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2020-03-11
National Marine Sanctuary Foundation;
Marine debris is a significant challenge facing our ocean and marine wildlife, and it is an ongoing challenge in Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.Marine debris, including lost or abandoned fishing gear and trash, entangles stony corals, sea fans, sponges, sea turtles, manatees, and other marine life. It also degrades seagrass, hard bottom, coral reef, and mangrove habitats, and detracts from the natural beauty of the islands.
Established in May 2018, the Goal: Clean Seas Florida Keys initiative aims to remove underwater marine debris from Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary and educate the public about its role in marine debris prevention. Goal: Clean Seas Florida Keys partners work with sanctuary-recognized Blue Star Dive Operators to educate dive professionals and recreational divers on best practices for removal of marine debris; perform scoping dives to identify debris hotspots; remove, dispose, and recycle underwater debris; conduct post-removal data reporting and analysis; and engage the public in marine debris awareness and prevention through education and outreach.
In the first year of Goal: Clean Seas Florida Keys efforts, National Marine Sanctuary Foundation-funded divers conducted 49 cleanup trips, engaged 450 volunteer divers, and spent nearly 900 hours underwater removing 78 intact lobster traps, hundreds of pieces of lobster trap debris, 16,369 feet of line, and 14,693 pounds of debris from Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.
2020-03-05
Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation;
The Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation embarked on the Global Reef Expedition—the largest coral reef survey and mapping expedition in history—to study the coral reef crisis on a global scale. As part of the 5-year expedition, an international team of scientists traveled to the Cook Islands in 2013 to assess the health and resiliency of their coral reefs. The Global Reef Expedition: Cook Islands Final Report provides a comprehensive summary of the Foundation's research findings from the Cook Islands research mission, along with recommendations for preserving these reefs for the use and enjoyment of future generations.
This report provides scientists, managers, and stakeholders with information on the status of corals and reef fish in the Cook Islands and helps further our understanding of the resiliency of these fragile marine ecosystems. Coral reefs face many threats, including pollution, climate change, overfishing, storm damage, and outbreaks of crown-of-thorns starfish. In order to see how these threats impacted reefs, KSLOF worked closely with local leaders, government officials, and members of the Cook Islands Marine Park Steering Committee to study the reefs. Together, they completed over 400 surveys of the coral and reef fish communities surrounding Rarotonga, Aitutaki, and Palmerston Atoll, and collected information to create over 400 km2 of high-resolution habitat and bathymetric maps of the seafloor.
2019-12-12
High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy (HLP);
This paper addresses how the compounding hazards of climate change will impact the ocean economy, specifically marine fisheries, aquaculture, and tourism. The paper examines existing and expected climate-driven changes, highlights opportunities for effective institutions and markets to reduce these impacts, explores opportunities for investments by highlighting the magnitude and direction of climate change impacts, and provides recommendations for how countries can achieve blue economic growth by implementing policies and infrastructure that reduce risks and build resilience to climate change.
2019-12-12
Tiny Beam Fund;
KEYWORDS: Beef and dairy production systems. GHG emissions. Literature review. Science-based communication. HIGHLIGHTS: *Provides user-friendly explanation of basic concepts and terminology as well as summaries of current scientific thinking related to GHG emissions of different beef and dairy production systems around the world. The aim is to give those concerned about the negative impacts of industrial animal agriculture a clear understanding of these complex and confusing issues, and to supply them with a solid foundation on which to build their case against industrializing cattle production in low- and middle-income countries. For example, it explains the difference between "intensification" and "industrialization", and why understanding the difference is critically important. *Provides key points that are useful in countering certain prevalent claims in favor of industrialization. (One such claim is that industrialization is essential in order to reduce GHG emission because non-industrial systems generate too much greenhouse gases and do not produce enough meat and dairy to meet global demands). For example, it points out that: Animals from smallholder systems – especially those in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) – often perform many more functions than cattle on industrial farms, and this complicates the way in which emissions are divided between ("allocated to") multiple products from a farm. And farms in LMICs that have low climate footprints already exist, and it is quite possible to bring more on board.
2019-11-14
UN Environment Programme (UNEP);
The development of packaging policies stems from intersecting challenges being faced by economies across the world. On one hand, growth in population has led to an increase in consumption and consequently an increase in the amount of per capita waste generation. Household waste generated contains increasing amounts of packaging waste and, more specifically, plastic packaging waste. On the other hand, existing municipal waste management infrastructure is struggling to keep up with basic collection of waste and is far from equipped handle plastic packaging waste by means that would result in recovery of material by recycling. Most of the plastic packaging waste ends up in the landfill or worse still, leaks into the environment. To confront the growing crisis of plastics leaking into the environment (particularly the marine environment), packaging policies are required to address the intersecting challenges of increasing packaging waste (plastics packaging waste in particular) and the limitations of existing municipal waste management infrastructures. Plastic packaging discussed in this report is defined as plastic materials used to cover and package consumer products. Plastic packaging generally refers to primary, secondary, and in some instances tertiary packaging materials. Whilst there is a lack of definition and standards with respect to plastic packaging waste in ASEAN, this report defines plastic packaging waste as plastic packaging materials which are either disposed of in the landfill or leaked into the environment..Post-consumer packaging collected by the formal and informal sector for recycling is also covered within this report.
2019-10-24
Ellen MacArthur Foundation;
Launched in October 2018 with over 250 signatories, the Global Commitment now unites more than 400 organisations behind a common vision of a circular economy for plastics, in which plastics never become waste. To help make this vision a reality, all business and government signatories of the Global Commitment are committing to ambitious 2025 targets. They will work to eliminate the plastic items we don't need; innovate so all plastics we do need are designed to be safely reused, recycled, or composted; and circulate everything we use to keep it in the economy and out of the environment. Credibility and transparency are ensured by a clear minimum level of ambition for signatories, common definitions underpinning all commitments, publication of commitments online and annual reporting on progress. The minimum ambition level will be reviewed — and will become increasingly ambitious — in the coming years to ensure the Global Commitment continues to represent true leadership.
2019-10-17
Environmental and Energy Study Institute;
This fact sheet begins a series on commercial aviation, by examining the impact the growth of air travel and freight will have on greenhouse gas emissions. In 1960, 100 million passengers traveled by air, at the time a relatively expensive mode of transportation available only to a small fraction of the public. By 2017, the total annual world-wide passenger count was 4 billion. The "hypermobility" of air travel is available to greater numbers of people worldwide, with rapid growth in aviation projected for developing nations and sustained growth in the large established aviation markets of developed countries. While our collective use of automobiles, our production of electricity, and the industrial and agricultural sectors each exceed the climate change impact of commercial aviation, passenger air travel is producing the highest and fastest growth of individual emissions, despite a significant improvement in efficiency of aircraft and flight operations over the last 60 years.
2019-10-16
Royal Society Open Science;
The recovery of whale populations from centuries of exploitation will have important management and ecological implications due to greater exposure to anthropogenic activities and increasing prey consumption. Here, a Bayesian population model integrates catch data, estimates of abundance, and information on genetics and biology to assess the recovery of western South Atlantic (WSA) humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae). Modelling scenarios evaluated the sensitivity of model outputs resulting from the use of different data, different model assumptions and uncertainty in catch allocation and in accounting for whales killed but not landed. A long period of exploitation drove WSA humpback whales to the brink of extinction. They declined from nearly 27 000 (95% PI = 22 800–33 000) individuals in 1830 to only 450 (95% PI = 200–1400) whales in the mid-1950s. Protection led to a strong recovery and the current population is estimated to be at 93% (95% PI = 73–100%) of its pre-exploitation size. The recovery of WSA humpback whales may result in large removals of their primary prey, the Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba), and has the potential to modify the community structure in their feeding grounds. Continued monitoring is needed to understand how these whales will respond to modern threats and to climate-driven changes to their habitats.
2019-10-15
International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF);
ISSF 2019-12: Status of the World Fisheries for Tuna. October 2019 summarizes and rates the status and management of 23 major commercial tuna stocks, based on the most recent scientific assessments as well as management measures adopted by the RFMOs.
Known as ISSF's "Status of the Stocks" report, it uses a consistent methodology focused on three factors: Abundance, Exploitation/Management, and Environmental Impact (bycatch). It does not replace the more detailed information available directly from the RFMOs. But it does serve as a single source in which uniform information is presented. It is reviewed by the ISSF Scientific Advisory Committee, which provides advice on its content.
Status of the World Fisheries for Tuna features charts, graphs, and individual stock assessments, which are organized by ocean or by ocean region. It also includes a list of Marine Stewardship Council-certified tuna fisheries (p. 108).
2019-10-08
ScienceDirect;
We argue the need to improve climate change forecasting for ecology, and importantly, how to relate long-term projections to conservation. As an example, we discuss the need for effective management of one species, the emperor penguin, Aptenodyptes forsteri. This species is unique amongst birds in that its breeding habit is critically dependent upon seasonal fast ice. Here, we review its vulnerability to ongoing and projected climate change, given that sea ice is susceptible to changes in winds and temperatures. We consider published projections of future emperor penguin population status in response to changing environments. Furthermore, we evaluate the current IUCN Red List status for the species, and recommend that its status be changed to Vulnerable, based on different modelling projections of population decrease of ≥50% over the current century, and the specific traits of the species. We conclude that current conservation measures are inadequate to protect the species under future projected scenarios. Only a reduction in anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions will reduce threats to the emperor penguin from altered wind regimes, rising temperatures and melting sea ice; until such time, other conservation actions are necessary, including increased spatial protection at breeding sites and foraging locations. The designation of large-scale marine spatial protection across its range would benefit the species, particularly in areas that have a high probability of becoming future climate change refugia. We also recommend that the emperor penguin is listed by the Antarctic Treaty as an Antarctic Specially Protected Species, with development of a species Action Plan.
