Scientists Shocked As Fisheries Collapse On West Coast: ‘It’s The Worst We’ve Seen”

Photo Credit: Alaska Outdoors Supersite

The Gulf of Alaska cod populations appears to have taken a nose-dive. Scientists are shocked at the collapse and starving fish, making this  the “worst they’ve ever seen.”

“They [Alaskan cod] get weak and die or get eaten by something else,” said NOAA’s Steve Barbeaux. The 2017 trawl net survey found the lowest numbers of cod on record forcing scientists to try to unravel what happened. A lot of the cod hatched in 2012 appeared to survive, but by 2017, those fish were largely gone for the surveys, which also found scant evidence of fish born in subsequent years. Many of the cod that have come on board trawlers are “long skinny fish” according to Brent Paine, executive director of United Catcher Boats.

“This is a big deal,” Paine said. “We just don’t see these (cod) year classes disappear from one year to the next.” The decline is expected to substantially reduce the gulf cod harvests that in recent years have been worth — before processing — more than $50 million to Northwest and Alaska fishermen who catch them with nets, pot traps, and baited hooks set along the sea bottom.

Barbeaux says the warm water, which has spread to depths of more than 1,000 feet, hit the cod like a kind of a double-whammy. Higher temperatures sped up the rate at which young cod burned calories while reducing the food available for the cod to consume. And many are blaming “climate change” for the effects on the fish, although scientists aren’t directly correlating the two events. “They get weak and die or get eaten by something else,” said Barbeaux, who in October presented preliminary survey findings to scientists and industry officials at an Anchorage meeting of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council.

The 2017 trawl net survey found the lowest numbers of cod on record, more than 70 percent lower than the survey found two years earlier.

Barbeaux said the cod decline likely resulted from the blob, a huge influx of warm Pacific Ocean water that stretched — during its 2015 peak — from the Gulf of Alaska to California’s offshore waters.

Biologists tracked increases in bird die-offs, whale strandings, and other events such as toxic algae blooms. Even today, its effects appear to linger, such as in the dismal survey results for salmon last summer off Washington and Oregon. – The Olympian

The blob began to take hold in 2014, and within a year had raised temperatures as much as 7 degrees Fahrenheit in some surface waters of the Gulf of Alaska. In deeper waters, where cod feed, the temperature rose by more than 1 degree Fahrenheit. The surface temperatures recorded during the blob’s peak could be close to the average at century’s end, according to a recent report on climate change by the U.S. Global Change Research Program. Thus, future blobs could push temperatures much higher than the most recent event.

“They may not necessarily be more frequent, but they will be more intense,” said Nicholas Bond, a University of Washington climate scientist who assisted in the Gulf of Alaska cod research. “This is really going to be uncharted territory.”

Key Report: Hundreds of Native Bee Species Buzzing Toward Extinction

The Center for Biological Diversity has published a first-of-its-kind comprehensive review of more than 4,000 native bee species in North America. The report indicates that more than half the species with sufficient data are declining. Nearly 1 in 4 is racing towards extinction due to increased pesticide and other factors. [1]

Of the 1,437 species with sufficient data, the nonprofit found that 749 were declining. An additional 347 (24%) of the species are imperiled and at risk of extinction. The center presumes that the species lacking sufficient data are presumed to be at risk of extinction as well.

The author of the report, Kelsey Kopec, said in a statement:

“It’s a quiet but staggering crisis unfolding right under our noses that illuminates the unacceptably high cost of our careless addiction to pesticides and monoculture farming.”

All of the bee species are threatened by habitat loss, heavy pesticide use, climate change, and increasing urban sprawl. Let’s take a look at the case studies highlighted in the group’s report.

Yellow Carpet Solitary Bee

The Yellow Carpet Solitary Bee depends entirely on the flower that shares its namesake, the yellow carpet, or Blennosperma nanum. The biggest threat to the species is habitat loss and modification “because the vernal pool and upland habitats essential to its life cycle are being destroyed at alarming rates.”

These bees were once found in 11 counties in Central California and the Bay Area, but have been confirmed in only 1 county in the last decade.

Sunflower Leaf Cutting Bee

This exceptionally large bee uses sunflowers as its primary source of pollen. It was once seen buzzing sunflower stands in the Great Plains, but is now in steep decline and rarely seen.

The pesticides used on commercial sunflower crops have been shown to harm and even kill solitary bees like the Sunflower Leaf Cutting Bee. The chemicals can cause decreased fitness, reduced brood bearing, and reduced female production, all leading to smaller populations that can eventually cause local to large-scale extinctions.

Wild Sweet Potato Bee

The Wild Sweet Potato Bee’s turf is east of the Great Plains, from Missouri to Pennsylvania, and at forest edges along the eastern U.S. Logging and land conversion has largely driven the species out of forests. Agricultural intensification (including pesticide use) and urban sprawl are also significant threats to Wild Sweet Potato Bees.

Once commonly observed in the state of Illinois, no bees have been collected there since the late 1970s. Like the Sunflower Leaf Cutting Bee, the Wild Sweet Potato Bee is rarely seen anymore.

Gulf Coast Solitary Bee

According to the report, the Gulf Coast Solitary Bee “is one of 34 bee species within the family Melittidae native to North America [3] and is the only bee within its genus to be found east of the Mississippi.” It forages for pollen on the coastal plain honeycombhead (Balduina angustifolia), and no others.

This species is no longer found in 1 of 3 counties where it was known to exist, and it is disappearing in other portions of its small range, including Choctawhatchee Bay, Pensacola Bay and Perdito Bay. The Center for Biological Diversity warns that without swift action, the Gulf Coast Solitary Bee will likely disappear.

Macropis Cuckoo Bee

This particular species is the only one of the cleptoparasitic tribe Osirini present in the United States and Canada, and is one of only two species of Epeoloides worldwide, according to the report.

Scientists have been working to locate the Macropis Cuckoo Bee in its previous range in the United States, but have unfortunately come away empty-handed.

The Center for Biological Diversity writes:

“The story of the macropis cuckoo provides an important lesson that a species should not have to decline to the point of being presumed extinct before receiving protection. Additional protections are still needed to ensure that this unique bee survives and recovers from the brink of extinction.”

Source: SaveThePollinators.com

Last fall, 7 species of yellow-faced bees native to Hawaii were granted protection under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. It marked the first time a bee species had ever been given such protection.

The Rusty Patched Bumble Bee was scheduled to receive federal protection in February, but the action got pushed back until at least mid-March, due to the regulatory freeze enacted by the Trump Administration on President Trump’s first day in office. [2]

Sources:

[1] Center for Biological Diversity

[2] The Washington Post

SaveThePollinators.com

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About Julie Fidler:
	Julie Fidler is a freelance writer, legal blogger, and the author of Adventures in Holy Matrimony: For Better or the Absolute Worst. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and two ridiculously spoiled cats. She occasionally pontificates on her blog.

Fukushima Radiation “Spikes To Unimaginable Levels” As Continued Leak Decimates Food Chain

This article was written by Michael Snyder and originally published at his End of the American Dream blog.

Editor’s Comment: The gift that keeps on giving. An endless ocean of radioactive water, spilling into the Pacific Ocean at an astounding rate, every single day. The effects of this nuclear waste, particularly in the form of cesium 137 and strontium 90, are epidemic – they are being hidden by a refusal to report on the disaster, and by the diffuse global web of biology. 

Though consumers of news, or groceries, don’t see it happening, these radioactive materials are curbing population numbers, and contamination is bio-accumulating up the food chain. A cow in California, for instance, may have only been exposed to a very minute amount of this radiation, but likely ate from an entire field of contaminated grass, and every tiny bit adds up. For humans, eating from many sources at the top of the food chain, this accumulates into greater exposure than direct measurements can account for.

There is no end in sight, and no one who has yet managed to grab back the public’s attention and get across how important this issue continues to be.

Northern Hemisphere Potentially In Great Danger As Fukushima Radiation Spikes To ‘Unimaginable’ Levels

by Michael Snyder

Radiation inside one of the damaged reactors at the Fukushima nuclear power facility has reached an “unimaginable” level according to experts. Because so much nuclear material from Fukushima escaped into the Pacific Ocean, there are many scientists that believe that it was the worst environmental disaster in human history, but most people in the general population seem to think that since the mainstream media really doesn’t talk about it anymore that everything must be under control. Unfortunately, that is not true at all. In fact, PBS reported just last year that “it is incorrect to say that Fukushima is under control when levels of radioactivity in the ocean indicate ongoing leaks“. And now we have just learned that the radiation level inside reactor 2 is so high that no human could possibly survive being exposed to it.

According to the Japan Times, the level of radiation inside the containment vessel of reactor 2 is now estimated to be “530 sieverts per hour”…

The radiation level in the containment vessel of reactor 2 at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 power plant has reached a maximum of 530 sieverts per hour, the highest since the triple core meltdown in March 2011, Tokyo Electric Power Co. Holdings Inc. said.

Tepco said on Thursday that the blazing radiation reading was taken near the entrance to the space just below the pressure vessel, which contains the reactor core.

The high figure indicates that some of the melted fuel that escaped the pressure vessel is nearby.

It is hard to find the words to convey how serious this is.

If you were exposed to a radiation level of just 10 sieverts per hour, that would mean almost certain death. So 530 sieverts per hour is simply off the charts. According to the Guardian, this recent measurement is being described by scientists as “unimaginable”…

The recent reading, described by some experts as “unimaginable”, is far higher than the previous record of 73 sieverts an hour in that part of the reactor.

A single dose of one sievert is enough to cause radiation sickness and nausea; 5 sieverts would kill half those exposed to it within a month, and a single dose of 10 sieverts would prove fatal within weeks.

And the really bad news is that there appears to be a 2 meter hole that was created by melted nuclear fuel “in the metal grating under the pressure vessel in the reactor’s primary containment vessel”. The following comes from Bloomberg…

New photographs show what may be melted nuclear fuel sitting under one of Japan’s wrecked Fukushima reactors, a potential milestone in the search and retrieval of the fuel almost six years after it was lost in one of the worst atomic disasters in history.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. Holdings Inc., Japan’s biggest utility, released images on Monday showing a grate under the Fukushima Dai-Ichi No. 2 reactor covered in black residue. The company, better known as Tepco, may send in a scorpion-like robot as soon as February to determine the temperature and radioactivity of the residue.

If that isn’t frightening enough, one Japanese news source is reporting that this melted nuclear fuel “has since come in contact with underground water flowing from the mountain side”…

The melted fuel has since come in contact with underground water flowing from the mountain side, generating radioactively contaminated water every day. In order to dismantle the reactor, it is necessary to take out the melted fuel, but high radiation levels inside the reactor had hampered work to locate the melted debris.

If this disaster was just limited to Japan, the entire northern hemisphere would not be at risk.

But that is not the case.

Most of the nuclear contamination from Fukushima ended up in the Pacific Ocean, and from there it was literally taken around the rest of the planet. The following was reported by PBS…

More than 80 percent of the radioactivity from the damaged reactors ended up in the Pacific — far more than reached the ocean from Chernobyl or Three Mile Island. Of this, a small fraction is currently on the seafloor — the rest was swept up by the Kuroshio current, a western Pacific version of the Gulf Stream, and carried out to sea where it mixed with (and was diluted by) the vast volume of the North Pacific.

We don’t know if there is a connection, but it is extremely interesting to note that fisheries up and down the west coast of the United States are failing because of a dramatic decrease in fish populations. Just check out the following excerpt from a story that was posted on January 18th…

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker today determined there are commercial fishery failures for nine salmon and crab fisheries in Alaska, California and Washington.

In recent years, each of these fisheries experienced sudden and unexpected large decreases in fish stock biomass or loss of access due to unusual ocean and climate conditions. This decision enables fishing communities to seek disaster relief assistance from Congress.

Things are particularly bad up in Alaska, and biologists are “stumped” as to why this could be happening…

In 2016, the pink salmon harvests in Kodiak, Prince William Sounds, Chignik and lower Cook Inlet came in woefully under forecast and stumped biologists as to why.

The estimated value of Kodiak’s 2016 haul was $2.21 million, compared to a five-year average of $14.64 million, and in Prince William Sound the ex-vessel value was $6.6 million, far less that the $44 million five-year average. The total state harvest was the smallest since the late 1970s.

Although state biologists weren’t ready to declare a cause for the poor pink salmon performance, the Commerce Department press release attributed the disasters to “unusual ocean and climate conditions.”

Further south, it was being reported last month that millions of dead sardines are washing up on the shores of Chile.

I could go on and on with a lot more examples like this, but hopefully you get the point.

Something really strange is happening in the Pacific, and a lot of people believe that there is a link to Fukushima.

Not too long ago, I wrote about how the elite of Silicon Valley are “feverishly prepping“, but the truth is that all of us should be. If you need some tips on how to get started, you can find my prepping book right here. Our planet is becoming increasingly unstable, and the Fukushima nuclear disaster is just one piece of the puzzle.

But it is definitely a very important piece. The nuclear material from Fukushima is continuously entering the food chain, and once that nuclear material gets into our bodies it will slowly irradiate our organs for years to come. The following is an excerpt from an absolutely outstanding opinion piece by Helen Caldicott that was published in the Guardian…

Internal radiation, on the other hand, emanates from radioactive elements which enter the body by inhalation, ingestion, or skin absorption. Hazardous radionuclides such as iodine-131, caesium 137, and other isotopes currently being released in the sea and air around Fukushima bio-concentrate at each step of various food chains (for example into algae, crustaceans, small fish, bigger fish, then humans; or soil, grass, cow’s meat and milk, then humans). After they enter the body, these elements – called internal emitters – migrate to specific organs such as the thyroid, liver, bone, and brain, where they continuously irradiate small volumes of cells with high doses of alpha, beta and/or gamma radiation, and over many years, can induce uncontrolled cell replication – that is, cancer. Further, many of the nuclides remain radioactive in the environment for generations, and ultimately will cause increased incidences of cancer and genetic diseases over time.

Are you starting to understand the gravity of the situation?

Sadly, this crisis is going to be with us for a very, very long time.

According to Bloomberg, they are not even going to start removing melted nuclear fuel from these reactors until 2021, and it is being projected that the overall cleanup “may take as long as 40 years”…

Decommissioning the reactors will cost 8 trillion yen ($70.4 billion), according to an estimate in December from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. Removing the fuel is one of the most important steps in a cleanup that may take as long as 40 years.

The unprecedented nature of the Fukushima disaster means that Tepco is pinning its efforts on technology not yet invented to get the melted fuel out of the reactors.

The company aims to decide on a fuel removal procedure for the first reactor during the fiscal year ending March 2019, and to begin removing fuel in 2021.

A lot of people that end up dying as a result of this crisis may never even know that it was Fukushima that caused their deaths.

Personally, I am convinced that this is the greatest environmental crisis that humanity has ever experienced, and if the latest reading from reactor 2 is any indication, things just took a very serious turn for the worse.

This article was written by Michael Snyder and originally published at his End of the American Dream blog.