Helpless Creature Doomed by the Millions (Billions?)

Helpless Creatures Doomed by the Millions (Billions?)

Starting with Our Oceans

We don’t actually see what is happening in our oceans most of the time. We might witness some results or view of undersea footage online or as televised, but that visualization is not that routine or common. Most of are not even aware of coastal dead zones or vast gyres floating plastic waste in the Pacific. We’re more likely to be presented with coastal storms and erosion or glaciers crashing into the water. But the oceans are a major source of photosynthesis, where plant life absorbs carbon dioxide and returns oxygen, and massive sources of food for so many animals and people. They are also a very significant “canary in the coal mine” for climate change. And that canary is beginning to faint and perhaps die. Greenhouse gas emissions are killing us all.

But human beings, though one form of concerted effort or another, are not just the cause of the global warming that his heating up our oceans… but the only species that can do anything about this disturbing heat rise. We all know, or should know, that sea temperatures above 80 degrees Fahrenheit become the fuel of tropical storms. The higher the sea surface temperature, the more water such storms absorb it and the greater force is contributed to these tropical depressions towards increasing intensity. The other species on this planet have no vote, no ability to cope with the changes in their natural habitat… other than to migrate (if they can) to new habitats that they can tolerate… or simply die off.

Heather Welch, a marine spatial ecologist at UC Santa Cruz, contributed to a Los Angeles Times editorial on September 8th, letting us know how much oceanic suffering we have inflicted on millions if not billions of marine plants and animals: “These heat waves will cause marine species to disappear in some areas and appear in others. Previous scientific research found that mobile marine species — including tuna, penguins and sharks — will shift toward the poles during heat wave events. But a new study published this week shows a much more complicated story of how mobile animals respond to marine heat waves and the costs and responsibilities this movement will carry for countries receiving these species.

“An influx of leatherback turtles into a country’s waters may require shutting down or relocating fisheries to avoid entanglement in fishing gear; an influx of blue whales could necessitate speed reductions for cargo vessels to avoid ships striking the animals. When valuable species such as tunas cross borders, the influx nation may need to increase processing plant capacity, while the outflow nation may need to compensate their fishermen for lost revenue.

“Waters around the world are seeing these elevated temperatures. A record-breaking marine heat wave is occurring in the North Atlantic, producing the warmest waters seen in the last 170 years. In the Gulf of Mexico, water temperatures off the coast of Florida have surpassed 100 degrees; off Baja California, an unprecedentedly warm ocean generated the first tropical storm to hit Los Angeles in 84 years. Normally, around 10% of the ocean surface is expected to be in a marine heat wave state, but the latest forecast predicts that up to 50% of the ocean surface will experience marine heat wave conditions by this fall.

“For the report, my colleagues and I studied the effect of four major marine heat waves from recent years on 14 mobile marine species in the Northeast Pacific (bounded by Alaska, Hawaii and the West Coast of North America). We found evidence of species shifting their habitats in all four cardinal directions.

“For example, bluefin tuna habitat relocated about 375 miles north along the coast of California during a 2015 heat wave, but shifted about 110 miles south during the 2019 heat wave. Endangered leatherback turtle habitat shifted about 55 miles to the west during a 2014 heat wave and nearly 250 miles to the northeast in 2019.

“Other ocean properties important to marine life, such as chlorophyll found in algae that some animals feed on, and oxygen concentration that can affect animals’ metabolic rates, varied among heat waves too. These physical differences translated to ecological differences: Each heat wave had distinct effects on species habitats, even when the heat waves occurred in the same area of the ocean.

“These marine heat waves often moved species habitats across geopolitical borders. During one heat wave, albacore tuna habitat shifted into U.S. waters from Mexican waters. When one country’s fish ends up in another country’s waters, it may cause commercial conflict. About a decade ago, there was the Northeast Atlantic mackerel war when warming waters shifted mackerel into Icelandic waters, leading to tensions with European nations over fishing quotas.

“Meanwhile, endangered species shifting across borders are exposed to new threats. North Atlantic right whales are moving away from warming waters in the Gulf of Maine and into the cooler waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence in Canada, where they face increasing risk of ship strike and entanglement in fishing gear.” Is this our legacy to life as we know it? Do climate change deniers and marginalizers, those who put corporate profits above life itself, really know what their callous disregard of climate change is doing… and how they and their progeny will increasingly endure unparalleled global waves of suffering?

I’m Peter Dekom, and I am indeed ashamed of those in power for ignoring what is probably the greatest existential threat mankind has ever faced.