...Until spring 2006, my articles (below) were focused on the failing health of the ocean ecosystem. But lately, I've discovered a potential public health threat related to the human consumption of seal products. On this theme, I've added "Seal Oil Leaves a Fishy Aftertaste..." April 20, 2006, and "Letter to Minister responsible for safety of seal products" May 20, 2006. Wasted effort.

1. Articles summarizing the larger picture and theoretical perspectives:

• Sea Creatures make a Healthy Ocean Planet - another "inconvenient truth?"  and, related The Precambrian ocean productivity model - why it does not work today July 13, 2006

• Seal Hunt Ecologically Irresponsible - corrupt "science advisory process" at Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) allows "managers" to ignore modern scientific understanding of the ecosystem. This highlights a longstanding fundamental problem, whereby management practice still allows the fox to guard the henhouse.

• Something is Rotten in the Gulf of St. Lawrence - literally and figuratively true, rotting seal carcasses work to smother cod. Feb. 11, 2005   More pages on this theme, added Mar. 14/05: Something (else) is Rotten... and Trust the Seals, Fear the Microbes...

• The inadequacy of fisheries science models - and suggestions for a new model. Sept. 22, 2004

• DFO publishes a new explanation for the cod crisis, admits cod are starving and exonerates seals - an update sent to the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans. July 25, 2004

• A promise from the Canadian Minister of Fisheries and Oceans  ...to have DFO Science formally hear the "starving ocean" theory.

• Decadal changes in Nova Scotian seaweeds: a case of 'Pseudo-eutrophication?'  - technical arguments regarding unexpected inherent difficulties in distinguishing between a starving ocean and an overfed one...but seaweed tells the tale.

• Summary of how the crisis in ocean life relates to the crisis in marine science A letter written in an attempt to enlighten Canada's new Minister of Fisheries and Oceans about the full scope of the challenges he faces.

• 2004: Grey Seal Hunt in Nova Scotia - How a cohesive understanding of all ocean elements is required to assess the danger this poses.

• Where have the Fish gone? A fresh look at the Ocean Summary of evidence that marine primary production has undergone a long-term decline over recent decades and centuries, and rationale for thinking that fishing may have been an important cause of this.

• Multi-Million Dollar Questions and broad changing patterns in marine life  On the need for a holistic approach to the study of marine ecology with a strong focus on plankton dynamics, rather than the recent shortsighted Canadian initiative to try "seal exclusion zones" as an aid to rebuilding cod stocks. (May 8/03)

• How to rebuild the Fish Stocks? - starting by rebuilding the zooplankton  Advice to the Canadian Senate Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans

• Thinking 'outside the box' ...in the case of the mysterious loss of the Canadian cod stocks. Specific suggestion for a change in research focus in fishery science.

• Seals and Cod    Scientific evidence is shown to support the argument that seals are far more beneficial than harmful to the health of cod stocks.

• Advice on Atlantic cod to the Fisheries Resource Conservation Council   Suggestions to the FRCC regarding recommendations they may consider for science research priorities. Focused on the reality that starvation is now having a major effect on cod and other fish, and suggesting how this relates to overall ecosystem productivity.

• The Marine Nutrient Cycle  A look at the interdependent nature of all marine life, and the extent of potential  ramifications of prolonged human fishing. Emphasized here (and often missed today) is the need for taking an honest historical perspective on this issue: the wealth of marine life that existed a few short centuries ago is beyond the comprehension of most people living today.

• Strangelove Ocean   Introducing the most radical conclusion of the extent to which the destruction of marine life may have impacted on the biosphere, it is argued that carbon dioxide uptake by the ocean from the atmosphere has been insidiously hampered by the massive removal of marine life.

• Challenging Basic Assumptions  Marine nitrogen cycling:  checks and balances in the complex living system tend to maintain stability of parameters such as the concentration of dissolved nutrients. Emphasized is the importance of biological driving forces for marine production, in contrast to the prevailing view that marine productivity is essentially controlled by physical forces.

• Fish Eggs: The Perfect Food?  Exploring the dependence of smaller marine creatures on the existence of the larger ones...their fearsome "predators" are also their food providers when the large fish produce millions of tiny spawn that help to nourish their tiny "prey" species. Therefore removing the "top" of the food web may also unexpectedly undermine the "bottom."

• Vertical Migration of Zooplankton: A Biphasic Feeding Strategy Involving the alternate exploitation of Particulate organic material and Dissolved organic material, that enhances new production? (nitty gritty argument written for submission to science journal)

• Fisheries Research Priorities   A letter to the Canadian Minister of Fisheries and Oceans offering a few concrete suggestions for appropriate new directions for fisheries research.

2. Patterns of change in unexploited marine species, that attest to a total ecosystem change as opposed to simply changing abundances of commercially exploited species (the focus of most attention today). It is argued that these changes cannot simply be attributed to "global warming" or "pollution."

• Seaweed Update 2005 Continuing decline of perennial seaweeds is a signal of negative change in ocean health - July 12, 2005

• Hungry humpbacks? Conflict between whales and herring fishermen in the Bay of Fundy may force a new conservation strategy - August 25, 2004

• Decadal changes in Nova Scotian seaweeds: a case of 'Pseudo-eutrophication?'  - technical arguments regarding unexpected inherent difficulties in distinguishing between a starving ocean and an overfed one...but seaweed tells the tale.

• What's that white stuff in the seaweed? Irish moss takes on the appearance of snowbanks in Nova Scotia during summer 2002.

• Shifting Baseline in Color of Chondrus crispus (Irish moss)  The gradual shift from "abnormal" to "normal" in human perceptions of bleached Irish moss plants is shown in a review of 150 years of literature.

• The Barnacle Zone   Dramatic evidence in unpolluted rocky intertidal zones of a long term decline in marine productivity. The disappearance of the barnacle belt is shown in photographs taken over 50 years apart in Atlantic Canada.

• Changing Marine Algae  Broad changing trends in seaweeds and phytoplankton (including harmful algae blooms) are shown to be consistent with natural shifts that would be predicted in a scenario of declining nitrogen availability...contrary to the usual interpretation today.

• Dying Seaweed  A shorter piece focused on the gradual decline and breakdown of perennial brown seaweeds in Atlantic Canada, showing remarkable color changes.

• Seaweed photo galleries  illustrate the pattern of change in seaweeds.

• Mass Coral Bleaching  Dramatic loss of fundamental tropical marine species, usually attributed only to episodic warmer waters, this is also a pattern that is consistent with systemic nutrient loss. (A discussion of this question with coral researchers is on NOAA's website at: http://www.coral.noaa.gov/lists/nutrients_coralbleaching_thread.html )

3. Patterns of change in directly exploited marine species:

• Northern and spotted wolffish, "by-catch" fish species, threatened with extinction in Canada

• Small pelagic fish populations off Nova Scotia wildly overestimated by DFO  

• Cod mysteriously 'freeze' to death in Newfoundland  Predictable consequences of zooplankton decline are the increasing starvation of cod, their concentration in inshore locations, and their vulnerability to hypoxic bottom water that can result from an un-moderated 'natural' phytoplankton bloom. Update added April 11/03.

• The Downturn of the Atlantic Cod in Eastern Canada  Change in the physical appearance of cod supports the hypothesis that they are simply starving.

• Atlantic Canadian Groundfish Stock Summary   A brief look at many individual stocks reveals a consistent, broad pattern of decline.

• Why are there So Many Lobsters?  The current rise in the abundance of many crustaceans reflects both the decline of their natural predators and their ability to feed at very "low" levels of the food web.

• Who Has Seen the Mackerel? (a fish story)  Written in 2000, a critique of today's dogma in fisheries science that the Atlantic mackerel is currently very healthy, underexploited and at a very high biomass level.

• Atlantic Mackerel Update 2001  The official Canadian mackerel stock assessment in 2001 confirms the unexplained trend of declining age and size of mackerel...but this writer sees an alarming trend in mackerel, a decline that echoes what happened to the groundfish as they "crashed" a decade ago.

• Floundering Around in a Starving Ocean  Small flatfish, such as the yellowtail flounder, enjoy an advantage today in a diminished ecosystem subjected to repeated destructive bottom dragging by fishing gear.