Can squid help make soldiers invisible?
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Atlanta (CNN) — One of the world's oldest organism groups, cephalopods, like squid, octopus and cuttlefish, have survived in Earth's oceans for millions of years.They key to their survival: mastering the art of camouflage.Now, scientists say, these ancient invertebrates may hold the key to developing a combat technology that will allow soldiers to avoid infrared detection.Researchers at the University of California, Irvine say they have discovered a way to use proteins in the cells of pencil squid to develop "invisibility stickers" that can be worn by ground troops."Soldiers wear uniforms with the familiar green and brown camouflage patterns to blend into foliage during the day, but under low light and at night, they're still vulnerable to infrared detection," said Alon Gorodetsky, assistant professor of chemical engineering and material sciences."You can draw inspiration from natural systems that have been perfected over millions of years, giving us ideas we might never have been able to come up with otherwise," he said.Gorodetsky and his team have focused on specialized squid cells known as iridocytes, which contain a unique light-reflecting protein called reflectin. They were able to engineer E. coli bacteria to synthesize reflectin and coat the protein onto a packing tape-like surface to create the "invisibility stickers."Researchers say these reflectin-coated stickers can be changed into virtually any color with a chemical or mechanical stimulus."There is a lot of flexibility in how one can deploy this material, essentially, by taking the stickers and putting them all over yourself, you could look one way under optical visualization and another way under active infrared visualization," Gorodetsky said.The lab technology is not ready to be used in combat zones as researchers work to develop an adaptive camouflage system, in which multiple stickers are able to work in sync and respond to varying infrared wavelengths."We've developed stickers for use as a thin, flexible layer of camo with the potential to take on a pattern that will better match the soldiers' infrared reflectance to their background and hide them from active infrared visualization," Gorodetsky said.The researchers' work was recently presented at the 2015 American Chemical Society national meeting.
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Sardines move north due to ocean warming
Original post: Phys.org
Sardines, anchovies and mackerels play a crucial role in marine ecosystems, as well as having a high commercial value. However, the warming of waters makes them vanish from their usual seas and migrate north, as confirmed by a pioneering study analysing 57,000 fish censuses from 40 years. The researchers warn that coastal towns dependent on these fishery resources must adapt their economies.
The continued increase in water temperature has altered the structure and functioning of marine ecosystems across the world. The effect has been greater in the North Atlantic, with increases of up to 1.3 ºC in the average temperature over the last 30 years.
This variation directly affects the frequency and biogeography of a group of pelagic fish, which includes the sardine (Sardina pilchardus), anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus), horse mackerel (Trachurus trachurus) and mackerel (Scomber scombrus), among others, which feed off phytoplankton and zooplankton and that are the staple diet of large predators such as cetaceans, large fish and marine birds. These fish also represent a significant source of income for the majority of coastal countries in the world.
Until now, scientists had not managed to prove whether the changes observed in the physiology of the pelagic fish were the direct result of the water temperature or if they were due to changes in plankton communities, their main food source, which have also been affected by global warming and have changed their distribution and abundance.
The new study, published in Global Change Biology and that has developed statistical models for the North Sea area, confirms the great importance of sea temperatures. "Time series of zooplankton and sea surface temperature data have been included to determine the factor causing these patterns", Ignasi Montero-Serra, lead author of the study and researcher in the department of Ecology at the University of Barcelona, explains to SINC.
Bioindicators of the health of the sea
To demonstrate the consequences of the warming of the seas, the research team analysed 57,000 fish censuses from commercial fishing performed independently along the European continental shelf between 1965 and 2012, extracted from data provided by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES).
The study, the first to be carried out on such a large time scale and area, allows for the dynamics of this species to be understood in relation to the rapid warming of the oceans that has been happening since the eighties.
The results reveal that sardines and other fish (with fast life cycles, planktonic larval stage and low habitat dependence) are highly vulnerable to changes in ocean temperature, and therefore represent "an exceptional bioindicator to measure the direction and speed of climate change expected in the near future", points out Montero-Serra.
Subtropicalization of North Sea species
Due to the accelerated increase in temperature of the continental seas, sardines and anchovies (with a typically subtropical distribution) have increased their presence in the North Sea "even venturing into the Baltic Sea", confirms Montero-Serra, who adds that the species with a more northern distribution (like the herring and the sprat) have decreased their presence.
The analysis is therefore a clear sign that species in the North Sea and Baltic Sea are "becoming subtropical [...] where sardines, anchovies, mackerel and horse mackerel, more related to higher temperatures, have increased their presence", says the researcher.
This is due to the pelagic fish being highly dependent on environmental temperatures at different stages of their life cycle: from reproductive migrations and egg-laying, to development and survival of larvae.
According to researchers, the changes in such an important ecological group "will have an effect on the structure and functioning of the whole ecosystem". The expert warns that coastal towns that are highly dependent on these fishery resources "must adapt to the new ecological contexts and the possible consequences of these changes", although they still do not know the scale of the socio-economic and ecological repercussions.
Stanford Researchers Strap ‘Crittercam’ Onto Squid
Stanford Researchers Strap ‘Crittercam’ Onto Squid, Discover How They Speak, Hide Themselves
Camera strapped onto a Humboldt squid. (Stanford University)
STANFORD (CBS SF) – Researchers at Stanford University strapped cameras on squid off the coast of Mexico and found the sea creatures likely use visual patterns to communicate and to hide themselves from predators, according to a study released this week.Their study, published in the Journal of Experimental Biology, found Humboldt squid rapidly change their body colors from red to white to red again, in what researchers called “flashing.” They believe the behavior could be a way the squid speak with each other.“The frequency and phase relationships [synchronization] between squid during flashing can be changed and this suggests that there is some information being conveyed that makes minute control over these details important to the squid,” Stanford researcher Hannah Rosen told the journal.The researchers made their findings with the help of so-called “Crittercams” from National Geographic that were strapped onto the squid using Lycra-like “sweaters.”Another behavior found by researchers is called “flickering,” where the squid produce waves of red and white across their bodies, likely to camouflage themselves from predators near the surface. They also observed what could be mating behavior of the squid.Researchers plan to outfit more squid with cameras.
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Unusual Species Highlight West Coast Cetacean and Ecosystem Survey
The research ship Ocean Starr returned to San Diego Wednesday, completing NOAA Fisheries’ first comprehensive survey of whales, dolphins and porpoises and the marine ecosystem off the West Coast in six years. Highlights of the four-month survey included unusual marine mammals and birds drawn by warm ocean conditions, and the first offshore tests of an innovative new system for remotely counting marine mammals through sound.“You don’t know what you will find until you are out on the ship, which is what makes it so important,” said Jay Barlow, chief scientist of the California Current Cetacean and Ecosystem Assessment Survey that stretched from California north to Washington. “This has been a very interesting and surprising survey because we’ve seen species we wouldn’t expect, which gives us information about their distribution as well as about current ocean conditions.”The Survey led by the Southwest Fisheries Science Center identifies and counts cetaceans, seabirds and marine turtles using high-powered binoculars and towed listening arrays. The team also uses a series of specialized nets and oceanographic sampling gear to survey microorganisms that provide important clues about ocean conditions as well to monitor the physical environment through which the ship is traveling. In some cases researchers take tiny biopsies from whales and dolphins for genetic studies of population structure, foraging habits and health.Scientists use the survey results to assess numbers of whales and dolphins and trends in their abundance, which helps determine the degree of protection the species may need.Unusual species sighted included pygmy killer whales seen for the first time off California and warm-water seabirds such as band-rumped storm petrels seen for the first time in the Northeast Pacific. The survey also sighted sei, blue, fin, humpback, killer and short-finned pilot whales. In one instance the crew could hear a particularly loud chorus of singing humpback whales in the open air on deck.The abundance of sei whales was a surprise, with more sightings of this species than the last five surveys combined from 1991 to 2008.The Survey included the first offshore tests of the Drifting Acoustic Spar Buoy Recorder (DASBR), a pioneering system developed at the Southwest Fisheries Science Center to record the calls and other sounds of marine mammals while drifting the open ocean. Crews recover the DASBRs by following a GPS beacon and later acoustic analysis can distinguish the number and density of different species of marine mammals in surrounding waters.The successful launch and recovery of several DASBRs over the course of the survey helps pave the way for longer-term deployment of the devices that cost less than $5,000 each. DASBRs drift in the open ocean and avoid the engine noise of similar arrays towed behind ships. That allows them to collect more data at a lower cost, supplementing traditional surveys that require expensive ship operations.More information can be found on the Southwest Fisheries Science Center and California Current Cetacean and Ecosystem Assessment Survey web sites.View San Diego ABC Channel 10 News 
and CBS Channel 8 News reports on the California Current Cetacean and Ecosystem Assessment Survey.A selection of photographs from the four-month West Coast cetacean and ecosystem survey can be viewed on flickr.com.
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NGO critics of California's sardine rules miss that better science mean conservative management
Published with permission of SEAFOODNEWS.COMBy D. B. Pleschner [Opinion] Dec 8, 2014
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Monterey historic boat could get new purpose
Built by Sicilian born boatbuilder Angelo Siinno in Monterey around 1927-1930, the General Pershing may be repurposed into a classroom on the bay. David Royal — Monterey Herald
The Siino family has contributed a lot to the history of Monterey and their latest idea could give back even more.They said this week they are aiming to turn the largest boat Sicilian-born Angelo Siino, one of Monterey’s most famous shipbuilders, ever crafted into an educational tool.The General Pershing boat is roughly 60 feet long, 15 feet wide and was built around 1927 at Monterey Boatworks and used to film “Captains Courageous” in 1937 and other films. It is still seaworthy.“Our goal is to make it back to being useful for the heritage of Monterey. We’re calling it Classroom on the Bay. We want it to be a teaching vessel,” said Siino’s granddaughter, Janet Martinez, 68, of Aromas.Martinez said they need help restoring the lampara boat, which she estimates could reach up to $150,000. They have been repainting it for the last three weeks.She said they hope to partner with a nonprofit or get grants to accomplish their vision.In the meantime, she has written a book called “Master Boat Builders of Italy.” Revenue from sales will be used for the project.Given the boat was built during the heyday of the sardine industry, she said students could be taught the history of Monterey aboard, as well as modern classes about the ecology of the Bay.Angelo Siino moved to the United States from Sicily in 1903 and to Monterey in 1914. He died in 1956.He built 15 boats from scratch and did it without blueprints, Martinez said.“To this day, I don’t know how they did it,” she said.He taught his craft to sons, Raymond and Frank, who became celebrated ship builders.The General’s original owner was Neno DiMaggio, cousin to baseball legend Joe DiMaggio, who named it after Gen. John J. “Black Jack” Pershing, the World War I figure under whom Neno DiMaggio served.It eventually ended up in San Francisco under the ownership of fisherman Frank Watada. He gave it back to the Siino family in 2003.The General hit the news in 2008 when a colony of seabirds called Brand’s cormorant took up residence on it and required U.S. Fish and Wildlife biologists to get them out.Martinez can be found at Boatworks most days painting the boat but can also be reached at mmpublishing@gmail.com.
Read original post: MontereyHerald.com
Unusual North Pacific warmth jostles marine food chain
September 2014 | Scientists across NOAA Fisheries are watching a persistent expanse of exceptionally warm water spanning the Gulf of Alaska that could send reverberations through the marine food web. The warm expanse appeared about a year ago and the longer it lingers, the greater potential it has to affect ocean life from jellyfish to salmon, researchers say."Right now it's super warm all the way across the Pacific to Japan," said Bill Peterson, an oceanographer with NOAA's Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Newport, Ore., who has linked certain ocean indicators to salmon returns. "For a scientist it's a very interesting time because when you see something like this that's totally new you have opportunities to learn things you were never expecting."Not since records began has the region of the North Pacific Ocean been so warm for so long. The warm expanse has been characterized by sea surface temperatures as much as three degrees C (about 5.4 degrees F) higher than average, lasting for months, and appears on large- scale temperature maps as a red-orange mass of warm water many hundreds of miles across. Nick Bond of the Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean at the University of Washington earlier this summer nicknamed it "the blob."Indeed, there are three warm zones, said Nate Mantua, leader of the landscape ecology team at the Southwest Fisheries Science Center: The big blob dominating the Gulf of Alaska, a more recent expanse of exceptionally warm water in the Bering Sea and one that emerged off Southern California earlier this year. One exception to the warmth is a narrow strip of cold water along the Pacific Northwest Coast fed by upwelling from the deep ocean.The situation does not match recognized patterns in ocean conditions such as El Niño Southern Oscillation or Pacific Decadal Oscillation, which are known to affect marine food webs. "It's a strange and mixed bag out there," Mantua said.One possibility is that the PDO, a long-lived El Niño-like pattern, is shifting from an extended cold period dating to the late 1990s to a warm phase, said Toby Garfield, director of the Environmental Research Division at the Southwest Fisheries Science Center. Mantua said the PDO may have tipped into a warm state as early as January of this year.But both scientists noted that the observed warm temperatures are higher and cover more of the northern Pacific than the PDO typically affects. For all but the Gulf of Alaska, the warm waters appear to lie in a relatively shallow layer near the surface. The cold near-shore conditions in the Pacific Northwest also don't match the typical PDO pattern.Warm ocean temperatures favor some species but not others. For instance, sardines and albacore tuna often thrive in warmer conditions. Pacific Coast salmon and steelhead rely on cold-water nutrients, which they may have found recently in the narrow margin of cold water along the Northwest coast. But if the warmth continues or expands Pacific Northwest salmon and steelhead could suffer in coming years."If the warming persists for the whole summer and fall, some of the critters that do well in a colder, more productive ocean could suffer reduced growth, poor reproductive success and population declines," Mantua said. "This has happened to marine mammals, sea birds and Pacific salmon in the past. At the same time, species that do well in warmer conditions may experience increased growth, survival and abundance."Peterson recently advised the Northwest Power and Conservation Council that juvenile salmon and steelhead migrating from the Columbia River to the ocean this year and next may experience poor survival."The signs for salmon aren't good based on our experience in the past," Peterson said, "but we won't really see the signal from this until those fish return in a few years." The warm expanse in the Gulf of Alaska is a kind of climatic "hangover" from the same persistent atmospheric ridge of high pressure believed to have contributed to California's extreme drought, Bond and Mantua said. The ridge suppressed storms and winds that commonly stir and cool the sea surface.Other factors created the patch of warm water hugging the Central California Coast south to Baja California. A low-pressure trough between California and Hawaii weakened the winds that typically drive upwelling of deep, cold water along the California Coast. Without those winds waters off Southern California's beaches have stayed unusually warm.NOAA surveys off California in July found jellyfish called "sea nettles" and ocean sunfish, which the warmer waters likely carried closer to shore, Mantua said. Anglers have reported excellent fishing for warm water species including yellowfin tuna, yellowtail and dorado, also known as mahi-mahi.Research surveys in the Gulf of Alaska this summer came across species such as pomfret, ocean sunfish, blue shark and thresher shark often associated with warmer water, said Joe Orsi of the Alaska Fisheries Science Center Auke Bay Laboratories in Juneau. He said temperatures in the upper 20 meters of water up to 65 kilometers offshore were 0.8 degrees C (about 1.4 degrees F) above normal in both June and July.The potential arrival of El Niño later this year would likely reinforce the warming and its effects on marine ecosystems, Bond said. NOAA's National Weather Service estimates a 65 percent chance El Niño will emerge in fall or early winter.Mantua noted that fall in California generally brings even weaker winds and weaker upwelling, making it likely that the warm waters off Central California will persist and even expand northward regardless of a tropical El Niño.
Unusually warm temperatures dominate three areas of the North Pacific: the Bering Sea, Gulf of Alaska and an area off Southern California. The darker the red, the further above average the sea surface temperature. NOAA researchers are tracking the temperatures and their implications for marine life.
NOAA research surveys in the Gulf of Alaska this summer turned up ocean sunfish, also known as mola, which are often associated with warmer waters.
Thresher sharks were among the species associated with warmer waters that turned up in research surveys in the Gulf of Alaska this summer.
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Eating fish could lower your risk of hearing loss: study
All it takes is two or more servings per week, and it doesn't matter what kind you consume. The omega-3 fats in fish help preserve hearing, it seems.
According to researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, two or more servings of fish per week could lower women's risk of acquired hearing loss."Consumption of any type of fish (tuna, dark fish, light fish, or shellfish) tended to be associated with lower risk," says corresponding author Dr. Sharon G. Curhan, MD, of BWH Channing Division of Network Medicine. "These findings suggest that diet may be important in the prevention of acquired hearing loss."In the massive cohort study, researchers tracked a total 65,215 women from 1991 to 2009.Overall, participants self-reported 11,606 cases of incident hearing loss, and data analysis indicates that the women who consumed fish at least twice per week showed a 20% lower risk of hearing loss than the women who seldom ate fish.Case-by-case observation revealed that higher consumption of each of the aforementioned fish types and increased intake of long-chain omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) in the women's diets showed benefits for hearing preservation."Acquired hearing loss is a highly prevalent and often disabling chronic health condition," says Dr. Curhan. "Although a decline in hearing is often considered an inevitable aspect of aging, the identification of several potentially modifiable risk factors has provided new insight into possibilities for prevention or delay of acquired hearing loss."The study was published in the journal American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
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