David Conover, Dean of MSRC, Advocates for Technology to Observe Oceans
STONY BROOK, N.Y., May 10, 2007 — A Stony Brook University scientist, testifying today before a Senate Committee on the effects of climate change, warned that unless the U.S. upgrades its “woefully inadequate” observation of ocean systems, the potential impact on marine life and related industries could be dramatic — and, in some cases, is already visible.
David Conover, Dean of the Marine Sciences Research Center at Stony Brook and one of the world’s leading experts on the ecology of marine fishes and fisheries science, said “technology exists to continuously measure numerous and physical and biological parameters that will greatly help us understand and, therefore, devise strategies to cope with ecosystems alteration caused by climate change….”
Speaking before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, Conover added: “…We need an observation system that can provide ‘before, during and after” data to give us the clues. Otherwise, we are like the detective at the scene of a crime with no evidence and lots of potential suspects.”
Conover testified that marine scientists are seeing strong evidence of shifts in in the abundance of cold-water and warm-water species in the Long Island region that are consistent with predictions of ocean warming. For instance, Conover said, the Long Island lobster die-off which began in Long Island Sound in 1999 is likely caused by a diseases such as “excretory calcinosis”—a gill tissue blood disorder resulting directly from warm temperatures—which was discovered by Stony Brook scientists.
Another example of climate-induced effects on fisheries is the northward expansion of a disease called “dermo” that afflicts oysters. The disease, caused by a parasite, kills 50 per cent of the oysters in the Gulf of Mexico, Conover said, and prior to the late 1980s was confined to areas south of the lower Chesapeake Bay. Now “dermo” is prevalent as far north as Cape Cod.
“Temperature is a pervasive environmental factor with direct effects on nearly all aspects of the ecology, physiology, morphology, and behavior of…cold-blooded animals,” Conover said.
For David Conover’s complete testimony, please visit www.stonybrook.edu/sb/testimony.pdf
