocean, air guns can be heard going off every few seconds ¶ day and night. Air ¶ guns located 3000 km away were the predominant part of the background noise heard over ¶ hydrophones ¶ placed in the
middle of the North Atlantic Ocean (Nieukirk et al., 2004). McCauley ¶ and Popper (2003) exposed pink snapper to ¶ seismic air gun sounds and found that their ears ¶ were severely damaged. The auditory hair cells did not regenerate after almost ¶ two months.
This ¶ damage was seen at exposure levels that might occur several kilometers away from the sound ¶ source. The ¶ authors note the ears of pink snapper are typical of the majority of commercially ¶ important ¶ species such as cod, haddock, salmon and tuna.
fish with hearing impairment ¶ are more vulnerable to predators and ¶ less able to
locate food and communicate acoustically.
¶ ¶
noise may
affect fish behavior ¶ and thereby, fisheries ¶¶
¶ damage to the
inner ears of fish and ¶ lowered trawl catch rates 45 to 70% over a 2,000 square mile ¶ area of
ocean
¶
¶
¶ ¶
¶
¶
sonar signals can seriously ¶ injure and kill fish.
¶
¶ The authors also point out that
Popper (2003), in a review paper on
.
. Catch rates did not recover in the five days surveyed
is time to pay attention to the studies showing
that air guns and
after air gun use stopped
the
effects of noise on fish, concludes that current studies suggest that
In a study done by the Norwegian Institute of Marine Research, air guns caused extensive
(Engås et al., 1996). Air gun pulses also caused a catch per unit effort decline of about 50% in
-type
the
rockfish hook and line fishery off the coast of California.
The fact that several
It
studies show that fish catch rates are
significantly ¶ lowered by noise from air guns indicates ¶ that increasing levels of human-produced noise in the ¶ ocean can significantly and adversely ¶ impact the food supply, employment and economies of ¶ many nations. ¶ Recent studies show that ¶
ocean background noise levels have doubled every decade for the past ¶ six decades in some areas (IWC Scientific Report, 2004). It ¶ is time to take action to protect marine ¶ life, commercial fisheries and the welfare of local fishing communities from the adverse
¶ impacts of ¶ intense ocean noise.
Acoustic energy does not observe national boundaries.
Fish Death in Indian Ocean puts one-billion lives at risk due to malnutrition. ¶
Other oceans can’t check and the trend-from EEZ fishing is starting now.
Michel ‘12¶ et al; David Michel is the Director of the Environmental Security
program at The Stimson Center. ¶ From Chapter Seven: Natural Resources in the
Indian Ocean: Fisheries and Minerals; from the book: Indian Ocean ¶ Rising:
Maritime Security and Policy Challenges, edited by David Michel – July, 2012; p.
104-110 – available ¶ electronically at:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/109707433/Indian-Ocean-Rising-Maritime-Securityand-Policy-¶ Challenges
Commercial and artisanal
fisheries sustain the livelihoods of more than 38 million people worldwide
.1 In the Indian Ocean, fish
production ¶ increased drastically from 861,000 tons in 1950 to 11.3 million tons in 2010. But while other world oceans are nearing ¶ their fisheries limit, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) judges that, in certain areas, the Indian Ocean's
The countries of the east Indian Ocean ¶ represent a significant
proportion of world fisheries
¶
The east Indian Ocean is
home to 45 percent of the world's fishers
¶
resources ¶ have the potential to sustain increased production."
, although most commercial and artisanal activity takes place in coastal zones
rather than in deep water.1
and brings in catches of 7 million tons of fish per year, or 8 percent of total world
placing so much strain on coastal stocks ¶ that fishers have been forced to venture further out to sea and even into the exclusive economic zones
fish production. Most of this catch is harvested close to shore,
¶ (EEZs) of neighboring nations. Even so, this trend of fishing far from shore is still in its early ¶ stages. Deepwater
catches represent less than 6 percent of total catches in Indonesia and 10 percent in Malaysia, ¶ for example.1 Given the overexploitation and overcrowding of coastal fisheries, deepwater fish stocks represent a potential new ¶ frontier for commercial and
artisanal fisheries in the region. The west Indian Ocean is also characterized by overfishing and growing exploitation of ¶ deepwater fisheries.'' From 2000 to 2001 alone, total catches increased by 2.2 percent, representing a 10.6 percent increase over the previous
decade." Most of this ¶ change has been driven by the increasing exploitation of deepwater fisheries by non-littoral ¶ states such as Spain, Taiwan, Japan, France, and Uruguay. Due to the overfishing of coastal stocks, many west Indian Ocean ¶ countries plan to
expand their semi-industrial and industrial national fleets to new fishing grounds in their EEZs. According to the FAO, most southwest Indian Ocean countries' ¶ fisheries have the potential to contribute a larger percentage of littoral states' GDP.8 The northwest
Indian Ocean region has witnessed concerted government efforts to ¶ promote the fisheries industry, yet suffers from an overall lack of fisheries management.9 Many countries in the region offer subsidies to fishers in order to boost development. ¶ The results
have been mixed, however. Despite significantly increased fishing since 1990, actual catches have grown by only 12.3 percent. Catch limits are rare. Where they do ¶ exist, limits generally apply only to industrial fisheries, not the artisanal fishers who made up 80
percent of reported landings in 2002. The absence of sustainable fisheries ¶ management policies and declining stocks have reduced both commercial and artisanal fisheries in the northwest Indian Ocean. In addition, oil fires and weapons debris have ¶ polluted
the ocean in this conflict-prone region, further degrading its fisheries.10 Australia is unique among the countries in the Indian Ocean region in that it has developed ¶ strict management controls and limits the exploitation of its fish stocks, resulting in a healthy
fisheries industry." From 2000 to 2001, the total fish catch from the Indian Ocean ¶ areas of Australia was 36,290 tons, representing 15.8 percent ofthe total catch for Australian fisheries. About 651 commercial vessels and 28,000 artisanal fishers operated in ¶
Australia's Indian Ocean waters during this period. As a result of successful management policies, the number of fish stocks classified as overfished or at risk of overfishing ¶ dropped from 24 in 2005 to 18 in 2008.12 Polymetallic nodules and polymetallic massive
sulphides are the two mineral resources of primary interest to developers in the Indian ¶ Ocean. Polymetallic nodules are golf-to-tennis ball-sized nodules containing nickel, cobalt, iron, and manganese that form over millions of years on the sediment of the
seafloor. ¶ Typically found at four to five km in water depth, the nodules must be scooped up and brought to the surface. While polymetallic nodules cover vast plains, polymetallic massive ¶ sulphides form in highly localized sites—no bigger than a sports
stadium—along hot springs in underwater volcanic ranges. "Massive" refers not to their size but to their mineral ¶ content, which contains copper, iron, zinc, silver, and gold. Sulphides are formed w7hen cold, heavy seawater descends deep into the earth's crust
and is heated by the magma. ¶ When the heated water buoyantly rises to the surface, it precipitates metals from the seawater and concentrates the minerals in deposits beneath and on the sea floor. India ¶ received exclusive rights to explore polymetallic nodules
in the Central Indian Ocean basin in 1987. Since then, it has explored four million square miles and established two mine ¶ sites. To be commercially attractive, nodule deposits must have a content of nickel and copper of at least 2.25 percent and a nodule density of
10 kg per square meter." Because ¶ of their gold content and greater copper composition, more recent commercial inquiries have focused on polymetallic massive s ulphides. In July 2011, China was awarded the ¶ right to explore a 10,000 km2 polymetallic sulphide
ore deposit in the Indian Ocean. Nevertheless, major obstacles have prevented sulphide deposits from being commercially ¶ viable in the past. Their local concentration makes finding them particularly difficult." Seafloor deposits also tend to be much smaller than
those onshore (seafloor deposits ¶ usually are one to five megatons, whereas onshore deposits can reach 50 to 60 megatons).1' Furthermore, deep-sea deposits, which typically have a 0.2 percent concentration of ¶ rare earth minerals, pale in comparison to
onshore Chinese concentrations of ore deposits, which can have 5 to 10 percent concentrations.16 Other minerals in the Indian Ocean ¶ include coastal sediments containing titanium and zirconium off South Africa and Mozambique, and tin placer deposits off the
coasts of Myanmar, Thailand, and Indonesia. ¶ South Africa is the second largest producer of titanium dioxide and zircon in the world, largely due to its heavy mineral sands.' Tin dredged from this area amounts to 10 percent
¶ of world production and is worth
about $100 million.Is Elsewhere, heavy mud in the Atlantis II site in the Red Sea contains 94 million tons of ore, including 1.8 million tons of zinc ¶ and 425,000 tons of copper. These muds are licensed to Canadian firm Diamond Fields International and Saudi Arabian
group Manafa.19 According to the United Nations ¶ Environment Programme (UNEP), over the next 30 years more than 6.3 billion people will move to already crowded coastal zones.20 Such demographic growth has spurred
¶ artisanal fisheries in the Indian
Ocean. Expanding middle class populations in China and other countries boost the demand for luxury fish such as bluefin tuna and shark fins, ¶ driving the overexploitation of those species.21 A global shortage of fish is projected in the future. The FAO reports that
47 ¶ percent of global fish stocks are already fully exploited, while another 18 percent are ¶ overexploited.22 Rising rates of pollution increasingly threaten Indian Ocean fisheries. Coastal fisheries are particularly vulnerable to agricultural run-off, sewage, ¶ and
construction. Invasive species have spread as a result of the practice of dumping ballast water from ships.25 Further, shipping lanes in the Indian Ocean are a main artery of ¶ the global energy trade, heightening the risk of oil spills as demand for fossil fuels
increases in emerging economies throughout the region. In 2010, scientists discovered plastic ¶ debris in all 12 water samples taken over the 3,000 miles of ocean between Perth, Australia, and Port Louis, Mauritius.21 Deepwater fishing practices such as bottom
trawling ¶ have also seriously damaged the ecosystems of continental shelves and slopes by leveling the sea bed, kicking up clouds of sediment, destroying coral, and generating huge ¶ amounts of bycatch (species which are swept up in fishing nets but thrown
¶ to attract and ensnare fish for years after it is discarded—a process known as ghost fishing.2' Mining activity can also endanger marine organisms. Mining
¶ from ships mining polymetallic nodules or massive sulphides
also poses concerns. When these ships eject seawater after extracting its mineral content, the waste frequently ¶ contains trace metals, which interferes with the penetration of light through the top layer of seawater and reduces photosynthesis in surface layers.
Temperature differences in ¶ the discharged and surrounding seawater also threaten life dwelling in the top layers of the ocean.26 Sulphide mining machinery and processes alter fluid flows that sustain the ¶ ecological community, and it is uncertain whether
species would be able to recolonize hydrothermal vents after operations cease.2. Technological advances have considerably ¶ increased commercial fisheries catches. Fishing lines can stretch as long as 120 km, and trawlers can cover large distances at high speeds
and carry the equivalent of 12 jumbo ¶ jets loaded with fish. GPS and radar allow ships to venture into the open ocean and target lucrative fishing grounds with precision. As a result, deepwater fisheries have ¶ developed as a new frontier; in 2007, 40 percent of
global marine trawling grounds were deeper than the continental shelf.2" In recent years, technology has had an even ¶ greater impact on the exploitation of mineral resources. Vehicles and machines can now operate in deeper waters than ever bef ore. As Figure
7.1 shows, the amount of ¶ accessible seabed territory in the Bay of Bengal over the last 15 years has expanded considerably. Indeed, the Massachusetts-based Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution now ¶ has a vehicle that can access depths of 11 km, just one
indicator that mining technology will soon follow.29 The Nautilus Minerals Solwara-1 project off the coast of Papua New ¶ Guinea illustrates the potential of such new technologies. Awarded its 20-year lease in January 2011, the Canadian firm will be the first to
commercially mine undersea when the ¶ project begins operations in 2013. The technology employed by Nautilus makes use of remote-operated vehicles on the seafloor that crush the ore on the seabed before pipes ¶ lift it hydraulically to a surface vessel, which
dewaters the ore and pumps the fluid back to the seafloor. The costs of Nautilus's groundbreaking project are expected to amount ¶ to $1 billion, a sum of considerable risk given that it invests in areas prone to volcanic activity * But though some analysts suggest
that few firms will finance these endeavors, ¶ another company, Neptune Minerals, is currently planning mines in the waters off New Zealand.11 The Solwara-1 project is a positive indicator that technology to mine ¶ polymetallic massive sulphides is finally
becoming a reality. Even so, exploration for seabed minerals faces major hurdles. Only 2 to 3 percent of the global sea floor has been ¶ properly mapped, and just 0.0001 percent has been scientifically investigated.'2 Identifying resource sites whose value exceeds
comparable onshore counterparts will prove a ¶ difficult task requiring ventures with uncertain rewards. Techniques for raising fish in captivity have existed for thousands of years. They range from simply attaching a mesh ¶ barrier over the outlet of a small river to
state-of-the-art commercial fish cages and hatcheries. Artisanal aquaculture sustains many coastal communities, where small-scale fish ¶ farmers supplement family diets by raising fish or shrimp. Commercial aquaculture has been gaining ground in recent years,
although problems with disease and nutritional value ¶ continue to exist when fish are raised in captivity. In spite of these setbacks, technological advances in fields such as biotechnology have spurred the growth of global ¶ aquaculture. The portion of fish
produced by aquaculture and consumed by humans increased by 42.6 percent from 2006 to 2008 alone.'1 Recent improvements in technology ¶ have opened the possibility of expanding aquaculture to the high seas. In 2009, a team of scientists from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology developed a self-propelled, ¶ submersible fish cage that can be moored offshore." Submersible ocean cages are still on the cusp of commercial viability, with doubts persisting about their ability to withstand ¶ rough open
ocean conditions. Fish farms in North America and Europe have been the first to experiment with ocean cages, but since the Indian Ocean lacks a robust commercial ¶ aquaculture industry, it is unlikely that this trend will take root there in the near future. Deep-sea
biodiversity, like deep-sea resources, is still an emerging area of scientific study, ¶ and relatively little is known about the ecosystem in the deep sea. Estimates of deep-sea biodiversity range from 500,000 to 100 million species.3' In the oceans as a whole, 10 ¶
million species exist, exclusive of microbes. When microbes are taken into account, deep-sea biodiversity is comparable to that of the rainforests.36 Marine life arguably offers ¶ just as much, if not more, economic value than the mineral resources that surround
these species. Species living around hydrothermal vents, where polymetallic massive ¶ sulphides form, sustain life in a hostile environment of extreme temperatures and chemical energy. Microbial and prokaryote gene richness in the oceans, particularly in the ¶
deep-sea, is orders of magnitude higher than in the rest of the biosphere. Consequently, scientists find that studying the genetic makeup of these species yields unique ¶ conclusions about the origins of life on Earth and the potential for life on other planets.
Enzymes from these species are also being used for a variety of DNA-related products ¶ and technologies, including fingerprinting technology, and have substantially contributed to pharmaceutical research and products.' In the Indian Ocean, a peptide called ¶
Dolastatin-10 isolated from sea hare has served as an antitumor agent in clinical trials to treat breast and liver cancers, solid tumors, and leukemia. Deep-sea organisms also ¶ maintain the ocean ecosystem in ways that facilitate human use of ocean resources.
Nutrients in the oceans that sustain fisheries are regenerated by deep-sea organisms. Some ¶ marine organisms absorb carbon during photosynthesis, which helps to regulate the climate; others also assimilate waste materials that pollute the ocean, acting as a
"biological ¶ pump."'9 While it is difficult to quantify the value of potential marine mineral resources, the deep sea clearly has great potential as a source of minerals, and demand for these ¶ minerals is increasing. Prices of nickel and tin reached historic highs in
2007 and 2008 respectively, and copper and manganese have also risen in value relative to the last two ¶ decades (see Figure 7.2). The Indian Ocean possesses some of the few remaining underexploited fish stocks in the world, making it likely that it will come
under enormous ¶ pressure in the future as the next frontier of the global fisheries market. On the other hand, the heavy reliance of deep-sea fisheries on cheap fossil fuels could put the industry ¶ at risk from rising oil prices. Some deep-sea areas could become de
facto marine reserves because of the prohibitive cost of exploiting their fisheries.10 Marine pollution ¶ threatens to reduce the value of Indian Ocean fisheries. Degradation of coastal estuaries, mangroves, lagoons, coral reefs, and kelp forests has destroyed the
habitats of many ¶ species that support artisanal and commercial fisheries. In 2006, UNEP estimated the long-term costs of the 1998 massive worldwide coral bleaching in between S600 million and ¶ $8 billion over 20 years. The destruction of coral reefs and
coastal ecosystems also impacts the tourism industry, which is estimated to bring in $30 billion annually." Stock ¶ market values for bioprospecting-related activities far exceed the value of products that have already been developed as a result of genetic use of
deep sea organisms. This ¶ implies that the market takes into account the optional use of bioprospecting. The entire enzyme market is valued at $50 billion a year.12 The depletion of ¶ Indian Ocean fish stocks could have serious implications for regional and global
away because they lack commercial value). Meanwhile, fishing gear jettisoned or lost at sea continues
polymetallic nodules ¶ substantially disturbs the top few centimeters of sediment, leading to a mortality rate of 95 to 100 percent for macro fauna dwelling in marine tracks. Discharge of waste water
More than a billion people worldwide rely on fish as their main source of protein
global fish consumption per capita increased from 16.2 kg in 2004 to 17.1 kg in 2007.
the world's fisheries will ¶ collapse by 2048
food security. ¶
that ¶
.11 The FAO reports
Yet one recent
if catch rates continue unabated." A 2010 report by the Pew Environmental Group helps put that prospect in ¶ context.
study has projected that
Pew conduded that if countries with undernourishment levels greater than 5 percent had not overfished their waters, the ¶ additional fish catch in 2000 could have fed an additional 20-million people."
---Malnutrition leads to increased risk of disease-TURN---------Tomkins et al., Currently Professor of International Child Health Department of
¶ International Child Health, 93¶ (Andrew, Institute of Child Health,
“Malnutrition and Infection − A review − Nutrition policy ¶ discussion,”
http://www.unscn.org/layout/modules/resources/files/Policy_paper_No_5.pd
f, 06-¶ 29-14, AN)
University of London, Guildford Street, London WC1N 1EH
Each year about 13 million infants and children die in the developing countries The ¶ majority
of these deaths are due to
¶ the children die malnourished.
(1).
infections and parasitic diseases, and many if not most of
The precise contribution of malnutrition as
an immediate cause of death is not known, ¶ nor would it be the only relevant figure, for in poor countries children from birth or soon after are caught in a cycle of malnutrition ¶ and infection, which many do not survive (2). In Africa, for example, more than 20% −
on average − do not reach their fifth birthday ¶ (3). The “malnutrition−infection” complex remains the most prevalent public health problem in the world today. Nutrition and ¶ health are closely linked, but advances in nutritional knowledge remain to be applied to
the same extent as those in the field of ¶ health. In the more than twenty years since the landmark publication by Scrimshaw et al (1968)(4) on “Interactions of Nutrition and ¶ Infection”, knowledge of this subject has become well−established. The mechanisms of
many of these interactions have been ¶ elucidated, and the relative importance of such interactions in different circumstances has been clarified. The same period has seen ¶ enormous advances in methods for preventing and managing infections. Immunization
coverage for major childhood diseases has ¶ now reached over 65% of children. Improvements in environmental sanitation, education and literacy which help to improve child ¶ rearing and health practices, and a whole range of new and increasingly affordable
antibiotics and anthelminthics are having effects ¶ not imagined 20 years’ ago. On the other hand, although understanding of protein−energy and micronutrient deficiencies is now
¶ well advanced, preventing these deficiencies appears still to be problematic.
Micronutrient ¶ deficiencies are
more susceptible to direct control, and wider application of effective programmes
¶
¶
the total numbers of people
undernourished continue to rise with population growth
¶
nutrition influences infection ¶ and the causes and outcomes of episodes of disease
¶
¶
¶ Hence,
growth failure is associated with lowered immunity. Indeed, it seems that even mild ¶ degrees
of malnutrition begin to adversely affect immunocompetence
¶
¶
¶
¶
They operate through
anorexia, changes in metabolism, malabsorption, as well as ¶ behavioural changes affecting
feeding practices; and lead to malnutrition in the context of limited nutritional reserves ¶
¶
¶
The importance of
interactions between vitamin A deficiency and a ¶ number of infectious diseases
are
clear ¶
vitamin A deficiency affects epithelial membranes, and thus relates to
respiratory tract infections and diarrhoea ¶ Deficiencies of other micronutrients, even when
clinical signs are not present, exert an influence through such routes as ¶ immunocompetence
and integrity of epithelial tissues. One effect of iron deficiency is through depressing
immunity, but the ¶ implications of this can be complicated
¶
¶
Protein−energy malnutrition is related to poverty and ¶ long−term progress is linked to development, although in the interim effective programmes can be undertaken.
is feasible. Although globally the
proportion of people undernourished fell somewhat 3during the 70’s, probably less so during the 80’s − and actually increased in
Africa −
(5). Along with this, the total numbers
of children underweight − due to malnutrition and infection − are
still increasing(6). That
is
becoming part of conventional wisdom.
Protein−energy malnutrition is known to have a depressing effect on the immune system;
moreover effects on different elements of the immune system can be distinguished (7).
, hence morbidity and
severe protein−energy
malnutrition.
Looked at the other way round, the mechanisms whereby infections lead to growth failure and clinical
mortality, which shifts attention to mild−moderate as well as
malnutrition are becoming better understood.
. The
interactions of nutrition and infection with regard to individual infections and defined
nutrients are now better known. For example, we know that PEM increases the duration of
episodes of diarrhoea.
(notably, but not confined to, measles)
now becoming
.
For instance,
.
by, for example, iron stimulating pathogen growth, as discussed later. Zinc, it is
emerging,
may
have a general effect on infectious disease, again at least partly through the immune system. Much of the attention to iodine ¶ deficiency disorders has related to effects of the deficiency itself, such as on brain development, but this deficiency may also have ¶
some effect on immunity. However, research on iodine deficiency in relation to infectious disease is limited, and it was felt that ¶ insufficient data were available to include this topic here. These interactions are cyclic, and closely linked, and it is relevant to talk ¶
about a malnutrition−infection¶ complex. A diagram is shown in Figure 1. This summarises the principles underlying malnutrition and ¶ infection, as follows. Inadequate dietary intake can cause weight loss or failure of growth in children, and leads to low
This is associated with a lowering of immunity, probably with almost all ¶ nutrient
deficiencies. Particularly in ¶ protein−energy and vitamin A deficiencies there may be
progressive¶ damage to mucosa, lowering resistance to colonization and ¶ invasion by
pathogens. Lowered immunity and¶ mucosal damage are the major mechanisms by which
defences are compromised ¶
¶
diseases will be of potentially increased incidence,
severity, and duration
¶
¶
The disease
exacerbates¶ loss of ¶
nutrients
¶
¶
¶
¶
nutritional ¶ reserves.
.
; the relative
Under these
importance of
circumstances,
these three factors is not fully worked out in all cases.
, both by the host’s metabolic response, and by physical loss from the intestine.
These factors
processes itself
themselves exacerbate the malnutrition, leading to further possible damage to
defence mechanisms. At the
same time, many diseases
are associated with a loss of appetite, ¶ and other possible disabilities, cycling back ¶ to further lower the dietary intake. While other ¶ relationships play a part, this cycle summarises many of the¶ most important, and accounts for much of the high morbidity and
¶ mortality under circumstances of high¶ exposure to infectious disease and inadequate diet, characterizing many poor communities.¶¶ 4Figure 1 Malnutrition/Infection Cycle¶ * * *¶ The ACC/SCN, following consideration by its Advisory Group on Nutrition
(AGN), ¶ decided in 1988 that the¶ topic of nutrition and infection should be re−examined in view of recent scientific advances(8). A review ¶ paper ¶ was commissioned by the ACC/SCN and prepared by Dr A Tomkins and Ms F Watson, Centre for Human ¶
Nutrition, London ¶ School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. This review, available in April 1988, provided ¶ background for a meeting of a working ¶ group2¶ convened in May 1988. The meeting reviewed the document ¶ carefully, and the suggested changes of
substance and ¶ emphasis have been incorporated. In addition, certain¶ new references and findings have been added. At its 1989 meeting, the ¶ Sub−Committee decided that the¶ review, with a new section bringing out programme and policy implications,
should be published ¶ as part of the¶ ACC/SCN’s State−of−the−Art series(9).¶ 2The following participated in the meeting, held at WHO, Geneva, on 3−6 ¶ May 1988:¶ A Chavez, FAO; N Cohen, WHO (EPI); D Haslett, Trinity College, Dublin (Rapporteur); A ¶
Horwitz, Chairman, ACC/SCN ¶ (Chairman of Meeting); F Kaeferstein, WHO (Food Safety); J¶ Kevany, Chairman, Advisory Group on Nutrition, ACC/SCN; D ¶ Mahalanabis, ICDDR, Dhaka, ¶ Bangladesh; J Mason, ACC/SCN; M Mokbel, WHO (Food Aid); A Pradilla,
WHO (Nutrition); A ¶ Tomkins, ¶ London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK. ¶ The major part of this document, therefore, is the review entitled ¶ “Malnutrition and Infection” by A Tomkins and¶ Ms F Watson. The review is in two major parts. The first
(Sections 1−6) contains a ¶ comprehensive review of¶ present knowledge of interactions between nutrition and infection, with major emphasis on developing ¶¶ countries. The second part (Section 7) is a bibliography, containing brief summaries of recent articles
on the¶ topic. These are ¶ organized, within each sub−section, as first original scientific articles in date order, and then¶ review articles, also in date order.¶ The ¶ review paper was circulated to those responsible for communicable disease control programmes in
WHO¶ and the World Bank, to ¶ solicit their comments, and to help draw out the implications for design and ¶ implementation of nutrition and health programmes. ¶ This again followed the guidance of the AGN, and¶ decisions of the ACC/SCN. These
consultations, with discussions at the working ¶ group meeting in May 1988,¶ and consultations with the authors, members of the AGN, and others, led to the first section of this ¶ document,¶ entitled “Operational Implications”. This was compiled by the
ACC/SCN Secretariat, and the specific sections¶ 5reviewed ¶ by the relevant sections in WHO, as well as the AGN (10). The recommendations contained in this ¶ section are thus intended to be in ¶ line with current guidelines and practice of WHO.¶ * * *¶ The
work leading to this document therefore tried to define, from recent ¶ knowledge, which aspects of the¶ interactions between nutrition and infection may now need to be taken more into account in ¶ policy formulation, ¶ and planning health and nutrition
programmes. One new contribution in this area may be to look more closely ¶¶ at where dietary insufficiency in certain nutrients is considered of particular importance for the prevention and ¶ management of ¶ specific infectious diseases. Whilst it may be the
case that many nutrients (and their¶ deficiencies) are relevant to a large number of ¶ diseases, in setting priorities for programme actions it is ¶ important to know in which particular areas it would be most cost effective ¶ to address these interactions. For¶
example, providing vitamin A to reduce deaths from measles and to prevent post−measles ¶ blindness, or¶ devoting resources to increasing children’s food intake during persistent diarrhoea, may be notably effective ¶ and ¶ merit increased priority. In other
areas, such as iron deficiency, it seems useful to clarify appropriate¶ methods of supplementation ¶ in different health situations.¶ The topics of nutrition as it affects infection, and infection as it affects nutrition, are comprehensively ¶ laid out in¶ the review by
Tomkins and Watson, and their discussion and conclusions are not reiterated here. The ¶ following section, ¶ on “Operational Implications”, is thus intended to highlight the application of recent ¶ knowledge in the context of policies and ¶ programmes in
developing countries.¶ The major part of this State−of−the−Art Review is the paper by Tomkins & Watson. The first ¶ part synthesizes¶ recent findings on how infection increases the risk of malnutrition, and then on malnutrition as it affects ¶¶ infectious
diseases. The second part consists of an annotated bibliography, organized by topics. The first two¶ sub−sections cover ¶ infection and growth, then poor growth as a risk factor for infection; the next four sections ¶ are organized by specific micronutrient ¶
deficiencies (vitamin A, iron, zinc, and others). An author’s index, in¶ alphabetical order of first authors, has been included for ¶ references given in the bibliography.¶ As a final section, a comment by Prof N Scrimshaw is included. Prof Scrimshaw, as the author ¶
of the 1968¶ publication on this topic, provides a historical perspective and some specific comments on the review. ¶ OPERATIONAL ¶ IMPLICATIONS¶ DIARRHOEA AND MALNUTRITION¶ Diarrhoea associated with malnutrition is probably the ¶ commonest
cause of death in young children¶ worldwide. For example, in an urban ¶ community in the Gambia over 35% of deaths in children aged 0−3 years ¶ were found to be ¶ caused by diarrhoea coupled with malnutrition. The importance of the distinction between ¶
acute diarrhoea and ¶ persistent diarrhoea (episodes of more than 14 days duration) has recently been¶ recognized. Studies from different countries have ¶ shown that up to one half of deaths related to diarrhoea ¶ were linked to persistent diarrhoea. One study
showed considerably ¶ higher mortality per episode from ¶ persistent diarrhoea than from acute diarrhoea (11). Such figures may vary by area, season, and ¶¶ environment, but their importance is clear.¶ Diarrhoea (especially persistent diarrhoea) often causes
deterioration of nutritional ¶ status, and poor nutritional¶ status has been shown to increase the duration of diarrhoeal illness. Effects of nutritional status on ¶ incidence¶ of diarrhoeal episodes, which is more determined by environment and personal hygiene,
are more varied; the¶ same ¶ applies to severity (12). Effective management of diarrhoea also helps to prevent future illness, probably ¶ including diarrhoea, since ¶ maintenance of nutritional status helps to maintain immunocompetence. Thus there ¶ are
important nutritional implications for both ¶ prevention and management of diarrhoea in children. But ¶ because nutritional needs change with age and because persistent ¶ diarrhoea carries a greater nutritional risk¶ than acute diarrhoea, nutritional
recommendations are specific to age and duration of ¶ diarrhoeal episode. In¶ general, rehydration is of priority for management of acute diarrhoea, with nutrition becoming increasingly ¶¶ important as the duration increases towards persistent diarrhoea. ¶
Exclusive breastfeeding is recommended for the first 4−6 months ¶ of life. This helps to prevent diarrhoea by¶ minimising the infant’s exposure to diarrhoeal pathogens, which are common in other ¶ foods and in water. For ¶ 6the management of diarrhoea in
children of this age, continued exclusive breast feeding (with increased¶¶ frequency and duration of feeds if possible) is the most important nutritional aspect of management. ¶ Exclusively breast−fed infants ¶ (less than 4−6 months) with diarrhoea should be
breast−fed with increased¶ frequency, which should often prevent dehydration. If ¶ such infants nonetheless become dehydrated, ¶ rehydration therapy may be required. WHO guidelines recommend breast−feeding ¶ after the first 4 hours of¶ rehydration, or
earlier if rehydration is complete, and continued breast−feeding thereafter in addition to¶¶ continuing oral rehydration(13). Ensuring adequate maternal hydration through encouraging adequate fluid ¶ intakes by the mother ¶ may be important. This is
particularly important in acute diarrhoea, but breast feeding ¶ should be maintained in persistent diarrhoea ¶ also. When breast feeding is maintained during diarrhoea, the ¶ growth faltering commonly associated with diarrhoea is rarely seen, ¶ and the risk of
death is minimised.¶ Although breast milk alone is not sufficient for continued growth after 4−6 months of age, it is ¶ recommended¶ that breast feeding continue into the second year of life with increasing intakes of suitable weaning foods. The ¶¶ frequency
and duration of feeds should be maintained during diarrhoeal illness. For this age group, continued¶ non−exclusive breast ¶ feeding is not the only nutritional recommendation, but is nonetheless of great value in ¶ the prevention and management of ¶ diarrhoea
through its effects on exposure to pathogens and maintenance¶ of nutritional status.¶ Food hygiene during the weaning ¶ period is crucial to diarrhoea prevention. The use of fermented foods in ¶ weaning diets should be considered. Although an increase ¶ in
exposure to diarrhoeal pathogens is inevitable¶ during weaning, the extent of the increase can be minimised by striving to ensure ¶ that foods and utensils do ¶ not become contaminated, thus helping to prevent diarrhoeal attacks. The inclusion of fermented
foods ¶ (which¶ often constitute part of the traditional diet) may also contribute to the prevention of diarrhoea, since recent ¶ research ¶ indicates that levels of pathogenic bacteria are considerably lower in fermented foods than in ¶ non−fermented
equivalents. This ¶ characteristic of fermented foods also makes them suitable for¶ supplementation of the diet in management of diarrhoea. ¶ For ¶ management of diarrhoea in children of weaning age it is most important that breastfeeding continues to ¶ be
supplemented with ¶ suitable foods, ideally to at least the level of the healthy child. This is especially true in¶ persistent diarrhoea, which is relatively ¶ common in children of this age and carries a high risk of growth¶ faltering and subsequent re−infection.
During recovery from ¶ diarrhoea, extra food above the normal intake ¶ should be provided to restore nutritional status (a target of 125% of normal intake, ¶ with nutrient−dense foods,¶ has been suggested)(14).¶ In children of weaning age or older, ORT is
recommended primarily for ¶ prevention and treatment of¶ life−threatening dehydration during diarrhoea, which is more common in acute than persistent ¶ diarrhoea. It¶ may also play a role in nutritional management: since dehydration is thought to
contribute to the anorexia that¶ can ¶ accompany diarrhoea, ORT may help to maintain appetite and thereby nutritional status during bouts of ¶ diarrhoea.¶ In order to ¶ implement these recommendations for prevention and management, programmes to
combat¶ diarrhoeal morbidity will need to ¶ concentrate on influencing the behaviour of those responsible for day−to−day¶ care and feeding of infants and young children. In ¶ some cases this will simply mean conservation and support ¶ of traditional practices,
e.g., breast feeding, fermented food ¶ technologies. Appropriate dietary regimes using¶ local food should be developed for nutritional management of diarrhoeas. As ¶ dietary bulk is such a problem in ¶ many traditional cereals, the use of amylase−rich flour to
hydrolyse starches should be ¶ considered.¶ MEASLES, VITAMIN A AND PROTEIN−ENERGY MALNUTRITION¶ Measles is estimated to kill 2,000,000 children a year, ¶ almost all in developing countries. Measles is known to¶ interact particularly with deficiencies of
protein−energy and of vitamin A. It ¶ is a common precipitating cause of¶ potentially blinding eye lesions (especially due to xerophthalmia) in young children, and of
¶ severe growth¶ faltering and protein−energy malnutrition. Measles occurring in poor
environments is thus associated with ¶ growth ¶ faltering, vitamin A deficiency and immune suppression. The immune suppression can persist for up to ¶ four months after infection, ¶ and goes some way to explaining both the particular risk of respiratory and ¶
diarrhoeal complications of measles, and the relatively ¶ greater severity of the disease, in poor communities.¶ The increased risk of other infections contributes to the cycle of further ¶ malnutrition and further infection.¶ Post−measles diarrhoea is particularly
difficult to treat and has a very high mortality risk. ¶ Prevention of ¶ measles, through immunization, is thus an important means of reducing severe protein−energy malnutrition ¶ and ¶ vitamin A deficiency.¶ 7Preventive nutritional measures for reducing the
severity of measles and its consequences relate to both¶¶ vitamin A deficiency, and to protein−energy malnutrition. The provision of vitamin A supplements to ¶ populations at high risk from ¶ measles is recommended in all communities where vitamin A
deficiency exists.¶ In this context, distribution of vitamin A capsules ¶ with immunization programmes is particularly relevant, and is ¶ beginning in a number of countries. Protein−energy malnutrition is ¶ an established risk factor in measles, thus ¶ programmes
that improve nutrition in general can also be expected to contribute to ¶ reducing the severity of¶ measles.¶ Renewed emphasis on nutritional management during and after measles is of high priority, to ¶ prevent the¶ severe growth faltering and high mortality
often associated with measles. This again refers to deficiencies of¶ both ¶ vitamin A and protein−energy.¶ Measles causes vitamin A deficiency, and measles is more severe in vitamin A deficient children. In ¶ all¶ communities exposed to vitamin A deficiency,
morbidity and mortality from measles would probably be¶ reduced, not only by ¶ regular vitamin A supplementation for that population, but by ensuring that all children ¶ with measles receive vitamin A. In ¶ particular, when the case fatality rate for measles
exceeds 1% in¶ communities where vitamin A deficiency exists, all children with ¶ measles should without fail get vitamin A ¶ capsules(15). Studies in Tanzania have shown reduced case fatality rates from measles ¶ when children were ¶ given vitamin A during
the disease(16). Measles infection substantially increases vitamin A ¶ utilization, thus¶ vitamin A administration during the disease helps prevent deficiency when ¶ body stores are marginal prior to¶ infection, in turn providing protection against ¶ xerophthalmia
and probably immune suppression.¶ Ensuring adequate intakes of protein and ¶ energy during the management of measles, and, especially ¶ important, during the immediate ¶ post−measles period, requires fresh emphasis. As for diarrhoea, this is ¶ particularly
important ¶ for young children after the age of exclusive breast feeding. Continued feeding with ¶ suitable ¶ weaning foods can help to counter the anorexia, malabsorption, and increased protein ¶ breakdown¶ that adversely affects the nutritional status of
children with measles. Practices in ¶ some cultures of withholding ¶ food during measles in young children is particularly to be discouraged. At the same ¶ time, continued¶ breastfeeding at all ages of children who are breastfed should be supported. ¶
Maintenance of adequate vitamin A ¶ nutrition may also reduce non−measles morbidity and mortality. There is ¶ some evidence that vitamin A deficiency increases the risk ¶ of respiratory infection and possibly diarrhoea,¶ perhaps through its effects on cellular
and non−specific immunity. In addition, ¶ mortality from these and other ¶ causes may be elevated in vitamin A deficient children.¶ RESPIRATORY TRACT INFECTIONS AND ¶ MALNUTRITION¶ Respiratory infections have been implicated in growth faltering,
although there is ¶ as yet limited information on¶ the mechanisms involved. Nevertheless, anorexia, fever, pain, ¶ vomiting (especially in pertussis) and¶ associated diarrhoea, may all be important contributory ¶ factors. Recommendations in relation to
diarrhoea¶ largely apply also in the case of acute ¶ respiratory infections: sustained breast feeding and nutritional ¶ supplementation. There is ¶ accumulating evidence that vitamin A deficiency increases risk of developing ¶ respiratory ¶ disease; and that
children who are vitamin A deficient are more likely to suffer from chronic ¶ ear¶ infections.¶ Programmes to prevent and improve the management of acute respiratory ¶ infections are giving increased¶ attention to pneumonia especially in young children, as
the ¶ most serious illness with the highest mortality risk.¶ Pneumonia is of higher incidence in ¶ developing countries than in the industrialized world, and is a major ¶ cause of death.¶¶ Malnutrition is considered a key risk factor for pneumonia, and maintaining
good nutritional ¶ status is thus¶ important in preventing infection. Children with poor nutritional status − as measured by growth − and ¶ of low¶ birth weight merit priority for particular attention when presenting with respiratory infections. Breastfeeding is¶
considered ¶ to protect against respiratory infections − as for other diseases − and should be strongly ¶ promoted. As well as vitamin A, other ¶ micro−nutrient deficiencies, notably zinc, and iron (and possibly vitamin ¶ D) have been implicated in acute respiratory
infections, ¶ probably through effects on the immune system.¶ Adequate feeding is essential during management of acute respiratory infections, ¶ and requires emphasis.¶ This applies, as for other illnesses, to continued breastfeeding of infants and young
children, and provision ¶ of the immune system¶ MALARIA AND IRON DEFICIENCY¶ Programmatic responses to the interactions between iron status and ¶ malaria need careful consideration. Iron ¶ deficiency depresses the immune response, increasing
susceptibility to infection. However, ¶ the malaria¶ parasite requires iron for its multiplication in blood, and thus may be less infective in the iron−deficient ¶ individual. ¶ Malaria causes haemolysis, which in turn causes anemia.¶ Preventive measures for malaria
and anemia are thus often related, but ¶ each with its own considerations. For ¶ example, malaria chemoprophylaxis for young children on a population basis is no longer
¶ recommended for¶ several reasons, among which the most important are that past
experience shows that it has been very¶ difficult, ¶ if not impossible, to maintain as a long term effective public health measure, and that it may ¶ accelerate the development of drug ¶ resistance.¶ One issue concerns iron supplementation with malaria
chemoprophylaxis programmes. In general, iron¶ (preferably ¶ with folate) should be administered to all pregnant women under malaria chemoprophylaxis. ¶ Iron supplementation programmes in ¶ the population as a whole are important to prevent anemia,
particularly¶ in women and young children. An issue that arises with ¶ general iron supplementation in malaria endemic ¶ areas concerns whether this should be done if malaria chemoprophylaxis cannot ¶ be administered at the same¶ time. It is expected that
the net effect of iron supplementation under these conditions would be a
¶ decrease in¶ malaria, due to the immune effect. However, research into this issue, and monitoring of morbidity in a ¶ supplemented ¶ population, is urgently needed. In the interim, the
recommendation is to proceed with oral iron¶ supplementation, at the same time ¶ as malaria prophylaxis by itself, and monitor rates of infection. ¶ In treatment of malaria, correcting iron−deficiency anemia is ¶ frequently indicated. Current evidence is that ¶
administration of iron by intra−muscular or intra−venous injection is to be avoided, as
¶ it risks exacerbating the¶ malarial (or other) infection. Oral administration of iron, in moderate doses(17), is recommended, the ¶ benefits¶ outweighing the risks.¶ Equally
treatment of anemia, both in malaria−endemic areas and for individuals (particularly when ¶¶ underweight) in other contaminated environments where infections are prevalent, should use oral iron, in ¶ moderate doses.¶¶ INTESTINAL PARASITES AND
NUTRITION¶ Intestinal parasites3 ¶ may be associated with a reduction in food intake, malabsorption, ¶ endogenous nutrient¶ loss, and anemia. Behavioural effects of parasitic infestation may also be important: the blindness resulting¶¶ from onchocerciasis
may lead to malnutrition; discomfort and anorexia may also affect food intake. While it is ¶ clear that parasites ¶ may lead to malnutrition, the extent to which malnutrition itself causes increased parasite ¶ infestation is not clearly known. ¶ Nonetheless, the two
conditions so frequently co−exist, and the potential for ¶ re−inforcing programmes is so clear, that they ¶ frequently need to be considered together. While¶ improvements in environmental sanitation are essential for long−term ¶ prevention of infection by
intestinal¶ parasites, programmes of regular treatment of vulnerable populations with anthelmintics are ¶ widely used.¶ 3e.g. Ascaris, hookworm, and Trichuris as well as intestinal and urinary schistosomiasis. ¶ Treatment of intestinal ¶ parasites may often be a
desirable accompaniment to food supplementation ¶ programmes to prevent malnutrition. Logistically, it ¶ may be less easy to include food supplementation with ¶ parasitic treatment, the latter commonly being carried out every three ¶ months; however, under
many ¶ circumstances the benefits of parasitic treatment may be better realised when nutrition ¶ interventions are¶ associated with them. WHO recommends that in areas where the prevalence of mild−moderate underweight ¶ in ¶ children is greater than 25%,
and where parasites are known to be widespread, high priority should be ¶ given to de−worming ¶ programmes for treatment of parasites. Treatment of parasites may also be of particular ¶ priority in vitamin A deficient areas. It ¶ could be logistically appropriate
to include vitamin A capsule distribution¶ in parasite treatment programmes, since the time ¶ between doses is similar for both anthelmintics and vitamin¶ A (i.e. 3−6 months).¶ 9ron deficiency anemia is well known to be ¶ associated with hook worm
infestation, and public health measures¶ to deal with hook worm should routinely include iron ¶ supplementation. Similar considerations may apply for ¶ other intestinal parasites.¶ Cases of severe protein−energy malnutrition are ¶ frequently also suffering from
intestinal parasite infestation,¶ which should therefore be treated as part of nutritional rehabilitation. ¶ Giardia lamblia is often associated with ¶ severe malnutrition in certain areas, and may merit particular attention. ¶ AIDS AND ¶ MALNUTRITION¶ As noted
by the SCN 14th Session (1988) the association of AIDS with malnutrition may indicate a useful role ¶ for ¶ diet during the disease. Unknown at present is whether nutritional deficiency has any effect in predisposing ¶ either to attack by HIV, ¶ or to progression
from infection to the disease. Other factors in HIV infection are no ¶ doubt more important than nutritional ones, ¶ and research designs would not be simple. Nonetheless, this is a¶ possible research area.¶ * * *¶ The operational implications of ¶ nutrition and
infection interactions apply to health programmes specifically,¶ and to the fact that interventions to improve nutrition ¶ will often be an effective way of preventing ill health.¶ Some of the latter may be outside the health sector itself.¶ Nutrition ¶ interventions
as part of health programmes will help prevent infection, and are an important feature ¶ of effective management of ¶ disease. In general whenever malnutrition is a problem, for example as marked by¶ growth faltering in children, nutritional support ¶ (e.g.
supplementary feeding, micronutrient distribution, nutrition¶ education) through the health services should be seriously ¶ considered. Some circumstances likely to be¶ particularly important for breaking out of the cycle of malnutrition and infection are ¶
Adequate protein−energy status seems particularly important in prevention and
management of many¶ diseases ¶
¶
¶
¶
¶
¶
the nutritional status of the
population will thus have important ¶
effects on¶ health
highlighted above.¶
− notably diarrhoea (especially persistent diarrhoea), measles, and respiratory tract infections.
being the best known. Attention to
iron status is always important, and is stressed here in
relation to malaria and intestinal parasites.
beneficial
Adequate vitamin A status also
protects against many diseases, measles
Measures that improve
. This means that meeting the objective of improving health requires actions to alleviate poverty and
to¶¶ bring an adequate diet within the reach of everyone; the health sector must advocate such actions, some of ¶ which are the direct ¶ responsibilities of others(18). Nutrition programmes, whether or not operated through ¶ health services, will benefit
health.¶¶ Similarly, access to adequate health services improves nutrition. For example, measles immunisation reduces ¶ severe ¶ protein−energy and vitamin A deficiencies. The recognition that malnutrition is inextricably bound up ¶ with infection means health
¶ interventions are essential to preventing and treating
Disease Leads to Extinction
Dartmouth Undergraduate Journal of Science, 2009
(“Human Extinction: The Uncertainty of Our Fate,” http://dujs.dartmouth.edu/spring2009/human-extinction-the-uncertainty-of-our-fate#.U7GjRI1dVy8, Date Accessed- 06-30-14,
AN)
Extinction marks the evolutionary death of a species. Observing the fates of many species ancient and recent, it appears to be
Nature’s mechanism of periodically clearing out the outdated to make room for the fit. But is extinction necessarily inevitable for
every species? More specifically, are humans destined to meet an unavoidable end? ¶ Extinction, Then and Now¶ Perhaps the most
studied extinction — in textbooks, grade-school computer games, and movies alike — has been the extinction of the dinosaurs, one
among many constituting the Cretaceous-Tertiary mass extinction around 65.5 million years ago (Ma) (1). Theorized to have been
the result of a 20-kilometer-wide meteorite’s impact at the Yucatan peninsula (1), it sits among the five major mass extinctions that
have occurred in the Earth’s 4.6 billion-year history: the Ordovician-Silurian extinction 439 Ma, the late-Devonian extinction 364 Ma,
the Permian-Triassic extinction 251 Ma, the end-Triassic extinction 199-214 Ma, and the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction (2). ¶ All five
mass extinctions of the past have been attributed to major geographic and climatic changes on Earth — significant fluctuations in
sea levels, erupting volcanoes, extra-terrestrial impact — and are believed to have forced the extinction of up to 95 percent of all
species at a time (2,3). Not all extinction, however, is so spectacularly concentrated. As shown in fossil records and on present-day
Earth, extinction is historically an ever-present phenomenon, although extinction rates fluctuate over time.¶
influenza_virus_research_cmyk1¶ A microbiologist examines reconstructed 1918 Pandemic Influenza Virus. The epidemic killed up to
50 million people worldwide.¶ If this is true, could humans be the dinosaurs of this next mass extinction, and if so, what would be
the final nail in our coffin? A small sample of Dartmouth students was asked these questions (6). The following is a compilation of
their general responses, followed by some analysis.¶ RIP
Homo sapiens¶ A pandemic will kill off all humans.¶
In the past, humans have indeed fallen victim to viruses. Perhaps the best-known case was the
bubonic plague that killed up to one third of the European population in the mid-14th century
(7). While vaccines have been developed for the plague and some other infectious diseases,
new viral strains are constantly emerging — a process that maintains the possibility of a
pandemic-facilitated human extinction.¶ Some surveyed students mentioned AIDS as a
potential pandemic-causing virus. It is true that scientists have been unable thus far to find a
sustainable cure for AIDS, mainly due to HIV’s rapid and constant evolution. Specifically, two
factors account for the virus’s abnormally high mutation rate: 1. HIV’s use of reverse
transcriptase, which does not have a proof-reading mechanism, and 2. the lack of an errorcorrection mechanism in HIV DNA polymerase (8). Luckily, though, there are certain
characteristics of HIV that make it a poor candidate for a large-scale global infection: HIV can
lie dormant in the human body for years without manifesting itself, and AIDS itself does not
kill directly, but rather through the weakening of the immune system. ¶ However, for more
easily transmitted viruses such as influenza, the evolution of new strains could prove far more
consequential. The simultaneous occurrence of antigenic drift (point mutations that lead to
new strains) and antigenic shift (the inter-species transfer of disease) in the influenza virus
could produce a new version of influenza for which scientists may not immediately find a cure.
Since influenza can spread quickly, this lag time could potentially lead to a “global influenza
pandemic,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (9). The most recent
scare of this variety came in 1918 when bird flu managed to kill over 50 million people around
the world in what is sometimes referred to as the Spanish flu pandemic. Perhaps even more
frightening is the fact that only 25 mutations were required to convert the original viral strain
— which could only infect birds — into a human-viable strain (10).¶ Another superior species
will evolve and usurp man’s place on earth.¶ While it has never been formally proven, many hold the anthrocentric belief that Homo sapiens are superior to other earthly life forms. Those who believe this often cite man’s complex cognitive
ability as the selective bias that differentiates humans from other organisms (5). Though this may be true to a certain degree, it has
been proven that animals such as monkeys have some of the same psychological biases as humans, such as loss-aversion and
anchoring bias (11). ¶ Perhaps more convincing for the case of human domination is the argument that humans are ‘superior’ for
their ability to “change the environment” to a greater degree than any other species (1). That is, we as humans have exceeded other
living organisms in using natural resources and adapting the environment to our needs. At least on Earth, there does not appear to
be a major threat to humans’ superiority in this sense. ¶ However, the idea behind panspermia may deem a super-human threat
possible. Panspermia is the theory that the beginnings of life originated elsewhere in the universe and were brought to our planet by
some extraterrestrial means (i.e. a meteorite) (12). This theory has been largely disregarded for two primary reasons: 1. Miller’s
experiment that supported abiogenesis (the formation of amino acids from inorganic matter present on early Earth) and 2. the
general lack of proof of an extraterrestrial vehicle (12). However, should panspermia be true, it is possible that an extraterrestrial
rock could introduce a new life form to Earth that could take over humans’ role on Earth.¶ A nuclear detonation at the U.S. testing
facility at Bikini Atoll. As technology progresses, the threat of a nuclear holocaust increases.¶ A nuclear detonation at the U.S. testing
facility at Bikini Atoll. As technology progresses, the threat of a nuclear holocaust increases.¶ The population will grow until all
natural resources are expended.¶ This topic is a hotly debated one, particularly in light of related arguments for population control.
Those who predict a shortage of natural resources believe in the limited carrying capacity of our planet. For instance, with
renewable freshwater, Joel Cohen estimates that the Earth may only be able to support 5.3 to 8.2 billion people, assuming a low
estimate for the amount of freshwater available and a high estimate for the amount of water necessary to human sustenance (13).
Considering that the world population is already 6.7 billion, a growing world population could be a problem, and as of 2008, the
human population has indeed been growing at a rate of 1.188 percent (14). Moreover, over the last fifteen years, the amount of
energy consumed has grown at a slightly higher rate than has the amount of energy produced (15, 16).¶ On the other hand, though
the world population is growing, this growth rate has steadily decreased over the last forty years (17). In fact, some countries such as
Japan and Germany currently have declining population numbers (18). Moreover, some like economist Julian Simon even argue that
a higher population will give rise to greater innovation, allowing the world’s population to discover technologies that will help us
circumvent the Earth’s natural limitations (19).¶ Man will destroy himself.¶ Another possibility is the death of mankind at the hands
of its own weapons. One threat lies in the use of weapons of mass destruction, internationally referred to as CBRN (Chemical,
Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear) warfare. Chemical warfare revolves around the use of toxic, non-living agents (mustard,
cyanides), while biological warfare involves the use of living organisms and/or toxins that they produce (anthrax, botulinum toxin)
(20). Though both could potentially bring about human extinction, radiological and nuclear warfare have been referred to most
often when considering a potential “Doomsday Machine/Device.”¶ Two prominent candidates for the Doomsday Machine have
emerged over the last 60 years. First was the “dead hand,” a rumored underground Soviet monitoring system whose central
computer Perimetr would have facilitated the automated detonation of an extensive nuclear weapons network, had the Soviet
Union come under attack during the Cold War (21). Though constructed in the 1970s, dead hand is still armed and operational,
according to a 2007 article in the New York Times, and has been declared a possible Doomsday Machine (22). ¶ The other contender
is the theoretical cobalt bomb. Essentially, the cobalt bomb is an atomic bomb covered in cobalt-59. When bombarded with
neutrons, the outer shell of cobalt-59 is converted into the highly radioactive isotope cobalt-60. Cobalt-60, as opposed to other
radioactive isotopes, has a relatively long half-life of 5.3 years that would cause the deleterious effects of a cobalt bomb’s radiation
to be both long-lasting and global if properly dispersed – a surefire recipe for global extinction (23). ¶ Thus, while the subject of a
man-made human apocalypse seems like the stuff of science fiction, it may not be so farfetched. However, for obvious reasons, it is
also fair to say that these potential planet-enders have yet to be successfully tested or implemented.
Backlines
They Say: “Non-Unique – Cruise Ships”
Cruise Ships DO NOT kill marine bio D
Murray 05
(Thomas, Wrote “THE IMPACTS OF THE CRUISE SHIP INDUSTRY ON THE QUALITY OF LIFE IN KEY WEST”, 4-8-05, http://responsibletourismkw.com/wp-
content/uploads/2013/06/2005Impact_study.pdf, Accessed: 6-28-14, MSM)
no evidence that cruise ship discharges are either occurring illegally or ¶
contributing to water quality ¶ declines
EPA investigations conclude that Cruise
Industry practices result in ¶ high dispersion levels with minimal negative impacts on the
environment. ¶ In addition to cruise ships being subject to international and federal laws and
regulations, the ¶ industry
have entered into a specific waste management agreement
¶ for
waters.
cruise ¶ ship waste management practices and
procedures meet or exceed the standards set forth in ¶
laws and regulations ¶
There appears to be
,
suspended sediment,
other than through turbidity and re-
in the area.
and the State of Florida
state
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection has found that
applicable Florida
.
The Florida Keys National
Marine Sanctuary (FKNMS) is proposing initiation of regulatory ¶ changes to expand the existing no-discharge zone in state waters in the Keys to include the ¶ entire FKNMS. NOAA will pursue a no-discharge zone regulation for the federal waters of ¶ the
the cruise lines have taken the lead in preventing environmental damages by ¶
assigning environmental officers on many ships, developing environmental training ¶
programs, and cooperating on developing agreements with various states setting forth ¶
environmental standards, compliance practices and procedures. ¶ The U.S. EPA recently
determined that air emissions from cruise ships were too insignificant ¶ to regulate.
Sanctuary in 2005. ¶ In recent years,
According to the FDEP in
Marathon, the state air regulatory agency, no ¶ complaints have been received related to cruise ships air emissions. ¶ Future large vessel traffic in Key West may increase following channel and harbor deepening ¶ and pier modifications at the Outer Mole. These
projects possibly will result in up to a 15% ¶ increase in the annual naval traffic. ¶ Impacts from cruise ships and other large deep draft vessels are occurring to water quality ¶ and bottom habitats in the area of the main channel and harbor in Key West. However,
The Impact of the Cruise Ship Industry on the Quality of Life in Key West ¶ ¶ ¶ ¶
cruise
ship turbidity
affecting the entire ¶ lower Keys region appears unfounded. ¶
the
belief by some that
in the channel and harbor is
Recent efforts to mitigate
the adverse impacts of large vessels include the ongoing $38 ¶ million Navy dredging and monitoring project, the reconfiguration of Pier B to reduce
cruise ships, and educational efforts of agencies and NGOs in the Key West
¶ area.
¶ turbidity, limits on the size and draft of vessels brought into the harbor, managed use of the ¶ main engines of
They Say: “Sonar in other places (like Hawaii)”
( ) The South China Sea is a hotspot – prefer specific cards (empirics don’t apply
unless in key hotspots)
Goldman 11
(Lee Goldman, August 10, 2011 “A Bio-Diversity Hotspot in the Philippines”- http://www.worldwildlife.org/blogs/good-naturetravel/posts/a-biodiversity-hotspot-in-the-philippines Accessed 6/28/14 Lee Goldman, Executive Director of Reef Check
Philippines holds both a B.Sc. and a M. Sc. in marine biology, the latter for his work on coral interactions and reproduction
with an emphasis on its applications for reef restoration. In parallel with pursuing his goals as a scientist (he is currently
completing his PhD at the University of the Philippines Marine Science Institute), he spent nearly 15 years working as a
naturalist and guide in some of the world’s most remarkable places. Along with conducting research on corals, he owns
and operates an expedition tour company in the Philippines, guiding clients all over the archipelago in search of wondrous
marine and terrestrial organisms. He guides for WWF and is a consultant for Dreamtime Publications.)
The Philippines is a cluster of more than 7,000 islands, lying north of the Malay Peninsula in Southeast Asia. From north to south, the
archipelago extends more than 1,850 kilometers. The Philippines are of volcanic origin; a large part of the terrain is mountainous, with
It is generally accepted that the Philippines
terrestrial and marine habitats contain some of the richest biodiversities of
flora and fauna, and its waters are considered a part of the biodiverse Coral
Triangle. Further, many of these organisms are endemic to the Philippines. For example, of the
fertile soils and spectacular landscapes.
580 recorded birds, more than 35 percent can only be found in the Philippines. More than 60 percent of the 167 different species of
mammals and 65 percent of the 10,000+ species of plants are endemic. Although many of the islands have an incredible assortment of
wildlife, no island has more to offer than the island province of Palawan. Dubbed “the Last Frontier” because of the thousands of
kilometers of unexplored forests and coastlines, this narrow archipelago between the South China Sea and the Sulu Sea is the third
largest island in the Philippines. As the westernmost island in the Philippines, it is actually more closely associated (in terms of
geology, flora and fauna) with Malaysia and Southeast Asia than with the rest of the Philippines. One of the most important events
that lead towards Palawan’s high biodiversity happened approximately 10,000 years ago when substantial amounts of the world’s
oceans were locked up in glaciers. This resulted in much of the Sunda shelf (which includes Borneo and western Indonesia) becoming
exposed. During this time, it is thought that Palawan had a small, shallow land-bridge to Borneo, and separation with many of the
islands in the rest of the Philippine chain was not as dramatic. As a result, Palawan not only showcases many of the flora and fauna
associated with the rest of the Philippines, but also has many birds, reptiles, amphibians, mammals, trees and plants found on the
the Philippines, particularly around Mindoro and northern Palawan
Islands, are the center of the center of marine fish biodiversity. For scholars, it is a
question of species per area rather than species per region . But for us, the joy and awe at gazing at more than 1,600 species of fish,
600 species of invertebrates and 500 species of coral makes the details academic .
island of Borneo. It is argued even to this day that
Biodiversity in specific hotspots checks extinction. Key to ag,
med, ecosystems
Mittermeier 11
(et al, Dr. Russell Alan Mittermeier is a primatologist, herpetologist and biological anthropologist. He holds Ph.D. from Harvard in Biological Anthropology and
serves as an Adjunct Professor at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He has conducted fieldwork for over 30 years on three continents and in more
than 20 countries in mainly tropical locations. He is the President of Conservation International and he is considered an expert on biological diversity. Mittermeier
Biodiversity Hotspots
has formally discovered several monkey species. From Chapter One of the book
– F.E. Zachos and J.C. Habel (eds.),
DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-20992-5_1, # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011. This evidence also internally references Norman Myers, a very famous British
environmentalist specialising in biodiversity. available at: http://www.academia.edu/1536096/Global_biodiversity_conservation_the_critical_role_of_hotspots)
Extinction is the gravest consequence of the biodiversity crisis, since it is¶
irreversible. Human activities have elevated the rate of species extinctions to a¶
thousand or more times the natural background rate (Pimm et al. 1995). What are the¶ consequences of this loss?
Most obvious among them may be the lost opportunity¶ for future resource use. Scientists have discovered a mere fraction of Earth’s species¶ (perhaps fewer than
As species vanish, so too does the
health security of every¶ human. Earth’s species are a vast genetic storehouse that may harbor a
10%, or even 1%) and understood the biology of even fewer¶ (Novotny et al. 2002).
cure for¶ cancer, malaria, or the next new pathogen – cures waiting to be discovered.¶ Compounds initially derived from wild
species account for more than half of all¶ commercial medicines – even more in developing nations (Chivian and Bernstein¶ 2008). Natural forms, processes, and
ecosystems provide blueprints and inspiration¶ for a growing array of new materials, energy sources, hi-tech devices, and¶ other innovations (Benyus 2009). The
With loss
of species, we lose the ultimate source of our crops¶ and the genes we use to improve
agricultural resilience, the inspiration for¶ manufactured products, and the basis of the structure and function of the
ecosystems¶ that support humans and all life on Earth (McNeely et al. 2009). Above and beyond¶
current loss of species has been compared¶ to burning down the world’s libraries without knowing the content of 90% or¶ more of the books.
material welfare and livelihoods, biodiversity contributes to security, resiliency,¶ and freedom of choices and actions (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005).¶
Less tangible, but no less important, are the cultural, spiritual, and moral costs¶ inflicted by species extinctions. All societies value species for their own sake,¶ and
wild plants and animals are integral to the fabric of all the world’s cultures¶ (Wilson 1984). The road to extinction is made even more perilous to people by the loss
of the broader ecosystems that underpin our livelihoods, communities, and economies(McNeely et al.2009). The loss of coastal wetlands and mangrove forests, for
example, greatly exacerbates both human mortality and economic damage from tropical cyclones (Costanza et al.2008; Das and Vincent2009), while disease
outbreaks such as the 2003 emergence of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome in East Asia have been directly connected to trade in wildlife for human
consumption(Guan et al.2003). Other consequences of biodiversity loss, more subtle but equally damaging, include the deterioration of Earth’s natural capital.
Loss of biodiversity on land in the past decade alone is estimated to be costing the global economy $500 billion annually (TEEB2009). Reduced diversity may also
reduce resilience of ecosystems and the human communities that depend on them. For example, more diverse coral reef communities have been found to suffer
less from the diseases that plague degraded reefs elsewhere (Raymundo et al.2009). As Earth’s climate changes, the roles of species and ecosystems will only
increase in their importance to humanity (Turner et al.2009).¶ In many respects, conservation is local. People generally care more about the biodiversity in the
place in which they live. They also depend upon these ecosystems the most – and, broadly speaking, it is these areas over which they have the most control.
Furthermore, we believe that all biodiversity is important and that every nation, every region, and every community should do everything possible to conserve their
Extinction is a global phenomenon, with
impacts far beyond nearby administrative borders. More practically, biodiversity, the threats to it, and
living resources. So, what is the importance of setting global priorities?
the ability of countries to pay for its conservation vary around the world. The vast majority of the global conservation budget – perhaps 90% – originates in and is
spent in economically wealthy countries (James et al.1999). It is thus critical that those globally flexible funds available – in the hundreds of millions annually – be
guided by systematic priorities if we are to move deliberately toward a global goal of reducing biodiversity loss.¶ The establishment of priorities for biodiversity
where should action toward reducing the loss of
biodiversity be implemented first ? The field of conservation planning addresses this question and
revolves around a framework of vulnerability and irreplaceability (Margules and Pressey2000).
conservation is complex, but can be framed as a single question. Given the choice,
Vulnerability measures the risk to the species present in a region – if the species and ecosystems that are highly threatened are not protected now, we will not get
another chance in the future. Irreplaceability measures the extent to which spatial substitutes exist for securing biodiversity. The number of species alone is an
inadequate indication of conserva-tion priority because several areas can share the same species. In contrast, areas with high levels of endemism are irreplaceable.
We must conserve these places because the unique species they contain cannot be saved elsewhere. Put another way, biodiversity is not evenly distributed on our
planet. It is heavily concentrated in certain areas, these areas have exceptionally high concentrations of endemic species found nowhere else, and many (but not all)
of these areas are the areas at greatest risk of disappearing because of heavy human impact.¶ Myers’ seminal paper (Myers1988) was the first application of the
Myers described ten tropical forest
“hotspots” on the basis of extraordinary plant endemism and high levels of habitat loss,
principles of irreplaceability and vulnerability to guide conservation planning on a global scale.
albeit without quantitative criteria for the designation of “hotspot” status. A subsequent analysis added eight additional hotspots, including four from
Mediterranean-type ecosystems (Myers 1990).After adopting hotspots as an institutional blueprint in 1989, Conservation Interna-tional worked with Myers in a
first systematic update of the hotspots. It introduced two strict quantitative criteria: to qualify as a hotspot, a region had to contain at least 1,500 vascular plants as
endemics (¶ >¶ 0.5% of the world’s total), and it had to have 30% or less of its original vegetation (extent of historical habitat cover)remaining. These efforts
an extensive global review (Mittermeier et al.1999) and scientific publication (Myers et al.2000) that
introduced seven new hotspots on the basis of both the better-defined criteria and new data. A second
culminated in
systematic update (Mittermeier et al.2004) did not change the criteria, but revisited the set of hotspots based on new data on the distribution of species and
threats, as well as genuine changes in the threat status of these regions. That update redefined several hotspots, such as the Eastern Afromontane region, and
added several others that were suspected hotspots but for which sufficient data either did not exist or were not accessible to conservation scientists outside of those
regions. Sadly, it uncovered another region – the East Melanesian Islands – which rapid habitat destruction had in a short period of time transformed from a
biodiverse region that failed to meet the “less than 30% of original vegetation remaining” criterion to a genuine hotspot.
They Say: “Human Body Resilient”
Human Body Actually Fragile
Wolchover, writer for LiveScience, 2012
(Natalie, “What are the limits for Human Survival,” http://www.livescience.com/34128limits-human-survival.html, Date Accessed- 6-30-14, AN)
What Are the Limits of Human Survival?¶ by Natalie Wolchover | August 09, 2012 03:21pm ET¶ 134¶ ¶ 20¶ ¶ 9296¶ Submit¶ 27¶
Reddit¶ ¶ Lifeslittle¶ How
high can we climb before the lack of oxygen kills us?¶ Pin It How high can
we climb before the lack of oxygen kills us?¶ Credit: Image via Shutterstock¶ View full size image¶ One hears epic
accounts of people surviving bullets to the brain, 10-story freefalls or months stranded at sea. But put a human anywhere
in the known universe except for the thin shell of space that extends a couple of miles above
or below sea level on Earth, and we perish within minutes. As strong and resilient as the
human body seems in some situations, considered in the context of the cosmos as a whole,
it's unnervingly fragile.¶ Many of the boundaries within which a typical human can survive
have been fully established; the well-known "rule of threes" dictates how long we can forgo
air, water and food (roughly three minutes, three days and three weeks, respectively). Other
limits are more speculative, because people have seldom, if ever, tested them. For example,
how long can you stay awake before you die? How high in altitude can you climb before
suffocating? How much acceleration can your body withstand before it rips apart? ¶ Experiments
over the decades — some intentional, others accidental — have helped stake out the domain within which we, literally, live.¶ How
long can we stay awake?¶ Air Force pilots have been known to become so delirious after three or four days of sleep deprivation that
they crash their planes (having fallen asleep). Even a single all-nighter impairs driving abilities as much as being drunk. The absolute
longest anyone has voluntarily stayed awake before nodding off is 264 hours (about 11 days) — a record set by 17-year-old Randy
Gardner for a high-school science fair project in 1965. Before falling asleep on day 11, he was essentially a vegetable with its eyes
open. [Top 10 Spooky Sleep Disorders]¶ But at what point would he have died?¶ In June, a 26-year-old
Chinese man
reportedly died 11 days into a sleepless attempt to watch every game of the European Cup. But he was also
drinking alcohol and smoking throughout, making it difficult to ascertain his cause of death. No human has ever definitively died
from lack of sleep alone, and for obvious ethical reasons, scientists can't find the breaking point in the lab.¶ Rat sleep deprivation
experiment.Pin It Rat sleep deprivation experiment.¶ Credit: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic | Jean-Etienne
PoirrierView full size image¶ They've done it with rats, however. In 1999, sleep researchers at the University of Chicago put rats on a
rotating disc positioned over a pool of water, and continuously recorded the rats' brainwaves with a computer program that could
recognize the onset of sleep. When the rats nodded off, the disc was suddenly rotated to keep them awake by bumping them
against the wall and threatening to knock them into the water. The rats consistently died after two weeks of this misery. Before
perishing, the rodents showed symptoms of hypermetabolism, a condition in which the body's resting metabolic rate speeds up so
much that it burns excessive calories even while completely still. Hypermetabolism has been tied to lack of sleep. [The 6 Craziest
Animal Experiments]¶ How much radiation can we absorb?¶ Radiation poses a long-term danger because it mutates DNA, rewriting
the genetic code in ways that can lead to cancerous growth of cells. But how much radiation will strike you dead right away?
According to Peter Caracappa, a nuclear engineer and radiation safety specialist at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 5 and 6 Sieverts
(Sv) over the course of a few minutes will shred up too many cells for your body to fix at once. "The longer the time period over
which the dose is accumulated, the higher that range would be, since the body works to repair itself over that time as well,"
Caracappa told Life's Little Mysteries.¶ As a point of comparison, some workers at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant absorbed 0.4 to 1
Sv of radiation per hour while contending with the nuclear disaster last March. Although they survived in the short term, their
lifetime cancer risk increased, scientists have said.¶ Even if one steers clear of nuclear disasters and supernova explosions, the
natural background radiation we all experience on Earth (from sources like uranium in the soil, cosmic rays and medical devices)
increases our chance of developing cancer in a given year by 0.025 percent, Caracappa said. This sets a bizarre upper limit on the
human life span.¶ "An average person … receiving an average background radiation dose every year over 4,000 years, in the absence
of all other influences, would be reasonably assured of contracting a radiation-induced cancer," Caracappa said. In short, even if we
eventually manage to eradicate all disease and switch off the genetic commands that tell our bodies to age, tough luck: We will
never live past age 4,000.¶ How much can we accelerate?¶ The rib cage protects our heart from a hard thump, but it's flimsy security
against the kinds of jostling that technology has made possible today. Just how much acceleration can our organs tolerate?¶ NASA
and military researchers have made strides in answering that question for the purposes of safe spacecraft and aircraft design. (You
don't want astronauts blacking out during liftoff.) Lateral acceleration — jerking to the side — does a number on our insides because
of the asymmetry of the forces. According to a recent article in Popular Science, 14 Gs of lateral acceleration can tear your organs
loose from one another. Head-to-foot motion, meanwhile, plunges all the blood to the feet. Between 4 and 8 longitudinal Gs will
knock you out. (A force of 1 G is the normal force of gravity we feel here on terra firma, while 14 Gs equals the pull of a planet 14
times as massive.)¶ Forward or backward acceleration appears to go easiest on the body, because they allow the head and heart to
accelerate together. Military experiments in the 1940s and 1950s with a "human decelerator," essentially a rocket sled that zipped
back and forth across Edwards Air Force base in California, suggest we can slow down at a rate of 45 Gs, or the equivalent of the
gravity of 45 Earths, and still live to talk about it. At that rate, you slow from 630 miles per hour to 0 mph in fractions of a second
over a few hundred feet. We probably turn into a bag of spare parts up around 50 Gs, researchers estimate. [What Would Happen If
You Fell into a Black Hole?]¶ What environmental changes can we handle?¶ Individuals vary greatly in how well they tolerate
departures from normal atmospheric conditions, whether these are changes in temperature, pressure or oxygen content of the air.
Bounds of survival also depend on how slowly environmental changes set in, because the body can gradually adjust its oxygen usage
and metabolism in response to external conditions. But some rough estimates of our breaking points can be made.¶ Most humans
will suffer hyperthermia after 10 minutes in extremely humid, 140-degree-Fahrenheit (60-degrees-Celsius) heat. Death by cold is
harder to delimit. A person usually expires when their body temperature drops to 70 degrees F (21 degrees C), but how long this
takes to happen depends on how "used to the cold" a person is, and whether a mysterious, latent form of hibernation sets in, which
has been known to happen.¶ The boundaries of survival are better established for long-term comfort. According
to a 1958
NASA report, people can live indefinitely in environments that range between roughly 40
degrees F and 95 degrees F (4 and 35 degrees C), if the latter temperature occurs at no more
than 50 percent relative humidity. The maximum temperature pushes upward when it's less
humid, because lower water content in the air makes it easier to sweat, and thus, keep cool.
[Infographic: Human Comfort Zones]¶ As attested to by any sci-fi movie in which an
astronaut's helmet pops off outside the spacecraft, we don't fare too well with abnormal
oxygen or pressure levels. At atmospheric pressure, air contains 21 percent oxygen. We die of
anoxia when that concentration drops past 11 percent. Too much oxygen also kills, by
gradually causing inflammation of the lungs over the course of a few days.¶ We pass out when
the pressure drops below 57 percent of atmospheric pressure — equivalent to that at an
altitude of 15,000 feet (4,572 meters). Climbers can push higher because they gradually
acclimate their bodies to the drop in oxygen, but no one survives long without an oxygen tank
above 26,000 feet (7925 m).¶ That's about 5 miles (8 kilometers) up. The edge of the known
universe lies some 46 billion light-years farther afield.
AFFIRMATIVE
UQ
Exposure to Sonar does not equate to marine injury
Slates, Rear Admiral in the United States Military, 2013 (Admiral Kevin R. Slates, “Navy Training,
Testing and Marine Mammals: Focus on the Facts”, NAVY LIVE, http://navylive.dodlive.mil/2013/03/26/navy-training-testing-and-marine-mammalsfocus-on-the-facts/, March 26 2013, MSM)
The Navy is renewing authorizations that will enable us to continue to train and test live sonar and explosives at sea for another five years (2019). The process of renewing authorizations involves analyzing the possible effects of training and testing and making that
data publicly available in the form of the Hawaii-Southern California Training and Testing environmental impact statement (HSTT EIS) and the Atlantic Fleet Training and Testing environmental impact statement (AFTT EIS).¶ Some of the information in those EISs has
been misrepresented and exaggerated. Lost in the discussion during a recent meeting of the California Coastal Commission is this fact: the best available science—and the Navy’s long track record of conducting similar training and testing—indicate our proposed
activities will continue to have negligible effects on marine mammal populations. For a better understanding of these issues, read what several well-respected marine scientists have to say.¶ Each EIS includes numbers estimating marine mammal exposures to sonar
or explosives training and testing. Those numbers are based on mathematical modeling that assumes the maximum exposure/worst case scenarios, and are often mistak enly cited with alarm by people who do not recognize or accept that: ¶ Live sonar and explosives
training prepares Sailors to succeed in combat. The threats our Sailors face in the world’s hot spots are not restricted to convenient times or places, nor can simulators or inert weapons fully prepare them for those threats. That is why our training must be both
Exposure to sonar does not equate to injury. Laws such as the Marine Mammal
Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act define human impacts to marine
mammals in degrees, ranging from simply hearing a sound, to mild behavioral effects, to
injury and mortality. The scientific analysis indicates that while marine mammals may be
exposed to sonar during Navy training and testing, the vast majority
of marine mammals
that are exposed will not be injured in any way. Animals may react to the sound, or move
away, but research shows that they are likely to return quickly and resume their normal
activities.
broad and realistic.¶
(MMPA)
(ESA)
(if not all)
Claims that the Navy is harming millions of marine mammals are ignoring this fact. ¶ Our analysis overestimates the impact our activities have on marine mammals. The Navy thoroughly analyzes all of the at-sea training and testing
activities, we are planning for the five-year period of our permits from the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). With NMFS concurrence, we use a mathematical model to estimate the total number of marine mammal exposures that may result from those
the best available science, estimates potential for injuries or mortalities in less
than .05 percent
of the marine mammal exposures associated with our activities.
activities. That model, which uses
(five in 10,000)
It does not account
for avoidance actions that marine mammals are likely to take in response to our activities, or protective measures (see below) which lessen marine mammal exposure to potentially harmful activities. The reality is the impact of Navy training and testing activity on
The EIS numbers do not take into account the protective
measures
the Navy adopts whenever we conduct sonar or explosives training or testing.
These measures include using trained marine mammal lookouts; employing aircraft and
underwater listening systems to scan for marine mammals; establishing buffer zones to
reduce or halt sonar transmissions when we detect marine mammals near our ships; and
software tools that delineate what training and testing events we can undertake in areas
associated with marine mammal activity.
marine mammals is likely to be significantly less than what our permit requests capture. ¶
(mitigations)
We developed these measures in conjunction with NMFS and re-evaluate them annually.¶ These proposed activities are not new. The Navy has
trained and tested in these areas for more than six decades, and there has been no evidence of extensive impacts to marine ma mmal populations as a result. The EISs do account for increases in training and testing, as well as testing of new and upgraded systems,
Sonar
affecting a few dozen animals over
but these activities will continue to have negligible impacts. Some of the additional training and testing might not even occ ur, especially in light of current and future budget restrictions. But we need to plan for the possibility that they could. ¶
and explosives training have been linked to only
the past 17 years.
a handful of strandings,
We learned from these incidents. The March 2000 stranding in the Bahamas was a major factor behind the Navy’s decision to implement an at-sea environmental policy that requires comprehensive analysis and
documentation for our training activities. Similarly, a March 2011 incident in which three dolphins were killed when they swam into the scene of explosives training near San Diego resulted in safer procedures for conducting such training. We sincerely regret those
instances where our activities have led to marine mammal deaths, and have since made great strides in understanding how our actions affect marine mammals. Additionally, we have become a world leader in funding marine mammal research, dedicating more than
$100 million to such research in the past five years.¶ The Navy cannot guarantee that our training and testing activities will have zero effects on marine mammals, but for that very reason, we justify our r equirements to, and ultimately receive our permits from, the
fisheries service. The experts at NMFS will only issue permits if they are confident our proposed activities will have a negligible impact on marine life — and that is exactly what NMFS has determined in its proposed final rule for the Hawaii-Southern California and
Atlantic Coast/Gulf of Mexico areas.
Non-unique: Use of Bluefin in Indian Ocean should’ve caused impacts already
The Guardian, A World News Association, April, 22, 2014
(“News World news Malaysia Airlines flight MH370,
MH370: more powerful sonar needed in plane search, says Australia,” The Associated Press
contributed to this article. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/23/mh370-morepowerful-sonar-needed-in-plane-search-says-australia, Date Accessed- 07-01-14, AN)
The Bluefin-21 submersible, which is scanning the bottom of the Indian Ocean for wreckage of
Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. Photograph: Xinhua/Landov/Barcroft Media¶ Australian authorities searching for
missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 are gearing up to send in much more powerful sonar equipment to scan for debris on the
seabed.¶ Search co-ordinators
said on Wednesday that nothing had been found by the US navy
robotic submarine Bluefin 21, which has covered more than 80% of a zone off the Australian
west coast.¶ The area of 310 square kilometres (120 square miles) is thought to be where the
plane is most likely to have gone down, based on "ping" signals that match those from an
airliner's black box. Those signals were picked up by search vessels but are thought to have ceased when the beacons'
batteries ran out.¶ Australia's defence minister, David Johnston, said more powerful towed side-scan commercial sonar equipment
would probably be deployed, similar to the system that found the Titanic 3,800m (12,500f) under the Atlantic Ocean in 1985 and the
Australian second world war wreck HMAS Sydney in the Indian Ocean, north of the current search area, in 2008.¶ "The next phase, I
think, is that we step up with potentially a more powerful, more capable side-scan sonar to do deeper water," Johnston said.¶
Australia was consulting with Malaysia, China and the US on the next phase of the search for the plane, which went missing on 8
March after veering off course between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing, Johnston said¶ The search area is a circle 20km (12 miles) wide
around an area where sonar equipment picked up a signal on 8 April consistent with a plane's black box.¶ The Bluefin had less than
one-fifth of the search area left to complete but that could take another two weeks, the minister said. "We want to be very
thorough."¶ The
Bluefin's first 16-hour seafloor mission last week was aborted because the water
depth exceeded its 4.5km safety limit. Johnston said it was possible wreckage had been
missed in that deep water.¶ Analysis was continuing of flight data and the apparent black box beacon signals, Johnston
said. "We are currently gathering all of the facts together to mount a further assault on the most likely location, given all the facts,"
he said.¶ "A lot of this seabed has not even been hydrographically surveyed before ... we're flying blind," he said, adding that there
were waters 7km deep in the area.¶ The air search for debris would likely continue until the announcement of a new search phase
next week, Johnston said.¶ Radar and satellite signals have shown the jet carrying 239 passengers and crew veered far off course for
unknown reasons during its flight from Malaysia to China. Analysis indicates it would have run out of fuel in the remote section of
ocean where the search has been focused, but no debris has yet been recovered.
Fish Impact Module
Sonar not harmful to fish
Nguyen C., writer for live science, 2007
(Tuan, “Now Hear This: Sonar Doesn't Hurt Fish,” http://www.livescience.com/1667-hear-sonarhurt-fish.html, Date accessed- 06-30-14, AN)
Now Hear This: Sonar Doesn't Hurt Fish¶ Tuan C. Nguyen | July 09, 2007 08:00pm ET¶ 0¶ ¶ 0¶ ¶ 0¶ Submit¶ 0¶ Reddit¶ ¶ Pin It
Rainbow trout.¶ Credit: Ken Hammond, USDA.¶ View full size image¶ The military's use of sonar poses no threat to fish, a new study
suggests.¶ The research was funded by the military, however, and was very narrow in scope: It involved only trout.¶ The finding,
detailed in the July issue of the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, showed
that rainbow trout exposed to
high-intensity, low-frequency sonar experienced only a small and presumably temporary
decline in hearing sensitivity.¶ There has been considerable concern in recent years over the potentially damaging
effects of man-made sounds on marine life. In the past, environmental advocacy groups have sued the U.S. Navy to halt underwater
sonar use, claiming that the technology harms or even kills whales, dolphins and other forms of marine life.¶ The study was designed
to explore the effects of Navy ship sonar on fish swimming nearby.¶ Investigators found no damage to the fish's inner ears after they
underwent intense sonar exposure, even several days afterward. Andrew
Kane of the University of Maryland, coauthor of the research paper, examined other organs, such as the gills, heart and brain, and
concluded that there were no ill effects on any of these tissues.¶ Still, the finding “should not be
extrapolated to other fish species or the effects of other sound sources,” said lead researcher Arthur N. Popper of the University of
Maryland, citing differences in ear structures and hearing sensitivity among fish species.¶ Previous studies have shown that loud
sounds, such as seismic air guns, can have either no effect on fish or result in a range of effects from temporary hearing loss to more
lasting ear damage.¶ “The effects of sound on fish could potentially include increased stress, damage to organs, the circulatory and
nervous systems,” Popper said. “Long-term effects may alter feeding and reproductive patterns in a way that could affect the fish
population as a whole.”¶ Navy Sonar Likely Made Whales Flee¶ Animals Win: Navy to Cut Sonar Use¶ Did Sub Sonar Kill Dolphins?
Malnutrition happening in the status quo
Vywahare, writer for the NY times, August 2013
(Malavika, “Malnutrition Ravages India’s Children,”
http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/28/malnutrition-ravages-indiaschildren/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0, Date Accessed-06/30-14, AN)
BANDRICHIWADI, India — On the morning of July 23, Shakuntala Kirkire, a housewife in Bandrachiwadi village in the western state of
Maharashtra, carried her 10-month-old daughter in her arms and walked in rain down the slope of a hill on which her village stands.
Her husband, Ajay Kirkire, walked close to her, holding up an umbrella to protect their sick child as they tried to reach the
government-run clinic in a neighboring village.¶ A few minutes later, Mr. and Mrs. Kirkire stopped midway. Priya, their child, had
died. She
had been born healthy but had lost weight rapidly over the months. At the time of her
death, Priya weighed 4.5 kilograms (10 pounds), four kilograms less than what is considered
normal for her age. Doctors listed pneumonia as the cause of her death in government
records.¶ Bandrichiwadi is a picturesque and poor village in the mountainous Jawhar area in the district of Thane. Jawhar, about
150 kilometers (93 miles) east of the megacity of Mumbai, is home to various tribes, who are among the most marginalized sections
of Indian society. About
8.7 percent of Maharashtra’s 112.4 million people are tribals, according to
the 2011 central government census. Intense public attention was focused on the area in the
early 1990s, when hundreds of children died of malnutrition in 1992-93 in Jawhar and the
adjoining Mokhada and Vikramgarh subdistricts.¶ Little has changed in the past 20 years. In
July this year, 12 children under the age of 6, apart from Priya, died there. In June, it was 11
children. In May, another nine. Between July 2012 and July 2013, 80 children died in the
Jawhar subdistrict. The official causes of death, listed in the medical records of the children
who died in June, include pneumonia, aphasia and febrile convulsions, which are usually not
fatal. But the government records also show that the deceased children were malnourished,
and more than half were severely malnourished, like Priya.¶ “Malnutrition is a precipitating
cause, so we speak of deaths that are attributable to malnutrition,” Victor Aguayo, chief of
child nutrition and development at Unicef India, explained in a recent interview in New Delhi.¶
In 2011, the infant mortality rate, expressed as the number of children younger than 1 who
died per 1,000 live births, was 44 in India, which translates into 1.19 million infant deaths,
according to data collected by the Registrar General of India. In 2010 the under-5 mortality
rate stood at 59, one of the highest in the world.¶ A study published by the British charity Save
the Children in 2012 estimated that 1.83 million Indian children die every year before the age
of 5. “Most of the deaths occur from treatable diseases like pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria and
complications at birth,” the study noted.¶ “The child may eventually die of a disease, but that
disease was lethal because the child was unable to fight back because of malnutrition,” Mr.
Aguayo said.¶ The Indian government has not updated its national statistics on nutrition, known as the National Family Health
Survey, since 2005-2006. Even its smaller and poorer neighbor, Bangladesh, has conducted three such surveys in the past decade.
India’s data from 2005-2006 showed that 42.5 percentage of children under the age of 5 were underweight, a measure of acute and
chronic malnutrition.¶ Half a decade after the last National Family Health Survey, the levels of malnutrition remained startlingly high.
A 2011 Hungama survey, carried out through a collaboration between several independent organizations, showed that among the
children under 5 in 100 districts of the country that have historically fared poorly on child nutrition indicators, 42 percent are
underweight. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh responded to the findings of the Hungama survey by describing malnutrition as a
“national shame.”¶ According to the official records at the Bandrichiwadi village council office, 25 out of the 42 children under 6 in
the village are malnourished. A wave of malnutrition-related deaths in the village is also exacerbated by the lack of pediatricians in
rural hospitals.¶ “We are not pediatricians,” said Vijay Sangle, a doctor at the public hospital where the Kirkires had once sought
treatment for their child. “We are not even equipped to diagnose a respiratory infection as pneumonia.” Dr. Sangle and his
colleagues refer most patients to a bigger hospital at Jawhar, about 5 kilometers away.¶ A farmer working in a field in Jawhar subdistrict in Thane district of Maharashtra, on Aug. 17.¶ Malavika Vyawahare¶ A farmer working in a field in Jawhar sub-district in
Thane district of Maharashtra, on Aug. 17.¶ Bandrichiwadi sits atop one of the many hills that rise up on the lush green landscape of
Jawhar, dotted by small seasonal streams and muddy pathways seeping through. The frequent rainfall lends a perpetual mistiness to
the upper reaches of hills. Along the only road that runs from Jawhar to the villages, a sturdy surfaced road gives way to a mushy
rocky track leading up to Bandrichiwadi, on which hardly any motorized vehicles ply. Passing through are laborers on their way to
work and women, some with water-filled pots on their heads, others with children clinging to them.¶ There is no public transport
after dusk. The night before Priya died, the doctors at the village hospital had told the Kirkires to take her to the Jawhar hospital. “It
was evening, there was no way for us to get there,” Mrs. Kirkire recalled. “No one told us that we could get an ambulance to go
there.Ӧ The Kirkires are from the Varli tribe, which is listed in the Indian Constitution as a scheduled tribe, groups recognized as
historically disadvantaged, isolated from the Indian mainstream, which qualifies them for affirmative action policies. Scheduled
tribes make up 8.6 percent of India’s population of 1.2 billion, according to the 2011 census. ¶
Among tribal populations spread across 10 states in the country, 52 percent of preschool
children (between 1-5 years) were underweight, a National Nutrition Monitoring Bureau
survey noted. In the tribal districts of Maharashtra, 64 percent of preschool children were
found to be underweight, with 28.8 percent considered severely underweight.¶ The Varlis, who are
known for their folk art, wall paintings made from rice paste, are mostly either daily wage agricultural laborers or subsistence
farmers. “The root cause of malnutrition is the loss of control over food production and food security,” said Milind Bokil, a
sociologist and writer.¶ Although the Kirkires grow rice, millet and finger millet on their 2.5 hectares of land, the produce is not
enough to sustain them throughout the year. Mr. Kirkire, like most men in his village, supplements their meager income by working
as laborer in the sand-mining industry in neighboring districts for most of the year. Mrs. Kirkire, like most village women, has to walk
three kilometers to get drinking water from a well.¶ The house of Ajay and Shakuntala Kirkire in Bandrichiwadi village of
Maharashtra, on Aug. 17.¶ Malavika Vyawahare¶ The house of Ajay and Shakuntala Kirkire in Bandrichiwadi village of Maharashtra,
on Aug. 17.¶ A photograph of Mr. and Mrs. Kirkire hung from a wooden pole supporting the roof of their single-room mud house. A
broken clock hung by a bamboo pole next to the photograph. Since their child’s death, Mr. Kirkire has been spending his days by
roaming aimlessly in the village fields. Mrs. Kirkire moved out and has been living in her parents’ home, about an hour away.¶ “I
cannot bear to be in that house,” said Mrs. Kirkire. “I can still hear the cries of my child.”¶ Mrs. Kirkire’s pain is compounded by the
awareness that breast milk was crucial for the health of her child, but she suffered from a condition known as inverted nipples, in
which a mother’s nipples retract inwards and make it difficult for the baby to suckle. Mrs. Kirkire had to feed powdered milk to her
child, which cost 300 rupees ($5) for two tins. But because they couldn’t afford any more tins, the Kirkires switched to rice starch.
“Our family hardly makes enough to sustain ourselves,” said Yashwanti Kirkire, Mr. Kirkire’s mother.¶ Workers with the governmentsponsored Integrated Child Development Scheme place part of the blame on parents in these impoverished tribal areas being
inattentive to the needs of their children, but crushing poverty forces most women to leave their young children at home and work
in the fields during the agricultural seasons. “None of the women here sit at home and feed their children for the first six months,”
said Surekha Patekar, the program caseworker at Bandrichiwadi.¶ The common practice is for 5- to 6-year-old children to start
working with the parents in the fields or stay home to take care of the younger children. “Parents have to go to the fields leaving
their child behind — there is no other way,” Ms. Patekar said “They will have nothing to eat otherwise.”¶ A few meters from the
Kirkire house, a path led to a grove of trees. A small metallic bowl, empty bottles of medicine, and a plastic bag full of baby clothes
lie beside Priya’s unmarked grave. The frequency of malnutrition-related deaths has given birth to a new superstition. “Every
monsoon five people die in this village,” said Mrs. Kirkire. “It is a curse.”
( ) NO impact- because malnutrition is happening in the status quo, their disease impact
should’ve already been triggered. Therefore, our impact outweighs on probability,
timeframe, magnitude
Extinction of Fish and Whales inevitable, Drop in the bucket
The Age-Environment, 2011
(“'Shocking' state of oceans threatens mass extinction,” Quoting a qualified author-Alex
Rogers, scientific director of IPSO,
http://www.theage.com.au/environment/conservation/shocking-state-of-oceansthreatens-mass-extinction-20110621-1gco9.html, Date Accessed- 06-30-14, AN)
Fish, sharks, whales and other marine species are in imminent danger of an "unprecedented"
and catastrophic extinction event at the hands of humankind, and are disappearing at a far
faster rate than anyone had predicted, a study of the world's oceans has found.¶ Mass extinction of
species will be "inevitable" if current trends continue, researchers said.¶ We are looking at consequences for humankind that will
impact in our lifetime, and worse, our children's and generations beyond that. ¶ Overfishing, pollution,
run-off of
fertilisers from farming and the acidification of the seas caused by increasing carbon dioxide
emissions were combining to put marine creatures in extreme danger, according to the report
from the International Programme on the State of the Ocean, prepared at the first international workshop
to consider all of the cumulative stresses affecting the oceans at Oxford University.¶ The international panel of marine experts said
there was a "high risk of entering a phase of extinction of marine species unprecedented in human history".¶ They said the
challenges facing the oceans created "the conditions associated with every previous major extinction of species in Earth's history".¶
"The findings are shocking," said Alex Rogers, scientific director of IPSO. "As we considered the
cumulative effect of what humankind does to the ocean, the implications became far worse
than we had individually realised. This is a very serious situation demanding unequivocal
action at every level.¶ "We are looking at consequences for humankind that will impact in our
lifetime, and worse, our children's and generations beyond that."¶ The flow of soil nutrients
into the oceans was creating huge "dead zones", where anoxia - the absence of oxygen - and
hypoxia - low oxygen levels - meant fish and other marine life were unable to survive there. Hypoxia and
anoxia, warming and acidification were factors present in every mass extinction event in the oceans over the Earth's history,
according to the researchers.¶ About 55 million years ago, as much as half of some species of deep-sea creatures were wiped out
when atmospheric changes created similar conditions. In recent years, human effects on the oceans have increased significantly.¶
Overfishing has cut some fish populations by more than 90 per cent. Pollutants, including flame-retardant chemicals and detergents,
are absorbed into particles of plastic waste in the sea, which are then ingested by marine creatures. Millions of fish, birds and other
forms of life are choked or suffer internal ruptures from ingesting plastic waste.¶ During 1998, record high temperatures wiped out
about 16 per cent of the world's tropical coral reefs.
Fish will Inevitably become Extinct—Overfishing
Plumer, reporter focusing on energy and environmental issues for the
Washington Post, 2013 (Brad, Oct. 29 2013, “Just how badly are we overfishing the oceans?”,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/10/29/just-how-badly-are-we-overfishing-the-ocean/0/, Accessed: 7-1-14, MSM)
Humans have the technology to find and catch every last fish on the planet. Trawl nets, drift
nets, longlines, GPS, sonar
fishing operations have expanded to virtually all corners of the
ocean over the past century ¶
¶
now
... As a result,
.
Atlantic coast fisheries are still trying to limit overfishing of menhaden with traditional catch limits. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post)
Atlantic coast fisheries are still trying to
limit overfishing of menhaden with traditional catch limits. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post)¶ That, in turn, has put a strain on fish populations. The world's marine fisheries peaked in the 1990s, when the global catch was higher than it is today.* And
the
populations of key commercial species
have dwindled, in some cases falling more
than 90 percent ¶
¶
we may be facing "The End of Fish
commercial ocean fish stocks were on pace to “collapse” by mid-century
like bluefin tuna and cod
.
of thought here.
So just how badly are we overfishing the oceans? Are fish populations going to keep shrinking each year — or could they recover? Those are surprisingly contentious questions, and there seem to be a couple of schools
The pessimistic view, famously expressed by fisheries expert Daniel Pauly, is that
." One especially dire 2006 study in Science warned that many
— at which point they would produce less than 10 percent of
their peak catch. Then it's time to eat jellyfish.¶ Other experts have countered that this view is far too alarmist.** A number of countries have worked hard to improve their fisheries management over the years, including Iceland, Australia, New Zealand, and the
United States. "The U.S. is actually a big success story in rebuilding fish stocks," Ray Hilborn, a marine biologist at the University of Washington, told me last year. Overfishing isn't inevitable. We can fix it. ¶ Both sides make valid points — but the gloomy view is hard
to dismiss. That's the argument of a new paper in Marine Pollution Bulletin by Tony Pitcher and William Cheung of the University of British Columbia th at weighs in on this broader debate. They conclude that some fisheries around the world are indeed improving,
though these appear to be a minority for now.¶ "Several deeper analyses of the status of the majority of world fisheries confirm the previous dismal picture," they conclude. "Serious depletions are the norm world-wide, management quality is poor, catch per effort
is still declining."¶ The decline of fisheries¶ One reason the debate about overfishing is so contentious is that it's hard to get a precise read on the state of the world's marine fisheries. (The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization tries its best in this annual report.)
Ideally, we'd have in-depth stock assessments for the entire world, but those are difficult, expensive, and fairly rare. ¶ So, in their paper, Pitcher and Cheung review a number of recent studies that use indirect measurements instead. For example, they note that
recent analyses of fish catches suggest that about 58 percent of the world's fish stocks have now collapsed or are overexploited: ¶ History of the status of world fish stocks from the FAO catch database 1950–2008, using a catch-only algorithm revised to meet earlier
objections (Martell and Froese, 2012).
Collapsed and overfished populations comprise almost 60% of world’s fisheries.
The proportion of developing stocks is decreasing and the fraction of rebuilding stocks is constant and small (about 1%), both signals that, in converse, might be a beacon of hope (Redrawn from Martell and Froese (2012)). ¶ History of the status of world fish stocks
from the FAO catch database 1950–2008, using a catch-only algorithm revised to meet earlier objections.¶ It's important to note that this is only one estimate — and a disputed one at that. A 2011 study in Conservation Biology by Trevor Branch et. al., by contrast,
estimated that only 7 to 13 percent of stocks were collapsed and 28 to 33 percent "overexploited."*** Focusing on catches can be a tricky metric for judging the state of fisheries (it can be hard, for instance, to track changes in fishing practices over time that might
The amount of effort that fishermen have put into catching
fish has increased significantly in the past three decades
But the
amount of fish actually caught has
stagnated
¶
bias the results).¶ So the authors consider a variety of other metrics, too. One example:
, as measured by engine power and days that fishermen spend at sea.
nevertheless
since the 1990s:
Global changes in reported fisheries catch (Sea Around US Project), nominal effort (from Anticamara et al.
(2011)) and estimated effective effort (assuming an annual increase in fishing efficiency, based on Pauly and Palomares (2010)).¶ Global changes in reported fisheries catch (Sea Around US Project), nominal effort (from Anticamara et al. (2011)) and estimated
effective effort (assuming an annual increase in fishing efficiency, based on Pauly and Palomares (2010)). ¶ "Given the increase in global fishing effort, the lack of increase in global fisheries catch in the last decade and the fact that most productive areas have now
been exploited by fisheries," Pitcher and Cheung note, it's quite possible that "
global exploited fish stocks are likely to be in a decreasing trend ¶
."
Could fisheries recover?¶ That all said, there are also some reasons for optimism. In 2009, ecologist Boris Worm and his colleagues took a look at more than 350 detailed fish stock assessments and found that many fisheries in North America and Europe were
actually recovering. In the United States, annual catch limits and market-based permit programs have helped some fish populations rebound.¶ The real question is whether these success stories are the exception rather than the rule. Pitcher and Cheung argue that
the fish stocks analyzed in that 2009 paper make up just 16 percent of the global catch — and are mostly confined to well-managed fisheries in richer countries.¶ By contrast, more than 80 percent of the world's fish are caught in the rest of the world, in places like
Asia and Africa. While data here is patchier, many of the nations in these regions are far less likely to follow the U.N.'s Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries, and evidence suggests that "serious depletions are the norm" here: ¶ Correlation of compliance with
the FAO (UN) Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries (on a scale of zero to ten) with the UN Human Development Index for 53 countries, representing 95% of the world fish catch.¶ Correlation of compliance with the FAO (UN) Code of Conduct for Responsible
There are a few places
things are getting
Fisheries (on a scale of zero to ten) with the UN Human Development Index for 53 countries, representing 95% of the world fish catch.¶ "It all depends where you look," Pitcher said in an interview. "
where fisheries are doing better
worse
: The U.S., Australia, Canada, Norway. But those are relatively rare. In most places, the evidence suggests that
." Given that the United States imports 91 percent of its seafood, that's an important caveat.¶ In theory, the rest of the world could adopt stricter measures to make their fisheries more sustainable, such as catch limits, careful marine planning, and
a crackdown on illicit fishing. Boris Worm and Trevor Branch have suggested that particular attention should be paid to "fishing-conservation hotspots" around the world — regions that depend heavily on fishing livelihoods and have lots of biodiversity but are
nonetheless badly managed.¶ Yet many low-income countries still lack the resources to monitor their fisheries. And even richer nations struggle to enforce the laws they have: In Europe, regulators have consistently set lax fishing quotas — in part due to lobbying
as climate change and ocean acidification
disrupt ecosystems in unpredictable ways, regulating fisheries properly may become even
more difficult ¶
¶
from the fishing industry. ("Europe is not one of the places that's doing well," says Pitcher, "with a few exceptions like Norway.") Meanwhile,
.
"Attempts to remedy the situation need to be urgent, focused, innovative, and global," the paper concludes. But that's harder than it sounds.
* Global fish production has still grown, however — because the decline in
ocean catches is being supplanted by aquaculture and fish farming. ¶ ** Actually, in some cases it's the same expert on both sides of the debate. Ecologist Boris Worm was a key co-author of the 2006 Science study predicting a collapse in most commercial fisheries
by mid-century. He later co-wrote a more optimistic Science paper in 2009 with Ray Hilborn, focusing on detailed stock assessments in the developed world.
Military Sonar has no affect on fish
Nguyen, July 9, 2007
(Tuan, former reporter and producer for the technology section of ABCNews.com, and currently
serves on the board of directors for the New York chapter of the Society of Professional
Journalists, journalist whose work appeared on U.S. News and World Report, Fox News, MSNBC,
ABC News, AOL, Yahoo! News and LiveScience, “Now Hear This: Sonar Doesn't Hurt Fish,”
http://www.livescience.com/1667-hear-sonar-hurt-fish.html, Accessed: July 1, 2014, S.D.Y.)
The military's use of sonar poses no threat to fish,
, showed that
exposed to high-intensity, low-frequency sonar experienced
only a small and presumably temporary decline in hearing sensitivity.¶ There has been
considerable concern in recent years over the potentially damaging effects of man-made
sounds on marine life.
study was to
explore the effects of Navy ship sonar on fish swimming
found no damage to the fish's
inner ears after they underwent intense sonar exposure, even several days afterward. Andrew
Kane of the University of Maryland, co-author of the research paper, examined other organs,
such as the gills, heart and brain, and concluded that there were no ill effects on any of these
tissues.¶
studies have
a new study suggests.¶ The research was funded by the military, however, and was very narrow in scope: It involved only trout.¶ The finding, detailed in the July
issue of the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
rainbow trout
In the past, environmental advocacy groups have sued the U.S. Navy to halt underwater sonar use, claiming that the technology harms or even kills whales, dolphins and other forms of marine life.¶ The
nearby.¶ Investigators
Still, the finding “should not be extrapolated to other fish species or the effects of other sound sources,” said lead researcher Arthur N. Popper of the University of Maryland, citing differences in ear structures and hearing sensitivity among fish species.¶ Previous
designed
shown that loud sounds,
such as seismic air guns, can
have no effect on fish
either
increased stress, damage to organs, the circulatory and nervous systems,” Popper said. “Long-term effects may alter feeding and reproductive patterns in a way that could affect the fish population as a whole.”
or result in a range of effects from temporary hearing loss to more lasting ear damage.¶ “The effects of sound on fish could potentially include
Whales Impact Module
Whales will inevitably become extinct: Alternative Causes—Japan
Associated Press 2013 (Japan's hunts threaten some dolphins and whales with extinction, says EIA,
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/oct/31/japan-hunts-dolphins-whales-extinction, October, Accessed: 6-30-14,
MSM)
Japan's hunts of smaller whales, dolphins and porpoises threaten some populations with
extinction, an environmental group said on Thursday.
¶ Catch quotas are based on data collected as much as 20 years ago and some populations have been
overhunted beyond the point of recovery, the Environmental Investigation Agency said in its report.¶ ¶ The lucrative market in
live catches for aquariums, especially in China, poses another risk, the report said. Live animals can sell
for between $8,400 and $98,000, more than 10 times the $500gained from sales of meat from a single
dolphin.¶ ¶ Japan set its catch limit for small cetaceans at 16,655 in 2013, far below the 30,000 caught annually before limits were set in 1993 but still the largest hunt in the world.¶ ¶ Japan's Fisheries
Agency would not comment on the EIA report because it has not seen it. Japan defends its coastal whaling as a longstanding tradition, source of livelihood and as necessary for scientific research.¶ ¶ The London-
Japan is failing to observe its stated goal of sustainability and urged the
country to phase out the hunts over the next decade.¶ ¶ "The government has a responsibility to
restore and maintain cetacean species at their former levels," said Jennifer Lonsdale, a founding director of the EIA.¶ ¶ The small
cetaceans are among a number of species facing severe declines in Japan. They include Japanese eels, a delicacy usually
based independent conservation group said
served roasted with a savoury sauce over rice, and torafugu, or puffer fish. ¶ ¶ The status of each species varies, depending on its range and hunting practices. Catch limits for Dall's porpoises are 4.7-4.8 times
higher than the safe threshold, the report said.¶ ¶ For the striped dolphin, once the mainstay of the industry but now endangered and disappearing from some areas, catches have dropped from over 1,800 in the
1980s to about 100.¶ ¶ That is still four times the sustainable limit, the report said. It urged that the government update its data on the abundance of it and other species and stop transferring quotas from
already overfished areas to areas that exceed their quotas.¶ ¶ Under a 1946 treaty regulating whaling, nations can grant permits to kill whales for scientific research. ¶ ¶ In July, Japan defended its annual
harpooning of hundreds of whales in the icy seas around Antarctica, insisting the hunt is legal because it gathers valuable scientific data that could pave the way to a resumption of sustainable whaling in the
future.¶ ¶ Australia has appealed to the international court of justice to have the whaling outlawed. ¶ ¶ • This article was amended on 1 November 2013. The earlier version said
Japan's hunts
threaten some species of smaller whales, dolphins and porpoises with extinction; some populations, it should have said. The
article also originally suggested that the meat of a single bottlenose dolphin could sell for $50,000; that should have been $500.
Dolphin Impact Module
Dolphins will inevitable become extinct—Commercial Fishing
The Guardian 2011 (“Endangered Dolphins Near Extinction”, The Guardian,
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2011/sep/28/hectors-dolphins-near-extinction, Sep. 2011, Accessed: 7-1-14, MSM)
sea dolphins are sliding towards extinction
¶
where the population has fallen from 30,000 to around 7,000 since nylon fishing nets came
into use
¶
Maui's dolphins, is down to
fewer than 100 mammals
¶
commercial fishing gear
are drowning 23 Hector's
dolphins a year on the east coast of the South Island ¶
The world's most endangered
in the face of damaging fishing methods, experts are warning.
Hector's dolphins are found only around New
Zealand,
in the 1970s, a conference on marine biodiveristy in Aberdeen will hear on Thursday.
The country's North Island population, a subspecies known as
, according to Dr Barbara Maas, head of endangered species conservation for German environmental group NABU International – Foundation for Nature.
Otago University in New Zealand, suggests
Research by Dr Liz Slooten, from
known as gillnets – which create a wall of netting to catch fish –
.
She said the sustainable limit for the area was about one dolphin a year, and at the levels currently seen the
population would fall by at least a further 14% by 2050.¶ Maas, who has worked to protect the species for more than a decade including for the New Zealand Department of Conservation, will warn the conference that gillnets are only part of the problem. ¶
Other fishing methods
are also killing dolphins,
¶ Trawl nets
were likely to kill as many endangered dolphins as
commercial gillnets
¶ An annual loss
will wipe out the
population
¶
absolute protection against
commercial and recreational gill-netting and trawling is the only way to prevent their demise ¶
which had not been included in the calculations
and marine mining.
Hector's
including the recreational use of gillnets, along with pollution, boat strikes
, which are pulled through the water from boats,
, bringing the number of deaths due to fisheries to 46 along the east coast, she warns.
Hector's
"
by 2050. Only a scattering of animals will survive, potentially pushing the population beyond the point of no return."
of this size
62% of
She said that "
".
Dr Maas, who is speaking at the international marine conference organised by the Universities of Aberdeen and St Andrews, is urging the New Zealand government not to bow to industry pressure and to ban the fishing methods in waters up to 100m deep to save
the species.¶ She suggests more selective fishing methods, such as hook and line fishing, or fish traps, which do not catch dolphins, could be used instead.
Human immune system resilient
CENTER FOR IMMUNE RESEARCH, NO DATE
(file:///Users/ananda/Downloads/Backgrounder_immune_system.pdf, “Backgrounder:
Understanding the Body’s Immune System, ” Date Accessed-07-01-2014, AN)
The human body is constantly under attack from millions of microorganisms with which we
share the planet, such as bacteria and viruses. The immune system is the human body’s
defense against these "foreign invaders" and operates a silent army that wards off infection
and keeps us healthy. Consisting of a complex network of cells, tissues, and organs, the
immune system involves a sensitive process of checks and balances within the body that
produce an immune response that is prompt, accurate, effective and self- limiting. As a result,
scientists believe that a healthy immune system rivals in scope and complexity the workings of the brain and nervous system -- and
is every bit as important for survival.¶ How does the body’s immune system function and what are the factors that influence its
ability to fight infection and disease? The following provides a layman’s explanation of the body’s highly effective defense system.¶
The Anatomy of the Immune System¶ The
ability of the immune system to protect the body is based on
an incredibly elaborate and dynamic regulatory-communications network. A complex network
of cells, tissues and organs stationed throughout the body pass information back and forth
like clouds of bees swarming around a hive. This includes the organs collectively called the lymphoid organs
because they are concerned with the growth, development, and deployment of lymphocytes -- the white cells in the blood that are
the key operatives of the immune system. Besides the blood and the lymphatic vessels that carry lymphocytes to and from the other
structures in the body, lymphoid organs include the bone marrow, thalamus, lymph nodes, spleen, tonsils and adenoids, and the
appendix.¶ Cells destined to become immune cells, like all other blood cells, are produced in the bone marrow, the soft tissue in the
hollow shafts of long bones. Here, they develop into two major types of lymphocytes called B cells and T cells. While B cells
complete their maturation in the bone marrow, T cells migrate to the thymus, an organ that lies high behind the breastbone, where
they multiply and mature into cells capable of producing an immune response. Once they have matured, some lymphocytes
congregate in immune organs or lymph nodes while others use the blood circulation as well as a body-wide network of lymphatic
vessels to travel widely and continuously throughout the body. Another type of white blood cell called macrophages reinforce the
work of the lymphocytes because they engulf and digest microorganisms and antigens¶ ¶ Along with white blood cells, the immune
system employs a complex system of small, bean-shaped lymph nodes in the neck, armpits, abdomen, and groin to create lymphatic
routes for the body. Each lymph node contains specialized compartments that house platoons of B cells, T cells, and other cells
capable of sparking an immune response. Clusters on lymphoid tissue can also be found in many parts of the body, such as around
the mucous membranes lining the respiratory and digestive tracts that serve as gateways into the body. They include the tonsils and
adenoids and the appendix. Further, the immune system deploys the spleen, a fist-sized organ at the upper left of the abdomen, as a
filter for the blood. In the spleen, B cells become activated and produce large amounts of antibody. Also, old red blood cells are
destroyed in the spleen.¶ Activating the Immune System¶ The
immune system has many different types of cells
acting together to take care of unwanted infections and altered cells. Cytokines are the chemicals
produced by these cells in order to communicate and orchestrate the attack. Binding to specific receptors on target cells, cytokines
recruit many other cells and substances to the field of action. Cytokines also encourage cell growth, promote cell activation, direct
cellular traffic, and destroy target cells.¶ Cytokines include interleukins and growth factors, but another cytokine -- interferon -- is
considered especially important because it can boost the immune system’s ability to recognize foreign invaders. In humans, there
are three major classes of interferon: alpha, beta and gamma. Because interferon is considered an effective anti-viral agent, and is
important both for orchestrating and stimulating the immune system response, it is used to treat Hepatitis C and other diseases.
Moreover, researchers have shown that pharmaceutical interferon, given in daily doses, can prevent infection and illness. However,
pharmaceutical forms of interferon can cause side effects such as nosebleeds and is not considered useful in treating established
colds.¶ How the Body Mounts an Immune Response¶ The immune system is considered one of the most sophisticated systems in the
human body because it displays several remarkable characteristics, including the ability to distinguish between healthy cells that are
part of the body – called “self” – and invading cells called "nonself." But when the immune system encounters an antigen -- the
substance that announces the cell or organism is "foreign"-- the immune troops move quickly to eliminate the intruders. What
happens is the presence of the antigen signals interferon or another cytokine to trigger an immune response by either the B or T
cells. When the foreign microbe presents an antigen on the surface of one of these cells, the B or T cells multiply and produce
antibodies that specifically bind to that antigen. This response then leads to other parts of the immune system engulfing and killing
the invading cells or to what is known as the "complement destruction cascade," where serum proteins called complement bind to
the immobilized antibodies and destroy the bacteria by creating holes in them.¶ 2¶ Whenever T cells and B cells are activated,
some become "memory" cells that enable the immune system to remember previous experiences and react accordingly. Thus, if a
person were to contract chicken pox, the immune system would produce memory cells for this disease, resulting in future immunity.
Long-term or “specific” immunity can be naturally acquired by previous infection or artificially acquired by vaccines made from
infectious agents.¶ Despite these remarkable abilities, the immune system can also malfunction with results ranging from minor
nuisances to disabling conditions. The most common immune system malfunction is an allergic reaction produced when an
apparently harmless substance such as ragweed pollen or cat hair triggers an immune system response. In more serious situations,
the immune system can wrongly identify “self” as “nonself” and execute a misdirected immune attack against healthy cells in the
body. This can produce an autoimmune disease, such as rheumatoid arthritis or lupus.¶ Factors the Affect the Immune System¶
Although the immune system is very resilient and flexible, a number of factors have been shown to weaken the body’s ability to fight
infection. For example, there is a growing scientific consensus that the immune system doesn’t function as efficiently in older adults.
According to new research, while the elderly produce the same number of lymphocytes as their younger counterparts, their
configuration is different leading to infection-fighting cells that are less vigorous and less effective then in younger adults.¶ At the
same time, research points to psychological stress, lack of adequate sleep, poor diet and lack of exercise as factors that weaken the
immune system. Because stress produces many different effects on the endocrine systems, including the well-known fight or flight
response, scientists hypothesize that the abilities of the immune system are diminished after frequent activation of the autonomic
nervous system in the case of chronic stresses. For example, a large study comparing parents of children with cancer with parents
whose children were relatively healthy showed that chronic psychological stress might reduce the immune system's reactions to
hormonal secretions that were normally used to fight the inflammatory response.¶ Regarding the link between sleep and the
immune system, research summarized by the National Sleep Foundation finds that sleep deprivation weakens the immune system,
increasing susceptibility to colds and the flu. It is also not uncommon for people who suffer from sleep deprivation to suffer from
other problems including diabetes, asthma or a second sleep disorder.¶ The role of nutrition is determining the strength of the
immune system has also been widely studied. According to a number of studies, both undernourished people and those who are
overweight or obese are at greater risk from infections. At the same time, research suggests that reducing the amount of fat in the
diet may increase immune activity. For these reasons, nutritionists recommend a well-balanced diet that includes plenty of fruit,
vegetables, low-fat dairy products and whole grains. In one placebo-¶ 3¶ controlled study of healthy elderly adults, daily
consumption of a multivitamin- multimineral supplement resulted in fewer days of infection-related illnesses.¶ Summing It Up¶
Because the immune system is the human body’s defense against viruses, bacteria, allergens and other “foreign invaders,” public
health authorities agree on the importance of building a healthy immune system. This means avoiding the factors that weaken
immunity by learning how to cope with stress, getting enough sleep, exercising more, and getting the right balance of immune
supporting nutrients.
Alt Causes
Ocean Biodiversity Destruction Inevitable—Alt Causes
1. Bottom Trawling
Gutierrez, Staff writer for the Natural News, 6-17-14 (David, “Bottom trawling is killing the
seafloor and collapsing deep sea biodiversity”, Natural News,
http://www.naturalnews.com/045468_bottom_trawling_seafloor_biodiversity.html#, Accessed: 7-1-14, MSM)
The method of industrial fishing known as "
bottom trawling" is destroying the biodiversity of the ocean floor
, possibly
forever
,
according to a study conducted by researchers from the Polytechnic University of Marche, Italy, the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain, and the Institute of Marine Sciences (also in Barcelona), and published in the journal Proceedings of the National
it
causes a steady loss of fine sediments
leaving a more depleted and compacted
seabed sediment surface that it is more difficult to be colonized again
¶ Ocean food
chain devastated¶ Bottom trawling
is
the major cause of seabed degradation
Academy of Sciences.¶ The researchers compared the effects of bottom trawling to desertification or the loss of topsoil, noting that trawling reduces habitat quality so much that the ecology of the ocean floor may never recover. ¶ "In the long run,
, soft and rich in organic matter,
," researcher Jacobo Martin said.
-- which consists of dragging a net across the ocean floor and scooping up everything in its path -- is one of the most widely used fishing methods in the world, but it
also one of
s
. Although the practice originated in the 14th century, its use has exploded in the past 30 years, as new technology has made it possible to
trawl to even greater depths than ever before.¶ In the new study, conducted in submarine canyons off the northeastern Catalan coast and following up on earlier work by the same scientists, researchers measured several markers of biological diversity, with a focus
the constant
stirring of sediment caused by repeated trawling led to 80 percent lower levels of meiofauna
and 50 percent lower levels of biodiversity
¶
¶
on tiny organisms known as meiofauna (life forms between 30 and 500 micrometers in size) living in marine sediments. The fishing grounds studied were about 500 meters in depth. ¶ The researchers found that
than in non-trawled areas.
This loss in meiofauna is particularly significant, as they form the base of the deep-sea food chain.
Researcher
Pere Puig said that "the dragging of the gear on the seabed lifts and removes fine particles of sediment, yet also resuspends small organisms living in the sediment t hat constitute the base of the food chain at these depths."¶ The researchers found that the number
of nematodes, the most common form of meiofauna at such depths, had decreased by 25 percent. In addition, the organic content of the sediment was 50 percent lower in trawled areas, and carbon degradation (a major ecological function of the deep sea floor)
was reduced by 40 percent. ¶ The deep sea bed plays such an important role in overall oceanic health that its destruction is comparable to the destruction of topsoil on land, the study notes.¶ "The fishing grounds are compared to agricultural fields... and may end
up becoming barren if the constant loss of superficial sediment endures over time," researcher Pere Masque said. ¶ Urgent action needed¶ Given the scale of damage found in the study, the researchers warned, immediate action is needed to implement
sustainable deep-sea fishing practices.¶ The paper came only days after an even more severe warning from the inaugural session of the Deep Ocean Stewardship Initiative (DOSI) was published in the journal Science. The coalition of oceanography experts warned
that
the deep ocean is threatened by a boom in trawler fishing
, oil and gas development, industrial-scale mining, waste disposal and land-based pollution. ¶ The
statement calls for international collaboration to sustainably manage deep ocean resources, many of which fall outside national boundaries.¶ "We humans don't have a great track record with stewardship of land and our coastal ocean," DOSI co-founder Dr. Lisa
Levin said. "Hopefully, we can do a better job with the deep half of the planet." ¶ "Future generations depend upon our actions," paper co-author Maria Baker said
Science Daily 2008 (“Bottom Trawling Impacts On Ocean, Clearly Visible From Space”,
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080215121207.htm,, Feb. 20, 08, Accessed:7-1-14, MSM)
Bottom trawling, an industrial fishing method that drags large, heavy nets across the seafloor stirs up huge, billowing plumes of sediment on shallow seafloors that can be seen from space.¶ As a result of scientific
bottom trawling kills vast numbers of corals, sponges, fishes and other animals , bottom
satellite images show that spreading clouds of mud remain
suspended in the sea long after the trawler has passed.¶ But what satellites can see is only the
"tip of the iceberg," because most trawling happens in waters too deep to detect sediment plumes at the
studies showing that
trawling has been banned in a growing number of places in recent years. Now
surface, say scientists speaking a symposium session called Dragnet: Bottom Trawling, the World's Most Severe and Extensive Seafloor Disturbance at the American Association for the Advancement of Science
2008 Annual Meeting February 15. Speakers at the session include Dr. Elliott Norse, President of Marine Conservation Biology Institute in Bellevue WA; John Amos, President of SkyTruth in Shepherdstown WV, Dr.
Les Watling, Professor of Zoology at the University of Hawaii in Manoa HI; and Susanna Fuller, Ph.D. Candidate in Biology at Dalhousie University, Halifax NS.¶ "Bottom trawling is the most destructive of any
actions that humans conduct in the ocean," said Dr. Watling. "Ten years ago, Elliott Norse and I calculated that, each year, worldwide, bottom trawlers drag an area equivalent to twice the lower 48 states. Most of
that trawling happens in deep waters, out of sight. But now we can more clearly envision what trawling impacts down there by looking at the sediment plumes that are shallow enough for us to see from
Until recently, the impact was basically
hidden from view. But new tools -- especially Internet-based image sites, like Google Earth -- allow everyone to see for themselves what's happening. In shallow waters with muddy bottoms,
trawlers leave long, persistent trails of sediment in their wake." Susanna Fuller studies impacts of trawling on sponges in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean. " Seafloor animals such as
glass sponges are particularly vulnerable to bottom trawling," said Ms. Fuller, a graduate student of Professor Ransom Myers. Dr. Myers,
satellites," he said.¶ "Bottom-trawling repeatedly plows up the seafloor over large areas of the ocean" said Mr. Amos. "
¶
who died last year, had published a series of papers showing that overfishing has eliminated 90 percent of the world's large predatory fishes and is devastating marine ecosystems.¶ "What is amazing is the level of
damage these types of animals have suffered, after the cod fishery in Canada was closed. We immediately started trawling deeper with no restrictions, and continue to do so," she said. "There are ways to catch
fish that are less harmful to the world's vanishing marine life. We need to start protecting the seafloor by using fishing gear, besides bottom trawls, especially in the deep sea. It's the only thing left," she said. ¶ "For
trawling causes more
damage to marine ecosystems than any other kind of fishing. Now, as the threats of ocean acidification and melting sea ice are adding
years marine scientists have been telling the world that fishing has harmed marine biodiversity more than anything else," said Dr. Norse. "And it's clear that
insult to injury, we have to reduce harm from trawling to have any hope of saving marine ecosystems," Dr. Norse said. ¶ Scientific findings about trawling impacts have led to increasing restrictions on this industrial
fishing method. In 2005, the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean banned trawling in the Mediterranean Sea below depths of 1,000 meters, and the United States closed vast deep-sea areas off
Alaska to bottom trawling. In 2006, the United Nations General Assembly began deliberations on a trawling moratorium on the high seas, which cover 45% of the Earth's surface, and South Pacific nations
effectively put an end to trawling in an area amounting to 14 percent of the Earth's surface.¶ There are tens of thousands of trawlers worldwide. They fish for shrimp and finfishes. Some bottom trawling
operations catch 20 pounds of "bykill" for every pound of targeted species.
2. Overfishing
DUJS 2012 (Dartmouth Undergraduate Journal of Science, March 2012, “The Threats of Overfishing: Consequences at the Commercial Level”,
http://dujs.dartmouth.edu/winter-2012/the-threats-of-overfishing-consequences-at-the-commercial-level, Accessed: 7-1-14, MSM)
overfishing is the greatest threat to ocean ecosystems today
fish are
captured at a faster rate than they can reproduce Advanced fishing technology and an
increased demand have led to overfishing, causing several marine species to become extinct
overfishing can have a devastating impact on ocean communities it
destabilizes the food chain and destroys the natural habitats of many aquatic species ¶
trawlers and fishing boats have
been replaced by giant factory ships that can capture and process extremely large amounts of
prey at a given time These ships use
GPS to rapidly locate large schools of
fish Fishing lines are deployed with thousands of large hooks that can reach areas up to 120
kilometers deep. The trawling vessels and machines can even reach depths of 170 kilometers
and can store an extraordinarily large volume of fish.
these huge trawling ships comb an
area twice the size of the United States. They use massive nets 50 meters wide with the
capacity to pull the weight of a medium-sized plane
According to marine ecologists,
(1). Overfishing occurs because
(2).
for fish
or endangered as a result (3, 4). In the long-term,
as
(2).
In the past, fishing
was more sustainable because fishermen could not access every location and because they had a limited capacity for fish aboard their vessels. Today, however, small
(2).
sonar instruments and global positioning systems (
)
(1).
Each year,
(2). They also have several plants for processing and packing fish, large freezing systems, fishmeal processing plants, and
powerful engines that can carry this enormous fishing gear around the ocean. Because these ships have all the equipment necessary to freeze and tin fish, they only need to return to their base once they are full. Even when the ships are filled, however, the fish are
often transferred to refrigerated vessels in the middle of the ocean and are processed for consumption later (4). As such, industrial fishing has expanded considerably and fishermen can now explore new shores and deeper waters to keep up with the increased
demand for seafood. In fact, it has been reported by the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) that over 70 percent of the world’s fisheries are either ‘fully exploited’, ‘over exploited’ or ‘significantly depleted’ (5). The annual total global catch of
fish is 124 million metric tons, which is equivalent in weight to 378 Empire State Buildings (2). ¶ Fishing gear is often non-selective in the fish it targets. For example, any fish that are too big to get through the mesh of a net are captured. Therefore,
overfishing does not only threaten the species of fish that is targeted for food, but also many
non-target species
species, including marine mammals and seabirds, are accidentally
caught in the fishing gear and killed
. As a result, these other
(6). For example, for every ton of prawn caught, three tons of other fish are killed and thrown away. Those in the trade refer to this practice of inadvertent catching
of other species as bycatch (4). The FAO has pointed out that about 25 percent of the world’s captured fish end up thrown overboard because they are caught unintentionally, are illegal market species, or are of inferior quality and size. Many of the fish caught this
way include endangered and over exploited species, 95 percent of which are eventually thrown away (2). Bycatch is not just limited to just unwanted fish, but rather affects all types of marine life, including whales, dolphins, porpoises, fur seals, albatrosses, and
turtles. For example, tuna fisheries are indirectly responsible for the deaths of an estimated one million sharks annually due to bycatch. Small cetaceans, such as dolphins and porpoises, are also targets of bycatch as they are often caught in fishing nets. In fact,
hundreds of dolphin corpses are washed up on the beaches of Europe every year, bringing attention to the growing scale of this problem (6).¶ Many modern fishing methods are also irreversibly destructive. For example, bottom trawling, a technique that uses
these practices
can wreak havoc on delicate marine ecosystems ¶
industrial fishing
several marine species have already been fished to commercial
extinction
extremely wide nets armed with heavy metal rollers, can crush everything in the path of the gear, destroying fragile corals, smashing rock formations, and killing several tons of fish and animals as bycatch (7). As such,
.
Not surprisingly, it has been reported that
takes between only 10 and 15 years
to wipe out a tenth of whichever species it targets (2). In fact,
, and this number is rapidly increasing (1). One of the reasons for this is that the regulation of fishing vessels and the fishing industry is universally inadequate. Roughly two-thirds of the ocean is free of laws and fishing vessels only follow
the laws ratified by their country of origin. However, most fishing countries have not ratified any international convention to protect the sea or marine life (2). Moreover, fishing factory ships and companies are given access to fisheries before the long–term impact of
their fishing practices is understood (1).¶ Today, the number of fish caught worldwide is actually shrinking as the fishing industry is in decline from many years of overfishing (2). The year 1988 was the first time in human history that global wild fish catches dropped
and they have continued to fall ever since. In European waters, four out of every five known fish stocks are already beyond safe biological limits (7). Illegal and unreported fishing have also contributed a great deal to the depletion of the oceans and continues to be a
serious problem.¶ A new study conducted by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) found that 5 out of the 8 tuna species are at risk of extinction (8). All three species of bluefin tuna, for example, are threatened with extinction and are at a
population that makes their recovery practically irreversible (2). The IUCN has also reported that freshwater fish are among the most endangered species, with more than a third facing extinction. Not surprisingly, among those at the greatest risk are species like the
Mekong giant catfish, the freshwater stingray, and the European eel, which are used to make some of the most expensive caviars. The Mekong giant catfish is the closest to extinction, with as few as 250 left. Overfishing has reduced the numbers of Mekong
freshwater stingray by over 50 percent in Southeast Asia and has reduced the giant Mekong salmon carp population by over 90 percent (9).¶ As previously mentioned,
greatly affected by overfishing
shark populations have been
also
. There are already more than 135 species of shark on the IUCN’s list of endangered animals and more are being added each year. For example, the number of scalloped
hammerhead shark has decreased by 99% over the past 30 years. Other species recently added to the endangered list include the smooth hammerhead, shortfin mako, common thresher, big-eye thresher, silky, tiger, bull, and dusky (10). Besides being caught as
bycatch, sharks are now also being targeted by commercial fishermen for their fins which can fetch a substantial price on the Asian food market. Sharks are particularly vulnerable to exploitation because they have long life spans, are exceptionally slow to mature
over fishing has caused a 90% decline in shark
populations across the world’s oceans
¶ Overfishing impacts
particular species that is exploited also
damages other species of fish and disrupts local ecosystems
(taking as long as 16 years in some cases), and are relatively unprolific breeders (11). Recent reports suggest that
and up to 99% along the US east coast, which are some of the best managed waters in the world. Because sharks are at the top of the food chain, a decline in
their numbers has devastating consequences on marine ecosystems (10).
not just the
, but
. The stability of ecological communities depends largely on the interactions between predators
and prey (12). Thereby, the balance of the food chain is disturbed when certain species are removed. As a result, many ocean species are disappearing and losing their habitats. The evolutionary process of marine species is also being altered, causing cycles of
premature reproduction and relative decreases in the size of fish across generations. As predators diminish, the populations of smaller fish escalate because they were previously the food source of the bigger fish. In addition, the disappearance of these species
affects many other species, like seabirds and sea mammals, which are vulnerable to the lack of food (2).¶ A recent study found that
diversity of fish worldwide
overfishing is also decreasing the genetic
. Diversity is projected to be reduced further if overfishing continues at the same rate (13). This has serious effects on nutrient recycling in marine ecosystems because fish species vary widely
in their rates of nitrogen and phosphorus excretion. As such, altering fish communities creates divergent nutrient recycling patterns and disrupts the functioning of the ecosystem. Recently conducted studies in lakes affected by overfishing show that loss of species
contributes to a decline in nutrient recycling and destabilizes the ecosystem (14). ¶ While it is often overlooked for other environmental issues, overfishing has historically caused more ecological extinction than any other human influence on coastal ecosystems,
including water pollution (5). Unfortunately, due to a lack of data, the extent of this damage has only recently been recognized (15).¶ Given that fishing is a food source for millions of people, attempting to solve the problem of overfishing would not be easy,
especially for developing countries. Nevertheless, scientists and the UN Committee for Sustainable Development have called for a restoration of depleted fisheries and continue to stress the importance of stricter fishing regulations in oceans and inland waters (5).
Sustainable fishing will be a necessary goal in counterbalancing depletion in fisheries and re–stabilizing coastal ecosystems. ¶
AT Imbalance risks Extinction
Impact would have already happened
National Geographic, largest nonprofit scientific and educational institutions in
the world, No Date
(National Geographic, established in 1888, “Blue Whale: Balaenoptera musculus,”
http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/blue-whale/#, Accessed: June 30,
2014, S.D.Y.)
Blue whales are the largest animals ever known to have lived on Earth. These magnificent marine mammals rule the oceans at up to 100 feet (30 meters) long and upwards of 200 tons (181 metric tons). Their tongues alone can weigh as much as an elephant. Their hearts, as much as an automobile.¶ Blue whales reach these mind-boggling dimensions on a diet composed nearly exclusively of tiny shrimplike animals called krill. During certain times of the year, a single adult blue whale consumes about 4 tons (3.6 metric tons) of
krill a day.¶ Blue whales are baleen whales, which means they have fringed plates of fingernail-like material, called baleen, attached to their upper jaws. The giant animals feed by first gulping an enormous mouthful of water, expanding the pleated skin on their throat and belly to take it in. Then the whale's massive tongue forces the water out through the thin, overlapping baleen plates. Thousands of krill are left behind—and then swallowed.¶ Blue whales look true blue underwater, but on the surface their coloring is more a
mottled blue-gray. Their underbellies take on a yellowish hue from the millions of microorganisms that take up residence in their skin. The blue whale has a broad, flat head and a long, tapered body that ends in wide, triangular flukes.¶ Blue whales live in all the world's oceans occasionally swimming in small groups but usually alone or in pairs. They often spend summers feeding in polar waters and undertake lengthy migrations towards the Equator as winter arrives.¶ These graceful swimmers cruise the ocean at more than five
miles an hour (eight kilometers an hour), but accelerate to more than 20 miles an hour (32 kilometers an hour) when they are agitated. Blue whales are among the loudest animals on the planet. They emit a series of pulses, groans, and moans, and it’s thought that, in good conditions, blue whales can hear each other up to 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) away. Scientists think they use these vocalizations not only to communicate, but, along with their excellent hearing, to sonar-navigate the lightless ocean depths.¶ Really Big
Babies¶ Blue whale calves enter the world already ranking among the planet's largest creatures. After about a year inside its mother's womb, a baby blue whale emerges weighing up to 3 tons (2.7 metric tons) and stretching to 25 feet (8 meters). It gorges on nothing but mother's milk and gains about 200 pounds (91 kilograms) every day for its first year.¶ Blue whales are among Earth's longest-lived animals. Scientists have discovered that by counting the layers of a deceased whale's waxlike earplugs, they can get a close
estimate of the animal's age. The oldest blue whale found using this method was determined to be around 110 years old. Average lifespan is estimated at around 80 to 90 years.¶
Between 10,000 and 25,000 blue whales are believed to still
swim the world's oceans. Aggressive hunting in the 1900s by whalers seeking whale oil drove
them to the brink of extinction . Between 1900 and the mid-1960s, some 360,000 blue
whales were slaughtered .
.¶ Blue whales have few predators but are
known to fall victim to attacks by sharks and killer whales, and many are injured or die each
year from impacts with large ships. Blue whales are currently classified as endangered on the
World Conservation Union (IUCN) Red List.
They finally came under protection with the 1966 International Whaling Commission, but they've managed only a minor recovery since then
Whale Population decline- No marine ecosystem imbalance
Green Peace New Zealand, independent global campaigning organization across
Europe, the Americas, Asia, Africa and the Pacific, December 20, 2006
(Green Peace New Zealand, “Population decline,” http://www.greenpeace.org/newzealand/en/campaigns/oceans/whales/population-decline/, Accessed June 30, 2014, S.D.Y.)
When the International Whaling Commission was formed in 1946, its preamble noted that,
"The history of whaling has seen overfishing of one area after another and of one species of
whale after another to such a degree that it is essential to protect all species of whales from
further overfishing" But, despite this clear recognition of the problem, the International
Whaling Commission (IWC) was unable to stop it, instead presiding over the decimation of
species after species - until the moratorium was finally put in place in 1986. It is still not known
if some species will ever recover, even after decades of protection.¶ This devastation
happened because the reproductive rate of whales is low and the monetary value of
individual whales was high. Given this, it might seem sensible to you and me for whalers to
strictly limit their catches in order to secure a future for their industry, but a short-sighted
economic reality meant that whalers tended to catch as much as they could, as quickly as they
could.¶ The blue whales of the Antarctic are still at less than 1 percent of their original
abundance despite over 40 years of complete protection. Some populations of whales are
recovering but some are not.¶ Only one population, the East Pacific grey whale, is thought to be
near its original abundance but the closely related West Pacific grey whale population is the
most endangered in the world hovering on the edge of extinction with just over 100 remaining
- and this is now under threat from oil exploration activities.¶ The number of Antarctic whales is
less than 10 percent of what it was before whaling began.¶ DNA evidence shows that the impact
of commercial whaling may be even worse than previously thought. Most estimates of historic
whale population size have been extrapolated from old whaling figures, but this method is often
very inaccurate, argues marine biologist Steve Palumbi of Stanford University's Hopkins Marine
Station in California, USA.¶ In 2003 Palumbi and his colleagues used DNA samples to estimate
that humpback whales could have numbered 1.5 million prior to the onset of commercial
whaling in the 1800s.¶ That number dwarfs the figure of 100,000 previously accepted by the
IWC based on 19th century whaling records. Humpback whales currently number only 20,000.¶
Japanese delegates to the IWC constantly refer to a 1990 estimate of the Antarctic minke
population of 760,000. But the IWC withdrew that figure in 2000 because recent surveys found
far fewer minke whales.¶ The new estimates are half the size in every area that has been resurveyed. The IWC's scientists do not understand the reasons for this and so far have not been
able to agree a new estimate.¶ It is still not known if some species will ever recover, even after
decades of protection.