The island of St. Vincent in the Lesser Antilles supports an ongoing, legal cetacean hunt, which targets several species for human consumption. Little is known regarding the healthfulness and potential health risks of these foods in this setting. Following established methodologies we analyzed 39 raw muscle tissue samples and 38 raw blubber samples from two cetacean species for total mercury and methyl-mercury. We also analyzed samples of muscle tissue from an unknown cetacean species prepared for consumption. We report high concentrations of total mercury and methyl-mercury in these tissues as compared to published data for other seafood products. Further, our findings indicate that the traditional preparation method most often used locally in St. Vincent yields a finished food product with a much higher mercury concentration than the unprocessed tissue. Our results highlight the potential for negative human health effects related to the consumption of these food products in St. Vincent.

The Atlantic invasion of Indo-Pacific lionfish (Pterois volitans/P. miles) has been as swift as it has been disastrous. Lionfish are non-native to the Mediterranean, but an invasion is perhaps even more likely than for the Atlantic. First, as for the Atlantic, there are many major cities on the coast of the Mediterranean (where aquarium-keeping is a common practice and chances of accidental and deliberate releases are high), and second, lionfish are native to the Red Sea, to which the Mediterranean is connected via the Suez Canal. Furthermore, there have already been four records of lionfish in the Mediterranean and so the pretext for an invasion is already in place. Up until now, however, it has been difficult to gauge the likelihood of an infestation of lionfish in the Mediterranean as, unlike the Atlantic, this sea has not been examined in terms of its hydrodynamics, ocean climate, and bathymetry, all factors known to be relevant to assessing the possibility of invasion. Motivated by this knowledge-gap, this study used remote sensing and computer modeling to investigate the connectivity between areas along the Mediterranean coastline that fulfill the necessary physical criteria to serve as potential lionfish habitat. Model results from the Mediterranean were compared and contrasted to those from the Atlantic and eastern Pacific. The Atlantic was considered because the lionfish invasion there has been voracious. Meanwhile, the eastern Pacific is interesting as a site without native lionfish, but with plenty of opportunity for their introduction, but no invasion yet recorded. Results indicated that, unlike in the Atlantic, connectivity among potential lionfish habitats in the Mediterranean was low in the study and comparable to that in the eastern Pacific. Although oceanographic conditions in the Mediterranean were found unfavorable for wide dispersion of lionfish larvae, hotspots where numerous lionfish sightings would forewarn an impending invasion were identified. This paper can therefore serve as a guide to the most efficient monitoring of lionfish in the Mediterranean and to where removal efforts should be concentrated, should the species become established.

Oil–shoreline interaction (or “beaching” as commonly referred to in literature) is an issue of major concern in oil spill modeling, due to the significant environmental, social and economic importance of coastal areas. The present work studies the improvement of the representation of beaching brought by the introduction of the Oil Holding Capacity approach to estimate oil concentration on coast, along with new approaches for coast type assignment to shoreline segments and the calculation of permanent oil attachment to the coast. The above were tested for the Lebanon oil spill of 2006, using a modified version of the open-source oil spill model MEDSLIK-II. The modified model results were found to be in good agreement with field observations for the specific case study, and their comparison with the original model results denote the significant improvement in the fate of beached oil brought by the proposed changes.

The Baltic Sea has received considerable loads of pollutants due to industrialization in Eastern Europe. Concern for the Baltic’s ecological health eventually led to legislation and voluntary measures to limit pollution during the last decades of the 20th century. Heavy metal concentrations in open sea surface sediments reflected these steps to limit contaminant loads almost immediately, suggesting the possibility that the trend would continue in the ensuing years. Recent seafloor samples reveal that the declines have persisted over the past two decades. Currently, almost all heavy metal species have declined in surface sediments to levels approaching the safe limits for humans and the environment. Cadmium and mercury however remain at relatively high concentrations in many areas. Arsenic concentrations, which occur at safe levels within the Gulf of Finland persist at unacceptably high levels in surface sediments of the Bothnian Bay, and thus pose a potential threat to marine life in the area.

This study provides a descriptive analysis of the North Male, Maldives seven years after the 1998 bleaching disturbance to determine the state of the coral community composition, the recruitment community, evidence for recovery, and adaptation to thermal stress. Overall, hard coral cover recovered at a rate commonly reported in the literature but with high spatial variability and shifts in taxonomic composition. Massive Porites, Pavona, Synarea, and Goniopora were unusually common in both the recruit and adult communities. Coral recruitment was low and some coral taxa, namely Tubipora, Seriatopora, and Stylophora, were rarer than expected. A study of the bleaching response to a thermal anomaly in 2005 indicated that some taxa, including Leptoria, Platygyra, Favites, Fungia, Hydnophora, and Galaxea astreata, bleached as predicted while others, including Acropora, Pocillopora, branching Porites, Montipora, Stylophora, and Alveopora, bleached less than predicted. This indicates variable-adaptation potentials among the taxa and considerable potential for ecological reorganization of the coral community.

Phase 1 of the TIE method was applied to samples of elutriates from sediments of the Itajaí-Açu estuary and adjacent coastal region in southern Brazil. Embryo-larval toxicity assays were used with the sea urchin Arbacia lixula in samples of raw elutriate, and treated with Ulva fasciata, EDTA and sodium thiosulfate. Inside the estuary, ammonia was responsible for more than 40% of the toxicity in both the dredged and undredged regions. A toxicity gradient was observed, between the estuary and the coastal region, with an increase in the importance of metals for the latter. Temporally, there is strong evidence of the influence of dredging and disposal of sediments in the contamination of the coastal dumping site. The results indicating that this area presents limitations in its saturation capacity. Chemical analysis indicated the metal Cu is probably responsible for the toxicity of the sediments observed, without the interference of ammonia.

Marine mammals are ecologically and culturally important species, and various countries have specific legislation to protect the welfare of individual marine mammals and the conservation of their populations. Anthropogenic noise represents a particular challenge for conservation and management. There is a large and growing body of research to support the conclusion that anthropogenic noise can affect marine mammal behavior, energetics, and physiology. The legal, policy, and management issues surrounding marine mammals and noise are similarly complex. Our objective is twofold. First, we discuss how policy and legal frameworks in Canada have some important differences from other jurisdictions covered in previous reviews, and provide a useful general case study. Secondly, we highlight some priority research areas that will improve marine mammal conservation and management. Our examples focus on the research needed to meet stated conservation objectives for marine mammal species in waters under Canadian jurisdiction.

The drift of marine litter in the southern North Sea was simulated with the offline Lagrangian transport model PELETS-2D. Assuming different source regions, passive tracer particles were released every 28h within a nine-year period. Based on pre-calculated hourly wind and ocean current data, drift simulations were carried out forward and backward in time with and without the assumption of extra wind forces influencing particle movement. Due to strong variability of currents, backward simulations did not allow for the identification of particular source regions influencing given monitoring sites. Neither accumulation regions at open sea could be identified by forward simulations. A seasonal signal, however, could be identified in the number of tracer particles that reached the coastal areas. Both particle drift velocity and variability of drift paths further increased when an extra wind drift was assumed.

Fish hold effluent and the effluent produced from the cleaning of fish holds may contain organic material resulting from the degradation of seafood and cleaning products (e.g., soaps and detergents). This effluent is often discharged by vessels into near shore waters and, therefore, could have the potential to contribute to water pollution in bays and estuaries. We characterized effluent from commercial fishing vessels with holds containing refrigerated seawater, ice slurry, or chipped ice. Concentrations of trace heavy metals, wet chemistry parameters, and nutrients in effluent were compared to screening benchmarks to determine if there is a reasonable potential for effluent discharge to contribute to nonattainment of water quality standards. Most analytes (67%) exceeded their benchmark concentration and, therefore, may have the potential to pose risk to human health or the environment if discharges are in significant quantities or there are many vessels discharging in the same areas.

Baseline data on anthropogenic seafloor debris contamination in the year 2000 is provided for 24 submersible video transects at depths of 80–900m, off the Dutch ABC-islands (Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao), in the southeastern Caribbean Sea. In total, 202 objects were documented from a combined 21,184m of transect, ranging from sandy lower island-slope to rocky upper island-slope habitat. Debris densities differed significantly with depth. Highest debris accumulation (0.459 items 100m−2 or 4590 items per km2) occurred at depths of 300–600m on more shallow-sloping (20–30°) sand and silt bottoms. The overall average debris density was 0.27 objects per 100m2 (or 2700 items per km2), which is an order of magnitude higher than most other deepwater debris studies. What we describe may be representative for other small, populated, steep volcanic Caribbean islands. Food and beverage-related items were the single largest usage category identified (44% of objects; mostly glass beverage bottles).