A recent study shows the arctic seabed is releasing up to ten-million tons of methane annually. (Photo Courtesy of Patrick Kelley, U.S. Coast Guard)
New research indicates the Arctic seabed is releasing methane at a rate higher than all the other oceans of the world combined. This recent discovery raises concerns about the pace of global warming. Lester Graham reports:
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New research indicates the Arctic seabed is releasing methane at a rate higher than all the other oceans of the world combined. Lester Graham reports, this recent discovery raises concerns about the pace of global warming.
Under a shallow part of the Arctic Ocean, the seafloor was thought to be permanently frozen, capping vast stores of methane underneath. Researchers at the University of Alaska Fairbanks have found that frozen cap is beginning to leak large amounts of methane into the atmosphere. Natalia Shakhova is one of the leaders of a team that’s been studying the permafrost under the Arctic Ocean.
“What we’re having now, it’s up to ten-million ton[s] of methane annually escaping from this seabed. That means that permafrost does not serve as an impermeable cap to prevent these leakages any longer.”
Methane is a greenhouse gas 30 times more potent than carbon dioxide. The greatest concern about methane releases had been the permafrost on land… but this underwater release could mean climate changes could accelerate.
Large Burmese pythons are now regularly encountered along trails and visitor areas in the park (Photo courtesy of the National Park Service)
A python native to Asia is popping up in one national park. Kyle Norris reports:
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A python native to Asia is popping up in one national park. Kyle Norris reports:
The Burmese Python is showing up in Everglades National Park in Florida.
That’s because people who no longer want their pet pythons are releasing them there.
Now these babies are big — usually they between 6 to 12 feet long. And there could be as many as 150,000 pythons in the Everglades.
The snakes are not so much a threat to humans. But they are a threat to animals – especially to endangered ones.
Scott Hardin is an exotic species coordinator. He’s with the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission.
“You just got a great big snake, nothing like it, nothing analogous in the native snake fauna in Florida. So it opens up a whole new range of prey that was not susceptible before.”
He says officials are brainstorming ways to deal with the problem.
They’re trying to rig up some really big traps. And they’ve also thrown out the idea of a bounty — basically a cash reward for catching the snakes.
Fishing laws in Canada and US states often protect small fish and are less restrictive with big ones.
(Photo courtesy of the US Fish and Wildlife Service)
People who love to fish spend plenty of money on gear, license fees and even gas for their boats. It’s enough to make anglers think, maybe they’re entitled to keeping the biggest fish for trophies or the frying pan, right? Shawn Allee met a researcher who wants you to throw back your biggest catch:
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People who love to fish spend plenty of money on gear, license fees and even gas for their boats. It’s enough to make anglers think, maybe they’re entitled to keeping the biggest fish for trophies or the frying pan, right? Shawn Allee met a researcher who wants you to throw back your biggest catch:
This is the guy who wants to change how a lot of people fish.
“My name is Paul Venturelli and I study fisheries biology at the University of Toronto.”
Venturelli’s disturbed by how many fish species are on the brink of collapse – either in oceans or in fresh water.
He hopes to grow fish stocks – with this fishing advice.
Toss the big ones back.
And what’s he got to back that up?
“I’ve got about ten pages of notes here. Nah, I’m kidding. I’m kidding.”
Actually, he says the idea is pretty simple.
“A ton of big, old fish will produce more new fish than a ton of smaller, younger fish. And this is because the bigger, older fish tend to produce offspring that have a higher chance of survival.”
Venturelli studies mostly ocean-species, but he says the principal should apply to North American freshwater fish like pike and walleye, too.
But Venturelli’s got a problem spreading this idea around.
Fishing laws in Canada and a lot of US states often protect small fish and are less restrictive with big ones.
I asked one of the head guys in Illinois fisheries, Joe Ferencak, why that is.
“Essentially what you’re doing with that minimum size limit is protecting one or two year classes of reproductive age fish so they can successfully spawn or reproduce.”
Ferencak says, fisheries science has stood behind the ‘protect the small fish’ theory for decades – with some exceptions.
He says to change laws, Venturelli would need to do more studies.
Plus, Ferencak says no state would want to completely keep people from big fish – that’s just not much fun.
“We want to maintain and enhance these fisheries for the benefit of the fishing public, the angler. And it’s kind of counter-intuitive to not allow them to take these larger fish.”
Well, I figure it wouldn’t be fair to talk about big fish without talking to outdoorsmen, so I spent some time in Griffith, Indiana.
It’s about ten miles from Lake Michigan.
Fishing and hunting outlets are all around – and there’s this place.
Allee: “So what’s the establishment.”
Leap: “American Natural Resources.”
Edward Leap Senior runs American Natural Resources – it’s a taxidermy shop – with stuffed deer, fox, and fish filling every nook and cranny.
I figure Leap would rush to the defense of catching big fish, but, you know what? He doesn’t bite.
Allee: “If you get a whole bunch of fish in your boat, I mean, you want to show off the big one. Most people do, right?”
Leap: “Yes and no, though. When you get talking about the conscientious outdoorsman, no, he’s not going to be thinking this way. He’s going to say, ‘I got this fifteen pound walleye, a super-trophy fish. It took a lot of years to grow this fish, I’m going to take a picture of it and I’m going to release it.'”
And, to prove the point, he reaches back and pulls a fish trophy off the shelf.
“For the trophy part of it, we’ll do a reproduction of it that you can’t tell from the real thing. And the fish now is out there spawning, and making eggs, and continuing its species.”
Leap says more and more fishermen are having him make fake fish – or, reproductions, as he calls them.
So, from his vantage, scientists like Paul Venturelli won’t have too much trouble with the advice to ‘throw back the big ones.’
Leap says you don’t have to keep fish you catch, and in his experience, smaller fish make better eating anyway.
A recent study shows the arctic seabed is releasing up to ten-million tons of methane annually. (Photo Courtesy of Patrick Kelley, U.S. Coast Guard)
