80% fall in Krill population in the Antarctic area

[shamrock_uk]

Just to tie in with the recent raft of climate change stories.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3979833.stm

Antarctic food web under pressure Krill, a major component in the diets of many Antarctic species such as whales, penguins and seals, appears to be undergoing a major decline. Since the 1970s, numbers of the shrimp-like creatures have fallen by 80% in waters near the Antarctic Peninsula, UK scientists tell Nature magazine. The crustacean feeds on algae under the ice so the fall may be linked to recent warming that has reduced sea-ice cover. The change could have a big impact on the whole Southern Ocean food web. "Krill are a central species [to this] web; they are a major food item for species such as penguins, seals, albatrosses and whales," Dr Angus Atkinson, from British Antarctic Survey, told BBC News.

Hows that for a job? I sure wouldn't want to be out floating in the open ocean counting individual krill, no sireee.

Shamrocck you would have loved living int he 70's [img]smile.gif[/img] We had no end to the doomsday warnings from theeconuts Fortunately for everyone they were all wrong...the earth is still here, we still have Rain Forests and there is plenty of oil left in the world...we can still see the sky, the sun is still bright and no commets have wiped life off the face of the planet.

We don't have $100 apples at the grocery stand and apparently at least in the west we have pretty much enough food and necesities to take care of everyone....and in the case of the USA we have enough food stuffs to feed 2/3rds of the world...which we do. So all in all I think the alarmists of history should take a lesson from those idiots from the 70's and start to try to be a bit more realistic about their doom and gloom tactics.

Just my opinion.....well that and history has shown that my suspicions about doomsayers to be correct.

[Timber Loftis]

Besides, who needs whales anyway.

[shamrock_uk]

Whalers

Seems to me, the last count of whales, some people were saying that they had been seeing a rebound in numbers. Perhaps the sudden cessation of mass whaling has increased their numbers to the point that the Krill are lagging behind in the propagation department. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Whalers? What whalers? they are almost as extinct as the whales were once....well there is the problem of Japan...still the US isn't fielding large whaling fleets these days.


[ 11-03-2004, 05:24 PM: Message edited by: MagiK ]

[Timber Loftis]

The US hasn't fielded large whaling fleets since the days of Ishmael and Ahab. Japan *is* the problem and is single-handedly able to keep several species on the brink of extinction just so they can rub whale gland juice all over themselves and make stinky soup out of it. It's despicable.

[shamrock_uk]

I should probably have posted all of the article, so here's the rest of it:

Krill 'nursery' Dr Atkinson and his colleagues established the krill trend by analysing 12,000 net hauls taken during periods from 1926 to 2003. They found krill were concentrated in the southwest Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean and this was where the decline was most marked. Their statistical analysis suggests the most likely explanation is the reduction in sea-ice cover. This has been pronounced around the Antarctic Peninsula, one of the three fastest-warming regions on Earth. "Krill feed on the algae found under the surface of the sea ice, which acts as a kind of 'nursery'," Dr Atkinson said. "The Antarctic Peninsula, a key breeding ground for the krill, has warmed by 2.5C in the last 50 years, with a striking decrease in sea ice. We don't fully understand how the loss of sea-ice here is connected to the warming, but we believe that it could be behind the decline in krill." Future fishing This would fit with a corresponding increase in the numbers of transparent tube-like creatures known as salps. These animals tend to live in warmer, less food-rich areas. The implications of the changes are commercial as well as scientific, the Bas team believes, because krill are becoming an increasingly valuable resource for fisheries. "It is not a problem for the fisheries at the moment because they're catching a relatively small amount of krill, but the fisheries could expand quite dramatically in the future. "We've got to monitor the situation, work out what's causing the decline in krill and predict the future for the food web."

It does look like an extremely comprehensive survey and therefore perhaps something that shouldn't be dismissed out of hand.

And Magik, most amusing as always. I really wish I had been born in the 70s sometimes. Except it was a fairly crap time in the UK I think. Apart from Queen [img]smile.gif[/img]

But you feel satisfied because 2/3 of the world has food whilst I feel unsatisfied because 1/3 doesn't