POPs migrate by air and fall onto into the water in the colder regions. A recent survey of Baffin Island-based Inuit people, who eat a lot of fish, walrus and seal meat, found dramatically elevated blood levels of two agricultural insecticides that are not used in that region and were banned in the United States in the 1980s. In March, the State Department released a really quite alarming report on coral reef bleaching. For example, it killed 80 percent of the coral in the reefs around the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean. The report explains that an increase in ocean temperatures brought on by climate change appears to have been the leading culprit.
Coral reefs are among the world's richest, most productive ecosystems.
They are also thought to be among the most susceptible to the effects of climate change in that corals are especially sensitive to increased sea surface temperatures. As I mentioned, there has been a palpable change in our collective understanding of the oceans. And this change is manifest in a number of recent events. For example, a year ago this month the United States and seven other countries signed an agreement to protect dolphins in the eastern Pacific from being harmed or killed by tuna fishing. The U.S. and other Western Hemisphere governments have also negotiated an agreement to protect endangered sea turtles in the Western Hemisphere from various life-threatening perils, such as drowning in shrimp nets.