tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/sea-69179/articlesSea – The Conversation2024-01-31T12:37:10Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2216652024-01-31T12:37:10Z2024-01-31T12:37:10ZHouthi militant attacks in the Red Sea raise fears of Somali piracy resurgence<p>Renewed <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/29/somali-pirates-suspected-of-hijacking-a-sri-lankan-fishing-boat-with-6-crew">attacks</a> on ships by suspected Somali pirates since November 2023 <a href="https://www.seatrade-maritime.com/piracy/concerns-over-re-emergence-somali-piracy">have fuelled</a> fear of a new threat of piracy off the east coast of Africa. </p>
<p>The area at risk stretches from the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean. At least four ships have been <a href="https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/news/east-africa/return-of-piracy-on-somalia-waters-to-push-up-costs-4490794">hijacked</a> off the Somalia coast since November 2023. Concern has <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/12/17/bulk-carrier-hijacked-by-somali-pirates-houthi-alliance/">risen</a> amid the Iranian-backed Yemeni Houthi group’s militant campaign of support for <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hamas">Hamas</a>, the Palestinian political and military organisation governing Gaza and currently at war with Israel. Many observers <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/12/17/bulk-carrier-hijacked-by-somali-pirates-houthi-alliance/">suspect</a> a collaboration between Somali pirates and the Houthis. </p>
<p>I have researched piracy off the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09700161.2017.1377900">east coast of Africa</a>, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/18366503.2016.1217377">counter piracy efforts</a> and the enduring relevance of <a href="https://seer.ufrgs.br//austral/article/view/113269">naval power</a>. I have no doubt that the Houthi attacks have emboldened the Somali pirates. Their collaboration or at least combination is undermining security off the east coast of Africa and may not be resolved solely by military means.</p>
<h2>The alarm</h2>
<p>The combination of Houthi maritime attacks and Somali piracy has disrupted traffic in the Indian Ocean, Gulf of Aden, Red Sea and Mediterranean. Most ships are taking the <a href="https://www.the-star.co.ke/business/kenya/2023-12-18-kenya-eac-stare-at-costly-imports-as-shipping-lines-shun-red-sea/">longer route</a> around Africa, and this is increasing shipping costs and lengthening shipping time, with negative implications for prices and the global economy.</p>
<p>The Suez Canal, which accounted for 12% to 15% of the total global trade in 2023, recorded a 42% decrease in ship traffic over December 2023 and January 2024, according to the <a href="https://unctad.org/news/red-sea-black-sea-and-panama-canal-unctad-raises-alarm-global-trade-disruptions">UN’s trade and development agency, Unctad</a>. The Suez Canal connects the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. For instance, shipping from the UK, east Africa’s key trading partner, <a href="https://www.containerlift.co.uk/shipping-routes-to-east-africa/">mostly passes</a> through the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean Sea.</p>
<p>These developments and others have <a href="https://unctad.org/press-material/unctad-raises-alarms-escalating-disruptions-global-trade-due-geopolitical-tensions">raised</a> the cost of shipping globally by more than 100%, and from Shanghai to Europe by 256%.</p>
<p>The global economy incurred a colossal loss at the peak of Somali piracy. The World Bank <a href="https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/408451468010486316/pdf/Pirate-trails-tracking-the-illicit-financial-flows-from-pirate-activities-off-the-Horn-of-Africa.pdf#page=99">estimates</a> that Somali pirates not only kidnapped seafarers but also received between US$339 million and US$413 million as ransom for hijacked ships between 2005 and 2012. </p>
<p>The threat raised the <a href="https://www.oceanuslive.org/main/DownloadAsset.aspx?uid=797">cost of shipping</a>, as shipping firms had to spend billions of dollars to install security equipment and hire guards aboard. They also had to pay more as compensation to endangered crew and insurance for goods. <a href="https://oneearthfuture.org/sites/default/files/documents/summaries/View%20Summary_4.pdf">One Earth Foundation</a>, a nonprofit organisation, estimated that US$7 billion was lost to Somali piracy at its peak in 2011. </p>
<h2>Preparedness of international shipping</h2>
<p>The threat of the Houthis and Somali pirates against maritime commerce has attracted international military responses. Prior to the latest crisis, the US, France and China maintained a significant <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/04597222.2023.2162721">military presence in Djibouti</a>. This has since been activated and, in some cases, reinforced, for maritime policing in the Gulf of Aden. In addition, India and Iran, among other nations, have deployed warships to the region. </p>
<p>The US and the UK have jointly launched airstrikes to undermine Houthi capabilities and motivations for maritime attacks in the region. But the group has <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/houthis-are-throttling-international-trade-but-uk-and-us-attacks-may-only-make-matters-worse-13057433">intensified</a> its attacks.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.airandspaceforces.com/us-thwarts-pirates-houthi-missile-attacks/">US forces</a> rescued a hijacked tanker and arrested five Somali pirates involved on 26 November 2023. The <a href="https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/news/east-africa/return-of-piracy-on-somalia-waters-to-push-up-costs-4490794">Indian navy</a> also rescued a cargo vessel from pirates on 4 January 2024. </p>
<p>But the threats of maritime piracy and terrorism off the east coast of Africa have persisted. Without confidence in the current security situation in the region, many ships have rerouted around Africa to avoid the hotspot. </p>
<p>Previously, the threat of Somali piracy to global trade attracted a series of multinational initiatives. These included efforts to combat <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/al-Shabaab">Al Shabaab</a> and reconstruct Somalia state authority to govern its territory.</p>
<p>Many countries deployed their navy to the region. The EU naval operation Atlanta <a href="https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meetdocs/2009_2014/documents/sede/dv/sede030909factsheetatalanta_/sede030909factsheetatalanta_en.pdf">commenced</a> in the region in December 2008, and that of the US <a href="https://2009-2017.state.gov/t/pm/rls/rm/199929.htm">in January 2009</a>. Similarly, Operation Ocean Shield by <a href="https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/topics_48815.htm">Nato</a>, the military alliance of EU and north American states, started in August 2009. Russia, China, India and Iran also deployed warships to the region. These forces joined the regional players in north and east Africa and the Arabian Peninsula to combat Somali piracy.</p>
<p>Many <a href="https://www.google.co.za/books/edition/Somali_Piracy/7WN9DAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=prosecution+of+piracy+somalia&printsec=frontcover">pirates from Somalia</a> were arrested, imprisoned and tried across the world or killed.</p>
<p>Consequently, Somali piracy eventually <a href="https://icc-ccs.org/news/904-somali-pirate-clampdown-caused-drop-in-global-piracy-imb-reveals">declined</a> from its peak in 2011 to <a href="https://www.seatrade-maritime.com/asia/no-somali-attacks-2015-no-room-complacency-industry-warns">zero</a> in 2015. Except for 2017, when attacks were recorded, Somali pirates have generally kept a <a href="http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2018-01/11/c_136888054.htm">low profile</a> from 2018 until November 2023.</p>
<p>The current counter piracy efforts mainly revolve around military power, coalition building and diplomatic engagements. Little effort is being made to resolve the root causes and trigger of the crisis. </p>
<h2>Next steps</h2>
<p>To address the emerging crisis off the east coast of Africa, there is a need to take a holistic approach to security in the region. </p>
<p>More concerted efforts are required to address the root causes of the crisis, starting with strengthening the Somali state to govern its territorial space. </p>
<p>Ending the Gaza war that attracted the solidarity of the Houthis, which in turn emboldened Somali pirates, is also important for the general stability of the region.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221665/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Samuel Oyewole does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Suez Canal ship traffic has dropped sharply due to frequent attacks at sea.Samuel Oyewole, Lecturer, Political Science, Federal University, Oye EkitiLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2173532023-11-16T22:57:51Z2023-11-16T22:57:51ZLet coastlines be coastlines: How nature-based approaches can protect Canada’s coasts<p>Along Canadian coasts, <a href="https://www.queensu.ca/gazette/stories/climate-change-means-atlantic-canada-will-see-more-frequent-storms">storm surges</a> and <a href="https://www.uottawa.ca/environment/blog/100-year-floods-are-increasing-canada-due-climate-change-officials-say-true">flooding</a> have gone from breaking news to seasonal norms. </p>
<p>Phenomena Canadians have historically thought of as freak <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2020.1744423">natural disasters are becoming regular predictable occurrences</a>. </p>
<p>Our go-to solution to protect property and infrastructure is to build walls to block wave energy — walls that have become <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ca-Vu/publication/346517536_Coastal_Development_Resilience_Restoration_and_Infrastructure_Requirements_LEAD_AUTHORS_About_the_High_Level_Panel_for_a_Sustainable_Ocean_Economy/links/5fc5e73992851c3012995ca6/Coastal-Development-Resilience-Restoration-and-Infrastructure-Requirements-LEAD-AUTHORS-About-the-High-Level-Panel-for-a-Sustainable-Ocean-Economy.pdf">ineffective and unaffordable</a>. It’s time to look beyond the status quo and consider <a href="https://www.csagroup.org/article/research/nature-based-solutions-for-coastal-and-riverine-flood-and-erosion-risk-management/">nature-based solutions</a> to protect the places we love.</p>
<h2>How we got here</h2>
<p>In many parts of the world, humans have long felt a <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/H/bo14312647.html">strong connection to the coast</a>. We <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-323-95227-9.00007-5">write stories, sing songs and build lives</a> on the lands that touch the sea. We also build walls and other concrete, stone and metal structures to <a href="https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/shoreline-armoring.html">protect those lands</a> from the very seas we revere.</p>
<p>From time immemorial, Indigenous Peoples made their homes along the coasts, becoming <a href="https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/knowinghome/chapter/chapter-7/">experts in their knowledge</a> of coastal ecosystems and, on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, used <a href="https://www.ubcpress.ca/against-the-tides">salt marshes for food and transportation</a>. Following European settlement, those salt marshes were drained, <a href="https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/environment/air-land-water/water/drought-flooding-dikes-dams/integrated-flood-hazard-management/dike-management#:%7E:text=Dike%20consequence%20classification-,History%20of%20dikes%20in%20B.C.,relatively%20little%20damage%20was%20caused.">dykes</a> were built from earth and wood, and the land was cultivated for agriculture.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/storms-or-sea-level-rise-what-really-causes-beach-erosion-209213">Storms or sea-level rise – what really causes beach erosion?</a>
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<p><a href="https://books.google.ca/books?hl=en&lr=&id=AjwPEAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=how+much+of+Canada%27s+coast+is+hardened+shoreline&ots=ofxRgZFp1q&sig=pudIoHph4rwpz4E5hntGfVx36uc#v=onepage&q=how%20much%20of%20Canada's%20coast%20is%20hardened%20shoreline&f=false">Over time, other hard armour structures</a> such as <a href="https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/farming-natural-resources-and-industry/agriculture-and-seafood/agricultural-land-and-environment/water/drainage-management-guide/533410-1_rock_revetments-drainage_guide_factsheet_no12.pdf">revetments</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/technology/breakwater">breakwaters</a> were constructed to block wave energy and provide additional protection for agriculture, transportation and growing cities.</p>
<h2>Where we are now</h2>
<p>Today, Canada’s coastal infrastructure includes extensive networks of seawalls, dykes, revetments and breakwaters, most of which are made of hard materials. Hard coastal infrastructure is everywhere if you know where to look. The <a href="https://transcanadahighway.com/nova-scotia/canso-causeway/">Canso Causeway</a> connecting Cape Breton Island to mainland Nova Scotia and the <a href="https://vancouver.ca/parks-recreation-culture/seawall.aspx">Vancouver seawall</a> are just two examples. </p>
<p>In some cases, using <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/48703231?seq=2">hard infrastructure</a> is unavoidable. Indeed, <a href="https://nrc.canada.ca/en/research-development/research-collaboration/programs/ocean-program-coastal-resilience-technology-theme">hard infrastructure</a> is critical for maintaining transportation and energy infrastructure, including roads, railroads and ports. </p>
<p>However, hard infrastructure almost always <a href="https://www.intactcentreclimateadaptation.ca/rising-seas-and-shifting-sands-combining-natural-and-grey-infrastructure-to-protect-canadas-eastern-and-western-coastal-communities/">increases erosion</a> in adjacent areas, is expensive to maintain and degrades over time. Engineers predict that repairs, including <a href="https://www2.gnb.ca/content/dam/gnb/Departments/trans/Chignecto/chignecto-isthmus-project-report-e.pdf">raising the dykes along the Chignecto Isthmus</a> between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, will cost between $189-300 million. </p>
<p>With such an astronomical price tag, even smaller projects are simply not an option for many municipalities or individual landowners.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/coastal-erosion-is-unstoppable-so-how-do-we-live-with-it-186365">Coastal erosion is unstoppable – so how do we live with it?</a>
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<p>In the face of such challenges, there are opportunities to adapt engineering and protective infrastructure to be more sustainable by integrating natural elements and processes.</p>
<h2>Nature-based solutions</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.transcoastaladaptations.com/nature-based-climate-change-adaptation">Nature-based approaches</a> preserve or reintroduce natural structures and materials into the environment, recognizing and respecting natural systems and their benefits for humans. </p>
<p>Nature-based approaches range from those that are entirely natural to hybrid solutions, which incorporate traditional hard engineering with natural features.</p>
<p>Examples of nature-based solutions <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5c83d5c63560c33561cc74de/t/61aeca0bf994d4620c5aba87/1638844941547/MRfM_BelcherStMarsh_Case_Study_Final__Dec_05_21_Updated.pdf">include</a> dyke realignment to restore natural water flow and allow saltmarsh reestablishment, wetland and dune restoration, and living shorelines which utilize plants, sand and rock to protect the coast. </p>
<p>Nature-based approaches can involve <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nbsj.2022.100044">reserving land for natural systems by protecting them from development</a> and making room for the evolution of natural systems; they can also <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2021.105960">involve moving back from the coast, and releasing land back to nature</a>.</p>
<p>Hard infrastructure weakens over time while nature-based solutions grow stronger as plants establish roots, biodiversity increases and natural processes adjust. </p>
<p>Nature-based solutions provide a wide array of benefits. In addition to protecting coastal places from flooding, storm surges and erosion. Nature-based solutions <a href="http://stewardshipcentrebc.ca/PDF_docs/greenshores/Resources/Green%20Shores%202020_%20Impact,%20Value%20and%20Lessons%20Learned_%20Full%20Report_July2020.pdf">prevent shoreline pollution</a>, <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/2/523/htm">support biodiversity</a>, can <a href="http://stewardshipcentrebc.ca/PDF_docs/greenshores/Resources/Green%20Shores%202020_%20Impact,%20Value%20and%20Lessons%20Learned_%20Full%20Report_July2020.pdf">increase property value</a> and contribute to overall <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/su131910950">human well-being</a>. </p>
<p>Incorporating nature-based solutions requires innovation and open-mindedness that may feel intimidating and it is often <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20220329065340id_/https:/nhess.copernicus.org/preprints/nhess-2022-104/nhess-2022-104.pdf">easier to trust a stone or concrete wall</a> over the energy absorbing power of plants and soil. </p>
<p>As such, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nbsj.2022.100044">raising awareness</a> about different nature-based options and being transparent about <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098%2Frstb.2019.0120">costs and benefits</a> can help build confidence in nature-based solutions. </p>
<p>Successful nature-based solutions also require place-based <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20220329065340id_/https:/nhess.copernicus.org/preprints/nhess-2022-104/nhess-2022-104.pdf">collaboration and knowledge sharing</a> between impacted peoples, engineers, scientists and decision-makers that consider social
and ecological interests. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/st-lawrence-shoreline-erosion-we-must-work-with-not-against-nature-184721">St. Lawrence shoreline erosion: We must work with, not against, nature</a>
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<p><a href="https://royalsociety.org/topics-policy/projects/biodiversity/nature-based-solutions/">Nature-based solutions cannot be prescribed as top-down interventions</a>. Every situation is unique, and many people with diverse knowledge and perspectives should come together to decide how specific nature-based approaches can meet various infrastructure, ecological and social needs as well as increase flood resilience.</p>
<h2>What now?</h2>
<p>For natural resource and permitting agencies, as well as many property owners, the tradition of building hard armoured shorelines remains deeply ingrained. Current guidance documents, policies and habits were built for hard infrastructure. In some cases, <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/su11236735">bureaucratic decision-making structures</a> move slower than hazards from flooding. </p>
<p>In other cases, including lack of or delayed implementation of legislation, such as <a href="https://www.halifaxexaminer.ca/government/province-house/houston-government-once-again-delays-implementation-of-coastal-protection-act/">the Coastal Protection Act</a> and regulations in Nova Scotia, <a href="https://ecologyandsociety.org/vol28/iss2/art25/">political interests</a> hinder planning actions that would limit hard infrastructure and development along the coast.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">An overview of the problems of erosion facing many communities across Canada, particularly in the North. Produced by the CBC.</span></figcaption>
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<p><a href="https://climatechoices.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Infrastructure-English-FINAL-Sep29.pdf?utm_source=vancouver%20is%20awesome&utm_campaign=vancouver%20is%20awesome%3A%20outbound&utm_medium=referral">Many Canadians</a> are buying homes in areas with high flood risk. The infrastructure they rely upon is <a href="https://changingclimate.ca/national-issues/chapter/2-0/">aging</a> and requires adaptation. Infrastructure supporting <a href="https://highways.dot.gov/public-roads/autumn-2021/02">bridges, roads</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nbsj.2022.100013">rail lines</a> needs to be upgraded or removed, providing opportunities to incorporate nature-based solutions.</p>
<h2>Hope for the future</h2>
<p>As we look towards what can feel like an ominous future, there are many resources for individuals or organisations seeking additional information and guidance about nature-based solutions. <a href="https://www.transcoastaladaptations.com/">TransCoastal Adaptations: Centre for Nature-based Solutions</a> is a practitioner, academic and government partnership in Nova Scotia focused on restoration, managed realignment and climate change adaptation. </p>
<p>Privately owned companies, also in Nova Scotia, <a href="https://helpingnatureheal.com/">Helping Heal Nature</a> and <a href="https://www.cbwes.com/">CB Wetlands and Environmental Specialists</a>, focus on ecological restoration, living shorelines and community stewardship and education. Nation-wide <a href="https://coastalzonecanada.org/nbcs/">communities of practice</a> exist to build capacity for natural and nature-based approaches.</p>
<p>As more people learn about nature-based solutions, there will be more opportunities to incorporate natural processes into coastal protection. We know the stakes, and we have nature-based solutions at hand. It’s time to give dirt and plants a chance.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217353/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Keahna Margeson receives funding from the Ocean Frontier Institute Ocean Graduate Excellence Network, Canada First Research Excellence Fund, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, and National Research Council Canada. </span></em></p>As seas rise, it is clear that traditional coastal defence approaches are unable to keep pace. Nature-based solutions offer considerable potential to protect coasts, people and biodiversity.Keahna Margeson, IDPhD Student, School for Resource and Environmental Studies, Dalhousie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2110152023-10-24T14:59:03Z2023-10-24T14:59:03ZRoyal Charter storm of 1859: how an almighty tempest led to the birth of the UK’s shipping forecast<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551692/original/file-20231003-27-6msxku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1000%2C633&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Royal Charter was shipwrecked at Porth Alerth near Moelfre on Anglesey. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>You can read this article in <a href="https://theconversation.com/storm-y-royal-charter-1859-a-chreur-rhagolygon-tywydd-i-forwyr-215368">Welsh</a></em>.</p>
<p>In British weather history, one storm stands out as a catalyst for change – the Royal Charter Storm of 1859. This devastating tempest off the west coast of Britain played a pivotal role in the founding of the shipping forecast and has had an enduring <a href="https://rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/j.1477-8696.1970.tb04108.x">impact</a> on weather forecasting in the UK and beyond. </p>
<p>Winds gusted at 100 miles per hour between October 25 and 26 that year – <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspl.1859.0047">higher</a> than any previously recorded in the Mersey, in north-west England. And it’s considered to be the <a href="https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/who/our-history/the-royal-charter-gale">most severe</a> Irish Sea storm of the 19th century. More than 800 lives were lost and the storm sank or badly damaged more than 200 ships. But it also paved the way for the creation of the shipping forecast. </p>
<p>The storm is named after the most famous of the ships lost to the waves, a steam and sailing ship called the <a href="https://blog.library.wales/a-helpless-ruin-on-the-shores-of-anglesea-the-royal-charter-and-the-rothsay-castle-shipwrecks/">Royal Charter</a>. After a two-month journey from Melbourne in Australia, the Royal Charter was heading towards Liverpool with its valuable cargo of gold. The ship was caught in the full fury of the storm off the coast of Anglesey, Wales. </p>
<p>Despite the crew’s valiant efforts to anchor the ship and cut its sails, the Royal Charter was driven onto the rocks in the early hours of October 26. With the help of villagers onshore, they succeeded in saving around 40 passengers. Other passengers had tried to swim to shore but were weighed down by the gold in their pockets and drowned. The ship eventually split in two and the waves claimed the lives of more than 450 passengers and crew members, including all the women and children aboard. </p>
<p>The tragic loss of life and property made the storm headline news. It even came to the attention of <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Shipwreck.html?id=oV_XAAAACAAJ&redir_esc=y">Charles Dickens</a>, who was working as a journalist in London at the time and visited the site of the wreck soon after the storm. </p>
<h2>The shipping forecast and the Met Office</h2>
<p>Weather observations had been collected from around the British coast <a href="https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/library-and-archive/archive-hidden-treasures/met-office-history">since 1854</a> by a part of the UK Met Office known then as the Meteorological Department of the Board of Trade. The Royal Charter Storm, however, highlighted a need for more accurate weather forecasting and a national storm warning system. </p>
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<img alt="An old black and white photo of a man in a tailcoat" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551757/original/file-20231003-27-52l57b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551757/original/file-20231003-27-52l57b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=998&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551757/original/file-20231003-27-52l57b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=998&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551757/original/file-20231003-27-52l57b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=998&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551757/original/file-20231003-27-52l57b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1254&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551757/original/file-20231003-27-52l57b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1254&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551757/original/file-20231003-27-52l57b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1254&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Vice Admiral Robert Fitzroy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FitzRoy.jpg?uselang=en#/media/File:FitzRoy.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Vice Admiral <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Robert-Fitzroy">Robert Fitzroy</a>, founder of the Met Office, had been lobbying for the creation of such a storm warning system since the summer of 1859. Following the Royal Charter storm, Fitzroy was able to <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/abs/10.1098/rspl.1859.0111">demonstrate</a> that it could have been predicted. </p>
<p>In December of that year, the new storm warning system was approved and the first warning was issued in February 1861. This was delivered by telegraph to harbour towns, who then hoisted cones and drums on a mast to warn vessels in harbours and along the coast of the incoming storm.</p>
<p>The UK’s storm warning service – which later became known as the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qfvv">shipping forecast</a> – is the longest running national forecasting service in the world. Today, the Met Office <a href="https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/specialist-forecasts/coast-and-sea/shipping-forecast">provides</a> the shipping forecast on behalf of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, and issues a forecast four times a day for the 31 areas of sea around the British Isles.</p>
<h2>A lasting legacy</h2>
<p>In addition to its <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/P/bo3534836.html">meteorological legacy</a>, the effects of the storm can still be seen around the Welsh coastline to this day. On Anglesey, the <a href="https://www.peoplescollection.wales/items/44470">graves</a> of those who died in the wreck can be found in many churches along the coast. Gold nuggets have also <a href="https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/gold-nugget-worth-50000-washed-11311063">washed ashore</a> in recent years.</p>
<p>Further south, in Cwmyreglwys, Pembrokeshire, stand the remains of Saint Brynach’s church, which was partially destroyed by the storm.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="One stone wall of a church stands on a beautiful coastline." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551794/original/file-20231003-19-2458g6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551794/original/file-20231003-19-2458g6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551794/original/file-20231003-19-2458g6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551794/original/file-20231003-19-2458g6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551794/original/file-20231003-19-2458g6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551794/original/file-20231003-19-2458g6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551794/original/file-20231003-19-2458g6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The ruins of St Brynach’s Church in Cwmyreglwys, Pembrokeshire.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/st-brynachs-church-cwm-yr-eglwys-141734476">Dr Morley Read/Shutterstock</a></span>
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</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/who/our-history">Since 1859</a>, the Met Office has made <a href="https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/learn-about/weather/met-office-and-forecasting-firsts/met-office-and-forecasting-firsts">significant strides</a> in the field of meteorology. In August 1861, the first public <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-14361204">weather forecast</a> was printed in The Times, then broadcast on the radio in 1922 and was eventually seen on television for the first time in 1936. </p>
<p>Step by step, the Met Office has pioneered new technologies by launching the world’s first meteorological satellite in 1960 and using the first forecast by a computer in 1965. It has continued to invest in state-of-the-art <a href="https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/what/technology/supercomputer">supercomputers</a> to improve severe weather and climate forecasting since then.</p>
<p>Today, the Met Office is a globally recognised authority in meteorology and climate science. Its expertise is invaluable for numerous sectors, from aviation and agriculture to emergency services and infrastructure planning. The Met Office is now responsible for providing the <a href="https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/warnings-and-advice">National Severe Weather Warning Service</a>, which includes warnings for wind, rain, thunderstorms, lightning, ice, fog, snow and extreme heat.</p>
<p>Through the Met Office’s dedication to scientific research and accurate forecasting, the UK and the world have benefited from improved weather predictions and increased preparedness for extreme weather events. The legacy of the Royal Charter Storm lives on in the Met Office’s ongoing mission to provide essential weather and climate services, safeguarding lives and livelihoods in an ever-changing climate.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211015/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cerys Jones has previously received funding from the AHRC, EU's Ireland-Wales Programme 2014-2020, and the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol.</span></em></p>More than 800 lives were lost in the Royal Charter storm but it also led to improvements in weather forecasting.Cerys Jones, Geography Lecturer, Aberystwyth UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2081162023-07-11T13:54:49Z2023-07-11T13:54:49ZOffshore windfarms could offer new habitats for lobsters – new research<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536584/original/file-20230710-25-qjfszb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=39%2C0%2C4344%2C2874&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The European lobster (Homarus gammarus)</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/european-lobster-homarus-gammarus-1182497287">Dave M Hunt Photography/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Over the past decade, offshore wind turbines have become an ever more present feature along UK coastlines. As part of reaching net zero, the <a href="https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-9783/CBP-9783.pdf">government has ambitious plans</a> for increasing the capacity of offshore wind from 13.9GW to 50GW by 2050.</p>
<p>Expanding the UK’s renewable energy sector is necessary to replace fossil fuels and meet increasing energy demands. But the rate at which offshore windfarm development is planned makes it difficult to understand the effect it will have on the marine environment and the people who rely on it for their livelihood. </p>
<p>To date, most offshore wind turbines have been built using fixed foundations. To protect the foundations from erosion, large deposits of rocks and boulders – called “scour protection” – are placed around the base of each turbine. This means that with each new windfarm, there is an increase in the amount of such material in the marine environment.</p>
<p><a href="https://academic.oup.com/icesjms/article/80/5/1410/7145793#409536204">Our new study</a> shows the European lobster is making use of the scour protection as shelter. The presence of this commercially important species within these sites suggests fishing opportunities may develop from future windfarm construction.</p>
<h2>The reef effect</h2>
<p>When offshore windfarms are constructed in sandy habitats, the addition of scour protection leads to a change in the type of habitat available to marine life. This may have knock-on effects for marine organisms such as allowing certain species to occupy areas they were not previously found.</p>
<p>This process is often referred to as the “<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/artificial-reef">artificial reef</a> effect”. It is considered one the most important effects of offshore windfarm development. However, we have relatively little data to help us understand how species are interacting with scour protection within offshore windfarms, and what effects these might have on marine life and hence on local fishing industries.</p>
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<img alt="Wind turbines in the sea at dusk" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536630/original/file-20230710-29-tvknt8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536630/original/file-20230710-29-tvknt8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536630/original/file-20230710-29-tvknt8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536630/original/file-20230710-29-tvknt8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536630/original/file-20230710-29-tvknt8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536630/original/file-20230710-29-tvknt8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536630/original/file-20230710-29-tvknt8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Most offshore wind turbines have been built using large deposits of rocks and boulders.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/offshore-wind-turbines-farm-sunset-1454940068">TebNad/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We used acoustic telemetry, which is a widely used aquatic tracking method, to record the movements of 33 lobsters within an offshore windfarm in the Irish Sea. We found that they favoured residing in areas of scour protection. More than 50% of all our lobster detections were recorded within 35 metres of the scour protection. </p>
<p>Lobsters typically make use of crevices in rocks and reef as shelter and will return to the same crevices after feeding or other activities. We recorded the lobsters making frequent movements to and from the same areas of scour protection. Four months later, more than 50% of the lobsters were still present in the same areas of scour they were originally detected at. </p>
<p>We can’t be sure what the short excursions away from the scour protection mean. However, we believe our results highlight that the addition of scour protection within offshore windfarms is creating a habitat for lobsters. </p>
<h2>Increasing lobster populations</h2>
<p>Offshore engineering projects, including windfarm development, can harm the marine environment. For instance, electromagnetic fields and underwater noise generated as part of construction and operation may have detrimental effects on marine species. And as a result of taking up large marine areas, these developments affect existing marine-based industries, in particular small-scale commercial fisheries. </p>
<p>Our research has highlighted an opportunity to work towards lessening the potentially harmful effects of offshore engineering. If the scour protection already installed as part of offshore windfarm construction can support lobsters, then it is likely that increasing the volume of scour rocks (or modifying the type of scour), could work towards promoting increased lobster populations within offshore windfarms. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/weve-discovered-why-some-whales-stop-feeding-in-response-to-the-sound-of-sonar-179541">We've discovered why some whales stop feeding in response to the sound of sonar</a>
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<p>This might help to increase ecological value and maximise fishing opportunities within these sites. There is potential that this could offset, to some extent, the disturbance to fishing areas. It could also compensate fishing communities that are negatively affected by offshore windfarm construction.</p>
<p>However, for us to minimise the effects of offshore windfarm development and maximise the potential benefits of creating new homes for lobsters, we need to study the topic further. We must discover the most suitable ways of increasing lobster populations using scour protection, such as the ideal boulder size to create crevices suitable for lobster shelter. We must also study the logistics of fishing within these sites. </p>
<p>We are now working alongside the fishing community of north Wales to investigate the abundance of lobsters within existing offshore windfarms. We are aiming to quantify and predict the potential fishing opportunities that may arise from offshore windfarm construction.</p>
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<img alt="Imagine weekly climate newsletter" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><strong><em>Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?</em></strong>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Harry Thatcher receives funding from the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Wilcockson receives funding from the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).</span></em></p>New research shows European lobsters are using the deposits of rocks and boulders at the base of wind turbines as shelter.Harry Thatcher, PhD Candidate, Department of Life Sciences, Aberystwyth UniversityDavid Wilcockson, Reader in Biological Sciences, Aberystwyth UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2032612023-05-03T13:41:36Z2023-05-03T13:41:36ZAccra: the Ga people’s annual ban on noise restores a spiritual connection with the sea<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519532/original/file-20230405-26-u71ul8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Coastal residents of Accra have a spiritual connection to the sea.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Accra, Ghana’s capital, is a noisy cosmopolitan city of <a href="https://worldpopulationreview.com/world-cities/accra-population">almost three million people</a>. Its active nightlife, commercial markets and factories create a deafening mix of sound trails day and night. These synthetic sounds have practically drowned out the natural everyday sounds of Accra. And the most important of these is the steady drone sound of the sea, now usually subdued to a mere background hush. </p>
<p>As the local Ga people say, <em>Ga efee hoo</em> (“Accra has become noisy”). The Ga, who are made up of Ga Mashie, Osu, La, Teshie, Nungua, Tema, and Kpone people, belong to the Ga-Dangme group of people found in the Greater Accra region of Ghana. </p>
<p>Once every year, between May and September, the Ga impose a ritual ban on noise-making and funeral rites in Ga towns for a period of one month so as to commemorate their annual harvest festival known as Hↄmↄwↄ (pr. hor-mor-wor). By activating the ban, Ga towns enforce the suspension of <a href="https://ama.gov.gh/news-details.php?n=bnJzOHBxMTQ3bjgyNjYzcDFycTlvMG45MTFuMDM5M29wOXEzcTM3OA==">mundane sound sources</a>, particularly those blaring from radios, public address systems, automobiles, churches, mosques, megaphones and factories. All synthetic sounds at this time must stop and make room for the sounds of the sea during the one month of communal reflection and renewal. Even fishing in lagoons must stop during this period, to allow aquatic life to recuperate. </p>
<p>According to Ga oral tradition, the celebration of Hↄmↄwↄ dates back centuries. It is the best known and celebrated Ga festival and a vital part of traditional Ga culture. The name Hɔmɔwɔ translates as “to hoot at hunger” (<em>hↄmↄ</em> means hunger and <em>wↄ</em> means hoot). The festival marks the shift from the lean season of scarcity to the season of bounty, a moment of introspection, and promotes sociality. Its aim is to revitalise the social, political, and religious lives of Ga towns in Accra. </p>
<p>Despite its ancient heritage, Hɔmɔwɔ’s tradition of a peaceful interlude in the city has become increasingly associated with <a href="https://scholarlypublications.universiteitleiden.nl/access/item%3A2870154/view">clashes</a> between the Ga Traditional Council and Christian churches that want to continue worshipping in their usual “noisy” way.</p>
<p>I am conducting research into some elements of the Hɔmɔwɔ festival as part of my <a href="https://ethnomusicology.music.utoronto.ca/new-profiles-of-our-graduate-students/">doctoral studies</a>. As an ethnomusicologist and a “native researcher”, my <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.2989/18121004.2022.2153449?casa_token=p2HsTuYT-tUAAAAA%3Ap54VEK3C0vmkxYFhQbpnfhuiWUucLsGx1lJlanU7vyiJo9xdDuKvwLjes9MvpLqFqqIoREElGzwswg&journalCode=rmaa20">findings</a> suggest that the Ga code is about more than provoking conflict or settling scores. I argue that the ritual code of silence presents Ga communities with the opportunity for introspection because it invites them to focus on their indigenous notions of sound, silence, noise, and even death. </p>
<p>It is, to borrow from anthropologist <a href="https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/display/document/obo-9780199766567/obo-9780199766567-0074.xml">Victor Turner</a> , a <a href="https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Frame%2C-Flow-and-Reflection%3A-Ritual-and-Drama-as-Turner/b72c892afae91cd3b97bb654ac7ec71bb2505692">frame</a> within which Ga society is able to inspect itself.</p>
<h2>The Sea and Hɔmɔwɔ</h2>
<p>“In Ga metaphor”, as the prominent sociolinguist Kropp Dakubu <a href="https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/12918522">notes</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>the Ga people are frequently linked with the sea. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Indeed, as the background of Ga daily life and contemplation, the sea’s everyday drone sound serves as a psycho-social hedge against the socioeconomic and political pressures from uptown. Anybody who is familiar with life on the beachfront knows that one of the taken-for-granted everyday sonic experiences is the steady drone sound from the sea waves. </p>
<p>In present-day cosmopolitan Accra however, listening to the sea has assumed the status of a once-in-a-year sonic treat for the seven Ga residential areas on the city’s shoreline. Banning synthetic sounds and foregrounding the sea therefore paves the way for Ga towns to restore the prominence of the sounds of the sea. It also allows Ga towns such as La, Teshie, and Tema to expand their musical boundaries and invoke rarely heard Hↄmↄwↄ music genres such as kpa and/or kpashimↄ that elevate foot stomping and thumping over familiar musical instruments.</p>
<p>Kpashimↄ performances and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiEzewAYqhU">songs</a> for instance, are exclusively vocal, unaccompanied by any musical instrument, and in a call-and-response format. Textually and musically, the songs are made up of repeated phrases that have iconic relationships with current issues, making it easier for the listener to follow the story lines. </p>
<p>By invoking Kpashimↄ, Ga communities such as Teshie also transform their alleys and streets into performance grounds, and vehicles move with great difficulty because performers have taken over the space. In some cases, Ga towns block streets from vehicle use so that Hɔmɔwɔ music groups can perform their songs freely. </p>
<p>Hↄmↄwↄ helps Ga people to relive the sonic relationship that existed between them and the sea. Its celebrations serve as a metaphor to critique the cosmopolitan city’s emergent culture of noise-making, give attention to speech and songs produced for the festive season, and ultimately heal the community.</p>
<p>Indeed, Hↄmↄwↄ makes life in the city whole in that for eleven months of living in a jarring milieu of city sounds, there is suddenly a symbolic quiet – the kind that allows for ritually appropriate sounds to thrive. But a month later, Accra returns to its ordinary everyday life of unbridled noise-making, of individualism, anxiety, workaholism, and materialism. </p>
<p>By way of conclusion I suggest that, contrary to the <a href="https://paakwesiforson.com/ban-drumming/">general perception</a> that the ban on noise-making is a bother to be endured rather than to be enjoyed, making way for the sea during the one-month Ga Hↄmↄwↄ festival in the cosmopolitan, national capital of Ghana, restores people to psycho-social sanity.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/203261/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Laryea Akwetteh does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The ban on noisemaking in Accra has been known to cause tension in the city.Laryea Akwetteh, Assistant lecturer, University of GhanaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1922742022-11-09T14:12:58Z2022-11-09T14:12:58ZClimate change: West Africa’s oceans at risk because of a lack of monitoring<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492280/original/file-20221028-53244-can6ka.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The West African coastline is a source of livelihood for millions.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons/Paul Walter</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Canary-Current">West African Canary Current</a> extends along the north-west African coast, from the northern Atlantic coast of Morocco to Guinea-Bissau. It’s a hotspot for changes in the oceans driven by climate change. These include rising temperatures, <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/stories/what-you-need-know-about-ocean-acidification">ocean acidification</a> and <a href="https://scripps.ucsd.edu/research/climate-change-resources/faq-ocean-deoxygenation#:%7E:text=Deoxygenation%20is%20the%20overall%20decline,through%20photosynthesis%2C%20ventilation%2C%20mixing.">ocean deoxygenation</a>. All affect marine life on multiple levels. </p>
<p>The current is one of the world’s most productive ocean ecosystems, a consequence of the upwelling of cold and nutrient-rich waters. Ecosystems like this provide around <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590332221004115#:%7E:text=Expanding%20ocean%20observation%20and%20climate%20services%20to%20build%20resilience%20in%20West%20African%20fisheries,-Author%20links%20open&text=The%20Canary%20Current%20is%20a,for%20national%20economies%20and%20livelihoods">20% of global fish catches</a> and support livelihoods in coastal communities. </p>
<p>From 2016 -2019, we worked with an international team to draw attention to the impacts of climate change on the West African Canary Current. In a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590332221004115#:%7E:text=Expanding%20ocean%20observation%20and%20climate%20services%20to%20build%20resilience%20in%20West%20African%20fisheries,-Author%20links%20open&text=The%20Canary%20Current%20is%20a,for%20national%20economies%20and%20livelihoods.">recent publication</a>, we described the limited economic and institutional capacity to monitor and respond to climate variability and change in the countries bordering the West African Canary Current and the urgent need to build scientific capacity in the region in order address this shortcoming.</p>
<h2>What’s missing</h2>
<p>The waters of the West African Canary Current share a key characteristic with those of the coast of Oregon in the Pacific north west of America – namely ocean acidification. This happens when the large amounts of carbon dioxide being absorbed by the ocean dissolves in seawater as carbonic acid.</p>
<p>In 2007 shellfish growers in Oregon were nearly all wiped out economically due to increasing acidity of the ocean. The waters they grew their shellfish in had become corrosive to calcium carbonate – the building block for the skeletons and shells of shellfish and corals. The waters they farmed in had become corrosive to the shells of the sea butterfly, <em>Limacina helicina</em>, a delicate sea snail that is only 5mm across. The snail underpins key marine food webs that sustain herring, salmon, whales, seals, seabirds and other species. </p>
<p>But in California, people who depend on the ocean for their livelihood are in a position to understand, anticipate and to some degree adapt to the impacts of climate change on the region. This is thanks to an extensive network of state-of-the-art sensors and input from researchers from academia and the US government.</p>
<p>This is not the case in West Africa. There is only a single mooring – these are long anchored lines of scientific equipment and floats which are deployed to collect a range of ocean data over long periods – managed by French researchers to monitor the impacts of climate change on the West African Canary Current. </p>
<p>Communities are effectively left blind to the effects of climate change. So they can’t take informed measures to adapt.</p>
<p>For example, if a fishery or shellfish stock collapses, stakeholders won’t know what the cause is. It could be as a consequence of overharvesting, deoxygenation that causes fish to migrate to more oxygen-rich waters, or shellfish mortality brought on by acid waters. Or a combination of these factors – or others. </p>
<p>Scientists, managers and stakeholders who want to understand and address the management of fisheries in the Canary Current can’t build or use models because there isn’t data. </p>
<p>To be useful, models must take into account the changes, variations and interactions of the ocean in the region. They must also be supported by regional data.</p>
<p>Without this information, results of tests are incomplete at best and misleading at worst. They are thus unsuitable for guiding management, policy, or donor decisions.</p>
<h2>Solutions</h2>
<p>Scientists from Chile have shown how the rigorous monitoring of climate change, and assessing its impacts on local shellfish species, can inform adaptation efforts. Chile borders the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0079661109001049">Humboldt Current System</a>, an Eastern boundary upwelling ecosystem that extends along the west coast of South America. They have discovered shellfish strains that are relatively tolerant to ocean acidification and optimal habitats for their potential cultivation. This provides a potential means of adaptation to future, and likely more acidic, oceans. These findings are <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/287360675_Shellfishing_and_shell_midden_construction_in_the_Saloum_Delta_Senegal">applicable to Senegal</a>, where shellfish have been for at least 5,000 years.</p>
<p>An essential step to building the capacity required to effectively anticipate and adapt to changing ocean chemistry in the Canary Current will the training of additional African Ph.D.-level scientists. This training could be in disciplines such as oceanography, ecology, and physiology. This could be accomplished through novel north-south or south-south partnerships among institutions of higher education or through the strengthening of existing international partnerships. West African scientists would be best suited to address context-specific adaptation measures and incorporate their findings into national policies and legislation. </p>
<p>Another benefit of understanding climate change impacts on West African oceans would be to add more voices to the global chorus calling for reductions in CO2 emissions. Greater representation for those that are most vulnerable, yet least responsible, for those emissions is also important. </p>
<p>Wealthy nations rely upon the data from programmes to monitor ocean acidification, deoxygenation and warming to develop reliable models and policies that provide guidance to industries and local stakeholders. The West African countries bordering the Canary Current, for whom climate change impacts on the oceans will impact livelihoods, food security, and development outcomes, deserve no less.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192274/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There is only a single mooring managed by French researchers that monitors the impacts of climate change on West African Canary Current.Todd L Capson, Chercheur Associé, Institut de physique du globe de Paris (IPGP)Marie Boye, Research Director, CNRS, Institut de physique du globe de Paris (IPGP)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1922612022-11-02T02:12:59Z2022-11-02T02:12:59ZFishing kills at least 24,000 fishers every year – yet most countries are still refusing to adopt international safety rules<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491850/original/file-20221026-2505-y8o5dv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C8%2C5472%2C3628&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dashu/Freepik</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Fishing is <a href="https://www.arinite.co.uk/the-worlds-most-dangerous-countries-for-workers">one of the most dangerous jobs in the world</a>.</p>
<p>The International Labour Organisation has estimated that every year, fishing vessel accidents claim as many as <a href="https://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/newsroom/news/WCMS_071324/lang--en/index.htm">24,000 fishers’ lives</a>. This figure is more than <a href="https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/issue-briefs/2018/10/the-cape-town-agreement-explained">10 times more lives claimed than in accidents on merchant ships</a> which transport either cargo or passengers.</p>
<p>Unlike safety of merchant vessels, which is governed by the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (<a href="https://www.imo.org/en/About/Conventions/Pages/International-Convention-for-the-Safety-of-Life-at-Sea-(SOLAS),-1974.aspx">SOLAS</a>), safety of fishing vessels has fallen through the cracks, making it largely unregulated and unmonitored. </p>
<p>Unsafe fishing vessels are also linked to illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and may contribute to <a href="https://www.fao.org/responsible-fishing/resources/detail/en/c/1316896/#:%7E:text=Abandoned%2C%20lost%20or%20otherwise%20discarded%20fishing%20gear%20(ALDFG)%20is,that%20is%20increasingly%20of%20concern.">abandoned, lost or otherwise discarded fishing gear</a>, which is becoming a global concern as it can be a navigational hazard and <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/faf.12596">major source</a> of ocean plastic pollution. </p>
<p>Yet, there is currently no international treaty governing the safety of fishing vessels that has entered into force.</p>
<h2>Fishing vessel safety under international law</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491851/original/file-20221026-25-c2hyyv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491851/original/file-20221026-25-c2hyyv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491851/original/file-20221026-25-c2hyyv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491851/original/file-20221026-25-c2hyyv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491851/original/file-20221026-25-c2hyyv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491851/original/file-20221026-25-c2hyyv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491851/original/file-20221026-25-c2hyyv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fishing vessels at Mui Ne Fishing Harbour in Vietnam.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Maxpixel</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.un.org/depts/los/reference_files/chronological_lists_of_ratifications.htm">167 states and the European Union</a> have ratified the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which obliges every state to ensure safety at sea for all ships flying its flag.</p>
<p>For decades, the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), the United Nations’ specialised agency for regulating international shipping, <a href="https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/issue-briefs/2018/10/the-cape-town-agreement-explained">hasn’t succeeded in bringing regulatory instruments on fishing vessel safety</a> into force.</p>
<p>The latest treaty on fishing vessel safety is the Cape Town Agreement, which was adopted in 2012 to update, amend, and replace the previous treaty: the 1993 Torremolinos Protocol. However, there are only 17 contracting parties with just over 1,000 eligible fishing vessels to date – far from the minimum requirements for the Agreement to enter into force.</p>
<p>The Cape Town Agreement <a href="https://www.imo.org/en/MediaCentre/HotTopics/Pages/CapeTownAgreementForFishing.aspx">states</a> the conditions to ensure the seaworthiness of fishing vessels of 24 metres in length and over. It requires the availability of life-saving appliances, <a href="https://www.imo.org/en/MediaCentre/HotTopics/Pages/CapeTownAgreementForFishing.aspx">communications equipment, and fire protection</a> on fishing vessels.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Baca juga:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-government-now-has-a-much-needed-regulation-on-the-recruitment-of-migrant-fishers-from-indonesia-what-next-181946">The government now has a much-needed regulation on the recruitment of migrant fishers from Indonesia. What next?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In October 2019, during <a href="https://www.imo.org/en/About/Events/Pages/Torremolinos-Conference-safe-fishing-legal-fishing.aspx">an IMO-led conference on fishing vessel safety and illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing</a>, there was a momentum for the Cape Town Agreement to gain wider support.</p>
<p>During and after the conference, a total of 51 states <a href="https://cil.nus.edu.sg/wp-content/uploads/formidable/18/2012-Cape-Town-Agreement-on-the-Implementation-of-the-Provisions-of-the-1993-Torremolinos-Protocol.pdf">declared their commitment to ratify the Cape Town Agreement</a> by the tenth anniversary of the adoption of the agreement, which was 11 October 2022. </p>
<p>Since the 2019 Conference, however, the Agreement has only gained four additional ratifications, far below expectations. The tenth anniversary of the Agreement has now passed and the Agreement still has not entered into force.</p>
<h2>What about Indonesia?</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Migrant fishers was categorised as vulnerable workers especially in unsafe fishing conditions." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491854/original/file-20221026-21-syiovm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491854/original/file-20221026-21-syiovm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491854/original/file-20221026-21-syiovm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491854/original/file-20221026-21-syiovm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491854/original/file-20221026-21-syiovm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491854/original/file-20221026-21-syiovm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491854/original/file-20221026-21-syiovm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Indonesian Migrant Workers Union and Greenpeace Indonesia held a peaceful protest outside the Presidential Palace in Jakarta, asking the president to ratify regulations to protect Indonesian migrant fishers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.greenpeace.org/indonesia/cerita/44956/ingin-melindungi-abk-indonesia-ini-salah-satu-caranya/">Adhi Wicaksono/Greenpeace</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Many Asian states are among <a href="https://www.fao.org/3/cc0461en/cc0461en.pdf">the world’s top seafood producers</a>. At least <a href="https://www.fao.org/3/cc0461en/cc0461en.pdf">two-thirds of 4.1 million global fishing vessels</a> are flagged to Asian states. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, none of the Asian states are parties to the Cape Town Agreement.</p>
<p>Indonesia, the world’s second largest seafood producer, claims to have <a href="https://news.kkp.go.id/index.php/kkp-sederhanakan-proses-pendaftaran-kapal-perikanan/">more than 600,000 fishing vessels</a> in 2014.</p>
<p>The exact number of Indonesian fishing vessels remains unknown. But the majority of Indonesian fishing vessels are small-scale fleets, which are likely beyond the scope of the Cape Town Agreement.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Baca juga:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/indonesias-patron-client-system-both-a-bane-and-hope-for-sustainable-fisheries-132011">Indonesia's patron-client system: both a bane and hope for sustainable fisheries</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Many Indonesian fishers also work for foreign fishing vessels. The <a href="https://meetings.wcpfc.int/node/13863">latest data</a> shows 186,430 Indonesian nationals working on board Malaysian fishing vessels; 12,278 on Taiwanese fishing vessels; and 4,885 people on South Korean fishing vessels in 2018.</p>
<p>Sadly, none of these countries are parties to the Cape Town Agreement. Thus, it is very likely that their domestic regulations on fishing vessel safety vary. Leaving it to each country to regulate fishing vessel safety is problematic, as some countries can be more lenient than others. </p>
<p>An international regulation like the Cape Town Agreement would resolve this problem, by ensuring uniform minimum standards that are applicable to all states.</p>
<h2>How to protect more lives at sea</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Both fishing vessel and merchant vessel workers have the same right to work in a safe environment at sea." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491849/original/file-20221026-23-5gbu7p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491849/original/file-20221026-23-5gbu7p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491849/original/file-20221026-23-5gbu7p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491849/original/file-20221026-23-5gbu7p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491849/original/file-20221026-23-5gbu7p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491849/original/file-20221026-23-5gbu7p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491849/original/file-20221026-23-5gbu7p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A fishing boat at sea.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">FAO</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Governance of fishing vessel safety is more than a century behind that of commercial shipping, even though fishers’ lives are just as priceless as seafarers. </p>
<p>As both workers have the same right to work in a safe environment at sea, fishing vessels shall receive equal attention as commercial shipping. Thus, wider ratification to the Cape Town Agreement is necessary.</p>
<p>Countries with large numbers of migrant fishers, like Indonesia, should have the highest interest to ensure that the Cape Town Agreement enters into force as soon as possible. This is critical to ensure that their nationals are not working on substandard fishing vessels that could put their lives in danger. </p>
<p>We must hope that more nations will finally act and ratify the Cape Town Agreement, so that we’re no longer losing tens of thousands of fishers’ lives at sea every year.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192261/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dita Liliansa tidak bekerja, menjadi konsultan, memiliki saham, atau menerima dana dari perusahaan atau organisasi mana pun yang akan mengambil untung dari artikel ini, dan telah mengungkapkan bahwa ia tidak memiliki afiliasi selain yang telah disebut di atas.</span></em></p>Every year, it’s estimated as many as 24,000 fishers die in fishing vessel accidents. That’s more than 10 times more lives claimed than on merchant ships, carrying cargo or passengers. Why?Dita Liliansa, Ocean Law & Policy Research Associate, National University of SingaporeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1886502022-09-08T00:39:34Z2022-09-08T00:39:34ZCurious Kids: why do seashells sound like the ocean when you put them to your ear?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/483119/original/file-20220907-26-v8ztoc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C0%2C1911%2C1276&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/DUgf336dgi4">pixmike/Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><blockquote>
<p>Why do seashells make a sound like the ocean when you put them to your ear? – Remy, age 9, Wangaratta, Victoria</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/curious-kids-36782"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291898/original/file-20190911-190031-enlxbk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=90&fit=crop&dpr=1" width="100%"></a></p>
<p>Thanks for the great question Remy! </p>
<p>My kids and I have collected a lot of seashells and we love listening to them to remind us of the sea. </p>
<p>But the seashells are not actually making any sounds themselves. So what’s going on?</p>
<h2>Seashells ‘catch’ sounds</h2>
<p>Each seashell is a unique shape. Hollow and curved ones can “catch” some of the sounds around you. That’s when sound enters the opening of the shell.</p>
<p>Once in the shell, these sounds bounce around. This makes the sounds get slightly louder (or amplified) before they leave the shell.</p>
<p>The sounds seashells “catch” <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10208-021-09509-9">tend to be</a> what scientists call lower-frequency sounds. Think of these as deeper, or more rumbling sounds.</p>
<p>The sound of the ocean is also a <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-brown-noise-can-this-latest-tiktok-trend-really-help-you-sleep-188528">low-frequency sound</a>. That’s why it sounds similar to the sounds caught in a shell.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/curious-kids-how-do-shells-get-made-111072">Curious Kids: how do shells get made?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>But why can I hear it?</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://letstalkscience.ca/educational-resources/lessons/sound-travels">sound you hear</a> when you put a shell against your ear is actually parts of the background noise around you, just turned up a little by the shell.</p>
<p>So if you’re next to the ocean, the shell picks up the sounds of the ocean. If you’re nowhere near the ocean, the shell picks up other deep and rumbling sounds, such as the wind or the fridge. </p>
<p>There is nearly always some kind of background noise around us the shell can pick up, even when it is very quiet.</p>
<p>As the shell turns up the sound, this means you can hear it over the other background noise around you.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LVy0vfl5cOQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Here’s why you can hear the sound of the ocean.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>It’s not just seashells</h2>
<p>Sounds are turned up all the time in nature. It’s not just with seashells.</p>
<p>In fact, our own ears <a href="https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/how-the-ear-works">are shaped</a> to make important sounds around louder for us.</p>
<p>If you hold an empty cup to your ear, you might also hear a sound like the sea. But there is something special about holding a seashell in your hand, knowing it is from the beach. Sometimes the shell even smells like the beach.</p>
<p>Even though it is not actually the sound of the sea you are hearing, if you close your eyes and listen closely it can almost feel like you are back sitting by the water.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/curious-kids-why-are-there-waves-112015">Curious Kids: why are there waves?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188650/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Brennan-Jones receives funding for research from the NHMRC and the Western Australian Department of Health. </span></em></p>Seashells don’t make the noise of the ocean. Here’s what’s really going on.Chris Brennan-Jones, Head of Ear Health, Telethon Kids Institute, Curtin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1891692022-09-01T17:40:07Z2022-09-01T17:40:07ZDesalination may be key to averting global water shortage, but it will take time<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/482054/original/file-20220831-22-zh41gm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=544%2C0%2C3321%2C2585&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">As the most water-scarce region on the planet, the Middle East is particularly reliant on desalination technology.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/thirst-sand-desert-13668568">Maxim Petrichuk/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Clean freshwater is critical for sustaining human life. However, <a href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/threats/water-scarcity#:%7E:text=Billions%20of%20People%20Lack%20Water,may%20be%20facing%20water%20shortages">1.1 billion people</a> lack access to it worldwide. Desalination represents an <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KZxjEYk01HEdmDhsLmF4RzV5UXu-mwBd/view">increasingly popular</a> way of addressing this. </p>
<p>Desalination is the process of extracting salt from saline water to make it drinkable. There are <a href="https://www.ide-tech.com/en/solutions/desalination/what-is-desalination/?data=item_1">two main types</a> of desalination.</p>
<p>In the first – called thermal desalination – heat is used. This produces water vapour that condenses on pipes into fresh water. This process remains dominant across the Middle East, where <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KZxjEYk01HEdmDhsLmF4RzV5UXu-mwBd/view">nearly half</a> of the world’s desalinated water is produced.</p>
<p>The second process is membrane desalination, commonly referred to as reverse osmosis. This process is used in <a href="https://saniwater.com/comprehensive-overview-of-the-types-of-desalination-technologies-for-water-treatment-process/">60% of plants</a> worldwide. Saline water is forced under high pressure through a semi-permeable membrane whose pores are too small for the salt molecules to pass through. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A diagram illustrating reverse osmosis. Water is forced through a membrane whose pores are too small to let salt molecules through." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/482132/original/file-20220831-4904-qzvee1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/482132/original/file-20220831-4904-qzvee1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482132/original/file-20220831-4904-qzvee1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482132/original/file-20220831-4904-qzvee1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482132/original/file-20220831-4904-qzvee1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482132/original/file-20220831-4904-qzvee1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482132/original/file-20220831-4904-qzvee1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A diagram illustrating the reverse osmosis process.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/osmosis-reverse-178188626">Designua/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Where is desalination used?</h2>
<p>Desalination is used to extend drinkable water supplies beyond what is naturally available. Water-scarce regions are therefore particularly reliant on the technology. Desalination provides the <a href="https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-713766">United Arab Emirates</a> with 42% of its water needs.</p>
<p>Because of the minimal cost of pumping, desalination is most economical in <a href="https://geographical.co.uk/science-environment/the-future-of-desalination">large coastal locations</a>. However, our changing climate is contributing to increasing water shortages in typically mild regions, necessitating the expansion of desalination plants further inland and from brackish water. China, the US, and South America are all <a href="https://alj.com/en/perspective/fresh-water-fresh-ideas-can-renewable-energy-be-the-future-of-desalination/#_ftn3">expanding</a> their desalination capacity.</p>
<p>While desalination may be a technology capable of countering global water shortages, there are issues regarding its cost and efficiency.</p>
<h2>Why does desalination remain so expensive?</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/22/climate/desalination-water-climate-change.html">Large amounts of energy</a> are required to drive the process. This is particularly true for thermal desalination, where energy costs represent <a href="https://geographical.co.uk/science-environment/the-future-of-desalination">up to half</a> of a plant’s entire production cost.</p>
<p>The reverse osmosis process generally has a lower energy requirement. However, treating highly saline water remains energy intensive. This is because higher salinity means more pressure is needed to force the water through the membrane. </p>
<p>Heavily polluted water sources must also be treated before desalination, requiring costly infrastructure such as sedimentation tanks and filtration systems. Treatment prevents the accumulation of debris on membrane surfaces that may impede the reverse osmosis process. </p>
<p>Treatment costs will grow as reliance on desalination increases and the process is applied to polluted and inland brackish water sources. Facing an increasingly dry climate, <a href="https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2022-08-11/newsom-outlines-sweeping-strategy-to-bolster-water-supplies">California</a> now has 23 desalination plants that turn brackish water into drinking water. </p>
<p>Producing one litre of drinking water also creates <a href="https://geographical.co.uk/science-environment/the-future-of-desalination">1.6 litres of brine</a>, a highly saline waste product that can damage the environment. Brine deposits on the sea floor can lead to the destruction of sea ecosystems, while brine discharge <a href="https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.417.1405&rep=rep1&type=pdf#:%7E:text=One%20of%20the%20major%20impacts,in%20temperature%20(Danoun%202007)">reduces the oxygen content</a> of seawater. </p>
<p>The safe disposal of brine is expensive. Most of the brine that is produced is <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/slaking-the-worlds-thirst-with-seawater-dumps-toxic-brine-in-oceans/">pumped back into the sea</a>, subject to environmental quality standards. If brine discharge does not meet these standards, then it requires further treatment.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/482303/original/file-20220901-23-fz56yd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Salt in a person's cupped hands, with evaporation ponds extending into the distance behind." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/482303/original/file-20220901-23-fz56yd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/482303/original/file-20220901-23-fz56yd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482303/original/file-20220901-23-fz56yd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482303/original/file-20220901-23-fz56yd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482303/original/file-20220901-23-fz56yd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482303/original/file-20220901-23-fz56yd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482303/original/file-20220901-23-fz56yd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Evaporation ponds are one way of treating waste brine.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/handful-sea-salt-hands-background-fields-135618749">Lilia Kopyeva/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Brine can be treated in <a href="https://www.lenntech.com/processes/brine-evaporation-ponds.htm">evaporation ponds</a> or diluted with a separate water source before being discharged. <a href="https://www.keiken-engineering.com/news/brine-disposal-how-efficient-desalination-plants-get-rid-of-toxic-remnant">The prohibitive cost of brine treatment</a> remains a significant barrier to the wider application of desalination.</p>
<h2>Can desalination become cheaper?</h2>
<p>Reducing the energy intensity of the process may deliver considerable cost reductions. Technologies such as <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41545-021-00143-0">forward osmosis</a>, which allow desalination to occur at lower temperatures and pressures, are in development.</p>
<p>While promising, these technologies remain in their infancy. The <a href="https://www.waterworld.com/home/article/16201130/forward-osmosis-is-it-beginning-to-live-up-to-the-hype">market</a> is small and there are few commercial installations. Technological evolution takes time, and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2211339812000445">further development</a> will be required to ensure these processes can produce drinkable water on a commercial scale.</p>
<p>Developing more <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-17876-8">durable membranes</a> will also reduce the cost of desalination. Using different materials, <a href="https://www.nitto.com/jp/ja/others/faq/products/documents/file/MEMBRANE_en.pdf">Japanese manufacturers</a> have constructed membranes that successfully reject salt particles at low operating pressures. This both reduces the cost of replacing membranes and the energy requirement of the process.</p>
<p>Desalination could also be powered by cheaper sources of renewable energy. <a href="https://smartwatermagazine.com/news/smart-water-magazine/towards-solar-powered-desalination-a-path-research-and-challenges">Solar-thermal technologies</a> can generate direct heat, which can then be used to evaporate seawater. The Metito <a href="https://www.metito.com/news-detail/metito-signs-a-project-worth-220-million-saudi-riyals-to-establish-desalination-plant-and-solar-electricity-generation-in-king-abdullah-economic-city/#:%7E:text=King%20Abdullah%20Economic%20City%20(KAEC,regional%20companies%20for%20the%20tender.">solar desalination plant</a> under construction in Saudi Arabia will initially have the capacity to produce 30,000 cubic metres of drinking water per day.</p>
<p>However, solar desalination technology is littered with <a href="https://smartwatermagazine.com/news/smart-water-magazine/towards-solar-powered-desalination-a-path-research-and-challenges">complexities</a>. Solar energy supply is inconsistent and energy storage technology remains expensive, impeding its wider application. Therefore, most solar desalination projects are too small to produce drinking water for commercial use.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969718349167?via=ihub">Novel solutions</a> for brine management must also be further explored.</p>
<p>Brine can be recycled within the desalination process. The use of waste brine in the manufacture of <a href="https://www.guardian.co.tt/article/from-desalination-to-disinfection-6.2.875485.2f48457859?app_multi=NeoDirect,NeoDirect&com_multi=6%2F2%2F875485%2F2f48457859,6%2F0%2F0%2F92a3c957d6">sodium hypochlorite</a>, a chemical disinfectant that can substitute chlorine, is a promising development. </p>
<p><a href="https://library.myebook.com/InstituteofWaterMagazine/journal-summer-2022/4093/#page/35">Research</a> has shown that on-site sodium hypochlorite production can save Caribbean desalination plants more than £300,000 per year. </p>
<p>Desalination facilities can further exploit waste brine through processes such as electrolysis, where brine is decomposed into simpler substances through electric currents. Future studies should investigate the potential of using the byproducts of this electrolysis, hydrogen and salts, for energy production. </p>
<p>Despite growing water insecurity worldwide, desalination technology remains too expensive for widespread use. Efforts have been made to reduce its cost, with many showing promise. However, technological evolution takes time and it will be decades before costs fall to a level that facilitates the wider expansion of desalination.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189169/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kiran Tota-Maharaj does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Drinkable water resources are becoming increasingly scarce. Are technologies such as desalination capable of averting such a crisis?Kiran Tota-Maharaj, Reader in Civil and Environmental Engineering, Aston UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1886572022-08-26T00:58:22Z2022-08-26T00:58:22ZBaby manta rays: new light shed on their life in Indonesian aquatic playground<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479329/original/file-20220816-18-989w95.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A young reef manta rays inhabiting a nursery area in Wayag Lagoon, Raja Ampat, Indonesia (Source: Edy Setyawan)</span> </figcaption></figure><p>The early lives of manta rays remain a mystery. This is possibly because most researchers tend to pay more attention to large adult rays than their pups.</p>
<p>But now, thanks in part to research conducted by our team, some of the secret lives of these pups have been revealed. Using photo identification, <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2504-446X/6/3/63">drones</a>, satellite and <a href="http://ncr-journal.bear-land.org/uploads/668987e8bd9140b32bc4ee29141feb60.pdf">acoustic tracking</a>, we were able to discover how young reef manta rays use the famous touristy Wayag Lagoon in remote Raja Ampat islands, Papua, as their habitat to grow up.</p>
<p>The discovery of this nursery gives a ray of hope for the recovery and persistence of this <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/195459/214395983">globally vulnerable species</a>, whose population has been decreasing in the last few decades.</p>
<p>The 8-year-long research that I conducted along with my team has successfully revealed some of the mysteries. </p>
<p>This study, published in <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2022.815094/full">Frontiers in Marine Science</a>, presents <a href="https://youtu.be/Z3vtPQlR3DU">the most comprehensive and up-to-date description</a> of a reef manta ray nursery. </p>
<p>It is the first in the world to conclusively confirm a nursery habitat of manta rays.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472462/original/file-20220705-16-2sc254.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472462/original/file-20220705-16-2sc254.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=281&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472462/original/file-20220705-16-2sc254.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=281&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472462/original/file-20220705-16-2sc254.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=281&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472462/original/file-20220705-16-2sc254.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472462/original/file-20220705-16-2sc254.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472462/original/file-20220705-16-2sc254.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Wayag Lagoon in the northwest of Raja Ampat, West Papua, Indonesia (Source: Edy Setyawan)</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Manta ray nursery habitat</h2>
<p>For newborn manta rays, using shallow sheltered habitats like lagoons as a nursery is crucial to ensure their survival. Lagoons provide calm water suitable for the baby rays that are just starting to swim. They also offer protection from predators like big sharks.</p>
<p>In addition to providing a source of food, the nursery accommodates the baby rays with a place where they can interact and ‘exchange experiences’ with their young mates.</p>
<p>Currently, there are only few places in the world that can potentially become nurseries for manta rays. These include the Gulf of Mexico (Flower Garden Banks and the southern coast of Florida, United States), Palmyra Atoll (the south end of Hawaiian waters), the Maldives and Indonesia (Nusa Penida and Raja Ampat).</p>
<p>In Raja Ampat, we identified <a href="http://www.oceansciencefoundation.org/josf36h.html">four potential nursery</a> areas. These include <a href="https://birdsheadseascape.com/regional/community-and-park-authority-collaborates-to-protect-manta-rays-nursery-ground-in-fam-islands-by-nikka-gunadharma-and-rens-lewerissa/">Fam Islands</a>, Hol Gam, Ayau Besar Lagoon and Wayag Lagoon).</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480326/original/file-20220822-68992-e0nlgt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480326/original/file-20220822-68992-e0nlgt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=849&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480326/original/file-20220822-68992-e0nlgt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=849&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480326/original/file-20220822-68992-e0nlgt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=849&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480326/original/file-20220822-68992-e0nlgt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1066&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480326/original/file-20220822-68992-e0nlgt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1066&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480326/original/file-20220822-68992-e0nlgt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1066&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Four areas identified as potential reef manta ray nursery areas in Raja Ampat waters (Source: Edy Setyawan)</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>An area can serve as a manta ray nursery if it meets these <a href="https://www.int-res.com/abstracts/meps/v337/p287-297/">three criteria</a>:</p>
<p>1) newborn and young manta rays are more commonly encountered in this area than in other areas;</p>
<p>2) newborn and young manta rays tend to remain and/or return to this area repeatedly for extended period;</p>
<p>3) newborn and young manta rays inhabit the area across years.</p>
<p>Proving these three criteria can be challenging, take years of effort and involve various methods. </p>
<p>Assessments using satellite and acoustic tracking can help complete the puzzle.</p>
<h2>How were the baby manta rays monitored and tracked?</h2>
<p>Before confirming that Wayag Lagoon is a nursery for baby manta rays, we conducted regular monitoring every 3-6 months from 2013-2021 in the area.</p>
<p>Using photo identification, we managed to identify 34 young manta rays from 47 encounters. Five of the 34 rays were photographed in the lagoon after 16 months. They include two that, after 21 months, were still found in the lagoon.</p>
<p>Each manta ray has a distinctive spot pattern like our fingerprints on the underside of its body, thus allowing us to distinguish one from another.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472467/original/file-20220705-12-sh5h19.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472467/original/file-20220705-12-sh5h19.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472467/original/file-20220705-12-sh5h19.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472467/original/file-20220705-12-sh5h19.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472467/original/file-20220705-12-sh5h19.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472467/original/file-20220705-12-sh5h19.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472467/original/file-20220705-12-sh5h19.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A young manta ray was somersault feeding, showing white spot pattern on its underside (Source: Edy Setyawan)</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Unfortunately, we could not photograph all the young manta rays we encountered in each survey. This is mainly because of the murky waters in the lagoon and some challenges in getting close to these skittish young rays.</p>
<p>In this lagoon, the young rays were often seen somersault feeding and cruising along the lagoon surrounded by towering limestone outcrops.</p>
<p>The young rays were quite small. Using drones, we <a href="https://youtu.be/x47Dapb3oXA">measured two young rays</a> with a size of 218 cm and 219 cm in wingspan.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472474/original/file-20220705-15-57n64i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472474/original/file-20220705-15-57n64i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472474/original/file-20220705-15-57n64i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472474/original/file-20220705-15-57n64i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472474/original/file-20220705-15-57n64i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472474/original/file-20220705-15-57n64i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472474/original/file-20220705-15-57n64i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Two young reef manta rays were seen feeding and cruising near a karst island in the Wayag Lagoon (Source: Edy Setyawan)</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We used satellite transmitters deployed on 5 rays in Wayag Lagoon in 2015 and 2017 to investigate the home range of these young rays.</p>
<p>After tracking for 21-69 days, we found that they spent more time inside the lagoon. They also occasionally took short journeys out of the lagoon for a few days before returning to the lagoon.</p>
<p>To understand the residency of young rays, we used acoustic tracking, a system functioning like an attendance machine. We put this transmitters on 9 young rays and acoustic receivers at 5 sites in Wayag Lagoon.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472466/original/file-20220705-16-t6la4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472466/original/file-20220705-16-t6la4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472466/original/file-20220705-16-t6la4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472466/original/file-20220705-16-t6la4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472466/original/file-20220705-16-t6la4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472466/original/file-20220705-16-t6la4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472466/original/file-20220705-16-t6la4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A young reef manta ray with an acoustic transmitter on the right side of its back (Source: Edy Setyawan)</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Each transmitter comes with a unique code, allowing us to identify each manta ray that happened to be within receiver detection range and therefore was detected by the receiver.</p>
<p>The acoustic tracking lasted for 28 months from May 2019 to September 2021. During this period, the receivers detected the young rays nearly continuously for 14.5 months. Importantly, the receivers also recorded acoustic signals from the young rays every day for 4 months.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472464/original/file-20220705-26-lxqiwe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472464/original/file-20220705-26-lxqiwe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472464/original/file-20220705-26-lxqiwe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472464/original/file-20220705-26-lxqiwe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472464/original/file-20220705-26-lxqiwe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472464/original/file-20220705-26-lxqiwe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472464/original/file-20220705-26-lxqiwe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A young reef manta ray visit a cleaning station in the form of a large bommie, home to small cleaner fish that are ‘on duty’ here (Source: Edy Setyawan)</span>
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</figure>
<p>The young rays were also detected for 24 hours in Wayag Lagoon. They remained in the lagoon to feed, interact with their mates or cruise around the lagoon.</p>
<p>During the day, the young rays visit cleaning stations, located specifically on coral reefs within the lagoon. A cleaning station is like a ‘spa’, where the young rays were cleaned by cleaner fish feeding on parasites all over the surface of rays’ bodies.</p>
<p>Taken together, these findings strongly suggest that the young manta rays are highly dependent on this nursery for their health and survival.</p>
<h2>What’s next?</h2>
<p>This new study strengthens <a href="http://www.oceansciencefoundation.org/josf36h.html">my research published in 2020</a>, which identified Wayag lagoon as a potential reef manta nursery. </p>
<p>Both studies demonstrate that Raja Ampat waters are important habitats for Indonesia’s largest populations of reef manta rays.</p>
<p>That being said, I still have some questions lingering in mind. How long do baby manta rays live in the nursery before they leave? What factors influence their movements within the relatively small area in the Wayag Lagoon?</p>
<p>Even today, there are still many mysteries about the lives of manta rays that must be revealed. Thus, further research on manta rays’ habitats and survival is crucial to support efforts to protect this globally vulnerable species.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188657/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Edy Setyawan received funding from the Manaaki New Zealand Scholarship - Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) New Zealand, and the WWF Russell E. Train Education for Nature Program (EFN).</span></em></p>This research provides the most comprehensive and up-to-date description of how young reef manta rays use Wayag Lagoon in Raja Ampat as their nursery habitat.Edy Setyawan, Marine Ecologist, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata RauLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1845432022-06-12T12:11:42Z2022-06-12T12:11:42ZThe ocean is not a quiet place<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468299/original/file-20220610-43412-twobvv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=131%2C50%2C4725%2C3589&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The sound of the marine environment has been underestimated, mainly because it is not audible to the human ear.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>For a long time, the great ocean explorers used sight to reveal the secrets of the marine environment, downplaying its acoustic aspects. Indeed, the ocean has long been considered a place devoid of any sound.</p>
<p>This belief originated when Jacques-Yves Cousteau and his companions produced a remarkable feature film about the marine environment, <em>The Silent World</em>. Scuba divers often appear to be swimming through a calm and muffled universe, where communication between animals is done through through visual displays and chemistry. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_OGECa4jFME?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Trailer for the documentary ‘Becoming Cousteau’, about the life and work of Jacques-Yves Cousteau.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Today, however, numerous studies underline the importance of sound for a multitude of marine species. Cetaceans — whales, dolphins and porpoises — are excellent ocean orators, capable of communicating at distances greater than 2,000 kilometres.</p>
<p>Even the smallest animals living at the bottom of the sea, which play a fundamental role in maintaining the balance of ecosystems, may communicate with each other through sound. I’m trying to answer this question as part of my doctoral studies at UQAR. Ultimately, we want to know if noise pollution has significant effects on the behaviour and communication of marine animals.</p>
<h2>Sound is essential to the life of marine animals</h2>
<p>Recent studies demonstrate that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09524622.2022.2070542">the natural soundscape and the sounds emitted by the animals themselves play an important role in regulating different aspects of the life of marine invertebrates</a> (animals without an internal skeleton). From an early age, the tiny floating larvae of mussels, scallops and oysters seem to be influenced by the noise present in the environment around them. </p>
<p>Surprisingly, these larvae seem to be attracted to noises. For example, oyster larvae are more likely to settle in an environment exposed to sounds produced by their fellow creatures, as the sounds are an excellent index of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09524622.2022.2070542">places conducive to life</a>.</p>
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À lire aussi :
<a href="https://theconversation.com/can-an-underwater-soundtrack-really-bring-coral-reefs-back-to-life-128905">Can an underwater soundtrack really bring coral reefs back to life?</a>
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<p>Sound also remains a fundamental aspect for the survival of animals in adulthood — and for their reproduction. Some species of molluscs can perceive their acoustic landscape to synchronize their seasonal spawning, and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0185353">increase the chances of fertilization</a>. </p>
<p>For crustaceans, studies suggest that male European lobsters produce buzzing sounds <a href="https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.211276">during competitive encounters</a> through low-frequency vibrations of the carapace to repel competitors. This communication strategy, adopted by different marine and terrestrial species to announce their presence to their adversaries, helps them avoid potentially costly and damaging physical confrontations.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/462575/original/file-20220511-26-o5ytpo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A lobster among rocks." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/462575/original/file-20220511-26-o5ytpo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/462575/original/file-20220511-26-o5ytpo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/462575/original/file-20220511-26-o5ytpo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/462575/original/file-20220511-26-o5ytpo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/462575/original/file-20220511-26-o5ytpo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/462575/original/file-20220511-26-o5ytpo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/462575/original/file-20220511-26-o5ytpo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Lobsters make buzzing sounds to avoid physical clashes with potential competitors.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Sounds can also be used by marine invertebrates warn each other of danger, such as a predator. The flapping of the valves of a fleeing scallop and the rhythmic beating of a sea slug against the shell bottom may be warning signals. When an octopus attacks a lobster, it tries to discourage the attacker by <a href="https://doi.org/10.3354/meps08957">making intimidating noises</a>.</p>
<h2>Ocean noise pollution: A major challenge</h2>
<p>Water is an excellent medium for sound propagation, <a href="https://doi.org/10.3354/meps08957">much better than air</a>, so it is realistic to think that a large majority of marine animals obey sound signals. Until now, this phenomenon has been largely overlooked, largely because many ocean sounds remain inaudible to our ears. The crab, however, may perceive the seabed as a long succession of different noises.</p>
<p>Many questions still remain unanswered for the moment, but technological progress will help scientists discover other wonders that the ocean still kept secret.</p>
<p>One thing remains certain: Human activities have introduced noise pollution into the marine environment, and organisms must find ways to adapt to this change. The construction of new infrastructure and the transport of goods are increasingly sources of noise pollution in our seas. </p>
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<p>
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<strong>
À lire aussi :
<a href="https://theconversation.com/beluga-whistles-and-clicks-could-be-silenced-by-an-increasingly-noisy-arctic-ocean-151065">Beluga whistles and clicks could be silenced by an increasingly noisy Arctic Ocean</a>
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<p>In the Far North, as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2017.08.002">the sea ice melts</a> and new trade routes open up, new acoustic landscapes will be created. Their effects on local fauna will need to be evaluated. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/462576/original/file-20220511-14-jmmkm2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Ship in an icy ocean" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/462576/original/file-20220511-14-jmmkm2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/462576/original/file-20220511-14-jmmkm2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/462576/original/file-20220511-14-jmmkm2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/462576/original/file-20220511-14-jmmkm2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/462576/original/file-20220511-14-jmmkm2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/462576/original/file-20220511-14-jmmkm2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/462576/original/file-20220511-14-jmmkm2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Marine cargo transport is a source of sound pollution.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Scientists have already shown that animal physiology and behaviour are affected by degrading its natural soundscape. Many species are extremely sensitive to anthropogenic (man-made) noise, which covers frequencies easily perceptible by marine invertebrates.</p>
<p>Knowing that the use of sound in the marine environment is much more widespread than previously thought, it is essential to understand the consequences of an increase in noise pollution in our oceans, and the noise that’s most harmful to life must be limited so that the ocean’s many inhabitants can return to their usual soundscape.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184543/count.gif" alt="La Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Thomas Uboldi receives funding from the Institut France Quebec Maritime (IFQM) for his doctoral project.</span></em></p>The ocean is often considered a silent universe. But many recent studies highlight the importance of the soundscape for many marine species, both large and small.Thomas Uboldi, Phd candidate in Oceanography, Université du Québec à Rimouski (UQAR)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1840802022-06-07T15:33:01Z2022-06-07T15:33:01ZFour novelists, one ocean: how Indian Ocean literature can remap the world<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467495/original/file-20220607-26-j47u9f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A dhow ship in Stonetown Zanzibar.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Novels make worlds. They create an intuitive sense and mental image of a place. And the senses of space produced by fiction shape how readers see the world itself, just like maps do. </p>
<p>For early postcolonial literature, the world of the novel was often the nation. Postcolonial novels were usually set within national borders and concerned in some way with national questions. Sometimes the whole story of the novel was taken as an <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/466475">allegory of the nation</a>, whether India or Tanzania. This was important for supporting anti-colonial nationalism, but could also be limiting – land-focused and inward-looking.</p>
<p>My new book <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-87116-1"><em>Writing Ocean Worlds</em></a> explores another kind of world of the novel: not the village or nation, but the Indian Ocean world.</p>
<p>The book describes a set of novels in which the Indian Ocean is at the centre of the story. It focuses on the novelists Amitav Ghosh, Abdulrazak Gurnah, Lindsey Collen and Joseph Conrad. Ghosh is a writer based between India and the US whose work includes historical fiction of the Indian Ocean; Gurnah is a novelist from Zanzibar, who was awarded the 2021 <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/abdulrazak-gurnah-nobel-for-literature-2021/a-59436226#:%7E:text=Abdulrazak%20Gurnah%20awarded%20Nobel%20Prize,gulf%20between%20cultures%20and%20continents.%22">Nobel Prize for Literature</a>; Collen is an author and activist based in Mauritius; and Joseph Conrad, is a key figure of the English literary canon.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/nobel-winner-abdulrazak-gurnahs-fiction-traces-small-lives-with-wit-and-tenderness-169585">Nobel winner Abdulrazak Gurnah's fiction traces small lives with wit and tenderness</a>
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<p>These four authors are notable for having centred the Indian Ocean world in the majority of their novels. Each also covers an important region of the Indian Ocean: <a href="https://www.amitavghosh.com/">Ghosh</a> the eastern part, <a href="https://literature.britishcouncil.org/writer/abdulrazak-gurnah">Gurnah</a> the western part, <a href="https://amheath.com/authors/lindsey-collen/">Collen</a> the islands and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Joseph-Conrad">Conrad</a> an imperial outsider’s view. </p>
<p>Their work reveals a world that is outward-looking – full of movement, border-crossing and south-south interconnection. They’re all very different – from colonially inclined (Conrad) to radically anti-capitalist (Collen), but together draw on and shape a wider sense of Indian Ocean space through themes, images, metaphors and language. This has the effect of remapping the world in the reader’s mind, as centred in the interconnected global south. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/exploring-the-indian-ocean-as-a-rich-archive-of-history-above-and-below-the-water-line-133817">Exploring the Indian Ocean as a rich archive of history – above and below the water line</a>
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<p>As the Kenyan novelist <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/159826/yvonne-adhiambo-owuor/">Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor</a> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbHKNvqYPnE">has said</a>, the narrative of particularly Africa’s interconnection with the world “seems to have been lost in our post-independence, postcolonial imagination”. As she says, “so much of Africa lies hidden in the sea”. </p>
<p>My book aims to tempt readers to dive into the fiction where it can be found.</p>
<h2>The Indian Ocean connection</h2>
<p>The Indian Ocean world is a term used to describe the very long-lasting <a href="https://www.indianoceanhistory.org/Maps.aspx">connections</a> among the coasts of east Africa, the Arab coasts, and South and East Asia. These connections were made possible by the <a href="https://iowmaterialhistorieswebinar.org/s/Material-Histories/page/home">geography</a> of the Indian Ocean. </p>
<p>For much of history, travel by sea was much easier than by land, which meant that port cities very far apart were often more easily connected to each other than to much closer inland cities. <a href="https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/dhow-cultures-of-the-indian-ocean/">Historical and archaeological evidence</a> suggests that what we now call <a href="https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/TfC/article/view/920">globalisation first appeared</a> in the Indian Ocean. This is the interconnected oceanic world referenced and produced by the novels in my book. </p>
<p>The Indian Ocean novel in English is a small but substantial genre, including works also by <a href="https://www.mgvassanji.com/">MG Vassanji</a>, <a href="https://literature.britishcouncil.org/writer/michael-ondaatje">Michael Ondaatje</a>, <a href="https://www.romeshg.com/">Romesh Gunesekera</a>, and many others. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/literature-sheds-light-on-the-history-and-mystery-of-the-southern-ocean-122664">Literature sheds light on the history and mystery of the Southern Ocean</a>
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<p>For their part Ghosh, Gurnah, Collen and even Conrad reference a different set of histories and geographies than the ones most commonly found in fiction in English. Those are mostly centred in Europe or the US, assume a background of Christianity and whiteness, and mention places like Paris and New York. </p>
<p>The novels in the book highlight instead a largely Islamic space, feature characters of colour, and centralise the ports of Malindi, Mombasa, Aden, Java and Bombay.</p>
<p>To take one example, in Gurnah’s novel <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books/about/By_the_Sea.html?id=13lsEAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button&hl=en&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false">By the Sea</a>, a teacher in Zanzibar is showing his young students their place in the world, and he draws a long continuous line around the east coast of Africa, up and around to India, and through the Malay and Indonesian archipelagos, all the way to China. This, he says, is where we are, circling Zanzibar and pointing eastwards and out to sea. Just outside the classroom:</p>
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<p>crowds of sailing ships lie plank to plank in the harbour, the sea between them glistening with slicks of their waste … the streets thronged with Somalis or Suri Arabs or Sindhis, buying and selling and breaking into incomprehensible fights, and at night camping in the open spaces, singing cheerful songs and brewing tea…</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It is a densely imagined, richly sensory image of a <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Convivial-Worlds-Writing-Relation-from-Africa/Steiner/p/book/9780367554163">southern cosmopolitan culture</a> which provides for an enlarged sense of place in the world. </p>
<h2>Representing Africa</h2>
<p>This remapping is particularly powerful for the representation of Africa. In the fiction, sailors and travellers are not all European. And Africa is not portrayed as a hydrophobic continent which only receives rather than sends out explorers. African as well as Indian and Arab characters are traders, nakhodas (dhow ship captains), runaways, villains, missionaries, activists. </p>
<p>This does not mean that Indian Ocean Africa is romanticised. Migration is often a matter of force; travel is portrayed as abandonment rather than adventure; freedoms are kept from women; and slavery is rife. </p>
<p>What it does mean is that the African part of the Indian Ocean world plays an active role in its long, rich history, and therefore in that of the wider world.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184080/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Charne Lavery does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The work of the authors reveals a world that is outward-looking, full of movement, border-crossing and south-south interconnection.Charne Lavery, Lecturer and Research Associate, University of PretoriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1801942022-03-30T18:11:55Z2022-03-30T18:11:55ZInside the Mediterranean sea’s ‘animal forests’: an encounter with the gorgonian corals<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/454761/original/file-20220328-13-1efag0j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An underwater forest formed by the purple gorgonian (Paramuricea clavata) off Marseille at a depth of 60 metres. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Romain Bricoult / CC BY-NC-ND</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Gorgonians are an order of soft corals that belong to the large group of Cnidaria, which also includes hard corals, sea anemones, jellyfish and many other species. Gorgonians colonise the seabed all over the world, from shallow coastal areas to deep sea canyons, temperate and tropical areas to polar zones.</p>
<p>Gorgonians’ skeleton can be soft or rigid, horny or calcareous. These organisms can form dense communities that structure the seabed, constituting “animal forests” offering a refuge to a myriad of marine species.</p>
<h2>One of the most beautiful underwater landscapes in the Mediterranean</h2>
<p>In the Mediterranean, a total of five main species of gorgonians can be found living up to 100 metres below the surface. One of them, <em>Paramuricea clavata</em>, forms remarkable populations both by its red colours and the size of its colonies, which can exceed 1 metre in height.</p>
<p>It is one of the most beautiful underwater landscapes in the western Mediterranean, popular among both amateur divers and underwater photographers. The colonies are either male or female and all originate from the planula, a free-swimming or crawling larva type common among Cnidaria. Egg-shaped, the planula uses hairlike projections called cilia to propel itself through the water. It grows slowly (2 to 3 cm/year at most) and can live several decades.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/454778/original/file-20220328-19-2271qa.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/454778/original/file-20220328-19-2271qa.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454778/original/file-20220328-19-2271qa.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454778/original/file-20220328-19-2271qa.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454778/original/file-20220328-19-2271qa.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454778/original/file-20220328-19-2271qa.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454778/original/file-20220328-19-2271qa.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The large purple gorgonian (<em>Paramuricea clavata</em>) is a typical species from the circalittoral rocky bottoms and coralligenous bottoms in the Mediterranean.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dorian Guillemain, CC BY-NC-ND</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>“Animal forests” weakened by human activities…</h2>
<p>Purple gorgonian beds, like those of other gorgonians, are fragile and vulnerable to human activities in coastal areas. In the Mediterranean, these populations are also regularly affected by the impact of climate change.</p>
<p>Fishing nets and anchors can tear off the fragile colonies or cause injury (necrosis) to the living tissue covering their horny skeletons. Creatures that live on top of other organisms – known as epibion organisms – then proceed to colonise the beds’ exposed areas, threatening the colony’s survival.</p>
<p>Excessive input of sediment in marine environment – referred to as hypersedimentation and linked to coastal constructions and the changes of the courses of rivers – is also a threat to the populations of gorgonians.</p>
<p>Although they have been spared from warming Mediterranean waters, the <em>Paramuricea clavata</em> are locally impacted by fishing and above all by recreational fishing. The vast rock shelf colonised by these giant gorgonians is home to scores of sea breams in the autumn, which themselves are prized by amateur fishermen.</p>
<p>Up to 180 boats were counted on <a href="https://parcmarincotebleue.fr/">29 October 2016</a> during the sea bream reproduction period. Anchors and fishing lines uprooted many giant colonies. It therefore appears essential to control visitor numbers in this conservation area if we are to enable this unique natural heritage to coexist with human activity.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/454779/original/file-20220328-13-rkkxo8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/454779/original/file-20220328-13-rkkxo8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454779/original/file-20220328-13-rkkxo8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454779/original/file-20220328-13-rkkxo8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454779/original/file-20220328-13-rkkxo8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454779/original/file-20220328-13-rkkxo8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454779/original/file-20220328-13-rkkxo8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A fishing net caught in a settlement of purple gorgonians. When the net is lifted, it will cause colonies to be torn off and the living tissue covering their corneal skeleton to die off.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Benoist de Vogüé/CC BY-NC-ND</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>… and by climate change</h2>
<p>Human activities in the coastal area are not the only danger faced by gorgonians. In recent decades, climate change has caused the strong wind on the Provencal coast known as the Mistral to weaken during increasingly long periods. This, in turn, has provoked thermal anomalies in the water column.</p>
<p>The result of this is the submergence of the surface warm water layers (temperature >22 °C) for stretches of several weeks. The latter can be fatal to the gorgonian populations, which are usually exposed to cooler temperatures (around 13 to 15 °C).</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/454780/original/file-20220328-19-uz09rx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/454780/original/file-20220328-19-uz09rx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454780/original/file-20220328-19-uz09rx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454780/original/file-20220328-19-uz09rx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454780/original/file-20220328-19-uz09rx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=576&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454780/original/file-20220328-19-uz09rx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=576&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454780/original/file-20220328-19-uz09rx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=576&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A living tissue slowly dies off, exposing the corneal skeleton of a gorgonian which was subsequently covered by epibiont organisms. This necrosis was caused by a thermal anomaly observed in 2014 at a depth of up to 30 metres.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Benoist de Vogüé</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 1999, a <a href="https://www.academia.edu/10389935/Mortalit%C3%A9_massive_d_invert%C3%A9br%C3%A9s_marins_un_%C3%A9v%C3%A9nement_sans_pr%C3%A9c%C3%A9dent_en_M%C3%A9diterran%C3%A9e_nord_occidentale">vast thermal anomaly</a> affected gorgonian populations in the western Mediterranean stretching from Spain to Italy. Apart from gorgonians, about 20 other species (sponges, bivalve molluscs, bryozoans, ascidians) were also affected.
The anomaly was characterised by the presence of a column of warm water (23 to 24°C) at a depth ranging from 40 to 60 metres for a month. Other events of this type were then observed in 2003, 2006 and 2009, affecting the gorgonians to a greater or lesser extent.</p>
<p>Factors such as the gorgonians’ genetic makeup or microbiota will dictate how they fare in the face of heat stresses. In the coming decades, <a href="https://theconversation.com/suffering-in-the-heat-the-rise-in-marine-heatwaves-is-harming-ocean-species-112839">significant climatic changes</a> are expected to impact upon these species’ location and distribution. </p>
<h2>Discovering a unique deep-sea community</h2>
<p>Although gorgonian populations in the Mediterranean are well researched down to 50 metres, little is known about those farther below. A unique settlement was discovered a few decades ago off the <em>Côte bleue</em> (northern bay of Marseille) at a depth of 50 to 60 metres. This settlement occupies a vast rock shelf extending over nearly 2,500 hectares.</p>
<p>It is characterised by a high density of gorgonians, but above all by the presence of giant colonies. Hovering between 1.50 and 1.80 metres, these corals are probably around a century old.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/454781/original/file-20220328-23-1ps85am.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/454781/original/file-20220328-23-1ps85am.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454781/original/file-20220328-23-1ps85am.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454781/original/file-20220328-23-1ps85am.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454781/original/file-20220328-23-1ps85am.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454781/original/file-20220328-23-1ps85am.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454781/original/file-20220328-23-1ps85am.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A diver inspects a human-sized purple gorgonian (<em>Paramuricea clavata</em>) in the 60-metre-deep, rocky bottom off the <em>Côte bleue</em>, north of Marseille.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Romain Bricoult</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Recent studies have sought to explain the reasons behind the species’ gigantism and tightly knit networks (REFUCLIM programme) and distribution (GIGOR programme). The results seem to show that, apart from their morphology, these gorgonians are genetically unique and clearly distinct from those found at shallower depths.</p>
<p>The environment surrounding them is unique. Not only are the gorgonians regularly subjected to strong inputs of organic matter linked to the proximity of the Rhône’s mouth, but the bottom currents are generally weak. The combination of these two parameters allows the gorgonians to reach exceptional sizes.</p>
<p>One of the issues at stake is that these deep settlements can constitute <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-41929-0">refuge populations</a>, which are relatively spared from global warming, making them all the more important for the species’ survival.</p>
<p>The study of deep-sea gorgonian populations is a major area of research in the years to come, not only to initiate appropriate protection measures, but also to better understand their connections with the populations inhabiting the sea’s shallower depths.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/180194/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stéphane Sartoretto received funding from the EC2CO program (coordination: CNRS/INSU) et from AFB (French Agency for the Biodiversité). </span></em></p>Forming tightly woven populations, these bush-like corals offer a refuge to a myriad of marine species.Stéphane Sartoretto, Chercheur en écologie marine (écosystèmes benthiques méditerranéens de substrat dur), IfremerLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1764452022-02-06T19:06:56Z2022-02-06T19:06:56ZJust 16% of the world’s coastlines are in good shape – and many are so bad they can never fully recover<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444463/original/file-20220204-25-1luokrn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C0%2C1911%2C1074&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Leonardo Felippi</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Only about 16% of the world’s coastal regions are in relatively good condition, according to our <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13874">world-first research released today</a>, and many are so degraded they can’t be restored to their original state.</p>
<p>Places where the land meets the sea are crucial for our planet to function. They support biodiversity and the livelihoods of billions of people. But to date, understanding of the overall state of Earth’s coastal regions has been poor. </p>
<p>Our research, involving an international team of experts, revealed an alarming story. Humanity is putting heavy pressure on almost half the world’s coastal regions, including a large proportion of protected areas. </p>
<p>All nations must ramp up efforts to preserve and restore their coastal regions – and the time to start is right now.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Fishermen bring their catch ashore a polluted bank" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444493/original/file-20220204-21-1qsjehr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444493/original/file-20220204-21-1qsjehr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444493/original/file-20220204-21-1qsjehr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444493/original/file-20220204-21-1qsjehr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444493/original/file-20220204-21-1qsjehr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444493/original/file-20220204-21-1qsjehr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444493/original/file-20220204-21-1qsjehr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Coastlines support the livelihoods of billions of people.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">ROLEX DELA PENA/EPA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Our coasts are vital – and vulnerable</h2>
<p>Coastal regions encompass some of the most diverse and unique ecosystems on Earth. They include coral reefs, kelp forests, seagrass, tidal flats, mangroves, estuaries, salt marshes, wetlands and coastal wooded habitat. </p>
<p>Many animal species, including those that migrate, rely on coastlines for breeding, foraging and protection. Coastal sites are also where rivers discharge, mangrove forests exchange nutrients with the ocean, and tidal flows are maintained.</p>
<p>Humans also need coastlines. Among other functions, they support our fisheries, protect us from storms and, importantly, store carbon to help mitigate climate change.</p>
<p>As much as 74% of the world’s population <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4299200">live within</a> 50 kilometres of the coast, and humans put pressure on coastal environments in myriad ways.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/wetlands-have-saved-australia-27-billion-in-storm-damage-over-the-past-five-decades-153638">Wetlands have saved Australia $27 billion in storm damage over the past five decades</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In marine environments, these pressures include:</p>
<ul>
<li>fishing at various intensities</li>
<li>land-based nutrient, organic chemical and light pollution</li>
<li>direct human impacts such as via recreation</li>
<li>ocean shipping</li>
<li>climate change (and associated ocean acidification, sea-level rise and increased sea surface temperatures).</li>
</ul>
<p>On land, human pressures on our coastlines include:</p>
<ul>
<li>built environments, such as coastal developments </li>
<li>disturbance </li>
<li>electricity and transport infrastructure</li>
<li>cropping and pasture lands, which clears ecosystems and causes chemical and nutrient runoff into waterways.</li>
</ul>
<p>To date, assessments of the world’s coastal regions have largely focused solely on either the land or ocean, rather than considering both realms together. Our research sought to address this.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="cargo ship and dock workers at port" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444494/original/file-20220204-17-1eqkxp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444494/original/file-20220204-17-1eqkxp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444494/original/file-20220204-17-1eqkxp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444494/original/file-20220204-17-1eqkxp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444494/original/file-20220204-17-1eqkxp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444494/original/file-20220204-17-1eqkxp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444494/original/file-20220204-17-1eqkxp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Shipping is among the human activities putting pressure on coastlines.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Chad Hipolito/ AP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A troubling picture</h2>
<p>We integrated existing human impact maps for both <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2020.08.009">land</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-47201-9">ocean</a> areas. This enabled us to assess the spectrum of human pressure across Earth’s coastal regions to identify those that are highly degraded and those intact. </p>
<p>Both maps use data up to the year 2013 – the most recent year for which cohesive data is available. </p>
<p>No coastal region was free from human influence. However, 15.5% of Earth’s coastal regions remained intact – in other words, humans had exerted only low pressure. Many of the intact coastal regions were in Canada, followed by Russia and Greenland. </p>
<p>Large expanses of intact coast were also found elsewhere including Australia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Chile, Brazil and the United States. </p>
<p>Troublingly, 47.9% of coastal regions have been exposed to very high levels of human pressure. And for 84% of countries, more than half their coastal regions were degraded. </p>
<p>What’s more, human pressures were high in about 43% of protected coastal regions – those regions purportedly managed to conserve nature.</p>
<p>Coastal regions containing sea grasses, savannah and coral reefs had the highest levels of human pressure compared to other coastal ecosystems. Some coastal regions may be so degraded they cannot be restored. Coastal ecosystems are highly complex and once lost, it is likely impossible to restore them to their original state. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/5-major-heatwaves-in-30-years-have-turned-the-great-barrier-reef-into-a-bleached-checkerboard-170719">5 major heatwaves in 30 years have turned the Great Barrier Reef into a bleached checkerboard</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="coral reef and boat" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444499/original/file-20220204-23-jqk017.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444499/original/file-20220204-23-jqk017.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444499/original/file-20220204-23-jqk017.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444499/original/file-20220204-23-jqk017.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444499/original/file-20220204-23-jqk017.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444499/original/file-20220204-23-jqk017.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444499/original/file-20220204-23-jqk017.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Coastal regions containing coral are among the world’s most degraded by human activity.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>So where to now?</h2>
<p>It’s safe to say intact coastal regions are now rare. We urge governments to urgently conserve the coastal regions that remain in good condition, while restoring those that are degraded but can still be fixed.</p>
<p>To assist with this global task, we have made our dataset publicly available and free to use <a href="https://doi.org/10.48610/fd85061">here</a>.</p>
<p>Of course, the right conservation and restoration actions will vary from place to place. The actions might include, but are not limited to:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>improving environmental governance and laws related to encroaching development</p></li>
<li><p>increasing well-resourced protected areas</p></li>
<li><p>mitigating land-use change to prevent increased pollution run-off</p></li>
<li><p>better community and local engagement</p></li>
<li><p>strengthening Indigenous involvement in managing coastal regions</p></li>
<li><p>effective management of fishing resources</p></li>
<li><p>addressing climate change</p></li>
<li><p>tackling geopolitical and socioeconomic drivers of damage to coastal environments.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>In addition, there’s an urgent need for national and global policies and programs to effectively managing areas where the land and ocean converge. </p>
<p>Humanity’s impact on Earth’s coastal regions is already severe and widespread. Without urgent change, the implications for both coastal biodiversity and society will become even more profound.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-traditional-owners-and-officials-came-together-to-protect-a-stunning-stretch-of-wa-coast-163078">How Traditional Owners and officials came together to protect a stunning stretch of WA coast</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/176445/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brooke Williams receives funding from an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Watson has received funding from the Australian Research Council and National Environmental Science Program. He serves on scientific committees for Bush Heritage Australia and BirdLife Australia.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amelia Wenger does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>All nations must ramp up efforts to preserve and restore their coastal regions – and the time to start is right now.Brooke Williams, Postdoctoral research fellow, The University of QueenslandAmelia Wenger, Research fellow, The University of QueenslandJames Watson, Professor, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1687872021-10-20T12:40:33Z2021-10-20T12:40:33ZPlastic, plastic everywhere – airborne microplastics are settling into the most remote corners of the globe<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427303/original/file-20211019-22-pvk6y0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1%2C0%2C1276%2C850&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Microplastics, which can originate from the breakdown of plastic products, can be found practically everywhere on our planet.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://pixabay.com/photos/seagull-bird-fauna-waste-plastic-4401424/">MrsBrown/Pixabay</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Little pieces of plastic can now be found <a href="https://phys.org/news/2020-05-microplastics.html">everywhere</a>: from table salt, drinking water and food, to the deep seas, far deserts and most remote mountains. While it’s not surprising to find plastics and microplastics in urban environments where they’re used every day, their appearance in uninhabited corners of the planet is deeply disturbing. </p>
<p>These tiny plastic fragments, many consisting of fibres less than 5mm wide, are lightweight enough to be carried on the wind: a new explanation for the widespread presence of these particles.</p>
<p><a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acs.est.1c00615">A new study</a> published this year has found microplastics in soils collected from sand in the Kavir and Lut deserts of Iran, with an average abundance of about 0.02 microplastic particles per gram of sand. Given little evidence of any large plastic objects in these areas, the particles were probably deposited in the desert by the wind.</p>
<p>Last year, <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aaz5819">researchers</a> collected hundreds of wet and dry environmental samples from the most isolated areas in the US, such as the <a href="https://theconversation.com/grand-canyon-national-park-turns-100-how-a-place-once-called-valueless-became-grand-111144">Grand Canyon</a>. </p>
<p>They found that 98% of all samples contained microplastics, and that nearly 70% of those microplastics were transported to these remote locations by rain and wind. Most of these particles were synthetic microfibres, used for making clothes.</p>
<p>In Europe, researchers have analysed <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aax1157">snow samples</a> in Fram Strait, a sea passage between Svalbard and Greenland, to look for microplastics. They were successful, confirming the <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-20347-1">contamination</a> of the Arctic atmosphere.</p>
<p>So far, although comparatively little research overall has been done on airborne microplastics, studies like these consistently highlight that atmospheric transport of plastic particles is a major contributor to the ubiquity of plastic around the world. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Part of the Grand Canyon" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427301/original/file-20211019-16-1radbl2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427301/original/file-20211019-16-1radbl2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427301/original/file-20211019-16-1radbl2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427301/original/file-20211019-16-1radbl2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427301/original/file-20211019-16-1radbl2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427301/original/file-20211019-16-1radbl2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427301/original/file-20211019-16-1radbl2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Even uninhabited areas of the world, like the Grand Canyon in the US, are polluted with microplastics.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://pixabay.com/photos/horseshoe-bend-grand-canyon-1908283/">KeYang/Pixabay</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Globally, it has been estimated that up to <a href="https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0304389420312127">33.76 tonnes</a> of atmospheric microplastic fibres can be generated in a year. And this amount is only going to grow as plastic production <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/282732/global-production-of-plastics-since-1950/">increases</a>. This spells bad news for the health of our environment.</p>
<h2>Effects are not well understood</h2>
<p>We have already spent over two decades studying microplastics in the sea and on land, but the data we’ve gathered is still just a drop in the ocean. That means many uncertainties remain about the true impact of microplastics.</p>
<p>What we do know is that even pristine <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-49295051">rain and snow</a> now contain a cocktail of different types of microplastics, chemicals, natural and artificial particles. </p>
<p>Although the reported amount of microplastics in the air appears to be relatively low, we can’t predict all of the potential ecological and health risks posed by long-term exposure to microplastics, especially in combination with other <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21325732/">illness-causing</a> airborne pollutants such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/air-pollution-exposure-linked-to-higher-covid-19-cases-and-deaths-new-study-141620">nitrogen and sulphur oxides</a> already found in the environment. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A heap of small plastic particles" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427304/original/file-20211019-27-5hr4g0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427304/original/file-20211019-27-5hr4g0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427304/original/file-20211019-27-5hr4g0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427304/original/file-20211019-27-5hr4g0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427304/original/file-20211019-27-5hr4g0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427304/original/file-20211019-27-5hr4g0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427304/original/file-20211019-27-5hr4g0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Microplastics threaten the health of animals, plants and oceans.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/oregonstateuniversity/21282786668">Oregon State University/Flickr</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Studies looking at what happens when microplastics accumulate in animal tissues – for example, altering <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-52292-5">immune responses</a> and increasing <a href="https://particleandfibretoxicology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12989-020-00387-7">inflammation</a> – may have implications for how the <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.9b04535">human body</a> responds to intrusion by plastic. But we need more research to understand exactly how much humans are exposed to microplastics and what these particles do inside our bodies.</p>
<p>Compared with microplastics in the marine and terrestrial environments, the phenomenon of airborne microplastics is even less well understood. That means more research must be undertaken urgently to understand the consequences of <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/118/16/e2020719118">atmospheric microplastic exposure</a> to plant, animal and human health. After all, it’s reasonable to assume it is not good news that we are all breathing and walking in plastic wind, rain and snow.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/168787/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elvis Genbo Xu receives funding from Danmarks Frie Forskningsfond and University of Southern Denmark.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Xiaoyu Duan receives funding from Danmarks Frie Forskningsfond and University of Southern Denmark.</span></em></p>Researchers are uncovering how microplastic particles are carried in wind, rain and snow to remote regions of our planet.Elvis Genbo Xu, Assistant Professor, Biology, University of Southern DenmarkXiaoyu Duan, PhD Researcher in Biology, University of Southern DenmarkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1621222021-07-06T17:31:29Z2021-07-06T17:31:29ZSuckers for learning: why octopuses are so intelligent<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409964/original/file-20210706-13-1pc47yi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=18%2C13%2C3049%2C2023&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/lunkwill42/3658339290/in/photostream/">Morten Brekkevold</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Our last common ancestor with the octopus existed more than <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/brv.12651">500 million years ago</a>. So why is it that they seem to show such peculiar similarities with humans, while at the same time appearing so alien? Perhaps because despite their tentacles covered with suckers and their lack of bones, their eyes, brains and even their curiosity remind us our own thirst for knowledge.</p>
<p>In ethology, the study of behaviour, we explore this intelligence, which we classify as individual “cognitive abilities”. These are the mechanisms through which information from the environment is perceived, processed, transformed, remembered and used to take decisions and act.</p>
<p>From a behavioural point of view, the flexibility with which an animal can adapt itself and adjust its behaviour to novel situations is a good indicator of its cognitive abilities. <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cephalopod-behaviour/2D21474D460811C160EFDBA35796FAC0">Numerous studies</a> indicate the octopuses possess great flexibility in their behaviours, whether they express them in their natural environment or inside a tank in a laboratory.</p>
<h2>Armed and dangerous</h2>
<p>So what makes octopuses so smart?</p>
<p>Let’s focus first on their defence mechanisms. Faced with multiple predators – including fish, birds and whales – octopuses are masters of camouflage. They can imitate their environment by modifying the colour and even the texture of their skin.</p>
<p>Without a shell, octopuses are vulnerable, and always try to remain hidden in a shelter such as a cavity or the space beneath a rock. Some species maintain their shelter by removing sand and adding pebbles and shells. Some prefer to wrap themselves in shells and pebbles, while others transport their shelter in their arms. This is the case for the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982209019149">coconut octopus</a>, which, true to its name, has been observed carrying coconut shells around to hide within in case of danger.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Y2EboVOcikI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Octopuses are also formidable predators themselves, and their attack mechanisms are suited to the wide variety of prey they consume, including seashells, crustaceans, fish and even other cephalopods. They can use their vision and camouflage skills to hunt, and their arms to explore, touch and taste their environment to seize every bit of food within reach.</p>
<p>The octopus is a thoughtful hunter. It can cooperate with other species such as groupers to <a href="https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ecy.3266">hunt hidden prey</a>. It can learn to avoid crabs bearing poisonous anemones or find a way to cautiously attack them while avoiding being stung.</p>
<p>Octopuses use different techniques to consume seashells and molluscs, either pulling apart the shell by force and placing a small stone inside to keep it open, or drilling into the shell to inject a paralysing toxin which will make the prey <a href="https://zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1469-7998.1988.tb02466.x">open up</a>. This toxin is injected into a very precise muscle under the shell, and octopuses learn and remember the drilling site of each seashell they consume.</p>
<h2>Boneless, not brainless</h2>
<p>We can test the cognitive abilities of octopuses in the lab. In our EthoS laboratory, we are currently working on the memory and future planning abilities of the common octopus. They are complex animals to study, because of their astonishing abilities. </p>
<p>Their incredible strength allows them to easily destroy our lab tools: be careful with underwater cameras, they can open the waterproof box to drown them! And because octopuses are boneless, they can easily escape their tanks through the smallest of openings. They are also extremely curious and will spend their time catching hands, nets or any other object introduced to their tank. From there, it is up to them to decide when to release their catch.</p>
<p>The opening of jars, while impressive and often used to illustrate octopus intelligence, is not their most remarkable ability. This is mostly a matter of dexterity and gripping, and octopuses are quite slow when executing this task: even when over-trained, an octopus always takes more than a minute to open a jar. A better example of their impressive intelligence is their ability to <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0152048">manipulate an L-shaped object</a> so it can pass through a small square opening in a wall.</p>
<p>Octopuses also excel in discriminative learning: confronted with two objects, they learn to attack one of them in exchange for a reward, basing their choice on characteristics such as colour, shape, texture or taste, and they can retain this information for several months. They can also <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2006-00782-018">generalise</a>, a complex thought process in which they need to spontaneously apply a previously learned rule to new objects. For example, octopuses who have previously learnt to attack a real ball can go on to <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/707420">attack a virtual ball on a screen</a>.</p>
<p>Octopuses can also use conditional discrimination, that is, they can modify their choice depending on the context. For example, they can learn to attack an object <a href="https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Conditional-discrimination-in-Octopus-vulgaris-Tokuda-Masuda/dfa15498719f61d6d8e5685192f7fb64fb87b63f">only in the presence of bubbles</a>. They can also use spatial learning, and find an hidden shelter by remembering its position, or use visual cues to know how to orient their arm inside an <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982211001084">opaque T-shaped apparatus</a>.</p>
<p>Last but not least, octopuses can <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/256/5056/545">learn by watching other octopuses carry out tasks</a>, such as choosing one specific object over another. This is surprising, because they are mainly solitary creatures.</p>
<h2>Grade: sea minus</h2>
<p>Octopuses meet every criteria for the definition of intelligence: they show a great flexibility in obtaining information (using several senses and learning socially), in processing it (through discriminative and conditional learning), in storing it (through long-term memory) and in applying it toward both predators and prey.</p>
<p>Despite their obvious abilities, octopuses are oddly erratic in their responses, especially in visual discrimination tasks, in which they carry out the correct response around 80% of the time, while other animals succeed almost perfectly.</p>
<p>And do not be mistaken: octopuses may be clever, but in the classroom of cephalopods they would be the bright but unruly pupil, and the cuttlefish would be top of the class.</p>
<p>The humble cuttlefish is less familiar, but is the subject of numerous research projects worldwide. Less disruptive than octopuses, they possess <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/03/07/974465853/why-cuttlefish-are-smarter-than-we-thought?t=1625579273978">exceptional learning abilities</a>, can pick up complex rules in no time and apply them perfectly.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/162122/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lisa Poncet has received funding from the French National Research Agency (COMETT project).</span></em></p>They can open jars, use tools, remember instructions and attack on command. But they’re still not the smartest cephalopod in the sea…Lisa Poncet, Doctorante en neuroéthologie, Université de Caen NormandieLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1630952021-07-06T15:00:28Z2021-07-06T15:00:28ZNigeria doesn’t have a coherent strategy to manage freight: how it can get there<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409649/original/file-20210705-27-12xd6gx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Nigeria needs more than trucks to achieve effective freight management. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Google images </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Nigeria’s transport network is largely in a state of <a href="https://oxfordbusinessgroup.com/overview/moving-forward-two-major-policy-plans-have-shaped-sector%E2%80%99s-growing-infrastructure-and-mid-term">disrepair</a> due to inadequate investment over the decades, economic and population growth, and ineffective policies and plans. </p>
<p>For instance, Tin Can and Apapa ports in Lagos continue to suffer from inadequate cargo handling equipment. This results in <a href="https://doi.org/10.4102/jtscm.v9i1.180">expensive delays</a>. And when goods are eventually cleared, absence of rail connectivity results in them having to be hauled over poor and congested roads to the northern and eastern parts of the country. </p>
<p>These factors often result in accidents, breakdowns and further delays. All are detrimental to the economy.</p>
<p>Such ineffectiveness is in spite of a series of national <a href="https://journal.umy.ac.id/index.php/GPP/article/view/7011;https://isdsnet.com/ijds-v2n2-5.pdf">transport policies</a>. Reforms were initiated in 2003, 2008 and 2010. These paid some attention to the possibility of intermodalism – ensuring trucked goods are moved on to rail or water, and back to truck for final delivery. These reforms also considered privatisation and public-private partnerships. However, none of these policies and reforms made a significant difference. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1684-19992016000100012">Costs</a> associated with ineffective and inefficient national transportation and logistics systems are well documented. The International Trade Administration, an agency of the US government, citing a survey by the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, showed that the Nigerian economy loses an estimated revenue of <a href="https://www.trade.gov/country-commercial-guides/nigeria-logistics-sector">N3.46 trillion</a> annually. </p>
<p>Nigeria connects to the global and regional economy through international maritime shipping and air while its internal connections are mostly by road and rail movements. Given this, any freight logistics plan for the country must be seen as part of a global supply chain network.</p>
<p>In my view, the time has come for a serious consideration of an overarching and holistic national freight <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01441647.2016.1182793">logistics strategy</a> for Nigeria for the next few decades.</p>
<p>It would bring together all tiers of government and industry to provide a coordinated, national multi-modal approach to freight planning. And it would address Nigeria’s freight challenges, while supporting its long term international competitiveness.</p>
<p>As an <a href="https://eprints.qut.edu.au/25502/">experienced logistics</a> analyst, consultant, scholar and educator in the developing and developed worlds, I have come across a range of relatively effective national <a href="https://www.portsregulator.org/images/documents/National_Freight_Logistics_Strategy.pdf">freight logistics strategies</a> such as those of South Africa, Panama, Vietnam and Thailand. </p>
<p>They provide useful benchmarks for what is possible.</p>
<h2>Why plans haven’t worked</h2>
<p>Firstly, transport traditionally gets constant attention from public authorities. But logistics and supply chain management is often <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01441647.2016.1182793">considered</a> to be a private business-oriented activity. </p>
<p>Public authorities should be paying much closer attention to it, especially in relation to its integration with trade, and the economy. </p>
<p>Secondly, decision makers still take a piecemeal view and approach. This is clear from the fact that there are a number of disparate plans that touch on transport. These include the <a href="https://nesgroup.org/storage/app/public/policies/National-Intergrated-Infractructure-Master-Plan-2015-2043_compressed_1562697068.pdf">Nigeria Integrated Infrastructure Master Plan</a> which was put in place in March 2015 by the National Planning Commission. And then there’s the <a href="https://statehouse.gov.ng/policy/economy/economic-recovery-and-growth-plan/">Economic Recovery and Growth Plan</a> which was approved by the government in 2016 for execution in the period 2017 to 2020. </p>
<p>Similarly, there are several oversight agencies. For example, air transport alone has three – the <a href="https://www.nama.gov.ng/">Nigerian Airspace Management Agency</a>, <a href="https://ncaa.gov.ng/">Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority</a> and the <a href="https://www.faan.gov.ng/">Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria</a> – but none has a freight focus. </p>
<p>A piecemeal approach results in insufficient integration of trade and economic considerations in the design, operation and management of the national transport system. The outcome is poor logistics and supply chain management.</p>
<h2>What the plan needs to cover</h2>
<p>A well-developed <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1785965">freight logistics strategy</a> should be integrated and overarching. It should <a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/IJPDLM-10-2014-0243/full/pdf?title=the-benefits-of-logistics-clustering">facilitate</a> the safe and efficient movement of freight within the country. It would also integrate the country seamlessly within the West African sub-region and beyond.</p>
<p>The plan should address sources of freight generation, commodity flows and associated <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11116-019-09995-5">data-based modelling</a>. It should also cover the transportation and distribution industry and workforce, storage and warehousing location principles, and movement of bulk commodities, containers and general cargo through major ports, airports, inland dry ports, transport corridors and intermodal terminals. </p>
<p>In addition <a href="https://www.trade.gov/country-commercial-guides/nigeria-logistics-sector">the plan</a> should cover railroad access, water port access and air cargo access to allow efficient access of bulk freight to support agricultural regions, production clusters, local industries, businesses and consumers. </p>
<p>Lastly, the strategy should address compatibility of data and information standards, platforms and systems. This would ensure smooth interactions between trading partners and carriers, as well as the introduction of modern and productive freight technologies. South Africa, Panama, Thailand and Vietnam are some examples Nigeria can learn from.</p>
<h2>How it can be achieved</h2>
<p>A national freight logistics strategy like this would be different from the myriad existing government plans and policies. For example, it would reduce transaction and coordination costs for freight operations and the economy as a whole. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.infrastructure.gov.au/transport/freight/freight-supply-chain-submissions/RDA_Hunter.pdf">The policy</a> can be developed through systematic freight research based on accurate data and other evidence from stakeholders. This may include a series of nationwide inquiries into the priorities for national freight and supply chains. </p>
<p>Other relevant data and information can be collected through industry partnerships and extensive non-partisan consultations. </p>
<p>Each country has its unique issues. A thorough and representative <a href="https://www.webguinee.net/blogguinee/2016/11/nigeria-soldiers-as-policymakers-1960s-1970s">consultation process</a> would therefore be crucial.</p>
<p>A thorough mapping exercise also needs to be done.</p>
<p>Freight networks and hubs consist of multiple visible and invisible economic, social and political connections. These combine to provide an <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1785965">effectively working system</a> and must be identified. </p>
<p>For example, Lagos and Kano are monocentric hubs. What’s meant by this is that freight has to be trucked in or out from the outskirts of the city sprawl, and from other parts of Nigeria at great cost. And with difficulty. A national decentralised system with several hubs across Nigeria would make much more sense. This would allow logistics facilities and infrastructure to be located closer to the sources of major freight generation and consumption, and closer to key transport corridors.</p>
<p>This would make freight transport less reliant on Lagos ports. In turn this would ease the pressure on transport networks. This has positive implications for efficiency, productivity, transport emissions, noise reduction and social equity.</p>
<p>Consideration should therefore be given to several other hubs outside of Lagos, Kano, Port Harcourt and Abuja. For instance, Enugu-Onitsha may serve as a freight hub to support manufacturing and trade, while Makurdi or a similar middle belt city can serve as hub for the food producing regions of the area.</p>
<p>Overall, an audit must be undertaken to identify regulatory, economic or environmental challenges. Skills and geography also need to be part of the picture. </p>
<p>Nigeria’s current approach to the movement of freight is fragmented. It needs a single point of national accountability. </p>
<p>While the current emphasis on road infrastructure projects is good, an integrated freight logistics and supply chain management approach would be better.</p>
<p>Logistics is not as attractive to senior politicians as simply building roads. It therefore struggles to gain political attention. But that’s no reason for the country not to pursue an integrated national freight logistics policy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/163095/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard Oloruntoba does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In addition to transport, Nigeria needs to pay more attention to logistics and supply chain management.Richard Oloruntoba, Associate Professor of Supply Chain Management & Supply Chain Management Lead, Curtin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1541582021-02-10T18:13:47Z2021-02-10T18:13:47ZWe need beach access for everyone, and that includes people with a disability<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382959/original/file-20210208-17-c13196.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2620%2C2136&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock/myphotobank</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Beach trips are a traditional part of our summers, but for some Kiwis and their family members living with a disability it can be a <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-bay-today/news/community-beach-wheelchair-option-explored-by-central-hawkes-bay-district-council/RQ3H4JMJ52IKOHCHH7ESX56KKM/">limiting experience</a>.</p>
<p>Around <a href="https://www.stats.govt.nz/information-releases/disability-survey-2013">1 in 4</a> New Zealanders have a disability. Their <a href="https://www.odi.govt.nz/assets/New-Zealand-Disability-Strategy-files/pdf-nz-disability-strategy-2016.pdf">disability</a> arises not from their impairments but from having to live in world designed by people who think everyone is the same.</p>
<p>It is society, not the individual’s impairment, that is disabling. Thus, it is society that should be enabling.</p>
<p>Examples of enabling measures are seen in efforts to provide beach access for those with disabilities with the installation of <a href="https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2020/12/takapuna-beach-installs-auckland-s-first-wheelchair-access-mat.html">beach mats</a> for wheelchairs, or the provision of <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/bay-of-plenty-times/news/waihi-beach-has-its-first-beach-wheelchair/G35J5G6ZVKMON7PXZNZVAMZSUY/">beach wheelchairs</a>.</p>
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<p>But after an able-bodied woman suffered a significant leg injury on a beach mat, there are now <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300205955/woman-calls-for-removal-of-disability-beach-mat-after-injuring-foot-advocates-defend-it">concerns</a> that Auckland City Council, and other councils across the country, might review the provision of such such mats.</p>
<h2>Disabled rights</h2>
<p>Any such decisions must take the rights of people with disabilities into account. These rights are to be found in international human rights law, and New Zealand’s own law.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/bilingual-road-signs-in-aotearoa-new-zealand-would-tell-us-where-we-are-as-a-nation-150438">Bilingual road signs in Aotearoa New Zealand would tell us where we are as a nation</a>
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<p>The rights of people with disabilities are protected by international human rights law <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/documents/publications/factsheet2rev.1en.pdf">generally</a>, which recognises that everyone is born equal and all have to the right to be free from discrimination.</p>
<p>More dedicated protection is found in the United Nations <a href="https://www.odi.govt.nz/united-nations-convention-on-the-rights-of-persons-with-disabilities/read-the-convention/">Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2006</a>, which New Zealand accepted in 2008. </p>
<p>The convention prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability, which it describes as the interaction of people with disabilities and attitudinal and environmental barriers.</p>
<p>It also requires countries should take action to ensure accessibility to a range of spaces and services for people with disabilities on an equal basis with those of non-disabled people.</p>
<h2>Let’s be reasonable</h2>
<p>These rights, like most other rights, must be weighed up with other considerations. A key concept here is <a href="https://www.odi.govt.nz/united-nations-convention-on-the-rights-of-persons-with-disabilities/read-the-convention/">reasonable accommodation</a>.</p>
<p>This means that necessary and appropriate changes should be made that allow people with disabilities to enjoy their rights on an equal basis with others. But such changes should not impose a disproportionate or undue burden.</p>
<p>An <a href="https://www.odi.govt.nz/united-nations-convention-on-the-rights-of-persons-with-disabilities/optional-protocol/read-the-optional-protocol/">Optional Protocol</a> to the convention was also adopted in 2006, which means complaints can be made by individuals to the UN. New Zealand accepted this agreement in 2016.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.mfat.govt.nz/assets/Peace-Rights-and-Security/Human-rights/NZ-Human-Rights-Action-Plan.pdf">New Zealand International Human Rights Action Plan 2019-2023</a> also prioritises the country’s leadership role in advocacy for the rights of people with disabilities. </p>
<p>At the domestic level, the <a href="https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1990/0109/latest/DLM225519.html">New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990</a> says everyone has the right to be free from discrimination and the <a href="https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1993/0082/latest/DLM304475.html">Human Rights Act 1993</a> prohibits discrimination on the grounds of disability.</p>
<p>Domestic law also includes the <a href="https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1994/0088/49.0/DLM333584.html">Health and Disability Commissioner Act 1994</a>, which established both the role of the Health and Disability Commissioner and a <a href="https://www.hdc.org.nz/your-rights/about-the-code/code-of-health-and-disability-services-consumers-rights/">Code of Health and Disability Services Consumers’ Rights</a>.</p>
<p>One of the purposes of the <a href="https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2000/0091/latest/DLM80057.html">New Zealand Public Health and Disability Act 2000</a> is to promote the inclusion, societal participation and independence of people with disabilities. The <a href="https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2008/0064/latest/DLM1404012.html">Disability (United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities) Act 2008</a> was passed with the aim of giving effect to New Zealand’s obligations under the UN Convention. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.odi.govt.nz/assets/New-Zealand-Disability-Strategy-files/pdf-nz-disability-strategy-2016.pdf">New Zealand Disability Strategy 2016-2026</a> guides the work of government agencies on disability issues.</p>
<p>The strategy is informed by the the UN Convention. It is also informed by Te Tiriti o Waitangi, reflecting the cultural importance of whānau and a whānau-centred approach of concepts of family and disability.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.odi.govt.nz/disability-action-plan-2/">Disability Action Plan 2019-2023</a> seeks to implement the Disability Strategy and the UN Convention.</p>
<h2>Design public spaces for all</h2>
<p>These legal obligations and policy measures also extend to local authorities. The decisions of such authorities regarding access to public spaces can have a profound impact on the rights of people with disabilities.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383185/original/file-20210209-15-uo4dmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A long pathway mat on a beach with a disabled access sign." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383185/original/file-20210209-15-uo4dmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383185/original/file-20210209-15-uo4dmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383185/original/file-20210209-15-uo4dmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383185/original/file-20210209-15-uo4dmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383185/original/file-20210209-15-uo4dmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383185/original/file-20210209-15-uo4dmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383185/original/file-20210209-15-uo4dmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">A typical beach mat to help with wheelchair access to the beach.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock/Tabatha Del Fabbro</span></span>
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<p>The provision of beach mats and/or wheelchairs is one practical example that provides people with disabilities with access to the sand and the sea.</p>
<p>But councils can think bigger by also providing mobility spaces that fits all users, appropriately designed footpaths and kerb ramps that lead to accessible seating, shade areas and picnic areas, as well as public toilets that can be used by those with disabilities and their carers.</p>
<p>There is particular room for improvement with the latter and calls for councils to build <a href="https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2021/01/hamilton-mother-takes-on-mission-to-roll-out-fully-accessible-bathrooms-across-country.html">fully accessible bathrooms</a> to cater to people with multiple or complex disabilities. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-aotearoa-new-zealands-early-polynesian-settlement-should-be-recognised-with-world-heritage-site-status-149981">Why Aotearoa New Zealand's early Polynesian settlement should be recognised with World Heritage Site status</a>
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<p>Cost may well be a concern but access to the beach for people with disabilities should not be presented as an optional extra. Ensuring the safety of all beach users will be a paramount consideration, as will the protection of the natural environment.</p>
<p>A diverse and inclusive society means everyone should be treated with dignity and respect at all times. A failure to do so brings its own costs.</p>
<p>New Zealand Herald readers just voted <a href="https://www.whakatane.com/discover/destinations/ohope-beach">Ōhope beach</a> as New Zealand’s <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/new-zealands-best-beach-2021-winner-revealed-ohope-bay-of-plenty/H666CKN4P3E4DFDM2I7PGMJXUA/">best beach</a> in 2021. One of the reasons given was that everyone — from paddleboarders to kitesurfers to those in wheelchairs — is welcome at Ōhope. </p>
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<p>For many New Zealanders, a dip in the ocean on summer days is a simple pleasure but for some, it is simply <a href="https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2020/12/takapuna-beach-installs-auckland-s-first-wheelchair-access-mat.html">life-changing</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/154158/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Claire Breen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A trip to the beach is off limits for some people with a disability. We need to change that, and the law supports it.Claire Breen, Professor of Law, University of WaikatoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1502812020-12-31T00:15:07Z2020-12-31T00:15:07ZWhy going for a swim in the ocean can be good for you, and for nature<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/371465/original/file-20201126-15-1h1jzzy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=654%2C353%2C2915%2C2063&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Iakov Kalinin/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Summer is the season when we like to cool off with a plunge into water. For some it’s in the local or backyard swimming pool, but others prefer the salt water of the ocean. </p>
<p>Sometimes referred to as “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jan/29/swimming-wild-trend-social-media-cliche">wild swimming</a>”, it is happening at many of the beaches, coves, bays or estuaries in Australia.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-should-my-child-take-swimming-lessons-and-what-do-they-need-to-know-131136">Why should my child take swimming lessons? And what do they need to know?</a>
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<p>But wild swimming is not only good for our health, it can also be good for ocean and beach ecologies too.</p>
<h2>A healthy ocean plunge</h2>
<p>Annual competitive ocean swims, such as the <a href="http://www.byronbayoceanswimclassic.com.au/index.php">Byron Bay Winter Whales</a> and the <a href="http://www.bonditobronte.com.au/">Bondi to Bronte</a>, are a mainstay of many Australian coastal towns and city suburbs. Daily and weekly recreational swimming groups are also well established at many of our beaches.</p>
<p>In European cultures, immersion in salt water has long been believed to be <a href="https://theconversation.com/health-check-why-swimming-in-the-sea-is-good-for-you-68583">good for human health</a> and seaside resorts there remain popular.</p>
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<p>Ocean swimmers often wax lyrical about the health and wellbeing benefits they get from their regular ocean swims. And research from both the <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0193723520950549" title="Understanding Blue Spaces: Sport, Bodies, Wellbeing, and the Sea">humanities</a> and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0013935120310665" title="Blue space, health and well-being: A narrative overview and synthesis of potential benefits">sciences</a> backs up these claims.</p>
<p>It’s common to hear swimmers describe their troubles and anxieties washing away in the water. Like a daily cleansing, they emerge from their swim feeling energised, calm and ready to face their days.</p>
<p>Journalist and broadcaster Julia Baird has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/06/opinion/julia-baird-australia-sea-swimming.html">written</a> about how her daily swims in Sydney inspire a sense of awe that shifts how she navigates other challenges in her life.</p>
<p>Other <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1755458615300591" title="Swimming as an accretive practice in healthy blue space">research</a> talks about swimming as a process of “therapeutic accretion” whereby the pleasures of our regular short dips and longer swims in the ocean layer onto us and “build to develop a resilient wellbeing”.</p>
<p>In the UK, online movements such as <a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/risefierce/">#risefierce</a> and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/mentalhealthswims/">Mental Health Swims</a> promote regular swimming as a positive practice for our health and wellbeing.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/CHSGo37JUhg","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>Part of this is accepting that ocean conditions can change day to day. Some days are calm and clear, others are wild with waves and winds. If we want to swim, we have to learn to navigate the conditions we are dealt.</p>
<p>This capacity for decision-making in the face of challenge is helpful for a sense of confidence and resilience – <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-england-hampshire-54243762">something that has been clear</a> during COVID-19 lockdowns around the world.</p>
<h2>Encounters with the wild</h2>
<p>For swimmers, the water offers <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953615300630" title="Seeking everyday wellbeing: The coast as a therapeutic landscape">other rewards</a>.</p>
<p>Swimming, like other ocean sports like surfing and diving, is a way of immersing us in ecologies and bringing us into contact with animals, plants, weather, waves and rocks in a way that we cannot control.</p>
<p>We may encounter fish, birds, rays, turtles, cephalopods and other animals. All are <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953615300630" title="Seeking everyday wellbeing: The coast as a therapeutic landscape">reported</a> to help with a sense of wellbeing. This highlights how we are part of these ecologies too.</p>
<p>The recent film <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12888462/">My Octopus Teacher</a> resonated with many people who swim and who regularly encounter the same animals.</p>
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<p>Some swimmers even relate the effect of swimming to animals that live in oceans. In a <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1057/fr.2012.23" title="Marathon Swimming and the Unexpected Pleasures of Being a Body in Water">study</a> on swimming in the UK, one swimmer explained how they “went in like a cranky sea lion and came out like a smiling dolphin”.</p>
<h2>Care for the oceans</h2>
<p>Being part of an ecology means we have responsibilities too. In Australia, we need to take a lead from Indigenous Australian people to care for the sea country we swim in.</p>
<p>Ocean plastics, sewage and the antibiotics in agricultural run-off are a potential <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0043135420302360" title="A cross-sectional study on the prevalence of illness in coastal bathers compared to non-bathers in England and Wales: Findings from the Beach User Health Survey">problem for our health</a> as we swim in <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01490400.2019.1627963" title="Polluted Leisure">polluted oceans</a>.</p>
<p>Our encounters with animals that live close to shore can <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/aug/02/close-encounter-mother-and-calf-humpback-whales-stun-surfers-at-sydneys-manly-beach">impact their health</a> too, so we need to remember to respect their space.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/371484/original/file-20201126-21-vq8qnc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two people swimming in waters with humpback whales." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/371484/original/file-20201126-21-vq8qnc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/371484/original/file-20201126-21-vq8qnc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=303&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371484/original/file-20201126-21-vq8qnc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=303&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371484/original/file-20201126-21-vq8qnc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=303&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371484/original/file-20201126-21-vq8qnc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371484/original/file-20201126-21-vq8qnc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371484/original/file-20201126-21-vq8qnc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">We need to be careful in our encounters with wild animals as we swim in ocean waters.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/cmichel67/12389601793/">Christopher Michel/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>Many cultures are aware of the interconnections between people and the environments they live in. For example, Native Hawaiian and Māori researchers <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=gfI0DQAAQBAJ" title="Waves of Knowing: A Seascape Epistemology">write</a> about their links to oceans, and the Ama women in Japan connect with underwater soundscapes as they <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/archived/radioeye/waiting-for-the-tide---abalone-diving-in-japan/3064720">dive for abalone</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/swimming-with-whales-you-must-know-the-risks-and-when-its-best-to-keep-your-distance-145614">Swimming with whales: you must know the risks and when it's best to keep your distance</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>In Australia, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are deeply aware of the connections between the health of people and the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0962629818304086" title="Dukarr lakarama: Listening to Guwak, talking back to space colonization">land, sea and sky countries</a> they live on.</p>
<p>People <a href="http://www7.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/IndigLawB/2005/27.html" title="Seeing the Light: Aboriginal Law, Learning and Sustainable Living in Country">cannot be healthy if Country is not healthy</a>, nor can Country be healthy if people are not.</p>
<p>And that’s why wild swimming could be good for ocean and beach ecologies too. The more we learn about the health and wellbeing impacts of ocean and coastal ecologies, the more we should feel invested in taking care of them. </p>
<h2>Let’s swim together</h2>
<p>The lack of control we have over conditions in ocean waters can be frightening, and the same encounters that thrill some people are terrifying for others.</p>
<p>Even for experienced swimmers, drowning is a very real risk. Between July 2019 and June 2020, <a href="https://sls.com.au/med-most-risk-of-drowning/">248 people drowned</a> in Australia, with 125 of those coastal drowning deaths. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/shark-nets-are-destructive-and-dont-keep-you-safe-lets-invest-in-lifeguards-127453">Shark nets are destructive and don't keep you safe – let's invest in lifeguards</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>For others their <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2018/01/sharks-attack-fear-science-psychology-spd/">fear of shark attacks</a> and encounters is enough to keep them out of ocean water. </p>
<p>So if you want to give the ocean a try this summer, many people find comfort and safety by wild swimming with others. This is reflected in the growth of <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0193723520928594" title="Swimming With the Bicheno Coffee Club: The Textured World of Wild Swimming">swimming groups</a>.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/B7NIdk0hO8y","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>Websites such as <a href="http://www.oceanswims.com/">oceanswims.com</a> and <a href="https://www.swimsisters.com.au">Swim Sisters</a> list ocean swimming groups and competition swims around Australia. It’s easy to find information through your local community too. </p>
<p>Swimming in the sea can be as simple as taking that first plunge in knee-deep water, or as challenging as an hours-long marathon along the coast. Whatever you prefer, take the time to enjoy being immersed in a watery world.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1d8oqmCtcuM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">You’re never too old (and it’s never too cold).</span></figcaption>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/150281/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rebecca Olive receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p>Ocean swimmers often wax lyrical about the benefits of a regular dip in the salt water.Rebecca Olive, ARC DECRA Fellow, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1227612019-09-03T12:33:54Z2019-09-03T12:33:54ZCurious Kids: when fish get thirsty do they drink sea water?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290552/original/file-20190902-175668-1javyse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=97%2C13%2C4399%2C3084&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">I'm parched as. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/nickharris1/6931604669/">Nick Harris/Flickr.</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><strong>When fish get thirsty do they drink sea water? – Torben, aged nine, Sussex, UK.</strong></p>
<p>This is a great question, Torben, thanks very much for sending it in. </p>
<p>The short answer is yes, some fish do drink seawater – but not all of them. Fish are amazing animals, and have some very cool solutions to living in water. Naturally, different types of fish have evolved different solutions. </p>
<p>The bony kinds of fish that live in the sea – such as cod, herring, tuna and so on – have a few ways of getting water in and out of the body. As well as swallowing and peeing, like humans do, these fish can pass it through their skin and gills.</p>
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<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/282267/original/file-20190702-126345-1np1y7m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/282267/original/file-20190702-126345-1np1y7m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282267/original/file-20190702-126345-1np1y7m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282267/original/file-20190702-126345-1np1y7m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282267/original/file-20190702-126345-1np1y7m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282267/original/file-20190702-126345-1np1y7m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282267/original/file-20190702-126345-1np1y7m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption"></span>
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<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/curious-kids-36782">Curious Kids</a> is a series by <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk">The Conversation</a>, which gives children the chance to have their questions about the world answered by experts. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to <a href="mailto:curiouskids@theconversation.com">curiouskids@theconversation.com</a>. We won’t be able to answer every question, but we’ll do our very best.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>To understand how this works, you first need to know that bony fish have a different <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/definition-of-concentration-605844">concentration</a> of salt in their bodies to their environment. This means they’re more or less salty than the water they swim in. </p>
<p>The bodies of marine fish (which live in the sea) are less salty than the water they swim in, while the bodies of freshwater fish (which live in rivers and lakes) are more salty than the water they swim in. </p>
<p>Both marine and freshwater fish have to control the amount of water and salt in their bodies, to stay healthy and hydrated. </p>
<h2>Hard to stay hydrated</h2>
<p>Bony marine fish are constantly losing water from their body, through a process called “<a href="https://sciencing.com/osmosis-kids-8650496.html">osmosis”</a>“. During osmosis, water moves through a membrane (like skin), from areas of lower concentration to areas of higher concentration. </p>
<p>Remember, the body of a marine fish is less salty than the seawater it swims in – which means it has a lower concentration of salt. So these fish actually lose water through osmosis: it passes from their body, through their skin and gills, out into the sea. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290692/original/file-20190903-175714-vntsr7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290692/original/file-20190903-175714-vntsr7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290692/original/file-20190903-175714-vntsr7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290692/original/file-20190903-175714-vntsr7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290692/original/file-20190903-175714-vntsr7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290692/original/file-20190903-175714-vntsr7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290692/original/file-20190903-175714-vntsr7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Thirsty work.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sebastian Pena Lambarri/Unsplash.</span>, <a class="license" href="http://artlibre.org/licence/lal/en">FAL</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Since they’re constantly losing water this way, these fish have to drink a lot of seawater to stay hydrated. </p>
<p>You might be interested to know that the opposite happens in freshwater fish. Water flows into their body through osmosis, instead of out. This means they don’t generally need to drink – but they do have to pee a lot.</p>
<p>We all know that <a href="http://www.actiononsalt.org.uk/salthealth/children/">too much salt is bad for us</a>. So of course, an animal that drinks seawater must have a way to get rid of excess salt. </p>
<p>Marine fish have kidneys, which pump excess salt into their pee so they can get it out of their bodies. They also have special cells in their gills that pump excess salt out into the sea. Together, these two systems mean that marine fish can stay hydrated. </p>
<h2>Salty sharks</h2>
<p>Sharks have evolved a completely different system. Their bodies have a slightly higher concentration of salt than seawater. This means they don’t have the problem that bony fish have, of losing water through their skin all the time.</p>
<p>Sharks have high levels of waste chemicals – called urea and trimethylamine N-oxide – in their body, which other animals would usually get rid of. Sharks keep them in their body, which keeps them "salty”. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290693/original/file-20190903-175714-1brmqcm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290693/original/file-20190903-175714-1brmqcm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290693/original/file-20190903-175714-1brmqcm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290693/original/file-20190903-175714-1brmqcm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290693/original/file-20190903-175714-1brmqcm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290693/original/file-20190903-175714-1brmqcm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290693/original/file-20190903-175714-1brmqcm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">I don’t drink.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/j3Kbs-GcEXs">David Clode/Unsplash.</a>, <a class="license" href="http://artlibre.org/licence/lal/en">FAL</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>Sharks take in small amounts of water through their gills (by osmosis – because they are slightly saltier than the sea) which means they don’t directly have to drink. </p>
<p>Sharks also have <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-662-00989-5_25">a salt gland</a> (in their rectum) to get rid of any excess salt they may have. </p>
<p>The problem of drinking seawater isn’t just for fish. Some seabirds – albatrosses, for example – have to drink seawater too. Like sharks, these seabirds <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/immunology-and-microbiology/salt-gland">have a salt gland</a> to get rid of excess salt. But on an albatross it is found at the top of the bird’s beak. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>Children can have their own questions answered by experts – just send them in to <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/curious-kids-36782">Curious Kids</a>, along with the child’s first name, age and town or city. You can:</em></p>
<ul>
<li><em>email <a href="mailto:curiouskids@theconversation.com">curiouskids@theconversation.com</a></em></li>
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<p><em>Here are some more <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/curious-kids-36782?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=CuriousKidsUK">Curious Kids</a> articles, written by academic experts:</em></p>
<ul>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/curious-kids-why-do-some-animals-have-two-different-coloured-eyes-119727?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=CuriousKidsUK">Why do some animals have two different coloured eyes? – George, aged ten, Hethersett, UK.</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/curious-kids-how-high-could-i-jump-on-the-moon-120865?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=CuriousKidsUK">How high could I jump on the moon? – Miles, aged five, London, UK.</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/curious-kids-why-are-the-bubbles-in-fizzy-drinks-so-small-the-ones-i-blow-are-much-bigger-121513?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=CuriousKidsUK">Why are the bubbles in fizzy drink so small? The ones I blow are much bigger - Alison, aged seven, Aberdeen, UK.</a></em></p></li>
</ul><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/122761/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Claire Lacey does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Fish that live in the sea have found amazing ways to control the amount of water and salt in their bodies, and stay hydrated.Claire Lacey, PhD Candidate in Biology, University of St AndrewsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1208162019-07-23T11:26:08Z2019-07-23T11:26:08ZIran: what the law of the sea says about detaining foreign ships in transit<p>With the British ship the Stena Impero now detained in an Iranian port, under investigation for its alleged transgression against navigation regulations in the Strait of Hormuz, there are several legally curious aspects to this affair. </p>
<p>So far, the Iranian authorities have given only scant detail of what the unlawful actions of the UK-flagged ship were that caused them to detain it. The information seems contradictory. Some reports say the ship <a href="https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-mideast-iran-tanker-accident/iran-says-it-seized-tanker-after-collision-uk-calls-move-a-hostile-act-idUKKCN1UF03B">collided with a fishing vessel</a>, others that the change of course ordered by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard vessel was for <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-49061675">security reasons</a>. </p>
<p>Both explanations are wanting as pretexts for interfering with merchant shipping in straits used for international navigation during peacetime.</p>
<h2>Keeping transit flowing</h2>
<p>The legal regime for such straits, in <a href="https://www.un.org/depts/los/convention_agreements/texts/unclos/part3.htm">Part III of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea</a> (UNCLOS), is designed precisely in order to keep open such vital chokepoints for seaborne trade. </p>
<p>Under Article 44, states bordering straits may not hamper transit thought them, nor suspend passage for any reason. Article 39 obliges ships exercising the right of transit to proceed without delay through the strait, refraining from any threat or use of force against states bordering the strait.</p>
<p>In addition, Article 41 requires ships in transit to respect applicable sea lanes and traffic separation schemes. Such a scheme does exist in the Strait of Hormuz, adopted by the International Maritime Organization, which directs westbound traffic within the strait through Iranian territorial waters. It’s not clear where in relation to the outer limit of Iran’s territorial sea the Stena Impero was when the Iranian action took place, but Iran is not alleging the ship had no right to be where it was. </p>
<p>Ships in transit must also comply with generally accepted international regulations, procedures and practices for safety at sea, including the 1972 <a href="https://treaties.un.org/doc/Publication/UNTS/Volume%201050/volume-1050-I-15824-English.pdf">International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea</a>, and for preventing pollution. </p>
<p>Iran signed UNCLOS, but unlike the UK, never went on to ratify it. This raises questions as to whether Iran is even bound by anything in the treaty. If the matter were ever to go before an international court or tribunal – though that is unlikely as it would depend on Iranian consent to being sued – it would be in the UK’s interests to argue that the Part III regime, negotiated nearly 40 years ago, has also come to represent the customary international law on passage through such straits, applicable to all states. This argument would stand a reasonable chance of succeeding.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/19/british-tanker-iran-capture-fears-stena-impero-uk-ship-latest">claim</a> by the owners of the Stena Impero that the ship was in international waters needs to be approached with scepticism. In the narrowest parts of the strait no such waters exist: all of it is within the territorial sea of either Iran or the other coastal state, Oman. Still, there is nothing in Part III that allows a coastal state to intervene and order a vessel into port – the purpose of the legal regime is to keep traffic moving, and to deal afterwards with the legal consequences of any navigational incidents.</p>
<h2>An act of retaliation</h2>
<p>Iran threatened to retaliate against the UK for the detention in Gibraltar in early July of the Grace I, a tanker with a cargo of Iranian oil allegedly bound for a Syrian port contrary to EU sanctions. It’s conceivable that Iran regards its act against the Stena Impero as authorised by the legal <a href="http://legal.un.org/ilc/texts/instruments/english/draft_articles/9_6_2001.pdf">doctrine of countermeasures</a> – but this is a rather long bow to draw. </p>
<p>Unlike domestic legal systems that normally frown on those who take the law into their own hands, in international law there is no police force, and to fill that gap the doctrine of countermeasures permits a limited degree of direct enforcement of obligations owed by one state to another, under a number of conditions. The most straightforward of these is proportionality: detention of one ship in response to that of another. But any defence based on countermeasures is always risky: the state advancing it is effectively admitting that its actions would otherwise be unlawful, and it depends on the accusation of prior breach by the other state being legally correct. </p>
<p>Yet it’s less than obvious that the UK’s detention of the Grace I did infringe Iran’s rights. It may not even be an Iranian ship: it was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/jul/21/panama-deregisters-tanker-that-strayed-into-iranian-waters">removed by Panama</a> from its shipping register in late May, alongside several others, on suspicion of breaching sanctions. Unless Iran has since taken the Grace I onto its own register – of which there is no evidence to date – its only clear link with the Grace I is property in the cargo of petroleum, limiting Iran’s ability to argue its retaliation in taking the Stena Impero was a countermeasure. And it certainly isn’t, as Iran has claimed, an act of piracy. </p>
<p>Piracy by the definition in <a href="https://www.un.org/depts/los/convention_agreements/texts/unclos/part7.htm">Article 101 of UNCLOS</a> can be committed only beyond the territorial sea, and the Strait of Gibraltar, like the Strait of Hormuz, is narrow enough to be completely overlapped by the territorial seas of the states on either side of it. It can also only be committed for private ends by the crew or the passengers of a private ship or aircraft. So the only way piracy can be committed by a warship or state-operated helicopter is if the crew has mutinied and is engaged in plunder for profit – clearly not the case with either of the detained ships. “State piracy”, the UK’s equally <a href="https://news.sky.com/video/irans-action-in-gulf-is-state-piracy-says-british-foreign-secretary-11768446">overheated countercharge</a>, doesn’t exist either. </p>
<p>All of the above is predicated on the law applicable in peacetime. The picture would be very different if an armed conflict were to break out between Iran and the UK, and would justify many of the acts that appear legally dubious on the analysis above. That may still happen if the escalating tension gets out hand, but we are not there yet.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/120816/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Serdy does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>An international maritime lawyer explains whether Iran broke the law of the sea by detaining the Stena Impero.Andrew Serdy, Professor of the Public International Law of the Sea, University of SouthamptonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1131992019-04-11T05:55:04Z2019-04-11T05:55:04ZCurious Kids: is water blue or is it just reflecting off the sky?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268710/original/file-20190411-2935-1ff4bje.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=3%2C0%2C2038%2C1149&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The sea is blue because of the way water absorbs light, the way particles in the water scatter light, and also because some of the blue light from the sky is reflected.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/huntfiona/14712693202/in/photolist-oq7p7b-bxagu8-6qxWM8-21gkf3P-5tzGZd-fN6xQD-62WTwN-3hGkHp-q3iEw7-nhETSB-sEQHJA-raABK9-5EnuTT-jWHqeV-JwZtX9-mkmzwR-dXn9ih-64z8u3-bqXixk-iEXXvR-7m6vd6-5yP81X-6NZRdb-pQy4hb-4RBUum-73p7md-hTTAJN-8Gkn6V-dCvAS4-8Gknxa-5Cqeb-rngYPM-7Dyqz7-7pbJTe-7wJ7Ck-7B6akh-5m336N-aaCHs6-bdT3AK-nFK9t1-6UTu8V-4Zpuxc-GKHTrE-dHSsRQ-BXKF2S-aJ7bzK-q7ddmt-7GYBkd-9nL25r-n7xdmk">Flickr/Fiona Paton</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/curious-kids-36782">Curious Kids</a> is a series for children. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskids@theconversation.edu.au You might also like the podcast <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/kidslisten/imagine-this/">Imagine This</a>, a co-production between ABC KIDS listen and The Conversation, based on Curious Kids.</em> </p>
<hr>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>Is water blue or is it just reflecting off the sky? – The students of Ms Brown’s class, Neerim South Public School, Victoria.</strong> </p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>This is a wonderful question as it involves many of the puzzles that motivated research into the physics of light in the early 20th century.</p>
<p>The short answer is that the sea is blue because of the way water absorbs light, the way particles in the water scatter light, and also because some of the blue light from the sky is reflected.</p>
<p>But to explain what I mean by that, I have to tell you a bit about light and physics.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/curious-kids-why-is-the-sky-blue-and-where-does-it-start-81165">Curious Kids: Why is the sky blue and where does it start?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<h2>How light works</h2>
<p>First, we need to know some fun facts about the nature of light. </p>
<p>The light we see, which we call white light, is made up of incredibly tiny particles called photons. A photon is even smaller than an atom. You can’t see them, but they’re there.</p>
<p>These particles are very strange because when we measure them, sometimes they move like a tiny ball and sometime like a wave – weird, right?</p>
<p>White light is made from photons that have many different wavelengths, some shorter and some longer, and together make up all the <a href="https://theconversation.com/curious-kids-why-are-rainbows-round-81187">colours of the rainbow</a>. The photons with the shortest wavelength we can see look blue, while those with the longest wavelength look red.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268725/original/file-20190411-44814-1v16yld.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268725/original/file-20190411-44814-1v16yld.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268725/original/file-20190411-44814-1v16yld.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=173&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268725/original/file-20190411-44814-1v16yld.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=173&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268725/original/file-20190411-44814-1v16yld.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=173&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268725/original/file-20190411-44814-1v16yld.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=218&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268725/original/file-20190411-44814-1v16yld.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=218&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268725/original/file-20190411-44814-1v16yld.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=218&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">White light is made from photons that have many different wavelengths.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So let’s think about sunlight. The photons stream from the sun and interact with all matter on Earth. Depending on what the light touches, some of the photons will get absorbed or soaked up. And some will bounce back. When they bounce back, we call this “scattering”. </p>
<p>The photons that get scattered are what gives things their colour. For instance <a href="https://theconversation.com/curious-kids-why-are-leaves-green-86160">leaves are green</a>, because the green photons bounce back towards our eyes and that is what colour our eyes perceive. Other coloured photons are absorbed by the leaves.</p>
<h2>What colour is a glass of water?</h2>
<p>Now that we know a bit more about light, we can begin to answer your question.</p>
<p>Experiments have shown that pure water (water with nothing else dissolved in it) absorbs more of the red light than the blue light. </p>
<p>But how much of the red light will get absorbed? Well, that depends on how much water the light has to pass through. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268508/original/file-20190410-2905-1jgpdui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268508/original/file-20190410-2905-1jgpdui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268508/original/file-20190410-2905-1jgpdui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268508/original/file-20190410-2905-1jgpdui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268508/original/file-20190410-2905-1jgpdui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268508/original/file-20190410-2905-1jgpdui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268508/original/file-20190410-2905-1jgpdui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A small bottle or glass of pure water is clear, because it can only absorb a little bit of red light.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/drinking-water-bottle-on-sand-beach-131702039?src=I-XdOtUEVg5XEFJAnPv-6g-1-8">from www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>You might be wondering why the water in a glass looks clear. It is because the glass of water is too small to absorb more red light waves. To see the effect with your eye, you would have to look through a glass of water as big as a swimming pool. That amount of water could absorb quite a lot of red light, so the water would look quite blue.</p>
<p>Now imagine a glass that held an entire ocean’s worth of water. It would be enormous! With that much water, you could absorb a LOT of red light. So it would look very blue.</p>
<p>But when it comes to how light interacts with the ocean, there’s more to the story.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/curious-kids-how-is-water-made-109434">Curious Kids: how is water made?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>For starters, sea water is not pure. Sea water has lots of things dissolved in it, like salt and small pieces of dead sea creatures. These particles in the water reflect some of the light before it has time to develop the full blue colour. The light coming back out from the sea is usually more greenish-blue in colour.</p>
<p>You asked about the sky. We know <a href="https://theconversation.com/curious-kids-why-is-the-sky-blue-and-where-does-it-start-81165">the sky is blue</a> and the sea does reflect some of this light. So, yes, it does play a role. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268731/original/file-20190411-44802-175sv95.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268731/original/file-20190411-44802-175sv95.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268731/original/file-20190411-44802-175sv95.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268731/original/file-20190411-44802-175sv95.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268731/original/file-20190411-44802-175sv95.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268731/original/file-20190411-44802-175sv95.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=611&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268731/original/file-20190411-44802-175sv95.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=611&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268731/original/file-20190411-44802-175sv95.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=611&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">It’s true the sky does play a role in how our eyes perceive the colour of the sea. But it’s not the only factor.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/renear/7221731328/in/photolist-c1ag87-rrF16s-pQU2VG-e9TY8F-oNX9wQ-kfm6sk-UJhAoV-fmDY8b-fUT5hW-r6evgX-Dv5KPf-gJnyS4-aVP2Sn-JyGGvS-cWYwab-rquzrK-feYoRF-KSZoU6-cz7MuG-eq6nBH-jrb7bj-aiAJyY-arbcyQ-bX5phW-8XQoac-pgGY6F-brhpsN-eQUhnb-2884bZc-orfe9u-dbGbB5-aW4KTv-rk7GxV-VorKEH-2bCZYXA-pWxXm3-ac7hPg-gVm8cx-ZbpH19-ei8q6b-RCxDFo-GYfVYv-qJPjc9-byAFjc-b6kLcX-2cvBdK8-2c2TAnD-RVSkju-rhsigd-przX2P">renê ardanuy on/off/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To sum it all up: the sea is blue because of the way water absorbs light, the way particles in the water scatter light, and also because some of the blue light from the sky is reflected.</p>
<p>Finally, we need to think about the time of day and the position of the Sun in the sky. When the Sun is shining bright, the sea appears bluer than it does late at night, when the sea looks very dark and almost black. </p>
<p>Like many questions in science, the answer is not as easy as a simple yes or no. There are often lots of correct, but incomplete, answers to many questions. To me, that’s what makes science so interesting.</p>
<p><em>Hello, curious kids! Have you got a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to curiouskids@theconversation.edu.au</em></p>
<hr><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/113199/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Justin Peter does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Photons stream from the sun and interact with all matter on Earth. Depending on what the light touches, some of the photons will get absorbed or soaked up. And some will bounce back.Justin Peter, Climate Scientist, Australian Bureau of MeteorologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.