GLOBAL

PROLIFERATION
OF CEPHALOPODS

Javiera Rubio Di Biase

Department of Biology
The Grange School
Mr. Philip Smyth
4th of July 2016

Index
Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 3
Importance of cephalopods .. 3
Impact of human activities on the ocean ...................................................................................... 4
Effects of global warming on the ocean ....................................................................................... 5
Effects of the global proliferation of cephalopods ....................................................................... 6
Conclusion 8
Bibliography . 9

Introduction
Cephalopods are the class of molluscs which scientists classify octopuses, squid, cuttlefish and nautiluses
(Wood, 1995). The class Cephalopoda means head foot (Wood, 1995) describing the general body structure
of these animals, as they only possess two sections, a head and a mobile limb. The global proliferation of
cephalopods is due to their ability to quickly adapt to changing environmental conditions something that is now
a common phenomenon because of global warming and the impact that human activities have on oceans.
Cephalopods have a unique set of biological traits, including rapid growth, short lifespans and strong lifehistory plasticity (Current Biology Magazine, 2016), which means that they can change their phenotype in
response to changes in their environment. As a species cephalopods are distributed in almost all of the different
habitats around the world. There are arctic species, arctic-boreal species, boreal species, low-boreal-subtropical
species, peripheral species, subtropical species, tropical species, central species, south subtropical-notalian
species, notalian species, notalian-antarctic species, and Antarctic species of cephalopods. (P.P.Shirshov
Institute of Oceanology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 2003) These animals are of considerable
importance to humans, reason why their current proliferation has been a topic of interest for many scientists
around the world. The objective of this project is to create conscience of the impact that human activities have
on the oceans ecosystems. Due to an overall increase of seawater temperature and continuous acidification only
species that can adapt to an environment that changes so quickly (like cephalopods) will be able to survive
whilst all the other marine species will disappear. As all cephalopods are carnivores the proliferation of them
consequently means the decrease of the species they feed on and an overall alteration of the oceans food
chains.
Importance of cephalopods
Cephalopods contribute to the income of the worldwide
fishing industry as many species of squid and octopus are
eaten. They also play an important role in the trophic
structure of world marine ecosystems because they are
voracious predators, due to their high metabolic rates, and
they are prey of several marine predators (Rodhouse and
Nigmatullin, 1996) as shown in the trophic web sample of a
Chilean ecosystem in Figure 1 (modified from Chile et al.
(2007)).
Figure 1

Impact of human activities on the ocean

Human activities have had a harmful impact on the oceans all over the world. A recent study that has mapped
the total human impact on the seas for the first time has revealed that () 40% of the world's oceans have been
heavily affected by human activities, including fishing, coastal development and pollution from shipping.
(ProtectPlanetOcean, 2010). This is shown in the map below.

(ProtectPlanetOcean, 2010)
The impact of humans on marine life is one of the reasons that explains the global proliferation of cephalopods.
Seabirds are one of the species that feeds on cephalopods. Their population has been increasingly diminished by
many human-related activities including oil spills, fisheries interactions, contaminants, disturbances, and
habitat destruction. (National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, 2014). These disturbances have an impact
on the breeding cycle of seabirds either causing a complete breeding failure of a colony or forcing birds to
abandon their eggs and/or chicks. As the population of seabirds decreases there are less predators that feed on
cephalopods and therefore their population increases.
Pelagic fish is the name of the classification of all fish that live in the Pelagic Zone of oceans illustrated in the
figure below (Vispute, 2014) . The pelagic fish, which live in the upper parts of the water, are caught by drift
netting, whereby a net is suspended from floats and spread between two boats to trap as many fish as possible.
(Jetson, 2014). At the same time fish that live in deeper waters are caught by trawling, whereby a huge net is
dragged through the water, which traps every creature that comes in its way. (Jetson, 2014). These modern
techniques of capturing fish combined with the increasing rate at which fisherman have been capturing fish in
the past years have lead to Overfishing. Fish cant reproduce fast enough to replenish the water bodies with
more fish (Jetson, 2014) and therefore species suffer large decreases of population or even extinction. Pelagic
fish are the other main predator of cephalopods.
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The decrease in the population of both seabirds and pelagic fish has left cephalopods without many predators or
competition for the same food and therefore has contributed to their constantly growing population all over the
world.

(Vispute, 2014)
Effects of global warming on the ocean
Amongst many other harming effects, global warming has acidified and increased the oceans temperature. The
current situation of oceans is detrimental for most species but cephalopods because of their specific biological
traits that make them able to adapt to changing environments. Zo Doubleday, marine ecologist from the
University of Adelaide in Australia stated that cephalopods are often called weeds of the sea because of their
rapid growth, short lifespans and flexible development. On the contrary to what occurs to many marine species
researchers noted that warmer temperatures likely due to human-accelerated climate change speed up the
cephalopod life cycle (Nikolau, 2016) being one of the factors contributing to their global proliferation. On top
of that, rising concentrations of carbon dioxide caused by the rapidly increasing amount of emissions of this gas
created by humans has lowered the pH of oceans that absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The
acidification of oceans is lethal to many species but specifically for molluscs as studies have shown that larvae
and adults will find it more difficult to deposit their calcium carbonate (CaCO 3) shells and suffer a range of
negative impacts including changes in metabolism, acid-base status, reduced reproduction, immune response
and survival (Laura M. Parker, 2013). On the other hand, cephalopods show an incredible way of adapting to
the lower pH that oceans have now because of the increasing impact of human activity on ecosystems. These
animals are able to calcify and even increase calcification during exposure to elevated CO2, because of their
capacity to ion-regulate and maintain extracellular pH through an increase in extracellular [HCO3] (Laura M.
Parker, 2013), constituting another evidence for their global proliferation.
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Effect of the global proliferation of cephalopods

Cephalopods are voracious predators and an increase in their population will result in a great decrease of the
population of their respective prey. One of the sea animals that cephalopods feed on are sardines, a very
economically important species for humans as they are sold for worldwide consumption. The DirectorateGeneral for International Policies of the European Parliament conducted a study of sardine fisheries which
showed how the Southern sardine landings have decreased from 1978 up to 2014 (Directorate-General for
International Policies, 2015).

Landings from the whole stock show a continuous decrease since 1981 from 217 000 tonnes to 28 000 tonnes
in 2014. Strict regulations implemented from 2011 onwards led to drastic decreases of landings of 32% from
2011 to 2012 and 39% from 2013 to 2014. (Directorate-General for International Policies, 2015). The strict
regulations mentioned in the study were to prevent overfishing of sardines in Europe yet these regulations were
only implemented from 2011 onwards and the decrease of the sardine catch shown initiated in 1981. This shows
how the beginning of the decrease could be attributed to the increase in the population of one of their predators,
specifically cephalopods. Another study conducted by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea
on the cephalopod biology and fisheries in Europe showed how the total cephalopod landings from the
Northeast Atlantic and Mediterranean have increased from 1950 up to 2006, illustrated by the black line at the
top of the graph below (International Council for Exploration of the Sea, 2010).

The study also concluded that higher cephalopod catches () are becoming particularly important for the
income of local, smallscale fishing fleets. (International Council for Exploration of the Sea, 2010).
Considering both studies it is possible to conclude how the global proliferation of cephalopods can alter the
fishing market to shift from the catch of fish that are cephalopods prey to actually catching cephalopods,
something that hasnt been taken into consideration before as today cephalopod consumption is mainly due to
cephalopods being caught as by products from main fisheries. This will have an impact not only in Europe but
in the world fishing industry as cephalopods have a worldwide distribution.
In Chile the jack mackerel fishing industry is one of the main income sources of the southern areas of the
country. It is of such importance that the Regional Fisheries Management Organization for the South Pacific
(ORP- PS) decided to assign the 65% of the global jack mackerel fishing quota to Chilean fisheries (AQUA,
2016). This fundamental economic resource is showing a constant decrease mainly because of overfishing but
also because of the increase of one of the main predators of this species, cephalopods. Studies done in 2009
revealed that the amount of different species of cephalopods increased from 98 to 110 different species living in
Chilean waters (Vega, 2009). The Science Faculty of the Universidad de Chile also published a study showing
that total cephalopod catches increased from 69 tonnes in 1978 (0.13% total mollusk catch) to 3503 tonnes in
1996 (3.64%) (Laboratorio de Hidrobiologa, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Chile, 2003) a significant

increase that will only continue to grow and that constitutes one of the causes of the current decreasing
population of jack mackerel in the southern pacific waters.
Conclusion
Cephalopods have shown a continuous increase in their population over the past years. Even though studies are
still analyzing the relationship between climate change and their global proliferation, the figures obtained show
a positive relationship between the two phenomena. Cephalopods are one of the most prehistoric invertebrates
as they evolved from primitive mollusks during the Late Cambrian, approximately 500 million years ago
(Wood, 1995). This characteristic is what many scientists use to explain their ability to adapt to changing
environments something that again links climate change to their proliferation. It is important to consider the
impact of humans on speeding up climate and environmental change specifically in oceans through overfishing,
the increasing emission of carbon dioxide gas and other gases that increase the greenhouse effect which warms
up oceans. If we dont make changes to our current role in climate and environmental change, we will not only
be affecting the oceanic ecosystem but also our economy as many countries depend on fishing as their main
economic activity and the increase in population of this predators is already diminishing the amount of prey fish
caught and sold. It is important to educate future generations to take responsibility on their actions that have a
negative impact on the ecosystem in which we live in in order to stop the abnormal increase and decrease of
specific populations of species that could lead to the extinction of some vulnerable and less able to adapt
creatures.

Bibliography
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Current Biology Magazine. (23 de Mayo de 2016). Science Direct. Recuperado el 8 de
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http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982216303190
P.P.Shirshov Institute of Oceanology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. (1 de January
de 2003). DISTRIBUTION OF RECENT CEPHALOPODA AND IMPLICATIONS FOR PLIOPLEISTOCENE EVENTS. Obtenido de Distribution of cephalopods: http://www.geo.fuberlin.de/geol/fachrichtungen/pal/eigenproduktion/Band_03/19.pdf
Rodhouse and Nigmatullin. (1 de January de 1996). Ecology of Cephalopods. Obtenido de
Ibanez Christian ecology: https://sites.google.com/site/ibanezchristian/ecology
ProtectPlanetOcean. (1 de Enero de 2010). Protect Planet Ocean is about Marine
Conservation. Recuperado el 16 de Junio de 2016, de Protect Planet Ocean:
http://www.protectplanetocean.org/collections/introduction/introbox/humanimpact/i
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Service. Recuperado el 22 de Junio de 2016, de What threats do seabirds face?:
http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/seabird-threats.html
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Differences Between Benthic and Pelagic Zones:
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Jetson, K. (1 de Enero de 2014). Marine Science Today. Recuperado el 22 de Junio de
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http://marinesciencetoday.com/2014/04/09/impact-of-overfishing-on-human-lives/
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mean fewer fish, more octopus and squid :
http://www.humanosphere.org/environment/2016/05/rapidly-changing-oceansmeans-fewer-fish-more-octopus-and-squid/
Laura M. Parker, P. M. (1 de June de 2013). Predicting the Response of Molluscs to the
Impact of Ocean Acidification. Obtenido de NCBI:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3960890/#B7-biology-02-00651
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fisheries: resource assessment and social and economic situation. Obtenido de
European Parliament:
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2015/563412/IPOL_STU(2015
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International Council for Exploration of the Sea. (1 de August de 2010). ICES
COOPERATIVE RESEARCH REPORT. Obtenido de Cephalopod biology and fisheries
in Europe: file:///Users/macboo/Downloads/213653.pdf
AQUA. (26 de January de 2016). Industriales valoraron cuota de jurel para Chile.
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http://www.aqua.cl/2016/01/26/industriales-valoraron-cuota-de-jurel-para-chile-enel-pacifico-sur/
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Chile . Obtenido de Sociedad Malacolgica de Chile (SMACH) :
file:///Users/macboo/Downloads/Ib%C3%A1%C3%B1ez%20et%20al.pdf
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Laboratorio de Hidrobiologa, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Chile. (1 de January

de 2003). Overview of cephalopod fisheries in Chilean waters . Obtenido de
Overview of cephalopod fisheries in Chilean waters :
http://digital.csic.es/bitstream/10261/56210/3/Overview_cephalopod_fisheries.pdf

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