Pillows of warm sand, sparkling blue-green waves and the sun beaming over all — who doesn't love a trip to the beach? Whether it's California, Jamaica or Kenya, vacationers flock to these iconic interfaces between land and sea. Something about sun, sand and surf holds the human imagination captive. Perhaps the best part: Beaches are usually free. But should they be? In addition to providing the obvious recreational opportunities to sunbathe, swim and fly kites, beaches buffer the coastline from erosion and provide habitat for marine creatures. These benefits are referred to as ... Read More
Riddles of an Acerbic Sea
April 13, 2009 • By • 1 Comment
Just a quarter of the carbon dioxide generated by burning fuels ends up being recycled through the biological processes of terrestrial plants and animals, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Another quarter of this man-generated carbon dioxide floats aloft in the atmosphere, and the rest, NOAA says, ends up in the drink. That amounts to 260 billion tons of carbon dioxide dissolved into the sea since the beginning of the industrial era — a good thing when it comes to reducing greenhouse gasses that warm the planet. But, it also lowers the pH of the normally ... Read More
Harnessing the Power of the Oceans
March 3, 2009 • By • Leave a Comment
Deep down in the slow-motion world of the sea, kelp sways rhythmically and schools of fish glide forward, propelled by the sweeping movement of their tails. This scene may capture the hearts of ocean lovers, but to engineers familiar with biomimicry (a new discipline that uses nature’s best ideas to solve human problems) these natural processes can help inspire the design of innovative, sustainable machines. This includes the cutting-edge energy harvesting devices currently being piloted in Tasmania by BioPower Systems, an Australian company founded by Timothy Finnigan. “When I was ... Read More
Teach a Man to Share a Fish, and He’ll Fish Forever
September 18, 2008 • By • Leave a Comment
By the early 1990s, Alaska's halibut stocks had dwindled to the point that the commercial season lasted just two days. Fishermen were forced to frantically haul in as much halibut as they could over that time, flooding the market and sending prices plummeting. What wasn't sold fresh was frozen into an even less lucrative product. During those same years, Canada's commercial halibut season lasted at least six months. The difference was that in 1991 Canada switched from the conventional fisheries management system, which set a limit on the total halibut haul, but let fishermen fight it out ... Read More
Re-reefing the Florida Keys
May 19, 2008 • By • 3 Comments
A mile off Florida's Big Pine Key and 30 feet under water, sunlight streams down onto lumps of brain coral. Scarlet grouper, white hogfish and electric-blue angelfish dart about. It seems the kind of underwater scene that made the Keys a diver's paradise, unless you know the current reality, which Ken Nedimyer does. Hovering over the bottom in scuba gear, Nedimyer buries his hand in sand and exhumes what look like small white bones but are actually dead pieces of once-ubiquitous staghorn coral. Then he makes a sweeping motion with his arm, the pantomimed message clear: There used to be a lot ... Read More
Good News — and Bad — for Coral Reefs
December 22, 2007 • By • Leave a Comment
One of the most troubling warning signs of environmental degradation in general, and climate change in particular, is the gradual destruction of the world's coral reefs. A 2004 World Wildlife Fund report found that 20 percent of the world's coral reefs have been effectively destroyed, 24 percent are at imminent threat of collapse and 26 percent face a long-term threat of destruction. Coral bleaching — which essentially turns these icons of biodiversity into lifeless skeletons — has been linked to elevated sea-surface temperatures, a likely result of global warming. Two new studies offer ... Read More
