A Seawater Lake/Lagoon At Our Southern Islands?
Pamelia Lee as reported in ZaoBao on the colourful clouds blog
16 Aug (Sat): "Remember Chek Jawa" DVD launch
on the Singapore Celebrates our Reefs blog
Stork-billed Kingfisher catching another fish
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog
Lianhe Zaobao 14 Aug 08
translation from the colourful clouds blog
Extracts:
"我国南部岛屿四周海域日后可能建造巨型的人工咸水湖？
(Man-made seawater lake/lagoon may be constructed in waters around the southern islands?)
刚于上个月底卸下圣淘沙南部岛屿发展计划执行董事职务的李张秀虹，昨天接受本报专访时说，一旦这个人工咸水湖的构思得以落实，相信将能为南部岛屿注入独特风情，日后政府出售地段发展旅游胜地时，预料将能卖得更好的价钱。
("If the idea of the man-made seawater lake/lagoon can be implemented, it will inject a unique style to the southern islands. In addition, it may help fetch a better price if the Government sells the lots for tourism development in the future." Said Mrs Pamelia Lee, ex-managing director of Sentosa and southern island development project, in an interview with Zaobao.)
打从80年代就接手南部岛屿发展计划的李张秀虹（66岁）透露，她已征询过专业顾问的意见，在南部岛屿周围海域筑起堤围来形成一个巨大的咸水湖，技术上应该没有问题。
(Mrs Lee, who has been handling the southern island development project since the 80's said that she had consulted the views of professional consultants regarding the building of embankment to form a huge lake/lagoon. And technically speaking, it should not be a problem.)
这么一来，游人便可在被蔚蓝海洋包围着的湖水中，更安全地尽情享受各种水上活动，甚至可在湖畔建造诗情画意的船屋（Houseboat）。
(If such is a case, tourists will be able to enjoy various water sports activities surrounded in blue water safely. Picturesque Houseboats can also be built within the lake/lagoon.)
她说：“如果建有咸水湖，岛上就能提供更多空间让游人划船和进行水上运动，也能建造船屋等。目前世界上有不少度假胜地设有咸水湖和船屋，但它们的规模和特色同我的概念不一样。”
(She said that the islands will be able to provide more space for tourists to do boating/other water sports as well as constructing houseboats if the lake/lagoon is built. She also mentioned that the lake and houseboats that she has in mind are very different from those currently found in other resorts in some parts of the world.)
据知，有关计划还需通过海事及港务管理局(MPA)的批准才能落实。
(It is understood that the plan needs the approval by Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore(MPA) in order for it be able to implement.)
Today Online 15 Aug 08;
ABOUT one in four Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) companies in Singapore have pledged not to sell products derived from endangered species, according to the Animal Research and Education Society (Acres).
A total of 274 shops from 189 TCM companies, including Singapore Exchange-listed firm Eu Yan Sang, now display the Acres and Stoc (Singapore TCM Organisations Committee) endangered species-friendly label.
The label, launched in March 2007, helps consumers identify shops that do not sell products made from endangered species.
“We are mindful that in the process of assuring quality, we also act responsibly not to harm the environment. This is why we do not sell any parts of animals that are classified under the endangered species and are in full support of the initiative by Acres and Stoc,” said Mr Vincent Lim, managing director of the 128-year-old Eu Yan Sang.
Undercover Acres investigators have found alleged tiger bones, penises and paws, as well as bear products on sale here.
In 2006, 23 TCM shops or 20 per cent of those surveyed, offered bear products to Acres investigators, compared to 50 shops, or 73.5 per cent of those surveyed, in 2001.
While the investigations have shown a large drop in the sale of endangered species products for TCM in recent years, the continued presence of such trade fuels the exploitation of wildlife, Acres said.
Links
Acres website more about their work and programmes
Why cull a dog that has been sterilised??
Letter from Jill Hum, Today Online 15 Aug 08;
I REFER to “Microchipping helps AVA in management of strays” (Aug 11).
The Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) said that it culls stray dogs “to manage the population which poses a risk to transmission of rabies should this be introduced into Singapore” .
Surely there must be a better and less drastic method to combat the threat of rabies than culling?
Anecdotal evidence has shown that sterilisation and not culling is the mosteffective way to manage the stray population, so why the insistence on culling?
The AVA also said that “even strays which have been sterilised should be properly licensed and homed and not be returned to the environment”.
While I agree with this, I hope theAVA also realises that it is impossible tofind homes for all sterilised strays. There are just too many of them. In the meantime, there is no choice but to return those that cannot be rehomed to their original environment.
Animal welfare organisations take the time, trouble and money to sterilise strays to control the population. To cull even sterilised strays is like saying that these strays do not have the right to live.
I urge the AVA to adopt a more compassionate and enlightened approach towards the management of these strays.
Einstein = manja* cats, too
Compassion toward all animals is the enlightened way to live, he argued
Dr Tan Chek Wee, Today Online 15 Aug 08;
SINCE my involvement in “cat management” in my neighbourhood, — I help trap cats in the estate, send them to the vet for neutering, then release them back into the area, and also help the Town Council to manage complaints — I have begun to empathise with the Town Council officer who has to handle a fair number of unreasonable and demanding complainants.
Recently the officer in charge of my precinct wrote to me about a resident who emailed about the presence of a black cat in the vicinity of her block.
On the Cat Welfare Society’s unofficial blog (catwelfaresg.wordpress.com), an entry dated Aug 4 talks of “a complainant who complained about fleas on her car, about cats scaring kids and pet dogs (which is rarely the case)”.
Unless the complainant’s car has a circulatory system and is covered with skin and hair, there is no reason for fleas to be on it!
I have seen children, sometimesaccompanied by their parents, shouting, throwing stones and paper aeroplanesat neighbourhood cats. I could see that the cats were really scared of the kids. I have also seen pet dogs chasing cats, while their owners watch, laughing.
Yet I wonder: Were there no cat “managers” to help counter such complaints, would the cats be rounded up for culling? How many cats have been killed following such unreasonable feedback?
At the end of the day, the issue is not about cats but our lack of graciousness and compassion.
Albert Einstein, in 1930, called our inability to sense how others think and feel “a kind of prison, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us”.
Our task, he continued, “must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty”.
Let’s live and let live. I think we will regret it when the day comes when there is just one species left on earth — Homo Sapiens!
Now, isn’t that a scary thought?
The writer is a primary health physician who is also actively involved in the care of the elderly in the community.
More businesses paving way for consumers to make eco-friendly choices
Neo Chai Chin and Lin Yan Qin, Today Online 15 Aug 08;
THE next time you hold a barbecue or party, try going styrofoam and plastic-free.
Look out for a new range of disposable plates, cups and cutlery made from corn and yam, that could be on some supermarket shelves by the month’s end.
CornWare, which can be popped into the microwave and is designed to decompose after 102 days, is brought in by local company OliveGreen.
For a start, it will be sold at FairPrice Finest at Bukit Timah Plaza and Thomson; FairPrice at AMK Hub and Hougang Point; Mustafa Centre; Carrefour (Suntec City) and Meidi-Ya. Negotiations with other supermarkets are in progress, said OliveGreen directorAloysius Cheong.
The firm is not alone — more businesses in Singapore are making “green” material and technology available to consumers and companies.
Worm farm importer GreenBack, for one, plans to get more Singaporeans to use the creepy crawlies to recycle food waste and generate compost. More than 300 visitors to the recent Singapore Garden Festival expressed interest in having their own worm farms, Today had reported.
Then there is Energenics, which regenerates scrapped lead acid batteries for more than 50 firms in Singapore, including PSA, and is now looking to market a cleaner brand of diesel to transport providers and companies here.
The fuel, dubbed Enerdiesel, contains ethanol and diesel stabilised by a patented additive. It is already used by more than 3,000 buses in Bangalore, India, said Energenics’ director Mr Ronen Hazarika.
Enerdiesel produces half the number of particulates and up to 23 per cent less carbon monoxide than normal diesel.
As green products such as these seek a firmer foothold in the mass market, consumers told Today these would really take off if priced cheaper than other alternatives.
The price of CornWare’s spoons, forks and other tableware — all bearing the Singapore Environment Council’s (SEC) “Green Label” mark — start from $1.40, up to $4.70 for a pack of20 nine-inch plastic plates.
A similar pack of 10 coloured, regular plastic plates costs $2.80 at FairPrice online.
Mr Cheong said he felt the local market was now more receptive to green products. According to catering company Smiling Orchid’s director,Ms Meilyn Choo-Jaimon, however: “Caterers have a lot of problems passing costs on to clients, though about 10 per cent of our customers — all corporates — specifically ask for recyclable materials to be used at their functions, and are will to pay $1 to $2 more per person for it.”
For customers who eventually adopt Enerdiesel,Mr Hazarika said, Energenics will install a blending unit to existing refuelling stations, free.
And companies that use regenerated batteries, which would otherwise be discarded, can halve their costs. Energenics collects and delivers the batteries for free. Over the last 18 months, 100 tonnes of old batteries destined for the scrapyard had been given new life, said Energenic’s business development managerMr Teow Sing Teng.
The SEC has seen burgeoning interest from companies keen to offer green products, said its general manager Yatin Premchand. There were 500 Green Label products last year; now, there are 900.
“I think the (message from) campaigns about climate change and the environmental impact of our actions is getting out there,” saidMr Premchand.
And while companies manufacturing green products are often niche firms, they could have significant impact as a collective.
“Maybe their products don’t have as big a presence as the big companies, but as a group they offer a greener choice and variety for consumers,” he said. “It’s important to have that so that consumers can choose.”
Implementation less costly for companies with Government grant
Neo Chai Chin, Today Online 15 Aug 08;
ONE man’s waste is another man’s pot of gold.
Two companies in Singapore found their pot of gold in the leaves and branches and other horticultural waste from roadside trees trimmed by National Parks Board contractors.
Using the “waste” — also known as biomass — to generate power for their industrial plants, Kim Hock Corp and Bee Joo Industries hope to earn carbon credits and trade these credits with overseas companies that burn fossil fuels.
Both see the value in using clean energy: Not only will they reduce Singapore’s carbon dioxide emissions, they will earn income from selling their carbon credits to firms that run on fossil fuels.
Bee Joo, a subsidiary of Singapore Exchange-listed environmental solutions provider ecoWise Holdings, has already secured the sale of 95,000 Certified Emission Reduction Certificates (CERs) — the technical term for carbon credits — to Japanese power company Kansai Electric Power. The amount is equivalent to 95,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide. With CERs trading at about 22 euros ($45) presently, this would mean potential revenue of about 2 million euros for the firm.
Waste recycler Kim Hock will set up a plant at its Sungei Kadut premises by the end of the year producing pellets from recycled waste wood for export. The pellets are destined for boiler plants such as factories making instant noodles or any “industry that needs thermal energy”, said its general manager Lim Teck Siang.
While revenue will come mainly from the pellets, income from carbon credits will be a “bonus”, he said.
But it’s a long process getting their projects validated by the United Nations. Companies have to hire consultants and auditors to document plant processes and decide how many carbon credits they are entitled to, before submissions are made to the UN for approval.
Besides Kim Hock and Bee Joo, two other companies here — IUT Global and PowerSeraya — have made submissions to earn carbon credits.
While companies previously had to foot the consultancy fees for such a move all by themselves, those seeking to trade carbon credits will have it easier from now on: The National Environment Agency announced a grant yesterday to co-fund companies’ carbon consultancy fees.
Kim Hock’s Mr Lim said that first and foremost, carbon trading has to be “economically viable” for companies.
Comparing it with the Government’s incentive to boost birth rates, he said: “It’s like you’re married and going to have a baby anyway, and the government gives you a baby bonus. But I don’t think people will want to get married for the baby bonus.”
Randolph E. Schmid, Associated Press 14 Aug 08;
Like a chronic disease spreading through the body, "dead zones" with too little oxygen for life are expanding in the world's oceans.
"We have to realize that hypoxia is not a local problem," said Robert J. Diaz of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. "It is a global problem and it has severe consequences for ecosystems."
"It's getting to be a problem of such a magnitude that it is starting to affect the resources that we pull out of the sea to feed ourselves," he added.
Diaz and co-author Rutger Rosenberg report in Friday's edition of the journal Science that there are now more than 400 dead zones around the world, double what the United Nations reported just two years ago.
"If we screw up the energy flow within our systems we could end up with no crabs, no shrimp, no fish. That is where these dead zones are heading unless we stop their growth," Diaz said in a telephone interview.
The newest dead areas are being found in the Southern Hemisphere — South America, Africa, parts of Asia — Diaz said.
Some of the increase is due to the discovery of low-oxygen areas that may have existed for years and are just being found, he said, but others are actually newly developed.
Pollution-fed algae, which deprive other living marine life of oxygen, is the cause of most of the world's dead zones. Scientists mainly blame fertilizer and other farm run-off, sewage and fossil-fuel burning.
Diaz and Rosenberg, of the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, conclude that it would be unrealistic to try to go back to preindustrial levels of runoff.
"Farmers aren't doing this on purpose," Diaz said. "The farmers would certainly prefer to have their (fertilizer) on the land rather than floating down the river."
He said he hopes that as fertilizers become more and more expensive farmers will begin seriously looking at ways to retain them on the land.
New low-oxygen areas have been reported in Samish Bay of Puget Sound, Yaquina Bay in Oregon, prawn culture ponds in Taiwan, the San Martin River in northern Spain and some fjords in Norway, Diaz said.
A portion of Big Glory Bay in New Zealand became hypoxic after salmon farming cages were set up, but began recovering when the cages were moved, he said.
A dead zone has been newly reported off the mouth of the Yangtze River in China, Diaz said, but the area has probably been hypoxic since the 1950s. "We just didn't know about it," he said.
Some of the reports are being published for the first time in journals accessible to Western scientists, he said.
Nancy N. Rabalais, executive director of the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, said she was not surprised at the increase in dead zones.
"There have been many more reported, but there truly are many more. What has happened in the industrialized nations with agribusiness as well that led to increased flux of nutrients from the land to the estuaries and the seas is now happening in developing countries," said Rabalais, who was not part of Diaz' research team.
She said she was told during a 1989 visit to South America that rivers there were too large to have the same problems as the Mississippi River. "Now many of their estuaries and coastal seas are suffering the same malady."
"The increase is a troubling sign for estuarine and coastal waters, which are among some of the most productive waters on the globe," she said.
Fertilisers kill all ocean life in spread of ‘dead zones’
Lewis Smith, The Times 15 Aug 08;
Aquatic dead zones, stretches of water where little or nothing can survive, have increased by a third in little over a decade. More than 400 dead zones were identified last year, covering a total area of 95,000 square miles, about the size of New Zealand.
The dead zones suffer from hypoxia, a lack of oxygen, which scientists believe is caused by fertilisers washing off the land. When hypoxia sets in, it can drive away tens of thousands of marine animals and, in severe cases, kill them.
Scientists believe that hypoxia ranks with overfishing and habitat destruction as one of the most damaging problems facing sealife.
Since the Sixties, when there were 49 dead zones, the number has increased rapidly and from 1995 to 2007 it rose from 305 to 405. Among the most alarming outbreaks of hypoxia were those in major fishing areas of the Baltic, the Black Sea, the Gulf of Mexico and the East China Sea. One of the largest was identified at the mouth of the Mississippi River and was 8,500 square miles.
“Dead zones were once rare. Now they’re commonplace. There are more of them in more places,” said Professor Robert Diaz, of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, College of William and Mary, in the United States. He said that dead zones were rarely “a naturally recurring event”.
In a paper published in the journal Science, Professor Diaz and his colleague, Rutger Rosenberg, of the University of Gothenburg, in Sweden, said that dead zones “now rank with overfishing, habitat loss and harmful algal blooms as major global environmental problems”. They wrote: “There is no other variable of such ecological importance to coastal marine eco-systems that has changed so drastically over such a short time.”
According to the scientists, the dead zones occur when nutrients used to enhance farmland, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, wash into the sea and fertilise huge blooms of algae. When dead, the algae are eaten by bacteria, which absorb oxygen from the water as the algae decompose.
The scientists said that keeping fertilisers out of the sea was the best way to reduce the number of dead zones.
Suffocating dead zones spread across world's oceans
Critically low oxygen levels now pose as great a threat to life in the world's oceans as overfishing and habitat loss, say experts
David Adam, guardian.co.uk 15 Aug 08;
Man-made pollution is spreading a growing number of suffocating dead zones across the world's seas with disastrous consequences for marine life, scientists have warned.
The experts say the hundreds of regions of critically low oxygen now affect a combined area the size of New Zealand, and that they pose as great a threat to life in the world's oceans as overfishing and habitat loss.
The number of such seabed zones – caused when massive algal blooms feeding off pollutants such as fertiliser die and decay – has boomed in the last decade. There were some 405 recorded in coastal waters worldwide in 2007, up from 305 in 1995 and 162 in the 1980s.
Robert Diaz, an oceans expert at the US Virginia Institute of Marine Science, College of William and Mary, at Gloucester Point, said: "Dead zones were once rare. Now they're commonplace. There are more of them in more places."
Marine bacteria feed on the algae in the blooms after it has died and sunk to the bottom, and in doing so they use up all of the oxygen dissolved in the water. The resulting 'hypoxic' seabed zones can asphyxiate swathes of bottom dwelling organisms such as clams and worms, and disrupt fish populations.
Diaz and his colleague, Rutger Rosenberg of the department of marine ecology at the University of Gothenburg, call for more careful use of fertilisers to address the problem.
Writing in the journal Science, the researchers say the dead zones must be viewed as one of the "major global environmental problems". They say: "There is no other variable of such ecological importance to coastal marine ecosystems that has changed so drastically over such a short time."
The key solution, they say, is to "keep fertilisers on the land and out of the sea". Changes in the way fertilisers and other pollutants are managed on land have already "virtually eliminated" dead zones from the Mersey and Thames estuaries, they say.
Diaz says his concern is shared by farmers who are worried about the high cost of fertilisers. "They certainly don't want to see their dollars flowing off their fields. Scientists and farmers need to continue working together to minimise the transfer of nutrients from land to sea."
The number of dead zones reported has doubled each decade since the 1960s, but the scientists say they are often ignored until they provoke problems among populations of larger creatures such as fish or lobsters. By killing or stunting the growth of bottom-dwelling organisms, the lack of oxygen denies food to creatures higher up the food chain.
The Baltic Sea, site of the world's largest dead zone, has lost about 30% of its available food energy, which has led to a significant decline in its fisheries.
The lack of oxygen can also force fish into warmer waters closer to the surface, perhaps making them more susceptible to disease.
The size of marine dead zones often fluctuates with the seasons. A massive dead zone, some 8,000 square miles across, forms each summer in the Gulf of Mexico as floodwater flushes nitrogen-rich fertiliser into the Mississippi River.
Experts said it was slightly smaller than expected this year because Hurricane Dolly stirred up the water. Dead zones require the water to be separated into layers, with little or no mixing between.
As well as fertilisers rich in nitrates and phosphates, sewage discharges also contribute to the problem because they help the algal blooms to flourish.
Diaz and Rosenberg say: "We believe it would be unrealistic to return to pre-industrial levels of nutrient input [to oceans], but an appropriate management goal would be to reduce nutrient inputs to levels that occurred in the middle of the past century," before the rise in added nutrients began to spread dead zones globally.
Climate change could be adding to the problem. Many regions are expected to experience more severe periods of heavy rain, which could wash more nutrients from farmland into rivers.
In May, scientists reported that oxygen-depleted zones in tropical oceans are expanding. They analysed oxygen levels in samples of seawater and found the effect was largest in the central and eastern tropical Atlantic and the equatorial Pacific. The increase could push oxygen-starved zones closer to the surface and give marine life such as fish less room to live and look for food.
The scientists, led by Lothar Stramma from the Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences in Kiel, Germany, say the change could be linked to warming seas. At 0C, a litre of seawater can hold about 10ml of dissolved oxygen; at 25C this falls to 4ml. Stramma said: "Whether or not these observed changes in oxygen can be attributed to global warming alone is still unresolved." The reduction could also be down to natural processes working on shorter timescales, he said.
Ocean dead zones free of oxygen double every decade
Roger Highfield, The Telegraph 14 Aug 08;
Dead zones that are free of oxygen have approximately doubled in number each decade since the 1960s, with many in the coastal waters around Britain.
Scientists warn today that they are now one of the most dire environmental problems of the 21st century.
The alarm about the number of "dead zones"- areas of seafloor that have so little oxygen they suffocate most marine life- is raised by a global study led by Prof Robert Diaz of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, College of William and Mary.
Working with Dr Rutger Rosenberg of the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, he says that dead zones, where the waters are described by scientists as "hypoxic", are now "the key stressor on marine ecosystems" and "rank with over-fishing, habitat loss, and harmful algal blooms as global environmental problems."
They warn that this issue may quickly become the most important factor controlling humans' use of the sea.
The new study, published in Science, shows that the number of dead zones has increased at an alarming rate.
The first review of dead zones by Prof Diaz in 1995 counted 305 worldwide. That was up from his count of 162 in the 1980s, 87 in the 1970s, and 49 in the 1960s. He has also found scientific reports of dead zones in the 1910s, when there were four.
The new study tallies 405 dead zones in coastal waters worldwide, affecting an area of 95,000 square miles, about the size of New Zealand, though Prof Diaz says that this is an underestimate. "The real number is likely much larger."
Earth's largest dead zone is to be found in the Baltic Sea and experiences hypoxia all year-round.
The largest dead zone in the United States is located at the mouth of the Mississippi river, covers more than 8,500 square miles, roughly the size of New Jersey.
In the Pacific, the biggest zones are around China and Japan, covering more than 7,700 square miles.
Dead zones in the UK tend to be small, he said.
At one time the Mersey estuary dead zone covered about 10 square miles, but now through management efforts the dead zone is gone and the estuary has recovered.
Dead zones occur when excess nutrients, primarily nitrogen and phosphorus, enter coastal waters and help fertilise blooms of algae, a process called eutrophication. Major nutrient sources include fertilisers and the burning of fossil fuels.
The result is an increase of nutrients in the water - usually nitrogen or phosphorus - that triggers a frenzy of action from microscopic organisms.
First phytoplankton take up the nutrients and produce organic matter than eventually sinks to the bottom and dies. There bacteria consume the organic matter and use up the oxygen as they do so.
Prof Diaz began studying dead zones in the mid-1980s after seeing their effect on bottom life in a tributary of Chesapeake Bay near Baltimore. "Dead zones were once rare. Now they're commonplace. There are more of them in more places."
The key to reducing dead zones is "to keep fertilisers on the land and out of the sea."
Prof Diaz says that goal is shared by farmers concerned with the high cost of buying and applying nitrogen to their crops.
"They certainly don't want to see their dollars flowing off their fields into the bay," says Prof Diaz. "Scientists and farmers need to continue working together to develop farming methods that minimise the transfer of nutrients from land to sea."
No species has been wiped out by hypoxia because species have wider ranges than the dead zones, but if there is continued expansion, a wipe out could happen, he said.
"There have been mass mortalities that have wiped out local populations, example of fisheries species mortalities that have had economic consequences," he said.
Examples of local extinctions include Norway Lobster in Kattegat Sweden-Denmark; cockles in Baie de Somme France; stomatopods in Tokyo Bay, clams in New York and oysters in Mobile Bay, United States.
The tuna fishing industry has reduced its impact on dolphins, but we still need tougher measures
Andy Tait, guardian.co.uk 14 Aug 08;
The campaign to make tinned tuna dolphin-friendly was, in many ways, a success. It showed that the tuna industry could respond to environmental issues.
But being dolphin-friendly is not the end of the story, because it's not the only sustainability issue when it comes to tinned tuna. Some tuna-fishing practices are responsible for wiping out thousands of sharks and turtles every year – including a number of rare and threatened species.
Most tuna for tins is caught using "fish aggregation devices", or FADs, which are used to attract the fish. But they also attract a host of other species including turtles, sharks and juvenile tuna before everything around the FAD is scooped up in a huge net. On average, every time a FAD is used, 1kg of these other species will be caught for every 10kg of tuna. Research conducted in 2005 found that around 100,000 tonnes of so-called non-target species were caught worldwide. These and other problems with the tinned tuna trade are described in a Greenpeace briefing paper Tinned Tuna's Hidden Catch, released yesterday.
The story of tuna is depressingly familiar. Globally, up to 90% of stocks of large predatory fish have been wiped out according to some scientists. We are literally emptying our oceans of marine life and as we do so, we fish further and further down the food chain.
Years of bad management and over-fishing has left tuna itself in trouble. All 23 identified tuna stocks are heavily fished and nine are classified as critically endangered, endangered or vulnerable to extinction. Without effective management even the healthiest remaining stocks will risk collapse in the longer term.
The UK is the second biggest consumer of tinned tuna in the world, after the US. What we do in this country can have a big impact on the tuna industry. And the industry big brands can effectively decide how the raw product is fished.
In Greenpeace's Tinned Tuna League Table also released yesterday, the biggest brands – John West and Princes – who have about 60% of the market between them – have finished last and second last. They scored the worst against a list of sustainability criteria, including apparently indiscriminate use of FADs.
More progressive retailers such as Sainsbury's and the Co-op are moving to sustainable catch methods and sourcing practices. Sainsbury's even tell you on the tin that their tuna is entirely caught with pole and line. It can be done.
But better catch methods alone aren't enough. Marine reserves are also needed to give migratory and other marine species some refuge from fishing fleets. There is overwhelming scientific consensus of the need for large-scale marine reserves to let fish stocks recover from overfishing. Major seafood companies and retailers must act on this issue by supporting proposals for marine reserves and by refusing to accept any fish caught in proposed marine reserve areas.
'Antarctic Paradox' Linked To Excrement
underwatertimes.com 13 Aug 08;
Berlin, Germany -- The near-eradication of the blue whale in the waters of the Antarctic during the early 20th century led to a paradoxical fall-off in krill, the small shrimp-like creatures on which they feed, a German report said Wednesday. Marine biologist Victor Smetacek told the German weekly Die Zeit that blue whales had once consumed 180 million tons of krill a year in the Southern Ocean - more biomass than the entire world fishing and aquaculture industry produces annually.
The "Antarctic Paradox" results from a biological cycle in which the whales play a key role in providing the iron to surface waters needed by the algae on which the krill feed.
The whales release the iron in their excrement, restarting the cycle from algae to krill to whale.
"The numerous whales maintained a very productive ecosystem as environmental gardeners. It collapsed with their decimation," Smetacek, a marine biologist with the Alfred Wegener research institute in the German port of Bremerhaven, said.
Blue whales declined rapidly in numbers up until the 1960s, when the International Whaling Commission (IWC) banned the hunting of the species, the world's largest mammal.
There have been suggestions in recent years to "seed" the sea with iron filings in order to promote algae. The aim is not to feed the krill, but to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in order to curb global warming
Environmentalists have come out against the idea, warning that the consequences cannot be predicted.
The decline of bees won't just affect honey production – they're as important as the sun and rain in making crops grow
Alison Benjamin, guardian.co.uk 14 Aug 08;
Britain's honeybees have suffered catastrophic losses this year according to the first survey of UK beekeepers. Close on one in three hives failed to make it through this winter and spring – that's about 80,000 colonies – leaving us with a potential crisis on our hands.
Fewer honeybees will, as you'd expect, mean less honey. But as British honey only accounts for around 10% of the honey we consume in the UK, we should still be able to spread the sweet stuff on our toast well after the indigenous varieties run out, albeit at a higher price, as droughts in Argentina and the conversion of land for biofuel production reduce global supply.
More worryingly, insects pollinate a third of everything we humans eat – most fruits and vegetables, nuts, seeds, and forage for our livestock. As we become more and more dependent on a monoculture system of growing food, we become more reliant on the honeybee to do the bulk of this work; trucked into an area for just a few days or weeks when a single crop is blossoming, they can be moved in their hives to more fertile pastures when the orchards and fields turn into a barren wasteland.
Not so the bumblebees, solitary bees, moths and butterflies who have suffered a sharp decline as a result of modern farming practices.
US farmers have already warned Congress that they are being forced to reduce their acreage of crops because of a shortage of honeybees for pollination and the subsequent rising cost of renting hives. Colony collapse disorder (CCD), the term used to describe the mysterious wipeout of more than a third of US honeybees – a million this year, 800,000 the year before – has not yet been confirmed in Britain.
Wet weather, the varroa mite and inappropriate controls to reduce the parasite are being blamed for our bee decline.
Whatever the causes, how long before the yields from British apple orchards are affected?
We could just import more food, but with honeybees dying on a similar scale around the world, our global food production is far from secure. Better to find the culprit. But that entails spending more money on research, something the UK government seems loath to do as made clear by its response to a petition backing the British Beekeepers' Association (BBKA) call for £8m over five years to "fund scientific research into maintaining UK bee stocks".
But measures could be put in put in place now that don't cost anything, most importantly tighter pesticide controls. EU agriculture ministers have backed proposals for more stringent safety tests on pesticides including extra safeguards to ensure chemicals are not toxic to bees. Britain was one of the few countries that abstained from agreeing to this plan despite current tests being woefully inadequate for protecting honeybee colonies. Researchers have found that widely used pesticides can interfere with honeybees' sophisticated communication systems and impair memory. They have not been ruled out as one of the factors contributing to CCD in the US. British farmers warn that tighter controls could destroy their crop production – a view not shared by their European counterparts. Although the National Farmer's Union supports the BBKA's campaign for more government funding of bee research, it would do better to throw its weight behind stricter pesticide testing. The very chemicals it wants to save could be the ones aiding the destruction of honeybees which we need as much as the sun and rain to make their crops – and our food – grow.
Sebastien Berger, The Telegraph 14 Aug 08;
Elephants in Zimbabwe are being shot and eaten as wildlife is decimated by the impact of the country's economic crisis, activists claimed today.
Almost 2,000 elephants have been killed in and around the Hwange national park in north-west Zimbabwe this year, the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force claimed, adding that the country's national parks department intended to authorise the shooting of 1,000 more by the end of the year.
Johnny Rodrigues, the ZCTF's chairman, said the information had come from ex-employees of the parks authority, and the killings were the result of a combination of hunting, poaching, and an alleged culling programme that he believes is being used as a cover for illegal ivory trade.
"The actual employees can shoot these animals in lieu of wages," he claimed. "It's the only way they can survive.
"With the economic meltdown these guys are getting paid about seven US dollars a month, way below the poverty line. They shoot the animals and sell the meat to the locals."
He said that under a population management programme adults with large tusks were being chosen for shooting, and their skins and ivory were not being delivered to the wildlife authority's central stores.
"The people have to survive, there's no food in the market so what are they going to do? They are going to shoot the animals, that you can understand. But this is something else. Where is it? There's a market somewhere and somebody's buying all the stuff.
"It is heartbreaking that the wildlife is paying the biggest price of all in the economic collapse of this country."
International authorities, though, cautioned that a number of "alarmist" and "exaggerated" reports have been made about the wildlife situation in Zimbabwe in the past.
Zimbabwe has one of the largest elephant populations in Africa, estimated by various international organisations at around 100,000 animals - although Mr Rodrigues puts the figure at about 45,000.
However a spokesman for Traffic International, the global anti-wildlife- trafficking organisation, said: "Elephant numbers appear to be stable or currently slightly increasing in Zimbabwe at the moment."
Under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species Zimbabwe is allowed to export the remains of 1,000 elephants a year, 500 of them as hunting trophies.
Last month CITES also authorised it to make a one-off sale of 3.7 tons of ivory from its national stockpile.
John Sellar, CITES's enforcement officer, stressed that the sale would not have been allowed if the situation was "out of control", and added that he considered the country's wildlife management officials "very impressive".
"We have never had any reason to think they have something to hide," he said.
"It's clearly a country that's under a lot of pressure from a variety of directions. I'm sure they are up against it in places. Given the socio-economic problems there it would be astonishing if there wasn't poaching taking place.
"The poaching of elephants is just as much motivated by a desire to acquire the meat as it is to acquire ivory." He added that culling was an accepted part of elephant population management across Africa.
"It's certainly true that Zimbabwe every year kills a large number of elephants as part of problem animal control but I wouldn't have thought it was 1,800," he said.
"If Zimbabwe has decided to engage in culling to control its stocks that's a matter for Zimbabwe. They are completely entitled to do that."
Officials from Zimbabwe's Parks and Wildlife Management Authority could not be reached for comment.
Stuart Grudgings, Reuters 14 Aug 08;
RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - An international fund to protect the Amazon forest launched by Brazil this month marks an important step in harnessing the forest's wealth in less destructive ways, a leading Amazon expert said on Thursday.
The $100 million initially pledged by Norway would only have a marginal impact on deforestation even if it was repeated for 20 years, said Carlos Nobre, a senior scientist at the National Institute for Space Research.
But by setting a precedent for alternative investments in the Amazon, the fund could stimulate sustainable industries such as rubber and latex that are potentially many times more lucrative than the now-dominant cattle and timber industries.
"That kind of money is not going to change anything. However, I see these initial funds as important elements to create a new economic paradigm for the Amazon," Nobre said.
"It is much more important they (the funds) are used to develop alternatives, not only for law enforcement," he said. "Otherwise, it will be very difficult even with large inflows of money to protect the forest because you almost need a police state, you almost need the army deployed all over the Amazon.
"It just postpones deforestation but it's not a final solution. The final fix is to create a new economy that can give jobs to several million people."
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva signed a decree establishing the new fund, which aims to raise $21 billion over 13 years to finance conservation and sustainable development.
Nobre said the Amazon could create a market for 50 to 100 sustainable products from only a handful now.
"The Amazon lacks badly entrepreneurs, perhaps that's the thing it lacks the most, to go there with good ideas and translate biodiversity wealth into economic wealth," he said.
RISING DEFORESTATION
Deforestation of the Amazon almost certainly rose for the first time in three years in the 12 months through July, despite a government crackdown on illegal logging.
A higher annual figure is likely to raise pressure on Brazil's government to control cattle ranchers and loggers who are seen as the main drivers of deforestation. Many experts say higher global food prices are behind the spike in monthly deforestation rates seen since last year.
In response to the higher trend, the government launched the "Arc of Fire" in February, its biggest operation yet against illegal logging, but experts say its effect has been limited by a lack of resources and lax enforcement of fines.
Nobre said the environmental agency, IBAMA, appeared to have taken a more urgent approach to deforestation this year, with officials frequently using his institute's satellite data to raid areas where deforestation was in progress.
He also said that new legislation blocking bank lending to those found to be destroying forest illegally was of "tremendous importance" in fighting deforestation.
"You can even think now of a system in which using the satellite you will spot the deforestation and a couple of months later, that person if he is unable to explain that was legal, immediately that person is blacklisted for loans," he said.
"That will have a tremendous impact because most of the operations ... they depend on those loans."
Nobre is a leading researcher in assessing when the Amazon will reach a "tipping point" -- the point at which deforestation and climate change combine to trigger self-sustaining desertification. At current deforestation rates, that point could be reached in 50-60 years, he said.
But that prediction does not take into account the growing frequency of forest fires and the widely varying Amazon policies of Latin American governments, Nobre said.
"Even if all countries stop deforestation tomorrow and then within 100 years global warming changes 4-5 degrees further, then forget it, the tipping point will have been reached."
(Editing by Bill Trott)
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