December 12, 2008
The Scanner: Melted Butter edition
BY: Emily Fisher
Happy Friday, all. This week in ocean news,…the Bush Administration considers at least one of two proposals to create massive marine reserves. In the running are the Line islands in the central Pacific, covering a patch of ocean larger than Mexico. The other contender is an Arizona-sized section of the northern Mariana Islands….get your bibs on, because it’s a good time to have that lobster dinner you’ve been craving. With the downward-spiraling economy, supply is high and demand is low. Get the cheap crustacean while it’s hot….the IUCN says that nearly one-fifth of the world’s coral reefs are gone, and the rest are on track to be destroyed by ocean acidification if climate change continues unchecked.…meanwhile, coral reef growth patterns indicate that another major tsunami (a la 2004) is coming in the next few decades. …President-elect Obama’s environmental team emerged, including Nobelist Stephen Chu for energy secretary, former EPA-head Carol Browner for energy czar, L.A. Deputy Mayor Nancy Sutley for head of the Council on Environmental Quality, and New Jersey DEP’s Lisa Jackson for the EPA head….scientists discovered that female bottlenose dolphins use sponges as protective noseguards when digging for food on the ocean floor. It’s the only known instance of dolphins or whales using tools.