By: Carolyn Hamman, SRC Intern The interaction and impact humans have with and on oceanic environments are difficult to measure yet of vital importance to understand. The increasing global demand for fish as a food source has led to fishing pressures with potentially detrimental effects on the fished communities. By understanding the changes that are […]
By: Casey Dresbach, SRC Intern Green turtles (Chelonia mydas) have called the South San Diego Bay home since the 1850s (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries , 2014). Their origin however remains a mystery. There are beliefs that commercial fishermen of the mid 17th century harvested the species in Mexican waters and brought them […]
By: Chris Schenker, SRC Intern Across the globe, the effects of climate change are manifesting. Due to anthropogenically-induced environmental changes, the geographic occurrence of many species is being altered, and algae is no exception. Under the right environmental conditions, some algal species can cause harmful algal blooms (HABs) which create toxins and produce many harmful […]
By: Casey Dresbach, SRC Intern Since WWII, the extraction of oil has rapidly revolutionized the way we live. The twentieth century is actually deemed the “century of oil.” The world’s dependency on oil is primarily on Petroleum, also known as crude oil. Crude oil is a complex and naturally occurring mixture of petroleum, which is […]
By: Molly Rickles, SRC Intern The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill occurred in 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico and was one of the largest oil spills ever recorded. During the 85 days before the spill was capped, over 4.9 million barrels of oil were released. The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill was unique because most spills […]
By: Delaney Reynolds, SRC Intern After the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawai’I, the United States declared martial law. In the decades that followed, the island of Kaho‘olawe, Hawai’I, an island considered sacred to Hawai’ian Natives, was used as a training ground and bombing range for the United States’ Army. Decades of bombing have not […]
By: Sydney Steel, SRC Intern Nestled in the Mid-Atlantic, the Chesapeake Bay is renowned for being home to countless oysters, which contribute to the overall health of the ecosystem by providing food, protective reef habitat, and necessary water filtration. For centuries, Eastern Maryland’s economy has been dependent on harvesting seemingly-infinite numbers of bivalves, however oyster […]
By: Nicole Suren, SRC Intern As climate change has had increasingly noticeable effects on the earth, scientists have developed more accurate and innovative ways to determine what these effects mean for the natural world. One of these methods is to use indicator species, species that can be used as proxies to diagnose the health of […]
By: Nick Martinez, SRC Intern The world’s oceans face a variety of challenges ranging from rising sea levels and sea surface temperatures, to overfishing and excessive amounts of anthropogenic debris being tossed into the oceans. Many studies have focused on the large scale effects of each of these dire issues, yet few have ventured into […]
By: Olivia Wigon, SRC Intern Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) encompass any and every type of area in the oceans, seas, lakes or estuaries. MPAs have some type of restriction on human behavior and activity in an area with the intention to conserve natural resources in that area. MPAs not only protect animals but the economy […]