Suffering Seas
|
At
risk? A polar bear on the remote Svalbard archipelago
between Norway and the North Pole. (AP) |
What do dead whales have in common with
blooming algae and scrawny polar bears? They're all sinister
signs of how global warming is damaging the marine food
chain, say biologists in a new report released by the World
Wildlife Fund and the Marine
Conservation Biology Institute. The report, "Turning
up the Heat", describes how rising ocean
temperatures are affecting aquatic life in regions ranging
from polar seas to tropical reefs. Among the report's key
findings: warmer waters may eventually eliminate most of the
marine habitat for temperature-sensitive Pacific sockeye
salmon; heat-intolerant coral reefs in all the major
tropical regions are bleaching and dying, with a more than
90 percent mortality rate in parts of the Indian Ocean; and
the number of seabirds like sooty shearwaters and Cassin's
auklets have declined by 90 percent and 50 percent
respectively in the last decade — apparently because
unusually warm Alaskan waters killed off the plankton which
forms the base of their food chain.
The phenomenon is affecting land creatures
too. Canadian researchers who discovered polar bears in
western Hudson Bay are thinner and less fertile than 20
years ago suspect this may be because the earlier spring ice
break-up deprives them of the floes from which they catch
seals. "The interaction of these effects are being felt
all around the world," said Marine Conservation Biology
Institute president Elliott Norse. "The news is not
good," he told Newsweek.com. "Warmer temperatures
are raising the biological cost of living for marine
species." — Arlene Getz
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