Marine Biologist Is Published by the Marine Biological Association, You Know That Blue Whales in the Important
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Issue 6. April 2016 ISSN 2052-5273 The Marine The magazine of the Biologistmarine biological community Sawfish: the disappearing river monsters Plus Too hot in paradise! BIO The importance of ‘fish carbon’ INE LO R G A IC M A E L H Climate change and marine vertebrates T A N S O S I Dramatic seascape shifts in the twilight zone O C I A T Est. 1884 Incorporated by Royal Charter Great Barrier Reef polychaete diversity | Farming the bluefin Mysterious mycoplankton | Capturing our Coast Editorial In April 2015, a postcard was water CO2 vent looks at eco-physical returned to The Marine Biological adaptations among seabed organisms Association that had been adrift in the whose life histories mean they cannot North Sea for over 108 years. Last move away from vents, giving some month we learned that the postcard is a indication of how twilight zone new world record for a message in a habitats may change as the seas move Editorial Office bottle. You can find out more on toward acidity. page 4. As well as being among the largest Editor Guy Baker The Internet has made it so much fish in the sea, sawfish have special [email protected] easier to collect and check data, and to significance in many traditional +44 (0)1752 633244 establish and maintain standards, and cultures. We find out why these ‘river there are now many sophisticated and monsters’ are in decline and why their Executive editor Matt Frost engaging ways for the wider public to status as totemic animals is important [email protected] get involved in scientific research. In in developing conservation strategies. +44 (0)1752 633334 this edition we learn about a new We turn from a species in global Editorial Board Guy Baker, citizen science project called CoCoast decline to a discipline suffering the Kelvin Boot, Matt Frost, Paul which harnesses the enthusiasm of same fate. Taxonomy is vital for Rose, Mike Thorndyke. beach-goers in England, and provides documenting, monitoring and Membership Alex Street data to inform the Marine Conserva- conserving diversity in a changing [email protected] tion Zone process. world. Pat Hutchings of the Australian +44 (0)1752 633253 Globally, February 2016 was the Museum Research Institute gives a www.mba.ac.uk/membership warmest month in recorded history timely account of why the specialist Correspondence and the ramifications of climate change work to provide comprehensive ripple through these pages, from an inventories of invertebrates—in this The Marine Biological Association examination of the role of larger case the surprisingly photogenic worms Citadel Hill, Plymouth, PL1 2PB, UK marine animals in carbon cycling (did of the Great Barrier Reef—is so The Marine Biologist is published by the Marine Biological Association, you know that blue whales in the important. Registered Charity No. 1155893 Southern Ocean transport an estimated It would be hard to find a more ISSN number: 2052-5273 88 tons of nitrogen annually to tropical neglected group of marine organisms, latitudes?), to a new study that assesses but MBA Research Fellow Michael Submissions the biological responses of vertebrates Cunliffe reveals how marine fungi are We welcome submissions of original to climate change. We feel the pain of beginning to give up their secrets. and relevant material, letters and responses to published articles. For sea urchins in the Caribbean and find The Marine Biologistis becoming guidance, please see the magazine out why these lowly grazers are so vital more widely recognized for the quality website at in efforts to restore coral reefs. On a of its content. www.mba.ac.uk/marinebiologist remote atoll in the Cook Islands people Most of the or contact the Editor. are struggling with the immediate articles in the Disclaimer: Views expressed effects of the current El Niño event, a magazine are in The Marine Biologist are phenomenon that could double in written by those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the frequency as a result of climate MBA members Marine Biological Association. warming1. which I think Copyright statement. Anyone wishing Warming is not the only challenge bodes well for to reproduce material published in facing marine life; rising atmospheric the future of the The Marine Biologist must contact CO2 is driving changes in seawater Association. the Marine Biological Association. chemistry. The first study of a deep- 1 http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/v4/ n2/full/nclimate2100.html Front cover: A Bijago Islander wearing a headdress topped with a carved representation of a sawfish rostrum, prepares to take part in a traditional ceremonial dance. Image: Ruth H. Leeney. Back cover: Coral bleaching showing on the toka (coral heads) in the lagoon of Tongareva www.mba.ac.uk atoll, Cook Islands. See page 28 for the full story. Image: Michael White. 02 The Marine Biologist | April 2016 Contents Issue 6. April 2016 02 Editorial 04 In brief Science letters 06 Worms, glorious worms Pat Hutchings and Elena Kupriyanova 08 Molecular insights into plankton diversity Michael Cunliffe 09 Drastic seascape shifts in the twilight zone Cristina Linares 11 Climate change and marine vertebrates Elvira Poloczanska Environment and conservation 06 14 Searching for river monsters Ruth H. Leeney 19 Farming the bluefin Bonnie Waycott 20 Fish poo and the climate challenge Angela Martin 24 Rebuilding the Caribbean, one sea urchin at a time Max Bodmer 26 Too hot in paradise! Michael White 28 Filling in the gaps – turtle conservation Alistair Green Sharing marine science 14 30 Capturing our Coast Jacqui Pocklington and Jane Delany 31 Reviews 33 Bursary winner Giulia Cardoso 33 Obituary: Bill Ballantyne Keith Hiscock 34 Mezzotints of exotic marine organisms Debby Mason 28 Image credits: Top: Alexander Semenov Middle: Matthew McDavitt Bottom: Michael White April 2016 | The Marine Biologist 03 In brief Fish expected to get dizzier, sooner A new study predicts that intoxica- tion caused by high levels of CO2 in seawater will affect fish and other marine creatures by the middle of the century, if CO2 emissions continue to rise. High levels of atmospheric CO2 cause ‘hypercapnia’, a phenomenon causing effects such as disorienta- tion in fish, impairing their sense of direction and making them more vulnerable to predators. The University of New South Wales (UNSW) study, published in the journal Nature, is the first global analysis of the impact of rising CO2 emissions on dissolved CO2 levels in the world’s oceans. Using existing datasets of measured seawater CO2 concentrations from surveys over the past 30 years, the authors used a numerical model which worked out the natural monthly peaks and It’s official: message in a bottle is the world’s oldest troughs of dissolved CO2 concentrations in surface waters across the globe. The A postcard returned to the Plymouth worker from Heiligenhaus, near Dus- outcome was a prediction of areas where Laboratory of the Marine Biological seldorf, discovered the bottle while on amplification of natural oscillations of Association in April 2015 has been holiday on Amrum. As instructed (and CO2 levels will tip over the critical point recognized by Guinness World Records as being unable to remove the cap) she for fish and other marine creatures to the oldest message in a bottle ever found! broke the bottle and returned the postcard experience episodes of hypercapnia, The bottle containing the postcard to G. P. Bidder. This caused quite a stir Levels of atmospheric CO2 above 650 was released in the southern North Sea in the corridors of the MBA and attracted ppm are predicted to cause hypercapnia. in 1906 as part of George Parker Bid- worldwide media attention. The MBA hon- Describing the results as “stagger- der’s research into ocean currents, and oured the promise on the postcard and ing”, lead author Dr Ben McNeil, of was picked up 108 years, 4 months, and sent Mrs Winkler a reward of one shilling. the UNSW Climate Change Research 18 days later by a walker on a beach Confirmation of the record was Centre said they “have massive implica- on the German island of Amrum. received from Guinness World tions for global fisheries and marine G. P. Bidder contributed to knowledge Records in February 2016. ecosystems across the planet”. on the hydraulics of sponges, and was the The scientists have made their inventor of the bottom-trailer – a bottle Top: The postcard from the bottle that was dataset available and are offer- adjusted to trail a wire so as to float with adrift in the North Sea for over 108 years. ing a prize for other researchers the current two feet (approximately 0.6m) Below left: A bottom trailer bottle, similar to able to improve on their results. above the sea bed, and to be caught in the one found on Amrum Island. trawl nets. Bidder released over 1,000 bot- Official figures underestimate Below right: George Parker Bidder III, the tles between 1904 and 1906 and reported global fishing a return rate from fishermen (encouraged scientist responsible for the research into Food and Agriculture Organization of by a one shilling reward) of around 55%. ocean currents, ca 1934. the United Nations (FAO) global fishing Marianne Winkler, a retired post office Images: Marine Biological Association. figures are the only global data set of fisheries statistics, and are widely used by policy makers and scholars. These figures suggest ‘peak fish’ of 86 million tonnes (mt) in 1996 was followed by a slow decline. However, a recent study by Daniel Pauly and Dirk Zeller in Nature Communications suggests otherwise: 130 mt in 1996 followed by a much steeper decline, and between 1950 and 2010, reconstructed global catches were 50% higher than official reported data.