By: Olivia Wigon, SRC Intern Marine megafauna face many threats such as ship strikes, climate change, ocean noise and habitat destruction, which have caused many populations to decline. Typically, conservation takes a reactive approach instead of a proactive one which makes it hard to maintain healthy populations of marine megafauna. Alyson H. Fleming and her […]
By: Allison Banas, SRC Intern There are many factors that can affect the health of coral reef communities, SCUBA diving being one of them. Studies have shown that divers’ activities can have significant detrimental effects on the ecosystem, and this paper from Valerio et al. (2018) looks at the effect divers can have on the […]
By: Gaitlyn Malone, SRC Intern As the world’s climate continues to change, economic, social, and environmental changes will undoubtedly occur along with it. One sector that is expected to be economically affected by climate warming is seafood production (Breitburg et al., 2018). Seafood production, which includes both farmed and captured fish, shellfish, and seaweed in […]
By: Peter Aronson, SRC Intern One might think that setting aside marine protected areas (MPA’s) – areas of the ocean where human activity is more heavily restricted – would reduce fishing pressure and overexploitation of marine species. However, that is not always the case. A group of researchers sought to determine if MPA’s experience intense […]
By: Kaylie Anne Costa, SRC Intern When you think of polar bears what comes to mind? Is it a mama bear and a cub struggling to swim miles to find a piece of sea ice? Because that is exactly what is beginning to occur in the Arctic. With the rise of the sea surface temperatures, […]
By: Molly Rickles, SRC Intern Often times, there are many conservation issues that go unnoticed because the general public and government are focusing on larger, more easily accessible issues. However, this doesn’t mean that the smaller, more localized conservation issues aren’t important. Horizon scans of emerging issues brings to light some of these other equally […]
By: Brenna Bales, SRC Intern The Arctic Ocean has been a heavily monitored area in recent years as climate change continues to affect the planet. This area is at high risk due to the fact that is has warmed at almost twice the rate as the rest of the planet in recent decades causing a […]
By: Carolyn Hamman, SRC Intern The interaction and impact humans have with and on oceanic environments are difficult to measure yet of vital importance to understand. The increasing global demand for fish as a food source has led to fishing pressures with potentially detrimental effects on the fished communities. By understanding the changes that are […]
By: Casey Dresbach, SRC Intern Green turtles (Chelonia mydas) have called the South San Diego Bay home since the 1850s (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries , 2014). Their origin however remains a mystery. There are beliefs that commercial fishermen of the mid 17th century harvested the species in Mexican waters and brought them […]
By: Chris Schenker, SRC Intern Across the globe, the effects of climate change are manifesting. Due to anthropogenically-induced environmental changes, the geographic occurrence of many species is being altered, and algae is no exception. Under the right environmental conditions, some algal species can cause harmful algal blooms (HABs) which create toxins and produce many harmful […]