Fukushima Wastewater Release & more– 29th Aug 2023

Ahoy from Tibidabo! This is Rorshok’s Ocean Update from the 29th of August twenty twenty-three A summary of what's going down in the 70% surface of the Earth covered in saltwater

Japan started releasing Fukushima radioactive wastewater into the Pacific Ocean on Thursday, the 24th. The process will last seventeen days. In previous episodes, we talked about how a system of filters eliminates most of the water's radioactive elements before the release into the ocean, but one element, tritium, is impossible to remove. There will be four releases until March twenty twenty-four, but it will take around forty years to complete all the discharges.

Other Asian countries have been reacting to the development. In South Korea, the police arrested fourteen people who entered the Japanese Embassy protesting against the release, and the Chinese Government promptly banned all oceanic products from Japan, strongly impacting fisheries from Tokyo and Fukushima.

Fukushima wastewater is not the only setback for Japanese aquatic products. The sea temperatures are changing the migration patterns of fish. According to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the heatwave reached a record of thirty-eight Celsius (or one hundred Fahrenheit) degrees during the summer. Different migration timing is bringing scarcity of seafood in the Japanese area: many fish prefer cooler water and are moving into open water, far from the radar of the Japanese fishermen. Other species are moving from South to North, just to be shipped back to the South since there’s more consumption of these species in this region. The Fisheries Agency is trying to help, teaching fishermen to adapt to this change in the fish’s behavior with new equipment and techniques.

Because of the ocean’s heatwave, some fish have to change habits and migration routes, while others seem to experience memory loss. According to a recent study by Ana Carolina Luchiari, a fish biologist, tropical fish, and especially reef fish, have become forgetful and unable to learn where to go, what to eat, and which animals to escape from due to the lack of oxygen caused by the high water temperatures. The absence of cognitive ability can be fatal for them.

In other news, 190 migrants were intercepted off the Atlantic coast in Morocco on Tuesday, the 22nd. The migrants were close to the Western Sahara on board makeshift boats. According to the Moroccan navy, all of them were sub-saharan and were safely brought back to the nearest Moroccan ports. The boats were probably heading to the Canarian Islands, an easy point of access to Europe on the Atlantic side.

From the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. A ship company was fined for throwing garbage off the coast of California. Zeaborn Ship Management will pay two billion dollars for discarding oil and garbage into the ocean. The German company admitted to having committed the crime at least four times last year. The material was not treated with the proper pollution prevention equipment before being thrown into the waters and it was falsely registered as having been safely processed.

Still on the Pacific Ocean. In previous episodes, we have mentioned how coral reefs were struggling with ocean warming. But nature has a strong spirit of adaptation, and corals seem to become stronger to high water temperatures. Liam Lachs, PhD Candidate in Climate Change Ecology and Evolution, is the author of the new research that studied the reaction of coral reefs to the ocean heat wave in the Pacific Ocean. It’s still not clear if the corals can keep pace with the speed of the ocean warming. In the last three decades, they increased their thermal tolerance by 0.1 Celsius (or thirty-four Fahrenheit) degrees per decade, but the global temperatures were increasing a bit more, 0.18 Celsius (or sixty-five Fahrenheit) degrees per decade. The research gives hope that corals might be developing a natural capacity for climate resistance, enough to survive the new temperatures of the oceans.

Aaand from the Pacific to the Arctic Ocean. The Russian Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute unveiled a gigantic Russian flag on the sea ice on Tuesday, the 22nd of August, the day of the State Flag Day in Russia. A statement from the Institute explains that the aim of the project is to unveil the Russian flag in the most extreme and significant places in the world. The Security and Geopolitics Department of the Arctic University of Norway interprets the project as a symbolic gesture, a sign of defiance from the Russian State willing to assert its presence and dominance on the Arctic territory and sea.

While creating enemies in the deep North, Russia is also reinforcing alliances in the South-East. On Tuesday, the 22nd, a ship detachment of the Russian Pacific Fleet visited China, after many contacts between Russia and China’s navies during the last month. The two countries’ naval interactions prove the good relations and military collaboration they have developed. The Russian ship disembarked in Qingdao, in East China Province, and the Russian servicemen had a tour of the city and met the Chinese People's Liberation Army for cultural and sports events. Before this meeting, on Thursday, the 27th of July, a Chinese vessel paid a three-day visit to Vladivostok, Russia. China and Russia are planning to continue joint military exercises and meetings to reinforce their collaboration.

In other news, on Wednesday, the 23rd of August, a Singapore-flagged gas tanker collided with a Cayman Islands oil products tanker in the Suez Canal. The Suez Canal Authority reported one ship breaking down, but it didn’t specify which one. No injuries were reported. After a few hours, the traffic of the Canal resumed to normal.

Moving on to Antarctica. Based on a new research by the Nature Journal Communications Earth & Environment, published last Thursday, the 24th of August, seven thousand Emperor penguin chicks have died at the end of twenty twenty-two. The cause of the unfortunate event is probably the low sea-ice level reached in the Southern Ocean. The researchers reported that out of five sites monitored in the Bellingshausen Sea, in four of them, there was 100% death of chicks. With the ice breaking, the chicks that fall into the water drown, and if they manage to get out, they freeze to death.

The thing with the Southern Ocean is the lack of data. 300 scientists from twenty-five different countries met on Friday, the 18th of August, for a seven-day conference organized by the Southern Ocean Observing System. They agreed that the effects of climate change in Antarctica are difficult to predict because of the absence of research in the region. The lowest sea-ice level recorded, the rising of temperatures, and the loss of fauna are some of the critical, already observable changes, but the absence of data prevents scientists from addressing the big picture of the upcoming consequences. Dr. Andrew Meijers, an oceanographer at the British Antarctic Survey, said that the scientific community was totally unprepared for the amount of ice loss experienced last winter, and that is due to a deficit in the system of observation: satellites recorded the amount of ice covering the ocean, but not its thickness.

Closing with good news. Cape Cod will soon open a hospital for stranded dolphins. The hospital will be the first of its kind and it’s set to open before the end of the month. The International Fund for Animal Welfare (or IFAW) will run the center, which will have two pools, an office, and a veterinary lab. Cape Cod has the record for the most dolphin strandings in the world. The IFAW declared they want to improve the probability of survival of stranded dolphins, treating around twelve dolphins per year. Dolphins will be released after four days of treatment. The center will not be accessible to the public, but visitors will be able to enter an educational space located in front of the center where TV monitors show what’s going on inside.

And that’s it for this week! Thanks for joining us!

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