Sea life

Trace amounts of vanadium have been found in meteorites and seawater, and it has been identified in the spectmm of many stars including the earth s sun. The occurrence of vanadium in oak and beech trees and some forms of aquatic sea life indicates its biological importance. 

An average of about 7 ppm of bromine is found ia terrestrial plants, and edible foods contain up to 20 ppm. Among animals the highest bromide contents are found ia sea life, such as fish, sponges, and cmstaceans (44). Animal tissues contain 1—9 ppm of bromide and blood 5—15 ppm. The World Health Organization has set a maximum acceptable bromide iatake for humans at 1 mg/kg of body weight per day. In adult males the bromine content ia semm has been found to be 3.2—5.6 p.g/mL, ia urine 0.3—7.0 p.g/mL, and ia hair 1.1—49.0 p.g/mL. Bromine may be an essential trace element as are the other hahdes (45). 

Since methane is almost always a byproduct of organic decay, it is not surprising that vast potential reserves of methane have been found trapped in ocean floor sediments. Methane forms continually by tiny bacteria breaking down the remains of sea life. In the early 197Qs it was discovered that this methane can dissolve under the enormous pressure and cold temperatures found at the ocean bottom. It becomes locked in a cage of water molecules to form a methane hydrate (methane weakly combined chemically with water). This "stored" methane is a resource often extending hundreds of meters down from the sea floor. 

Keckes, S. and J.J. Miettinen. 1972. Mercury as a marine pollutant. Pages 276-289 in M. Ruivo (ed.). Marine Pollution and Sea Life. Fishing Trading News (books) Ltd., London. 

There are two recent and excellent references to the diversity of deep sea life C. Nouvian, The Deep The Extraordinary Creatures of the Abyss, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 111., 2007 T. Koslow, The Silent Deep The Discovery, Ecology and Conservation of the Deep Sea, University of Chicago Press/University of New South Wales Press, 2007. 

A strange disease was reported in the area around Minamata Bay in Japan. Forty-six people died and many more became ill. The illness was due to mercury poisoning from a plastics factory. The Chisso Corporation used mercury as a catalyst in making acetaldehyde. Dimethylmercury becomes concentrated up the food chain and the heavy reliance on food from the sea life in the bay caused the epidemic. Mercury became a source of worry in many U.S. rivers and has been monitored closely since then. Chisso was finally found guilty in 1973, and 300 people had died by 1980. 

New chemicals are synthesized constantly. Also, many pharmacologically active chemicals continue to be found in plant life and sea life, and it can be expected that these... 

In the ocean experiments, scientists pump carbon dioxide into the deep ocean, where it forms giant lakes of liquid carbon dioxide. Eventually, the carbon dioxide dissolves into the surrounding waters. However, it is unclear how such increased amounts of oceanic carbon would affect sea life and water chemistry. 

Promising news for tidal power is coming from a radical design—a tidal mill that looks a lot like a land-based windmill. The tidal mill consists of three 30-foot long blades and weighs 180 tons. This design can offer several benefits, including minimal interference with sea life. Hammerfest Stroem, the electric company in Hammerfest, Norway, has... 

Ancient explorers of the ocean were sailors and fishermen who learned about marine biology by observing the sea life and discovering when it was most plentiful. They observed the effects of wind, cnrrents, and tides, and learned how to use them to their advantage, or to avoid them. These early humans discovered that salt could be retrieved from seaweed and grasses. 

Mercury can be bioaccumulated in sea life and magnified in the food chain. 

Ellis, Richard. Encyclopedia of the Sea. New York Alfred A. Knopf, 2000. A factual, yet entertaining, compendium of sea life and lore. 

Margo probably would have been happier hanging back at Sip Sip, but everyone took the plunge. The colorful underwater scene teemed with sea life, but it s tough to talk with a snorkel in your mouth, so the girls were in and out pretty fast. 

CARIBBEAN STYLE GIFTS 6- DECOR - Your on-line source for tropical metal drum Nvall art. Palms, sea life, beach themes, geckos. NVNVNV.thefunkygecko.com... 

The effects of the spills far from shore are less well documented or understood. Fragmentary evidence shows Open Ocean spills can kill sea life and alter the environment in undesirable ways. Fortunately, the ocean has a remarkable ability to recover and while the immediate results of oil spills are severe, in the longer term they appear to have a less permanent effect than spills on dry ground. The cumulative chronic effects of incessant oil spills in the oceans are almost totally unknown. The relatively shortterm effects of ocean spill leads to the tentative conclusion that permanent damage will be caused only... 

The combustion of hydrocarbons may already have placed sufficient carbon dioxide in the oceans to affect sea life in a harmful manner. If not today, it will soon reach a dangerous level if we continue the combustion of fuels containing carbon. If we stop using fossil fuels soon we may be in time to halt the carbon dioxide increase before it causes permanent damage to sea life. ... 

Many of the elements in the ocean—the phosphorus and silicon in crustaceans shells and the copper in the blood of lobsters, for example—are essential to sea life. If just a few of these vital elements were to disappear, it would ruin the fishing industry and lead to famine in many parts of the world. 

The president opened up America s share of the Arctic Ocean to oil drilling and exploration while simultaneously weakening protections for endangered sea life in the region, including fragile... 

TP he scientific studies that followed a spill of fuel oil off West Falmouth, Massachusetts, in 1969 clearly showed that petroleum and its refined products could act as a chemical poison to a wide variety of commercially important sea life (1). One of the first attempts to systematically quantify the toxicity of oil to marine animals was conducted at Battelle, Pacific Northwest Laboratories (2), and it was followed by other investigations in which a number of test conditions were used. These early studies quickly showed that the experimental method used... 

Unlike river water, sea water contains considerably more magnesium than calcium (Table I). Calcium is precipitated in the sea as carbonates and used by various forms of sea life to form shells. Another interesting fact about sea water is that the potassium content is nearly equivalent to the calcium content. 

The source of the pollution of the hydrosphere by constituents of the oil are of different origin. They begin at the site of petroleum exploitation itself (on land as well as in the sea), then during transport, when the water of oceans is polluted by fairly frequent breakdowns and occasional ship-wrecks. For example, in the wreck of the oil-tanker Torrey Canyon in 1967, 118,000 t of oil was spread on the surface of the English Channel. Within this ecological disaster 25,000 sea birds died. The use of cleaning preparations turned out to be even more harmful for the sea life than the... 

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