Background Articles

The "unprecedented" warm water in the Pacific caused a massive toxic algae bloom from California to Alaska.

Scientists first caught on to the strange event when they found thousands of purple sea urchins and other organisms dead in their laboratory tanks. Their theory: The mass deaths were caused by a huge bloom of algae.

If you're wondering why British Columbia experienced such a mild winter and early spring, you could maybe blame it on a mysterious "blob" of warm water in the Pacific Ocean.

The half mile-long sea wall was constructed in 2012 at a cost of $34 million to help offset coastal erosion and protect the community from encroaching sea ice.

Since 1976, the distribution of molting Black Brant ( Branta bernicla nigricans ) on the Arctic Coastal Plain has shifted from inland freshwater lakes to coastal marshes, such as those occupying the Smith River and Garry Creek estuaries.

Tar ball deposition on Goa's beaches affecting marine life, says NIO study on Business Standard. To carry out study the NIO also collected samples from Baga, Candolim, Calungute and Mandrem beaches from North Goa and Velsao, Betalbatim, Colva and Benaulim from South Goa.

For decades, the crab piled up in fishing boats like gold coins hauled from a rich and fertile sea. But the very ocean that nursed these creatures may prove to be this industry’s undoing.Scientists fear ocean acidification will drive the collapse of Alaska's iconic crab fishery.

By century's end, rising sea levels will turn the nation's urban fantasyland into an American Atlantis. But long before the city is completely underwater, chaos will begin

Study finds genetic evidence of climate-change adaptation.

Our results showed that local fisheries have negatively impacted the marine biodiversity of the ecosystem causing sharp declines of common dolphins and major fish stocks and weakening the robustness of the marine food web.

A parasitic isopod that scientists identified five years ago has all but decimated mud shrimp populations in coastal estuaries ranging from British Columbia to northern California - with the exception of a handful of locations in Oregon from Waldport to Tillamook.

Once one of the most common cetaceans in the Mediterranean Sea, the short-beaked common dolphin has declined throughout the region since the 1960s and in 2003 this population was classified as Endangered in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List. Here, we document the species’ precipitous decline in eastern Ionian Sea coastal waters across 13 yr. While 150 animals were present in the study area (1050 km2) in 1996, only 15 were observed in 2007. A 12 mo assessment of fishing effort and catch, together with circumstantial evidence, suggests that the decline was caused largely by prey depletion resulting from overfishing. We analyzed the impacts of various fishing gear and estimated the degree of resource overlap between common dolphins and local fisheries. The total biomass removed annually by 308 fishing boats in the study area averaged 3571 t, while that consumed by common dolphins was 17 t. Resource overlap between common dolphins and fisheries—expressed as an average Pianka index of 0.5—differed according to fishing gear, being higher for purse seiners (0.7) and beach seiners (0.4) and lower for bottom trawlers (0.1), trammel boats (0.2) and longliners (0.0). Only about 10 active purse seiners (4% of the total active fishing fleet) were responsible for 33% of the biomass removal, and likely had the greatest impact on prey of common dolphins. This study indicates a high risk of local disappearance of common dolphins in the very near future, unless fishery management measures are implemented immediately. Purse seining should be the main management target.

July 23, 2007 – Over the last five years, large, predatory Humboldt squid have moved north from equatorial waters and invaded the sea off Central California, where they may be decimating populations of Pacific hake, an important commercial fish.

Phytoplankton blooms are increasingly conspicuous along the world's coastlines, and the toxic effects of these blooms have become a major concern. Nutrient enrichment often causes phytoplankton blooms, which decrease water transparency, but little is known about the effects of such light regime changes on whole communities of the continental shelf. A series of simulations designed to evaluate the potential effects of shading by phytoplankton blooms on community organization were conducted using a balanced trophic model of the West Florida Shelf ecosystem and the Ecopath with Ecosim modeling approach. Many functional groups in the system were predicted to decline as benthic primary production was inhibited through shading by phytoplankton, especially when associated biogenic habitat was lost. Groups that obtain most of their energy from planktonic pathways increased when shading impact and associated structural habitat degradation were complemented by enhanced phytoplankton production. Groups predicted to decline as the result of shading by plankton blooms include seabirds, manatees, and a variety of demersal and benthic fishes and invertebrates. Some counterintuitive predictions of declines (mackerel, seabirds, and surface pelagics) resulted because these groups are somewhat dependent on benthic primary production. The overall effect of the simulated bloom-associated shading of benthic primary producers resembled a trophic cascade where the number of full cycles of biomass gains and losses was approximately equal to the number of trophic levels in the system (4.7). (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A team of researchers has found that black-browed albatrosses living on the Falkland Islands see rising divorce rates during times when the sea surface temperatures rise. They point out that hunger could lead to one or the other partner abandoning an egg or hatchling—events that could lead to one of the birds ditching the other.

"We never know for sure how they died, but it does seem like a lot of the evidence points to killer whale predation," Steve Ferguson, a research scientist with Fisheries and Oceans Canada, said Thursday.

The king crab harvest survey could indicate a second bleak year for crabbers in Washington, Oregon and Alaska as warm water affects the number of adult crabs.

This year, that industry came to a drastic halt. In October, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game closed both the the Bristol Bay Red King Crab and Bering Sea Snow Crab seasons. Kelty said he is expecting between the lost revenue from the past two years, intertwined with the suspended season, he is expecting both the crabbing industry along with sector businesses to lose close to a billion dollars.

Ricky Wright points to the bank of a creek to show one way his hometown has been affected by climate change. Many banks have eroded or collapsed, and now some favorite fishing spots that were once on solid ground are reachable only by boat.