globalbriefs


News and resources to inspire concerned citizens to work together in building a healthier, stronger society that benefi ts all.


Heave Ho Abandoned and Lost Fishing Gear Pollutes the Seas


Abandoned and lost fi shing gear such as traps, crab pots and nets litter the ocean fl oor in coastal areas worldwide, continuing to attract, entrap and kill fi sh and other marine life. The Associated Press reports that global nonprofi ts, governments and companies are engaged in efforts to retrieve and recycle as many of the items as possible to protect the


environment, save marine life and reduce hazards to marine navigation. A 2009 United Nations report estimated there are 640,000 tons of discarded


fi shing nets deep below the ocean surface worldwide. Recommended solutions include degradable panels on traps that break down and allow trapped marine life to escape. International agreements prohibit dumping fi shing equipment at sea; yet in England, small vessels can amass landfi ll charges of roughly $700 per year, giving them an incentive to ditch broken gear. Pascal van Erp, a Dutch diver alarmed by the amount of equipment he’s encountered, founded the Ghost Fishing Foundation to tackle the issue. He says, “It’s found in all seas, oceans and inland waters at all depths, along the beach and under the sand. I don’t think the problem can be resolved completely, but we can keep it from getting worse by showing the problem to the public and the authorities.” Industry experts and scientists estimate that commercial fi shermen annually lose about 10 percent of their traps due to bad weather.


Veggie Tales Plants Communicate with Sound


A recent study from the University of Western Australia has found that plants regularly react to and emit sounds through a series of clicks produced by their roots, and that such inter-fl ora communication may be essential to their survival. Evolutionary biologist Monica Gagliano, who made the discovery, listened to the roots of young corn plants and found that they regularly produced sounds in the range of 220Hz, a frequency audible to the human ear.


Plants have been shown to infl uence each other in many ways through


nanomechanical oscillations on a molecular scale. Gagliano remarks, “Scientists also know that plants use volatile chemicals to communicate with each other.”


Another biological research team under the direction of Professor Olaf Kruse, Ph.D., scientifi c director of the Center for Biotechnology at Germany’s Bielefeld University, has shown that green algae not only engages in photosynthesis, but also has an alternative source of energy: It can draw it from other plants (Nature Communications).


Gagliano comments, “Considering that entire forests are all interconnected by networks of fungi, maybe plants are using fungi the way we use the Internet.”


February 2017 13


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