Cancer for seals
While this may sound alarming at first, there may be a ray of light. As temperatures warm
and the poles get significantly farther away from freezing, bad things happen. In this cases diseases happen. But animals can evolve.
This is a gray seal and as the
arctic ice melts, so does their breeding ground.
To compensate, the seals must travel farther north to locate a new
breeding ground. While the seals migration north may allow us more and more sightings of the seals, it also
allows new opportunities for viruses and other ailments to develop. In the seals' case, their migration south to warmer waters allows them to become hosts for S.
pinnipedi, a parasite that acts like cancer. This parasite is supposed to replicate in the liver
until a switch is flipped. When the switch is flipped, the parasite will form cysts to infect another host. Sadly, however, this is not the case for Gray seals. For Gray seals, the parasite just keeps going. The switch never flips and the seals' liver is eventually
destroyed.
Now Gray seals are only one species of
animal and saving them is only one more reason to stop global warming. But as global warming continues more
and more species become infected. Beluga whales are another species battling new types of sickness. Belugas are getting bacteria commonly
found in cat feces. If global warming continues there may be new meaning to "dead on the
water" for most marine species.
While this information is all sad and deadly, the grain of salt is that a different kind of seals, ringed seals, live with these bacteria. The bacteria are
still in their livers. So maybe living with disease is the new normal for marine animals. Maybe we can’t do
anything to stop the growing problem of illness in these animals or reverse it.
Nos themes
-Science is subject to debate and
tentative
-Science is based on evidence
-Science is collaborative
Do you think we can do anything to stop the infection?
If we can do something to stop the infection should we?
In this article (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2415191/And-global-COOLING-Return-Arctic-ice-cap-grows-29-year.html) it shows that the arctic ice caps have grown 29% this year. hopefully the seals and other animals wont have to travel as far now and wont be exposed to the viruses and other ailments.Hopefully we can find a way to stop the disease already rooted in the Gray Seals.
ReplyDeletehttp://news.sciencemag.org/biology/2014/02/melting-arctic-ice-releases-deadly-seal-parasite
ReplyDeleteIn this article it says that the loss of arctic ice might also cause parasites once only found in lower latitudes to move north which is where the gray seals are fleeing to. The information that you found really is eye opening that global warming is doing much more damage to marine life than the media claims it is.
Reading your article makes global warming all too real. It is terrible to think that the marine biology is being killed, when they haven't even done anything wrong. I have found an article that is similar to yours. This article talks about different sea life and how it is affected. It also mentions the effects on whales in a little more detail. It is really worth taking a look at! Here is the link: http://www.neaq.org/conservation_and_research/climate_change/effects_on_ocean_animals.php
ReplyDelete