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THE LOSS OF oxygen from the ocean due to climate change risks “dire effects” on sea life, fisheries and coastal communities, a global conservation body has said.
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said that around 700 sites had been identified globally with low oxygen levels – up from only 45 in the 1960s.
In the same period, the group warned, the volume of anoxic waters – areas totally devoid of oxygen — have quadrupled.
The ocean absorbs around a quarter of all fossil fuel emissions, but as global energy demand continues to grow there are fears that the world’s seas will eventually reach saturation point.
Oceans are expected on current trends to lose 3% to 4% of their oxygen globally by 2100.
However, most of that loss is predicted to be in the upper 1,000 metres, that is the richest part of the ocean for biodiversity.
“With this report, the scale of damage climate change is wreaking upon the ocean comes into stark focus,” said IUCN’s acting director Grethel Aguilar.
“As the warming ocean loses oxygen, the delicate balance of marine life is thrown into disarray.”
The largest peer-reviewed study to date on ocean oxygen loss concluded that deoxygenation is already altering the balance of marine life to the detriment of species that need more of the life-giving gas.
Species such as tuna, marlin and sharks – many of which are already endangered – are particularly sensitive to low oxygen levels due to their large size and energy demands.
But loss of oxygen is affecting species across the food chain. The biomes that support around a fifth of the world’s current fish catch are formed by ocean currents that bring oxygen-poor water in to coastlines.
These areas are especially vulnerable to even tiny variations in oxygen levels.
“Impacts here will ultimately ripple out and affect hundreds of millions of people,” the IUCN said.
The group this year issued a landmark assessment of the world’s natural habitats, concluding starkly that human activity was threatening up to one million species with extinction.
Ocean life is already battling warmer temperatures, rampant overfishing and plastic pollution.
The World Meterological Organization this week said that due to man-made emissions growth, the ocean is now 26 percent more acidic than before the Industrial Revolution.
“Ocean oxygen depletion is menacing marine ecosystems already under stress from ocean warming and acidification,” said Dan Laffoley, a senior marine science adviser at the IUCN.
“To stop the worrying expansion of oxygen-poor areas, we need to decisively curb greenhouse gas emissions as well as nutrient pollution from agriculture and other sources.”
The IUCN report also found that pollution around coastlines was having a significant effect on oxygen levels, with fertiliser and agricultural run off promoting more algae growth, which in turn depletes oxygen as it decomposes.
World leaders will gather in Marseille in June for the IUCN’s World Conservation Congress.
Policymakers are currently in negotiations at the COP25 climate summit in Madrid charged with ratifying a comprehensive rulebook for the 2015 Paris accord.
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I fell for the Simon Harris is being madeTaoiseach one.
@087 bed: it’s called democracy
@Pat Hazzard: Actually, it is not some people’s definition of democracy since he wasn’t voted in by the electorate, akin to Sunak in the UK.
@Injustice Cop: no Taoiseach has ever been voted in by the electorate. We vote for TDs and a majority of them then vote in a Taoiseach.
@Injustice Cop: No Taoiseach is ever voted in by the electorate.
@Pat Hazzard: Just to remind you this is the third Taoiseach of this Goverment. Maybe it’s Time to change the rules .
@David Murray: You mean a referendum to alter the constitution.
@David Murray: so? It’s not unusual for parties to change leader, plus new leader has to go before Dail to be voted in as Taoiseach.
I thought I had beaten my record for lasting in the bedroom with the missus as I had been at her for an hour and two minutes. Unfortunately, I only realised afterwards that the clock went forward an hour in the course of breaking my record
@Lewis Armstrong: You could have kept that thought in your head!
@Lewis Armstrong: If you were any good,she would have asked for ‘seconds’
@Lewis Armstrong: ‘I had been at her’. Christ above. How some Irish men convince anyone to marry them is one of life’s great mysteries!
No. Although some prankster tried to tell me that from today, you could be investigated by the cops in Scotland for hurting someone’s feelings.
Needless to say, I told him in no uncertain terms that Scotland is one of the most progressive countries in the world, not an authoritarian kip like communist North Korea, and sent him off with his tail between his legs
@Finn Barr: you absolute mad man :)
@Finn Barr: You learned him!!!!!!!!!!
@Finn Barr: That’s great..heading there now, but not with the intention of hurting anyone lol
YES , YES AND YES
I actually took some of the comments on The Journal seriously. Silly me
@Thom Thumb: Look who crawled out of his corner
https://www.echolive.ie/corknews/arid-41364856.html
This one about water restrictions in West Cork…. What an absolute joke and it’s pissing rain for months.
@Malachy Cox: You’re right. The field behind us is so saturated that I’m afraid to chase the dog across it
I swear if we lived in a desert, our government would find a way to run out of sand!
Years ago, loads of people had rain barrels for gardens etc. Where’s their product range of domestic water conservation items, I ask?
@F Fitzgerald: You want the government to sell water butts?
@F Fitzgerald: Get a Seal instead of a dog.
Today is actually my birthday
Which I used to dread back in primary school but now it’s grand because at least it’s a date people remember
Fellow April Fools Dayers include Rachmaninov Bismarck Ali McGraw & Robbie Williams
Just bear in mind you can’t say “April Fools Day’s any more because it’s deeply traumatising.
Not least to April……
@Gerry Kelly: kid brother missed the April 1st my minute’s, he was born seconds into the 2nd. Years ago I got him up for school, he and many others turned up to closed school gates
House Prices = JOKE
HSE A&E = JOKE
Politicians unpaid Bar Bills = JOKE
Awarding Gov contracts to Gov€Donors =JOKE
TUSLA childcare =JOKE
OH YES Politicians Are Making A Right APRIL FOOL of Irish Citizens.
@robrot 64: And not only on the first of April but the whole year.
I’m disappointed that The Journal doesn’t appear to have anyone with the wit or courage to write an Apri Fool ‘s spoof of it’s own this year
Don’t tell me you’re worried that it might offend somebody….
My young lad (13) came running into the kitchen with a disgusted look on his face. He said that he read on the internet that Cadburys were changing the Curly Wurly and renaming it the Straighty Waighty. That g*bshite will not be picking my Nursing Home
There was a video on TicTok of a child building a wall of bolt nuts for the camera. He seemed to have servere ADHD / learning difficulties. It was child abuse with people putting a digital cap on him or a cowboy hat, this was making him go crazy trying to remove this digital cap, he was crying, going crazy, red eyelids and was disturbingly upset. It shocked me to see it, I did wonder if it was an April 1st thing but no way, as the tears and upset was real with about under 400 people watching it, it was vile and disturbing. I just reported it twice as child abuse, it made me feel ill and annoyed. It was too real to be an April 1st joke. Pure sick people out there now.
@Brendan O’Brien: I’m speaking solely of those within homeless accommodation
@Dale Voinz: Your comment was deleted anyway, presumably for being wildly off topic.
The thugs in Derry/Londonderry are at it again! What is the point. Let’s damage everyone and bring them/us all down to the level of the numbskulls.
I fell for the good news story from revenue justifying the v.a.t. increase. Apparently, consumers saved €1.5 billion in 2 years. That’s 3 million vehicles (insurance advert number of cars the gardai have details for) and comes to about €4.80 a week or the increased cost for the luxury of 2 or 3 coffees a week.
(1,500,000,000÷3,000,000÷2÷52)
My girlfriend convinced me to move into a fifth floor apartment today with no lift. She got me good
What comments. Laughing.
Nope Just like every other Irish Holiday it’s Dying out. Halloween there was feck all out in my estate. Christmas people had feck all decorations. It’s ridiculous that we don’t have any sort of spirit anymore. I blame the government and this generation tbh
@Kevin Daly: I had a great Hallowe’en and had loads of people in costumes at the door. You need to decorate and give out chocolate bars and stickers, not be grumpy! People aren’t lighting their whole estate up with Christmas lights, because of electricity prices. Switch to LEDs.
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