Latest news with #HughCarter
The Guardian
07-08-2025
- Science
- The Guardian
Crumbling shells, melting ice – and a wildlife boom: what recreating Scott's Antarctic trip reveals about our seas today
Three glass specimen jars full of satsuma-sized echinoderms, or sea urchins, sit on Dr Hugh Carter's desk in the Natural History Museum. Each one, collected from the depths of the Southern Ocean by polar teams led by Sir Ernest Shackleton, Capt Robert Falcon Scott and the Norwegian Carsten Borchgrevink, tells a tale of heroic exploration and scientific endeavour. Now, more than a century later, Carter, the Natural History Museum's (NHM) curator of marine invertebrates, hopes the preserved Antarctic urchins, 50 in all, will help tell a different, increasingly urgent story of modern times: how changes in the world's southernmost waters may be affecting marine life. In January, the biologist undertook a six-week long research trip to visit the exact sites sampled by Borchgrevink's Southern Cross, Shackleton's Discovery and Scott's ill-fated Terra Nova expedition between 1898 and 1913. His voyage, part of a multidisciplinary expedition run by the National Institute of Water and Atmosphere (Niwa), supported by the Antarctic Science Platform in New Zealand, partly retraced the route made by Scott. Scott and four other explorers, including the chief scientist, Edward Wilson, perished in the ice around a month after the samples sitting on Carter's desk were collected. In the Antarctic, which is warming at twice the global average, a lack of baseline scientific data makes it difficult to assess the physical and biological changes that have occurred over time. Carter's theory is that comparing the 'tests' or shell of the urchins in the NHM's collection with modern samples will help reveal more about the impact of ocean acidification, often called the 'evil twin' of the climate crisis. Acidification is caused when carbon dioxide is rapidly absorbed into the ocean, where it then reacts with water molecules leading to a fall in the pH of the seawater. Preliminary findings on Carter's ship, the deep water research vessel the RV Tangaroa, appeared to confirm his worst fears. 'We know that the ocean has been getting more acidic but in most cases we don't know what the impacts are,' he says. 'We had a suspicion that [due to ocean acidification] you would get less calcium carbonate in the water. This would make it harder to build a body if that body is made from calcium carbonate.' Corals, sea snails, oysters and small single-celled organisms called foraminifera, a component of plankton, all rely on calcium carbonate to build shells. Calcium carbonate dissolves in acid very easily, so the more acid, the harder it is for animals such as these to survive. In June, new research showed that 60% of global waters had breached the safe limit for acidification, in what scientists described as a 'ticking timebomb' for planetary health. While the tests of the historical urchins on Carter's desk were 'robust and healthy', those brought to the surface in January were thinner and more fragile in comparison, so much so that they were crushed by the force of the hose used to clean them. 'All the ones we collected were fragile and some of them collapsed,' says Carter. 'From initial appearances, the modern specimens we collected have weaker tests than the historical ones, but we need to do more work to establish to what degree and exactly what is causing this. 'There are confounding variables of course, but the fact the new ones are thinner is concerning.' The biological implications of an acidifying ocean could be enormous, adds Carter. 'It could make the seas unliveable for things with a calcium skeleton.' During the expedition, the impact of the climate crisis was tangible; some of the study sites were only accessible because of melting ice. And it coincided with stark findings that the level of global sea ice fell to its lowest recorded level, a symptom of our warming planet. But there were positive finds on the expedition, too. Carter saw as many as 150 whales on his trip, as well as what he described as 'crazy levels' of wildlife on the western edge of Coulman island, which had 17 species of starfish in just 100 metres, the same number found in all of the UK's shallow waters. 'It is a thrill to know that the environment is not as bad in some parts of the world as it could be,' he says. 'It's the only bit of the world you don't see any plastic or human impacts from fishing.' Prof Craig Stevens, an Niwa oceanographer who co-led the Tangaroa expedition, described their work as 'sweet and sour'. 'This lack of ice is having knock-on effects for not only the regional ocean but the whole planet. This work is very sweet and sour. It is amazing to get the opportunity to advance the science, but at the same time, we are catching glimpses of a future for the planet that we really want to avoid. It brings home in a very tangible way the need to limit emissions of climate-affecting gases.'
BBC News
07-08-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Salisbury Plain shooting group fears closure in bird flu row
A Wiltshire shooting group says it may have to close down if new licensing laws around bird flu are not March, general licences for shooting gamebird, such as pheasant, were no longer issued for 2025 on or around Special Protection Areas by move was over fears the gamebirds could infect important bird populations with bird flu. Natural England was tasked with considering licences on a case-by-case of Bulford and Tidworth Garrison Shoot Hugh Carter said without a licence his shoot on Salisbury Plain would face closure. Natural England says licences can only be granted in "exceptional circumstances" where "clear measures" to cut transmission risk are taken. Special Protection Areas (SPAs) are strictly protected sites where internationally important wild bird populations live, such as the ground nesting Stone Curlew, which live on Salisbury Plain for parts of the Carter said Natural England should reconsider its "broad brush" approach to avian influenza."The assessment over the whole country is at one level but not reflecting what's going on, on Salisbury Plain," said Mr club shoots on the military training area of the plain and has 250 members who are largely serving personnel, military veterans and their dependants. It also employs a gamekeeper for the area, beaters and a gun dog team. Game killed during shoots is given first to employees and then donated to the wider community for Carter said if the shoot folded, the impact would be far-reaching for his community: "If there's no shoot, there's no gamekeeper, no picker-ups, no beaters, no food going into the community, no field sports going to the military community."It's the end. There are eight shoots here on Salisbury Plain all of whom will go out of business in the not too distant future if there is not some measured and sensible assessment done by Natural England." The British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC) is taking legal action against Natural Lovejoy, BASC's deputy director for conservation, said the focus of Natural England was on "disease risk" and it had not "looked at the impact of the removal of the predator control and habitat management" that shoots management is achieved largely through the employment of a gamekeeper, who controls the number of animals, such as foxes and badgers, which eat protected species like the Stone Curlew. 'Thriving' Ms Lovejoy said: "There is ample evidence that shows that protected bird species are thriving on areas where you have a shoot."Where predator management is undertaken, in our opinion, that whole section is missing in the [Natural England] assessment".She said Natural England's approach risked undermining the very conservation goals it was meant to support. Game management, predator control and habitat improvements, much of it privately funded and volunteer-led, were often inseparable from shooting activities, she added."Shooting contributes over £500m annually in conservation work – equivalent to 26,000 full-time jobs," said Ms Lovejoy. Natural England said it could not comment on ongoing legal matters but Matthew Heard, director of national delivery, said: "Natural England is responsible for protecting internationally important bird populations on Salisbury Plain from avian influenza, such as the Stone Curlew."We have been tasked by Defra with considering individual licences for game bird releases. "But, given the very high risk of transmission of this deadly disease, government policy makes clear they can only be granted if there is evidence of exceptional circumstances and clear measures to reduce risk of transmission." According to the Bulford and Tidworth Garrison Shoot, Minister for Animal Welfare and Biosecurity Baroness Sue Hayman recognises its "biosecurity protocols exceed Defra requirements", but Natural England refused the licence application. Military Veterans Mark Witham is a military veteran who served 36 years in the army and says he relies on the Bulford and Tidworth Garrison Shoot. "I was physically and mentally broken when I left the army," he says, adding that with the shoot, "I'm outside with my dogs, talking to different people every day."It is fantastic for my mental wellbeing".He said working on each shoot with his five dogs, retrieving injured game to quickly dispatch them, and collecting shot game, was his said if shoots closed it would have a "devastating" impact on him. "I'll have dogs that I can't employ, they are my livelihood."I'm also a gundog trainer. I'd have to get rid of my picking-up team because I wouldn't be able to employ them." The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) has shown support for the current guidance.A RSPB spokesperson welcomed "the decision made by Defra to not allow gamebird release on SPAs under general licence and the precautionary approach Natural England are taking in granting individual licences".The charity said it wanted the government to go further, calling for "all future releases of reared gamebirds and mallards [not just those on protected sites]" to be licensed.
