An Ocean That’s No Longer Wild
A
process that has recently come to light in the world of oceanic research is
called “tagging”. Tagging an animal is similar to the game we all used to play
as a young child, only the process if clearly much more complicated and has to do with fish, not people. Simon
Thorrold, a biologist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, is one of the
many scientists concerned with the vulnerable species of sea animals such as
sharks. In 2013, millions of these animals are being killed and are successful in the
industrial fishing businesses in Asia and Dubai, leaving them even
more at risk of disappearing. It may seem easy to solve this problem, but the
fact that we have a limited amount of knowledge on the lives of tunas and
swordfish, along with many other large fish, inhibits scientists to maintain
these species effectively. Also, these animals aren’t easy to find, making it
extremely difficult to track them and learn more about them. But this barrier
of knowledge has very recently been broken with PSAT, or pop-up satellite
archival transmitting tags. These tags are inserted into the muscle tissues of
fish and track their movement and locations for 6 months to a year. These tags
give earth scientists newfound knowledge of the measures of temperature, depth,
and light levels of the waters the fish have travelled in, giving them a
three-dimensional view where these fish go and why. Much like any process, along with the benefits comes difficulties. To understand a whole population of fish rather than
just an individual one, $4,000 tags must be put on hundreds of hard-to-find
fish. The WHOI’s, or Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, project of fish
tagging provides a scientific basis for how we can preserve and conserve the
remaining species in the world’s oceans. The role of these fish is crucial to
the entire ecosystem because if you take away a part of an ecosystem it can
potentially damage the biodiversity in the future. Without hurting or
influencing the behaviors of these fish, tagging is an valuable tool in keeping
our oceans filled with diverse species of animals.
Extravagant
and unique animals are disappearing right before our eyes. The problem is that
though many people appreciate these species, we don’t empathize the importance of
preserving them enough. The climate changes of Earth and the
greenhouse effect is affecting our oceans, our land, and the species that live
in it. Without these assorted groups of animals, ecosystems will lose their character and diversity, ultimately taking the
“wild” out of our “wildlife”. The extinction of this group of large fish is similar to
taking away a group of charismatic people, because diversity is what keeps
society and life interesting. If we now have the resources and technologies to
attempt to save these species, why not use them to our advantage?
Lippsett
did an excellent job at writing this article. It was evident that the Woods
Hole Oceanographic Institution conducted their research efficiently and
effectively, covering all the major points of the tagging process. One weakness
of this article was that the paragraphs and sections were divided like an
interview. None of it really flowed, it was pretty choppy and there were many
different subtopics that could have been combined or elaborated on. The method
the author used is successful in teaching the reader all about the topic, but
the article could have sophisticated their writing structure. Overall I gained
extensive knowledge of the importance of taking action to saving these species,
and about the development of tagging which I had never heard of before.
-Sophie Doukas
Lippsett, Lonny. "An Ocean That's No Longer Wild." Oceanus Magazine. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 18 Oct. 2013. Web. 18 Oct. 2013. <https://www.whoi.edu/oceanus/feature/an-ocean-thats-no-longer-wild>.
Link to Article Here
Link to Article Here
I love how as soon as you started your essay you related it to the daily life of a child; it just made for a good hook that kept me interested. This article was seemingly about biology and Earth science, and I enjoyed having a feel for both sciences. At first I didn’t understand why tagging would be so important because I assumed that it was just following a group of fish, but it is much more than that. I find it interesting how scientists can learn about the fish we eat and others in the mysterious sea. The only problem that I can see would be the cost, because at first I didn’t know if it is it really worth $4,000 per tag. To us it may seem unimportant, but as I read on I got to realize the thought process behind scientists who just want to save animals before they go extinct. It is amazing what science can do for the future, my article was similar in the sense of preparing for the future; mine was about natural disasters.
ReplyDeleteA problem with society is that we do not pay attention to some issues if they do not directly impact our lives today, and once they’ve caught our attention it is too late; luckily this article, along with many others, warns us about the importance of science for the future of species. We do contribute in species extinction through pollution, so we should contribute to help them as well; without the help from scientists there won’t be diversity within the ocean, which is detrimental to the survival of many species.
A way to improve this essay would be to elaborate more on the science part of the article. As stated in this essay, the article was choppy with not too much flowing information, which must have been difficult to sort through. Considering that, this essay was very well written and I did learn a lot. This article was well summarized into an essay and I did learn what the reason for tagging was and what it was as stated in my analysis. My favorite parts of this essay was the hook used, the adjectives describing the animals, and the sentence structure in which it was not choppy like the article. Overall, well done!
Jeanne Chrisanthopoulos
E-Sci Odd C Block
Your current event report is so well written! Like Jeanne said, the hook at the beginning comparing tagging with a young child really made me want to keep reading to discover how tagging works. Since many sea animals are being killed it is very important to have tagging. From what I learned about your first paragraph is that tagging is very important to track where the fish go and why, since they are disappearing so because of fish industries.This is an amazing discovery because even though it costs $4,000 dollars per tag, it is saving the species that may disappear in the near future or are already starting to disappear. I think tagging is a great idea, because we are learning to appreciate these creatures that are disappearing and we are starting to realize that there is so much more to learn. There is so much more at the bottom of the ocean that we may not even know exists. This article is so important, because it tells people that scientists are discovering more of what is in the oceans by this simple new technique called tagging. Tagging is great, because like what Sophie said in her second paragraph is that certain species are disappearing right before our eyes, and we need to stop this, which is exactly what tagging is doing. I liked how creative Sophie was by saying that without these animals that are disappearing right before our eyes, the "wild" will be taken out of our "wildlife." From Sophie's current event report, I learned what helpful things scientists are doing for these animals. The comparisons she made throughout her writing gave me a true meaning of what was actually happening. It must have been very difficult writing a summary on your article because you said it was very choppy, but you did a great job anyway. One thing you should have mentions is how this would affect us in the future. Another is how tagging actually works after the tags are insterted in the muscle of the fish. Over all great job!!
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