This is the news we needed to hear. As the world descends into pandemic and panic, the news that the waters in the Venice canals have become clear enough to see the return of fish, swans and even dolphins is enough to raise any mood.
With the coronavirus crisis escalating globally, Italy has been in lockdown since Sunday 8th March, and as a result, the streets and canals of one of the country’s most popular tourist hotspots are empty. The water, which is normally murky with mud and debris, and filled with visitors seeking an authentic ride in one of the city’s famous gondolas, has become clear, paving the way for its inhabitants to swim freely. Locals have even spotted dolphins swimming up to the banks of the canals. If there were ever a silver lining to the current global crisis, we think this is it.
Italians have been celebrating this news on Twitter, with some Venice locals claiming that “nature is reclaiming its spaces during quarantine in Italy”.
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Boars in the middle of my hometown, dolphins in the port of Cagliari, ducks in the fountains in Rome, Venice canals have now clean water full of fishes. Air pollution dropped. Nature is reclaiming its spaces during quarantine in Italy. #COVID19 #COVIDー19 pic.twitter.com/dr6QILfF9V
— Francesco Delrio (@Cosodelirante)
It is not just Venice which has seen an influx of animals; further south, residents in Rome have noticed that with the absence of hoards of tourists throwing pennies into the popular Fontana di Trevi, ducks have taken to the water.
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The disappearance of tourists and the closing of factories around Italy has resulted in further beneficial environmental effects. According to data from the European Space Agency, the levels of nitrogen dioxide gas, which is produced by, amongst other things, cars and factories, has seen a decline as a result of the population at home unless absolutely necessary.
So while we’re stuck all at home, we can at least enjoy the news that in Venice, dolphins have taken to the quarantine like a fish to water.
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A palazzo on Venice’s Grand Canal decorated by Jacques Grange
A damning new report by an international group of scientists indicates the dolphin population of the Indian Ocean has been decimated, with almost 90 per cent of the animals wiped out by industrial fishing since 1980.
The study suggests this extraordinary extermination is due to the widespread use of huge gillnets used to catch tuna.
Gillnets are walls of netting that are hung in the water column and are either allowed to drift from floating buoys, or can be fixed in one place. They range in size from 100m to more than 30km in length, and operate from less than 5m to more than 20m in depth.
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Their use is illegal on the high seas, but the laws are routinely ignored.
The size of the holes in the netting are designed so tuna can get only their head through the netting but not their whole body. The fish’s gills then become caught in the mesh as it tries to back out of the net. As the fish struggles to free itself, it becomes more and more entangled.
Whale intelligence continues to be underestimated
Show all 13
Whale intelligence continues to be underestimated
Mom and calf humpback whales make their way toward the surface in Tonga.
salto della megattera durante whale watching in islanda, salto della balena, incredibile
Getty Images/iStockphoto
An aerial photo of humpback whales in a pod
Humpback mother and calf, with a snorkeler, in Tonga.
Humpback Whale breaching out of water in the morning light in Iceland
humpback whales playing on surface in the blue between Tahiti and Moorea
Getty Images/iStockphoto
A beached grey whale which died after an effort by local fishermen to pull her back out to sea. San Juanico, Baja California Sur, Mexico.
Getty Images/iStockphoto
White Beluga Whale is looking at the camera from underwater.
Getty Images/iStockphoto
An orca chases herrings on January 17, 2019, in the Reisafjorden fjord region, near the Norwegian northern city of Tromso in the Arctic Circle. (Photo by Olivier MORIN / AFP) (Photo credit should read OLIVIER MORIN/AFP/Getty Images)
AFP/Getty Images
10/13
TOPSHOT – An orca chases herrings on January 14, 2019, in the Reisafjorden fjord region, near the Norwegian northern city of Tromso in the Arctic Circle. (Photo by Olivier MORIN / AFP) (Photo credit should read OLIVIER MORIN/AFP/Getty Images)
AFP/Getty
11/13
A Humpback whale jumps in the surface of the Pacific Ocean at the Uramba Bahia Malaga National Natural Park in Colombia, on August 12, 2018. – Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) migrate annually from the Antarctic Peninsula to peek into the Colombian Pacific Ocean coast, with an approximate distance of 8,500 km, to give birth and nurse their young. Humpback whales have a life cycle of 50 years or so and is about 18 meters long. (Photo by Miguel MEDINA / AFP) (Photo credit should read MIGUEL MEDINA/AFP/Getty Images)
AFP/Getty Images
12/13
A Humpback whale jumps in the surface of the Pacific Ocean at the Uramba Bahia Malaga National Natural Park in Colombia, on August 12, 2018. – Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) migrate annually from the Antarctic Peninsula to peek into the Colombian Pacific Ocean coast, with an approximate distance of 8,500 km, to give birth and nurse their young. Humpback whales have a life cycle of 50 years or so and is about 18 meters long. (Photo by Miguel MEDINA / AFP) (Photo credit should read MIGUEL MEDINA/AFP/Getty Images)
AFP/Getty Images
A whale surfaces on July 8, 2018 just east of Montauk, New York in the Block Island Sound.
Mom and calf humpback whales make their way toward the surface in Tonga.
salto della megattera durante whale watching in islanda, salto della balena, incredibile
Getty Images/iStockphoto
An aerial photo of humpback whales in a pod
Humpback mother and calf, with a snorkeler, in Tonga.
Humpback Whale breaching out of water in the morning light in Iceland
humpback whales playing on surface in the blue between Tahiti and Moorea
Getty Images/iStockphoto
A beached grey whale which died after an effort by local fishermen to pull her back out to sea. San Juanico, Baja California Sur, Mexico.
White Beluga Whale is looking at the camera from underwater.
Getty Images/iStockphoto
An orca chases herrings on January 17, 2019, in the Reisafjorden fjord region, near the Norwegian northern city of Tromso in the Arctic Circle. (Photo by Olivier MORIN / AFP) (Photo credit should read OLIVIER MORIN/AFP/Getty Images)
AFP/Getty Images
10/13
TOPSHOT – An orca chases herrings on January 14, 2019, in the Reisafjorden fjord region, near the Norwegian northern city of Tromso in the Arctic Circle. (Photo by Olivier MORIN / AFP) (Photo credit should read OLIVIER MORIN/AFP/Getty Images)
AFP/Getty
11/13
A Humpback whale jumps in the surface of the Pacific Ocean at the Uramba Bahia Malaga National Natural Park in Colombia, on August 12, 2018. – Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) migrate annually from the Antarctic Peninsula to peek into the Colombian Pacific Ocean coast, with an approximate distance of 8,500 km, to give birth and nurse their young. Humpback whales have a life cycle of 50 years or so and is about 18 meters long. (Photo by Miguel MEDINA / AFP) (Photo credit should read MIGUEL MEDINA/AFP/Getty Images)
AFP/Getty Images
12/13
A Humpback whale jumps in the surface of the Pacific Ocean at the Uramba Bahia Malaga National Natural Park in Colombia, on August 12, 2018. – Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) migrate annually from the Antarctic Peninsula to peek into the Colombian Pacific Ocean coast, with an approximate distance of 8,500 km, to give birth and nurse their young. Humpback whales have a life cycle of 50 years or so and is about 18 meters long. (Photo by Miguel MEDINA / AFP) (Photo credit should read MIGUEL MEDINA/AFP/Getty Images)
AFP/Getty Images
A whale surfaces on July 8, 2018 just east of Montauk, New York in the Block Island Sound.
Getty Images
Though the nets are designed to target specific species — as smaller fish can slip through the holes and larger fish are supposedly repelled — in practice the nets, particularly drift gillnets, are deadly to an array of species, including sharks, turtles, sea lions, whales and dolphins.
Dr Putu Mustika, from James Cook University in Australia, who was among the scientists working on the study, said despite much of the official data on bycatch being unreliable, scientists had nonetheless been able to come up with a credible picture of the dolphin catch.
“We combined results from 10 bycatch sampling programmes between 1981 and 2016 in Australia, Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan to estimate bycatch rates for cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises) across all Indian Ocean tuna gillnet fisheries,” she said.
“The vast majority of the cetacean bycatch is dolphins. Estimated cetacean bycatch peaked at almost 100,000 a year during 2004−2006, but has declined to 80,000 animals a year, despite an increase in the tuna gillnet fishing effort.”
Dr Mustika said the research indicated the gillnets deployed in the Indian Ocean had killed about 4.1 million small cetaceans between 1950 and 2018 as fishers pursued tuna.
But she said the true figures may be “substantially higher” as the available records take little or no account of factors such as delayed mortality of cetaceans which escape from the nets or mortality associated with ghost nets — those nets lost at sea.
“The declining cetacean bycatch rates shown by what we can measure suggest current mortality rates are not sustainable. The estimates we have developed show that average small cetacean abundance may currently be 13 per cent of the 1980 levels,” Dr Mustika said.
She warned the UN’s existing ban on gillnets on the high seas is hard to enforce and tuna fishers are allowed to use gillnets within the territorial waters of states bordering the ocean.
“Cetacean bycatch in Indian Ocean tuna gillnet fisheries has been a concern for decades but has been poorly studied, reflecting the political reality that hundreds of thousands of relatively poor fishermen and their families rely on gillnet fisheries,” she said.
The current cetacean bycatch rate may be in the order of 175 cetaceans per 1000 tonnes of tuna, down from an estimate of 600 in the late 1970s, the study suggested.
The countries with the largest current gillnet catches of tuna and likely to have the largest cetacean bycatch are (in order): Iran, Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Oman, Yemen, UAE and Tanzania.
Iran and Indonesia have no national monitoring of cetacean bycatch.
The research team was led by Dr Charles Anderson of the Manta Marine organisation in the Maldives. The scientists said there is a need for improvements in monitoring, analysis and governance and for changes to fishing practices if dolphin numbers are to recover.
The floodwaters are coming for us. Sea levels are rising faster and could swell one to two metres in the next 80 years if greenhouse gas emissions are not swiftly reined in, according to the latest research by UN scientists.
It means we are currently on track for many people alive today to see several of the world’s major cities, including London, New York, Shanghai, Los Angeles, largely lost beneath the waves, while the world would lose 1.79 million sq km of land – an area roughly the size of Libya.
In Europe, the Netherlands is particularly at risk, with a third of the country already lying below sea level.
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So what can be done?
One mega-infrastructure scheme put up for discussion by a Dutch government scientist suggests addressing the issue in northern Europe by damming in the entire North Sea.
This would require the construction of two dams of unprecedented scale. The smaller of the two would be around 100 miles long and block the entire western end of the English Channel, between Brittany in France and Cornwall in England.
Climate change: Decade’s defining issue in pictures
Show all 20
Climate change: Decade’s defining issue in pictures
1/20 California
In this decade, humans have become ever more aware of climate change. Calls for leaders to act echo around the globe as the signs of a changing climate become ever more difficult to ignore
2/20 Athens, Greece
Fierce wildfires have flared up in numerous countries. The damage being caused is unprecedented: 103 people were killed in wildfires last year in California, one of the places best prepared, best equipped to fight such blazes in the world
AFP/Getty
3/20 Redding, California
Entire towns have been razed. The towns of Redding and Paradise in California were all but eliminated in the 2018 season
4/20 Athens, Greece
While wildfires in Greece (pictured), Australia, Indonesia and many other countries have wrought chaos to infrastructure, economies and cost lives
AFP/Getty
5/20 Carlisle, England
In Britain, flooding has become commonplace. Extreme downpours in Carlisle in the winter of 2015 saw the previous record flood level being eclipsed by two feet
AFP/Getty
6/20 Hebden Bridge, England
Hebden Bridge in West Yorkshire has flooded repeatedly in the past decade, with the worst coming on Christmas Day 2015. Toby Smith of Climate Visuals, an organisation focused on improving how climate change is depicted in the media, says: “Extreme weather and flooding, has and will become more frequent due to climate change. An increase in the severity and distribution of press images, reports and media coverage across the nation has localised the issue. It has raised our emotions, perception and personalised the effects and hazards of climate change.”
Out west in Somerset, floods in 2013 led to entire villages being cut off and isolated for weeks
8/20 Dumfries, Scotland
“In summer 2012, intense rain flooded over 8000 properties. In 2013, storms and coastal surges combined catastrophically with elevated sea levels whilst December 2015, was the wettest month ever recorded. Major flooding events continued through the decade with the UK government declaring flooding as one of the nation’s major threats in 2017,” says Mr Smith of Climate Visuals
9/20 London, England
Weather has been more extreme in Britain in recent years. The ‘Beast from the East’ which arrived in February 2018 brought extraordinarily cold temperatures and high snowfall. Central London (pictured), where the city bustle tends to mean that snow doesn’t even settle, was covered in inches of snow for day
Months after the cold snap, a heatwave struck Britain, rendering the normally plush green of England’s parks in Summer a parched brown for weeks
AFP/Getty
11/20 New South Wales, Australia
Worsening droughts in many countries have been disastrous for crop yields and have threatened livestock. In Australia, where a brutal drought persisted for months last year, farmers have suffered from mental health problems because of the threat to their livelihood
12/20 Tonle Sap, Cambodia
Even dedicated climate skeptic Jeremy Clarkson has come to recognise the threat of climate change after visiting the Tonle Sap lake system in Cambodia. Over a million people rely on the water of Tonle Sap for work and sustinence but, as Mr Clarkson witnessed, a drought has severley depleted the water level
Carlo Frem/Amazon
13/20 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
In reaction to these harbingers of climate obliteration, some humans have taken measures to counter the impending disaster. Ethiopia recently planted a reported 350 million trees in a single day
AFP/Getty
14/20 Morocco
Morocco has undertaken the most ambitious solar power scheme in the world, recently completing a solar plant the size of San Francisco
AFP/Getty
15/20 London, England
Electric cars are taking off as a viable alternative to fossil fuel burning vehicles and major cities across the world are adding charging points to accomodate
AFP/Getty
16/20 Purmerend, The Netherlands
Cities around the world are embracing cycling too, as a clean (and healthy) mode of transport. The Netherlands continues to lead the way with bikes far outnumbering people
Jeroen Much/Andras Schuh
17/20 Xiamen, China
Cycling infrastructure is taking over cities the world over, in the hope of reducing society’s dependency on polluting vehicles
Ma Weiwei
18/20 Chennai, India
Despite positive steps being taken, humans continue to have a wildly adverse effect on the climate. There have been numerous major oil spills this decade, the most notable being the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010
AFP/Getty
19/20 Amazon rainforest, Brazil
More recently, large swathes of the Amazon rainforest were set alight by people to clear land for agriculture
AFP/Getty
20/20 California
This decade may have seen horrors but it has led to an understanding that the next decade must see change if human life is to continue
In this decade, humans have become ever more aware of climate change. Calls for leaders to act echo around the globe as the signs of a changing climate become ever more difficult to ignore
2/20 Athens, Greece
Fierce wildfires have flared up in numerous countries. The damage being caused is unprecedented: 103 people were killed in wildfires last year in California, one of the places best prepared, best equipped to fight such blazes in the world
AFP/Getty
3/20 Redding, California
Entire towns have been razed. The towns of Redding and Paradise in California were all but eliminated in the 2018 season
4/20 Athens, Greece
While wildfires in Greece (pictured), Australia, Indonesia and many other countries have wrought chaos to infrastructure, economies and cost lives
AFP/Getty
5/20 Carlisle, England
In Britain, flooding has become commonplace. Extreme downpours in Carlisle in the winter of 2015 saw the previous record flood level being eclipsed by two feet
AFP/Getty
6/20 Hebden Bridge, England
Hebden Bridge in West Yorkshire has flooded repeatedly in the past decade, with the worst coming on Christmas Day 2015. Toby Smith of Climate Visuals, an organisation focused on improving how climate change is depicted in the media, says: “Extreme weather and flooding, has and will become more frequent due to climate change. An increase in the severity and distribution of press images, reports and media coverage across the nation has localised the issue. It has raised our emotions, perception and personalised the effects and hazards of climate change.”
Out west in Somerset, floods in 2013 led to entire villages being cut off and isolated for weeks
8/20 Dumfries, Scotland
“In summer 2012, intense rain flooded over 8000 properties. In 2013, storms and coastal surges combined catastrophically with elevated sea levels whilst December 2015, was the wettest month ever recorded. Major flooding events continued through the decade with the UK government declaring flooding as one of the nation’s major threats in 2017,” says Mr Smith of Climate Visuals
9/20 London, England
Weather has been more extreme in Britain in recent years. The ‘Beast from the East’ which arrived in February 2018 brought extraordinarily cold temperatures and high snowfall. Central London (pictured), where the city bustle tends to mean that snow doesn’t even settle, was covered in inches of snow for day
Months after the cold snap, a heatwave struck Britain, rendering the normally plush green of England’s parks in Summer a parched brown for weeks
AFP/Getty
11/20 New South Wales, Australia
Worsening droughts in many countries have been disastrous for crop yields and have threatened livestock. In Australia, where a brutal drought persisted for months last year, farmers have suffered from mental health problems because of the threat to their livelihood
12/20 Tonle Sap, Cambodia
Even dedicated climate skeptic Jeremy Clarkson has come to recognise the threat of climate change after visiting the Tonle Sap lake system in Cambodia. Over a million people rely on the water of Tonle Sap for work and sustinence but, as Mr Clarkson witnessed, a drought has severley depleted the water level
Carlo Frem/Amazon
13/20 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
In reaction to these harbingers of climate obliteration, some humans have taken measures to counter the impending disaster. Ethiopia recently planted a reported 350 million trees in a single day
AFP/Getty
14/20 Morocco
Morocco has undertaken the most ambitious solar power scheme in the world, recently completing a solar plant the size of San Francisco
AFP/Getty
15/20 London, England
Electric cars are taking off as a viable alternative to fossil fuel burning vehicles and major cities across the world are adding charging points to accomodate
AFP/Getty
16/20 Purmerend, The Netherlands
Cities around the world are embracing cycling too, as a clean (and healthy) mode of transport. The Netherlands continues to lead the way with bikes far outnumbering people
Jeroen Much/Andras Schuh
17/20 Xiamen, China
Cycling infrastructure is taking over cities the world over, in the hope of reducing society’s dependency on polluting vehicles
Ma Weiwei
18/20 Chennai, India
Despite positive steps being taken, humans continue to have a wildly adverse effect on the climate. There have been numerous major oil spills this decade, the most notable being the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010
AFP/Getty
19/20 Amazon rainforest, Brazil
More recently, large swathes of the Amazon rainforest were set alight by people to clear land for agriculture
AFP/Getty
20/20 California
This decade may have seen horrors but it has led to an understanding that the next decade must see change if human life is to continue
The second dam would be a monster 300 miles long, and would cross the top of the North Sea between Scotland, running south of the Shetland and Orkney islands, and all the way over to Norway.
The plan would also mean the Baltic Sea would lose direct access to the rest of the world’s oceans.
The result would ultimately be the creation of an enormous lake to the south and east of Britain, around western Norway, north France, and would represent the entire coastlines of Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Netherlands and Germany.
The Northern European Enclosure Dam would mean a 100-mile dam between Cornwall and Brittany and a 300-mile dam between northeast Scotland and west Norway (Sjoerd Groeskamp / NIOZ)
The scientists predict the successful completion of the project could protect 25 million Europeans against sea level rise in the coming centuries.
They estimate it would cost €250-500bn (£210-420bn), or “merely” 0.1 per cent of the gross national product of all the countries that would be protected. In comparison, the UK’s HS2 rail project is costing £106bn.
“The construction of such a ‘North-European Enclosure Dam’ seems to be technically feasible,” said Dr Sjoerd Groeskamp, an oceanographer at the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ).
“The maximum depth of the North Sea between France and England is scarcely one hundred metres. The average depth between Scotland and Norway is 127 metres, with a maximum of 321 metres just off the coast of Norway. We are currently able to build fixed platforms in depths exceeding 500 metres, so such a dam seems feasible too,” he said.
The authors acknowledge the consequences of this dam for North Sea wildlife would be catastrophic.
“The tide would disappear in a large part of the North Sea, and with it the transport of silt and nutrients. The sea would eventually even become a freshwater lake. That will drastically change the ecosystem and therefore have an impact on the fishing industry as well,” Dr Groeskamp said.
Together with his German colleague Joakim Kjellson at the Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel (GEOMAR), they calculated the financial costs of the project by studying large dams built in South Korea.
They said their calculations took into account economic factors such as the loss of income from North Sea fishing, increased costs for shipping across the North Sea and the costs of massive pumps which would be required to transport all the river water that currently flows into the North Sea to be emptied on the other side of the dam.
Their research is to be published this month in the scientific journal of the American Meteorological Society.
But despite addressing the practicalities of such a colossal project, the authors said their proposal should be interpreted as “more of a warning than a solution”.
Dr Groeskamp said: “The costs and the consequences of such a dam are huge indeed. However, we have calculated that the cost of doing nothing against sea level rise will ultimately be many times higher.
“This dam makes it almost tangible what the consequences of the sea level rise will be; a sea level rise of 10 metres by the year 2500 according to the bleakest scenarios.
“This dam is therefore mainly a call to do something about climate change now. If we do nothing, then this extreme dam might just be the only solution.”
Sea level rise is caused by two factors related to global warming. The accelerating melting of ice sheets and glaciers is pouring water into the oceans, which rise further because of the expansion of seawater as it warms.
Worryingly, even if greenhouse gas emissions are significantly reduced, it may already be too late for many cities.
Dutch meteorological agency, the KNMI, has calculated sea levels could rise two metres by 2100 even if the Paris targets are met, but by three metres if they are not.
The suggestion of a massive dam for the North Sea comes days after a similar scheme was proposed to protect New York.
A $120bn (£92bn), six -mile-long sea wall is the biggest project under apparently consideration by the Army Corps of Engineers, who are examining plans designed to protect the city as damaging storms become more frequent due to climate breakdown.
The plan has sparked fierce debate as to how best preserve the city, and the offshore sea wall already has its notable detractors.
Donald Trump tweeted on 18 January: “A massive 200 Billion Dollar Sea Wall, built around New York to protect it from rare storms, is a costly, foolish & environmentally unfriendly idea that, when needed, probably won’t work anyway. It will also look terrible. Sorry, you’ll just have to get your mops & buckets ready!”
A $20,000 reward is being offered after two wild dolphins were found dead with bullet and stab wounds in Florida.
The first was found off the coast of Naples last week with what appeared to be a bullet wound in its face.
It also had wounds from ‘a sharp object’, biologists from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said.
The second was found with a bullet in its left side along Pensacola Beach, 600 miles away, by experts from the Emerald Coast Wildlife Refuge.
At least 29 dolphins have been stranded with evidence of being shot by guns or arrows, or impaled with objects such as fishing spears in the south eastern US since 2002.
A dolphin was found off the coast of Naples last week by biologists from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission with what appeared to be a bullet wound
A second dolphin was found with a bullet in its left side along Pensacola Beach by experts from the Emerald Coast Wildlife Refuge
Four incidents have occurred within the last year and one was found dead with a fatal puncture wound to its head in May last year.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said it was offering a reward ‘for information that leads to a civil penalty or criminal conviction of the person or persons responsible’ for the deaths.
Biologists believe these cases may stem from humans feeding wild dolphins as the animals learn to associate people and boats with food which can put them in harmful situations.
Dolphins may suffer fatal impacts from boat strikes, entanglement in or ingestion of fishing gear, and acts of intentional harm like these.
An NOAA spokesperson said: ‘You can prevent harm to wild dolphins by not feeding or attempting to feed them.’
Harassing, hunting, killing or feeding wild dolphins is prohibited under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
Violations can be prosecuted either civilly or criminally and are punishable by up to $100,000 in fines and up to one year in jail per violation.
The NOAA says it continues to actively enforce these prohibitions and last month a Kansas man was fined $1,250 for feeding a dolphin while in Florida on vacation.
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Two dolphins found shot and stabbed in Florida: Officials offer $20,000 reward to catch a suspect
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Heartbreaking images show dolphins swimming into a harbour in a desperate search for a missing member of their pod – who has believed to have been shot.
Andy Kyle, 63, found a dead dolphin washed up in the harbour at Kingswear, near Dartmouth, Devon on Saturday – with witnesses claiming it had two ‘bullet holes in its head’.
Mr Kyle said he had never seen one washed up there before so was shocked when, the very next day, a pod of ‘at least’ 20 of the mammals were seen at the same spot.
Experts say it is ‘certainly possible’ the dead dolphin was part of the same pod and they had been hunting for their lost friend.
A pod of ‘at least’ 20 dolphins entered the harbour at Kingswear, near Dartmouth, Devon on Sunday, just one day after another was found dead on the slipway
Locals say the dolphin had two ‘bullet holes in its head’ after being shot. Jonathan Hawkins, 53, a retailer and parish councillor for Dartmouth said the person responsible should be ‘ashamed’ (pictured, the dead dolphin is removed from the harbour)
And while the dolphins’ search was described as ‘deeply moving,’ locals expressed their shock at the grisly end to its life.
Jonathan Hawkins, 53, a retailer and parish councillor for Dartmouth said several local people had expressed concerns over the incident.
He added: ‘We had a number of reports to say a dolphin had been washed up on the slipway.
‘We reported it to the Dartmouth Harbour Authority and it was taken away. We were told that it had been shot, that’s what we heard from a few sources.
‘One woman said she saw two bullet holes in the dolphin’s head. We have to trust what residents tell us.
‘If it’s puncture wounds in the head of a dolphin I can’t think what else it could be other than bullet wounds.
‘If any one did that sort of thing to a dolphin they should be ashamed. We are lucky to have dolphins in Dartmouth and they should be appreciated.’
Andy Kyle, whose house overlooks the harbour at Kingswear, said it all began on Saturday at around 2pm, when he saw ‘some activity’ on the slipway leading down into the water (pictured, members of the harbour patrol find a dead dolphin on the slipway)
The day after a dolphin was found dead, a large number of the mammals were seen swimming around in the harbour. Mr Kyle said he usually only sees around one at a time
Mr Kyle said that, in almost 20 years of living in the seaside village, he has never once seen more than one dolphin in the harbour at any one time.
He said: ‘It’s too much of a coincidence that the pod would come in just 12 hours after the death of the other dolphin.
‘It’s blindingly obvious that the two things are probably connected.
‘Dolphins are meant to be very clever creatures. They may well have come to the harbour together on Saturday and lost one of their pod,’ he added.
Mr Kyle, whose house overlooks the harbour at Kingswear, said it all began on Saturday at around 2pm, when he saw ‘some activity’ on the slipway leading down into the water.
He said: ‘The local harbour patrol came and took away the dead dolphin on a boat.
‘It was very unusual – in 20 years of living here, I have never seen or heard of a dolphin being washed up.
‘Then at about 9am on Sunday morning, I had a call from a friend saying there was a whole pod of dolphins in the harbour.
‘It’s unheard of to see a pod of dolphins in the river here,’ Andy added.
‘Up until about four years ago, we would have one dolphin come and visit the harbour each summer – but I have never once seen more than one dolphin at any one time.’
The dolphins were spotted near the Royal Dart Yacht Club in Kingswear, Devon (pictured). Mr Kyle said the dolphins were in the harbour for nearly an hour
Mr Kyle stopped to photograph the dolphin’s ‘playful’ behaviour for around 45 minutes, before the pod ventured back out to sea.
He said: ‘They were spread over quite a large distance of the river – but groups of them kept swimming past the exact slipway where the dead dolphin was found the day before.
‘To me, the dolphin that died looked like a baby. The idea that they were coming back to look for it is very sweet. It was very moving.’
A spokesman for the charity Orca, that focuses on the protection of whales and dolphins, said that Mr Kyle’s theory about the reason for the dolphin’s presence was credible.
They said: ‘It is certainly possible. Dolphins are very social animals and have complicated social structures within their pods so it is certainly possible that the individuals seen near the site of the stranding was connected to the individual found stranded.’
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Dolphins desperately search for missing member of pod believed to have been shot
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The sickening moment dolphins are hunted and captured to entertain tourists is exposed today by the Sunday People.
The sea boils red as one of the highly intelligent mammals is battered against rocks as it tries to escape.
If the striped dolphin is “lucky” it will end up at a hotel resort where thousands of holiday makers, including Britons, will pay to swim with the creatures or watch them perform tricks.
They are sold on by fishermen to “brokers” and can eventually fetch up to £190,000 each once they are trained.
But many of the dolphin’s companions rounded up at Taiji cove in Japan are immediately slaughtered and sold for meat.
Travel giant TUI are believed to be the only British major travel agent still offering “dolphin experience” holidays to Brits – although the company insists they endorse only venues that uphold global animal welfare standards.
It is estimated 2,000 dolphins will be captured in Japan’s “Killing Cove” this season.
Tim Burns, campaign manager of The Dolphin Project which filmed the latest gruesome round-up, said: “The mortality rate is extremely high and the start of 2020 has been bloody.
“Holidaymakers who go to ‘swim with’ programmes have an idea that the dolphin was gently picked up off the coast and is thankful and happy to be in captivity. But the process in which they snatched is merciless.
“Tourists are largely unaware how many creatures have died so they can swim with that one dolphin they meet.
“We believe that for every 1,000 sea mammals captured, around 200 end up in captivity. The rest are killed for meat.”
In the last week alone 31 mammals were captured and 37 were slain for meat, according to the group, which used a drone and clifftop cameras.
Hunters drive them into the shallows by lowering steel poles into the water and hitting the poles with hammers.
The highly sensitive dolphins swim towards shore to escape the noise, only to be trapped by nets.
Those not wanted for training are slaughtered on land with a metal spike pushed into their neck – hidden behind tarpaulin sheets. Tim said: “These highly intelligent animals understand not only pain but the idea of dying. And they mourn the death of others.”
TUI plugs the Atlantis Sanya resort in China which admitted buying from Taiji hunters in 2018.
The resort invites customers to “meet and interact with the dolphins while professional photographers capture this unforgettable moment”.
TUI customers can book online for a £130-a-night stay at the five-star hotel. Rivals STA Travel, AirBnB and Virgin Holidays said they would cut ties two years ago.
The British-based campaign group Dolphin Freedom UK is calling for TUI to sever connections with the dolphin entertainment business. It has collected 7,000 signatures for a petition and has organised a series of protests outside branches.
The charity says life expectancy for dolphins bred in captivity is around 12 years compared with between 30 and 50 in the wild.
Marine parks in China, Japan and the Middle East are the biggest customers for the creatures.
The trade, which has been going on since 1960, is legal in Japan under their fishing laws.
TUI also promotes firms Dolphin Discovery – based in central America and US – and SeaWorld in the US, both of which deny buying dolphins from Taiji hunts.
A TUI spokesman said: “We are committed to working only with venues that agree to uphold the Global Welfare Guidance for Animals in Tourism as formulated by the Association of British Travel Agents.
The venues we feature are subject to an extensive and independent animal welfare audit programme to ensure they are upholding global animal welfare standards. We are in discussions with the venues to further improve animal welfare and address the issues.”
Kerzner International, which owns the Sanya hotel, admitted buying 12 dolphins from Japan in 2018 but insisted they are in good health and it would not support future collections from the wild.
Read More
Top news stories from Mirror Online
The group which owns Dolphin Discovery said: “The Dolphin Company will never participate in the Taiji event.”
Dr Chris Dold, SeaWorld’s Chief Zoological Officer, said: “SeaWorld is recognized as a leader in setting the standard for the best marine mammal care.”
Donald Trump has launched a scathing attack on proposals to build a six-mile sea wall around New York, urging instead the city’s residents to use “mops and buckets” to cope with climate change related disasters.
The US president, who has previously claimed global warming is a “hoax” invented by the China, branded plans for a sea wall in his hometown “costly, foolish and environmentally unfriendly” on Twitter on Saturday night.
Mr Trump tweeted: “A massive 200 Billion Dollar Sea Wall, built around New York to protect it from rare storms, is a costly, foolish & environmentally unfriendly idea that, when needed, probably won’t work anyway.
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“It will also look terrible. Sorry, you’ll just have to get your mops & buckets ready!”
The price tag the world leader apportioned to the sea wall is not accurate – with the Army Corps of Engineers predicting the barrier would cost $119 billion and 25 years to construct.
Donald Trump celebrity president: A decade in two halves
Show all 29
Donald Trump celebrity president: A decade in two halves
1/29
Trump styles his ‘You’re fired!’ pose in his Trump Tower office in June 2012. At the time he was known as a reality TV star on The Apprentice
Diane Bondareff/Invision/AP
He was also well known as the patron of the Miss Universe competition
Early signs of Trump’s ambition for the presidency can be found everywhere. Not least in his 2011 book ‘Time to get tough: Making America #1 again’
Trump with Piers Morgan in November 2010. Piers Morgan has long held that he and Trump are good friends
Trump appeared on Fox & Friends, his favourite show, in August 2011
Trump considered running in the 2012 election, where he would have faced Barack Obama. He is speaking here at an event for a Republican women’s group
Trump was subject to a Comedy Central roast in 2011. He is pictured here being roasted by rapper Snoop Dogg
Given that this Trump store is in the lobby of Trump Tower, it can be said that Trump sells merchandise of himself out of his own home
Trump held meetings with prominent Republicans when considering his 2012 bid. He is pictured here with Alaska governor Sarah Palin
He didn’t end up running in 2012 afterall, instead endorsing Republican candidate Mitt Romney
11/29
Trump’s golf course in Aberdeen proved controversial in 2012 when he began lobbying the Scottish government against wind power in order that they wouldn’t install turbines off the shore by his new course
He even gave evidence to a Scottish parliamentary committee discouraging wind energy
He still found time for a round of course
14/29
On 16 June 2015, Trump announced that he would run for the presidency of the United States in the 2016 election as a Republican
His campaign was divisive, courting controversy wherever he went. Ultimately he was declared the Republican candidate in June 2016
Trump took part in the TV debate against opponent Hillary Clinton on 9 October
Trump and wife Melania vote in the presidential election on 8 November 2016
18/29
Hillary Clinton conceded defeat at 2:50am on 9 November and president-elect Trump swiftly delivered his victory speech to a crowd of supporters
News coverage around the world focused on the huge political upset that Trump’s victory spelled
20/29
Trump met with president Obama to discusss transition planning on 10 November. Obama had fiercely denounced Trump during the election campaign, at one point even swearing that he would not leave the White House if Trump won
AFP/Getty
21/29
Donald Trump and Nigel Farage pose in the golden elevator at Trump Tower on 12 November 2016. Farage was the first British politician to meet with Trump after the election
LeaveEUOffical/Twitter
22/29
The inauguration of Donald Trump took place on 20 January 2017. Trump’s press secretary Sean Spicer boasted that the crowd was the ‘largest ever’ to witness an inauguration, a claim that was proved not to be true
In his first 100 days as leader, Trump signed 24 executve orders, the most of any president
24/29
One of Trump’s most memorable election pledges was to build a wall between the US and Mexico. He is standing here in front of a prototype for a section of the wall
Trump’s meetings with other world leaders have provided no short supply of photo opportunities
Trump was welcomed to the UK by the Queen and a state banquet was held at Buckingham Palace in his honour
Not everyone welcomed the president. Mass protests were held in London throughout his visits in both 2018 and 2019
One of the most significant meetings Trump has held with another leader was with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. In June 2019, Trump became the first sitting president to set foot in North Korea
2020 will see president Trump fight for a second term in office, who knows what the next decade will bring?
Trump styles his ‘You’re fired!’ pose in his Trump Tower office in June 2012. At the time he was known as a reality TV star on The Apprentice
Diane Bondareff/Invision/AP
He was also well known as the patron of the Miss Universe competition
Early signs of Trump’s ambition for the presidency can be found everywhere. Not least in his 2011 book ‘Time to get tough: Making America #1 again’
Trump with Piers Morgan in November 2010. Piers Morgan has long held that he and Trump are good friends
Trump appeared on Fox & Friends, his favourite show, in August 2011
Trump considered running in the 2012 election, where he would have faced Barack Obama. He is speaking here at an event for a Republican women’s group
Trump was subject to a Comedy Central roast in 2011. He is pictured here being roasted by rapper Snoop Dogg
Given that this Trump store is in the lobby of Trump Tower, it can be said that Trump sells merchandise of himself out of his own home
Trump held meetings with prominent Republicans when considering his 2012 bid. He is pictured here with Alaska governor Sarah Palin
He didn’t end up running in 2012 afterall, instead endorsing Republican candidate Mitt Romney
11/29
Trump’s golf course in Aberdeen proved controversial in 2012 when he began lobbying the Scottish government against wind power in order that they wouldn’t install turbines off the shore by his new course
He even gave evidence to a Scottish parliamentary committee discouraging wind energy
He still found time for a round of course
14/29
On 16 June 2015, Trump announced that he would run for the presidency of the United States in the 2016 election as a Republican
His campaign was divisive, courting controversy wherever he went. Ultimately he was declared the Republican candidate in June 2016
Trump took part in the TV debate against opponent Hillary Clinton on 9 October
Trump and wife Melania vote in the presidential election on 8 November 2016
18/29
Hillary Clinton conceded defeat at 2:50am on 9 November and president-elect Trump swiftly delivered his victory speech to a crowd of supporters
News coverage around the world focused on the huge political upset that Trump’s victory spelled
20/29
Trump met with president Obama to discusss transition planning on 10 November. Obama had fiercely denounced Trump during the election campaign, at one point even swearing that he would not leave the White House if Trump won
AFP/Getty
21/29
Donald Trump and Nigel Farage pose in the golden elevator at Trump Tower on 12 November 2016. Farage was the first British politician to meet with Trump after the election
LeaveEUOffical/Twitter
22/29
The inauguration of Donald Trump took place on 20 January 2017. Trump’s press secretary Sean Spicer boasted that the crowd was the ‘largest ever’ to witness an inauguration, a claim that was proved not to be true
In his first 100 days as leader, Trump signed 24 executve orders, the most of any president
24/29
One of Trump’s most memorable election pledges was to build a wall between the US and Mexico. He is standing here in front of a prototype for a section of the wall
Trump’s meetings with other world leaders have provided no short supply of photo opportunities
Trump was welcomed to the UK by the Queen and a state banquet was held at Buckingham Palace in his honour
Not everyone welcomed the president. Mass protests were held in London throughout his visits in both 2018 and 2019
One of the most significant meetings Trump has held with another leader was with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. In June 2019, Trump became the first sitting president to set foot in North Korea
2020 will see president Trump fight for a second term in office, who knows what the next decade will bring?
Mr Trump’s rant followed a report on the barrier, which would shield New York as sea levels surge and ferocious storms become more common and extreme due to climate change.
The sea wall, which would construct a barricade of man-made islands with retractable gates, has faced criticism from some.
According to the report, the wall would not be able to guard against flooding from high tides and storm overflow and could shut in sewage and toxins that could damage the city’s ecology.
Bill de Blasio, mayor of New York, hit back at Mr Trump on Twitter and argued the world leader’s “climate denial” was deadly.
Mr Blasio said: “’Mops and buckets’. We lost 44 of our neighbours in Hurricane Sandy. You should know, you lived here at the time. Your climate denial isn’t just dangerous to those you’ve sworn to protect – it’s deadly.”
Plans for a sea wall remain in the early stages and the Army Corps of Engineers is also looking at other options to safeguard New York.
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Mr Trump’s outburst came just months after announcing he is now a resident of Florida, a move the New York Times suggested was for tax purposes.
The publication said Florida, which does not have a state income tax or inheritance tax, “has long been a place for the wealthy to escape the higher taxes of the northeast”.
The president, who was born and brought up in the New York City borough of Queens, claimed in a tweet he had been “treated very badly” by political leaders in New York.
He said: “Despite the fact that I pay millions of dollars in city, state and local taxes each year … Few have been treated worse.”
Before taking political office, Mr Trump lived in New York, but since becoming president he has more often stayed at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
Mr Blasio mocked Mr Trump’s relocation at the time, saying: “Don’t let the door hit you on the way out or whatever. Our deepest condolences to the good people of Florida as Trump attempts to outrun his past.”
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Iran has a fleet of dolphins specially trained to attack enemy ships in Kamikaze-style suicide missions, it has been reported.
The military marine mammals were also trained to kill enemy frogmen – military scubadivers – with harpoons strapped onto their heads.
Originally trained by the Soviet Union in Russia, the dolphins are said to have been purchased by the Islamic Republic in the year 2000.
The underwater troops were said to be able to tell the difference between between Russian and American submarines by the sound of their underwater propulsion systems.
They were then trained to swim at the enemy ships with explosive sea mines strapped to them, blowing holes in their hulls.
The transfer of ownership to Iran came about when funding for the Russian project ran out and the dolphins’ trainer, Boris Zhurid, took them on himself.
The highly-trained killers were forced to perform for tourists in a dolphinarium but Zhurid eventually ran out of money and food when the harsh winter months turned the paying public away.
Desperate not to see his beloved aquatic squadron suffer, he sold them to Iran.
The US protested the selling of “arms” – killer dolphins in this case – to Iran, but Zhurid told Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda that he was “prepared to go to Allah, or even to the devil, as long as my animals will be OK there.”
He told the paper: “If I were a sadist, then I could have remained in Sevastopol.
“But I cannot bear to see my animals starve. … We’re out of medicine, which costs thousands of dollars, and have no more fish or food supplements.”
Military.com reports the dolphin unit was moved from a base in the Russian Pacific area to the Crimean Peninsula in 1991 – the year the Soviet Union collapsed.
But they were then moved from the Black Sea to the Persian Gulf after Iran paid for them.
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It is unclear what use the dolphins would be in the Persian Gulf.
Komsomolskaya Pravda reports Zhurid continued his military work with the dolphins in Iran.
The original fleet of killer dolphins could still be going strong, as they have a life span of 50 years.
The BBC reported in 2000 that the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society has conducted research which found several ex-Soviet military dolphins have been sold to aquariums around the world.
Sadly, many of the intelligent creatures were kept in poor conditions and died while making the journey.
But Zhurid told Komsomolskaya Pravda that Iran had built a new oceanarium for his beloved animals.
Read More
He claimed to be continuing scientific research, however the Russian newspaper reported that this was primarily of a military nature.
The dolphins were described as “mercenaries”.
The newspaper wrote: “In essence, Iran has bought our former secret weapon from Ukraine on the cheap.”
“Dead zones” are rapidly appearing in the world’s oceans as they lose oxygen at an unprecedented rate due to climate change, sewage pollution and farming practices, presenting an existential threat to marine life and ecosystems, according to a vast new study.
The overall level of oxygen in the oceans has dropped by roughly 2 per cent, while the number of known hypoxic “dead zones” – where oxygen levels are dangerously low – has skyrocketed from 45 known sites in the 1960s to at least 700 areas now dangerously devoid of the life-giving compound, some encompassing thousands of square miles.
Many larger and more active sea creatures, like sharks, marlins and tuna, are unable to survive in these areas, risking mass extinction in the long term unless current trends are reversed.
Download the new Indpendent Premium app
Sharing the full story, not just the headlines
“This is perhaps the ultimate wake-up call from the uncontrolled experiment humanity is unleashing on the world’s oceans as carbon emissions continue to increase,” said Dan Laffoley, co-editor of the report.
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) study is the largest ever analysis of the causes and impacts of ocean deoxygenation, which the organisation describes as “one of the most pernicious, yet under-reported side-effects of human-induced climate change”.
The study was presented at the UN’s climate conference (COP25) in Madrid, which has been described as signatories’ last chance to ensure the Paris agreement’s aim to limit global warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels remains achievable.
World leaders and delegates are trying to establish new international rules for emissions trading and broker systems of compensation for poorer countries bearing the brunt of climate breakdown, with many countries needing to hash out the details of targets set for 2030 and 2050 before the five-year grace period ends in 2020.
“To curb ocean oxygen loss alongside the other disastrous impacts of climate change, world leaders must commit to immediate and substantial emission cuts,” said IUCN acting director general, Dr Grethel Aguilar.
“The potentially dire effects on fisheries and vulnerable coastal communities mean that the decisions made at [COP25] are even more crucial.”
While an overall drop of 2 per cent may sound insignificant, some of the world’s most productive areas of flora and fauna are formed by ocean currents, rich in nutrients but low in oxygen – meaning these vital hubs of life are particularly vulnerable to even small changes in ocean oxygen levels.
Impacts to these currents “will ultimately ripple out and affect hundreds of millions of people”, the IUCN said in a statement, adding that the loss of oxygen “is starting to progressively alter the balance of life” as species incapable of surviving such conditions die out.
The level of oxygen loss already recorded is significant enough to affect the planetary cycling of elements such as nitrogen and phosphorous, which are “essential for life on Earth”, Dr Laffoley told The New York Times.
While mainstream attention has focused on plastic pollution and overfishing, the report states “there is no environmental variable of such ecological importance to marine ecosystems that has changed so drastically in such a short period of time as a result of human activities as dissolved oxygen”.
While the introduction of too many nutrients that enter the ocean via farming and pollution are contributing to the oceans’ deoxygenation, the most significant factor is global warming.
The temperature of the oceans has broken records nearly every year over the past two decades, while the rate of ocean warming is equivalent to five Hiroshima-size atomic bombs exploding every second, Dr John Abraham, a professor of thermal sciences, wrote in January.
This has drastic implications for the rate of global warming as a whole.
So far, oceans have acted as a buffer, absorbing more than 90 per cent of the heat associated with greenhouse gas emissions.
Climate change protesters glue themselves to Lib Dem electric bus
If the heat absorbed by the oceans since 1955 had gone into the lower levels of the atmosphere instead, land temperatures would be 36C warmer, Dr Laffoley said.
As the oceans heat up, they expand, meaning oceanic heating bears more responsibility for sea level rise than melting ice caps.
In addition, the oceans absorb nearly a third of greenhouse gas emissions, but studies have shown this process slows as they grow hotter, leaving more heat-inducing emissions in the atmosphere.
While seemingly fortunate for life on land, this absorption has resulted in the acidification of the ocean, which is now thought to be 26 per cent more acidic than in pre-industrial times.
The report finds that oceans are now expected to lose between 3 and 4 per cent of their oxygen by 2100. But the kilometre closest to the water’s surface, where many species are concentrated, will be more negatively impacted than deeper areas, which are less rich in life.
“Urgent global action to overcome and reverse the effects of ocean deoxygenation is needed,” said IUCN global marine and polar programme director Minna Epps.
“Decisions taken at the ongoing climate conference will determine whether our ocean continues to sustain a rich variety of life, or whether habitable, oxygen-rich marine areas are increasingly, progressively and irrevocably lost.”
“Dead zones” are rapidly appearing in the world’s oceans as they lose oxygen at an unprecedented rate due to climate change, sewage pollution and farming practices, presenting a existential threat to marine life and ecosystems, according to a vast new study.
The overall level of oxygen in the oceans has dropped by roughly 2 per cent, while the number of known hypoxic “dead zones” – where oxygen levels are dangerously low – has skyrocketed from 45 known sites in the 1960s to at least 700 areas now dangerously devoid of the life-giving compound, some encompassing thousands of square miles.
Many larger and more active sea creatures, like sharks, marlins and tuna, are unable to survive in these areas, risking mass extinction in the long term unless current trends are reversed.
Download the new Indpendent Premium app
Sharing the full story, not just the headlines
“This is perhaps the ultimate wake-up call from the uncontrolled experiment humanity is unleashing on the world’s oceans as carbon emissions continue to increase,” said Dan Laffoley, co-editor of the report.
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) study is the largest ever analysis of the causes and impacts of ocean deoxygenation, which the organisation describes as “one of the most pernicious, yet under-reported side-effects of human-induced climate change”.
The study was presented at the UN’s climate conference (COP25) in Madrid, which has been described as signatories’ last chance to ensure the Paris agreement’s aim to limit global warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels remains achievable.
World leaders and delegates are trying to establish new international rules for emissions trading and broker systems of compensation for poorer countries bearing the brunt of climate breakdown, with many countries needing to hash out the details of targets set for 2030 and 2050 before the five-year grace period ends in 2020.
“To curb ocean oxygen loss alongside the other disastrous impacts of climate change, world leaders must commit to immediate and substantial emission cuts,” said IUCN acting director general, Dr Grethel Aguilar.
“The potentially dire effects on fisheries and vulnerable coastal communities mean that the decisions made at [COP25] are even more crucial.”
While an overall drop of 2 per cent may sound insignificant, some of the world’s most productive areas of flora and fauna are formed by ocean currents, rich in nutrients but low in oxygen – meaning these vital hubs of life are particularly vulnerable to even small changes in ocean oxygen levels.
Impacts to these currents “will ultimately ripple out and affect hundreds of millions of people”, the IUCN said in a statement, adding that the loss of oxygen “is starting to progressively alter the balance of life” as species incapable of surviving such conditions die out.
The level of oxygen loss already recorded is significant enough to affect the planetary cycling of elements such as nitrogen and phosphorous, which are “essential for life on Earth”, Dr Laffoley told The New York Times.
While mainstream attention has focused on plastic pollution and overfishing, the report states “there is no environmental variable of such ecological importance to marine ecosystems that has changed so drastically in such a short period of time as a result of human activities as dissolved oxygen”.
While the introduction of too many nutrients that enter the ocean via farming and pollution are contributing to the oceans’ deoxygenation, the most significant factor is global warming.
The temperature of the oceans has broken records nearly every year over the past two decades, while the rate of ocean warming is equivalent to five Hiroshima-size atomic bombs exploding every second, Dr John Abraham, a professor of thermal sciences, wrote in January.
This has drastic implications for the rate of global warming as a whole.
So far, oceans have acted as a buffer, absorbing more than 90 per cent of the heat associated with greenhouse gas emissions.
Climate change protesters glue themselves to Lib Dem electric bus
If the heat absorbed by the oceans since 1955 had gone into the lower levels of the atmosphere instead, land temperatures would be 36C warmer, Dr Laffoley said.
As the oceans heat up, they expand, meaning oceanic heating bears more responsibility for sea level rise than melting ice caps.
In addition, the oceans absorb nearly a third of greenhouse gas emissions, but studies have shown this process slows as they grow hotter, leaving more heat-inducing emissions in the atmosphere.
While seemingly fortunate for life on land, this absorption has resulted in the acidification of the ocean, which is now thought to be 26 per cent more acidic than in pre-industrial times.
The report finds that oceans are now expected to lose between 3 and 4 per cent of their oxygen by 2100. But the kilometre closest to the water’s surface, where many species are concentrated, will be more negatively impacted than deeper areas, which are less rich in life.
“Urgent global action to overcome and reverse the effects of ocean deoxygenation is needed,” said IUCN global marine and polar programme director Minna Epps.
“Decisions taken at the ongoing climate conference will determine whether our ocean continues to sustain a rich variety of life, or whether habitable, oxygen-rich marine areas are increasingly, progressively and irrevocably lost.”
