oceans

In a state where nearly one-third of the job force works in the oil industry, Alaskans are feeling the heat on climate legislation. Hundreds of people are meeting in rallies and discussions about the American Clean Energy and Security Act, a bill Congress is considering that would levy additional costs on the oil industry, reports Elizabeth Bluemink of the Anchorage Daily News.

Opponents of the bill's cap-and-trade system worry it will hurt the economy by forcing oil jobs offshore, leaving individuals jobless and independent refineries bankrupt.

Supporters say the long-term environmental and economic costs of not implementing the bill would be much higher than the economic ones in the near future. Alaska is already experiencing melting sea ice and permafrost, and warmer temperatures are threatening coastal life from fish to humans, as InvestigateWest reported earlier.

– Emily Linroth

Alaskan fisheries have a new woe to add to the list: ocean acidification. Research at the University of Alaska Fairbanks indicates Arctic oceans are more susceptible to acidification, reports Douglas Fischer of The Daily Climate. As oceans absorb extra carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, pH levels drop, making them more acidic. Entire food webs are impacted by changing ocean chemistry – organisms like crabs, corals and oysters are unable to pull minerals out of the water to build shells. Pteropods (tiny swimming sea snails) are already having trouble building shells, and since salmon populations depend on these critters to maintain higher body weights, Alaska's salmon runs could be in trouble. The acidification could affect the commercial industry as well as the environment, since more than 60 percent of the seafood in the United States comes from Alaska fisheries.

In a related story by Mary Pemberton of the Associated Press, Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke halted the expansion of commercial fishing in the Arctic until a sustainable plan to support fishing and the ecosystem could be developed. Obama administration officials are set to conduct a public hearing in Anchorage today about national ocean policy to develop protections and restoration of coasts, oceans and the Great Lakes.

– Emily Linroth

As Vancouver, B.C., watches Fraser River stocks of sockeye fail, the count of steelhead passing the Bonneville Dam in Vancouver, Wash., is soaring. And while low Alaskan Yukon runs of king and chum salmon predict a devastating winter for subsistence fishermen, salmon are even making a comeback in the Seine, as InvestigateWest reported last week. What differences could account for these drastic population changes?

Multiple environmental factors could be affecting populations. Warmer weather can heat up rivers, especially those overdrawn by humans, and discourage the cold-water-loving fish from heading upstream. Shifting ocean currents or other predator influences could be altering food sources. Pollutants from stormwater can accumulate in the fish. Overfishing can deplete numbers. Sea lice from farmed salmon could be transferring to wild salmon, weakening them and increasing the likelihood of succumbing to disease or predators. Even superb returns from previous years could be problematic, as too many fish spawning and then decomposing could produce excess bacteria, possibly resulting in disease.

The matriarch of ocean explorations, Sylvia Earle, gives an evocative radio interview in this piece by KUER RadioWest's Doug Fabrizio. Earle, sometimes called "Her Deepness," led a research team that lived on the ocean floor for two weeks in 1970. Almost a decade later, she walked the sea floor at a record-breaking depth. Worth a listen.