lobstering and living on the coast are part of my family and the area’s culture. as a teen, my father would take his skiff out every summer morning to check his traps, bringing his bounty to a nearby cove for sale. the money he made from selling his captured crustaceans funded his first car. when i was little, my father, brother, and i would take our boat out fishing and check the few lobster pots we kept in and around the cove. 

family friends continue to lobster today, utilizing the state’s miles of shoreline as their outdoor office and primary source of income. the quintessential maine fisherman, the ubiquitous term used for both fish and lobster harvesters, respects the water and understands the gulf’s deep-rooted value to the region. however, the ever-increasing impacts of climate change are stressing the gulf of maine’s ecosystem, creating life-altering ramifications for sea and land inhabitants alike. 

reaching the boiling point

today, the gulf of maine is undergoing what oceanographers term a marine heatwave. caused by warm water currents confined by cold water ice cap melt, marine heatwaves are calculated when the water temperature rises above the 90th percentile (of average temperatures) for more than five days. in 2018, during the height of the lobster season, the gulf of maine spent over 180 days in a marine heatwave. the gulf of maine institute published evidence that “sea surface temperatures in the gulf of maine are warming 99% faster than any other global water on the planet” and surging up to 4°c warmer annually. 

to avoid these heat waves, lobsters are slowly migrating north in the gulf of maine in search of colder habitable water. because of this, maine is currently experiencing a lobster boom. last year, the state of maine recorded an all-time high of 100 million pounds harvested, creating a street value of over $725 million, according to a february 2022 state of maine fisheries press release.

the maine lobster’s uncertain future

while record harvests are great news for the fishermen and the local economy, two concerns can’t be ignored. as the catch numbers increase, more consumers are exposed to the toxins the lobsters’ filter and carry in their bodies. according to the national climate assessment, “harmful algal blooms, which can cause paralytic shellfish poisoning in humans,  have become more frequent and longer lasting in the gulf of maine.” fishermen face potential harvesting restrictions because of the toxins, which will lead to reduced sales and reduced incomes. a harbinger of what is to come may be just a few years away. in the 2019-2020 lobster season, a common algae drastically increased its population during a marine heatwave in the southern section of the gulf of maine. when the algae bloom died, it fell to the ocean floor, drastically reducing the water’s oxygen levels. the local lobster population was decimated. 

i fear for my maine coastal community and what the future holds as marine heat waves increase in frequency and alter the viability of local lobster populations. while harvests may be plentiful now, the northern migration of lobsters to find colder temperatures means the fishermen either move with them or risk losing out. after investing in a boat, traps, buoys, and fuel, they may run the risk of no lobsters or harvesting ones exposed to toxins. maine may be at the beginning of the end of its deepest tradition. there is only so much this beautiful yet fragile ecosystem can take and only so much a local economy and its people can endure.

this story was featured in our series, slipping through our fingers: the future of water.

this was the situation when i visited the park on the morning of january 4, 2022. during a brief conversation, a park attendant explained the absence of the animals. the weather was warm and the manatees only gathered in the park’s waters when they needed the artificial warmth generated by a nearby power plant. 

the warm conditions of that morning meant the only manatees i saw on that trip were plastic statues. it was disappointing for me as a wildlife photographer on a family vacation to florida –– but i do not begrudge the animals for not making an appearance. they were better off foraging for food while the weather was warm than huddling together in the aquatic equivalent of a climate refugee camp. these animals have suffered through a lot in the last few years and need every day of warm water they can get. 

florida’s starving manatees

the manatee population living along florida’s east coast has been suffering from an “unusual mortality event” or ume since december 2020. the florida fish and wildlife conservation commission (fwc) reported that 1101 manatees died across florida in 2021. for comparison, the fwc reported just 637 manatee fatalities in 2020. the number of manatee fatalities in 2021 jumped 476 deaths over the 5-year average of 625 fatalities a year. according to florida director of the center for biological diversity jaclyn lopez, the manatee deaths witnessed in florida between the beginning of the ume and february 2022 are equivalent to 12-13% of the state’s total manatee population. 

according to lopez and the fwc, the cause of the recent manatee death crisis is the collapse of the seagrass population in warm water areas that manatees in eastern florida use to survive the winter. high levels of nitrogen and phosphorus caused by human water pollution (such as agricultural and suburban waste water runoff) allow naturally occurring algae to grow into harmful algae blooms. these algae blooms block sunlight from passing through the water to the seagrass beds below, devastating the manatee’s main food source. the manatees are then forced to choose between congregating in warm water areas that no longer have enough seagrass to support them or venturing out into areas where the winter water is too cold for them to survive. 

both lopez and the fwc point to indian river lagoon as the epicenter of this crisis. according to lopez, the lagoon is kept at a toasty 68 degrees because of artificial warming created by discharge from a nearby nuclear power plant. it has traditionally been an indispensable wintering area for manatees, but now it no longer has enough seagrass to support the animals who gather there, causing mass starvation and numerous fatalities. 

emergency lettuce for manatees

the united states fish and wildlife service (usfws) and the fwc have responded to the ume with the formation of a joint incident management team with a joint unified command (uc) to coordinate the government’s response. under the framework of this taskforce, federal and state conservation officials have worked together to monitor the situation, keep the public informed, and minimize manatee casualties. the most drastic effort undertaken by the taskforce was a pilot feeding program in which officials would provide manatees with lettuce. according to the fwc, before the feeding program manatees would “completely fast or consume elements with no or little nutritional value, including sand or other debris.” the supplemental feeding trial was implemented in order to “reduce the negative health impacts of prolonged starvation and possibly reduce the numbers of deaths and manatees needing rescue.”

the manatees began to eat the lettuce wildlife officials placed into the water on january 20, 2022. the fwc does not currently have an estimate on the total number of manatees fed by the program. the number of animals visiting the temporary field response station (tfrs) in indian river lagoon, where the feeding was being carried out, varied, with a single-day high of 800 individuals. the feeding program was discontinued on march 31, since most of the manatees dispersed to better feeding grounds as the waters warmed. a scaled down uc is continuing to monitor the area for distressed manatees over the summer.

when asked about the feeding program, lopez called it a “necessary stopgap” and “an essential emergency measure” but argued it was not a viable long term solution. patrick rose, executive director of the save the manatee club, agreed with lopez, saying the program “cannot possibly be relied on for the long term future.” he also called the program “tragically necessary” and said that the need for it was “predictable” given the government’s failure to adequately deal with water quality issues. 

the lawsuits

three conservation groups, the center for biological diversity, defenders of wildlife, and the save the manatee club, have responded to the ume with lawsuits against the usfws and the environmental protection agency (epa).

according to lopez and rose, the conservation groups hope the lawsuit against the usfws will force the agency to update the “critical habitat designation” of florida manatees. critical habitat is defined as the air, land, food, and water essential for the survival of a species. rose explained that the current critical habitat designation for florida manatees was included in the original 1973 endangered species act and that it has not been expanded to keep pace with new science and regulations in the years since that law’s passage. the endangered species act requires federal agencies take into account how their policies impact the critical habitat of endangered and threatened species when crafting policy.

according to lopez and rose, the usfws actually agreed with environmental groups that the critical habitat designation for florida manatees needed to be updated back in 2008. however, the agency has so far not dedicated the needed resources to update the designation. the agency currently has until june 24 to answer the complaint of the conservation groups in court. lopez put the purpose of the lawsuit succinctly, saying, “if we protect manatee habitat, they won’t starve to death.”

according to the save the manatee club, the lawsuit against the epa over its failure to consult with the usfws on water quality standards and its inadequate enforcement of those standards was filed on may 10. 

when asked about the lawsuits, a representative of the usfws said: “the u.s. fish and wildlife service is aware of the litigation, but we do not comment on litigation as a matter of policy.” the agency also said that: “the existing florida manatee critical habitat designation includes the indian river lagoon at the epicenter of the ongoing ume.”

the uncertain future of a florida icon

in the long term, efforts will need to be made to restore water quality and manatee habitats so that these herbivorous marine mammals can thrive without human feeding programs. hopefully these changes are made so that tourists and florida residents alike will be able to enjoy the spectacle of seeing these wonderful creatures in the wild for generations to come.

the rest of the group arrives, and we all don our masks and regulators. i make eye contact with autumn, our dive safety officer back on the beach, before emphatically reaching up and patting my head: the universal divers signal for “ok.” looking back at the group, i give a thumbs down – the signal to descend – and start to let air out of my bcd. just as i’m about to go under, one of the group members points behind me and gives a muffled yell through her regulator. reinflating my bcd and spinning around, i see an otter floating on its back less than 40 feet away from our group. we all watch for a moment as she nibbles on some unfortunate shelled creature picked up from the bottom. as quickly as we notice her, she slips back beneath the surface in search of more snacks. i give the thumbs down, and we follow her. 

now 40 feet below the waves, i check in with the group; my nerves are replaced with the natural calm that i always experience when diving. i feel the power of the ocean as i am pushed and pulled by the same forces that move the kelp forest all around me. though the power of the water should be disconcerting, i find it quite comforting, as though i’m being held. on the rock reef next to me are countless red and blue anemones. crabs crawl around them as fish dart from crevice to crevice within the rocks. a lingcod disguises himself into the top of the reef, hidden from prey but visible to me. i can quite literally feel how alive the ocean is. just as we are about to start the swim deeper into the forest, our otter friend pays us a visit. slinking through the water just on the edge of our view, she swims a lap around us before darting to a crevice in the rocks, grabbing her next snack, and heading back to the surface. as i sit in admiration, a snickers bar wrapper floats past my mask.           

for the last few years, i’ve found it increasingly difficult to find refuge from the signs of human impact. whether it be a candy wrapper on the bottom of monterey bay, a plastic water bottle floating in a remote alpine lake, or a tree cut down by boy scouts in a wilderness area, i can’t escape the signs of damage like i could when i was younger. some of that must be an increase in awareness as i’ve aged, but recently, the wild spaces in which i take refuge have felt increasingly used, neglected, and disrespected. for me, moments of awe and deep respect for the natural world are frequently soured by reminders of what we are doing to our planet. as a kid, i couldn’t wait to become an adult and spend the rest of my life experiencing all the places david attenborough told me about. now, in the beginnings of my adult life, it is apparent that many of the places and much of the biota i once hoped to see are already gone. over the course of my lifetime, we’ve added more than 1.5 billion people to the planet, increased atmospheric co2 by almost 50 ppm, and destroyed an amount of wilderness larger than all of alaska (lindsey 2020; ritchie and roser 2021; roser et al. 2013). i’m only 20. 

these realities often leave me feeling depressed, morose, apathetic, and frankly, pissed-off. i’m not alone in this. even in contingents of my least environmentally conscious friends, these feelings are frequently expressed in our conversations. my whole generation is coming of age under the burden of knowledge that our planet is dying. we’re faced with the constant uncertainty of whether we will be able to save it and many of us have already spent years fighting on its behalf. personally, i’ve spent the last eight years working to protect the boundary waters canoe area wilderness. of that, it has taken the last six years and more than $10 million for our campaign to build back to where we were when obama left office. how are we supposed to battle the same broken system on behalf of the whole planet? for some time now, i’ve felt the tendrils of climate despair and burnout taking hold of me. i’ve seen them grab my friends. we’re only 20. 

i reach out and grab the snickers wrapper just before it drifts out of reach. as we go through the rest of our dive, i pick up several more pieces of garbage; an empty coors can, a cloth napkin, and several more wrappers all make their way into the pockets of my bcd. as i take in all the life around me, i can’t help but wonder how much more i would’ve seen before industry took over the bay, but also how much less i would’ve seen in the early 20th century before conservation efforts began. 

monterey bay is a story of incredible ecosystem recovery (sotka and palumbi 2011). since moving here in january, experiencing the culmination of years of conservation work has reminded me of the positive transformation that is possible when we effectively attack our problems. many of us get so caught up in our fights for the places we love that we forget to remind ourselves why we are fighting.  seeing the bay and coming to understand its conservation success has put some hope back in me and reignited that spark of wonder i felt as a kid watching “planet earth.”

—

works cited

hannah ritchie and max roser (2021) – “biodiversity”. published online at ourworldindata.org. retrieved from: ‘https://ourworldindata.org/biodiversity’ [online resource]

lindsey, r. (2020, august 14). climate change: atmospheric carbon dioxide. climate change: atmospheric carbon dioxide | noaa climate.gov. retrieved march 7, 2022, from https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-atmospheric-carbon-dioxide#:~:text=since%202000%2c%20the%20global%20atmospheric,mauna%20loa%20observatory%20in%20hawaii.

max roser, hannah ritchie and esteban ortiz-ospina (2013) – “world population growth”. published online at ourworldindata.org. retrieved from: ‘https://ourworldindata.org/world-population-growth’ [online resource]

palumbi, s. r., & sotka, c. (2011). the death and life of monterey bay: a story of revival. island press.

volunteer researchers, more commonly known as “citizen scientists,” are everyday people who lack formal training in scientific fields yet contribute to scientific work. citizen scientists, now more than ever, are volunteering and collaborating with university research labs and government agencies, like the national oceanic and atmospheric administration (noaa), by assisting with data collection and field research. 

shark scientists rely on the use of citizen scientists for data collection to monitor population growth and habitat shifts. local citizen scientists notice something’s amiss and contact the appropriate agencies and facilities. for example, californian citizen scientists noticed an influx of juvenile white sharks (carcharodon carcharias) in bays and along beaches within the last several years as their coastal waters warm. these juvenile shark populations were observed much further north than usual. 

salvador jorgensen, a research associate at the institute of marine sciences at the university of california, santa cruz, recently co-authored a paper in the journal scientific reports on this range shift of juvenile white sharks. the monterey bay aquarium led the research, and jorgensen and colleagues incorporated data that citizen scientists gathered.

juvenile white sharks are endotherms. they need to stay in water that is warm enough to maintain their core temperature but not too warm to elevate it, jorgensen explained.

“i kind of call it ‘the goldilocks zone’ for juvenile white sharks. it’s between 60 and 70 degrees [fahrenheit],” he said.

juvenile white sharks were mostly found in the warmer waters south of point conception, the headland where the pacific ocean and santa barbara channel meet, according to jorgensen. this is considered the point that separates southern and central california. however, during the 2014-2016 north pacific marine heatwave, juvenile white shark sightings reached unprecedented rates in central california. despite the marine heatwave ending five years ago, juvenile white sharks are still spotted along central california beaches.

kisei tanaka, a research marine biologist for noaa and lead author of the paper, said that the primary source of their data came from online open-access databases where people can use a website or phone application to take photos of a plant or animal for identification and upload the information to free public sources. scientists may even have the latitude and longitude of the species sighting if someone geotagged the uploaded photo with the exact location.

tanaka and jorgensen looked at the public access databanks along the california coast over the last five years to confirm the uptick of juvenile white shark sightings further north of point conception. then, marine scientists conducted their scientific survey expeditions looking for juvenile white sharks. the public access databanks utilized, like inaturalist, allowed the scientists to pinpoint which areas appeared to be the most juvenile white shark heavy, based on citizen scientist sightings.

“this [method of data collection] is very novel and effective in terms of capturing the change in the species distribution that weren’t affected by the scientific survey [our research team conducted] but may be able to be conducted at a much more local scale by more participants,” said tanaka.

 through the research described in their paper, the shark scientists determined that juvenile white sharks are moving poleward as their initial nursery ranges, like south of point conception, are too hot for their temperature-sensitive bodies. while rising ocean temperatures have been a concern to marine scientists for years now, citizen scientists quickly caught the attention of researchers with the influx of juvenile white sharks spotted further north and submitted to these databases.

“white shark is a very charismatic species that a lot of people pay close attention to, and they happen to be the one that responds to the climate very abruptly,” said tanaka.

tanaka discussed how sharks tend to capture the eye of the public which makes them one of the best species to use as a flagship for conservation initiatives regarding climate change. the international union for conservation of nature red list of threatened species categorizes white sharks as “vulnerable” and were last assessed in november 2018.

chelsea black is a ph.d. student studying marine conservation at the university of miami’s shark research and conservation program. as the shark satellite tracking coordinator, black monitors all their satellite-tagged sharks and verifying that the transmissions are accurate. she also works as the adopt a shark program manager. if someone donates the amount of a satellite tag, black assigns them their “adopted” shark. the donors can then name the shark and create an origin story of said name. the donors can then check up on their tagged shark at sharktagging.com.

before the covid-19 pandemic, black’s lab actively engaged the public to try more hands-on citizen science by having designated days where groups, such as corporate organizations or students on field trips, go on their boats and help with shark tagging. during these expeditions, citizen scientists get to measure sharks, attach a satellite tag to sharks, take a biological sample of a fin clip and write down field data. they even hold special expeditions where they take young girls out for tagging events with an all-female crew. the program is called females in the natural sciences (fins), and the goal is to excite young girls about shark science and demonstrate that science needn’t be a male-dominated field.

“it’s really cool seeing people come out on the boat with us who sometimes have never been on a boat, have never seen a shark. we will have people who are, you know, kind of afraid of sharks or are not sure what to expect, and by the end of the day, everyone is just like, ‘that was so amazing! i didn’t realize how calm sharks are.’ they’ll see us handling the sharks, obviously very safely, but without fear of the shark harming us,” said black.

for black, changing people’s opinions on sharks while contributing to scientific data collection is one of her favorite parts of working with the shark research and conservation program. she believes that informing and engaging the public in citizen science is crucial for shark conservation.

“we’re losing sharks at such a significant, you know, percentage each year that it will be in our lifetime that we will see species go extinct,” said 27-year-old black.

according to black, if you look at the data, there was a massive spike in shark killings after “jaws” came out in 1975. however, the rise in concern over sharks led to more shark research facilities. after over forty years of adverse publicity, white shark perceptions are finally changing for the better.

christopher lowe is a professor of marine biology, co-author of the juvenile white shark research paper, and has worked as the director of the shark lab at california state university, long beach since 1998. lowe said that for the first time in years, he feels hopeful about shark populations returning thanks to conservation initiatives. he feels that people are genuinely excited about protecting and celebrating sharks.

“i would argue that sharks are now as much a part of our [american] culture as baseball and the fourth of july,” said lowe.

lowe believes conservation citizen science is growing because people are interested in “reconnecting with nature.” according to lowe, some people want more than seeing a piece of nature at face value but to learn something about it.

white sharks are “apex predators;” they reside at the top of the food chain. they prey but are not preyed upon, and they remain a crucial part of oceanic ecosystem conservation by keeping all the other levels of the food web in check. if the apex predators disappeared, the ecosystem’s natural balance would fall. lesser predators would grow in population thus until their prey was depleted, leading to mass die-outs. by protecting white sharks, whole ecosystems are being sustained.

“if we are conserving ecosystems and we’re interested in health of the ocean, for example, we should be concerned with the health of all the species from the smallest, lowliness of phytoplankton all the way to its top predators,” said jorgensen.

with the popularity of a range of volunteer monitoring growing, marine scientists are feeling cautiously optimistic about the future. many shark species are returning to the american coasts. but for marine life, current conservation efforts may not be enough if the symptoms of climate change continue to worsen.

“it’s going to take the planet. it’s going to take everybody, and that is a bigger challenge,” said lowe.

the research says that if sharks, and marine ecosystems as a whole, want to persist, humans have to combat climate change. shark populations are shifting and reacting to people changing the planet explained jorgensen. as ocean temperatures continue to rise, it is up to humankind to save sharks from extinction.

in late may of 2019, three of us drove to silver strand state beach — runs are supposed to be the biggest on broad, secluded beaches — and waited for the fish to come. the second hour of the second night is said to bring the biggest spawns, and we sat on shore, three out-of-staters poised to be reminded of why we came to college in california. the wind was blowing onshore in a familiar midwestern way, but none of the breaking waves brought fish with them, only thick salt spray. we walked further down shore, first year environmental science majors not yet possessing the language to explain the patterns of longshore drift that pull sediment (and grunion) north up the strand. after an hour of searching, our most significant sighting was a lone juvenile man-o-war, a small jellylike hydrozoan that from a distance appeared to be a small newspaper bag washed up at the high tide mark. we left grunionless, but relieved to see a different creature from ecology class rendered real instead of beach litter. 

two years later, on a springtime full moon, i reconciled that i couldn’t leave california without having taken part in a proper grunion run. early march is the first publicized run of the year. in 2021, this meant the day after daylight saving time, when midnight feels like 11 p.m. and it’s a little bit easier to be fully awake and present in the dark. we saw flashlights about halfway down the beach and turned away from them and started toward the jetty. the first discernable change was the texture of the sand. at high tide, it’s soft and gooey, the kind that your feet fall into and leave an oblong imprint, more hoof-like than human.

we saw one fish, about 400 meters north of the lifeguard house. it wasn’t a good omen. grunion have a built-in safety system: if the first fish don’t get swept back in the ocean by the tide, the rest of the group will identify a threat onshore and a run will not occur. i was convinced we’d witnessed precisely that, a lone scout on the beach signaling an apparent danger. as we walked further south, a group of plovers scurried out behind a breaking wave. dun brown on top with white underbellies, the small birds looked just enough like the silvery sides of a grunion to be the real thing. they moved in a pack, though they scuttled over land much more nimbly than a fish could. still, i wanted to believe they were grunion: if these fish could spawn on land, maybe they really could move like they had legs?

the plovers ran east, and we turned toward the breaking waves to see the silvery sides of hundreds of fish illuminated by parking lot lights. finally, grunion had materialized in the incoming water, glistening in a way that was distinctly the product of layered scales, and not deceptive feathers.  almost immediately, they surged up against the sand, burrowing vertically into the soft sediment and laying eggs. for every fish flopping onto land, there was another head visible, buried fins-down in this perennial ritual. further south, a network of holes was visible: we had found the grunion mid-run, the glistening orange eggs filling the indentations indicated. the grunion on the sand sound like wings, their tails beating against the thin laminate of water as the waves rush back down the sloped sand. 

catching grunion is a form of sustainable fishing in california: with no bait, lines, or lures, california fish and wildlife rules state that they must be caught with one’s bare hands, and strictly prohibits the catching of excess fish. a hunter approached us, armed with only a red cooler and small flashlight. upon seeing us, they turned back — it may be an unspoken rule of grunion hunting that it is best done in isolation. perhaps it was our turn to go, too, and just let the fish be.  

the next day, we went out again. the third day is sometimes as good as the second, research tells us. the weather felt strikingly similar to that grunionless may of 2019, with strong winds, giant kelp washed onto burgeoning dunes, and eggshell-white foam spray surrounding the kelp beds. the winds were strong enough to knock out a transformer, breaking the link between the electric grid and the entirety of the glorified sandbar that is mission beach. in the full darkness the grunion could be apart from humanity, spawning in actual darkness like evolution intended them to. we walked down to the jetty, and they were there — scattered across the shore with the force of the waves, but still digging holes with only tails and fins, still silver against the night-black sky, still making their world go on.

the seaside seabird sanctuary offers a second chance to injured birds. the staff has great care and respect for the birds housed there. when the technician came to the conclusion that the bird with the compound break had to be euthanized, he became very quiet. he rubbed his eyes and looked forlorn. i could tell from his expression that this was the hardest part of the job. 

animal rehabilitation centers like the seaside seabird sanctuary are at the forefront of conservation efforts. there is a limited number of centers that offer rehabilitation services, so they are kept busy. they rely entirely on donations. 

we have an easy suggestion for you — and it’s not a new concept by any means, but it’s one we all should really make an effort to do: make it a goal to always have a reusable bag on hand. carry at least one in your book bag, purse, backpack, car or bike pouch at all times. most are foldable and some pack up in their own carrying case, which means you really have no excuse.

why bother to make the (very small) effort? 

these days, some stores charge you a small fee for bags, while some give you a credit of a few cents for bringing your own. in most of the country, these fees are optional and at the discretion of retailers. but some counties, cities and states have passed laws mandating fees, like in the nation’s capital, which has had a bag tax in place since 2010, and hawaii, which is the first state to ban plastic bags — granted, at the county level, not by the state legislature. (oahu became the last populated island in the state to ban the bags as of july 1. though apparently there’s a bit of a loophole there.)

if a few pennies here and there is not enough motivation, take a look at the great pacific garbage patch. it’s a giant swath of plastic trash — literally too large for scientists to trawl to measure, according to national geographic. not all of this, obviously, is plastic bags. but it’s certainly part of the problem. beyond pollution, the danger extends to marine animals as well. 

bottom line? it’s way past time to ditch the plastic bag habit. solutions include:

• purchasing a reusable bag. some are made of recycled plastic bottles. (is that the “inception” of recycling — reusing a bag made of recycled materials?)
• making your own bags out of recycled materials. got an old t-shirt or 20?
• skipping a bag altogether. think about it: if you carried it up to the register in just your hands, do you really need a bag? 

another bonus of reusable bags is they are much sturdier than the disposable options from stores these days. so, save your expensive eggs from disaster.

just remember: reuse widely and wisely. and give those reusable bags a wash every now and then to avoid the risk of cross-contamination, too. 

fluctuations in the npgo are driven by the same fundamental processes that control salinity and nutrient concentrations. in the california current system, the npgo particularly reflects changes in the winds that cause coastal upwelling, the process by which subsurface cold water that is rich in nutrients is brought up to the surface. these results strongly support the use of the npgo as the primary indicator of upwelling strength and nutrient fluxes, and, therefore, the potential for ecosystem change in the california current system region. changes in nutrient fluxes drive fluctuations in modeled chlorophyll concentration—an indicator of phytoplankton concentration—that are highly correlated to observed chlorophyll. the model simulations support the hypothesis that variations in phytoplankton biomass in the california current system region are primarily driven by changes in wind-driven upwelling correlated with the npgo. the npgo thus provides a strong indicator of changes in the mechanisms driving oceanic ecosystem dynamics.

this “bottom-up” forcing is consistent with previous fish catch data and satellite-derived chlorophyll concentration, and underscores the need to better understand the influences of physically forced nutrient fluxes on higher food-chain levels in the ocean. the researchers have also shown that the npgo pattern extends beyond the north pacific and is part of a global mode of climate variability that is evident in global sea-level trends and sea surface temperature. the amplification of the npgo variability found in observations and in model simulations of global warming scenarios implies that the npgo may play an increasingly important role in forcing global-scale decadal changes in marine ecosystems.

representative jay inslee (d-wa) introduced a bill in congress in 2009, called the cascadia marine trail study bill, to designate the cascadia marine trail as a national scenic trail. in washington, 83% of the shoreline property is privately owned, and this designation would not only protect the fragile ecology of this area, but would also protect public access to the cascadia marine trail. this is the first bill to be introduced in congress that would provide a designation for a fully waterborne trail.

supporters of the bill would like to see campsites added for non-motorized boaters every five to ten miles along the trail. “if you’re not kayaking a lot, you don’t really realize how few spots there are that you can camp, and that you can go with a kayak,” says connor inslee of the outdoors for all foundation.

the cascadia marine trail currently relies on the generosity of donors and the efforts of volunteers for support and maintenance, but the economic downturn has resulted in fewer donations, which means losing campsites. the success of the current bill would provide support from federal funding as well as management of the trail and campsites by federal authorities from the national parks service or the bureau of land management.

congressman inslee says americans should support this bill regardless of where they live. “it’s just like asking why you would care about yellowstone or yosemite,” he says, “just because you’re not living [near] there, it doesn’t mean it’s not a huge part of everybody’s lives.” supporters say the designation is about more than funding. they want to ensure that future generations can enjoy this as much as those who travel these waters today.

the house of representatives approved the cascadia marine trail study bill, but a senate vote never occurred, so it was not passed. as is customary, this bill was cleared from the books at the end of the session, but will be re-introduced in the current session.