NOAAResearchers at the South Pole prepared to release a balloon that would carry an ozone instrument as high as 20 miles up into the atmosphere, measuring ozone levels along the way.
Warmer air temperatures high above the Antarctic have resulted in the second-smallest seasonal ozone hole in 20 years, NOAA reports. The hole began making a yearly appearance in the early 1980’s as a result of the release of manmade chemicals called chlorofluorocarbons or CFCs. [NOAA]
NOAA also refines its forecast of the probable path of Hurricane Sandy along the East Coast in coming days amid indications that it will have quite a high impact. [The Washington Post]
Elevated levels of cesium detected in fish off the Japanese coast suggest that radioactive particles from the Fukushima Daiichi disaster could contaminate sea life for decades, researchers report. [The New York Times]
After edging toward the brink of extinction, with only 10 to 25 individuals left in the wild, the striking Grand Cayman blue iguana is doing better. The population is up to around 750, compared with only 10 to 25 a decade ago. [LiveScience]
Associated PressHarold Hamm
Against it, then for it: tracking the position of Harold Hamm, the Oklahoma oilman who is Mitt Romney’s top energy adviser, on the Keystone XL pipeline. [Reuters]
The seafood catch in the United States reached a 17-year high in 2011, with all of the nation’s fishing regions posting increases in the size and value of their harvests. A NOAA official says the increases show that fish populations are being rebuilt, although disasters have been declared for for cod and other groundfish in New England, oyster and blue crab fisheries in Mississippi, and chinook salmon in Alaska’s Yukon and Kuskokwin rivers. [Associated Press]
An aerial view of the fires that have been burning in the Pacific Northwest this week. [Climate Central]
With the production tax credit for wind power in doubt, the industry is quickly losing steam in the United States. [The New York Times]
Saturday is World Car-Free Day, intended as a showcase for how the world’s cities might look, feel and sound like without cars. [World Car-Free Network]
Associated PressFloating homes on the River Maas in Maasbommel in the Netherlands.
From amphibious homes to hospitals on stilts, architects and urban planners are exploring designs for floating buildings that can cope with rising seas or sudden floods. Advocates say that leaps of imagination are needed in view of the magnitude of the climate change challenge. [Associated Press]
Whole Foods says it will no longer sell seafood that is “red-rated” — that is, caught in overfished waters or through unsustainable fishing methods. [The Los Angeles Times]
The Republicans for Environmental Protection embrace a new name: ConservAmerica. Was the group running out of Republican members? Not exactly, the policy director says; the group wanted to emphasize the connection between environmental conservation and traditional conservative values. [Grist]
Lawyers say plaintiffs are likely to appeal an Indonesian court’s decision to throw out a lawsuit challenging a plan by a palm oil giant to clear a critical peat swamp. Yet a conservationist warns that the company has already begun burning trees to clear the swamp, one of the last redoubts of the Sumatran orangutan. [The Sydney Morning Herald]
“Sushi: The Global Catch”A Sushi-A-Go-Go fast-food trailer in Austin, Tex., from “Sushi:The Global Catch.”
In the greater Paris region, where I live and work, there are more than 1,600 sushi restaurants. They are springing up faster than can be counted in Eastern Europe, India and China, not to mention Los Angeles and New York.
Yet the authenticity of many of them is dubious. Some were transformed from cheap Chinese restaurants to cheap Japanese restaurants with the aid of kits and machines provided by helpful industry vendors; others belong to the growing number of fast-food-style sushi franchises. All are in the business of selling fish and vinegared rice.
Mark S. Hall, director of “Sushi: The Global Catch,” winner of a special jury prize this month at the Seattle International Film Festival, first sampled sushi as a student in Tokyo in the 1980s, but he did not get to thinking about the sushi economy until a few years ago.
“I was working in Warsaw as part of a cooperative that was building a pretty interesting organic agriculture business,” Mr. Hall said in a telephone interview from Austin, Tex., where he lives today. “We were at a meeting, and when we broke for lunch I assumed we’d go for bigos [a kind of cabbage stew] or sausages. Instead we went for sushi. I got to wondering how, in a culture where they hadn’t known it even a few years before, it had gotten so popular. And it wasn’t the same, it really wasn’t anything like the experience I’d had in Tokyo. It just floored me.”
Associated Press The seafood department at a Costco store in Mountain View, Calif. (The sale of Dungeness crab, pictured, is still allowed.)
Under pressure from environmentalists, the retail giant Costco has said it would immediately halt the sale of a dozen fish species widely considered to be threatened by overharvesting.
Among the fish being pulled from display cases are Atlantic cod, Atlantic halibut, Chilean sea bass, grouper, monkfish, redfish, swordfish and bluefin tuna. Sales of these and other at-risk species will not resume until a sustainable source can be identified, the company said in a statement.
Last year, the environmental group Greenpeace began aiming at Costco for a lack of transparency in its seafood sourcing and for offering what it described as unsustainable seafood products. The campaign included flying a bright-green blimp with a banner reading “Costco: Wholesale Ocean Destruction” over the company’s Issaquah, Wash., headquarters.
Getty Images Workers used a vacuum hose to capture oil washing up in Port Fourchon, La., last June.
Federal researchers have announced the beginning of a wide-ranging study into the possible health effects of the BP oil spill on cleanup workers.
The study, which will be led by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, will try to follow 20,000 workers for the next 10 years, making it the largest study ever into the health effects of an oil spill.
The first 1,000 invitations to take part in the study were sent out on Monday, said Dale Sandler, chief of the epidemiology branch of the institute. The goal, she said, is to eventually extend invitations to around 100,000 people who were involved in the cleanup, most of whom live in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama or Florida.
In an article on Wednesday and a followup on Thursday, my colleague Leslie Kaufman and I wrote about a new government report that says that about three-quarters of the oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill has effectively been dealt with through capture, skimming, burning, dispersion or dissolution. The implication is that the oil poses little additional risk to shorelines or at the ocean’s surface.
Associated Press William Mahan, a University of Florida food researcher, showing how to smell for taint in gulf seafood.
Further damage in the deep sea from undersea plumes of dispersed oil cannot be entirely ruled out, government scientists said in releasing the report, but testing has shown that the hydrocarbon levels in those plumes are exceedingly low. Many toxicologists consider additional damage from the plumes to be unlikely.
The report estimated that about 8 percent of the oil that spewed from BP’s well was dispersed by using chemicals, and that once again raises an issue that has been a focus of intense public concern.
Could the dispersants themselves pose a risk to marine life, or to human health if they accumulate in seafood? Read more…
The Chinese government announces plans for deep-sea mining; it will seek copper, nickel and cobalt 5,000 feet down in international waters.
Major environmental implications in Asia’s fast-growing cities.
The demand for Chinese coal may outstrip supply as soon as 2015, a state newsletter says.
Despite a fisheries shutdown in the Gulf of Mexico, seafood remains plentiful in the United States.
A Russian nuclear expert makes his case for blowing up BP’s well: “Only about 10 kilotons of nuclear explosion capacity, and the problem is solved.”
A new study finds that major grocers are moving toward more sustainable seafood.
A list published Tuesday by the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California recommended seafood that it said was both healthy for consumers — and for the ocean.
The so-called Super Green list is a compilation of fish species that are environmentally sustainable, high in heart-healthy omega-3-fatty acids and low in contaminants like mercury.
The aquarium has published seafood watch lists for the last 10 years, taking into account factors such as overfishing and habitat damage.
But the new list also considers the public’s interest in healthful foods, said Dr. Geoff Shester, a science manager at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It was compiled in partnership with the Environmental Defense Fund and Harvard University’s School of Public Health.
“There are a lot of fish that are sustainable or low in contaminants or heart healthy,” Dr. Shester said. “But there are not that many that are all three.”
Worldwide, seafood consumption is on the rise.
The total world seafood supply was 110 million tons in 2006, eight times what it was in 1950, according to data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
By 2030, the F.A.O. predicts the world will need an additional 37 million tons of farmed fish to meet global demand.
From our colleagues in the Dining & Wine section:
Three environmental groups have issued pocket guides to sushi, listing seafood according to sustainability. But with each of them, a little study before sitting down at a sushi bar is a good idea.
The guides from the Monterey Bay Aquarium, the Environmental Defense Fund, and the Blue Ocean Institute all agree on which fish are sustainable, but present the information in different ways.
The first two list fish as best, good or worst choices. The Blue Ocean Institute guide groups fish according to type, like shellfish, and uses symbols to note whether a fish is recommended. This guide has detailed information about fisheries and how the fish are caught, and is perhaps the most practical of the three.