A Monstrous Barnacle

There is one animal living in the ocean that is a particularly scary creature. When learning about what this thing does it appears very disturbing. Many people have said this creature is comparable to animals from a monster movie but this one is very real and very dangerous to other sea animals. In order to fully understand what these animals do, imagine you are a full sized crab after a life of dodging predators your age and size make it impossible for many predators to attach. All of the sudden you feel something inside of you. There is a Rhizocephalan barnacle inside of you and it’s going to take over. This Rhizocephalan is dangerous and painful for the animals it attacks. Its roots crawl through the tissue, gut, and brain of the animal. The adult female body of the Rhizocephalan is twisted and deformed, not resembling in any way its barnacle cousins living on rocks near shore. She has lost her hard shell, her legs, her eyes, and transformed into sickly yellow roots and sinuous twisting filaments that are slowly grow like black mold through your tissues. As the barnacle continues to eat away at your body, eventually your abdomen explodes. This barnacle has now taken over the body of the attacked completely. The attacked now thinks that it is a female organism and will produce new life. It is a bizarre process that is often not seen but in this case it makes it able to reproduce without using its own body.

Citation:

http://deepseanews.com/2013/10/this-may-be-the-oceans-most-horrifying-monster-and-youve-probably-never-heard-of-it/

A Nearly Irreversible Infestation

A map depicting where the infestation is occurring

In the Caribbean and surrounding picturesque locations, the infestation of Lionfish is a growing problem. While very beautiful, these lionfish are considered highly dangerous because of their venomous nature 

and large reproduction numbers. Lionfish will eat everything and everything and because they are not a naturally occurring fish in the Atlantic Ocean, they are changing the food chain and impacting the surrounding wildlife in a very negative way. The problem, other than unnatural occurrences in the ocean, is that the Lionfish have no natural predators other than humans. The rapid reproduction rates make them impossible toe exterminate for humans. "The lionfish invasion is probably the worst environmental disaster the Atlantic will ever face," said Graham Maddocks, president and founder

of Ocean Support Foundation. The Lionfish reproduce faster than almost any other marine life form. They produce 30,000 to 40,000 eggs every few days and reach sexual maturity at only about 1 years old. They are currently spread through the Amazon, the Bahamas, the Caribbean, as well as waters around North Carolina. According to most of the research done, just a few fish that escaped from owners In Florida started this lionfish epidemic. In fact, DNA evidence shows that all the lionfish in the Atlantic were started by just 3-4 female lionfish escaping and rapidly became an absurd amount of them. Maddocks said, "I don't know if we can stop the lionfish invasion. This isn't a battle we can win, we can only maintain," he said. "Human beings started this problem. It is our fault they are here. We have to take responsibility and try to fix or hope we can control it."

Citations:

http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/18/tech/innovation/lionfish-infestation-atlantic-linendoll/

A Problem for Everyone

Plastic Ocean Pollution

The oceans of the world are in very dangerous trouble. Many problems within the oceans are gaining more interest and become more of a scare. These things include ocean temperatures rising, seawater acidification, and the oxygen concentration levels dropping. These problems have gained great notice as of late.  The International Program on the State of the Ocean made a presentation recently on other things have that negatively been affecting the oceans such as destructive fishing, over fishing, and pollution. They stated that these problems that people have complete control over have shaped the current state of the oceans just as much as things like temperature rise. These problems such as ocean degradation, similar to deforestation, are causing problems not just for the oceans but also for humans. The oceans provide at least half of the 

This diagram shows how ocean pollution is caused and how it can effect us 

 oxygen we breathe. They absorb more carbon dioxide than forests do. Harm to the oceans clearly has a great impact on the things we do every day as well as the animal life that exists in the oceans. Many countries have started to charge additional taxes for using certain things then putting that tax money back into the environment. One country that was one of the first to do this was Costa Rica. In the early 1990’s, when Costa Rica began this practice, it began charging taxes on fossil fuels and using the revenue to protect forests. The net result was a reversal of deforestation. The economy in Costa Rica has benefited directly through a growth in tourism, and indirectly by preserving ecosystem services such as pollination. Obviously these precautionary steps Costa Rica took as well as many other countries has benefitted not just the environment, but the local economies as well. Manny countries have started taking precautions and enforcing the laws having to do with littering or pollution but every country around the globe needs to take these growing problems more seriously from here on out.

Cite:

http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/the-trouble-with-our-ocean-ecosystems-by-andres-velasco