LinkNotes: pollution

Showing posts with label pollution. Show all posts

2009-03-22

Robotic Fish

Robotic Fish To Fight Pollution In Sea

Scientists have designed a robotic fish capable of detecting pollution in water.

The project is part of a three-year partnership between engineering consultancy firm BMT Group and Essex University.

clipped from www.youtube.com

G8 Robotic Fish

clipped from www.bmt.org

BMT Group Limited

Robotic fish: the latest weapon in the fight against water pollution

The life-like creatures, which will mimic the undulating movement of real fish, will be equipped with tiny chemical sensors to find the source of potentially hazardous pollutants in the water, such as leaks from vessels in the port or underwater pipelines.

Thanks to Wi-Fi technology, they will then be able to transmit the information to the port's control centre via a "charging hub" where the fish can charge their batteries. This will enable the authorities to map in real time the source and scale of the pollution (see attached graphic).

2008-09-07

As a result of pollution and overfishing some of the advanced forms of ocean life are struggling to survive while the most primitive are thriving and spreading: algae, bacteria and jellyfish are growing unchecked. This 'rise of slime' is killing larger species and sickening people.

Clipped from: Our Oceans Are Dying and We're At Fault : TreeHugger

The Los Angeles Times report this morning on the state of the oceans sounds like something out of a horror movie - fishermen come in contact with a spongy weed, only to break out into a painful rash that won't go away and literally peels your skin off. Get a drop in your mouth and your tongue swells so much you can't eat for a week. Scientists in labs can't be in the same room with it, the smell is so pungent. Only the problem is that this is for real and happening more and more often in coastal areas around the world. We are putting too much food into the oceans, scientists say, and now the oceans are reverting back to primeval seas of millions and even billions of years ago."

Clipped from: A Primeval Tide of Toxins - Los Angeles Times: "California | Local

A Primeval Tide of Toxins
Runoff from modern life is feeding an explosion of primitive organisms. This 'rise of slime,' as one scientist calls it, is killing larger species and sickening people.

MORETON BAY, AUSTRALIA -- The fireweed began each spring as tufts of hairy growth and spread across the seafloor fast enough to cover a football field in an hour.

When fishermen touched it, their skin broke out in searing welts. Their lips blistered and peeled. Their eyes burned and swelled shut. Water that splashed from their nets spread the inflammation to their legs and torsos.

'It comes up like little boils,' said Randolph Van Dyk, a fisherman whose powerful legs are pocked with scars. 'At nighttime, you can feel them burning. I tried everything to get rid of them. Nothing worked.'"

Clipped from: Ocean “Dead Zones” Increasing: 400 Oxygen-Deprived Areas Now Exist : TreeHugger

Dead Zones Have Doubled Every 10 Years Since 1960s

According to the study, the number of marine dead zones—areas which are periodically or permanently starved of oxygen—has doubled every 10 years since the 1960s, with those along coastlines increasing in size and intensity. Currently there are about 400 coastal areas, with a combined area larger than the size of Oregon, with such poor water quality, with so little oxygen that only microbes can survive in it. Fish and crustaceans must flee the area or die.

marine dead zones map image
Map showing partial number of current marine dead zones: Dr Robert Diaz/NASA"

2008-02-18

The world's most polluted river

Clips from an article about the Citarum river, in Indonesia: possibly the most polluted river in the world.

clipped from www.dailymail.co.uk

Is this the world's most polluted river?

It was once a gently flowing river, where fishermen cast their nets, sea birds came to feed and natural beauty left visitors spellbound.

Villagers collected water for their simple homes and rice paddies thrived on its irrigation channels.
Today, the Citarum is a river in crisis, choked by the domestic waste of nine million people and thick with the cast-off from hundreds of factories.

So dense is the carpet of refuse that the tiny wooden fishing craft which float through it are the only clue to the presence of water.

A man picks through the rubbish in the Citarum river

'I said we shouldn't have scrapped weekly collections'

Plastic rubbish has clogged up the waterway

via: Sea of Garbage

2008-02-17

Map of Ocean Damage

Almost half the world's oceans have been damaged by human activity, says a new study by a team of researchers who mapped the severity of the effects.

clipped from www.washingtonpost.com

Study Finds Humans' Effect on Oceans Comprehensive

Human activities are affecting every square mile of the world's oceans, according to a study by a team of American, British and Canadian researchers who mapped the severity of the effects from pole to pole.

clipped from www.npr.org

A new map reveals ocean areas most damaged by human activities.

"These are the most impacted ocean areas on the planet," Halpern says. "It's where the combination of human activities, from shipping to fishing to land-based pollution, are coming together to make things really bad."

clipped from www.universetoday.com

"Whether one is interested in protecting ocean wilderness, assessing which human activities have the greatest impact, or prioritizing which ecosystem types need management intervention, our results provide a strong framework for doing so." - Kimberly Selkoe of the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) in Santa Barbara, CA and the University of Hawaii.

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