Meeresschutz: Lotsen und Doppelhüllentanker sollen Ostsee vor Öllecks schützen (28.10.04)

Lange vor Inkrafttreten der ab 2010 geltenden gesetzlichen Vorgaben verbessert BP die Sicherheitsmaßnahmen im Öltransport in der Ostsee erheblich: Schon seit dem Frühjahr 2004 setzt BP dort Lotsen ein. Diese gewährleisten, dass in den engen Fahrwassern der Ostsee das Risiko eines Tankerunfalles minimiert wird. Damit kommt Das Unternehmen Forderungen nach, die Umweltorganisationen wie Greenpeace schon seit Jahren erheben. Außerdem werden in der BP eigenen Flotte weltweit ab Anfang 2005 nur noch Tanker mit Doppelhüllen eingesetzt. Im Falle einer Beschädigung der äußeren Hülle verhindert die innere ein Auslaufen des transportierten Produktes.

Die ganze Nachricht im Internet:

http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php4?Nr=9611

Sinkende pH-Werte in den Ozeanen gefährden Riffe und ihre Bewohner. Meeresexperten warnen, dass die zunehmend sauren Meere bis 2065 die Korallentiere der Erde vernichten könnten. Nach Ansicht der dänischen Forscherin Katherine Richardson können jene Organismen, die Kalkstrukturen bilden, schwere Schäden im Aufbau bekommen. Die Forscherin hat das beim diesjährigen EuroScience-Forum berichtet.

http://www.sonnenseite.com/fp/archiv/Akt-News/5257.php

Überfischung und Verschmutzung: Vierzig Prozent von Nord- und Ostsee müssen geschützt werden

15.07.04

Greenpeace hat am Donnerstag eine europaweite Kampagne zum Schutz von Nord- und Ostsee gestartet. Greenpeace in Deutschland, Großbritannien, den Niederlanden, Schweden, Dänemark, Finnland und Norwegen setzt sich für neue Schutzgebiete ein. Die Umweltorganisation fordert mindestens 40 Prozent von Nord- und Ostsee als Schutzgebiete auszuweisen. Der Grund: Viele Fischbestände sind stark überfischt und daher akut bedroht. Jahr für Jahr fließen mindestens 30.000 Tonnen Öl aus Schiffen und Bohrinseln in die Nordsee, die Ostsee muss mindestens 15.000 Tonnen Öl verkraften. In den vorgeschlagenen Gebieten müssen künftig alle zerstörerischen Aktivitäten, wie Grundschleppnetzfischerei oder Ölförderung verboten sein...

Die ganze Nachricht im Internet:
http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php4?Nr=8917

Das größte Korallenriff der Erde, das australische Great Barrier Riff, wird endlich umfassend geschützt: Dieses Weltnaturerbe wird heute zum weltgrößten Netzwerk mariner Schutzzonen und damit für die Fischerei auf rund einem Drittel der Fläche zur Tabuzone, damit der Aufzuchtsraum der Fische und damit ihr Bestand erhalten bleibt. Die Umweltschutzorganisation WWF hatte sich vier Jahre lang für dieses Ziel eingesetzt, den über 2.000 km langen Meeresnationalpark entlang der Nordostküste Australiens konsequent zu schützen und lobt den neuen Zonierungsplan als vorbildlich...

http://www.sonnenseite.com/fp/archiv/Akt-News/5016.

04 Jun 2004 12:09:42 GMT

BARCELONA, Spain, June 4 (Reuters) - Over-fishing, pollution and global warming are threatening the world's oceans, the United Nations said in a report to mark World Environment Day on Saturday.

"Wanted! Seas and Oceans: Dead or Alive?" is the slogan for the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP) on the annual day, helping review the state of the planet.

Following are some UNEP facts about the seas:

-- Oceans cover 70 percent of the world's surface and more than 90 percent of the world's living biomass -- from seaweed to blue whales -- is found in the oceans.

-- More than 3.5 billion people, more than half the world's six billion population, depend on the seas for their primary source of food. The numbers could double to 7.0 billion in 20 years.

-- More than 70 percent of the world's marine fisheries are fished up to or beyond their sustainable limit. Stocks of fish such as tuna, cod, swordfish and marlin have declined by up to 90 percent in the past century.

-- Governments at a 2002 Earth Summit in Johannesburg agreed "on an urgent basis and where possible by 2015, to maintain or restore depleted fish stocks."

-- The summit also called for elimination of government subsidies. Estimated at $15-$20 billion a year, subsidies account for almost 20 percent of revenues to the fishing industry worldwide and can promote excess fishing.

-- Eighty percent of all pollution in the seas comes from land-based activities. By 2010, 80 percent of the world's population will live within 100 km (62.14 miles) of coastlines.

-- Death and diseases caused by polluted coastal waters cost the global economy $12.8 billion every year.

-- Plastic waste, like supermarket bags, kills up to one million seabirds, 100,000 sea mammals and countless fish yearly.

-- An estimated 21 million barrels of oil run into the oceans every year from sources ranging from run-off from streets to ships flushing their tanks.

-- In the past decade, an average of 600,000 barrels of oil a year have been accidentally spilled from ships -- the equivalent of 12 disasters the size of the sinking of the Prestige tanker off Spain in 2002.

-- Sea levels have risen by 10-25 cm in the past 100 years and global warming is threatening further rises. Higher sea levels could destroy corals and swamp some low-lying nations in the Pacific.

-- Tropical coral reefs are found off 109 nations -- significant damage has occurred to reefs off 93 of them, from factors including coastal development and tourism.

-- Coral reefs comprise less than 0.5 percent of the ocean floor but more than 90 percent of marine species are directly or indirectly linked to them. The 2,000 km (1,200 mile) long Great Barrier Reef off Australia is the largest living structure on the planet, visible from the Moon.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L04297070.htm


Informant: NHNE

Sci/Tech > Environment
from the May 27, 2004 edition

'Dead zones' threaten fisheries

By Mark Clayton | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
In midsummer, the northern Gulf of Mexico, where the Mississippi River empties into it, may shimmer like any other swath of sea. But a few score feet below, bottom-dwelling fish and other creatures struggle just to breathe.

This area - one of the world's biggest coastal "dead zones" - is rapidly being joined by a growing number of "hypoxic," or oxygen-depleted areas around the world. At least 146 such zones have been documented through 2000 - from the northern Adriatic Sea to the Gulf of Thailand to the Yellow Sea, according to a United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) report released in March. And their number has been doubling every decade since 1960, it adds. At risk: coastal fisheries near the most populous regions.

A handful of efforts are under way that could mitigate the effects. But because of lag times involved, the problem is likely to get worse before it gets better.

"I'm convinced this is going to be the biggest environmental issue in the aquatic marine realm in the 21st century," says Robert Diaz, a marine biologist and professor at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, who coauthored the study undergirding the UNEP report. "It won't take too much for these annual lower-oxygen events to expand throughout the year and actually eliminate fisheries."

Dead zones often grow where populations grow. But the real driver is the spread of nitrogen, many observers say, caused by runoff of nitrogen-based fertilizers, sewage outflows, and nitrogen deposits from burning fossil fuels. Some waters remain oxygen-depleted year-around. In other waters, the problem appears periodically...

read further under:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0527/p13s01-sten.html


Informant: NHNE

By Carolyn Fry
in Galway, Ireland

Imperilled snails fight pain
Plants and animals living in the oceans could provide new antibiotics, drug treatments and painkillers.

But scientists believe these unexplored resources may disappear before we have had the chance to tap their potential.

Fishing, climate change and pollution are altering the food chains in the ocean - reducing biodiversity.

The decline needs to be stopped before it is too late, delegates to the European Conference on Marine Science and Ocean Technology in Ireland said.

Rich diversity

"Life originated in the oceans and has evolved over a much longer time than on land, so the diversity of life is far greater," Professor Carlo Heip, of the Netherlands Institute of Ecology, said at EurOCEAN 2004.

However, marine biodiversity is very poorly known.

We need to know how biodiversity is maintained as the ocean is a very important resource for humanity
Dr Adrianna Ianora

Only a few hundred thousand species of marine plants and animals have been scientifically described; and in terms of micro-organisms, we are just scratching the surface of what exists.

Species have evolved several tricks to survive the rigours of the ocean environment. Many organisms produce molecules designed to give them a competitive edge, in the fight for survival.

These molecules can, for example, make the host creature taste bad, or even render them toxic enough to kill predators outright.

Some sessile creatures, unable to move location, cover themselves in secretions that prevent bacteria from colonising them.

New drugs

Scientists are studying such marine organisms with a view to learning more about cell functions, and using this knowledge to develop new drugs.

The oceans' vast resources remain to be documented
One line of work has focused on diarrhetic shellfish poisoning in Europe.

Dinoflagellates produce a toxin called okadaic acid which induces cramps and sickness in humans who eat shellfish exposed to dinoflagellate blooms in seawater.

Scientists have discovered that the acid can also induce cancer and interfere with testosterone - possibly even causing sterility.

"Scientists researching anti-cancer drugs look for molecules which are designed to arrest cell growth," explained Dr Adrianna Ianora, an ecologist at Stazione Zoologica, Anton Dohrn, Italy.

"In addition toxic creatures, such as poisonous snails from the Indo-Pacific, are being explored for their potential to help produce drugs to alleviate pain."

Human activity

Although the oceans have huge potential to provide us with new drugs, they are being altered by human activities.

Overfishing has depleted the number of large predators, such as sharks, affecting food webs down to microbe level.

Professor Heip: Diversity of life is far greater in the ocean
Alien species carried out of their natural environment in the ballast water of ships are changing local ecosystem dynamics, and scientists suggest climate change may ultimately affect the acidity of seawater.

No one knows what the impact of these changes will be.

"It's important to look not just at biodiversity but at how ecosystems function," said Dr Ianora.

"We need to know how biodiversity is maintained as the ocean is a very important resource for humanity."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/3711079.stm


Informant: Teresa Binstock