Putting things in perspective #HSRC #ironfertilization #greenattack

April 2, 2013 – 11:20 am

Consider the ratio of environmental change between these two projects, and then consider the ratio of alarm and controversy.

We must look below the surface of the attack on the Haida Salmon Restoration Corporation and their project to restore iron balance to the North Pacific. There are a number of topics that could bear close scrutiny in the case of the media and green attack on the project. I encourage everyone who is interested in fairness, justice, and truth in the media to see if they can identify key topics that are being hidden, as the ETC Group and the media hold up the effigy of Russ George in a ‘straw man’ distraction from the real issues – issues pertinent to the ethics, morals and codes by which non-governmental environmental groups, government agencies, and the media should be held accountable.

I encourage all readers to think holistically, to consider the contribution of propaganda, polarizing public opinion, and fear-based promulgation of false and misleading statements to the ‘ecology of learning’ we are situated within. The only power we have to protect and enhance salmon habitat is our individual and collective examination of statements – identify what claims are being made, and then identify what warrants are being put forth to support those claims.

The story of the HSRC and their ocean restoration project is about many issues, and complex inter-relationships amongst anthropogenic climate change, non-governmental environmental groups, the media, international politics, and the Canadian government. Our strength is in our intelligence and our ability to broaden our perspectives and deepen our understanding. There are no simple, reductive answers to this situation we are in. Anyone promulgating such ideas is doing a disservice to our intelligence, and to the future sustainability of our human existence on this planet.

Speak for the salmon.

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Phytoplankton 40% decline since 1950 #HSRC

January 22, 2013 – 12:40 pm

The problem with environmental conservationism is that it does not have a means to address extant environmental and ecological conditions that will continue to decline if nothing is done to change them.

Environmental conservatives have worked tirelessly to have iron fertilization considered the equivalent to toxic waste dumping. Their reasoning is that there might be unintended consequences to adding iron to ocean habitats to restore plankton life. Their fear is based on models that predict the possibility of adverse effects of iron enhancement in the deep ocean. But these models were not based on real life conditions, the kinds of conditions that exist when iron is restored to ocean habitats through naturally occurring events such as volcanic eruptions and annual wind currents picking up dust from glaciers and deserts and dropping the dust mid ocean. Despite this discrepancy, those who lobby to ban iron fertilization have been highly effective in tarnishing the possibility of using iron enhancement on the open ocean to restore ocean habitat. In this case, environmental conservatism itself may have an unintended consequence, the destruction of ocean habitat through neglect.

Joe Romm writes, “We’ve known for a while that we are poisoning the oceans and that human emissions of carbon dioxide, left unchecked, would likely have devastating consequences.” He cites a 2010 Nature Geoscience study that shows oceans are acidifying 10 times faster today than they were 55 million years ago when a mass extinction of marine species occurred. Marine biologist, Boris Worm, of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, expressed his concern about this finding, saying, “…it means that the marine ecosystem today looks very different to what it was a few decades ago and a lot of this change is happening way out in the open, blue ocean where we cannot see it.”

Worm goes on to say, “Phytoplankton are a critical part of our planetary life support system. They produce half of the oxygen we breathe, draw down surface CO2 and ultimately support all of our fishes.” The Haida Salmon Restoration Corporation dared to challenge the unexamined hegemony of environmental conservatism, to take it upon themselves to assume the duty of stewardship for their ocean habitat. Through their project, they dispersed a minuscule amount of iron (.037 grams) to each square meter of ocean in their project zone. Since that dispersal, they have been gathering data to determine whether the iron dispersal had effect on the phytoplankton in the area. According to satellite data there was a phytoplankton bloom in the area where the iron was dispersed.

Surely, given the decrease of phytoplankton over decades, and the apparent bloom after the judicious application of iron, disproves the wisdom of environmental conservatism and the lobbying to ban iron fertilization.

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Speaking for phytoplankton #HSRC

January 17, 2013 – 10:12 am

When we speak for the salmon, we also must speak for the living organisms on which they depend to survive.

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Speaking for the #salmon and #ocean pastures

December 20, 2012 – 11:08 am

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/bcs-salmon-guardian-needs-you-to-listen-before-its-too-late/article5907841/

 

ADMINISTRATION of Canada’s fisheries currently does not satisfy the intent of the Canadian Constitution or of federal government legislation. Conservation and protection goals are not being met.

Al Wood & Ron MacLeod, November 2012

There is a serious problem in ocean habitat. The very institutions that purport to protect and sustain ocean habitats are complicit in their destruction. How many decades has the Canadian Department of Fisheries been in charge of caring for salmon on the west coast? How many years have environmental groups been waging wars against the degradation of ocean habitat? And this is what they have wrought. An epic fail of the salmon.

Now, a small group of First Nations, with a history of ocean knowledge and culture deeply connected to the life cycles of salmon, have dared to challenge these authorities and take matters into their own hands. I have to ask, if they have brought life to an ocean dessert, is that so bad? How can the restoration of phytoplankton blooms be determined as detrimental to the environment? When that self same bloom fed a commensurate blooming of all ocean life?

Whenever I read these scientific papers, that all seem to mysteriously draw the same conclusions about iron fertilization, I never see these people speak for the salmon, as Ron McCleod has encouraged us to do. Certainly the salmon would be grateful for an absence of waste dumping in their ocean pastures. That is common sense. But the arguments to ban iron fertilization, actually iron restoration, never address the issue that we have already made the sea unproductive and  that it does not support the normal phytoplankton populations that once bloomed as a matter of course.

The people of Old Masset Village are speaking for the salmon, and the salmon are saying, “FEED ME”. Let us all put the needs of the salmon before the politicization of environmental ideologues and self-interested scientists who promulgate propaganda to server their own research ends.

Speak for the salmon. Feed the salmon.

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It is time to change our views of the #ocean, #oceanpastures, and #oceandwellers

December 6, 2012 – 12:29 pm

The basis of the formation of the Haida Salmon Restoration Corporation was to provide a corporate entity to undertake the difficult work of implementing a project to restore salmon ocean habitat. Their business approach, drawn from pasture and range management on land, was to consider the ocean as a pasture, and phytoplankton as the ‘grasslands’ upon with all life systems flourish. A flourishing phytoplankton habitat, an ocean pasture, supports not only salmon, but all forms of marine life.

There is no doubt that ocean acidification, a consequence of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere, is affecting the habitat of phytoplankton. We know that the total amount of carbon dioxide released into the air is estimated to be 2.4 million pounds (1.1 million kilograms) per second. The current concentration of atmospheric CO2 (as of October 2012) is 391.03 ppm. This is a 3% increase since last year. The rate of carbon dioxide emissions today have not been seen in the 400,000 years. Even if we were able to halt all carbon dioxide emissions tomorrow, there is a lethal does hanging in the atmosphere, that will eventually make its way into the world’s oceans.

The Haida Salmon Restoration Corporation, through their own modest efforts, seek to learn about the relationship between iron, phytoplankton, and salmon mortality. Through their project, they hope to neutralize the toxic impact of carbon dioxide acidification, and increase the possibility for living organisms to thrive in ocean pastures. Their work is guided by a deep, and abiding, sense of responsibility to reverse the detrimental effects of atmospheric carbon dioxide in their own ocean pastures.

It is time we changed our colonial views of the ocean as either a) an infinite dumping ground; b) an infinite source of marine life no matter what abuses we impose on it; and c) an international territory subject to the corruption, and profound mismanagement, of international bodies. We must consider oceans as living fields, that are demanding immediate triage to ensure they survive the onslaught of human destruction and abuse. We must consider those cultures, and peoples, who have been tied to the ocean for millennia, as respected shepherds and guardians of their ocean pastures. It is time to change our views of the ocean, and the peoples whose lives depend on its health.

When it comes to salmon restoration, it is about restoration of healthy human relationships, with each other, with the environment, and within the myriad of ecological relationships amongst fish, humans, tides, and phytoplankton.

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iron induces phytoplankton blooms that take up carbon

November 30, 2012 – 4:24 pm

Pollard et al (2009) report the addition of iron to high-nutrient, low-chlorophyll regions induces phytoplankton blooms that take up carbon. Although knowledge about carbon, phytoplankton and carbon export needs more research to be properly quantified, Pollard’s team found natural iron fertilization (by which I think they mean naturally occurring concentrations of iron rather than artificially enhanced iron concentrations by human intervention) resulted in enhanced carbon movement to the deep ocean. They found carbon carbon movement within a highly productive, naturally occurring iron-rich region in the sub-Antarctic Southern Ocean to be two to three times larger than a comparable, nearby area not so richly endowed with naturally occurring iron. They claim their findings support the hypothesis that increased iron supply to the glacial sub-Antarctic may directly enhance carbon movement to the deep ocean.

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have salmon been starving on the high seas? #salmon #ocean pastures #hsrc

November 19, 2012 – 7:19 pm

http://www.mapleridgenews.com/news/177557651.html

The Allouette River Management Society is reporting a 5 times increase of returning Chum salmon from last year’s run of 25,000. About 140,000 chum salmon have been counted fighting their way to the upper reachers of the river to spawn.

It is interesting to consider what sustains salmon life on the open ocean. It is essential that we maintain habitat for the spawning salmon and it is good to see public awareness about this aspect of the salmon life cycle. But we have to ask why, when so many hatcheries are sending young salmon out to the open ocean, so few are returning, until now. Is it possible there are nutrients available so the fish can grow and thrive? Some say it is a result of volcanic activity feeding essential phytoplankton out at sea, creating rich food resources. Although we can’t necessarily explain all these relationships, surely it is worth exploring the possibilities. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JEC0ge__lE Have salmon been starving on the high seas?

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Considering salmon habitat

November 8, 2012 – 6:14 pm

For decades, restoration efforts to save wild salmon stocks have focused on land-based habitat. The focus has been on the rivers, streams and creeks crucial to salmon spawning. Recovery of this habitat has been thoroughly studied, and there is real success to report in reclaiming salmon spawning habitat.

Less well-known, are salmon habitats outside the day to day lives of land-based society. For instance, Alexandra Morton has been fighting long, hard battle to question the role salmon farming is playing on the spread of disease to wild salmon populations and a consequent decline in wild salmon stock. Morton’s work has focused on the habitat of the inland sea, the water of the Georgia Straight, and the numerous inlets that bring the salmon to their land-based spawning beds. Her argument is that issuing salmon farm licences was not based on reliable scientific information regarding the impact of these farms on wild salmon habitat.

Even less well-known, are salmon habitats of the open ocean. Salmon spend the majority of their life in these open ocean pastures, feeding and growing, gaining maturity to return to spawn and die. It was described to me thus:

There is an inverse proportion of knowledge about salmon habitat, in relation to their proximity to land-based society.

 

The narrow slice of salmon habitat knowledge refers to the actual amount of time in a salmon’s life cycle is spent spawning in rivers, streams, and creeks. However, if the pie is read as the amount of knowledge we have gathered through decades of research and habitat restoration, the narrow slice  would represent the life of salmon in the open ocean. We know, and have been successful, in building understanding about salmon habitat with regards to the amount of their life is spent spawning. We have not invested a commensurate amount of resources, scientific study, nor conceptual development when it comes to the majority of the salmon life cycle.

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