PUB celebrates World Water Day by introducing yoga by the water

Channel NewsAsia 22 Mar 08;

SINGAPORE: In its efforts to get more people to enjoy Singapore’s water bodies, the national water agency, PUB, has introduced ‘Yoga by the Water’.

And as part of World Water Day celebrations, it also recognised the contributions of five Singaporeans, who fought water pollution and wastage.

Some 250 enthusiasts participated in the inaugural event to mark World Water Day at Upper Pierce Reservoir and it proved to be a hit.

PUB said that besides introducing new activities, it also wants the community to enjoy Singapore's water bodies in a responsible manner.

And being responsible was what got five Singaporeans honoured for raising red flags against water pollution and wastage through various media.

One such recipient is 44-year-old housewife, Tay Bee Hui who noticed bluish water being discharged from a drain opposite her house.

She said: "At that time, my thinking was this is not normal water. So I put the picture up on Xin.sg to raise awareness about water pollution."

Senior Parliamentary Secretary for the Environment and Water Resources, Dr Amy Khor, said: "In terms of raising awareness about the importance of keeping our water clean, they have actually contributed significantly. We do appreciate such efforts.

“I think they are the extension - they are the eyes and ears for us on the ground. Obviously, we cannot be everywhere all the time, and therefore people like these who can contribute in terms of raising awareness, in terms of tip-off, it will help us in our aim to raise awareness about the important role of water, as well as the importance of keeping our water bodies clean."

The other recipients who clinched the award were Tan Keng Seng, Jeremy Chin, Yu Hin Mang and Teh Jen Lee. - CNA/vm

Celebrating World Water Day with mass yoga by reservoir

IT was yoga under the blue morning sky and by the waterside at Upper Pierce Reservoir this morning, with 200 participants stretching their way through a one-hour routine.
Hedy Khoo, The New Paper 23 Mar 08;

IT was yoga under the blue morning sky and by the waterside at Upper Pierce Reservoir this morning, with 200 participants stretching their way through a one-hour routine.

The mass yoga workout was organised by PUB, the national water agency, to commemorate World Water Day yesterday.

In addition, five individuals were welcomed into PUB's pool of Friends of Water, an initiative to recognise individuals and organisations who have contributed towards raising awareness about water.

They included Miss Teh Jen Lee, 28, a journalist with The New Paper, who had written an article last year about white paint polluting the water at Sungei Api Api.

PUB said her work was instrumental in helping them nab a contractor behind the pollution.

While she feels honoured by the recognition, Miss Teh said she had only been doing her job.

Of the mass yoga workout, she said it was a lovely idea to practise yoga close to the water.

But she had a reminder for the public: 'I hope that after such activities, there would be no litter left behind.'

GUEST OF HONOUR

Among the participants stretching in the morning sun was Dr Amy Khor, the Senior Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of Environment and Water Resources, who was the guest of honour for the event.

Dr Khor said she usually runs for exercise and was trying yoga for the first time.

'It's special to do yoga for the first time with 200 people in such a beautiful setting,' she said.

Early riser Yet Tun Hoong, 30, a social worker who has been practising yoga for three years, said the setting was a nice change from the usual air-conditioned gym.

'It's a liberating feeling to do yoga in the open, with the fresh air and sun,' said Mr Yet.

'It is a little dirty, with the grass and dew on the ground, but it's all part of the experience and I enjoyed myself.'

Nature lover Millie Low, 41, a physiotherapist, said the setting by the reservoir was an ideal location for practising yoga.

'This spot is a little secluded, so there is no traffic noise, no barking dogs or screaming kids,' she said.

'It was hot at one stage, but it's the morning sun. The air is fresh and the peaceful environment is very conducive for yoga.'

Ms Low intends to gather a few of her friends and take her yoga mat along for more sessions of yoga by the reservoir.

'It's a refreshing change from the marathons I have participated in.

'I may not remember all the yoga positions taught today, but I will try to do my stretching anyway,' she said.

Read more!

NEW Publication: Seagrass-Watch newsletter Mar 08

Seagrass-Watch News Mar 08 (Issue 32 2008) has lots of fascinating articles!

There's good news! "While recent publications from around the world are reporting significant human impacts on marine ecosystems, the seagrasses of northern Australia, in particular northern Queensland, appear to contradict the global trend".


There's a quick summary of the newsletter on the TeamSeagrass blog.

To view the full newsletter, simply download it from the Seagrass-Watch website.

Read more!

Best of our wild blogs: 22 Mar 08

Pulau Semakau with Dr Dan and friends
special encounters on the wildfilms blog and manta blog and colourful clouds blog and discovery blog and tidechaser blog and blooooooooooo blog and travels blog

Chek Jawa visit
Dr Stan shares his insights on the singapore blog

Mushroom hard corals: Godzilla of Hard Corals
on the singapore celebrates our reefs blog

Oriental White-eye taking a bath
on the bird ecology blog

treehugger is 13th "most powerful" blog
"Its ethos, that a green lifestyle does not have to mean sacrifice, and its positive, upbeat feel have attracted over 1.8m unique users a month" on the hugg blog

Daedalus: Technological Triumps and Challenges
the power of YouTube from the Social Media and Environmental Education blog

Read more!

More monkeys caught in AVA traps

Arti Mulchand & Esther Tan, Straits Times 22 Mar 08;

206 caught last year, up from 93 in 2004; AVA loans out, for free, about 20 traps a month

IT IS not a good time to be a monkey living cheek by jowl with humans here.

The number of them caught in the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority's traps has jumped dramatically lately.

Last year, 206 were caught, more than twice the 93 caught in 2004, said Mr Madhavan Kannan, who heads AVA's Centre for Animal Welfare and Control.

Two monkeys have been trapped so far this year, including a baby monkey caught in Binjai Park off Dunearn Road on Feb 29.

The little one's capture tripped off three hours of mayhem for the family in whose garden it happened: The monkey troop - apparently bent on rescue and revenge - swooped in, screeching from the rooftop, and even entered the family's semi-detached home.

Plagued by monkeys stealing food, the family had borrowed a trap from the AVA.

Mr Kannan explained that his officers do not catch monkeys as part of their work; they only suggest laying traps when complaints come in.

The AVA loans out - for free - about 20 traps a month, or close to 240 a year.

These work like rat traps, in that bait, usually fruit, is dangled on a hook in them. Pulling on the hook springs the trap, shutting its gate.

Trapped monkeys are taken to the AVA and put down.

Mr Kannan explained that re-releasing them into the wild is not an option, because having already strayed from their troop, these monkeys are likely to be repeat runaways. They cannot be relocated to other forested areas either, because a turf war could break out if those areas already have resident bands there.

Of the AVA's 40 traps, 28 are now on loan in places such as Binjai Park, Pasir Panjang, Thomson, Chestnut Drive and Sin Ming Walk.

The AVA usually gives the trap about two weeks to work, though residents can keep them longer in cases of prolonged monkey mischief.

Other than trapping the monkeys, AVA has been advising people against feeding the monkeys or unwittingly making food available to them by not securing rubbish bins, for example, said Mr Kannan.

A monkey with a steady supply of food will spend less time hunting, and more time going forth to multiply, which worsens the problem for the humans. Being fed regularly also makes them bolder.

At Binjai Park, residents say monkeys have blithely entered their homes and helped themselves to food.

They have also grown smarter about traps, with older monkeys having figured out how to get at the bait without springing them.

Other residents there also set traps last month, when the primates showed up in larger groups and were aggressive to boot.

Dr Lavan Iswaran, 73, who had his garden wrecked by a 20-strong troop, said:'They destroyed the fruit trees, plucked all the fruit and flowers and even pulled out the young shoots on the trees. They were also lifting the tiles off the roof.'

Since the baby monkey was trapped, things have quietened somewhat, but Dr Iswaran, who has since learnt that the AVA puts the nuisances down, has softened his stance against them.

'I pray very hard they don't come, I actually do feel sorry for them.'

Related article

Monkey Mayhem in Bukit Timah
Arul John, The New Paper 12 Mar 08;

Read more!

Newly-upgraded Pasir Ris Park a hit with visitors

Channel NewsAsia 21 Mar 08;

SINGAPORE : One of Singapore's largest parks - Pasir Ris Park - has been upgraded, to make it easier for visitors to enjoy the six-hectare mangrove forest.

Pasir Ris Park is the only park in Singapore with an urban mangrove forest.

But to get there, many visitors had to walk quite a distance. So the park was upgraded to make it easier for visitors to enjoy the forest.

A boardwalk stretching 232 metres was added, and a corridor that spans 4,000 square metres links the boardwalk directly to the Pasir Ris Bus and MRT Interchange.

One visitor said, "I walked here from the MRT station. It took me about 10 minutes. It's not too far away."

Another added, "It's closer to the MRT station. Only about 10 minutes away. It's very convenient."

The S$2 million upgrading was completed in nine months.

Meanwhile, the former herb and spice gardens have been revamped into kitchen gardens.

The are now over 100 species of plants and herbs, and almost half of the area is taken up by medicinal plants. The total cost of upgrading this area was S$15,000.

The new look has been a hit with visitors.

Nurhaslinda Ramli, Section Head, Parks, National Parks Board, said, "Nowadays, when we do our side walks in the morning, we see nature photographers. On weekends it's filled with families."

That is because the makeover includes a new playground, handicap-friendly areas and even an open-concept interpretive centre. - CNA/ms

Pasir Ris Park gets makeover
Straits Times 22 Mar 08;

New attractions in the Pasir Ris Park include a wheelchair-friendly playground and a herb garden. There is also a new pond and a longer 1.2km mangrove boardwalk, part of the $2 million park extension project.

The 73ha green lung is now linked to nearby Pasir Ris MRT station via a walkway.

Read more!

Shrimp Farms Cause Great Harm to Thai Coasts

International Herald Tribune, redorbit.com 21 Mar 08

Sunton Chantong, a local fisherman and environmental advocate, gestured toward the Taseh river shore. Two years ago, dolphins swam up from the sea, but as a result of industrial shrimp farming and oil palm cultivation, he said, fewer big fish, crabs and jellyfish can be seen in the area.

Shrimp ponds have become the most recognizable symbol of coastal degradation in Trang, a southwestern Thai province bordering the Andaman Sea. Shrimp thrive in brackish waters that are also home to mangroves, or "rainforests by the sea."

Villagers in the area have depended on the mangroves' rich biodiversity - including crabs, mollusks, numerous fish species and shrimp - for centuries. But during the 1990s, government subsidies and rising world prices for tiger prawn spurred a boom that some locals called "shrimp fever." Environmental concerns became overshadowed by the prospect of getting rich quick.

Villagers tell of a time when literally every second family was digging a pond, and there was a new pickup truck in every driveway.

But many farmers released polluted pond water into the Andaman Sea and, as the number of farms rose, polluted water migrated back to the ponds, contaminating future harvests and the mangroves. Now, according to Earth Island Journal, an estimated half of Thailand's mangroves on the eastern and southern coasts have been destroyed.

Many villagers say shrimp fever has taught them a lesson - more shrimp ponds in and near mangroves mean fewer crabs and fish for local consumption. Even those who choose to ignore the consequences are often dissuaded by rising production costs, including higher prices of feed, biodiesel, and antibiotics, and falling world shrimp prices.

Yadfon, an environmental group started in 1985, is working with Sunton to wean the villagers off shrimp production by introducing sustainable forms of agriculture and small fisheries. To restore the coastal ecosystem, Yadfon - whose name means raindrop in Thai - has encouraged converting shrimp ponds back to mangrove and reintroducing plants like nipa and sago, palm species naturally found in and around mangroves that shelter the life forms that small fisherman depend on for survival.

Nipa stems can be used to make household wares like baskets, while Sago meal is part of the traditional local diet. In the mangroves near Pakron, a local village, 50 percent of the former shrimp farms have been restored to Nipa, sheltering fish that Yadfon is trying to persuade the government to buy.

Yadfon is also assisting villagers in organizing and protecting their rights. As local fishermen have pulled back from shrimp farming, large-scale conglomerates have filled the void. Behind the small concrete houses in the one-road village of Bat Hoi Lok, backhoes are digging out shrimp ponds as far as the eye can see. Villagers say there will be 100 ponds in total, working for Charoen Pokphand, an industrial conglomerate based in Bangkok.

Jeit Libmud, the village leader, worries about how the ponds will affect villagers' livelihoods once they begin operating this year. He makes 6,000 baht, or $190, a month from harvesting nipa palm and fish from local canals, enough to support his wife and three children. Pollution from the ponds could destroy that income.

Another threat to the coastal environment comes from expanding oil palm plantations. As palm oil prices soar and the industry anticipates growing demand for biodiesel, shrimp ponds are being converted to oil palm, which flourishes in the sandy soils near rivers and sea. "Fifteen years ago shrimp farmers were heroes in the village," said Suwan Kungkangamamee, who has been farming shrimp for 17 years. "But everyone sees it as a gamble now. In towns, talk is whether to get into palm. It's steady and predictable."

The Thai government is promoting biodiesel fuel and wants farmers take advantage of the oil palm boom. In October, the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives agreed to lend money to farmers to plant 400,000 acres, or 161,000 hectares, with oil palm and the government's five-year plan through 2012 calls for the conversion of an additional 200,000 acres a year for palm oil production.

In Trang Province, about 40,000 acres are planted with oil palm, bringing in annual revenue of 720 million baht, said Manit Wongsureerat, the plant manager with Trang Oil Palm, a local processing company. Conservationists say oil palm plantations contribute to global warming through deforestation, while irrigation and the use of herbicides and pesticides affect water flows and quality. But improving irrigation requires more money and so, Manit said, "it's not being done."

Yadfon's director, Pisit Charnsnoh, says the challenge is to get farmers to see past short-term gains.

"Once you have money, you think you have everything," he said. But water is the most valuable and most vulnerable long-term resource in the region, he said, adding, "I think water will become an even bigger problem in the very near future."

Read more!

Berlin Zoo director accused of selling animals for Chinese medicine

The Telegraph 21 Mar 08;

The director of the world famous Berlin Zoo has been accused of overbreeding animals and selling the "spares" to be slaughtered and used in Chinese medicines.

Bernhard Blaszkiewitz is under pressure to quit following the criminal complaint by a leading Green politician that he allegedly illegally sold the animals for slaughter for profit.

He strenuously denies the allegations but they are now being considered by the Berlin public prosecutor who will decide on whether charges will follow.

A pygmy hippopotamus and a family of bears are cited among the animals that were allegedly traded to be killed. It was claimed they ended up at a Belgian slaughterhouse.

The allegations are a public relations disaster for the zoo following a huge rise in its profile over the past year with the celebrity of the polar bear Knut, the cub abandoned by its mother to be raised by human hand. Knut has turned the zoo into Berlin's biggest tourist attraction and earned it £6 million.

Claudia Haemmerling, a member of the Berlin parliament and an expert on animal rights, filed the criminal complaint which also includes further allegations that the zoo bred "bastard" cross-breeds of a panther and a Java leopard which were sold along with tigers and jaguars to China where they ended up on the shelves of traditional medicine stores marketed as "impotency cures."

"The pictures and the facts speak for themselves," she claimed "He must go."

According to the complaint, the alleged practice of surplus breeding and dubious sales goes back to the early 1990s. The surplus animals were allegedly bred at the Berlin Tierpark in the east of the capital, where Mr Blaszkiewitz is also director.

Following the allegations the German Animal Protection League has asked for a statement from the zoo about whether surplus rhinos and giraffes were sold to circuses in the region.

But it is the alleged slaughter of the creatures that has incensed Berliners.

Miss Haemmerling and the prominent German animal rights activist Frank Albrecht allege some were killed in an abattoir in the town of Wortel in Belgium.

According to a letter from a dealer in rare animals who bought the bears, they went to a zoo in Wortel, while an extract from a stud book purportedly shows that the hippo also ended up there.

"Wortel doesn't have a zoo," said Mr Albrecht. "However, it does have a slaughterhouse and we say that was where these animals were killed and shipped abroad."

The Wortel slaughterhouse allegedly featured in a separate story yesterday in Berlin's BZ newspaper which obtained a grainy video said to be of a tiger being butchered there.

Wolfgang Apel, president of the German Animal Protection League, has called for the cases to be cleared up quickly. "If there is clear proof that the animals ended up in a slaughterhouse, then Blaskiewitz will ultimately have to resign," he said.

Mr Blaszkiewitz categorically denied the allegations, calling them a mixture of "misunderstandings and nonsense."

He denied the zoo deliberately bred excess animals. "All offspring are planned," he added.

Regarding the bear family, Mr Blaszkiewitz said the three bears in question had been old animals which were donated to another reputable dealer in Germany. He said he did not know where the animals had gone after that and denied any knowledge of a connection to Wortel.

The big cats that went to China were sold to zoos with the permission of Germany's Federal Agency for Nature Conservation, he said, adding that claims that the animals had met with an untimely end were based on a "Eurocentric view" of China.

Mr Blaszkiewitz said he was the victim of a "smear campaign" and accused Miss Haemmerling, with whom he said he had had contact several times in the past, of making the accusations for political ends. Simone Herbeth of the public prosecutor's office confirmed that the complaint was being investigated.

According to Miss Herneth, selling zoo animals without sufficient reason is a crime under Germany's animal protection laws and is punishable by a fine or a jail sentence of up to three years.

Read more!

China's Yellow River floods town: report

Yahoo News 21 Mar 08;

Yellow River floodwaters inundated an entire town in northern China on Friday amid frantic efforts to repair breaches to embankments caused by unexpected high water levels, state media reported.

At least 10,000 residents of Duguitala in the Inner Mongolia region have been evacuated to a nearby desert area since water began pouring into the town on Wednesday, Xinhua news agency quoted a local official as saying.

Embankments began to crumble on Wednesday after soaking in high water, which state television blamed on rapid glacial melt in the Himalayas, the source of the river.

Local flood-control officials said water levels were up to 50 percent higher than normal. About 170 flood response personnel were working to repair the damaged embankments, Xinhua said.

China's second-longest river and a waterway of huge symbolic and cultural importance, the Yellow River is also known as "China's sorrow" for its frequent disastrous flooding throughout history.

Scientists have warned recently that accelerating glacial melt on the Himalayan plateau due to global warming could lead to more catastrophic flooding along China's rivers.

Read more!

Sea levels rising too fast for Thames Barrier

Steve Connor, The Independent 22 Mar 08;

A fear that sea levels will rise far faster than predicted this century has led to a revision of the plan to protect London from a devastating flood caused by the sort of storm surge in the North Sea that resulted in the closure of the Thames Barrier yesterday.

It was the 108th time that the barrier had to be closed since it became operational in 1982 but scientists are concerned that rapidly rising sea levels could significantly shorten the expected lifespan of one of the world's biggest anti-flood structures.

When the Thames Barrier was being designed in the 1970s, global average sea levels were rising at about 1.8 millimetres a year and global warming was not seen as a threat, but in the past 15 years the rate has nearly doubled to about 3.1mm a year and many scientists expect it to accelerate still further.

Sea levels are rising even faster in south-east England because of local effects, such as land sinking, but officials for the Environment Agency said that the barrier is designed to cope with an 8mm-per-year rate of sea level increase yet still meet its design specifications – such as coping with a one-in-a-thousand-year storm surge by 2030.

"The defences we have at the moment allow for sea level rise and the tidal levels we're expecting by 2030. That is still some time away. However, it takes time to research, design and build tidal defences, so we're already planning how we can manage increasing flood risk in the estuary," said a spokesman for the Environment Agency. Experts working on the Thames Estuary 2100 project, who are writing a report on what needs to be done to protect London in the next 100 years, believe that past assessments on the sea level rise this century are too optimistic and have devised far higher worse-case scenarios.

A report on the options open to the Government if sea levels rise faster than expected is due to be completed next year. If sea levels are forecast to rise by two metres or more, a bigger and more expensive barrage will have to be built and raised permanently.

Under the Government's estimate for a rise of less than one metre, the Thames Barrier will meet its maximum preferred closure rate of 70 times a year by about 2082. Under the extreme "high plus plus" scenario of TE2100, which envisages a four-metre rise in sea level, this limit will be reached in the early 2020s.

Few experts believe that sea levels will rise this fast in the coming century, although they accept that this depends on the rate at which ice sheets in Greenland and west Antarctic melt or move in to the sea. Most climate specialists believe that the current predictions of a maximum 59cm rise by 2100 made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are likely to be significantly underestimated.

On current, outdated forecasts the barrier is likely to be closed up to 30 times a year by 2030 – compared with an average closure rate of five times a year over the past quarter century.

The Thames Barrier protects about £80bn worth of buildings and capital infrastructure in London. Some 1.25 million people live or work in the at-risk area.

Read more!

Tons of pangolins seized in a week

WWF 21 Mar 08;

This month, customs inspectors and enforcement officers took possession of more than 16 tons of pangolins at Hai Phong port in Viet Nam. It is the largest seizure of these animals ever in the country.

About seven tons of pangolin carcasses and scales were seized by customs at the same place, at the end of February. At least 2460 carcasses and 900 kg of scales were recovered.

TRAFFIC praised the Viet Nam customs for its swift action and sound investigative work.

“The seizure is a great step towards combating illegal wildlife trade in Viet Nam”, said Sulma Warne, Programme Coordinator, TRAFFIC Greater Mekong Programme.

Customs officials acknowledged TRAFFIC’s assistance in preparing them for the latest operation, through earlier training in implementation of CITES regulations.

“Customs officers are well informed of the spectrum of wildlife trade in Viet Nam and the ways with which it can be illegally transported,” said Warne.

According to the authorities, in both seizures the cargoes were found in containers registered as fresh fish belonging to an import-export business located in Quang Ninh, on the North of Viet Nam.

These scaly anteaters are found throughout Southeast Asia and are protected under Vietnamese Law, which restricts any trade or transport. They are also protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

Pangolin trade was banned in 2000. However, pangolins are still sold as meat and traditional medicines in many Asian countries.

No suspects have been detained, but investigations are currently going on.

Read more!

Giant marine life found in Antarctica

Ray Lilley, Associated Press Yahoo News 22 Mar 08;

Scientists who conducted the most comprehensive survey to date of New Zealand's Antarctic waters were surprised by the size of some specimens found, including jellyfish with 12-foot tentacles and 2-foot-wide starfish.
A 2,000-mile journey through the Ross Sea that ended Thursday has also potentially turned up several new species, including as many as eight new mollusks.

It's "exciting when you come across a new species," said Chris Jones, a fisheries scientist at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "All the fish people go nuts about that — but you have to take it with a grain of salt."

The finds must still be reviewed by experts to determine if they are in fact new, said Stu Hanchet, a fisheries scientist at New Zealand's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research.

But beyond the discovery of new species, scientists said the survey, the most comprehensive to date in the Ross Sea, turned up other surprises.

Hanchet singled out the discovery of "fields" of sea lilies that stretched for hundreds of yards across the ocean floor.

"Some of these big meadows of sea lilies I don't think anybody has seen before," Hanchet said.

Previously only small-scale scientific samplings have been staged in the Ross Sea.

The survey was part of the International Polar Year program involving 23 countries in 11 voyages to survey marine life and habitats around Antarctica. The program hopes to set benchmarks for determining the effects of global warming on Antarctica, researchers said.

Large sea spiders, jellyfish with 12-foot tentacles, huge sea snails and starfish the size of big food platters were found during a 50-day voyage, marine scientist Don Robertson said.

Cold temperatures, a small number of predators, high levels of oxygen in the sea water and even longevity could explain the size of some specimens, said Robertson, a scientist with NIWA.

Robertson added that of the 30,000 specimens collected, hundreds might turn out to be new species.

Stefano Schiaparelli, a mollusk specialist at Italy's National Antarctic Museum in Genoa, said he thought the find would yield at least eight new mollusks.

"This is a new brick in the wall of Antarctic knowledge," Schiaparelli said.

Read more!

Philippines raises alarm over shark 'slaughter'

Yahoo News 21 Mar 08;

The Philippines on Friday expressed alarm over the commercial hunting of the thresher shark, considered a vulnerable species worldwide.

They said there had been a wholesale slaughter of the 10-foot (three-metre) fish, considered a delicacy in Chinese restaurants here.

"We should stop this slaughter to preserve the ecological balance of our priceless natural heritage," said Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Joselito Atienza.

Local marine conservationist Gerry Reyes said many of the sharks were caught in the Verde Passage off the south coast of the main Philippine island of Luzon, which the government has designated a protected area.

Government patrols have recently seized thresher sharks caught by local fishermen living on the northern edge of the Verde Passage, Reyes told AFP.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which put the thresher shark on its "vulnerable" list last year, says the Verde Passage has the highest concentration of marine life in the world.

Atienza said he had asked authorities to help prevent the hunting and slaughter of the sharks there.

Read more!