Study: N. Pacific humpback whale population rises

Yahoo News 23 May 08;

Once hunted to the brink of extinction, humpback whales have made a dramatic comeback in the North Pacific Ocean over the past four decades, a new study says.

The study released Thursday by SPLASH, an international organization of more than 400 whale watchers, estimates there were between 18,000 and 20,000 of the majestic mammals in the North Pacific in 2004-2006.

Their population had dwindled to less than 1,500 before hunting of humpbacks was banned worldwide in 1966.

"It's not a complete success, but it's definitely very encouraging in terms of the recovery of the species," said Jeff Walters, co-manager of the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary.

The study, sponsored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, is the most comprehensive analysis ever of any large whale population, said David Mattila, science coordinator for the sanctuary.

At least half of the humpback whales migrate between Alaska and Hawaii, and that population is the healthiest, Mattila said.

But isolated populations that migrate from Japan and the Philippines to Russia are taking a longer to recover after whaling operations ceased, he said.

"Whales are long-lived and give birth one at a time .... so if the population gets pushed too low, it may take quite awhile to come back. Maybe that's what's happening in the west," Mattila said.

The whales are protected under federal laws that include the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act.

Their resurgence could spark a debate over whether they should still be considered endangered, said Naomi McIntosh, superintendent for the humpback sanctuary.

"Those discussions are bound to happen, and we knew that going into the study, we anticipated it," she said. "I think it's too early to make that call."

The number of collisions between whales and boats has been increasing, probably because the population is larger, Walters said. Whale entanglements in marine debris, fishing gear and aquaculture structures also are a growing concern.

The whale count was made based on data collected from Hawaii, Mexico, Asia, Central America, Russia, the Aleutians, Canada and the United States' northwest coast.

The study used a system of photographing whale flukes — the lobes of a whale's tail — in six different feeding and breeding areas around the world, and then matching the pictures with whale flukes photographed in wintering areas.

Humpback Whales Bounce Back Due to Global Conservation
Anne Minard, National Geographic News 6 Jun 08;

Humpback whales in the Pacific Ocean have recovered swimmingly since the start of worldwide conservation programs in the 1960s and '70s.

That's the finding from a large-scale, collaborative research effort by more than 400 whale experts throughout the Pacific region.

The new research reveals that the overall population of humpbacks has rebounded to nearly 20,000 animals in the Pacific, up from less than 10 percent of that number five decades ago. The mammals are found in all the world's oceans.

Some isolated populations of whales, especially those in the western Pacific, have not rebounded at the same rate and still suffer low numbers.

But at least one study co-author doesn't want that to detract from the largely optimistic findings.

"While I agree that conservation concerns are not eliminated, this is fundamentally a good-news story," said Jay Barlow, a co-author from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Southwest Fisheries Science Center in La Jolla, California.

"If the world had more examples like this, I think that the people of the world would be more inclined to believe that conservation can make a difference."

The results appear in a report called Structure of Populations, Levels of Abundance, and Status of Humpbacks (SPLASH) released in early May by NOAA and more than 50 international partners.

The National Geographic Society, which owns National Geographic News, also contributed funding to the project.

Feeding and Breeding

In 1966 humpback whales in the North Pacific hit a low of about 1,400 animals, according to the SPLASH report.

That same year the international whaling community instituted a ban on hunting humpbacks.

In the 1970s two United States laws provided more help for the whales: the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act.

By the early 1990s population estimates had shot up to nearly 10,000 humpbacks, and the most recent estimates indicate the numbers have nearly doubled since then.

Starting in 2004, the SPLASH project analyzed 18,000 photographs of whale flukes—or tails—to identify 8,000 individuals.

Cascadia Research in Olympia, Washington, the central coordinator for SPLASH, compared photographs from six known feeding and breeding areas.

By matching whale flukes photographed in their feeding areas with those seen in wintering areas, researchers pinned down individual whale movements and estimated the sizes of various populations.

Despite the overall doubling of humpback whales in the Pacific, estimates of whales wintering in Asia and Central America are still fairly low—a thousand or less.

"Whales along the Asian coast appear to be subject to a high level of incidental mortality," the report authors write.

David Mattila, a NOAA whale researcher and report co-author, explained that Japanese fishermen report a high number of whales entangled in fishing lines along the coast, including mostly minke whales.

"I personally find it very difficult to compare their reporting rates with other Pacific countries, because their fishermen have a 'positive incentive' to report entangled whales," he said.

"That is, if they report and register the DNA, they can keep and sell the whale meat."

Findings to Come

The SPLASH research will likely yield many more findings in the coming months and years, Mattila said.

As part of their study, researchers took thousands of photographs to determine how scarring from fishing line entanglements and ship strikes vary among regions, which may shed light on threats to whales in the western Pacific.

Teams also collected more than 6,000 tissue samples to study population genetics and levels of pollutants.

These biological samples, which have not yet been analyzed, could provide insight into humpback population structure and reveal threats to the whale's ongoing recovery.

Mattila said he's most fascinated by some of the whales' ambitious—and seemingly unnecessary—migratory patterns.

"Why many U.S. West Coast whales swim almost 2,000 miles [3,220 kilometers] farther than they need to, … going all the way down to Central America and apparently maintaining their genetic uniqueness, is a fascinating question," he said.

"Why would whales apparently migrate through an area where we assume they hear the other whales, but keep going much further south?

"This is also apparently happening along the west coast of southern Africa," he added.

"We need to see the genetics finished to fully understand what is going on there."

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Report says U.S. wildlife refuges underfunded

Mary Pemberton, Associated Press Yahoo News 23 May 08;

America's wildlife refuges are so short of money that one-third have no staff, boardwalks and buildings are in disrepair, and drug dealers are using them to grow marijuana and make methamphetamine, a group pushing for more funding says.

"Without adequate funding, we are jeopardizing some of the world's most spectacular wildlife and wild lands," said Evan Hirsche, president of the National Wildlife Refuge Association and chairman of the Cooperative Alliance for Refuge Enhancement.

The cooperative said in a report released Thursday to Congress that the nation's 548 refuges and the 100 million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System — about the size of California — is underfunded by 43 percent. The refuge system needs at least $765 million a year but is receiving only $434 million, the report says.

A decrease in law enforcement has left the refuges vulnerable to criminal activity, including prostitution, torched cars and illegal immigrant camps along the Potomac River in suburban Washington, D.C.; gay sex hookups in South Carolina and Alabama; methamphetamine labs in Nevada; and pot growing operations in Washington state.

"The refuge system has been underfunded for years but it has really mushroomed in the past several," Hirsche said.

The cooperative is recommending Congress increase funding for fiscal year 2009 to $514 million and that full funding be reached by 2013. The House and Senate are expected to take up the issue in coming weeks.

The report says the refuge system has cut 300 staff positions. Without more funding, a plan to reduce staffing by 20 percent will continue. The system needs 845 law enforcement officers but has 180.

"In some cases, we find that drug operations have set up shop in refuges," Hirsche said.

Alaska has 76 million acres of refuge lands and accounts for 83 percent of land in the refuge system. Managing those lands can be particularly daunting given the sheer size and remoteness of many of the state's 16 refuges, said Todd Logan, regional chief of the National Wildlife Refuge System in Alaska.

It's even harder when money is tight, he said. For example, the visitor center at the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge is inadequate, the exhibits should be updated and the carpet needs cleaning, he said. The boardwalk suffered ice and water damage this winter.

"We have a pretty significant maintenance backlog," Logan said.

The report says the nation's refuges receive 40 million visitors a year and contribute an estimated $1.7 billion to the economy. They provide more than 27,000 jobs.

This Memorial Day weekend, hundreds of thousands of Americans will visit one of the nation's wildlife refuges, only to find at many there is no one to greet them, Hirsche said.

The nation's refuge system was created in 1903 by President Theodore Roosevelt after a trip to tiny Pelican Island in South Florida. There, giant shotguns were being used to kill hundreds of birds to satisfy the market for fashionable feathers. Roosevelt went on to create 50 more refuges, stretching from Florida to Alaska.

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Desalination No "Silver Bullet" in Mideast

Mati Milstein, National Geographic News 22 May 08;

Desalination has long been considered the technological holy grail in the Holy Land's water shortage crisis, but regional experts say relying on this solution is not quite so clean-cut.

Energy-intensive desalination plants, which turn salt water into fresh water, could create more problems for Israel, experts warn. A diverse, long-term water treatment and management plan is the only way to guard against dwindling supplies and increasing tensions, said Israeli and Palestinian analysts at a recent water conference in Amman, Jordan.

More than ten million Israelis and Palestinians live side-by-side in one of the most densely populated areas of the planet. And their water is running out, due to pollution and drought.

Just two main aquifers and one river system provide for Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza Strip. The Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee)-Jordan River system is also tapped by Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan.

Rain—traditionally scarce in this arid region—is even more infrequent these days due to several years of drought.

Desalination, the process of removing salt and other minerals, in this case from the Mediterranean and brackish sources, has popularly been seen as the best solution to the water shortage, and most efforts—and budgets—are aimed in this direction.

With five large state-of-the-art facilities already built or in the works, and 31 smaller facilities in the country's south, desalination will soon form the backbone of Israel's water system. Some experts believe half of Israel's potable water supply will eventually come from desalination.

But Israeli and Palestinian engineers, economists, and political scientists at the Water Wisdom conference, in April, raised serious questions about the potential environmental, geopolitical, and social impacts of desalination.

Environmental Concerns

As the world is seeking to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels, desalination plants are factories like any other—generally dependent upon unsustainable energy sources. Experts fear large-scale use of desalination would exchange one environmental problem, freshwater shortages, with another: burning fossil fuels.

Nader Al-Khateeb, Palestinian general director of Friends of the Earth Middle East, warned that such facilities require a constant supply of power and must be kept running 24 hours a day.

"During the past year, there has been no [reliable] energy in Gaza," Al-Khateeb said. "If they don't have a reliable power supply, they would turn into garbage dumps."

An enormous amount of energy is used to push sourcewater through a membrane that filters out salt. A typical reverse osmosis system, which can also remove some chemicals, takes three to seven kilowatt hours of energy to produce one cubic meter of fresh water, according to a 2008 National Acadamies Press report on desalination.

At that rate, it would take 7,500 kilowatt hours to fill an Olympic-size swimming pool—the same amount of energy the average person in Israel uses over the course of two months, for everything from cooking to driving.

At this point, efficient alternative fuel sources and technology to power desalination facilities are not available.

There is a litany of other environmental considerations and problems—many of them not fully researched—associated with desalination.

High boron concentrations in desalinated water could cause reproductive and developmental toxicity in animals and affect agricultural crops, according to Ya'akov Garb of Ben-Gurion University's Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research.

While there is concern about desalination of sewage-contaminated seawater, there is a converse problem—overly pure water. The reverse osmosis process used in new facilities can reduce calcium and carbonate concentrations, making the water acidic enough to damage pipes.

According to Garb, desalination also removes a range of beneficial ions normally found in drinking water that may have a supplementary dietary role, especially in certain high-risk populations.

Reverse osmosis desalination can discharge chemicals and brine two to three times saltier than seawater back into maritime environments. It is still unclear what the ecological effects of these discharges might be.

"Maybe [desalination] is the only way we can get through the next five years without drawing down aquifers to the point where they're really destroyed," Garb said. "I'm a little surprised at how it flew under the radar of the environmental community and of civil society. It's surprisingly understudied given the consequences."

Diplomatic Pitfalls

Desalination is also diplomatically problematic, and the Palestinians have historically rejected the idea.

The September 1995 interim Israel-Palestinian peace deal drafted a basis for cooperation on water issues that highlighted the importance of developing new resources, but the Palestinian Authority (PA) rejected an Israeli offer to build them a desalination plant in the Israeli city of Hadera, possibly because Palestinian officials feared agreeing to such a deal would imply a forfeit on their claims to Jordan River water rights. The PA also rejected a separate offer to buy water desalinated in the Israeli port city of Ashkelon.

"When it comes to the West Bank, it is impossible to think about desalination," Al-Khateeb said. "Economically, it is more feasible to take the water [from aquifers] under your feet."

But he would not rule out desalination as an option and said access to drinking water is the bottom line.

"At the end of the day, water is life," he said. "If this is the only alternative and it can help us to avoid future conflicts, we will go for it."

Desalination facilities in Israel are also seen as vulnerable to military or terrorist attacks.

"Seven or eight Hezbollah rockets could knock out our entire water supply. Alongside the geopolitical benefits there are also risks," said Tal. During the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war, Hezbollah fired thousands of rockets at Israel.

One potential method for reducing such risks would be ensuring that water facilities are built and operated jointly by Israelis and Palestinians.

"Desalination Makes Peace Much More Possible"

Hillel Shuval, a veteran expert on the Middle East water conflict at Jerusalem's Hadassah Academic College, sees desalination as providing a window of opportunity.

"Desalination makes peace much more possible for the Israelis," Shuval said. "Because of desalination, I don't think the next Middle East war will be over water," added Tal.

Improvements to the desalination option might include the use of concentrated solar power in place of fossil fuels. But both Israelis and Palestinians at the conference in Amman agreed that desalination and its potential effects are still largely unexplored and should be just part of a diversified long-term response to the water crisis.

They said attention must be turned to restoration of natural watercourses; increasing efficiency of water use and sewage treatment; and reducing local dependence upon water-intensive crops. More effectively using and handling the existing supply of water will actually increase the amount available for human use, they said.

"Trading money for fresh water, it's like magic," Garb said. "But we've got no shortage of examples of silver bullet technologies that seemed like magical ways out of having your back against the wall. And we only started to realize over time what they meant."

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The plight of the Great Barrier Reef: by Dr J.E.N. Veron

Charlie Veron, ScienceAlert 23 May 08;

Over the past decades there have been many stories in the media about the plight of the Great Barrier Reef.

In the '60s and '70s we all heard that the Great Barrier Reef was about to be consumed by that voracious predator, the Crown of Thorns Starfish.

In the '80s and '90s, the principal threats turned out to be sediment runoff, to nutrients, over fishing and general habitat destruction.

For me, an ancient marine scientist who has spent thousands of hours diving on the Great Barrier Reef these past 40 years, each of these threats has been of concern. But nothing comes close to the devastation waiting in the wings at the moment.

Very likely you have a feeling that dire predictions about anything almost always turn out to be exaggerations. This view is understandable.

Once I also would have thought it ridiculous to imagine that the Great Barrier Reef might have a limited future as a consequence of human activity. It would have seemed preposterous that the greatest coral reef on Earth, the biggest structure made by life on Earth, could be mortally threatened by any present or foreseeable change.

I was wrong. Yet here I am today, utterly convinced that the Great Barrier Reef will not be there for our children's children to enjoy. Unless we dramatically and immediately change our priorities, and the way we live.

I have been immensely fortunate in my career to have worked on coral reefs around the globe. And to have worked in many different disciplines of science. I have had the opportunity to make a significant contribution to reef science, and to reef conservation. Now comes time for payback, for responsibility. Responsibility to speak out, on behalf of that life which cannot plead its own cause.

When I started writing my book, I knew that climate change was likely to have serious consequences for coral reefs. But the big picture which emerged, quite frankly, left me shocked to the core.

This really led to a period of personal anguish. I turned to specialists in many different fields of science to find anything that might suggest a fault in that big picture. I was depressingly unsuccessful. The bottom line remains: the combination of the best science today argues that the Great Barrier Reef can indeed be utterly trashed in the lifetime of today's children. That is what motivates me to broadcast this message as clearly, as accurately, and as far as possible.

So, what are the issues? You probably know that there have been several major episodes of mass bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef since this began in the late 1980s. Since then the frequency of bleaching events has increased, and this has sparked an intense research effort.

Corals have an intimate give-and-take symbiotic relationship with single-celled algae called zooxanthellae which live in their cells and provide most of the food they need. A lot of research has shown that this symbiosis can be surprisingly fragile. If corals are exposed to high light at the same time as high temperature, the algae produce toxic levels of oxygen. Corals must expel this zooxanthellae, bleach and probably die. Or succumb to the toxin and definitely die. A tough choice. It is one they are not designed to make.

As the greenhouse effect from elevated carbon dioxide has increased, the oceans have absorbed more and more greenhouse heat. The surface layers are being affected most, but large ocean areas have a temperature limit, about 31C. Once this limit is reached, the surface does not warm further, but it broadens and it deepens. This creates the largest mobile heat mass on earth.

We are seeing this effect now. We are seeing abnormally heated water pulsed onto the Great Barrier Reef during El Niño cycles. When this happens, the ocean is further heated, to levels that corals have not experienced for millions of years. This leads to their mortal dilemma - to expel or not to expel their zooxanthellae - that becomes the question.

I've seen spectacular recoveries from mass bleaching on as little as a decade, provided that further El Niño cycles do not occur while the ecosystem is re-establishing. Unfortunately, El Niño cycles appear to be becoming more frequent. This is because the oceans are reaching their upper temperature limit more and more frequently. In a couple of decades, every year will appear to be an El Niño year. The frequency and severity of bleaching events will continue to increase. That is certain.

On present forecasts, the worst bleaching year we have had to date will be an average year by 2030. And it will be a good year by 2050.

If we keep increasing greenhouse carbon dioxide, by 2050 at the very latest, the only corals left alive will be those hiding in refuges such as deep outer reef slopes. The rest of the Great Barrier Reef will be unrecognisable. Bacterial slime, largely devoid of life will be everywhere.

There is worse news. A decade or so ago we thought that mass bleaching was the most serious threat to coral reefs. We were wrong. We now know that there is a much more serious crisis on our horizon: ocean acidification. Acidification will not only affect coral reefs, it will impact all our oceans and all life in them. The culprit is still carbon dioxide.

Normally there is a balance between carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and its chemical derivatives in the ocean. As we saw for temperature, the ocean acts as a huge repository, absorbing, then neutralising excess atmospheric carbon dioxide. To do this effectively, they must have time for mixing to occur between shallow and deep layers, time for alkaline water to act as a buffer. When carbon dioxide increases too rapidly, the balance of the buffers change. The oceans become less alkaline.

When this happens, marine life will not be able to produce their normal calcium carbonate skeletons. The consequences of that are nothing less than catastrophic.

In my book I examine the events which led up to each of the five mass extinction events in Earth's history. Reefs offer a unique insight into these because they are made of calcium carbonate. That is the connection, and it is an unhappy one. I cannot escape the conclusion that ocean acidification has played a major role in all five mass extinctions of the past.

A particularly disturbing aspect of all this is that, following all mass extinctions, living reefs completely disappeared. Not just for thousands of years, but for millions. One characteristic of acidification is that while it can be initiated quickly, it cannot be easily reversed. That process requires the evolution of new life and the slow weathering of rock. It takes millions of years.

We know that we will observe the effects of acidification in colder and deeper waters first. That is already happening in the Southern Ocean. On our present trajectory, we can expect acidification to start impacting the Great Barrier Reef by around 2030.

At that time, the cool outer reef slopes which provided a safe haven from bleaching will be the very places most affected. Sod's Law. The result will be that corals will no longer build reefs, nor maintain them against the forces of erosion. They will be nothing but mounds of bacterial slime and algae.

There is another aspect of this which is of enormous consequence. That is commitment. Most of the consequences of our current actions cannot yet be seen. However, the Earth is already committed to their path. This delayed reaction is due to the inertia of the oceans, thermal and chemical. The greenhouse gases we produce today will take decades to unleash the full impacts. But the effects will be unavoidable, because commitment is unstoppable.

The longer we delay, the greater the damage.

How many of us would like to explain to our children's children, that the predictions were there, but - sorry - we just didn't take them seriously enough?

Corals speak unambiguously about climate change. They once survived in a world where carbon dioxide from volcanoes and methane was much higher than anything predicted today. But that was 50 million years ago. The accumulation of carbon dioxide then took millions of years, not just a few decades. Then there was time enough for oceans to equilibrate. And for life to evolve solutions.

This is not what is happening today. Think about it. The levels of carbon dioxide we are already committed to reach, has no equal over the entire longevity of the Great Barrier Reef. Perhaps 25 million years, and most significantly, the rate of carbon dioxide increase we are now experiencing has no precedent in all known geological history.

Reefs are the ocean's canaries. We must heed their call. This call is not just for the reefs themselves, but for all the great ecosystems of our oceans. These stand behind reefs like a row of dominoes. If reefs fall, the rest will follow. In quick succession. The Sixth Mass Extinction will be upon us. It will be of our own making, and it will be unstoppable by any means whatsoever.

Climate change is the greatest challenge humanity has ever faced. The longer we delay the costlier the remedy will be, and the more likely we will reach the point of no return.

On our present tack the future looks bleak, but it is still far from hopeless. We still have a window of opportunity, which we must take for the sake of our children and all the fauna and flora that share our planet. We are the custodians.

A brief look back at the staggering and accelerating technological advances of the past century is persuasive evidence that humans can find solutions if the political will is there to focus innovations in the right directions. We must buy ourselves time. Time for the innovators to do their job, to develop solutions and to create a future that is not dependent on fossil fuel. We, the citizens of the wealthy countries, are capable of achieving 50 per cent cuts in greenhouse emissions virtually immediately. At the same time we need to put pressure on our governments, to help our governments, to support far-reaching national and global efforts to provide the permanent solutions.

What is required is willingness and immediate action. It is time for Australia to become a leader in this endeavour. If not, our Great Barrier Reef will be the first of the dominoes to fall. And that fall will be forever as far as we humans are concerned.

This article is based on a program on ABC’s Ockham’s Razor on April 6, 2008.

Dr J.E.N. (Charlie) Veron is Former Chief Scientist at the Australian Institute of Marine Science and an author based in Townsville Queensland. His website is here: www.coralreefresearch.org.

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Majority of Oceanic Shark Species Face Extinction

LiveScience Yahoo News 22 May 08;

More than 50 percent of wide-ranging oceanic shark species are threatened with extinction as a result of overfishing, according to a new study.

The research, conducted by 15 scientists from institutes around the world and organized by the IUCN Shark Specialist Group, focused on oceanic pelagic sharks and rays, including great white sharks, whale sharks, crocodile sharks, bigeye threshers, basking sharks, shortfin makos, longfin makos, salmon sharks, silky sharks, porbeagle sharks, oceanic whitetip sharks, blue sharks, manta rays, spinetail devilrays, giant devilrays and Chilean devilrays.

The team determined that 16 out of the 21 oceanic shark and ray species that are caught in high seas fisheries are at heightened risk of extinction due primarily to targeted fishing for valuable fins and meat as well as indirect take in other fisheries.

In most cases, these catches are unregulated and unsustainable. The increasing demand for the delicacy "shark fin soup," driven by rapidly growing Asian economies, means that often the valuable shark fins are retained and the carcasses discarded.

This is the first study to determine the global threat status of 21 species of wide-ranging oceanic sharks and rays, said study leader Nicholas Dulvy of the Centre for Environment, Fishers and Aquaculture Science, Lowestoft Laboratory in the United Kingdom.

The findings, as well as recommendations for conservation action, are detailed in the latest issue of the journal Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems. The research was funded by the Lenfest Ocean Series Program.

Sharks and rays are particularly vulnerable to overfishing due to their tendency to take many years to become sexually mature and have relatively few offspring.

"Fishery managers and regional, national and international officials have the opportunity and the obligation to halt and reverse the rate of loss of biodiversity and ensure sharks and rays are exploited sustainably," Dulvy said.

"The current rate of biodiversity loss is ten to a hundred times greater than historic extinction rates, and as humans make increasing use of ocean resources it is possible that many more aquatic species, particularly sharks, are coming under threat," said Dulvy, now based at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver.

"This does not have to be an inevitability. With sufficient public support and resulting political will, we can turn the tide," he said.

The group's specific recommendations for governments address the need to:

* Establish and enforce science-based catch limits for sharks and rays.

* Ensure an end to shark finning (removing fins and discarding bodies at sea).

* Improve the monitoring of fisheries taking sharks and rays.

* Invest in shark and ray research and population assessment.

* Minimize incidental catch (bycatch) of sharks and rays.

* Cooperate with other countries to conserve shared populations..

"The traditional view of oceanic sharks and rays as fast and powerful too often leads to a misperception that they are resilient to fishing pressure," said team member Sonja Fordham, deputy chair of the IUCN Shark Specialist Group and policy director of the Shark Alliance, based in Belgium.

"Despite mounting evidence of decline and increasing threats to these species, there are no international catch limits for oceanic sharks," she said. "Our research shows that action is urgently needed on a global level if these fisheries are to be sustainable."

Taste for fins threatens sharks with extinction: study
Yahoo News 22 May 08;

Overfishing driven in part by an insatiable appetite for shark-fin soup has threatened 11 species of the ocean-dwelling predators with extinction, according to a report released on Thursday.

The first study to assess the worldwide status of 21 species of pelagic sharks and rays -- those living and hunting in open seas -- found that more than half are rapidly being fished out of existence.

Particularly vulnerable species include the short-finned mako, the thresher and the silky, said the report, to be published in the journal Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems.

"Despite mounting evidence of decline and increasing threats to these species, there are no international catch limits for oceanic sharks," said co-author Sonja Fordham, a researcher at the Ocean Conservancy and Shark Alliance in Brussels.

"Our research shows that action is urgently needed on a global level if these fisheries are to be sustainable."

Many big shark species have fallen prey to booming Asian economies where shark-fin soup is prized as a must-have delicacy at weddings and other banquet occasions. The fins are often sliced off of living fish which are then discarded in the sea.

Accidental "by-catch" by industrial fishing operations have also decimated shark populations, the study said.

Sharks and big rays are especially vulnerable to overfishing because they take many years to reach sexual maturity and have relatively few offspring.

"We are losing species at a rate 10 to 100 times greater than historic rates," said the study's lead author, Nicholas Dulvy, a professor at Sime Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada.

The report, presented at a major UN conference on biodiversity in Bonn, calls for the establishment and enforcement of science-based catch limits for sharks and rays, and a ban on the practice of "shark finning."

The 11-day Bonn conference seeks to prevent the destruction of countless plant and animal species.

It is the ninth of its kind of countries who signed up to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit.

Six more sharks join endangered list
Charles Clover, The Telegraph 22 May 08;

More than half of the world’s sharks are under threat of extinction, conservationists warned on Thursday.

Six more of the sharks were added to the official Red List of species at risk of dying out yesterday bringing the total to 11 sharks and rays out of 21 species studied, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

The six named were the Thresher shark, Silky shark, Shortfin mako, the Pelagic thresher, the Bigeye thresher and the Salmon shark.

They join a list already occupied by the Whale shark, Great white shark, Megamouth shark and Basking shark.

Experts from IUCN said the sharks, commonly found in shallow waters as opposed to deep waters, were threatened both by direct fishing for their valuable fins and meat, as well as indirect by catch in other fisheries.

In most fisheries, they said, catches were unregulated and not subject to any management measures intended to ensure the species' survival.

Sonja Fordham, deputy chairman of the IUCN's shark specialist group, said: "The traditional view of oceanic sharks and rays as fast and powerful too often leads to a misperception that they are resilient to fishing pressure.

"Despite mounting evidence of decline and increasing threats to these species, there are no international catch limits for oceanic sharks. Our research shows that action is urgently needed on a global level if these fisheries are to be sustainable."

The study, published in the journal, Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater ecosystems, says that increasing demand for the delicacy "shark's fin soup," driven by rapidly growing Asian economies, meant that often the valuable shark fins were retained and the carcasses discarded.

Frequently, discarded sharks and rays were not even recorded. Sharks and rays are vulnerable to overfishing because they take many years to become sexually mature and have relatively few offspring.

Nicholas Dulvy, from Simon Fraser university, Vancouver, said: "Fishery managers and regional, national and international officials have a real obligation to improve this situation.

"We are losing species at a rate 10 to 100 times greater than historic extinction rates. Humans are making increasing use of ocean resources so many more aquatic species, particularly sharks, are coming under threat. But it doesn't have to be like this. With sufficient public support and resulting political will, we can turn the tide."
# A bell was rung on Thursday on the cliff-top site of a proposed stone memorial to extinct species at Portland on the Jurassic Coast in Dorset.

The wringing of the bell, by Alex Wood, a Portland schoolgirl was the latest step in a campaign to build a stone memorial to the 845 species known to have become extinct in modern times.

The project is backed by the novelist, Philip Pullman, the scientist, James Lovelock and Tim Smit of Cornwall's Eden project.

On Thursday, International Day of Biodiversity, the bell was transported to London where it was rung again on the steps of St Paul's by Chris Barnes, an actor dressed as Robert Hooke, Sir Christopher Wren's architectural assistant, who saw giant ammonites in the stone leading him to the idea that species could go extinct.

The idea is that the interior of the memorial will be carved with images of the species that have gone extinct and a bell tolled each year for extinct species on May 22.

Fin soup threatens survival of ocean sharks - study
Madeline Chambers, Reuters 22 May 08;

BERLIN, May 22 (Reuters) - Overfishing partly caused by booming demand for shark fin soup, a delicacy in some Asian countries, is threatening the existence of 11 kinds of ocean sharks, an international study showed on Thursday.

The fish, often seen as ferocious sea predators, suffer from largely unregulated fishing for their valuable fins, said the report into 21 species of sharks and rays living in the open oceans.

The experts who wrote the study, organised by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, also urged governments to quickly impose catch limits.

"The traditional view of oceanic sharks and rays as fast and powerful too often leads to a misperception that they are resilient to fishing pressure," Sonja Fordham, report co-author and deputy head of the IUCN's shark specialist group, said.

Thresher sharks, silky sharks and the shortfin mako are all under threat, said the report, presented at a May 19-30 U.N. biodiversity conference in the city of Bonn.

The sharks, all "pelagic" or living in the open ocean, include large species such as the whale shark and great white shark. Although relatively few compared to coastal and deep sea sharks, a greater number of pelagic species is under threat.

"The increase in demand for shark fin soup in countries like China is a major driver of the problem," Fordham told Reuters, noting that growing affluence in China, where the soup is served as a treat at celebrations, is behind its increasing popularity.

Fishers from all over the world catch and trade sharks for their lucrative fins, often discarding their carcasses, said Fordham, noting Indonesia and Spain are among the top culprits.

Seven ocean pelagic shark species will be added to the IUCN 2008 "Red List" of endangered species, bringing the total to 21.

Sharks and rays are especially vulnerable as they take many years to reach sexual maturity and have few offspring.

Research shows the disappearance of shark species could lead to the demise of other species by upsetting the natural balance in the world's oceans.

Governments should set up catch limits for sharks and rays and ensure an end to shark finning, said the report. It also recommended a better monitoring of fisheries, more investment in research and closer international cooperation.

"Humans are making increasing use of ocean resources so many more aquatic species, particularly sharks, are coming under threat," said Nicholas Dulvy, lead author of the study published in "Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems".

"But it doesn't have to be like this. With sufficient public support and political will, we can turn the tide." (Reporting by Madeline Chambers; Editing by David Fogarty)

Related links

You can swim but you can’t hide – more oceanic sharks on the IUCN Red List
on the IUCN website

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Growing Ocean Acidity May Erode Coastal Ecosystems

John Roach, National Geographic News 22 May 08;

Ocean waters along North America's west coast are becoming more acidic than expected in response to atmospheric carbon emissions, which will likely cause significant changes to economically vital marine ecosystems, a new study says.

At one spot in northern California, waters acidic enough to corrode seashells now rake the shore, researchers point out.

"The models suggested they wouldn't be corrosive at the surface until sometime during the second half of this century," Richard Feely, a chemical oceanographer with the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle, Washington, said via email.

Scientists have long known that the oceans serve as a giant carbon sink, moderating the effects of global warming by absorbing about a third to a half of human-caused carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

But the added carbon dioxide is lowering the oceans' pH, changing their chemistry and biology, explained Feely, whose lab is run by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Acidic waters inhibit marine organisms from producing the calcium carbonate that makes up their exoskeletons and shells.

"Scientists have also seen a reduced ability of marine algae and free-floating plants and animals to produce protective carbonate shells," Feely said.

For example researchers have seen a decline in swimming mollusks called pteropods that are eaten by creatures ranging from shrimplike krill to whales. The mollusks are particularly vital to juvenile salmon and other commercial fish.

"The impact of ocean acidification on fisheries and coral reef ecosystems could reverberate through the U.S. and global economy," Feely said.

Corrosive Upwelling

Feely and colleagues measured the acidity of waters along the west coast of North America from central Canada to northern Mexico.

They found deep-ocean waters corrosive enough to eat away at seashells and coral reefs are upwelling each spring and summer onto the continental shelf.

"The deep waters are always more acidic than surface waters," Feely explained.

In addition to carbon dioxide absorbed from the atmosphere, deep waters contain carbon dioxide that is a by-product of the breathing of marine organisms and the decay of organic matter.

"What's more, there is a 50-year lag between the time when ocean surface waters [are] exposed to the atmosphere, its sinking, and ultimate upwelling on the continental shelf," noted co-author Burke Hales from Oregon State University.

"This means that even if we were to stop instantaneously the current rate of rise of CO2 in the atmosphere ... the corrosivity of these upwelled waters would increase for the next 50 years," he said in a telephone briefing with reporters.

These corrosive waters already reach the surface at one point in northern California. Elsewhere, they reach depths between 130 and 390 feet (40 and 120 meters).

Feely, Hales, and colleagues report their findings in tomorrow's issue of the journal Science.

"Amazing and Frightening"

Ken Caldeira is a geoscientist who studies ocean acidification at the Carnegie Institute of Washington's office in Stanford, California. He said the new finding is dramatic.

"The idea that [calcium carbonate] shells might already be dissolving in coastal waters is pretty amazing, and it's frightening," he said.

Global models, he noted, had predicted corrosion in coastal waters at the Poles around the middle of this century and the California coast sometime next century.

However, the impact of these acidic waters remains uncertain, Caldeira added.

Experiments have shown that ocean acidification makes coral reefs vulnerable to erosion, potentially impacting thousands of species that depend on reef habitat.

Shellfish such as crabs, mussels, and oysters also weaken with increasing carbon dioxide levels, and experiments suggest squid and sea urchins are susceptible to acidic oceans.

But scientists have not conducted any experiments on how entire coastal ecosystems respond to increasing ocean acidification, Caldeira said. Most research has been in the lab and focused on single organisms.

In addition, the chemistry of coastal waters is generally more variable than the open ocean, suggesting coastal environments may be more resilient to the changing conditions.

"It could be either something serious that could completely restructure the coastal ecosystem, or it could be something that within a few years these things basically adapt to," he said.

He added, however, that no experiments have shown an organism becoming more efficient at making shells in response to ocean acidification.

"It looks like the biological capacity for adaptation there in calcification is pretty low."

Human carbon emissions make oceans corrosive: study
Deborah Zabarenko, Reuters 22 May 08;

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Carbon dioxide spewed by human activities has made ocean water so acidic that it is eating away at the shells and skeletons of starfish, coral, clams and other sea creatures, scientists said on Thursday.

Marine researchers knew that ocean acidification, as it's called, was occurring in deep water far from land. What they called "truly astonishing" was the appearance of this damaging phenomenon on the Pacific North American continental shelf, stretching from Mexico to Canada.

"This means that ocean acidification may be seriously impacting our marine life on our continental shelf right now, today," said Richard Feely of the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, part of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Other continental shelf regions around the world are likely to face the same fate, he said.

Plenty of natural activities, including human breath, send the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, but for the last 200 years or so, industrial processes that involve the burning of fossil fuels such as coal and petroleum have pushed emissions higher.

Oceans have long been repositories for the carbon dioxide, absorbing some 525 billion tonnes of the climate-warming substance over the last two centuries -- about one-third of all human-generated carbon dioxide for that period.

But the daily absorption of 22 million tonnes of the stuff has changed the chemistry and biology of the oceans, turning it corrosive and making it difficult or impossible for some animals to produce their calcium carbonate shells and skeletons, the researchers said.

CHURNING OCEAN WATERS

This change has been observed over the last three decades, the scientists said in research published in the journal Science.

The acidic waters are coming up onto the continental shelf -- the shallow area near a big land mass like North America -- because of a long-term churning ocean pattern that moves cold deep water up toward the surface in the spring and summer, the scientists said.

The carbon-loaded waters that are now near the U.S. West Coast took about 50 years to get there, starting somewhere on the ocean surface and absorbing their share of carbon dioxide, then sinking deep down and eventually welling upward.

The natural process called ocean respiration could not explain the high levels of carbon dioxide that caused the corrosive water the scientists found on the continental shelf; the addition of human-generated carbon dioxide did.

This acidic water is corroding the shells of clams, mussels, starfish and the free-floating sea-snails called pterapods that nourish young salmon, the researchers said, citing data from a 2007 research cruise.

Corrosion occurred in water that absorbed carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in 1957, when levels of this gas were considerably lower than they are now, the researchers said.

"This means that even if we were to stop instantaneously the current rate of rise of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the corrosivity of these upwelling waters would increase for the next 50 years," said Burke Hales, a professor of chemical oceanography at Oregon State University.

(Editing by Will Dunham and Philip Barbara)

The Twilight Age of Coral Reefs
Stephen Leahy, IPSnews 22 May 08;

GIJON, Spain, May 22 (IPS) - Coral reefs will be the first global ecosystem to collapse in our lifetimes. The one-two punch of climate change that is warming ocean temperatures and increasing acidification is making the oceans uninhabitable for corals and other marine species, researchers said at a scientific symposium in Spain.

And now other regions are being affected. Acidic or corrosive waters have been detected for the first time on the continental shelf of the west coast of North America, posing a serious threat to fisheries, Richard Feely, an oceanographer with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), told attendees in Gijon, Spain Wednesday.

More than 450 scientists from over 60 countries are participating in the "Effects of Climate Change on the World's Oceans" symposium.

"Surface waters off the coast of San Francisco had concentrations of carbon dioxide that we didn't expect to see for at least another 100 years," Feely told IPS.

For hundreds of thousands of years, the levels of carbon dioxide in the ocean and the atmosphere were in balance, but the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation has put more CO2 into the atmosphere over the last 150 years. The oceans have absorbed one-third -- about 130 billion tonnes -- of those human emissions and have become 30 percent more acidic as this extra CO2 combines with carbonate ions in seawater, forming carbonic acid.

Each day, the oceans absorb 30 million tonnes of CO2, gradually and inevitably increasing their acidity and leaving less calcium carbonate in the water for corals and shell-form species like phytoplankton to grow or maintain their skeletons.

On the west coast of North America, there is normal upwelling of deep ocean water onto the continental shelf in the spring and summer. Feely and colleagues took water samples from Canada to Mexico last summer and much to their surprise they found big pools or shoals of corrosive water. These deep waters have been absorbing CO2 for thousands of years and are normally more acidic, but the levels found were far higher and much closer to the shore than anyone had expected.

This is the first evidence that a large section of the North American west coast is being impacted by climate change-driven ocean acidification, Feely and colleagues write in their paper published Thursday in Science. "Other continental shelf regions may also be impacted," they write.

In fact, Feely told IPS that there is evidence that the same process is happening along the west coast of South America.

So what does this mean? "There are likely huge impacts, but this is new and no one has looked to see yet," Feely said.

Continental shelves are among the most productive regions of the oceans and the easiest to fish. The very few studies looking at the impacts of ocean acidification have found that many species cannot survive these new conditions. Brittlestars (a close relative of starfish) die in eight days, and some juvenile clams can't form shells when the CO2 levels are doubled, Feely said. Some of the surface waters last summer were triple the normal CO2 levels.

And there is no information at all on how the marine ecosystem responds when these pools of corrosive water move in for a few days or weeks. "Do species like free-swimming pteropods (a type of snail) know when their thin shells are dissolving so they can get out of the way?" he asked.

That turns out to be an important question for species like salmon, since pteropods can make up 60 percent of their diet.

Temperature rise and acidification are putting one of the planet's key ecosystems at great risk, Feely warned: "This is a very real biological threshold beyond which species will simply cease to exist."

Coral reefs support about 25 to 33 percent of the oceans' living creatures. Some one billion people depend directly and indirectly on reefs for their livelihoods. Sea birds and many species of fish would be affected by the loss of reefs, said Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, a marine scientist at the Centre for Marine Studies at the University of Queensland, Australia.

When CO2 in the atmosphere reaches a concentration of 450 to 500 parts per million (ppm), the oceans will mostly be too acidic for corals to grow. Warmer ocean temperatures of just one or two degrees above normal can not only can cause coral bleaching but also make corals vulnerable to even lower levels of acidification, said Hoegh-Guldberg, who attended the Gijon meet.

CO2 is at 384 ppm currently and rising very fast as nearly every country's emissions continue to grow. Worse, new research also presented in Gijon suggests the oceans themselves are no longer absorbing as much CO2 as they once did. Stabilising the atmospheric concentration of CO2 at less than 450 ppm now looks to be impossible.

"We are witnessing the end of corals as a major feature in the oceans," Hoegh-Guldberg told IPS.

The faint hope for corals is for global society to realise climate change is "a code red emergency" and cut carbon emissions to zero and start reducing the concentrations in the atmosphere right away, he said. "Otherwise in 30 years or so corals will be so thin and brittle if you breathe on them they will fall over."

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Aspen trees starved in global warming experiment

John Flesher, Associated Press Yahoo News 22 may 08;

Chain saws scream in a northern Michigan forest, but it's not the familiar sound of lumberjacks.

This time the tree killers are environmental researchers. They hope that years from now the aspens they remove will be replaced with a healthy mix of maples, oaks, beeches and pines — which should soak up more carbon dioxide from an ever warmer world.

The scientists hope to take a 100-acre section of the University of Michigan Biological Station research forest closer to the state it was in before logging, when it was dominated by different species of trees instead of the present-day aspens.

They say the experiment is the first they're aware of that involves removing large numbers of trees to promote growth of other species that will boost carbon absorption. It comes as governments and businesses around the world look for economically feasible ways to limit climate change.

Carbon dioxide makes up more than 80 percent of the human-produced U.S. greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming, the Department of Energy says.

Scientists believe a diverse woodland will hold more carbon because it will be richer in nitrogen and use sunlight more efficiently. Both are key factors in photosynthesis, during which carbon is absorbed, said Christoph Vogel, a University of Michigan forest ecologist.

"We've been managing forests for lumber or pulp, or perhaps as habitat for deer or quail," said project leader Peter Curtis, an Ohio State University forest ecologist. "Many economists think that managing them for carbon will be a fact of life in the not-too-distant future."

Skeptics question forests' long-term reliability for sequestering carbon. They can be cut down, burned or destroyed by disease or insects. Also, it's hard to measure their storage capacity, said Jonathan Pershing, climate and energy program director for the World Resources Institute.

"Are you so sure you can tell us how much carbon is saved from your tree? That's the kind of question that makes people dubious about forest management" as a tool for limiting greenhouse gases, Pershing said.

Curtis and Vogel can't say yet how much carbon the new blend of trees will absorb, but they hope to find out.

The 10,000-acre research forest has two steel towers, both more than 100 feet high and roughly a mile apart, with devices that measure carbon dioxide flowing into and out of the trees. The towers transmit air samples to computers that track the data.

After the region was clear-cut in the late 1800s and early 1900s, fast-growing aspens sprang up. They became the predominant species in many Northern forests, forming towering canopies that hogged sunlight. That stunted the growth of other varieties.

Walking down a leaf-strewn path, Vogel pointed to a scraggly white pine that was about 25 years old, but only 6 feet high.

"Looks like Charlie Brown's Christmas tree," he lamented.

Yet the small pine likely will outlive the aspens, most of which will reach the end of their natural life span within two or three decades.

As they die, the forest will welcome a mix of deciduous and conifer, although in different proportions than it held before logging. Curtis and Vogel don't want to wait 30 years to see how much carbon that forest will hold.

Cutting down the aspens would cause new sprouts to multiply, so scientists instead use a technique called "girdling," in which they strip a band of bark from around each tree. It starves the trees by preventing sugars produced by the leaves from traveling to the roots.

In recent weeks, crews have girdled more than 6,700 trees — mostly aspens, with some birches — near one of the measuring towers. They should die in a year or two, allowing other species to flourish.

"I have little pangs now and then about what we've done ... even though it's for a good reason," Vogel said. But some of the aspens and birches were already dying, and it was just a matter of time for the others, he said.

The researchers will compare carbon statistics from the woodlands where they've girded trees with data from the woodlands where they haven't. Aspens will remain in the latter area until they die naturally.

It should take seven to 10 years to determine whether the more diverse forest takes in more carbon, Curtis said. If so, the discovery could guide state and federal forest managers and even private landowners interested in using woodlands to fight climate change.

Read more!

Burying CO2 vital in climate battle: IEA

Pete Harrison, Reuters 22 May 08;

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Finding ways of safely burying carbon dioxide could be the only way of keeping greenhouse gas emissions below dangerous levels, the International Energy Agency's chief economist said on Thursday.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is seen by industry and some lawmakers as a possible silver bullet in the fight against climate change as it could curb growing emissions from coal plants.

But it has never been tested on a commercial scale and it is strongly opposed by some environmentalists, who argue it is unsafe, will not be ready in time and could divert investment away from truly green sources of power.

IEA Chief Economist Fatih Birol said CCS was the technological breakthrough the world was looking for in the fight against global warming, and any economic and technological challenges could be overcome with government support.

The EU says any warming of the climate by more than 2 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels will bring more damaging heat waves, storms, coastal flooding and water shortages.

The bloc has adopted ambitious targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions by a fifth by 2020 from 1990 levels.

However, a United Nations panel of scientists says that target will be hard to achieve and that its best guess for temperature rises this century is between 1.8 and 4 degrees Celsius.

"What we need is a key technology, which is carbon capture and storage," Birol told a briefing with Brussels think-tank the Lisbon Council.

"This is a key technology that can take us to the 2 degrees if it is pushed appropriately, at the appropriate time and appropriate conditions," he said.

Carbon capture has become a contentious issue in recent weeks, with EU lawmakers debating new CCS legislation in the European Parliament.

Greenpeace issued a report earlier this month describing the technology as a "false hope", but some other green groups including WWF see it as a vital stop-gap.

Birol added: "At the G8 meeting next month in Hokkaido in Japan, this will be our message: If you are serious on the climate change issue, your support, and the support of carbon capture and storage, will be your litmus test."

He also said the promotion of CCS would be a key part of the IEA's annual report in November, which would include a recommendation that the UN-led Kyoto scheme starts rewarding CCS in its clean development mechanism.

Companies preparing CCS projects include StatoilHydro, E.ON, RWE, Scottish & Southern Energy, Scottish Power, owned by Iberdrola, and a joint venture between BP and Rio Tinto called Hydrogen Energy.

(Reporting by Pete Harrison)

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Fishing for clues on dugong numbers

Crystal Ja, Brisbane Times 22 May 08;

Researchers hope a ground-breaking Australian study on wild dugongs will help shed light on why their numbers continue to dwindle.

The joint project, conducted by the University of Queensland (UQ) and Sea World, allows scientists to examine live dugongs out of the water in a first for Australian biologists.

The five-day fact-finding mission at Moreton Bay, home to one of Australia's most dense dugong populations, has so far seen eight dugongs successfully captured and assessed.

After being tackled in the water by a team of up to four people, the animals are taken onboard a research boat to have blood, urine and even tear samples collected.

The creatures, also known affectionately as "sea cows", are kept shaded and wet for up to 40 minutes before being released back into the water.

Sea World's Wendy Blanchard said there were about 100,000 dugongs living in the wild, but they were increasingly affected by humans, and global dugong numbers were falling.

"They're vulnerable because they like living in shallow coastal water," she said.

She said many get caught in fishing nets, while a smaller proportion get hit by boats.

UQ dugong research team leader Janet Lanyon said the study would help determine why large numbers of dugongs were dying along Australia's east coast.

"There are still large numbers of dugongs dying along the Queensland coast and we have no idea as to why they're dying," she said.

"We're not sure if there are some diseases in the dugong population, or if there's some other health problem, so this project is giving us some baseline data on the health of the animal."

In a positive sign for the Moreton Bay dugong population, all the females caught so far have been pregnant, proving the mammals were doing particularly well in that environment, Dr Lanyon said.

Sea World director of marine sciences Trevor Long said maintaining dugong numbers remained one of the park's key priorities.

UQ has been running health checks on dugongs since 1996.

AAP

Read more!

IEA study heads towards view that oil supply will flag

Channel NewsAsia 22 May 08;

PARIS: Global oil supplies could fall far short of need and expectations in the next 20 years, the International Energy Agency is concluding with a vast effort of detective work on production prospects, a newspaper report said on Thursday.

The report appeared in the Wall Street Journal after a day of frantic trading on the world oil market which pushed the price up past record after record, briefly to touch 135.04 dollars a barrel.

The main point of the report was in line with remarks made by the chief economist at the IEA, Fatih Birol, to AFP at the end of February.

Birol argued that investment was flagging behind expected growth of demand and consuming countries had to take emergency action to increase energy efficiency and develop alternative energies.

The WSJ reported that a sweeping review of existing oil fields and investment in oil extraction was leading the IEA to conclude that the ageing of existing oil fields and inadequate investment meant that "future crude-oil supplies could be far tighter than previously thought".

The European edition of the newspaper said that for several years the IEA had calculated that supplies would increase steadily as demand rose, to exceed 116 million barrels per day by 2030 from about 87 million barrels per day now.

But it now estimated that "companies could struggle to break beyond 100 million barrels per day over the next two decades".

The IEA, based in Paris, was created as an offshoot of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development amid the first oil shocks of the 1970s to monitor the oil market and energy strategies for advanced economies.

The newspaper report said it had put a team of 25 analysts onto the task of trying to crack some of the best-kept secrets in the oil industry, regarding the situation and prospects for long-term oilfield production.

The report quoted Birol as saying: "One of our findings will be that the oil investments required may be much higher than what people assume."

He added in the report: "This is a dangerous situation."

In an interview with AFP on February 29, Birol said that the oil price was surging because of strong demand and because production capacity was not rising enough.

The IEA had calculated that up to 2015 it was necessary to invest enough in production capacity to supply 37.5 million barrels per day to meet growth of demand and compensate for a decline of existing fields.

The IEA had identified 230 projects for which financing had been voted in countries in the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries and outside it.

If all of these projects were carried out, they would generate only 25 million barrels per day up to 2015.

There was, therefore, a shortfall of 12.5 million barrels per day between commitment to investment and what the IEA considered was needed.

The gap was "very, very worrying", he said then.

Only two strategies were available to consuming countries to deal with this, he said. One was to set in place emergency and draconian measures to increase efficiency of energy usage and to invest massively in alternative energies.- AFP/so

Read more!

IEA study heads towards view that oil supply will flag

Channel NewsAsia 22 May 08;

PARIS: Global oil supplies could fall far short of need and expectations in the next 20 years, the International Energy Agency is concluding with a vast effort of detective work on production prospects, a newspaper report said on Thursday.

The report appeared in the Wall Street Journal after a day of frantic trading on the world oil market which pushed the price up past record after record, briefly to touch 135.04 dollars a barrel.

The main point of the report was in line with remarks made by the chief economist at the IEA, Fatih Birol, to AFP at the end of February.

Birol argued that investment was flagging behind expected growth of demand and consuming countries had to take emergency action to increase energy efficiency and develop alternative energies.

The WSJ reported that a sweeping review of existing oil fields and investment in oil extraction was leading the IEA to conclude that the ageing of existing oil fields and inadequate investment meant that "future crude-oil supplies could be far tighter than previously thought".

The European edition of the newspaper said that for several years the IEA had calculated that supplies would increase steadily as demand rose, to exceed 116 million barrels per day by 2030 from about 87 million barrels per day now.

But it now estimated that "companies could struggle to break beyond 100 million barrels per day over the next two decades".

The IEA, based in Paris, was created as an offshoot of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development amid the first oil shocks of the 1970s to monitor the oil market and energy strategies for advanced economies.

The newspaper report said it had put a team of 25 analysts onto the task of trying to crack some of the best-kept secrets in the oil industry, regarding the situation and prospects for long-term oilfield production.

The report quoted Birol as saying: "One of our findings will be that the oil investments required may be much higher than what people assume."

He added in the report: "This is a dangerous situation."

In an interview with AFP on February 29, Birol said that the oil price was surging because of strong demand and because production capacity was not rising enough.

The IEA had calculated that up to 2015 it was necessary to invest enough in production capacity to supply 37.5 million barrels per day to meet growth of demand and compensate for a decline of existing fields.

The IEA had identified 230 projects for which financing had been voted in countries in the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries and outside it.

If all of these projects were carried out, they would generate only 25 million barrels per day up to 2015.

There was, therefore, a shortfall of 12.5 million barrels per day between commitment to investment and what the IEA considered was needed.

The gap was "very, very worrying", he said then.

Only two strategies were available to consuming countries to deal with this, he said. One was to set in place emergency and draconian measures to increase efficiency of energy usage and to invest massively in alternative energies.- AFP/so

Read more!

Dig deeper into 'expert opinion' about oil

Roger Howard, Business Times 23 May 08;

AT A time of rapid price increases, our natural resources seem ever more precious and their future more uncertain. In particular, the arguments of advocates of 'peak oil', who assert that global oil production has now climaxed and will start to decline, appear increasingly plausible.

Fortunately, however, a coming centenary puts their claims into a timely and fitting perspective. Almost 100 years ago - on May 26, 1908 - British geologists, working in a remote Persian wilderness, first discovered oil in the Middle East.

Remarkable though it may now seem, almost all experts of the day felt that the Middle East was largely barren of oil.

True, there was limited evidence that some parts of Persia and Mesopotamia (later Iraq) had petroleum deposits, but there was no reason to suppose that these existed in commercial quantities. Several efforts had been made to discover deposits, but these failed explorations succeeded only in driving their sponsors into bankruptcy and even madness.

The failings of expert opinion were much more glaring in the case of other Middle Eastern countries. Several highly eminent British geologists had taken a close look at the region and typically concluded that Arabia did not 'present any decided promise for drilling on oil'. Not surprisingly, the top oilmen were very reluctant to invest in the region. In 1924, Charles Greenway, chairman of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, pointed out that 'the geological data we possess at present does not indicate there is much hope of finding oil in Bahrain and Kuwait'. And one of his top advisers, Arnold Wilson, later argued that Arabia was 'devoid of all prospect', adding that 'we shall be compelled in practice to concentrate our efforts to find a fresh oil field in Canada and South America'.

It is significant that regional oil was discovered in the Middle East by several men - including William Knox D'Arcy and Frank Holmes - who were notoriously dismissive of expert opinion and worked almost entirely on gut feeling.

The truth is that the future of oil, more than almost any other substance, defies prediction.

Anybody's guess

This is not just because it is a liquid substance found in increasingly inaccessible places, such as deep ocean waters. It is also because, instead of being conveniently located in vast underground lakes or reservoirs, the substance is often absorbed into porous underground rocks in a way that makes accurate measurement virtually impossible. Many of these deposits also run so deep that, in the early stages of exploration, it is impossible to even hazard a wild guess about their whereabouts.

Such uncertainty can be heavily exploited by numerous vested interests. If they take a pessimistic view on the future, Middle East producers can justify high barrel prices that subsidise much-needed exploration and production, just as they make job cuts less likely within particular departments of regional oil companies.

Of course this fundamental uncertainty about oil data works both ways. Conceivably the future might be even more dire than the 'peak oilers' claim: Consider, for example, how in 2002, Shell scandalised the business world and hammered its share price by suddenly downgrading the size of its reserves by a staggering 4.8 billion barrels.

Sceptical though we should be about all such claims and statistics, there are several reasons why they should allow us to take heart about the future of oil. If in the years ahead there is a serious shortage of crude - leading to even more dramatic price rises than those of recent years - it is more likely to occur because of a disproportionate increase in demand rather than any diminution of supply.

To some extent, this is simply because there are still many areas of great promise that, for one reason or another, have remained largely unexplored. For example, whole areas of Russia and Iraq, particularly the latter country's vast desert regions, have been completely untouched by the latest sophisticated drilling techniques.

But the fundamental, underlying cause for optimism is the rate at which technology and scientific skills are advancing, thereby allowing existing reserves to be kept on tap for longer than anyone ever predicted and for new sources to be discovered in places where, not long ago, they were considered unreachable.

Of course, such relative optimism is no excuse for complacency. In an age of dramatic population growth and rapid industrialisation in the developing world, every finite resource is necessarily precious.

We must all urge our governments to sponsor scientific research into the development of more environmentally friendly fuels to replace those that are oil-based.

But let's take heart: The great pioneers who discovered Middle East oil a century ago would have been the first not to take expert opinion as the gospel truth. -- IHT

The writer is the author, most recently, of 'The Oil Hunters: Exploration and Espionage in the Middle East 1880-1939'

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Best of our wild blogs: 23 May 08

'Leisure Island' and our shores
on the wildfilms blog

Nature walk at Pulau Ubin
first post on the pulau ubin tour with justin blog

Echinoderm hang out
first posts of shore trips and more on the recently launched lazy lizard tales blog

Seagrasses on the East Coast?
some intriguing finds on the wildfilms blog

International Museum Day - the MIA trail
on the toddycats blog

Sea morning glory
an important shore plant on the wildfilms blog

Beautiful Cyrene 7 - hard coral condominium with a view
on the sgbeachbum blog

Asian Glossy Starling feeding chicks
on the bird ecology blog

World Environment Day on 5 Jun 2008: Kick the Habit!
Towards a Low Carbon Economy on the AsiaIsGreen blog

Animals are important to seagrasses too!
ScienceDaily article on the teamseagrass blog

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Haze getting thicker in West Sumatra

Straits Times 23 May 08;

PADANG - THE haze which has been affecting West Sumatra for the past two days following the emergence of hot spots in a number of locations became thicker yesterday but has not disrupted domestic and international flight schedules yet.

Air traffic was proceeding normally and had remained unaffected, said Mr Satyah Anggara, the chief of Minangkabau International Airport operations division.

Mr Amarizal, a spokesman for the Tabing Padang meteorological and geophysics office, said visibility was still good despite the haze.

He suspected the haze had come from West Sumatra's neighbouring provinces of Jambi and Bengkulu.

However, there may also be hot spots in West Sumatra's forests as the province is entering the dry season.

On Tuesday, the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Satellite 18 detected scores of hot spots in West Sumatra which were causing the haze.

Data from the forest service and the natural resources conservation agency showed that there were 27 hot spots in the province last Saturday.

The hot spots have emerged because of forest fires and fires started to open up land for new farms, a local forestry service officer said. He warned farmers not to violate a government regulation that bans the burning of trees in forested areas.

Forest fires in Sumatra and Borneo have affected Malaysia and Singapore almost yearly since 1997.

The problem prompted Asean member countries affected by haze to help Indonesia fight illegal burning.

A meeting was held in Kuala Lumpur just last month to step up those efforts, as dry weather is forecast for the months ahead.

BERNAMA

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Go for gold by going green: Even parks can do more

Sheralyn Tay, Today Online 23 May 08;

A GREEN Mark for a park?

While it may seem strange for a park to win a green prize, apparently, parks — green as they are — could be greener still. For example, they can use rainwater for irrigation, energy efficient lights or environmentally friendly fertilisers, which all go towards ensuring a park that is not just green, but environmentally-sustainable.

Last night, three parks — the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve, Fort Canning Park and Chinese Garden — were presented with the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) and National Parks Board's inaugural Green Mark for Parks award.

This extension of the Green Mark award comes as further enhancements are made to the three-year-old incentive scheme for environmentally-friendly buildings.

Speaking at the annual BCA Awards last night, Minister for National Development Mah Bow Tan, said the scheme would now recognise the role of architects and engineers and the critical role they play in the drawing board and building stages.

Mr Mah said: "With the green building movement in Singapore gathering momentum, it is timely for us to enhance the scheme, as well as apply the Green Mark concept to the wider physical environment."

Smaller buildings — with a gross floor area (GFA) of 2,000 square meters and onwards — will also now be eligible for the scheme.

The pick up of Green Mark has gone from just 17 projects awarded in each of the first two years, to 100 last year. According to the BCA, more than 200 are already being assessed this year.

And it's no wonder. According to a BCA study, the cost of meeting Green Mark requirements is only a small portion of development costs, but the returns are significant.

A basic Green Mark rating adds 0.3 to 1 per cent to costs, but the return-on-investment (ROI) is two to five years. And though a platinum rating costs the most at 2 to 8 per cent with an ROI of two to eight years, the higher the rating, the higher the energy savings, which can range from 15 to 35 per cent.

Some 19,000 green homes now enjoy $1,000 worth of utility savings for each household each year thanks to green features.

More awards under Green Mark scheme
Lim Wen Juin, Business Times 23 May 08;

MINISTER for National Development Mah Bow Tan emphasised the need for a sustainable built environment at the Building and Construction Authority Awards Night by announcing enhancements to the Green Mark scheme.

'The scheme has been well accepted by the industry and is now a recognised achievement. With the green building movement in Singapore gaining momentum, it is timely to enhance the scheme and apply the Green Mark concept to the wider physical environment,' he said.

The enhancements include two revisions to the Green Mark Incentive Scheme, a $20 million fund set aside in December 2006 to reward developers of projects certified Gold or above. A total of $2.6 million has been awarded to 17 projects so far.

The first change extends the incentive scheme to smaller buildings by reducing the minimum ground floor area eligibility requirement to 2,000 square metres from 5,000 sq m, while the second broadens it to include architects and engineers involved in new developments.

Offering architects and engineers monetary motivation to incorporate green features into building designs from Day One would lead to 'lower green cost premiums', defined as cost of greening over total construction cost, pointed out BCA chief executive John Keung.

Mr Mah also inaugurated the stringent Green Mark Champion award for developers. To qualify for the award, a developer or building owner must have no less than 10 projects rated Gold or above, with at least three Gold Plus and three Platinum awards.

With a stable of 21 projects rated Gold or above, including five Gold Plus and five Platinum efforts, City Developments Ltd was the sole recipient of the new award.

The subsequent benchmark, Green Mark Platinum Champion, demands no less than 50 Gold or above projects, of which at least 15 must be Gold Plus and at least 15 Platinum.

The final enhancement announced was the Green Mark for Parks scheme, a collaboration between BCA and the National Parks Board. Open to a wide variety of parks both here and overseas, it looks out for waste and material minimisation, water and energy efficiency, park management, and conservation and heritage.

Fort Canning Park and Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve won Gold, while Chinese Garden attained certification. Key features at the parks include designated composting areas, use of rain water for cleaning and plant maintenance, and preservation of heritage trees.

Government extends cash incentive scheme for green buildings
Architects and engineers can also claim up to $100k
Jessica Cheam, Straits Times 23 May 08;

THE Government's bag of carrots to encourage the construction of green buildings just got bigger.

National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan announced yesterday that cash incentives paid to developers who put up green buildings will be extended.

In addition, key industry stakeholders such as architects and engineers will now be offered incentives, too, in recognition of the important roles they play, he said.

The Green Mark incentive scheme, launched by the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) in December 2006, pays out cash grants of up to $3 million for buildings that reach high environmental standards.

Developers will see no change in the scheme, but architects and engineers can now claim up to $100,000 in cash incentives, depending on the building standard achieved and the floor area.

To encourage more green buildings, the scheme will now also apply to smaller buildings, said Mr Mah. The minimum gross floor area requirement will be cut from 5,000 sq m to 2,000 sq m.

The BCA Green Mark scheme, launched in 2005, rates buildings for their environmental impact and performance.

'With the green building movement in Singapore gaining momentum, it is timely to enhance the scheme,' said Mr Mah at BCA's annual awards dinner last night.

BCA launched two new awards yesterday: the BCA Green Mark Champion Award for developers and the BCA-NParks Green Mark for Parks Award.

Local developer City Developments clinched the first award, with 21 projects rated Green Mark Gold or above. Five attained GoldPlus or platinum standards.

BCA chief John Keung said yesterday that the BCA Green Mark 'has received strong support from major developers like City Developments', and he hopes that more developers will 'take the lead in achieving excellence in environmental sustainability...and strive for the higher ratings'.

For the first time, Singapore parks will be benchmarked against environmental sustainability standards.

Mr Mah gave out the new parks awards to Fort Canning Park, the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve and the Chinese Garden. In addition, building professionals were honoured for construction excellence, safety and universal design.

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Boat sinks off Marina South Pier, one dead

Sujin Thomas & Ben Nadarajan, Straits Times 23 May 08;

A PRIVATE boat carrying 12 people sank four nautical miles off Marina South Pier yesterday evening, leaving one person dead.

Police said they received a call from a passing boat at about 8.15pm informing them that a cabin cruiser had encountered problems while at sea.

It is believed that the cruiser ran a leak and started taking on water before sinking. It is understood that it was not involved in any collision.

The Police Coast Guard was called and rescued eight people from the water. The other four were pulled out of the water by two passing boats.

A 57-year-old man who was rescued by one of the passing boats was pronounced dead an hour later by paramedics at Marina South Pier.

He is believed to have had a history of heart problems.

The other passengers were four men, four women and three girls aged between eight and 10.

One of the women, a 36-year-old, is six months pregnant.

They were all taken to the Singapore General Hospital where they were warded.

The 12 comprised members of three families and were returning to Loyang after a trip to Kusu Island.

The Straits Times learnt late last night that the dead man was a cousin of the boat owner, a man in his 50s.

The boat owner is believed to have just bought the vessel second-hand.

The fibreglass cabin cruiser is about 15m long and 3m wide. The group left for Kusu in mid-afternoon.

It is believed that when they realised their boat was sinking, they were all able to put on their life jackets.

Man dies, as boat sinks with family of 12 returning from Kusu Island
Today Online 23 may 08;

A family of 12 Singaporeans were returning from Kusu Island to Loyang last night, when their craft ran into difficulties and sank.

The group included a pregnant woman and three children.

Police were informed at about 8.15pm that a boat had sunk about 4 nautical miles off Marina South Pier, according to a statement issued last night.

Eight of the passengers were rescued by a Police Coast Guard craft while four others were picked up by two passing craft.

One of those picked up, a 57-year-old Malay man, was pronounced dead at about 9.10pm by paramedics.

The others were conveyed to the Singapore General Hospital for medical treatment.

Police are investigating the incident.

Man drowns when pleasure boat sinks off Marina South Pier
Channel NewsAsia 22 May 08;

A 57-year-old man drowned when the boat he was in capsized while returning from Kusu Island at about 8.15pm on Thursday.

Eleven other members of his family were also on the boat.

Police said the boat encountered problems on its way to Loyang and sank about four nautical miles off Marina South Pier.

Eight passengers were rescued by the Coast Guard, while four others were picked up by two passing craft.

The man was pronounced dead at about 9.10pm. The rest were conveyed to the Singapore General Hospital.- CNA/cl

Previous owner: Boat gave no problems
Sinking could have been caused by loose shaft, or boat hitting coral, say experts
Arlina Arshad, Straits Times 24 May 08;

THE previous owner of the cabin cruiser which capsized on Thursday night said he maintained the boat and it had never given him any problems in the past.

The Poteus OMS, measuring 14.8m by 2.8m, was sold to its new owners on Thursday morning for $45,000, Mr Ong Jong Yang, director of boat dealer Outboard Motor Service, told The Straits Times yesterday.

Mr Ong said: 'Everything had gone through proper procedure. I owned the boat... I was the mechanic and I maintained the ship. When I saw something wrong, I would fix it immediately. I checked the boat after every trip.'

Mr Ong said he had never faced any problem with the boat and used it every day for leisure purposes.

However, a relative of the family who found themselves in the water after the boat sank on Thursday night said the problem was apparently the coupling between the engine and propeller.

Boat experts said the engine controls the propeller through a shaft, which protrudes out of the vessel's bottom. A problem could mean the shaft had come loose, causing water to seep in. But the rate of water coming in would be slow and too little to cause the vessel to sink, they added.

Mr Chee Han Fui, 54, director of Dive Tech Marine, a company which inspects faulty boats, said the cabin cruiser would have more likely hit coral or a submerged object that cracked its hull, resulting in leakage.

Another possibility: A faulty sea cock or a valve fitting located in the vessel's hull which controls the flow of sea water in and out of the vessel.

The pumps used to discharge water from the boat could also have run out of battery power.

The Maritime and Port Authority (MPA) said there are more than 3,300 licensed pleasure craft here. Craft meant for personal use undergo inspections every three years, but those which are rented out must be checked every year.

An MPA spokesman said the Proteus OMS is 50m below sea level and does not pose any navigational hazard.

'We have, however, requested the owner to remove the sunken craft promptly.'

MPA also said the Proteus OMS has a valid MPA pleasure craft licence, and the steersman has a valid pleasure craft driving licence.

Since 2006, the Police Coast Guard have plucked 132 people out of Singapore waters in 55 incidents.

Its chief investigation officer Chong Choo Ha said many of the cases were in waters south of Singapore.

Cases include people falling overboard, and boats sinking or capsizing in bad weather.

Family's first boat - man dies on their first trip
Esther Tan, Straits Times 24 May 08;

IT WAS the family's first boat and an investment - the plan was to rent it out to fishing enthusiasts here and in Malaysia.

But the first order of business for the excited family a few hours after they took over the $45,000 fibreglass cabin cruiser was to take it out for a spin.

A dozen people - the maximum capacity of the Proteus OMS - got on board and the family set off from Loyang at about 3pm on Thursday. They made a loop round Kusu Island and headed back to the mainland.

The boat started taking in water four nautical miles from the shore and sank within minutes, leaving its 12 life-jacketed occupants, including three children, in the water.

The family was to emerge from the harrowing experience one short - Mr Amin Ahmad, 57, who had a heart condition, died following his rescue.

A close family friend told The Straits Times that the boat had been bought by the family with the intention of making some income from renting it out to fishing enthusiasts, and that Mr Amin was himself one.

The family had planned to take the boat out today and head for Sedili, a town on Johor's east coast, east of Kota Tinggi, where Mr Amin owned a holiday house.

It was also where Mr Amin and several members of the family went for frequent fishing trips during school or public holidays.

About 100 of Mr Amin's relatives and friends showed up at the family's Tampines home yesterday to pay their respects. Many were hesitant about talking to reporters, following the family's request for privacy.

Mr Amin, who was buried in Choa Chu Kang Cemetery yesterday, leaves behind his wife, four sons and grandchildren.

Their hour of hell...
Grandfather's instructions save his family's lives, but he doesn't survive tragic sinking
Teh Joo Lin & Esther Tan, Straits Times 24 May 08;

FOR an hour or so, a family of 12 bobbed around in the southern waters off Marina South Pier.

Sea water had flooded their 14.8m-long fibreglass cabin cruiser when they were heading back to Loyang on Thursday night and the boat sank within minutes.

The Proteus OMS went under vertically. But before it was fully submerged, those onboard slipped on life jackets.

Mr Amin Ahmad, the 57-year-old grandfather of two of the three young girls onboard, took charge, yelling out instructions to his family.

He told his son to take care of everyone. Then, he kept blowing on the whistle on his life jacket, hoping to catch the attention of crews on passing boats.

The choppy waters split the family into two groups - eight huddled together, clinging onto one another, while, 1km away, the other four held on to a life buoy.

Mr Amin's whistling finally caught the attention of an Indonesian supply boat which ferries provisions from shore to big ships.

The Sea Kestrel alerted the Maritime and Port Authority (MPA), which called in the Police Coast Guard (PCG).

The crew of Sea Kestrel began fishing out the group of four - who included Mr Amin - from the water.

A PCG boat arrived minutes later and found the other group with the use of night-vision devices.

Senior Station Inspector (SSI) Mohamed Soib Omar said those in the group were 'grabbing onto each other' tightly. The adults kept two young girls, who were crying, in the centre to protect them.

The two girls were the first to be pulled to safety.

Next out was a 36-year-old woman who was six months pregnant. Pulled out of the water, she told the officers: 'Thank you, thank you.'

SSI Mohamed, 49, said: 'They were so weak, they could not help us to help them. We had to use all our strength to pull them up.'

The officers had to move quickly for fear that those still in the sea would lose their grip and be swept away.

SSI Mohamed said: 'Luckily, one of the men (the boat owner) knew what to do. He told them to hold on to each other and not let go, or they could have been swept 2km or 3km away, given the strong currents.'

Once the whole group was rescued, they were given hot coffee and jackets to keep warm. They also switched off the boat's air-conditioning.

The shivering relatives were 'in shock', but they pointed to the other group and told the police of Mr Amin's heart condition.

A second PCG boat transferred Mr Amin from the Sea Kestrel and sped back to shore where medical staff were waiting.

Staff Sergeant Yussrinal Nasir, 30, who was on the second PCG boat, said Mr Amin was unconscious but had a pulse and was still breathing.

However, paramedics who attended to him at Marina South Pier 10 minutes later found he was dead.

Staff Sgt Yussrinal said: 'We took the shortest time possible to get to shore, but our greatest regret was we still couldn't get him back in time.'

Seven of the 11 survivors - including the three young girls - were taken to Singapore General Hospital.

All have been discharged, except a 53-year-old woman, the boat owner's wife, who was warded for observation.

She is said to have swallowed too much sea water - a condition which could affect her health, such as developing kidney problems.

According to a close family friend, the pregnant woman was kicked in her abdomen during the struggle in the sea.

But she refused to be admitted to hospital and attended Mr Amin's funeral yesterday.

As for the $45,000 boat?

It still lies on the seabed, 50m below sea level.

The owner has been told by the MPA to remove it.

Staying alive
Judith Tan, Straits Times 24 May 08;

WHEN a ship capsizes, survivors should swim as far away as possible before it goes under.

Experts say the force with which it sinks can suck a person under.

Lifeguards said it is relatively easy to stay afloat as the density of human bodies is lower than salt water. But trouble starts when people panic. 'Exhaustion and frenzied breathing may cause one to swallow water. A few sips can cause you to drown. It's important to relax,' said a lifeguard of 15 years.

Hypothermia is not an issue here, but hyperthermia, dehydration and skin burns are. With hypothermia, body temperatures fall in cold and wet conditions; hyperthermia is when it absorbs too much heat.

Head of National Water Safety Council Teo Ho Pin said with life jackets on, survivors can keep their clothes on, reducing the risk. 'In normal circumstances, help should arrive within minutes to pick up the survivors, thus reducing the risk.'

Dehydration can set in relatively soon in the sea - from the hot sun, salty sea and no drinking water.

Dr Malcolm Mahadevan, senior consultant with the emergency department at the National University Hospital, said: 'Usually, the first 24 hours is not a major issue as the body is able to compensate for the lack. A person should save energy and fluids as much as possible.'

Save energy by not exerting yourself physically. If you are not wearing a life jacket, 'cling to an upturned boat to stay afloat rather than tread water', he added.

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