Wild Tobago

Dr. Anjani Ganase considers the latest ocean research. Microplastics are everywhere. Some mussels are adapting. Corals continue to lose as the climate changes. Our ocean is a vast and wild place with much more to be discovered. Ocean research may seem irrelevant to our day to day lives but the knowledge we obtain from studying the deepest darkest places and the teeny tiniest organisms have significant implications to our climate, health and wellbeing. Let’s delve into some of the latest research. Targeted research may focus on a handful of species within a location but these studies are the building blocks for regional and global understanding to guide policy and management. World War II mussels Mussel beds off Dillon Beach in Northern California continue to thrive even under climate change. This is what a group of University of California students was able to discover when they came across an unpublished report of a survey of the mussel beds from 1941, during ...

Microplastics have been found in the deep ocean, in the arctic, in our food. What we don’t yet know is how they are affecting our health and lifestyle. Dr Anjani Ganase reports. Plastic pollution is a known and observable phenomenon with impacts that include the entanglement, choking, smothering and drowning of marine life – turtles, sea birds and even whales. Yet, there is the unseen equivalent problem of microplastics that have managed to pervade not just the natural ecosystem but human life as well. Microplastics are classified as less than 5 mm in size; most are not visible to the naked eye and therefore require special techniques to see them. Microplastics can be anything from the by-products of plastic pellets used in manufacturing – plastic saw dust, microbeads found in scrubs and toiletries, fibres from synthetic cloths and from the wear and tear of tyres on the road. Other forms of microplastics result from the breakdown of large pieces of plastics ...