Archive for the ‘Global Warming’ Category

Oil Rig

Global warming is having a huge effect on the North Sea.  This sea is warming and the plankton upon which everything else depends is dying and as a consequence the whole eco system of the North Sea is changing, leaving the seabirds with not enough to eat.

In June of 2004, scientists were baffled by hundreds of seabirds, seemingly healthy, washing up dead on the Norfolk coast.  The post mortem reports showed that almost all of the birds found on coasts around the North Sea, were adult females.  The cause of death of each of these birds was acute starvation.  What was happening out there that was causing the birds to starve?

Data from over 70 years of studying plankton around the British coast shows that the North Sea is warming and that the cold-water plankton has already migrated up to 1000 kilometers north. The loss of this vital food supply – plankton – affects the whole eco system.  It is the building block of the food chain and as it disappears fish, birds and other animals that feed on both the fish and the plankton will starve to death.

As the temperatures warm, conditions and the creatures we see in much warmer waters, such as red mullet, squid and pilchards, are becoming more common in the North Sea.

And the North Sea isn’t the only place this is happening.  In 2006 the Pacific coastline of North America started seeing similar warming of the water with similar results – dead seabirds, failure of breeding colonies, starving chicks, emaciated gray whales and the appearance of creatures normally found much farther south.

Squid, normally found south of San Francisco, has arrived on the coastline of Washington and a bloom along Oregon’s beaches of a type of plankton usually found around San Diego, are cause for real concern.  So is the fact that the top 300 feet of the Pacific Ocean has become warmer and much more dense in the last 30 years.  Since the 1970’s, the number of seabirds in Puget Sound has dropped by nearly 50% and there has been a significant die-off of kelp off the coast of southern California.

The scientists are warning us that there are some really important changes occurring in both the Pacific coastal system and the North Sea and of course, elsewhere as well.  So as weather patterns alter and the planet warms further, will we see ever fewer of the seabirds and other animals that currently inhabit these seas?

Global Warming

Birds have been exploited for over 5000 years for food, their oil and their feathers.  The collection of their eggs has taken some species to the point of extinction.  In the 1800’s the millinery trade’s demands for feathers for ladies hats again put great pressure on some species.  ‘Mutton birding’ or harvesting shearwater chicks before they are fledged is still done by some of the indigenous people of New Zealand and Tasmania Australia.  The demand however has dropped for these birds for food and many of the younger people within these communities no longer want to carry on the practice.

The introduction of other species such as rats and feral cats has lead to the massive predation of sea birds.  Since many of these birds breed on the ground on small isolated islands without predators, they have lost their defence mechanisms so are at the mercy of these introduced predators. Disturbance of breeding colonies by humans, often environmental tourists, has reduced the reproductive results of some seabirds.  Once disturbed the adult birds may not return to the nest thereby exposing their eggs and chicks to potential predators.

Another problem man has created for seabirds is the introduction of herbivores such as rabbits, goats and cattle into areas where there are ground nesting birds.  Plants that could give shelter and protection to the young birds are greatly reduced or eliminated, again leaving them more vulnerable to the elements and predators.