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 Issue 6. April 2016 In April 2015, a postcard was water CO vent looks at eco-physical Contents 2 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 02 Editorial Editorial Office bottle. You can find out more on toward acidity. page 4. As well as being among the largest 04 In brief 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 Science letters +44 (0)1752 633244 establish and maintain standards, and cultures. We find out why these ‘river 06 Worms, glorious worms Pat Hutchings and Elena Kupriyanova 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 08 Molecular insights into plankton diversity Michael Cunliffe [email protected] get involved in scientific research. In in developing conservation strategies. +44 (0)1752 633334 09 Drastic seascape shifts in the twilight zone Cristina Linares 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 11 Climate change and marine vertebrates Elvira Poloczanska Kelvin Boot, Matt Frost, Paul which harnesses the enthusiasm of same fate. Taxonomy is vital for Rose, Mike Thorndyke. 06 beach-goers in England, and provides documenting, monitoring and Environment and conservation Membership Alex Street data to inform the Marine Conserva- conserving diversity in a changing 14 Searching for river monsters Ruth H. Leeney [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 19 Farming the bluefin Bonnie Waycott www.mba.ac.uk/membership warmest month in recorded history timely account of why the specialist 20 Fish poo and the climate challenge Angela Martin Correspondence and the ramifications of climate change work to provide comprehensive ripple through these pages, from an inventories of invertebrates—in this 24 Rebuilding the Caribbean, one sea urchin at a time Max The Marine Biological Association examination of the role of larger case the surprisingly photogenic worms Bodmer 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 26 Too hot in paradise! Michael White 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 28 Filling in the gaps – turtle conservation Alistair Green 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 Sharing marine science Submissions 14 the biological responses of vertebrates Cunliffe reveals how marine fungi are 30 Capturing our Coast Jacqui Pocklington and Jane Delany We welcome submissions of original to climate change. We feel the pain of beginning to give up their secrets. and relevant material, letters and 31 Reviews responses to published articles. For sea urchins in the Caribbean and find The Marine Biologistis becoming out why these lowly grazers are so vital more widely recognized for the quality guidance, please see the magazine 33 Bursary winner Giulia Cardoso 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 33 Obituary: Bill Ballantyne Keith Hiscock or contact the Editor. are struggling with the immediate articles in the Mezzotints of exotic marine organisms Debby Mason Disclaimer: Views expressed effects of the current El Niño event, a magazine are 34 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 28 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. Image credits: Top: Alexander Semenov Back cover: Coral bleaching showing on the toka (coral heads) in the lagoon of Tongareva www.mba.ac.uk Middle: Matthew McDavitt atoll, Cook Islands. See page 28 for the full story. Image: Michael White. Bottom: Michael White 02 The Marine Biologist | April 2016 April 2016 | The Marine Biologist 03 In brief In brief Fish expected to get dizzier, sooner Welcome to the plastisphere A new study predicts that intoxica- A paper in the Proceedings of the tion caused by high levels of CO2 in National Academy of Sciences of the seawater will affect fish and other marine United States of America (Aug 2015) esti- creatures by the middle of the century, mated that 90% of the world’s seabirds if CO2 emissions continue to rise. are likely to have plastic in their stomachs. High levels of atmospheric CO2 If we keep producing and leak- cause ‘hypercapnia’, a phenomenon ing plastic at current rates, the World causing effects such as disorienta- Economic Forum expects the ocean tion in fish, impairing their sense of will “contain 1 tonne of plastic for every direction and making them more 3 tonnes of fish by 2025, and by 2050, vulnerable to predators. more plastics than fish (by weight).” The University of New South Wales (UNSW) study, published in the journal The rise of the coccolithophores Nature, is the first global analysis of New research published in Science sug- the impact of rising CO2 emissions gests that a long-term, significant increase on dissolved CO2 levels in the world’s in coccolithophores—a major group of oceans. Using existing datasets of marine algae which surround themselves measured seawater CO2 concentrations with calcium carbonate plates—is a from surveys over the past 30 years, the result of increasing atmospheric CO2, Tagged bluefin tuna photographed off the Isle of Harris, the Outer Hebrides, UK. authors used a numerical model which a finding at odds with the expectation Image: Angus Campbell. worked out the natural monthly peaks and that calcifying microalgae will be nega- It’s official: message in a bottle is the world’s oldest troughs of dissolved CO2 concentrations tively affected by ocean acidification. Although not out of the realms of pos- some by 15 - 30% a decade depending on in surface waters across the globe. The The study used data from the Con- sibility, this had never been done before region and pollutant. They compared their A postcard returned to the Plymouth worker from Heiligenhaus, near Dus- outcome was a prediction of areas where tinuous Plankton Recorder survey to in Scotland. Since then, bluefin tuna have findings to US Environmental Protection Laboratory of the Marine Biological seldorf, discovered the bottle while on amplification of natural oscillations of show that between 1965 and 2010 been reported every year from around the Agency (EPA) guidelines and found that Association in April 2015 has been holiday on Amrum. As instructed (and CO2 levels will tip over the critical point the occurrence of coccolithophores UK and Ireland, including a large shoal present concentrations were at or below recognized by Guinness World Records as being unable to remove the cap) she for fish and other marine creatures to in the North Atlantic increased from in Mounts Bay, Cornwall, SW England the thresholds for occasional consump- the oldest message in a bottle ever found! broke the bottle and returned the postcard experience episodes of hypercapnia, around 2% to over 20%. To see which recorded by Duncan and Hannah Jones tion, with present levels of DDT being The bottle containing the postcard to G. P. Bidder. This caused quite a stir Levels of atmospheric CO2 above 650 factors best explained this increase, from Marine Discovery in August 2015. considerably below. These decreasing was released in the southern North Sea in the corridors of the MBA and attracted ppm are predicted to cause hypercapnia. These regular sightings off the UK and levels indicate that mitigation attempts like in 1906 as part of George Parker Bid- worldwide media attention. The MBA hon- Describing the results as “stagger- Ireland suggest bluefin may have recolo- the Stockholm Convention are working. der’s research into ocean currents, and oured the promise on the postcard and ing”, lead author Dr Ben McNeil, of nized highly productive northern latitudes However, they found that the data was picked up 108 years, 4 months, and sent Mrs Winkler a reward of one shilling.