Best of our wild blogs: 21 Jul 08

Chek Jawa with TeamSeagrass
on the wildfilms blog

Reef Survey at Sisters
amazing encounters on the blue water volunteers blog

Endangered Animal Parade
upcoming event on the NIE Green Club blog

Chek Jawa boardwalk tour
upcoming event on the adventures with the naked hermit crabs blog

Hornbills at Changi
with video clip on the manta blog

Rocky life on the aquatic edge
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog

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Georgia Aquarium invitation riles whale shark scientists

Jim Tharpe, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution 20 Jul 08;

Isla Holbox, Mexico — Georgia Aquarium officials want to hold the next international whale shark conference in Atlanta, but some conservationists bristle at the idea because the world's largest indoor aquarium exhibits the huge polka-dotted fish.

Bruce Carlson, the aquarium's chief science officer, traveled to this sweltering, gnat-infested island off the Yucatan Peninsula to invite scientists, eco-tourism officials and conservationists from around the globe who were attending the 2nd International Whale Shark Conference.

Carlson told the six-day conference, which ended Sunday, the aquarium also plans to produce the most comprehensive guide to date on whale shark science, and he invited the 200 attendees from more than 20 countries to participate.

"A lot more hard science and data are needed," he said in an interview after his Holbox presentation. "You cannot go to one place right now and dig up information on these animals. It's scattered all over the place, much of it in obscure journals."

The aquarium's proposal drew mixed reactions, with some conservationists pouring water on the proposed Atlanta conference even before the invitations are mailed. The conference would likely take place in 2011.

"I would never come because that would condone what they are doing," said Lisa Carne, a conservationist from Belize who doesn't think whale sharks should be kept in captivity. "I'm pretty much one of those people who doesn't believe aquariums should exist."

Other scientists, however, applauded the idea of the Atlanta conference and a comprehensive whale shark reference book.

They included Mark Meekan, a scientist from Australia who has spent years researching whale sharks around the world and helped organize the first whale shark conference, held in Perth three years ago.

"This would attract everyone from around the world who has put serious time and effort into studying whale sharks," Meekan said. "I would hope the Atlanta conference would focus more on science than eco-tourism like they did in Holbox because the science is what I'm interested in."

The Georgia Aquarium is the only fish tank outside Asia to exhibit the gentle, giant sharks, which feed on plankton and small marine animals. The fish can grow to the size of a school bus and in the wild sometimes dive down thousands of feet for reasons scientists still cannot explain.

The sharks' size and diving behavior make them unsuited for aquariums, some have argued, even a tank as large at the Georgia Aquarium's 6.3 million gallon Ocean Voyager exhibit, which was specifically designed to house whale sharks.

Two of the aquarium's original whale sharks died after they were treated with a parasite-ridding chemical that apparently caused the big fish to suddenly stop eating. That parasite treatment was discontinued, and the facility's four remaining whale sharks — who were not treated with the chemical — are doing well, growing at about 3 feet a year, Carlson told the conference.

Carlson's presentation sparked a barrage of questions at an otherwise tame event where attendees presented papers on everything from genetic studies to the impact of whale shark eco-tourism on communities like Holbox, a small fishing village north of Cancun where hundreds of whale sharks gather each summer to feast on a massive plankton bloom just offshore.

Belizian whale shark scientist Rachel Graham said studies indicate the big fish sometimes make a series of deep dives during their ocean voyages. Scientists do not know the precise reason, but have speculated the dives could be a way to navigate, find food, cool off or evade predators. Or, Graham said, the dives could be a critical resting period for the big animals.

"How can we possibly allow these animals to rest in 20 to 30 feet of water" in the Ocean Voyager tank? she asked.

Carlson said aquarium scientists do not know if the deep dives are related to the shark's long-term health. He stressed that the aquarium's whale sharks were taken from Taiwan's kill quota, which means they would have ended up as food if they had not been brought to Atlanta.

He also defended a recent aquarium program that lets a few paying visitors swim with the big sharks in the tank, a move that sparked howls of protest from some quarters.

"If we thought the whale sharks were in any danger from this program, we would stop this program," Carlson told the conference.

Robert Hueter, a scientist from Sarasota's Mote Marine Laboratory whose whale shark research off Holbox has been partially funded by the aquarium, said he found some of the conservationists' complaints hypocritical.

"Some of these people claim to be conservationists, and they focus on a few animals in an aquarium," Hueter said in an interview. "But a lot them benefit from eco-tourism in which thousands of animals have their behavior compromised with people swimming with them. It's the dirty little secret of the eco-tourism world."

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Kitty debate divides residents in 'cat town'

CARS ALONG JALAN PEMIMPIN SWERVE DANGEROUSLY TO DODGE CATS
Ho Lian-yi, The New Paper 21 Jul 08;

WHY did the cat cross the road?

Pizza despatch rider Syed Faizal Mohsen, 25, would like to know, after getting into a crash because of one.

The Ngee Ann Polytechnic student, who works part-time, was riding a company-issued motorcycleon 6 Jul near Bishan, at Jalan Pemimpin, an area he said is 'notorious for cats'.

He was delivering pizza at around 8.50pm when he saw from the corner of his eye a stray white cat dash across the road.

He braked heavily and was thrown off his vehicle.

Mr Syed Faizal, who had cuts and bruises from the accident, said: 'I'm a cat lover so I didn't want to hit the cat.'

Two security guards who work nearby called an ambulance and he was sent to hospital for outpatient treatment.

The two guards told The New Paper on Sunday that Mr Syed Faizal was not the only person who had had mishaps because of the stray cats.

One of the guards, Mr Affendi Ismail, 37, said he had witnessed some of these accidents.

He said: 'The cats, they just cross the road, it's very dangerous. Sometimes, the cars try to avoid the cat and they will swerve. It's dangerous for pedestrians like me.'

His colleague, known only as Das, said: 'Every week, one or two cats will surely be hit by a car.'

Just a day before the pizza despatch rider accident, Mr Affendi said that he saw a car hitting a cat and injuring it.

And the day before that, a cat was killed in another road accident in the area, he added.

Mr Affendi said that there were many cats in the area because someone had been feeding them.

He claimed that one of the feeders, who arrived after Mr Syed Faizal was sent to hospital, had made sure the cat was sent to a vet.

But when told about the despatch rider who was also hurt, she seemed 'expressionless'.

MISSING

On 8 Jul, The New Paper on Sunday met the feeder, an executive secretary in her 40s who wanted to be known only as Ms Ong.

She was petite, bespectacled, and was hefting a backpack.

Ms Ong said that what Mr Affendi said was 'prejudiced'. She claimed that she had told him she was 'concerned for both parties'.

She said she knows that the rider was receiving treatment, but what about the poor cat?

'It is also a life,' she said.

As for the cat population boom cited by the security guard, she said that the number of cats there have actually dwindled by more than half since she first started her nightly feeding at least eight years ago.

'Many have gone missing,' she said.

Perhaps pythons have been eating them or residents have been trapping them, she suggested.

Ms Ong admitted that she has had some run-ins with unhappy residents, and said that she has sterilised the cats. She believes that she must have neutered more than 100 cats at the vet in the last eight years.

She agreed to let The New Paper on Sunday follow her on her daily feeding.

Her boyfriend, who lives in the east of Singapore, also joined her.

Pointing to one group of cats, she said: 'There used to be 20 cats here.

'Now only five.'

As for the cats being a traffic hazard, she said that it works both ways. In the last six months, more than 20 cats have disappeared or died, some possibly to vehicle accidents, she said.

'People don't think of cats, they only think of people, and their cars,' she said.

While some people who visited and worked in the area said that the cats did not inconvenience them or pose a traffic hazard, others, such as Madam Ng, 68, a housewife, called them a disturbance.

She said cats sometimes invade her kitchen to get at the food and leave their droppings in her garden.

However, another resident, a pharmaceutical salesperson in her 40s who wanted to be known only as Judy, said that she was surprised that there were complaints, especially about the cats causing traffic accidents.

'You hardly see them,' she said, adding that they appeared only when a feeder was around.

Stray cat problem: Does neutering work?

1. The total number of cats being impounded by Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority (AVA) over the last three years has been falling:

# 2005: 5,518

# 2006: 5,134

# 2007: 3,777

2. Does a trap, neuter and return policy work?

Sterilising a cat helps to prevent procreation. However, sterilised cats can pose other problems, such as when they go into houses and defecate or take food from the premises. It would depend on the community of the estate if they are willing accept a trap, neuter and return scheme.

3. What is AVA's policy when it comes to people who feed cats?

People should not indiscriminately feed cats and litter the area. They should, as far as possible, find homes for the cats, have the cats sterilised, or surrender unwanted cats to the authorities.

4. What can you do if there is a stray-cat problem in the area?

AVA provides loan of cat traps to residents troubled by stray cats. It is a free service. Residents may contact AVA's Centre for Animal Welfare and Control, 75 Pasir Panjang Road, to arrange for a loan of traps. (Tel:1800-4761600)

- Information from Mr Madhavan Kannan, Head of AVA's Centre for Animal Welfare and Control

SHOULD THE FEEDING OF STRAY CATS BE BANNED?

SOME residents at affected housing estates are in favour of making the feeding of stray cats in housing estates an offence because it could cause the population to increase further.

While some people have been fined for feeding wild monkeys, there is no rule against the feeding of stray cats.

Experts have said that feeding monkeys changes their dietary habits and makes them aggressive when they are denied food.

Be they cats or monkeys, Mr Wong Tuan Wah, National Parks Board's (NParks) director of conservation, said: 'We do not allow feeding of stray animals in our parks.'

Under the Parks and Trees Act, monkey feeders can be fined up to $50,000 and/or jailed up to six months. NParks also increased the composition fine from $250 to $500 in February.

While it is not an offence to feed cats in housing estates, those who do so can be booked for littering if they dirty the surroundings.

Mr Chong Gid Chuan, 38, a manager, said he found the feeding of cats 'very dirty'.

Madam Hau, 55, an assistant general manager, said that she would be fully supportive of a ban. She claimed that one cat that was 'maintained' by a feeder loved to go into her lawn and leave droppings behind, and it was 'very smelly'.

But others were against the idea of a ban. Ms Deirdre Moss, executive officer of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), said: 'The SPCA objects strongly to the suggestion of banning the feeding of stray cats. It is an extremely shortsighted suggestion, and not humane.'

SPCA has a voucher programme for the sterilisation of strays, which enables members of the public to take a stray animal to a participating veterinary clinic for sterilisation. SPCA pays the cost.

Mr Marcus Loo, 28, a businessman selling pet products, said that as long as feeding was done discreetly and cleaning up was done afterwards, he had no problem with it.

He said: 'If you really take out the majority of cats in the area, in a month's time, other cats will just take over the territory.'

Video editor Farah Iqbal, 26, said that cat-feeding is not comparable to monkey-feeding, since cats do not become aggressive.

A resident in the Jalan Pemimpin area, who wanted to be known only as Judy, said: 'Some cat-feeders are responsible people who sterilise the cats. If the population of cats is under control now, why can't we feed the cats?'

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Ebony tree in Indonesia on brink of extinction

Antara 18 Jul 08;

Depok, W. Java, (ANTARA News) - The ebony tree (Diospyros celebica) population in Indonesia is on the brink of extinction, Forestry Minister MS Kaban said here Thursday.

"Nowadays, we can hardly find ebony wood," Kaban said after a ceremony marking the anniversary of Al-Hamidiyah Islamic boarding school in Sawangan sub district in Depok.

He said the ebony population was growing much slower than the rate at which it was being exploited in its habitat in Central Sulawesi.

Ebony wood exports had reached its peak of 26,000 cubic meters in 1973 with the rare wood mostly going to Taiwan and China.

Exports continued to decline due to scarce supply in its habitat.

The so-called black wood sold at Rp5 to 6 million per cubic meter. It takes an ebony tree some 90 to 100 years to become fully grown.

Kaban said, the tree`s slow growth which was not balanced by replanting efforts had pushed the highly-prized tree to the brink of extinction.

The minister called on people to start replanting ebony trees. "This is for the future of the next generations," he added.

Ebony is a hard, heavy and durable wood. Some have dark brown color, black, or black with reddish spots. But the black colored one was the most highly prized.

In international trade, Sulawesi black wood was also known as Macassar ebony, Coromandel ebony, streaked ebony, or black ebony.(*)

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Hundreds of baby penguins found dead in Brazil

Michael Astor, Associated Press Yahoo News 20 Jul 08;

Hundreds of baby penguins swept from the icy shores of Antarctica and Patagonia are washing up dead on Rio de Janeiro's tropical beaches, rescuers and penguin experts said Friday.

More than 400 penguins, most of them young, have been found dead on the beaches of Rio de Janeiro state over the past two months, according to Eduardo Pimenta, superintendent for the state coastal protection and environment agency in the resort city of Cabo Frio.

While it is common here to find some penguins — both dead and alive — swept by strong ocean currents from the Strait of Magellan, Pimenta said there have been more this year than at any time in recent memory.

Rescuers and those who treat penguins are divided over the possible causes.

Thiago Muniz, a veterinarian at the Niteroi Zoo, said he believed overfishing has forced the penguins to swim further from shore to find fish to eat "and that leaves them more vulnerable to getting caught up in the strong ocean currents."

Niteroi, the state's biggest zoo, already has already received about 100 penguins for treatment this year and many are drenched in petroleum, Muniz said. The Campos oil field that supplies most of Brazil's oil lies offshore.

Muniz said he hadn't seen penguins suffering from the effects of other pollutants, but he pointed out that already dead penguins aren't brought in for treatment.

Pimenta suggested pollution is to blame.

"Aside from the oil in the Campos basin, the pollution is lowering the animals' immunity, leaving them vulnerable to funguses and bacteria that attack their lungs," Pimenta said, quoting biologists who work with him.

But biologist Erli Costa of Rio de Janeiro's Federal University suggested weather patterns could be involved.

"I don't think the levels of pollution are high enough to affect the birds so quickly. I think instead we're seeing more young and sick penguins because of global warming, which affects ocean currents and creates more cyclones, making the seas rougher," Costa said.

Costa said the vast majority of penguins turning up are baby birds that have just left the nest and are unable to out-swim the strong ocean currents they encounter while searching for food.

Every year, Brazil airlifts dozens of penguins back to Antarctica or Patagonia.

Penguins dripping in oil rescued off Argentina
Yahoo News 20 Jul 08;

Environmentalists rescued some 20 penguins covered in crude oil off Argentina's mid-Atlantic coast, two of which have died and four are in critical condition, the Patagonia Natural Foundation (FPN) said Sunday.

The Magallanes penguins were found far from their natural habitat for this time of the year, and were severely undernourished and suffered from dehydration, the private, non-profit environmental group said in a statement.

The group did not explain how the penguins got coated in crude oil.

FPN coordinator Carla Poleschi said the topmost concern was cleaning the birds thoroughly and feeding them back to good health.

"If they manage to survive, they'll be released in about 40 days so they can carry on with their lives" in the Atlantic Ocean, she said.

The penguins were found off the coast of the Valdes Peninsula, a 36,000-hectare (139 square miles) nature preserve renown for its whales, walruses, penguins, birds, guanacos and other species, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

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Drought threatens drinking water for a million Australians

Yahoo News 20 Jul 08;

Up to a million people in Australia could face a shortage of drinking water if the country's drought continues, a report on the state of the nation's largest river system revealed Sunday.

The report said the situation was critical in the Murray-Darling system, which provides water to Australia's "food bowl", a vast expanse of land almost twice as big as France that runs down the continent's east coast.

"We are in real trouble in the Murray-Darling basin," Climate Change Minister Penny Wong told Channel Nine television.

"We've had very low inflows, we've had a very dry June and the focus absolutely has to be critical human needs, that is the needs of the million-plus people who rely on the basin for drinking water.

"It just reminds us, yet again, the way in which this country, Australia, is particularly vulnerable to climate change."

Australia is in the grip of the worst drought in a century, which has stretched for more than seven years in some areas and has forced restrictions on water usage in the country''s major cities.

The report said the Murray-Darling system, accounting for more than 40 percent of the gross value of Australia's agricultural production, should provide enough drinking water for 2008-09.

But the report from senior federal and state government officials warned there could be problems supplying drinking water after that if rains did not come.

"If inflows are less and losses greater than expected, further contingency measures may be required to be implemented to secure critical human needs," it said.

The Murray-Darling Basin, which stretches from Queensland in the north, through New South Wales to Victoria in the south and South Australia, is the country's key food growing area.

A report by the nation's top scientists this month said Australia was in for a tenfold increase in heat waves as climate change pushes temperatures up.

It found exceptionally hot years, which used to occur once every 22 years, would occur every one or two years, virtually making drought a permanent part of the Australian landscape.

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'100 months to save the planet'

BBC News 21 Jul 08;

A "Green New Deal" is needed to solve current problems of climate change, energy and finance, a report argues.

According to the Green New Deal Group, humanity only has 100 months to prevent dangerous global warming.

Its proposals include major investment in renewable energy and the creation of thousands of new "green collar" jobs.

The name is taken from President Franklin D Roosevelt's "New Deal", launched 75 years ago to bring the US out of the Great Depression.

The new grouping says rising greenhouse gas emissions, combined with escalating food and energy costs, mean the globe is facing one of its biggest crises since the 1930s.

Its members include former Friends of the Earth UK director Tony Juniper, Green MEP Caroline Lucas and Andrew Simms, policy director of the New Economics Foundation (nef).

In an article for the BBC News website's Green Room series, Mr Simms warns that the combination of the current credit crunch, rising energy prices and accelerating emissions are "conspiring to create the perfect storm".


"The UK and the global economy are entering unchartered waters, and the weather forecast is not bad, but appalling.

"Instead of desperate bailing-out, we need a comprehensive plan and new course to navigate each obstacle in this new phenomenon."

The group's recommendations include:

* massive investment in renewable energy and wider transformation in the UK
* the creation of thousands of new "green collar" jobs
* making low-cost capital available to fund the UK's green economic shift
* building a new alliance between environmentalists, industry, agriculture and unions

The authors said their proposals drew inspiration from President Roosevelt's 1933 New Deal.

During 100 days, he sent a record number of bills to Congress, all of which went on to become law, including banking reforms and emergency relief programmes.

The prolific reforms were credited with turning around the US economy.

The authors say that that within "the very real timeframe of 100 months" the world will reach the point where the risk of "runaway" climate change became unacceptably high.

Climate report calls for leaders with vision
Jeremy Lovell, Reuters 20 Jul 08;

LONDON (Reuters) - The world needs leaders with the vision to forge New Deal-type policies to tackle the potentially disastrous combination of climate change, high inflation and economic slowdown, a British think-tank said on Monday.

"A New Green Deal", a report issued by the New Economics Foundation, uses the convergence of the credit crunch, climate change and booming food and fuel prices to make the case for a new economics for the 21st century.

Key points in the report are that every home must generate its own power, an oil legacy fund must be set up using windfall taxes on oil and gas firms to help pay for green transformation, and carbon should be priced according to its climate impact.

Interest rates should be cut to help investment in green energy and transport infrastructure, and monolithic financial institutions should be broken up so the failure of one would not destabilize the economy, said the NEF, an independent group.

"A credit crisis, coupled with high and rising oil prices and long-term climatic upheaval, are conspiring to create the perfect storm," said NEF director Andrew Simms.

"Instead of desperate baling-out, we need a comprehensive plan and a new course to navigate each obstacle in this new phenomenon.

"We need a modern Green New Deal that has the scale, boldness and vision previously only seen, for example, in Roosevelt's response to the Great Depression," he added.

U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal was a series of programmes between 1933 and 1938 aimed at helping the poor, reforming the U.S. financial system and stimulating an economy that had plunged into depression after the Wall Street crash.

URGENT ACTION NEEDED

Today, economists say global economic growth is slowing, and most scientists say urgent action is needed to stop the planet entering a period of unstoppable temperature rise caused largely by rising carbon emissions.

"The credit, climate and oil crunches are all individually serious issues, but in combination their impact could be catastrophic for our economy, and for our way of life," said Tony Juniper, co-author of the report and former head of the environmental group Friends of the Earth.

"We need real leadership and vision to get through this, and right now we are not seeing it. Politicians from across the spectrum should signal their willingness to think differently and to embrace new ideas," he added.

The report also calls for a low-carbon energy system, financial incentives and policies to promote energy efficiency, closer scrutiny of exotic tax avoidance instruments, a clampdown on tax havens and new capital controls.

"We need a comprehensive plan which would involve far tougher regulation of capital, changes to tax systems and a sustained programme of investment in energy conservation and renewable energy," said Larry Elliott, economics editor of the left-leaning Guardian newspaper and co-author of the report.

(Editing by Tim Pearce)

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