Declining Sea Otters

A Review of “The Devil and Deep Blue Sea” by Linda Pannozzo Introduction In her book The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: An Investigation into the Scapegoating of Canada’s Grey Seal, Linda Pannozzo accomplishes few important things: she makes a compelling argument for the senseless killing of grey seal; she provides an analytic framework for the reasons of the decline of cod fish; and she provides a wealth of information on the politic behind scapegoating of Canada’s grey seal. Pannozzo presents The Devil and Deep Blue Sea in a clear and unbiased matter, but its presentation is by no mean elementary. Pannozzo’s book is meticulously researched, thus providing us with both quantitative and statistical account surrounding seal ways of life, their diet, history and other necessary aspects of marine life ecosystem. Book Summary

In a documentary film directed by Bill Wisenski, “Threatened: The Controversial Struggle of the Southern Sea Otter,” it reveals some of the reasons why the California sea otter population is declining. In addition, it shows the controversy surrounding the “No Otter Zone”. Furthermore, it ensures why the California sea otter population is important to the marine ecosystem. In the film, sea otter populations are endangered because of the significant impact by some human factors. In the 1700’s and 1800’s, fur traders hunted sea otter population to near extinction. Besides this, threatened events such as shipping and drilling oil across the Pacific and along coastal areas; the California sea otters is vulnerable to oil contamination. As a result,

The author uses cause and effect to show the population of our fish decrease its numbers.

Southern sea otter lives in kelp forests (a type of seaweed) along the Pacific coast, mainly off the coast of California. The marine mammals consume on average one-fourth of its weight daily including sea urchins, which are vital to support the kelp forests. By the result of sea otters preying on sea urchins, the consumption of kelp by sea urchins are kept at a constant rate allowing the forest to grow and thrive. This is highly important for biodiversity in the sea that is provided by the kelp forest, which is a key component of the three principles of sustainability. There are three ways that human can do to help prevent the premature extinction of southern sea otters. First, ethical issue that consists of the species being seen as vital

"Polar Bears, Ringed Seals, and the Complex Consequences of Climate Change" is an article written by Mary Bates who earned her PhD studying Bat echolocation. She works for an American Association for the Advancement of Science. In this article Mary talks about how Climate change is impacting different species at different rates. Here, she focuses on sea-ice dependent animals such as Polar Bears and Ringed Seals at Arctic. She explains on how these animals are dependent upon the sea-ice for living. The Arctic is warming at a rate three times greater than the global average, and that the sea ice coverage is declining rapidly. She also talks about Hamilton's study on sea-ice dependent animals. Before the melting of sea ice the Polar bears used

A change could cause a degraded ecosystem which would be far less productive overall. In paragraphs 8, 9, and 10 Hannibal explains an example of sea otters eating the sea urchins which protects

4. Taking away killer whales does not improve the growth of the fish population; in fact it decreases the population (food chain)

The Title of this essay is called “What is the Major Problems with Pollutants on the Great Lakes”. The essay explains that there is a problem going on in the Great Lakes with people who live around the Great Lakes area in that what they are throwing into the lakes; whether it would be from trash or fecal matter it is all causing major effects on the ecosystem on the Great Lakes, in turn effecting the fish and water we consume. This is not only a major problem for the lakes but also the humans that depend on those lakes.

The presence or absence of sea otters influences marine ecology at the community-level. Studies have shown that kelp forests enhance the underwater environment, providing a suitable habitat for fishes. The declining kelp beds in California in the mid 1900’s propelled the Kelp Habitat Improvement Project, whereby attempts were made to eliminate sea urchins that are primary predators of kelps. Studies showed that the elimination of sea otters during the 1800s from the Californian waters might be responsible for the dwindling numbers of kelp forests. Further studies have also shown that the population density of sea otters affects seaweed biodiversity as well. In a study conducted in Alaska on three different bays, the Torch Bay, Deer Harbor and the Surge Bay, it was found that the presence of sea otters led to a decrease in the population of sea urchins, which led to an increase in the population of seaweeds. In addition, it was also found that annual kelps predominated the areas where sea otters were present, and perennial kelps predominated in areas that had lesser sea otter populations (qtd. in “Interaction with kelps & sea otters”).

Sexually mature females can mate year around and are often either pregnant or caring for young throughout their lifetime, and this creates ongoing energy demands that can be energetically exhausting (Chinn et al. 2016). Sea otter mating behavior is aggressive and can further inflict physiological and traumatic stress to females, thereby reducing their foraging efficiency. Other factors such as infections, disease, bio-toxin ingestion and anthropogenic disturbance can also decrease fitness among adult females and increase their vulnerability during reproduction (Chinn et al. 2016). As nearshore inhabitants, southern sea otters often live in close proximity to areas of high human population density in California. These nearshore waterways can be busy with recreational and commercial boating activity that can disturb sea otter populations. Increased disturbance may cause increased stress to the species. Sea otters are of great interest to people who wish to view them, and this is sometimes done up-close by boat or paddle craft. If this activity changes sea otter behavior in any way, it not only violates the Marine Mammal Protection Act, it can also have a negative impact on the species, especially adult females with pups. Additionally, a familiar list of human impacts, such as climate change, overharvest of marine resources, municipal runoff, and habitat degradation likely reduce fitness of marine mammals directly and indirectly. Sea otters can be indicators of the overall health of the nearshore ecosystem (Kreuder et al. 2003). The slow growth rate of the southern sea otter population may be an expression of nearshore ecosystem degradation in California resulting from the fur trade and explosion of human population in

Last, many endangered animals are becoming more at risk because of the climate change. The habitats of several endangered animals have started to disappear, and their water has become scarce, too. Document B says that these animals include snow leopards, whose forest climate is shrinking, one-horned rhinos, whose vegetation is being diminished by regular droughts and floods, and orang-utans, who are being killed in forest fires in their forest homes. This killing of endangered animals is bringing these species closer to extinction all because of the rise in earth’s

Alexander the caribou is drinking out of the warm arctic ocean with his friends; Owen, and Joshua. It has been a relatively warm winter month with little snowfall so far this year, then all of a sudden, the ice cracks separating Alexander from his friends slowly drifting away into the ocean. He attempts to swim back, but does not make it. In 2002, the George River Caribou Herd (GRCH) population was between 800,000-900,000 animals but by 2014 the population of caribou was decreased to 14,200 GRCH, in northern Canada. While at first it may appear that animal decline and animal population loss in Canada/ the northern hemisphere, due to carbon emissions, is not as serious as it seems, but a closer look reveals that carbon emissions from factories, cars, trains, etc. are a cause of global warming and that the reduction of private transportation would be a quick efficient solution. By forcing businesses to pay taxes and restrict the amount of carbon output and the general public to use less private, and more public transportation, the Earth temperature raising would decline. As a result, this solution would not only stop the destruction of the animal’s; habitats, allowing the population decline to stop, but also stop all the other effects of global warming, such as worse air qualities, higher temperatures, and sea levels rising across the world.

How have trophy hunting and fishing impacted the evolution of species, according to the research presented by Weiner in this article?

Given these imperative points, evidences of environmental disruptions and economical impacts in Canada proves that it is caused by overfishing.

Majestic animals that live in the ocean are rapidly dying and subsequently washing up on numerous shorelines that touch the Pacific Ocean’s waters. Disposal of a variety of toxins and damaging waste finding a path into our oceans are to blame for the deaths, which are largely preventable. Sharks, sea turtles, whales, dolphins and birds are just fraction of the marine life that are suffering because they are becoming sick or are dying of starvation. Their food sources are diminishing or disappearing as the cycle of destruction continues on down to the tiny, minute plankton that are the core of the food chain in the ocean. Contamination is causing the sudden increase of marine life deaths in the Pacific Ocean. The most recent reports of dead sea animals found washed up on shorelines don’t state scientific evidence of the cause of the mysterious deaths.