Project Seagrass www.projectseagrass.org

The Shark Trust www.sharktrust.org

Wetlands International www.wetlands.org

FOR DIVERS

Seasearch (UK) www.seasearch.org.uk

PADI Project Aware www.padi.com/aware

Reef Check www.reefcheck.org

GUIDANCE ON MAKING BETTER SEAFOOD CHOICES

Good Fish Guide, Marine Conservation Society (UK) www.mcsuk.org/goodfishguide

Monterey Bay Aquarium, Seafood Watch (US) www.seafoodwatch.org

GoodFish (Australia) www.goodfish.org.au

Notes

PRELUDE

Scientists have named this condition. Hayley S. Charlton-Howard et al., “‘Plasticosis’: Characterising Macro-and Microplastic-Associated Fibrosis in Seabird Tissues,” Journal of Hazardous Materials 450 (2023): 131090, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2023.131090.

scientists recently discovered how northern elephant seals. Jessica M. Kendall-Bar et al., “Brain Activity of Diving Seals Reveals Short Sleep Cycles at Depth,” Science 380, no. 6642 (2023): 260–65, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adf0566.

scientists tracked scalloped hammerhead sharks. Mark Meekan and Adrian Gleiss, “Free-Diving Sharks,” Science 380, no. 6645 (2023): 583–84, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adg8452.

a population of at least a thousand. Elitza S. Germanov et al., “Residency, Movement Patterns, Behavior and Demographics of Reef Manta Rays in Komodo National Park,” PeerJ 10 (2022): e13302, https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.13302.

off the coast of Ecuador. Kanina Harty et al., “Demographics and Dynamics of the World’s Largest Known Population of Oceanic Manta Rays Mobula birostris in Coastal Ecuador,” Marine Ecology Progress Series 700 (2022): 145–59, https://doi.org/10.3354/meps14189.

road map. IPCC, Climate Change 2023: Synthesis Report; Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, ed. H. Lee et al. (Geneva, Switzerland: IPCC), doi:10.59327/IPCC/AR6-9789291691647.

CHAPTER 1

study of trilobite fossils. John R. Paterson et al., “Trilobite Evolutionary Rates Constrain the Duration of the Cambrian Explosion,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 116, no. 10 (2019): 4394–99, https://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1819366116.

ways many trilobites lived. Richard Fortey, Trilobite! Eyewitness to Evolution (London: HarperCollins, 2001).

The cause was likely a spell. Justin L. Penn et al., “Temperature-Dependent Hypoxia Explains Biogeography and Severity of End-Permian Marine Mass Extinction,” Science 362, no. 6419 (2018), http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.aat1327.

fossilised Diandongosaurus. Qiling Liu et al., “An Injured Pachypleurosaur (Diapsida: Sauropterygia) from the Middle Triassic Luoping Biota Indicating Predation Pressure in the Mesozoic,” Scientific Reports 11 (2021): 21818, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-01309-z.

sixteen-foot ichthyosaur. Da-Yong Jiang et al., “Evidence Supporting Predation of 4-m Marine Reptile by Triassic Megapredator,” iScience 23, no. 9 (2020): 101347, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2020.101347.

interactive digital map. Alexis Rojas et al., “A Multiscale View of the Phanerozoic Fossil Record Reveals the Three Major Biotic Transitions,” Communications Biology 4 (2021): 309, https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-021-01805-y.

dusty old theory. Neil Brocklehurst et al., “Mammaliaform Extinctions as a Driver of the Morphological Radiation of Cenozoic Mammals,” Current Biology 31, no. 13 (2021): 2955–63, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2021.04.044.

Their method detected. Jennifer Cuthill et al., “Impacts of Speciation and Extinction Measured by an Evolutionary Decay Clock,” Nature 588 (2020): 636–41, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-3003-4.

This near-extinction. Elizabeth Sibert and Leah Rubin, “An Early Miocene Extinction in Pelagic Sharks,” Science 372, no. 6546 (2021): 1105–7, doi:10.1126/science.aaz3549. Several other groups of scientists have questioned some of the methods Sibert and Rubin used to identify the near extinction of sharks nineteen million years ago; see ibid., links to “Comment” and “Response” at foot of article.

walking-shark populations. Christine L. Dudgeon et al., “Walking, Swimming or Hitching a Ride? Phylogenetics and Biogeography of the Walking Shark Genus Hemiscyllium,” Marine and Freshwater Research 71, no. 9 (2020): 1107–17, https://doi.org/10.1071/MF19163.

CHAPTER 2

commercial crab fishery. The red king crab fishery in the Russian region of the Barents Sea was certified by the Marine Stewardship Council in 2018. This is not an eradication fishery but an introduced species being fished just as native species are, with the aim of maintaining catches over the long term. Marine Stewardship Council, “Russian Red King Crab Fishery Is MSC Certified in World First,” February 23, 2018, https://www.msc.org/media-centre/press-releases/press-release/russian-red-king-crab-fishery-is-msc-certified-in-world-first.

tiger sharks are venturing. Neil Hammerschlag et al., “Ocean Warming Alters the Distributional Range, Migratory Timing, and Spatial Protections of an Apex Predator, the Tiger Shark (Galeocerdo cuvier),” Global Change Biology 28, no. 6 (2021): 1990–2005, https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16045.

great white sharks have started. Kisei R. Tanaka et al., “North Pacific Warming Shifts the Juvenile Range of a Marine Apex Predator,” Science Reports 11 (2021): 3373, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-82424-9.

increasing their maximum depth. Shahar Chaikin et al., “Cold-Water Species Deepen to Escape Warm Water Temperatures,” Global Ecology and Biogeography 31 (2022): 75–88, http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/geb.13414.

ocean will have deoxygenated. Dan Laffoley and John M. Baxter (eds.), Ocean Deoxygenation: Everyone’s Problem; Causes, Impacts, Consequences and Solutions (Gland, Switzerland: IUCN, 2019), https://portals.iucn.org/library/sites/library/files/documents/2019-048-En.pdf.

lionfish will occupy. C. Turan, “Species Distribution Modelling of Invasive Alien Species; Pterois miles for Current Distribution and Future Suitable Habitats,” Global Journal of Environmental Science and Management 6, no. 4 (2020): 429–40, https://doi.org/10.22034/gjesm.2020.04.01.

lionfish will gradually make a year-round move. Brian D. Grieve et al., “Range Expansion of the Invasive Lionfish in the Northwest Atlantic with Climate Change,” Marine Ecology Progress Series 546 (2016): 225–37, doi:10.3354/meps11638.

eating fairy basslets. Kurt E. Ingeman, “Lionfish Cause Increased Mortality Rates and Drive Local Extirpation of Native Prey,” Marine Ecology Progress Series 558 (2016): 235–45, https://www.jstor.org/stable/24897431.

concerns for the social wrasse. Luiz Rocha et al., “Invasive Lionfish Preying on Critically Endangered Reef Fish,” Coral Reefs 34, no. 3 (2015): 803–6, doi:10.1007/s00338-015-1293-z.

When asked in 2020. Periklis Kleitou et al., “Conflicting Interests and Growing Importance of Non-Indigenous Species in Commercial and Recreational Fisheries of the Mediterranean Sea,” Fisheries Management and Ecology 29 (2022): 169–82, doi:10.1111/fme.12531.

US East Coast, trawl fisheries. Eva A. Papaioannou et al., “Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost—Responses of Fishers’ Communities to Shifts in the Distribution and Abundance of Fish,” Frontiers in Marine Science 8 (2021), https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.669094.

By 2050, catches around the Arctic. Vicky W. Y. Lam et al., “Projected Change in Global Fisheries Revenues under Climate Change,” Scientific Reports 6 (2016): 32607, https://doi.org/10.1038/srep32607.

In a widening band. Chhaya Chaudhary et al., “Global Warming Is Causing a More Pronounced Dip in Marine Species Richness around the Equator,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118, no. 15 (2021), https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2015094118.

Predictions extending to 2050. Lam, “Projected Change.”

harder for fishers to make a living. William W. L. Cheung et al., “Shrinking of Fishes Exacerbates Impacts of Global Ocean Changes on Marine Ecosystems,” Nature Climate Change 3 (2013): 254–58, https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate1691.

One study predicts that these kinds. E. W. Tekwa et al., “Body Size and Food-Web Interactions Mediate Species Range Shifts under Warming,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B 289 (2022): 20212755, https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2021.2755.

shifting whale populations will alter. Angela R. Szesciorka and Kathleen M. Stafford, “Sea Ice Directs Changes in Bowhead Whale Phenology through the Bering Strait,” Movement Ecology 11 (2023): 8, https://doi.org/10.1186/s40462-023-00374-5.

Orcas are now hunting. Kyle J. Lefort et al., “Killer Whale Abundance and Predicted Narwhal Consumption in the Canadian Arctic,” Global Change Biology 26, no. 8 (2020): 4276–83, https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15152.

Even those narwhals. Greg A. Breed et al., “Sustained Disruption of Narwhal Habitat Use and Behavior in the Presence of Arctic Killer Whales,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 114, no. 10 (2017): 2628–33, http://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1611707114.