A new project in Spain shows how digital twins, which are virtual replicas of real environments, are becoming powerful tools for protecting ecosystems. Fujitsu and the BCN Port Innovation Foundation have announced a proof of concept to create an ocean digital twin at the Port of Barcelona. (Will they use Mirai robots at sea?)

The initiative will use underwater drones, artificial intelligence and advanced analytics to generate detailed digital models of the seabed and marine life. The goal is to support “the regeneration of the marine environment, the protection of biodiversity and the promotion of the blue economy.” Using non-destructive sensing, the system will visualize biodiversity, estimate vegetation coverage and calculate blue carbon stored in marine algae.

Digital twins work by collecting real-world data through sensors, drones or satellites and feeding it into a digital model that mirrors the real ecosystem. In Barcelona, autonomous vehicles will map the seabed while machine-learning systems translate the information into measurable indicators. According to the project description, “Machine learning models convert this data into quantitative environmental intelligence, estimating vegetation coverage, assessing habitat extent, and calculating blue carbon absorption.”

One powerful feature of digital twins is the ability to test future scenarios before action is taken. The platform developed by Fujitsu will allow environmental simulations to evaluate policy or infrastructure impacts. The system “enables the simulation of ‘what if’ scenarios, helping pre-verification of environmental measures before they are implemented to prioritize investments based on their real impact.”

Ángeles Delgado, president of Fujitsu Spain and Portugal, says the approach turns complex marine data into practical insight: “This project demonstrates how technology can become a true ally of sustainability. The ocean digital twin allows us to transform complex data from the marine environment into actionable information to protect biodiversity, promote blue carbon initiatives, and make evidence-based decisions.”

Ocean twins are part of a broader trend using digital replicas to manage environmental systems. Cities are building urban digital twins to model climate impacts, researchers are creating forest twins to track carbon storage and wildfire risk, and global projects such as Europe’s Destination Earth climate twin aim to simulate the entire planet to improve climate forecasting and environmental planning.

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New research presented by the American Chemical Society at their August meeting warned of the damage disposable contact lenses cause after they are flushed down our home plumbing, a daily habit of many of the 45 million Americans who wear them. Plastic is pollution in whatever form it comes in.

Those flimsy, flexible lenses easily pass through sewage treatment plant filters. Sinking to the bottom of rivers and oceans, the impacts to bottom-feeding fish and other marine life is real.

With awareness on plastic straws covered, it’s time to switch to recycling contact lenses. Some opticians in Canada have started accepting used lenses, a compounding problem if you wear dailies. Canada is a leading country in environmental awareness. 

Myopic me has had a long love/hate relationship with contact lenses, made somewhat better when disposables came online. Pop a fresh pair in, see the world in crystal clarity, maybe even play with a new eye color change, and at the end of the day, kick off my shoes and chuck the used lenses. I toss them in the trash, but what happens if you opt to flush them down a toilet?

The researchers tested how 11 types of lenses survive in wastewater treatment facilities, finding that they can fragment into tiny shards, becoming part of the increasing amounts of microplastic pollution in our oceans and other waterways. Alarmingly, the shredded plastic sops up high volumes of other pollutants on its trip to the sea, which are ingested by the marine life as part of a dystopian food chain, eventually making its way into human food.

Plastic micro-particles now taint everything from German beer to table salt. That’s an argument for buying pink Himalayan salt which is farmed in Pakistan from the mountains before humans started polluting the sea.

In theory, these sewage-stewed contact lens slivers could hurt coral too. According to The Guardian, a recent study found that microorganisms borne by microplastics that then snag on a single coral can sicken entire reefs an a gangrene-like sweep.

Is the concern overblown? According to the researchers’ anonymous study, 19% of all contact lens wearers flush their lenses down the toilet or dumped them down the sink drain. An estimated 10 metric tons of lenses end up in wastewater each year, and that’s just calculating the American contribution.

An article in Quartz advises that US consumers can participate in a used contacts recycling program offered by lensmaker Bausch + Lomb, check their website for details.  But the simplest solution? Put them in the trash, not down the drain.

New research finds microplastics may be released in the eye

In a 2023 study from the State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of Environment, Nanjing University China, researchers found that thousands of bits of microplastics may be released in your eye during the normal course of wearing them. They report in Environmental Science & Technology:

“The widespread use of plastic products leads to the ubiquity of microplastics in daily life, while the release of microplastics from long-used contact lenses has not been reported due to the limitations of conventional detection methods.

“Here, we established a new and rapid method to capture and count microplastics by using a high-content screening system. This method can simultaneously measure the diameter, area, and shape of each plastic particle, and the reliability and applicability of this method were verified with commercial microplastics. It is estimated that 90,698 particles of microplastics could be released from a pair of contact lenses during a year of wearing.

“Our study reveals an undiscovered pathway of microplastic direct exposure to humans, highlighting the urgent need to assess the potential health risks caused by eye exposure to microplastics.”

The solution? Daily eye exercises to correct vision naturally or going back to glasses or the glass-based contact lenses that people wore in the past.

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The world’s increasingly polluted seas and oceans, as well as rising sea levels, are now becoming a sad reality as Mankind’s contribution is becoming increasingly evident. Whether this causes massive fish die-offs, or other ecological catastrophes like toxic coast pollution, more and more of the world’s environmental problems are being linked to human caused abuse of natural resources.

Israel’s long Mediterranean beachfront, stretching from Gaza all the way to Lebanon, is no exception to this sad fact. A number of heavily polluted streams empty from Israel into the Eastern Mediterrnean, adding to the sea’s already increasing pollution.

One of these streams, the Poleg Stream, now empties into the sea just meters from one of the city of Netanya’s most prestigious beachfronts, Poleg Beach. Until recently this steam, which originates in the hills of the West Bank and meanders through the country’s Sharon region, emptied south of the main Poleg beachfront; or virtually disappeared into the sand during the hot summer months. Due to recent heavy rains, however, the course the stream has changed. It now empties its polluted contents into the Mediterranean, almost in the center of the Poleg beachfront; literally cutting it in half. On a recent weekend visit, children were observed by this writer actually walking into and playing by the stream.

Poleg Beach’s popularity stems largely from the fact that visitors can literally drive their cars down to the beach area, instead of having to park some distance away and then descend flights of stairs or walk down steep inclines to reach the beachfront. Even during the winter “off months”, the beachfront is a popular attraction on warm sunny days.

Upon contacting one of Israel’s leading environmental watchdog NGOs, Zalul (meaning “clear”), one of their spokespersons, Lilach, said that they are aware of the problem which was caused by a natural diversion of the stream’s flow. “The main issue at the moment is who will be responsible for dealing with this situation: the Netanya municipality or another body such as the Nature and Parks Authority,” she told Green Prophet.

Close examination of the water flowing in the stream and the various types of trash and other objects found there indicate that the current situation is definitely a health hazard that will become even more serious as it gets closer to the official beach season, around the end of May. A considerable amount or work is needed to re-divert the stream’s flow to a “safer” area further south; an area which falls under the jurisdiction of the Nature and Parks Authority.

In the meantime, beach visitors will have to contend with the changed course of the stream, that in better times included an estuary for sea turtles to come and lay their eggs. Those times are long gone now, unfortunately.

Read more on marine and coastal pollution in the eastern Mediterranean :
Mysterious fish die-off in Tunisia sparks world-ending debate (video)

Lebanon: Greenpeace investigation reveals toxic coast pollution

Oceans spiralling downward, threatening life on earth

Photos of the Poleg Stream by Maurice Picow

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Sea garbage’s days may be numbered, thanks to a new invention by a pair of Australians, Andrew Turton and Pete Ceglinski. The Seabin Project is one being funded by Indiegogo and revolves around a floating trash receptacle. Able to suck everything floating in its vicinity into its natural fiber bag, from paper to plastic to fuel, the Seabin is an ocean vacuum that promises to clean up a lot of the mess we’ve made over the years. And this maritime maid won’t even ask for a break – she can work without pause.

The Seabin is connected by pipes to a shore-based water pump. The collected waste is filtered – that includes oil being separated out – and the newly clean water is pumped back into the ocean.

The most strategic place for a Seabin to work most effectively is at a marina or port, where heavy boat activity, as well as water currents, cause debris to accumulate near the docks.

The location at harbor also allows a person to change the Seabin’s bag when it starts to overflow with oversize trash. It was designed small and light so that this task would be one-man job.

“One of our goals is to make the Seabin from our own plastics to create another Seabin to capture more. It’s a domino effect,” say Turton and Ceglinski. “The second goal is to create a world where we don’t need the Seabins. Imagine that…”

This new technology can only be praised. The Seabin is a cheaper, lower maintenance answer to trash boats, also a 2015 innovation. It lends hope to the idea that we can have pristine waters again – as long as we do our part to not let history repeat itself by muddying them.

The eco-friendly Australians aim to start selling and shipping their Seabins internationally as early as mid-2016. The Middle East has seen its fair share of sea pollution – will it be a leader in addressing the problems of its past by supporting the Seabin Project?

Photo of the Seabin and its creators from gizmag.com

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Why have dolphins and other types of marine life almost disappeared from Israel’s shores? And why are projects such as deep water energy drilling and desalination threatening to make the eastern Mediterranean an area increasingly devoid of most marine life?
The answer appears obvious, as well as foreboding, in a recent comprehensive report on the state of the marine environment in Israel’s section of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea.

The report, written by Aviad Scheinin, a researcher for the National Program for Ecosystem Assessment,  was prepared in cooperation with the Environmental Ministry and the Jewish National Fund, responsible for many reforestation and other nature projects in Israel.

The findings of the reported published by Haaretz, covered a range of human sponsored activities that included over-development of the country’s Mediterranean coastline, over fishing by both commercial and sports fishermen, undersea energy exploration and extraction; and the dramatic increase of desalination activity.

Within the framework of the report, marine environmental damage caused by these factors were analyzed according to the scope of the activities and the resulting environmental damage caused. Each human caused activity was found to result in significant damage to both the undersea environment as well as to the coastline itself.

While some projects were said to have been  done  for the good of the coastal environment, such as building breakwaters to prevent further erosion of coastal cliffs, building these structures will prevent natural accumulation of sand and also be detrimental to marine life such as sea turtles, says Scheinin.

Desalination, which has sometimes been referred to a “a necessary evil” , comes from an increasing need for fresh water supplies.  The damage it does to aquatic marine life is enormous, however; often resulting in the disappearance of entire marine species.

“In light of forecasts that 750 million cubic meters of seawater will be desalinized by the end of the decade, and given the relative crowding of facilities, it would be fair to assume that it will become impossible to avoid the environmental ramifications of this activity,” the report states.

Over fishing, especially by use of what are known as “drag nets” is depleting fish from the eastern Mediterranean at an alarming rate as well.  Even sport fishing was not given given a very good write up in the report as certain fish species, like grouper, are being fast depleted by divers using spear guns.

Over all, the future the Mediterranean along Israel’s coastline does not look very promising. The report ends by stating that the only improvement found was the reduction of raw sewage being allowed to flow directly into the sea; as in contrast perhaps to neighboring countries like Lebanon.

With only 0.25 percent of Israel’s coastal waters protected by nature reserves, a lot more needs to be done to protect the Mediterranean and its marine life before it is too late to do so.

Read more on environmental issues threatening the Eastern Mediterranean:
Why Dolphins Have Disappeared from Israel’s Shores
Noble Energy May be Pushing its Luck by Drilling for deep Oil in the Med
Lebanon: Green Peace Investigation Reveals toxic Coast Pollution
Scales, Impingmen and Entrainment; Know Desalination’s Negative Side

The post Israel’s Mediterranean Seacoast Severely Threatened by People appeared first on Green Prophet.

An investigation by Greenpeace has found hormone-disrupting chemicals and a range of phthalates which are classified as toxic to reproduction in Lebanese waters

Ranking a lowly 114 in the Global Health Index, Lebanon was under no illusion that its waters were the cleanest or most biodiverse. However, a recent report by Greenpeace Lebanon has revealed some rather shocking finds about the toxic nature of the country’s coast. From November 2011 to February 2012, the Greenpeace Lebanon team collected a total of 30 samples from various locations along the Lebanese coast. These were then sent to to the Greenpeace International Science Unit in the UK for assessment. The results showed a “a plethora of dangerous and toxic compounds present in the waters [which] represent a serious risk hazard, both to human and environmental health.” 

Solid waste problems, wastewater problems and industrial emissions were highlighted as the three main areas causing contamination. In the case of the wastewater and solid waste, lack of infrastructure and management law were the major problems as well as the “immense lag from the Lebanese state in establishing a proper wastewater network and water treatment plants.” The report added that industrial emissions represent a more sizeable challenge as solutions exist in terms of legislation but aren’t properly implemented.

The samples collected were found to have contaminants such as flame retardants, the hormone-disrupting nonylphenol ethoxylates, low levels of lead, zinc, copper, iron and manganese and a range of phthalates including DIBP and DEHP, both of which are classified as toxic to reproduction. High levels of chromium were also detected in discharged wastewaters from the Lebanese Tanneries and Mounir Bsat facilities in Ghazieh.

The report concluded that further investigations would be necessary in order to identify the specific sources of the chemicals identified in the various wastewater discharges. “Nonetheless, taken together, the results from this study indicate that a broad range of chemical pollutants (both metals and organic chemical contaminants) are discharged in wastewaters from multiple sources to the Mediterranean Coastal area of Lebanon,” added the report.

The report, entitled “Lebanon’s Toxic Coast: an overview of threats, problems and solutions,” also emphasized that the responsibility for combating this problem lies with both the public and private sectors. Speaking to the Daily Star, Rayan Makarem from Greenpeace Lebanon explained: “It is the responsibility of the government to handle the issue of waste-water management through the implementation of current plans to complete the waste-water infrastructure for the country and stop the dumping of raw sewage directly into the Mediterranean.”

“In addition, new legislation should be passed to allow for a complete upheaval of the solid waste sector, which is suffering from the absence of modern rules and regulations,” Makarem said. “Industries in Lebanon can and should be able to control their emissions in accordance with existing legislation … as well as investing in improving their industrial process or in the installation of the required filters.

: Photo via Greenpeace Lebanon/facebook.

For more on Lebanon see:

The State of The Middle East’s Oceans – A Report

Pink Balloon Protest: Lebanese Reclaim Beirut Beach

Lebanese Green Designers Transform Washing Machines Into Beautiful Seats

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If rising temperatures on land are enabling bed bugs and drug-resistant diseases to proliferate, it stands to reason that something similar might happen in our oceans. And it is. A 200 page document detailing over 100 EU-funded marine watch projects shows that since the 1980s, there has been an increase in the Vibrio bacteria. Why do we care? Well, in addition to causing food poisoning, gastroenteritis, and septicemia, one genus of Vibrio – namely V. cholera – causes cholera.

The comma bacteria

Scientists began observing Vibrio concentrations in our oceans in the 1960s. They discovered that towards the end of the 1980s, when ocean temperatures began to rise, so too did bacteria.

In their report, the Daily Mail quotes the researchers as being concerned about the economic costs that such changes in our oceans will effect. They are worried that millions of Euros will be wasted on healthcare.

What’s more important than money?

But this report signals something even more important than the financial costs. We tend to think of climate change as being something that will impact future generations, which makes it a lot easier to carry on driving our hummers and eating big juicy burgers, when it is actually a present tense situation.

One contributor to the report, marine scientist Katja Philippart from the Royal Netherlands Institute of Sea Research, told the paper: ‘What was striking to me was the enormous pile of evidence that things are already happening.

Love in the time of cholera

Typically associated with poor sanitation, cholera outbreaks used to occur on a regular basis before the industrial revolution, killing thousands of people at a time, and still occur once in a while in underdeveloped nations. While the real extent of danger is yet unknown, European researchers have demonstrated that climate change, and not lack of hygiene, is increasing the presence of vibrio bacteria in our seafood.

The report was released in advance of the recent Project CLAMER (Climate Change and Marine Ecosystem Research) meeting in Brussels, a collaboration of 17 European marine institutes. Other effects of climate change reported include melting ice, rising sea levels, coastal erosion, increased storm intensity and frequency, acidification, and deoxygenation.

:: Daily Mail

More on the effects of climate change and our oceans:

Book Review: Plastiki, Across the Ocean on Plastic

Can World Oceans Become Extinct?

Ocean Parts Sculptures are a Strange Gift of the Sea

image via Ross Angus

The post Another Effect of Climate Change: Cholera Bacteria in our Oceans appeared first on Green Prophet.

At a time when Arab media attention was focused on extended wars, failed states, and austerity measures, a recent report on the world’s oceans failed to gain considerable attention in the region. The news that the marine environment is in danger is not new, and may seem irrelevant to this part of the world. However, the report should raise global concerns as new findings show that urgent action is needed to avoid a “catastrophe unprecedented in human history”.

The alarmist statements of the report, released by the International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO) and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), met with objections from some climate change cynics.

But while some of the language may appear extreme, there is now solid scientific evidence that the seas are degenerating faster than ever before.

The combined effect of a number of factors, ranging from climate warming and sea-water acidification, to marine pollution and overfishing, is seen as responsible for the accelerating decline of the world’s largest ecosystem and its species, from large fish at one end of the scale to tiny corals at the other.

The waters of the Middle East are vulnerable

The seas surrounding the Middle East are very different. The Persian Gulf is a shallow semi-enclosed sea with little in common with the Red Sea or the Mediterranean, but the human impact on our waters has been substantial everywhere.

As Green Prophet has been reporting, pollution, over/unsustainable fishing, and remains from desalination plants are widespread and largely unregulated.

Examples abound, but some of the latest indications of things gone wrong:

• According to latest estimates, nearly two-thirds of the coral reefs in the Middle East region are at risk from local threats such as coastal development, overfishing/destructive fishing, marine-based pollution, and/or watershed-based pollution. The hardest hit is the Persian Gulf, where more than 85 percent of reefs are considered threatened, while the figure for the Red Sea is just over 60 percent.

• Oil pollution remains the greatest threat to the marine environment of the Persian Gulf. The movement of 40 percent of the worlds’ total oil through these waters creates harmful discharges and contaminated ballast water from oil tankers and oil related industries, causing considerable damage to water quality and marine species. Estimates of the spillage are difficult to confirm, but controls and regulations are limited and no international requirement exits to address the regular daily pollution by oil tankers. Meanwhile land-based sources of pollution from the population growth and rapid urbanization (including desalination plans that create problems from the return of warm, highly saline waters with chemicals) exacerbate the problem.

• In Lebanon, a combination of over-fishing, pollution and dynamite/blast/spear fishing have had a devastating and irreversible effect on the Lebanese coast and fish species. Sewage is also dumped at sea along with industrial waste. Where once fish was an abundant food for communities on the coast, fishermen are now struggling for a catch while endangered turtles are dying each year by eating plastic bags that look like their jelly fish prey.

• Although there is a lack on information on the extent of the problem, foreign fishing vessels in neighboring international waters often use unsustainable fishing methods and destroy the living resources that local fishing communities also depend on.  Japanese, Chinese, South Korean, Spanish, and Italians have reportedly done their fair share of illegal fishing in the Mediterranean, mainly targeting the large, sleek torpedo-shaped Bluefin. Meanwhile, Thailand, with one of the world’s largest fishing fleets, is trying to partner with countries in the region looking for access to the regions’ fish stocks. While fish stocks deplete worldwide, there is an absence of collaborative effort from the region for enforcing sustainable fishing methods, vessel monitoring systems and addressing illegal fishing issues in neighboring international waters.

New marine threats?

Although these are old and recurring problems, taken together they are presenting new threats with new forms of toxic chemicals and marine litter. But the concern goes beyond less fish to eat, not being able to swim in the sea, or community livelihoods.

In a recent commentary, Sylvia Earle from National Geographic, highlighted that the greatest concern lies in the effect of damaging the ocean ecosystems, which represents our “life-support system”.

According to her, ‘if the sea is in trouble, we are in touble” as oceans play a big role as photosynthetic organisms in the sea yield most of the oxygen in the atmosphere, taking up and storing carbon dioxide.

As this Arab generation rises from complacency to activism, any new responsible government should be required to address effective management of the sea.

Studies show that over fishing is the easiest for governments to reverse by policy change, but technical solutions for the other these problems exist. What is missing is commitment and strong enforceable legislation to address the multiple threats, mostly caused by humans and now coming together to undermine the sustainability of our waters.

More on overfishing and oceans:

Despite Ban, UAE remains Market Hub for Shark Fins

Gone Fishing But Not in the Sea of Galilee

World Ocean Day- 6 Tips to Green the Seas

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