Washington's coastal waters polluted?

WASHINGTON'S OCEAN ACIDIFIED – A FUND-RAISING SCAM?

While doing research for a new book on jellyfish, which happens to be the most lethal killer in the ocean – or anywhere else, for that matter – I got sidetracked by an article announcing that environmentalists had brought a lawsuit against the EPA for allowing Washington State residents to pollute our ocean with carbon dioxide.

I was stunned. The Washington coastline is pristine compared with other seas. Any coastal waters polluted badly enough to warrant court action should be packed tightly with jellyfish of one species or other. Like the Sea of Japan which is so full of giant Nomura's jellies that nobody can fish or swim there for at least three months of the year. Those things weigh up to 400 pounds and have killed at least four people in the last few years.


Giant Nomura's jellyfish in the Sea of Japan – National Geographic News photo.
The Center for Biological Diversity claims that while it isn't noticeable to the naked eye, carbon dioxide pollution (acidification) in Washington's oceans is bad enough to seriously affect shellfish, sea urchins, shrimp. prawns, and any other marine creature that uses calcium carbonate to produce their protective shells.

When I looked into it a little bit more closely however, the whole thing appeared more like a fund raising stunt than a serious action. Nowhere are there any examples of negative impact on the creatures they claim are threatened. And nowhere is there any sign of acid.

In the many seas and coastal areas that are really endangered, the cause is never carbon dioxide, but the result of devastating fishing practices and waste pollution. Look at the west coast of Africa. It used to be the richest fishery in the world, but is now on the brink of ecological collapse thanks to over-exploitation by European Union factory ships. They have taken out so many of the top level predator fish, that massive blooms of jellyfish are literally choking coastal waters, keeping local fishermen from earning even a meager living for their starving families.

A marine research arm of the European Union, which has the worst ecological record in the world, hopes to cover up by blaming carbon dioxide, using undecipherable statements like: “increased seawater temperatures due to global warming enhance the capture of carbon dioxide by the world ocean, leading to a gradual increase in acidity in recent years". Oh yeah?

This thing about increased ocean acidity is really catching on. I always thought the oceans were alkaline not acidic. The catch phrase “more acidic” is nothing more than a fear tactic.

The current PH of the ocean is about 8.07. By their own admission, the PH level of the ocean will decrease to a low of 8.04 by – the end of this century...a long time (91 years) from now. Even then it's not much to worry about. Distilled water is 7.0, milk is 6.6, orange juice 3.6, lemon juice 2.2, and battery acid -0.2.

It seems to me the PH would have to get below 7.0 before you could say it was becoming more acidic. Maybe I'm missing something though, because scientific articles about the approaching carbon dioxide holocaust are starting to appear everywhere with increasing frequency.

The acidification proponents use frequent qualifiers such as: “may soon”, “might threaten”, “could affect” and “if we don't”, which does nothing to strengthen their case.

Besides, super-scientist Craig Venter, who decoded the entire human genome only six years ago, now has a $600 million deal with Exxon, to switch the world from fossil fuels to DNA-altered algae which takes CO2 out of the atmosphere and could swing the fear pendulum in the opposite direction, from global warming to another ice age.

Is this CO2 thing a tempest in teacup, or what?

Jellyfish could prevent the world's sixth mass extinction

As the world's oceans become depleted of their top-level predators; tuna, sharks, swordfish, Pacific salmon and dozens of others, Mother Nature is scrambling to fill the ecological holes with something a little better suited to withstand the greedy, vicious, and opportunistic nature of man. That something is jellyfish!

Jellyfish? Yes, those harmless, transparent bits of jelly that beach goers see floating lazily in tidal currents, or washed up on shore by the wind. I know it's hard to believe the slimy things are better suited for survival than sharks. But they are!

They have already survived five mass extinctions, including the last one, 85 million years ago. The one that killed off all the dinosaurs. I'll admit that some of the more than 2,000 species may not last through the next extinction, but plenty will. As for being harmless, they can be quite dangerous. Rather than being docile, they are actually meat-eating predators. One species of jelly actively hunts its victims and, next to man, is the deadliest creature on the planet.

In 2007, the sea for 10 miles around Ireland's only fish farm shone eerily with a red and purple glow from a mass of Mauve stinger jellyfish 35-feet deep as they drifted into the nets of the salmon pens and asphyxiated and stung to death every last one of more than 120,000 adult fish over a 7-hour period.

In Australia and the Philippines, between twenty and forty people are killed by box-jellies every year. One variety, the thimble-sized 'sea wasp' has enough venom in one tentacle to kill a full-grown man in three minutes. They kill more people than all other predators combined,

The giant 400-pound Nomura's jelly in the Sea of Japan is no slouch either. With a diameter of six feet, and tentacles 30-feet long, it is proving to be a very formidable foe, killing eight people since the mid-nineties – just a couple fewer than have been killed by sharks in the same period – and crippling the mighty Japanese fishing fleet.

Most jellyfish have no brain, heart, or other organs generally associated with fish and mammals, but some have some very enviable characteristics. The turritopsis dohmi, for example, is biologically immortal. The box jelly has four brains, four hearts, and four sets of six eyes. All species can live in very low-oxygen, highly pollluted conditions. At least one species doubles its size daily and matures in two weeks. After reaching adulthood, it lays 1,200 eggs per day for its entire three month lifetime. Most spawn when threatened or killed, thus every jellyfish death increases the total population.

In addition to being one of the most interesting and mysterious life forms on earth, jellyfish are of special importance because, by interfering with world fisheries, they may also be the last hope of survival for hundreds of high-level predators.

Stay tuned and I'll tell you why I believe the spread of jellyfish is a good thing.

Jellyfish in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

While doing research for the book I am writing about jellyfish, I learned about the great pacific garbage patch. Somehow, the idea of jellyfish floating in the continent-sized mass of plastic refuse reminded me of Lewis Carrol's wonderful poem about the Walrus and the Carpenter. It inspired the following adaptation.

The jelly floating on the sea,
Thought with all its might:
He did his very best to turn
To the left or to the right --
Around the floating garbage
In the middle of the night.

What is this stuff, he wondered,
It knows I cannot steer,
It has no business 'way out here'
In the great Pacific gyre
“Is this a garbage dump?” he asked.
The answer wasn't clear.

The sea was wet as wet could be,
But with the morning sky,
It was thick with plastic refuse
No jelly could pass by:
No birds were flying overhead--
There were no birds to fly.

The Turtle and the albatross
Were walking close at hand;
They wept like anything to see
Such garbage made by man:
"If this were only cleared away,"
They said, "wouldn't it be grand?"


"If seven maids with seven mops
Swept for half a year.
Do you suppose," the Turtle said,
"That they could get it clear?"
"I doubt it," said the albatross,
And shed a bitter tear.

"O Jellies, come and walk with us!"
The Turtle did beseech.
"A pleasant walk, a pleasant talk,
Along the plastic beach:
We cannot do with more than four,
To give a hand to each."

The eldest Jelly looked at him,
But ne'er a word he said:
The eldest Jelly winked his eye,
And shook his heavy head--
Meaning that he did not choose
To leave the garbage-bed.

But four young jellies hurried up,
All eager for the treat:
Their coats were brushed, their faces washed,
Their shoes were clean and neat--
And this was odd, because, you know,
They hadn't any feet.

A chance for survival

Human beings are far and away the most intelligent creatures on the face of the earth. For that matter, most scientists are inclined to agree with Stephen Hawking, the world's current Einstein, that we are probably the most advanced intelligent life in the entire universe. Hawkings discounts suggestions that UFO's contain beings from outer space. “I think any visits by aliens, would be much more obvious, and probably also, much more unpleasant," he says.

Personally, I think that Hawkings is wrong as far as intelligence in the Universe is concerned. It seems more than likely that there are countless life forms with intelligence so far beyond our own that, just as ants can't see people, we can't detect them. This idea is supported by the irrefutable fact that we are on the 'knee' of an exponential progress curve that will take us to the stars in within this century – if we don't kill ourselves first.

Who would have dreamed, only a year ago, that we would be able to manipulate the DNA of algae to make it secrete a hydrocarbon-like liquid that can power cars and planes without modifying their engines? Yet super-scientist Craig Venter, the man who mapped the entire human Genome only a few years ago, is now only 18 months away from producing a clean algal biofuel that will rid the atmosphere of carbon dioxide and make the entire oil industry redundant before the year 2012.

Being smart doesn't guarantee our long-term survival however. In fact, the reverse could be true. Jellyfish, not man, might well be alive long after all other multi-celled creatures, including ourselves, have been killed off by the by-products of the advances we create with our superior 'intelligence'.

Most species of 'jellies' have no brains at all – nor stomachs, kidneys, liver, lungs, or other vital organs either. Except for one advanced killer jelly, they don't even have hearts. What they do have though, is the ability to live in waters too polluted to sustain more complex life forms. They are the only creatures that can live happily in water saturated with carbon dioxide, and survive for extended periods without oxygen. They have already proved their survivability through more than 540 million years and all five of the great mass extinctions of life on earth, including the last one, which bumped off the dinosaurs.

Most jellyfish spawn thousands of offspring when threatened or killed. One species is biologically immortal and will live forever, unless physically destroyed. You have to admit those are pretty impressive survival skills.

As far as I can see, humanity's only hope lies with the unlimited genius and vision of the amazing Craig Ventor, and his bid to replace the oil industry with algae secretions.