Are+Emperor+Penguins+Eating+Enough?

Are Emperor Penguins Eating Enough?

> > > > > //Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 // - Ensures that marine mammals are maintained at, or in some cases restored to, healthy population levels. //Fish and Wildlife Improvement Act of 1978 //- Authorizes the Secretaries of the Interior and Commerce to establish, conduct, and assist with national training programs for State fish and wildlife law enforcement personnel. It also authorized funding for research and development of new or improved methods to support fish and wildlife law enforcement. //Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act of 1980 // - The Act enables the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) to provide sound management of the province's fish and wildlife well into the next century.
 * 1)  **Article**: The article was published on Science Daily on May 2, 2018. Link: []
 * 1)  **Summary**: The article describes a new method to quantify the dearth of food that emperor penguins are currently facing. Researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution have developed a two-step process to remotely monitor circumstances in Antarctica: digital photos of the penguins are taken every minute throughout the day and then stored and analyzed in conjunction with other sensor based measurements like air temperature, relative humidity, solar radiation, and wind. This information is compiled to develop a sense of the penguin’s body temperature at the moment - if they are warm enough at the correct times, they are receiving enough food, and if they are not, then there is an obvious issue of undernourishment. As the ice sheets melt rapidly and the penguins’ fish sources plummet, the indicators may show that penguins are decreasingly nourished. This measurement is especially crucial now, as emperor penguin populations have been declared critically endangered.
 * 1)  **Relevance to APES**: The course’s stated objective is “ to provide students with the scientific principles, concepts, and methodologies required [...] to identify and analyze environmental problems both natural and human-made, to evaluate the relative risks associated with these problems, and to examine alternative solutions for resolving and/or preventing them.” Given this objective, provided by College Board, it is inherent that students must be able to recognize global scale environmental issues and develop reliable methods of quantifying them . The advancements in the ability to monitor the extreme conditions in Antarctica represent clear progress in the field of environmental science, and students can learn from this development.
 * 1)  **My Perspective**: Although the article does not suggest any solutions to the issue of emperor penguin populations decreasing, it does delineate methods of recognizing and presenting real data about the issue. This, to me, is just as important as creating a set of solutions that may or may not come to fruition. Especially in a mystical region like the Antarctica, about which we have little information or scientific understanding, developing a method to analyze environmental conditions is integral to the improvement of these circumstances.
 * 1)  **Law**: All three of the following environmental laws relate directly to the issue at hand, as they detail the restrictions that both governmental agencies and corporations must adhere when engaging in such practices.

 Image of emperor penguins from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution monitoring process.