Not much to report today, mostly taking care of administrative business (cue BTO musak), but I did come across an interesting marine biology issue, well.....at least it was interesting to me, but probably not so much to you....
I always thought a porcupine fish was a species of puffer fish. Turns out that it isn't and that it is its own species in and of itself. If you want to see what a porcupine fish looks like, scroll down a blog or two.
Still damn cute.
Another marine issue I have been reading about (with increasingly disturbed horror) is the Pacific Garbage Vortex (also known as the Pacific Garbage Patch). This is an area roughly the size of Texas in the middle of the Pacific Ocean where trash and rubbish from the Pacific's coastlines and from sea-traffic accumulates and swirls in a mass at the surface of the ocean. Historically, such detritus would degrade and then sink to the ocean floor to be further broken down by marine life and the effects of salt water. When this consisted of bits of wood, fibres, wool, animals, etc. (i.e. prior to the last century and a half or so), this was not really a problem. In fact, it possibly helped create an ecosystem in an area of the ocean probably otherwise inhospitable to most forms of aquatic life.
The problem is that we (man) invented plastics, rubber and other materials that won't break down. So now we have a swirling vortex of garbage that simply won't disappear. Ok, ok, for the geeks out there, the plastics actually will break down through weathering, but not into anything that will naturally degrade into the environment safely. When the plastics do break down, they simply break down into smaller pieces of plastic, still at odds with a natural environment.
You can watch a wee video on the issue too here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-CVRFzLoEY
There is a similar issue in the Atlantic, although from what I have been reading, it is much broader in the Pacific. It is estimated that 10% of all annual plastic waste (again, estimated at about 200 billion pounds of trash) ends up in the oceans and a significant portion of that ends up in the Pacific Garbage Vortex.
The full effects of the Garbage Patch are not known at this time and scientists have only recently started to seriously examine its impact. It seems pretty obvious, however, that it simply isn't good.
So what can we do to help reduce this issue? Well, hopefully, many of you are already doing a little bit and recycling efficiently every day at home and at work. If you live in Toronto, you know that we have an excellent recycling system and if you look at the free recycling calendar's the City dispenses, you'll be amazed at what you can recycle. So doing your part every day certainly helps.
If you come diving with the Toronto Scuba Club as well (ok, not at Gulliver's Lake, but in any open water environment), you will also know that we like to do a clean-up each and every time we hit the water. If we see garbage, we pick it up. And every few dives, we are even committed to making the object of the dive itself a garbage clean-up dive. But you can do that even when you are not diving with the Toronto Scuba Club. If you see garbage, pick it up (providing that it doesn't further harm the environment to do so...i.e. by breaking coral, etc., and as long as it doesn't put you at risk....i.e. contaminated material or over-exerting yourself carrying excessive weight).
Another way we can help is by further educating ourselves to the issue and its causes. A friend of the Toronto Scuba Club, Jeff Shaw, has in fact created an Oceanic Defense Organization. You can join his group if you are on facebook. Each time you learn a little more and each time you hear of an organization that is trying to do a little to help, join in, get involved. Even if it is only a small contribution, every little helps.
Ok, enough ranting....
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