Study: Penguins Signaling Oceans' Woes

Scientists Say Birds Are Seafaring Version Of Canary In Coal Mine, And Signs Are Bad

(AP)  The dwindling march of the penguins is signaling that the world's oceans are in trouble, scientists now say.

Penguins may be the tuxedo-clad version of a canary in the coal mine, with generally ailing populations from a combination of global warming, ocean oil pollution, depleted fisheries, and tourism and development, according to a new scientific review paper.

A University of Washington biologist detailed specific problems around the world with remote penguin populations, linking their decline to the overall health of southern oceans.

"Now we're seeing effects (of human caused warming and pollution) in the most faraway places in the world," said conservation biologist Dr. Dee Boersma, a Wadsworth professor and author of the paper published in the July edition of the journal Bioscience. "Many penguins we thought would be safe because they are not that close to people. And that's not true."

Scientists figure there are between 16 to 19 species of penguins. About a dozen are in some form of trouble, Boersma wrote. A few, such as the king penguin found in islands north of Antarctica, are improving in numbers, she said.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature lists three penguin species as endangered, seven as vulnerable, which means they are "facing a high risk of extinction in the wild," and two more as "near threatened." About 15 years ago only five to seven penguin species were considered vulnerable, experts said.

And the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which has already listed one penguin species on its endangered list, is studying whether it needs to add 10 more.

The largest Patagonian penguin colony in the world is at Punta Tumbo, Argentina, but the number of breeding pairs there dropped in half from about 400,000 in the late 1960s to about 200,000 in October 2006, Boersma reported. Over a century, African penguins have decreased from 1.5 million breeding pairs to 63,000.

The decline overall isn't caused by one factor, but several.

For the ice-loving Adelie penguins, global warming in the western Antarctica peninsula is a problem, making it harder for them to find food, said Phil Trathan, head of conservation biology at the British Antarctic Survey, a top penguin scientist who had no role in the new report.

For penguins that live on the Galapagos island, El Nino weather patterns are a problem because the warmer water makes penguins travel farther for food, at times abandoning their chicks, Boersma said. At the end of the 1998 record El Nino, female penguins were only 80 percent of their normal body weight. Scientists have tied climate change to stronger El Ninos.

Oil spills regularly taint the water where penguins live off Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil and have contributed to the Punta Tumbo declines, Boersma said.

The problems may be different from place to place, but looking at the numbers for the species overall, "they do give you a clear message," Trathan said.

And this isn't just about the fate of penguins.

"What happens to penguins, a few years down the road can happen to a lot of other species and possibly humans," said longtime penguin expert Susie Ellis, now executive director of the International Rhino Foundation.

[badgersouth1]

If you are confused by the some of the postings on this thread, the current issue of Newsweek magazine contains two very readable and objective analyses of the causes and effects of global warming. You can access the article about the role of solar activity by going to: http://www.newsweek.com/id/33510

[jimfinster]

barocalto & seafang:


You two are indeed a brilliant pair. It would be funny if it weren''t so sad.

[smurfcrusher]

I''ll try again. The fact that some would prefer to ignore the truth, doesn''t change reality.

We see a problem, and have to fix it.

[smurfcrusher]

Badgersouth1 : I agree completely.

The fact that some might prefer truth exists does not change the truth. We as a people need to take action to fix the harm done.

[badgersouth1]

I''m old enough to remember how the tobacco industry fought tooth and nail against the medical and scientific community over the causal effect between cigarette smoking and cancer. It''s no secret that Big Oil, Big Coal, right wing-nuts like Rush Limbaugh, Libertarians, and others have used the tobacco industry''s tactics to cast doubt on the validity of what the scientific community has concluded about the causal effect between climate change and the release of greenhouse gases by mankind. Many Americans died because of Big Tobacco''s greed and selfishness. This time around, the stakes are much higher. For the sake of our children and future generations, we need to take action now to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate against the climate change consequences that have already been set in motion.

[barocalto]

If the climate forecasts are so wrong, we are people all over the world witnessing and experiencing the very same climatic events that have been predicated to occur? "
Posted by Seafang
.....................
Seafang you got to be kidding where oh where are witnessing these climatic events, Oh Please tell me.

Is it Midwest flooding? Snow in Denver in May??
The over active hurricane season they keep predicting?? The highest recorded temperatures here in the USofA were in the 1930''s must have been all those CO2''s from the what 200,000 cars in America at that time.

The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.
Marcus Aurelius

[donbl1]

NASA has 3,000 bouys measuring daily temperature throughout the ocean and is taking hundreds of thousands of temperature readings each day from satellites. There is INSIGNIFICANT temperature increase over the past 50 years!!!!!

Stop the penguin stories. It indicates they were written by a liberal arts major who does not even know the difference between "C" and "F".

[barocalto]

Man made global warming is a pure scam. It''s all about tax dollars and additional forms of revenue for the big governments. Man is not making the planet warmer and who the heck even knows what the temperature of the planet is suppose to be, it didn''t come with an owner''s manual. Don''t buy into this con job there is no proof of man made global warming that has held up under review.

[seafang]

" The professional anti-AGW bloggers will undoubtedly start posting their diatribes on this thread. Most will trash the IPCC and the validity and accuracy of the climate forecast models and all of the scientists and science that feeds into the process. If the climate forecasts are so wrong, we are people all over the world witnessing and experiencing the very same climatic events that have been predicated to occur? "

Well Badgersouth1; since you are so science savvy; why don''t you list just one thing that those
"Climate forecast models" have predicted that has come to pass.

Like the CO2 continues to go up, but the temperature continues to go down; did the climate forecast models predict that." Don''t give us a whole raft of examples; just one will do.
Do you know, that there isn''t even one peer reviewed scientific paper that presents measured data showing the CO2 going up accompanied by or followed by a rise in the global surface temperature. There''s plenty of data; even in Nobel Laureate Gore''s book showing rising surface temperatures followed by rising CO2 levels (because of ocean outgassing from the warmer ocean.

But there''s not even one showing the CO2 causing the temperature to change; even when the CO2 was 20 times what it it now; the temperature never got above what it is now. Just give us one.

[badgersouth1]

The professional anti-AGW bloggers will undoubtedly start posting their diatribes on this thread. Most will trash the IPCC and the validity and accuracy of the climate forecast models and all of the scientists and science that feeds into the process. If the climate forecasts are so wrong, why are people all over the world witnessing and experiencing the very same climatic events that have been predicated to occur?

[badgersouth1]

The professional anti-AGW bloggers will undoubtedly start posting their diatribes on this thread. Most will trash the IPCC and the validity and accuracy of the climate forecast models and all of the scientists and science that feeds into the process. If the climate forecasts are so wrong, we are people all over the world witnessing and experiencing the very same climatic events that have been predicated to occur?

[au_fait]

WOW am I suprised, cbsnews once again hide a story that could have helped debunk man''s role in GW. Not once in the last week have I seen any articles mentioning the large volcanic explosions/eruptions that occurred over the last decade underneath the artic ice. But lets publish an article about the penguins. I have really begun to hate how journalists portray on one side and tend to bury others. How about giving us facts and let us form our own opinions.

[ioweign]

Hopefully SARS or Avian Flu could wipe you out. One less idiot on this overpopulated planet.

Posted by zoe2006 at 10:38 AM : Jul 01, 2008
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ummmmmmm, The last word in my earlier post referred specifically to you....

Posted by msay3 at 11:32 AM : Jul 01, 2008

Now, Now kids stop acting up.

Just because those cows acted funny does mean our hamburgers will not be delicious...

[cheetah-man7]

Hopefully SARS or Avian Flu could wipe you out. One less idiot on this overpopulated planet.

Posted by zoe2006

_______________________________________________________________ I''m not sure what is more pathetic - your ignorant and deplorable comment, or the realization that you can reproduce and raise kids to continue your hateful ideals.

[msay3]

Hopefully SARS or Avian Flu could wipe you out. One less idiot on this overpopulated planet.

Posted by zoe2006 at 10:38 AM : Jul 01, 2008
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ummmmmmm, The last word in my earlier post referred specifically to you....

[rushlimpdrug]

I asked the question for ALL OF US.

YES, I care.

Am I doing something about it? YES.

It didn''t take a story about penguins to
get me to do something.

Nor did it take high gas prices for me
to do something.

[extremophil]

Penguins sheemguins.

[msay3]

All I was saying is that humans have few predators other than himself to keep the population in check, yet our own behavior is polluting the planet endangering not only ourselves, but every other species on earth.....

[three-o-six]

What happens to penguins could happen to humans. Like the part where the females were 80% their normal weight. I look around me and this seems like it could be a good thing for humans.

[msay3]

We won''''t have a planet left for our grandchildren, and this is happening faster and faster. It is hard to believe that greed is more important than life.

Posted by fstop100 at 08:03 AM : Jul 01, 2008
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Nature''s way of culling the herd.....Think about it..Humans are at the top of the food chain, so nature has to find other ways to keep things in balance...Like global warming, wars, diseases, and last but not least, STUPIDITY!