September 10, 2004
Arctic waters off Russia under threat
Overfishing, pollution from industry and the legacy of the Cold War all threaten the future of the Barents Sea, says a report released last week by the United Nations Environment Programme.
A UNEP report says the overexploitation of fish stocks is “the most alarming problem for the region at present.”
Other threats include the storage of radioactive waste, and the introduction of foreign species, such as Kamchatka crabs, into the marine environment.
The report says the Barents Sea, which lies north of Norway and Russia in the Arctic Ocean, is much cleaner than other European bodies of water.
But the development of the huge oil and gas deposits on Russia’s Arctic shelf will increase oil transport and up the risk of accidental oil spills.
The report suggests ways to cut the risk of possible emergencies, including safety plans to prevent accidental oil spills.
The region around the Russian port of Murmansk houses more radioactive waste than anywhere else in the world.
September 10, 2004
Ice cores point to rapid climate change
Scientists drilling ice cores in Greenland have recovered what appear to be plant remains from nearly 3 km below the surface of the ice.
Team members said reddish clumps of material, found in the muddy ice in the cores, contain what look like pine needles or blades of grass.
These finds could be the first organic material to be recovered from a deep ice core drilling project. Scientists think the material could be many millions of years old.
The plant material was recovered between the ice sheet and the bedrock at a drilling site in central Greenland, by a team with the North Greenland Ice Core Project.
The presence of plant material suggest the Greenland ice sheet formed very fast.
Meanwhile, 200 researchers left Norway this week for the North Pole to study the geological history of the Arctic Ocean and shed light on climate change.
Organized by the European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling, the Arctic Coring Expedition is the first attempt to bore through the Arctic Ocean bed.
By examining sediment recovered from beneath the sea floor, scientists hope to see why the climate changed from greenhouse to ice-age conditions.
Drilling will be concentrated on the Lomonosov Ridge, an area 250 kilometres from the North Pole.
The sedimentary rock on the underwater Lomonosov Ridge was created by the shells of tiny plankton. By analyzing the chemical makeup of the fossils, scientists can see what the temperature was like at the time.
“What we are learning from other drilling sites is that there have been rapid changes in climate in the past,” said Professor Kate Moran of the University of Rhode Island. “We are going to be able to understand how rapidly these changes occur. If we understand that, we can begin to understand how it could be used to help policy-makers decide what to do.”
September 10, 2004
Giant tropical fish lands in Iceland
A massive mola mola, or oceanic sunfish, was caught near Reykjavik, Iceland last weekend.
This mola mola, which belongs to the largest species of bony fish in the world, weighed in at two tons. The mola mola is usually found in warm waters.
The fish was dying before fishermen pulled it from the sea.
The Oceanic Sunfish is considered a delicacy in many parts of the world, despite the fact that its meat is known to contain neurotoxins that can cause paralysis or death.
September 3, 2004
Norway wraps up whaling season
SIKU CIRCUMPOLAR NEWS SERVICE
On Aug. 31, the Norwegian whaling season ends, although whalers stored away their harpoons several weeks ago after landing only 543 minke whales out of a quota of 670.
Norway is the only country in the world to permit commercial whaling and officials want even higher quotas.
“We wish to increase the quota of catches to levels that remain sustainable,” Jorhill Andreassen from the Norwegian fisheries department said in May, following a vote by Norwegian members of parliament calling for an increase in whaling.
The quota may rise to 745 next year, a number the government says is acceptable to the International Whaling Commission’s scientific committee.
September 3, 2004
Russian city dumps raw sewage into Arctic sea
SIKU CIRCUMPOLAR NEWS SERVICE
More than 200,000 tons of waste water are discharged into the Kola Bay in Murmansk every year. The waste is discharged directly into the water.
Murmansk, a city of nearly 400,000 has no waste water treatment plant.
This year the region’s authorities budgeted four million rubles to build a waste treatment facility, but this won’t be enough to complete the new plant’s construction.
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