Lifestyle
Our Blue World: The major hazards to our marine life
Gauging the many hazards to our marine life
Pollution of our seas is arguably the biggest threat to marine life around the planet.
A major source of marine pollution comes in the form of plastic garbage, much of which converges in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch that I mentioned in my last column.
Wherever it occurs in the ocean, plastic is a major hazard to marine life. Plastic may lead to animal mortality from the outside, through entangling or suffocating an animal. Plastic may also threaten an animal from the inside by building up in an animal's stomach as the animal mistakes plastic for food.
To a sea turtle, a plastic bag floating in the water looks like a nice, big jellyfish — one of its favorite foods. However, a sea turtle has no way of digesting plastic. That plastic bag will remain inside the animal for the rest of its life, blocking its digestive system. Seabirds such as albatross will also mistake bits of plastic debris for food and even regurgitate the plastic to their chicks. This poses a double whammy, as neither the parent nor chick gets fed.
If an animal continues to ingest pieces of plastic throughout its life, its stomach may eventually fill up so much that there is no room left for food. Additionally, this accumulation of plastic will make the animal feel full when it really is not. Both of these things can eventually lead to starvation. While the plastic is interred in the stomach, toxins may also leak out into the bloodstream, posing additional health risks to the animal.
While plastic is certainly a major risk to marine life, smaller forms of invisible pollution such as PCBs and DDTs may actually be more deadly.
Even though the manufacture of PCBs was banned in the U.S. in 1979, this deadly chemical is still showing up in the tissues of marine animals off our coastline today. Long-lived animals such as dolphins and whales are particularly susceptible because they bioaccumulate toxins. This means that the toxins keep building up inside an animal's body, usually in its blubber or fat layer.
Marine mammals are at the top of the food chain, so all toxins eventually funnel up to them. For example, if a killer whale eats a seal which has eaten a large fish which in turn has eaten a small fish, the killer whale will absorb all toxins present in the small fish, large fish, and the seal. As killer whales may live to be 60 years old, all of these toxins will continue to accumulate in their bodies for all of those years.
The effects of marine pollution on marine mammals are not fully understood. However, a recent scientific study based out of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute reported that Atlantic white-sided dolphins (which are found off our shores) have very high levels of PCBs, which may cause severe problems to the brain and central nervous system. PCBs may also disrupt the endocrine system of animals such as polar bears, causing females to develop masculine traits. This could have severe implications for this species already threatened by global warming.
The good news is that we can take small actions now to stop garbage and pollutants from entering the sea. It's simple — reduce, re-use, recycle, and refresh.
I've mentioned some of these ideas before, but they bear repeating.
Reduce the number of plastic bags floating around by bringing your own cloth shopping bags to the grocery store. Use re-usable water bottles and coffee cups. Recycle paper, plastic, metal, aluminum, glass, and cardboard.
Finally, refresh yourself on a sunny Saturday morning by organizing a neighborhood beach cleanup.
Heidi Pearson, PhD, is assistant director and stranding coordinator with the The Whale Center of New England, which is based on Harbor Loop, Gloucester. For more information, go to www.whalecenter.org.
- Lifestyle
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Be prepared: What to keep on hand
Benjamin Franklin once said, "By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail."
Continued ...
With the active hurricane season and Earl to bring heavy rain tonight, we are reminded once again of the veracity of his words. But, it isn't only hurricanes that threaten us. Things like bridge fires can also occur, and did, this past week. An overturned truck can block traffic and people can be stuck in an area with no egress, which also happened here in Gloucester recently. On the more serious side, there can be everything from earthquakes to terrorist attacks, and, while no one is suggesting that we panic about those possibilities, it does make sense to take at least some elementary precautions. -
Chores don't need to leave you sore
As the summer winds down, home owners across the region will be faced with a new set of yard chores — and different chores mean new ways to get injured.
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Because of Hurricane Earl's path, some of us may be stepping up the timetable for these chores. So if you have a lot to do and if you want to stay healthy, read below to find out how you can avoid or modify the most common ways people will be injured this fall. -
Can I eat those geranium leaves?
Q: Is there a book or website that teaches one which growing things can be eaten and which can't? Specifically, I have some wonderful lemon geraniums — no flowers, just leaves. Every time I water them or the breeze moves them, the most wonderful smell hits me. I want to know whether I could use them to flavor something in cooking, or add them to my tea. I couldn't find this on the Internet.
Continued ... - Susan Britt: The destructive power of negative thinking
- HEALTH CALENDAR
- French filmmaker Corneau dies at 67
- Wednesday, September 1, 2010
- Tunes on the Town: Sept. 2 to 8
- Gloucester man's furniture touring New Hampshire
- Schooners, music, fireworks and more this Labor Day weekend
- Irish 'Trad'-ition at Gloucester Stage
- Blues giant to close out free Harbor Loop series Thursday night
- Rockport's own 'Voodoo Child': Guitarist, inspired at 4 by Hendrix, to open Taylor show
- Tuesday, August 31, 2010
- Is there anything more Gloucester than Trupiano's sausage?
- Coming next week
- Grilled Mediterranean Pizza
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Be prepared: What to keep on hand
