OCEAN: Coral reef bleaching & more – 12th Mar 2024

Ahoy from BA! This is Rorshok’s Ocean Update from the 12th of March twenty twenty-four. A summary of what's going down in the 70% surface of the Earth covered in saltwater.

The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (or NOAA) said on Tuesday the 5th that we are getting close to the fourth event of mass coral bleaching that will devastate the Southern Hemisphere reefs in the upcoming months. The record-breaking ocean heat due to climate change will probably cause bleaching across the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and American Samoa. Scientists are conducting research through aerial surveys to assess the extent and severity, with alarming signs of extensive coral bleaching already evident. Previous mass bleaching events took place in nineteen98, and twenty10. The last one happened from twenty14 until twenty17, where the Great Barrier Reef lost around one-third of its corals.

the Atlantic Ocean since the: 1700

Climate change is also impacting other whale species, as warming oceans affect food availability and reproductive success: the North Atlantic right whale, for example, is getting smaller because of food scarcity.

According to a study published on Thursday the 7th in the journal JAMA, migrant drownings in the Pacific Ocean while trying to reach the United States increased significantly after the expansion of the border wall in San Diego in twenty nineteen. Medical researchers are investigating the correlation between the border wall expansion and the incidents. It seems that the addition of thirty-foot (almost ten meters) steel barriers led to thirty-three deaths from twenty twenty to twenty twenty-three compared to only one death in the four years preceding the project. The barriers extend into the ocean at Imperial Beach, where drownings occur as migrants attempt to swim around the wall or reach the US by boats.

Moving on to the Indian Ocean. On Saturday the 9th, during the first edition of the Biannual Naval Commanders’ Conference twenty twenty-four, Rajnath Singh, India’s Defence Minister, highlighted the importance of the Indian Navy in ensuring safety in the Indian Ocean Region. The Minister congratulated the Navy for their quick response to recent incidents in West Asia. He stressed the need for cooperation among all branches of the military and readiness for operations in different types of conflicts. The conference is about operational initiatives and plans for capability enhancements, and Naval Commanders engage with different stakeholders to promote self-sufficiency in defense manufacturing.

Still in the Indian Ocean. Ranil Wickremesinghe, President of Sri Lanka, took the lead in the celebration of the twenty twenty-four Indian Ocean Rim Association Day (also known as IORA) in Colombo on Sunday the 10th. This day remarks the importance of creating a sustainable Indian Ocean for the future and the new generations. Sri Lanka is the current chair of IORA, and for this reason highlighted its efforts for ocean conservation and sustainable development. The country has recently received the United Nations World Restoration Flagship Award for its commitment in the restoration of mangrove ecosystems. During the festivities, different activities about ocean conservation and awareness directed to students took place.

Let’s have a look at the Arctic Ocean. A study published on Tuesday the 5th in the journal Nature Reviews Earth ­­& Environment, predicts that the Arctic could experience summers with minimal sea ice within the next ten years due to fossil fuel emissions. This would drastically alter the habitat for polar bears, seals, and walruses, and affect coastal communities.

Scientists said the region is transforming from a white Arctic to a blue Arctic during summer months, referring to the color of the sea without ice. The study suggests that ice-free Septembers could occur between twenty thirty-five and twenty sixty seven, depending on emission reduction efforts.

Want to know more about this? Check out the Arctic Update. Link in the show notes!

From the Arctic to the Antarctic Ocean. John Moore, a glaciologist and geoengineering researcher at the University of Lapland, proposed a fifty US billion dollar project to save the Thwaites Glacier, known as the doomsday glacier, from catastrophic collapse due to glacial melting. He wants to deploy underwater curtains to block warm seawater currents from melting the glacier's ice shelf. The curtains aim to halt melting and allow the ice shelf to thicken again.

While still in the testing stages, the project could progress to larger-scale prototypes within two years. Initial experiments cost 10,000 US dollars and the full-scale implementation requires fifty billion Us dollars, so it’s essential to get funds, and quickly, since glaciers like Thwaites are melting very rapidly due to climate change.

In other news, Cole Brauer, a twenty-nine-year-old sailor from Long Island, New York, became the first American woman to sail solo nonstop around the world. She departed in October twenty twenty-three from A Coruña, Spain, and finished her trip after four months. She finished second in the Global Solo Challenge, a nonstop sailing race spanning 30,000 miles (almost 50,000 kilometers) across the southern hemisphere. The race aims to provide a platform for sailors like Brauer to showcase their skills and promote gender equality in the sailing community.

Moving on to the Red Sea. The Houthi movement in Yemen is strengthening its control on shipping in the sea, requiring vessels to obtain permits before entering Yemeni waters. After the sinking of the Rubymar, a bulk carrier hit by Houthi missiles, shipping in the region decreased significantly. Global supply chains have adapted to rerouted shipping routes to avoid the dangerous waters in the Middle East.

Update from the Black Sea. Ukraine claimed on Tuesday the 5th to have sunk a Russian patrol ship near Crimea using sea drones, causing damage estimated at sixty-five million US dollars. The vessel received hits to its stern, starboard, and port sides, leading to its sinking. Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the Ukrainian President, didn’t refer directly to the sinking, but he stated that its country has: “proven what we are capable of, what our strength is capable of”.

Russia’s Defence Ministry didn’t respond to the report yet, but some Russian military bloggers confirmed the incident. This attack follows a series of strikes by Ukraine in the Black Sea and on Crimea in recent months.

From the Black to the Mediterranean Sea. On Wednesday the 6th, the Italian coast guard evacuated four migrants from a rescue ship after a seventeen-year-old boy died on board. A helicopter flew to rescue the four men, originating from Ethiopia and Eritrea, from the vessel Sea Watch 5 to Lampedusa island seven hours after the death of the young boy.

Sea-Watch blamed authorities in Italy, Malta, and Tunisia for his death, because of their refusal of evacuation requests. Hugo Grenier, Sea-Watch 5 Head of Operations, commented: “We are sad and angry. Europe's isolationist policy has claimed another victim on board our ship”. The Italian coast guard defended its position, declaring that the ship should have proceeded, according to the law, to the closest port, which they declared was in Tunisia and not in Italy.

Closing with another news from the Mediterranean Sea. On Sunday the 10th, a powerful earthquake, measuring 4.7 on the Richter scale, struck the Mediterranean Sea near Antalya's Demre district, in Turkey. The quake originated approximately nineteen kilometers from Demre and reached a depth of thirty-five kilometers. The Turkish Disaster and Emergency Management Agency provided this information on the same day on their website.

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

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