Thank you for Sharing your voice!
March 14, 2023
Learn more information at Oceana.com and be sure to check out other voices and contribute in other ways in order to do your part as an ocean steward.
Support our work to protect the oceans by giving today. With your help, we can protect marine life and habitats.
More News about Oceana
Refill Again- November Report by Oceana
To put this in perspective, 1 trillion plastic bottles and cups stacked on top of each other would result in a single-use plastic tower that would reach to the moon and back over 300 times.
Most importantly, this 10-percentage point increase is clearly possible. The world’s leading soft drink companies, The Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo, have large existing reusable packaging systems and have already pledged to increase the volume of beverages they sell in reusable packaging by 10 percentage points. It is imperative for both companies, which have a history of not meeting commitments, to follow through and for other beverage companies to step up.
Ask Dr. Pauly: What are marine heat waves?
Marine heat waves are what you think: periods of temperature well above the level expected for the season that last for a while. If the temperature of the water along a coast is, for example, 3 – 5°C (about 5 – 9°F) above the temperature you expect, lasting for a week or two, then you have a marine heat wave.
Generally, the consequences of a marine heat wave are much greater than those of a heat wave on land. This is because most terrestrial animals – including humans – are used to experiencing a wider range of temperatures than marine animals. Also, many marine animals already live at a temperature close to the maximum they can tolerate. But marine heat waves are not like terrestrial heat waves. Instead, they are the marine equivalent of forest fires.
Most marine and freshwater animals breathe water, which, unlike air, contains less than 1% oxygen. That’s less oxygen than at the top of Mount Everest. Temperature increases make this worse because warmed water contains even less dissolved oxygen than cold water (see blue line A in Figure 1).
Most of these animals — including fish, lobster, and squid — can tolerate a range of temperatures, but their respiration is affected. They need far more oxygen at high temperatures (see red line B in Figure 1). This is because their body temperature also increases, which leads to the proteins forming their tissues ‘denaturing’ (i.e., falling apart) and needing to be replaced.1