Marine Pollution Bulletin 76 (2013) 3–6

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Marine Pollution Bulletin

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News

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2013.10.016

Strategic Scoping Report and dredging effects

The U.K. Marine Management Organisation (MMO) published itsupdated Strategic Scoping Report for marine planning in England (SSR)in August, an important tool to assist the marine planning process.However, its claim to incorporate best available evidence merits furtherexamination with respect to one sector, Marine Aggregate Extraction.

The SSR explains that the footprint of dredging activity is typicallyonly 10–15% of the licensed areas; however, open access track datashows the footprint of dredging activity extends beyond both thedredge zone and the licence area. Electronic Monitoring System(EMS) data that is used to record and regulate dredging activity un-der-estimates by an order of magnitude the effect of entrainment asit fails to register when dredgers are operating dredge pumps abovethe seabed when turning or fluidizing the cargo.

The basic process of trailer suction dredging around U.K. coasts hasevolved little over the past 50 years and removes not only gravel, butmost fish and other animals along with it, especially juveniles. This af-fects a number of important food species, including scallops, plaice andsole. Financial estimates based upon published research into dredgingimpacts in the Eastern English Channel using the industry’s own data(See Mar. Poll. Bull. 64, 2, 363–372) show the by-catch of scallops aloneis estimated to be 595 tonnes with an equivalent value of £238,000. In agiven year, the volume of material dredged for the purposes of mineralextraction can be doubled by sediment removed from ports and har-bours and their approach channels; the overall scale and cost of fishby-catch from dredging is estimated to be equivalent to 7% demersalby-catch from England and Wales at a value of between £6 and £9M.

Of potentially far greater concern is the longer-term impact on theecosystems from the loss of marine life from all levels in the food chainthrough dredging, the scale of which has not been measured. Notwith-standing the weight of evidence, fish by-catch is not regarded as a sig-nificant concern by the industry or its regulators. Without the rigorouspursuit of best scientific evidence, enforced by government regulators,there is a risk that license monitoring becomes a tick box exerciserather than offering a high degree of protection to the environment,as intended.

Ray Drabble

Predicting overfishing threats and extinction

Threats created by overfishing can be identified decades before thefish species at risk experience overly high harvest rates and subsequentpopulation declines according to a new UC Santa Barbara study. Itshows that an Eventual Threat Index (ETI), developed by the research-ers, can quantify the biological and socioeconomic conditions thateventually cause some fish species to be harvested at unsustainablerates.

Overharvesting poses a significant threat to biodiversity, particu-larly marine biodiversity, where a half-century of industrial fishinghas caused the collapse of many populations and severely impactedmany ecosystems. Multispecies fisheries, which use trawling, long-lin-ing, and seining, are some of the largest contributors and have the mostecological impact.

Previous approaches to defining overfishing have mainly inferredthreats only after a population had declined, or was experiencing highharvest rates. According to the report, these approaches have providedvaluable insights into patterns of overharvesting but they tend to iden-tify already harmed species. The idea of the new index is to provide theability to predict future declines and prevent harm before it has achance to occur.

Multispecies fisheries impact many species, so that the long-termfates of all species caught together are linked. Threats to by-catch spe-cies are predicted by measuring their harvest rates relative to a few keyprofitable or managed species whose economic importance makes theirlong-term harvest rate predictable.

This approach was tested on eight Pacific tuna and billfish popula-tions, four of which have been identified recently by conventionalmethods as in decline and threatened with overfishing. The studyfound that the severe depletion of all four populations could have beenpredicted in the 1950’s using the ETI.

Even with more recent data, the ETI can point to potential problems.An expanding purse seine fishery in the western Pacific that targetsskipjack tuna also catches bigeye and yellowfin tuna. Using data fromthe 1990’s to the present, ETI calculations predict an eventual threatto yellowfin tuna.

Results like these demonstrate that species threatened by humanharvesting can be identified much earlier, providing time for adjust-ments in harvesting practices before consequences become severeand fishery closures or other socioeconomically disruptive interven-tions are required to protect species.

Source: University California, Santa Barbara

Steroids may persist longer in the environment than expected

Some drugs can partially regenerate themselves once released intothe aquatic environment, according to research led by the Universityof Iowa.

Assessing the risk posed to aquatic organisms by the discharge of cer-tain steroids and pharmaceutical products into waterways is often basedon a belief that as the compounds degrade, the ecological risks naturallydecline. But there is now growing concern that, once in the environment,some of these bioactive organic compounds may transform in a way thatmakes their presumed impact less certain.

A new study led by the University of Iowa found this was the casewith the anabolic steroid trenbolone acetate and two other drugs. Oncepopular in the bodybuilding and weightlifting communities, trenboloneacetate is now banned for human use. However, it is federally approvedfor use by the beef industry to promote weight gain and increase feed-ing efficiency in cattle.

In lab tests followed by field experiments, the researchers foundthat trenbolone does not fully break down in water as believed, retain-ing enough of a chemical residue to regenerate itself in the environ-ment under certain conditions, to an extent that the drugs’ lives maybe prolonged, even in trace amounts.

There are a variety of bioactive pharmaceuticals and personal-careproducts that are present in trace amounts in the water supply. The re-sults of the research on trenbolone should lead to closer scrutiny of thefate and better mitigate the impact of these products in the environment.

4 News / Marine Pollution Bulletin 76 (2013) 3–6

The team found similar results for dienogest, a hormone used in abirth-control pill called Natazia, and dienedone, another banned ana-bolic steroid that has been marketed as a body-building supplement.

Trenbolone acetate is implanted in the ears of more than 20 millioncattle in the United States, according to studies cited by the researchersin their paper. The drug is metabolized and then excreted by livestock,and makes its way into waterways mainly through runoff.

Source: University of Iowa

Polar bears change to diet with higher contaminant loads

Polar bears increasingly exchange ringed seal with harp seal andhooded seal in their diet and therefore become exposed to higher con-centrations of contaminants, according to a recent study of East Green-landic polar bears.

Over recent years, a decline in the ice sheet where the polar bearslive, believed to be a consequence of climate change, has occurred ata rate of almost 1% per year. It is one of the highest rates measuredin the entire Arctic region. It is believed that this has resulted in thesubsequent change in the polar bears’ diets.

The researchers studied the fatty acid profiles in the adipose tissuefrom unique material collected from 310 polar bears hunted by EastGreenland Inuits from the Scoresbysund area in the years from 1984to 2011. The composition of fatty acids in the fat tissue of the polarbears is known to reflect the profile of fatty acids in their diet.

The results showed that the polar bears primarily feed on three spe-cies of seals: the high Arctic ringed seal and the two sub-Arctic speciesharp seal and hooded seal. However, the results also showed that thediet of the polar bears had changed over the nearly 30 years duringwhich the samples were collected.

In this period, the average relative decline in the ringed seal’s signif-icance for the polar bears diet was 42%. Similarly, the intake of the sub-Arctic seals increased during the same period. The researchers alsofound that polar bears are generally in better condition now than inearlier years.

The problem that emerges is that the sub-Arctic seals the polarbears have switched to, have a higher content of contaminants becausethey live closer to the industrialized world and are higher up in thefood chain. The content of the persistent organic pollutants (POPs) afteryear 2000 decreases more slowly in the polar bear than in, the ringedseal.

Source: Aarhus University

New technique helps biologists save threatened seagrassmeadows

The presence of sulphur in seagrasses is an indication that theseabed is stressed and that the water environment is threatened, ac-cording to research by Danish and Australian biologists. They have de-veloped a technique to determine if seagrasses contain sulphur as itcannot always be seen by the naked eye if a seagrass plant is thrivingor not.

Seagrass meadows, such as eelgrass or Halophila, provide importanthabitats for a wide variety of life forms. However, in many places sea-grass meadows have been lost or seriously diminished. It is hoped thatlocal efforts to re-establish the meadows may benefit from the newtechnique.

Seagrass meadows grow along many coasts in the world exceptwhere harsh winds, waves and currents are too turbulent for rootedplants to remain attached to the seabed. The meadows are not only ahome for a variety of small and large animals but the leaves also helpto dampen the waves and the roots help to hold the sediments of theseabed. The plants also act as particle filters that keep the water clear,whilst also storing carbon and nutrients.

Marianne Holmer, from the Department of Biology at the Universityof Southern Denmark and Kieryn Kilminster from the Department ofWater in Western Australia, found that there is a relationship betweenthe presence of sulphur in the seagrass and the presence of sulphides inthe sediments.

The sulphide in the seabed is formed by sulphate-reducing bacteria.They appear when oxygen disappears from the seabed and this can

happen when the seabed is fed large amounts of organic material fromeutrophication.

The supply of nutrients and particles can also come from coastlandwhere vegetation is cleared and soil and particles are free to flow intothe water. A seagrass, which has absorbed sulphides, shows reducedgrowth and may even die off.

Source: University of Southern Denmark

Manta and devil rays, sold for apothecary trade now identifiable

Dried filters from the mouths of filter-feeding rays, including mantarays, are being sold from apothecaries in Asia, apparently to cleanse theliver, and until now there has been no way to know which of rays wasbeing slaughtered.

Unlike predatory rays that attack and crush prey with their mouths,the filter-feeder rays eat plankton particles, larvae and fish eggs thatthey sieve from seawater. Most lack the barbs that other rays are notor-ious for, and the filter-feeders are generally considered harmless. Man-ta rays can measure 7 metres across, weighing 2½ tons.

Scientists with the University of Washington’s Friday Harbour La-boratories have now discovered enough differences in the filters tobe able to identify the giant manta and eight of the devil rays usingthe part from inside their mouth that has been dried and is being sold.It is therefore now possible to take the information from the research toa market and determine which species the filters came from. Thiswould give an idea of the number of each species being hunted.

Efforts have been made to include this group of animals for protec-tion under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Spe-cies, but there has been no way to know, until now, which of thegroups need protection because the filters are cut out and the rest ofthe animal is discarded.

According to the researchers, there is no historical or traditional med-ical use of these filters and there is no scientific evidence that they willhelp the liver to filter out toxins. In spite of this, there are thousands ofthese ray filters in the markets, especially in Indonesia.

Source: University of Washington

Algorithm finds missing phytoplankton in Southern Ocean

More than 50% of the phytoplankton in the Southern Ocean mayhave been missed by NASA satellites, making it far more difficult to es-timate the carbon capture potential of this vast area of sea.

However, new research from the University of Tasmania’s Institutefor Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) has led to the development ofan algorithm that produces substantially more accurate estimates ofSouthern Ocean phytoplankton populations.

This new algorithm makes it possible to detect changes in planktonnumbers that have previously gone unnoticed and this will allow amore accurate idea of how much carbon is being taken up by the South-ern Ocean.

Phytoplankton form the base of the marine food chain, produce halfthe oxygen on Earth and are partly responsible for the ocean uptake ofat least a third of total human induced CO2 emissions. So it was importantto understand why existing ocean colour satellites systematically underes-timated the chlorophyll concentration (a proxy for phytoplankton bio-mass) of the Southern Ocean and Antarctica.

To get the observations needed to make valid comparisons and de-velop the algorithm, the researchers used more than 1000 SouthernOcean phytoplankton samples collected over 10 years and comparedthese to satellite measurements.

Once this observational data was collected, the new algorithm wasused to process satellite data and make comparisons. It quickly becameclear that the algorithm produced a much closer estimate of phyto-plankton numbers than past satellite measurements.

The improved data will be made freely available to the global re-search community through the Integrated Marine Observing System(IMOS).

Source: University of Tasmania

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Earwax determines contaminant exposure in whales

A novel technique for reconstructing contaminant and hormoneprofiles using whale earplugs has been developed by Baylor Universityprofessors Stephen Trumble, and Sascha Usenko. The technique makesit possible to determine, for the first time, lifetime chemical exposuresand hormone profiles, from birth to death, for an individual whale.

Using a blue whale’s earplug, Trumble and Usenko were able to ex-tract and analyze the stress hormone cortisol, testosterone, organiccontaminants such as pesticides and flame retardants, and mercury, de-monstrating that both man-made and endogenous chemicals are re-corded and archived in whale earwax.

Scientists in the past have used this waxy matrix as an aging tool, si-milar to counting tree rings and historically, scientists have used whaleblubber to determine hormone and chemical exposure. However, thesemethods only provide information over short, finite periods of timeand can be difficult and highly expensive to obtain.

With the new technique and the data it generates, the researchers areable to assess the human impact on individual and multiple generationsof whales by examining the environmental impacts of ship traffic, envir-onmental noise, climate change and contaminants.

In addition to using whale earplugs to determine whales’ lifetime ex-posure to chemicals and environmental pollutants, the plugs also pro-vide time-specific biological information about whales such as sexualmaturity in blue whales. Previous estimates provided a 10-year rangeof maturity but the new technique makes it possible to pinpoint exactlywhen the whale in the study hit sexual maturity.

It will also now be possible to go back in time by analyzing archivedmuseum earplug samples that were harvested in the 1950s and therebyexamining critical issues such as the effects of pollution, use of sonar inthe oceans and the introduction of specific chemicals and pesticides inthe environment over long periods of time.

Source: Baylor University

Dams provide resilience to climate change impacts

Dams have been vilified for detrimental effects to water quality andfish passage (see Mar. Poll. Bull. 75, 6–7) but a new study suggests thatthese structures provide ecological and engineering resilience to cli-mate change, at least in the Columbia River basin.

The study, carried out by Oregon State University, looked at the ef-fects of climate warming on stream flow in the headwaters and down-stream reaches of seven sub-basins of the Columbia River from 1950 to2010. The researchers found that the peak of the annual snowmelt run-off has shifted to a few days earlier, but the downstream impacts werenegligible because reservoir management counteracts these effects.

The dams are doing what they are supposed to do, which is to useengineering, and management, to buffer climate variability and climatewarming according to Julia Jones, a hydrologist and co-author on thestudy. The study is one of several which examines the river as the Uni-ted States and Canada begin a formal 10-year review of the ColumbiaRiver water management treaty in 2014. The treaty expires in 2024.

According to Jones, the net effect of reservoir management is to re-duce amplitude of water flow variance by containing water upstreamduring peak flows for flood control, or augmenting low flows in latesummer. While authorized primarily for flood control, reservoir man-agement also considers water release strategies for fish migration, hy-dropower, ship navigation and recreation.

These social forces, as well as climate change impacts, have the po-tential to create more variability in river flow, but the decades-long hy-drograph chart of the Columbia River is stable because of the dams.

Source: Oregon State University

Miracle solution for dye pollution

A cheap and simple process using natural fibres embedded with na-noparticles can almost completely rid water of harmful textile dyes inminutes according to work carried out by researchers from Cornell Uni-versity, Universidad Industrial de Santander and Colombians workingwith native Colombian plant fibres.

Dyes, such as indigo blue, used to colour blue jeans, threaten water-ways near textile plants in South America, India and China. Such dyesare toxic, and they discolour the water, thereby reducing light to thewater plants, which limits photosynthesis and lowers the oxygen inthe water.

Such endocrine-disrupting water pollutants like phenols, pesticides,antibiotics, hormones and phthalates are contaminants that are veryresilient to traditional water-purification processes. However, a newbio-composite material, developed by the researchers, could becomean option for their removal from waste water.

The research took advantage of nano-sized cavities found in cellulose.Colombian fique plant fibres, commonly used to make coffee bags, areimmersed in a solution of sodium permanganate and then treated withultrasound. As a result, manganese oxide molecules grow in the tiny cel-lulose cavities. Manganese oxides in the fibres react with the dyes andbreak them down into non-coloured forms.

In the study, the treated fibres removed 99% of the dye from waterwithin minutes. Furthermore, the same fibres can be used repeatedly;after eight cycles, the fibres still removed between 97% and 99% ofthe dye. The synthesis of the bio-composite can be performed in a basicchemistry lab.

The researchers are testing their process on other types of pollu-tants, other fibres and composite materials.

Source: Cornell University

Tiny number of Asian carp could be big problem for the GreatLakes

The introduction of just 20 Asian carp could quickly establish a po-pulation of the invasive fish in the Great Lakes, according to new re-search from the University of Waterloo.

Although established Asian carp populations are widely present inthe Illinois and Mississippi Rivers, it is expected that it is only a matterof time before the population migrates through the many hydrologicalconnections to the Great Lakes, especially Lake Erie which provides ahighly suitable habitat for the fish with very productive embaymentsfor the fish to find food.

A mature Asian carp can grow up to 50 kg and consumes about 40%of its body weight daily. A minimal length of 70 cm is considered a ma-ture size, with much more substantial lengths being reported. In com-petition for food and space, the Asian carp has a significant sizeadvantage over native fish species.

The species is expected to have a huge impact on the food web, ac-cording to the report. Not only is it a fast-growing fish physically, butthe population itself grows very quickly. A female can lay well over amillion eggs a year, and with no known predators present in the GreatLakes, the Asian carp could dominate the waters and impact fisheries.

The report states that it will not be possible to stop the carp fromentering the Great Lakes, and that resources should focus on how to in-tercept new arrivals. Individual fish have already been caught in two ofthe Great Lakes. With 10 fish, the probability of a population of Asiancarp establishing itself is only 50% but with 20 fish, it jumps to 75%, un-der some conditions.

Asian carp were introduced to the United States in the 1970s as anagricultural fish used to combat algae in catfish ponds. They escaped intothe Illinois River during the floods of the 1990s and later entered theMississippi River. With recorded densities of 13 tonnes of fish per rivermile in the Illinois River, the dangerous flying carp phenomena hasschools of fish jumping upwards of 3 metres, sometimes injuring boaters.

Source: University of Waterloo

Major changes to the Danube ecosystem

An introduced fish species, the round goby, has been found to thrivein the river Danube and is creating a totally new ecosystem in theprocess.

Recent decades have seen massive changes to many river systems.To improve passage for ships, humans have been straightening, dee-pening, and reinforcing river banks and altering the natural flow re-gime. Water temperatures are also rising as a result of climatechange. All of this provides perfect conditions for the round goby, a fish

6 News / Marine Pollution Bulletin 76 (2013) 3–6

traditionally found in the lower stretches of the Danube and along thecoasts of the Black Sea.

Today, however, the round goby has expanded its distribution rangesignificantly and can now be found in the headwater of the Danube aswell as in the Rhine, the Baltic Sea and the Laurentian Great Lakes inNorth America.

Scientists at the Technische Universität München (TUM) haveteamed up with the Bavarian State Collection of Zoology (ZSM) to in-vestigate the strategies the round goby uses to conquer new stretchesof river and the impact on the ecosystem and existing food webs.

Round goby reached the headwaters of the Danube only a few yearsago, probably as a stowaway in the ballast water of ships and sincethen, the fish has firmly established itself in the Bavarian Danube inan area stretching from the state border to the city of Regensburg.

The pioneers are particularly strong and powerful goby individuals,able to consume a broad range of foods and thus can outperform otherspecies in the competition for food. They gradually eliminate native fishspecies such as the barbel and European chub and already account forover 70% of the entire fish population in some areas of their preferredhabitat.

The round goby is also reducing the diversity and abundance of in-vertebrates. Stoneflies, caddisflies and mayflies are particularly hard hitas they become the invaders’ preferred prey in their new habitat.

The goby invasion has led to a novel ecosystem in the headwater ofthe Danube comprising previously unknown combinations of species.This is not unique to the Danube, however. There are similar develop-ments in the Rhine and in the Great Lakes of North America.

Source: Technische Universität München

Fossil record shows crustaceans vulnerable as modern coralreefs decline

Many ancient crustaceans became extinct across the planet follow-ing a massive collapse of reefs during the Mesozoic era and new Uni-versity of Florida research suggests modern species living in rapidlydeclining reef habitats may now be at risk too.

The study of the fossil record shows a direct correlation between theamount of prehistoric reefs and the number of decapod crustaceans, agroup that includes shrimp, crab and lobster. At that time, the earth’s dec-apod crustacean species biodiversity plummeted by more than 50% dur-ing a sharp decline of reefs nearly 150 million years ago, which wasmarked by the extinction of 80% of crabs.

The decline of modern reefs due to natural and human-influencedchanges also could be detrimental, causing a probable decrease in thebiodiversity of crustaceans, which serve as a vital food source for hu-mans and marine animals such as fish.

If reefs continue to decline at the current rate during this century,then a few thousand species of decapods are in real danger, accordingto the research. They may adapt to a new environment without reefs,migrate to entirely new environments or, more likely, become extinct.

Scientists have shown that an increasing percentage of the world’sreefs are collapsing or are increasingly imperiled, due to human-influenced changes resulting from rising carbon dioxide such as warm-ing and ocean acidification, as well as from sewage, land run-off, andother forms of pollution, leading to increased diseases and coralbleaching.

The study is the first comprehensive examination of the rise ofdecapod crustaceans in the fossil record. The researchers created a da-tabase of fossils from the Mesozoic Era, 252 million to 66 millionyears ago, from literature records based on museum specimensworldwide. The data included 110 families, 378 genera and 1298 spe-cies. They examined the patterns of diversity and found an increase inthe number of decapod species was influenced by the abundance ofreefs, largely due to the role of reefs as a provider of shelter andforaging 436–455.

Source: University of Florida

News in brief

USA: Two endangered freshwater mussel species have been movedfrom Pennsylvania to Illinois in an attempt to re-establish theirpopulations in the western part of the Ohio River Basin. The team ofbiologists travelled to the site of a bridge-replacement project onPennsylvania’s Allegheny River to collect northern riffleshell(Epioblasma rangiana) and clubshell (Pleurobema clava) mussels.

Canada: A cost-effective and environmentally sound solution, to thefishing industry’s multibillion dollar bio-fouling problem has been de-veloped by the University of Toronto and has been recognized with aClean50 Award. The treatment developed is called Macroblock andcombines both physical and biochemical approaches to controllingfouling, in a biodegradable format that causes much less harm. The for-mulation was also designed to make it easily applied by aquaculturists.

British Columbia: Humpback whale populations are on the rise in thecoastal fjords of British Columbia, doubling in size from 2004 to 2011, ac-cording to results developed by Erin Ashe from the Sea Mammal ResearchUnit at the University of St. Andrews and colleagues from other institu-tions. Researchers estimated abundance of Pacific humpback whales(Megaptera novaeangliae) using photo-identification surveillance ofidentifiable adults. They found that the number of humpback whales inthe region increased each year, and doubled from 2004 to 2011, resultingin a total of 137 whales in 2011.

USA: A fleet of underwater robots is descending into waters off the eastcoast of the USA to collect data that could help improve storm intensityforecasts during future hurricane seasons. Several regions of the NOAA-led U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS�) are partnering todeploy 12 to 16 autonomous underwater robotic vehicles, also knownas gliders, from Nova Scotia to Georgia which will help improve scien-tists’ understanding of hurricanes and pave the way for future improve-ments in hurricane intensity forecasts.

Nigeria: About 11,000 fishermen and others from Bodo community,Gokana Local Government Area of Rivers, who lost incomes when a pi-peline belonging to shell burst in 2008 have rejected a £30 million oraround £1,100 compensation offer for each person affected by the oilspill.

International and regional groups condemned Shell, which is thelargest company on the London stock exchange with a market capitali-sation of £140.9bn, for what they called its "meanness". Groups ac-cused Shell of financial racism and applying different standards toclean-ups in Nigeria compared with the rest of the world.

UK: UK government has refused to commit to the Severn Barrage andhas stated that the company, Hafren Power, who want to build an11-mile barrage between Lavernock Point near Penarth, Vale of Gla-morgan, and Brean near Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, had failed tomake the case that it would be good for the economy or the environ-ment. In a report, the House of Commons’ Energy and Climate ChangeCommittee criticized a "lack of information and a perceived lack oftransparency" about the proposal.

Hong Kong: The Hong Kong government has issued a shark fin andbluefin tuna ban for their official dining. The government’s internalban of shark fin and bluefin tuna sends a strong conservation messageto the broader society in Hong Kong and provides an excellent oppor-tunity to improve transparency of the trade and monitoring of sharkand bluefin tuna. Currently 26 restaurants in Hong Kong have pledgednot to serve bluefin tuna.