Corruption and illegal logging in Malaysia

Excuses by enforcement officers slammed
New Straits Times 25 Jan 09;

Illegal logging has become rampant and the MACC says more than one agency is involved in allowing this to happen.

PUTRAJAYA: It is no wonder that forests and protected areas in the country are often encroached on by illegal loggers.

The very authorities who should be nabbing the illegal loggers are protecting them.

The Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission said it would crack down on not only on loggers but officers in agencies that have been in cahoots with them.

Commissioner Datuk Seri Ahmad Said Hamdan said the agencies in question include the Forestry Department, Malaysian Timber Board, Customs, police and the Department of Environment.

"You won't believe what is happening to the forests in the Klang Valley," Ahmad Said said in an interview with the New Sunday Times yester-day.
"It has become so rampant and it is not only one agency that is involved.

"You name it, they have a part to play, and these officers are only interested in making money."

He revealed that these illegal loggers had even gone to the extent of adjusting the delineation of forests reserves by hundreds of metres to cut down trees that are hundreds of years old.

Ahmad Said said it was unacceptable for enforcement agencies to claim that they were not in the know of illegal clearing of land as it was impossible for log-laden lorries to move about being unnoticed.

"We are talking about heavy machinery going into the jungle and coming out with huge logs jutting out from the lorries."

In Sabah last year, the MACC, then known as the Anti-Corruption Agency, intercepted a four-kilometre line of lorries carrying logs.

His officers were then told by the authorities that all were "clear", but upon conducting checks, it was discovered that the felled logs worth millions of ringgit were illegally sourced.

"We are getting all the evidence and will get them soon.

"People like these couldn't care less about the environment and are only interested in enriching themselves.

"They close one eye while jungles are flattened and have allowed this to happen for a long time."

He said the MACC had a good reason to focus on the environment as the corruption involved posed a severe threat to the country.

Ahmad Said said unless the MACC came in to arrest the problem, Malaysia would continue be seen as a nation that did not protect its environment.

"Some countries are already boycotting our timber products after they were found to be illegally sourced."

Read more!

Best of our wild blogs: 25 Jan 09

A Coastal Adventure at Changi Beach
on the Running with the Wind blog and Under the Stars at Pasir Ris Park

Life History of the Common Bluebottle
on the Butterflies of Singapore blog

Pulau Ubin mangrove delights
on the wild shores of singapore blog

MAD Lessons on Mammals
on the Cicada Eco Tree Place blog

Little Spiderhunter and wild banana plant
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog

Feed the birds fish, tuppence a bag
on the Lazy Lizard's Tales blog

Diverse roots of human disease
on the Richard Black, BBC News blog

Read more!

Jurong LNG terminal's construction to start by mid-year

The project will go on stream around middle to late-2012, says a source
Ronnie Lim, Business Times 24 Jan 09;

CONSTRUCTION of Singapore's $1 billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal is set to begin by the middle of this year, sources say. Developers PowerGas and Gaz de France are shortlisting engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractors, they add.

This comes after front-end engineering and design work by Australian engineering firm WorleyParsons started last year.

'With a three to three-and-a half-year building time, a mid-year start will bring the project on stream around mid to late 2012,' a source told BT.

A mid-2009 start is slightly behind schedule. Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry S Iswaran had indicated earlier that construction should start by end-2008 or early-2009.

Singapore's decision to go ahead with the project is a strategic move to diversify its energy sources. It now relies on piped natural gas from Indonesia and Malaysia, both of which increasingly need this domestically. 'The recent resurgence of gas pipeline problems between Russia and Ukraine reinforces Singapore's LNG move,' an official said. He was referring to a price dispute between the two countries that caused a two-week gas supply cut to other countries connected by the pipeline. The European Union relies on Russia for almost a quarter of its gas.

Singapore's LNG terminal, to be built on a 30 ha site on Jurong Island, involves two 150,000-cubic-metre storage tanks with send-out capacity of three million tonnes per annum (tpa) in the first phase. There is provision for expansion to six million tpa, involving another two tanks.

The current plan is to build the first two tanks, sources say. Earlier reports have said EPC groups bidding for the project include possible ties-ups between WorleyParsons and Foster Wheeler, Japan's Chiyoda, France's Technip and Korea's Daewoo, Punj Lloyd and Italy's Saipem, and several other Korean groupings such as Samsung/KBR/Kogas Technology and SK Gas/LG Corp.

London-listed BG Group, which has been appointed sole buyer of the LNG for Singapore, has indicated the Australian state of Queensland will be a key source of supply. But initially, LNG will be shipped here from elsewhere as the Queensland gas will not be available until 2013-2014.

Read more!

Some Singapore chefs are using more local produce

On home ground
Whether it is to save the planet or because the food tastes better, some chefs are using more local produce
Huang Lijie, Straits Times 25 Jan 09;

A modern European restaurant, FiftyThree, which opened in Armenian Street last Monday, is the latest 'local' hero on the fine-dining scene.

Take its delicious salad of tomato, watermelon and strawberry dressed in a hibiscus reduction.

It is not just the taste that will make you go wow but also where the chef has sourced the hibiscus in it.

Chef Michael Han, 31, who helms the $1.2-million FiftyThree, saw potential in hibiscus blooms growing on a farm here, and used them in his dish.

It is one of several dishes on the menu that use ingredients grown locally.

His is the latest restaurant here taking part in a 'home-grown' success story (see separate story).

In doing so, the chefs are participating in the popular international local food movement, which has been around for about 40 years.

This is a way of eating that encourages the consumption of things grown on nearby farms using environment-friendly methods to sustain the ecosystem.

A pioneer of the phenomenon is well-known American chef Alice Waters, whose interest in using fresh, locally grown ingredients in her cooking saw her marry French cooking techniques with ingredients grown near her California restaurant, Chez Panisse.

It is a 'green' gastronomic consciousness that is gaining currency here too, slowly but surely, despite Singapore being more a concrete jungle than farming hinterland.

The motivation for chefs to jump on the bandwagon includes access to fresher, tastier ingredients that spend a shorter time in transit from farm to table, and greater affordability compared to expensive imported produce.

Farmers here - mostly based in the less-urbanised north-western part of the island - whom LifeStyle interviewed say they have noticed a recent spike in inquiries from chefs who are keen to feature their produce on restaurant menus.

Egg farm Chew's Agriculture in Lim Chu Kang, for example, has received 20 per cent more calls from interested chefs in the last two months, says its sales manager, Mr Tan Swee Teck.

Similarly, aeroponic vegetable farm Aero-Green Technology in Lim Chu Kang saw the number of restaurants to which it supplies salad greens double last year, from 15 to 30.

Dr Tan Kok Kheng, 61, director of mushroom farm Mycofarm in Yio Chu Kang, attributes the increased enthusiasm among chefs here for its pesticide-free mushrooms to the chefs' increasing environmental awareness.

He says: 'A lot of restaurants today are run by educated chefs who are well informed on global concerns and are concerned not just about making money but also ensuring that the food they serve their customers is wholesome.'

For FiftyThree's Han, the inspiration to incorporate - as much as possible - locally grown ingredients in the restaurant's dishes came from dining at British restaurant Acorn House.

The acclaimed London restaurant uses seasonal produce which it sources from local farms that have environment-friendly farming practices. Its dedication to 'sustainable' - as it is called - dining also means the restaurant does not use air-flown ingredients. This is because flying them guzzles fossil fuel and results in the emission of greenhouse gases.

For chef Willin Low, 36, of three- year-old restaurant Wild Rocket in Upper Wilkie Road, the inspiration to use local produce such as Mycofarm's hiratake black oyster mushroom in its mushroom fettucine in white truffle oil was sparked by a visit to Alice Water's Chez Panisse.

And when jackfruit trees growing near Wild Rocket were laden with fruit last year, he plucked them and used them in a jackfruit, feta cheese pancake he created specially for its Sunday brunch menu.

He says: 'It makes sense to use local produce whenever possible because you get them fresher and in abundance.'

Indeed, for some restaurateurs and chefs, the decision to adopt Localism was borne mainly from considerations of taste rather than virtuous ideas of saving the planet.

Madam Cecilia See, 46, manager of Tekong Seafood Restaurant in Changi Village Road, for example, says the restaurant began serving quail from Lian Wah Hang Farm in Lim Chu Kang about 10 years ago because it represents the cuisine they serve - rustic Singaporean cuisine.

She says: 'Deep-fried quail and stir-fried quail in curry sauce are common dishes eaten on Pulau Tekong, so we wanted to serve them at the restaurant. And fresh quail tastes much better than frozen imports.'

The restaurant also serves mostly fish caught by fishermen from waters in the region, such as garoupa, red snapper and golden pomfret.

In these cash-strapped times, serving local produce, which may be cheaper than imports, has also become increasingly appealing for restaurateurs.

Ms Barbara Chin, 39, owner of vegetarian restaurant LivinGreens in Beach Road, says its switch from Australian salad greens to those grown locally by Aero-Green Technology, which are cheaper by 20 to 50 per cent, has resulted in savings for the restaurant.

She adds: 'The locally grown lettuce doesn't lose out in taste to the imported ones we used to serve.'

Recent global food scares such as the melamine-tainted milk from China, coupled with the stringent inspections conducted by the Singapore food safety regulatory body, the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) on farms here, have also boosted confidence in the quality of local produce.

Madam See of Tekong Seafood Restaurant, says: 'We don't have to worry about the safety of the quails we serve because we know AVA is very strict with its checks on the farms.'

Still, for a country that imports more than 90 per cent of its food, promoting Localism can be a challenge for chefs here.

For practitioners of the food movement, 'local' can mean anything from a narrow foodshed around one's own home to a radius spanning 240km.

Another challenge, says chef Oscar Pasinato, 38, of contemporary restaurant Buko Nero in Tanjong Pagar Road, is getting consumers to embrace local produce.

He says: 'We switched to using Mycofarm mushrooms in 2006 and we buy our fish fresh, directly from fishermen at the Senoko fish port.

'We take a lot of pride in letting our customers know where the ingredients come from, but there are some who think that if you serve local produce, you are giving them cheap food and overcharging them for it.'

One enlightened diner, however, is lawyer Wendy Teo, 36, who tries to pursue an environmentally friendly lifestyle such as driving a hybrid-fuel car.

She says: 'People usually pay a premium for imported produce because of its branding more than its taste and quality. So, I try to eat at restaurants such as Wild Rocket, which practise an environmentally conscious way of eating through using locally grown ingredients.'

Grow Locally
Straits Times 25 Jan 09;

If you are looking to try tasty, locally grown produce, try these eateries.

FiftyThree

Where: 53 Armenian Street, tel: 6334-5535

Open: Noon to 2pm Tuesdays to Saturdays, 7 to 9pm, Mondays to Saturdays; closed on Sundays

What: Allow your tastebuds to be tantalised by its inventive modern European cuisine, which tries to incorporate - as much as possible - locally grown produce such as mangosteens. These appear in the dish chocolate pave (above) which consists of Manjari dark chocolate and Tanariva milk chocolate, roasted Jerusalem artichoke, roasted buckwheat, mangosteen and Indian Alfonso mango sorbet, on the six-course dinner menu ($190).


Whitebait & Kale

Where: 1 Orchard Boulevard, Camden Medical Centre, 01-01, tel: 6333-8697 Open: Noon to 2pm and 7 to 9pm, Mondays to Saturdays; 10am to 4pm, Sundays

What: In addition to using locally grown Mycofarm mushrooms in various dishes, the contemporary restaurant is big on using seasonal ingredients and produce from overseas farms with eco-friendly practices.

Wild Rocket

Where: 10A Upper Wilkie Road, Hangout Hotel, tel: 6339-9448

Open: Noon to 3pm and 6.30 to 11pm, Tuesdays to Saturdays, 11.30am to 3pm and 6.30 to 10.30pm, Sundays; closed on Mondays

What: Taste Mycofarm's hiratake black oyster mushrooms in its mushroom fettucine in white truffle oil ($18.50, above), and Mycofarm's Pioppino mushrooms atop its ribeye steak ($31.50).


Prive

Where: 2 Keppel Bay Vista, Marina at Keppel Bay, tel: 6776-0777

Open: 11.30am to 3pm, weekdays, 6 to 11.30pm, Mondays to Saturdays; closed Sundays

What: Mycofarm's mushrooms are used in its mushroom linguine with white wine cream sauce ($18)


Ichiban Sushi

Where: Various outlets, including 238 Thomson Road, Novena Square, 02-13/14, tel: 6255-7767

Open: 11.30am to 10pm daily

What: Uses low-cholesterol, vitamin E-enriched eggs from egg farm Chew's Agriculture in Lim Chu Kang in all egg dishes, such as its chawanmushi (steamed egg custard, $3.90, below).


Buko Nero

Where: 126 Tanjong Pagar Road, tel: 6324-6225

Open: Noon to 2.30pm, Fridays and Saturdays, 6.30 to 9.30pm, Tuesdays to Saturdays; closed on Mondays and Sundays

What: Mycofarm mushrooms are found in the tau kwa (beancurd) tower ($17.50) and in its range of pastas ($21 to $26).


O'Briens

Where: Various outlets, including 293 Holland Rd, 01-05/06 Cold Storage Jelita Shopping Centre, tel: 6219-7246

Open: 8am to 9.30pm daily

What: The gourmet sandwich bar switched from salad greens from Australia and Malaysia to Aero-Green Technology's locally grown vegetables 18 months ago. The greens are found in its wraps, salads and sandwiches, such as tuna and egg sandwich ($9.90, above).


Ya Kun

Where: Various outlets, including 18 China Street, 01-01, tel: 6438-3638

Open: 7.30am to 7pm, weekdays; 8am to 5pm, weekends

What: Signature kaya (egg and coconut jam, bottom, left) which uses eggs from Chew's Agriculture in Lim Chu Kang.


Anjappar Authentic Chenttinaad Restaurant

Where: 76-78 Race Course Road and 102 Syed Alwi Road, tel: 6296-5545 and 6392-5545

Open: 11.30am to 10.30pm daily, and noon to midnight, daily

What: Roasted quail dish ($5.50) which uses birds from Lian Wah Hang Farm in Lim Chu Kang.


Tekong Seafood Restaurant

Where: Block 6 Changi Village Road, 01-2100, tel: 6542-8923

Open: 11am to 11.30pm daily

What: Its deep fried quail and stir-fried quail in curry are popular ($4 for each quail). The birds come from Lian Wah Hang Farm in Lim Chu Kang.

Read more!

Effect of strong winds on Singaporeans

Blown away
Seasonal strong winds blasting across the island have been refreshing for some, a nuisance for others
John Lui, Straits Times 25 Jan 09;

Windsurfers are weary of wipe-outs. City slickers are having a hair-raising time. Women are flipping out over flipped skirts. And it is not a blast for outdoor eateries either.

That is the gusty weather whipping across the island as a result of the north-east monsoon, which breezes in between December and early March.

Wind-battered Singaporeans may not believe it but weather experts say the gusts - of up to 55kmh - have not been unusually strong.

But they are proving a blow for some businesses. The winds have created havoc at alfresco restaurants, such as causing $10,000 worth of damage to the awnings of two anchored boats that form part of The Lotus Grill restaurant at Clarke Quay.

Two weeks ago, restaurant supervisor Kwan Chai Ting, 58, was greeted by the sight of the awnings lying in a crumpled heap on the decks of the two traditional tongkang river boats when she turned up for work ahead of the eatery's 6pm opening.

The awnings of the ships, which are permanently moored on the Singapore River and seat about 50 diners each, are 14m long and 4m wide.

Yet the winds must have been strong enough to rip both sheets off their secured points, Madam Kwan says. Total repairs cost around $10,000.

The winds have also been a blasted nuisance in other ways at the restaurant. Madam Kwan adds that it has been blowing away 'the menus, menu stands, table stands, whole table settings even'.

'A customer was halfway through his drink when strong winds blew and the glass tipped over and broke. We had to refund him for the drink and sweep up the broken glass,' she adds.

Nearby Coffee Club Clarke Quay, which has about half of its nearly 50 seats outdoors, is another eatery reeling from the effects of the winds.

Its assistant manager Sumathi Munusamy, 32, says: 'It's a very big problem. Our promotion cards on the tables keep flying off.'

It has also been more difficult to keep the cafe spick and span. It is beside a busy road and the problem of dust from the street is now worse.

Ms Munusamy says: 'We have to keep wiping the place every two hours. We really need to do our housekeeping more regularly to keep the place clean.'

In the east of the island, diners at La Cantina Restaurant at Changi Village are so fed up with the air turbulence that only about half as many guests now want to sit outside, says owner Seno Yuko, who declined to give her age.

They prefer the calm of indoor dining, although it can get a little crowded inside, she adds.

In the central district, Ms Aryn Sorensen, 34, a banker who works in Raffles Place, found more than her decorum ruffled recently.

'It is not very safe for those in big or short skirts. I did a Marilyn Monroe last week,' she says, referring to the iconic picture of the star with her dress blowing up.

She adds with a laugh: 'I was by the river when a gust of wind blew my skirt up. Everybody near me saw everything.'

You would think that sea-sports enthusiasts would be lapping up the flying spray, but not so, according to Mr Fajar Mustaqeem, 20, a part-time wakeboard instructor at Ski 360 cable ski park at East Coast Parkway, where waterskiers and wakeboarders are towed by an overhead cable instead of a boat.

He says: 'If it's windy, the wind pushes you back, and with choppy waters, it's hard to wakeboard.

'The wind distracts you. It's in your face and this is not good for wakeboarding.'

Wakeskating, a variation of board-riding similar to wakeboarding, also needs calmer waters.

Professional wakeskater Nick Taylor, 28, says the weather has put a dampener on some of his flashier moves.

'When it's windy I just go around in circles. The wind throws me off my board and makes the water so choppy. I usually wait till the wind stops before I train,' he says.

Further down the beach at the Mana Mana East Coast sea-sports centre, windsurfing and sailing coach Daniel Place, 22, says the gusts make things difficult for novices.

He says: 'We check the background knowledge of those who come here to rent and sail - there should be no lying about their sailing abilities.

'The wind conditions are of a more advanced level, so on days with really strong wind, we stop beginners from going out.'

Still, the windy conditions will eventually blow over.

In any case, 'there has been no unusual pattern in wind speeds over the last few days or weeks that is higher than normal patterns over the years', says the meteorological services division of the National Environment Agency in a statement.

For the week ahead, 'occasionally windy conditions can be expected', it adds.

On windy days, the average wind speed is likely to be between 10 and 15 knots with gusts of between 20 and 30 knots. One knot is 1.85kmh.

Some welcome the seasonal winds. Mr K.F. Seetoh, 46, chief executive of the Makansutra Gluttons Bay open-air food centre at the Esplanade, calls the breezes 'fantastic'.

'People love the cool breeze while they're dining,' he says.

Diners need not worry about winds wrecking their eating pleasure either. The umbrellas at the centre's tables are fastened securely, says Mr Seetoh.

And because the dining spot does not use cheap disposable styrofoam plates and bowls, guests are spared from seeing their food take flight.

'All our plates are made of melamine so they're heavy and won't get blown away,' he assures.

Read more!

Oh rats! This is Orchard Road

Rodent problem in the shopping belt seems to have worsened over the last two years
Shuli Sudderuddin, Straits Times 25 Jan 09;

It's 11pm at Somerset Skate Park. The lights are off and most of the skaters have gone home. The ground is strewn with food boxes that contain scraps of fried chicken and mashed potatoes.

There is a flash of bright eyes and a rat scurries across the park, heading for the leftovers.

By 2am, there are more than 10 rats scampering about.

The Skate Park is just one of several rat-prone areas to have emerged in the Orchard and Somerset areas over the last two years, said those who work at and frequent the stretch.

Pest control company Rentokil said it received about 25 calls last year to kill rats in Orchard Road, mainly from shopping malls.

Said a Rentokil spokesman: 'Rodents multiply at a very fast rate and when there is overcrowding, some will migrate elsewhere for survival. They can travel through pipes, drains and sewers.'

Mr Marco Ang, 30, a surveyor at a pest control company who received a complaint about rats in Lucky Plaza last year, said that the presence of the rodents was due to open rubbish chutes in the area.

While rats are common in urban areas, the problem in the shopping district appears to have worsened.

Ms Jocelyn Huang, 18, a part-time server at K-Box in Cineleisure, sees them at the Skate Park bus stop on her way home every night.

'A couple of years ago, there were rats occasionally. Now I see them every night,' she said.

Added the Rentokil spokesman: 'The problem may be due to the presence of ongoing construction work and landscaping where cleanliness may be compromised.'

Major construction works in Orchard and Somerset include the site of the old Phoenix Hotel, opposite Somerset Skate Park and malls like Ion Orchard.

Behind Lucky Plaza, the rats run in drains and even enter the building.

Mr Albert Cho, 45, the proprietor of House of Times watch shop there, said he can hear the rats in the false ceilings. 'Last year, a few shopowners chased some rats in front of my shop. The rodents had gnawed through the briefcases of a shop nearby,' he recalled.

Student Joyce Tan, 18, who mans a drinks kiosk outside Lucky Plaza part-time, saw a rat last week. 'Once, the rats ate our sweets. I saw the teeth marks on the sweets,' she said.

Outside Ngee Ann City, two or three rats emerge from the roadside foliage to scavenge for food every night, said buskers along the stretch.

Ms Jansen Helen, 52, the mother of two buskers from Mongolia, said she sees them whenever she watches her daughters perform outside the mall.

'They run on the pavement and don't seem scared of people. They're about 12cm long, but skinny. It's disgusting,' she said.

Vendors at the hawker centre in Youth Park said that they started seeing rats on the premises recently and a pest control company was called in to get rid of them.

A satay stall vendor who wanted to be known only as Ms Maria, 45, said that the rats would come from the bushes and eat scraps that customers dropped.

The pests sometimes cross paths with customers.

Mr Sun Zhao Yang, a cleaner at Wisma Atria's Food Republic, recalled a rat falling from the ceiling four months ago.

He said: 'It fell onto an empty table, next to one that was taken, and some customers screamed. I got rid of it. There hasn't been any more rat sightings since.'

A spokesman for the National Environment Agency (NEA) said that it has not found signs of rat infestation in the Orchard MRT station, the walkway between Wisma Atria and Ngee Ann City, and the food court at Takashimaya.

However, it has noted some rodent activity in the false ceiling of the Food Republic food court.

Said the NEA spokesman: 'We do not discount the possibility that there could be rodents in Orchard Road should food establishments become careless in managing their food waste.'

He added that NEA has been working with operators of food outlets to ensure they dispose of food properly.

Last Friday, NEA advised Food Republic on how to solve the pest problem. The food court management has implemented control measures and NEA is monitoring it closely.

A spokesman for Wisma Atria said: 'Since construction started at Ion Orchard in 2006, we have anticipated a potential rat problem and have stepped up control measures like traps.

'We have also been working with tenants, like Food Republic, to have twice-monthly pest control checks. The problem is well managed though there may be the occasional presence of a rat.'

A spokesman for Food Republic said that since the incident of the rat falling from the roof, it has had no more complaints or sightings. It had also increased its pest control efforts since 2006.

The NEA said rat problems can be prevented by properly managing food waste. Rentokil added that all foodstuff should be stored in covered containers, rubbish bags should be tied and rubbish bin lids should be shut tightly.

However, the rats have gone largely unnoticed by shoppers. Those The Sunday Times spoke to said they were unaware of the rats in Orchard Road, and would still frequent it.

Said Ms Jeanette Sim, 26, a customer service officer who shops there every week: 'I haven't seen any rats here. I think it's still very clean and I will still come to Orchard Road.'

Read more!

One whale survives mass Australian beaching

Yahoo News 23 Jan 09;

SYDNEY (AFP) – Just one sperm whale from a group of almost 50 that beached en masse in Australia's south has survived, and remains sandwiched among the dead, officials said Saturday.

The pod of 48 whales became trapped this week on a sandbar 150 metres (500 feet) offshore from Perkins Island on the northwest coast of the island state of Tasmania. By the time they were discovered on Thursday almost all had perished.

High winds and ocean swell prevented rescuers from floating the two whales who survived through Friday night out to sea, and by late Saturday rescuer Warwick Brennan said just one was still alive.

"We didn't get a chance to get the whales out so we've just been trying to maintain them, keep them cool, but unfortunately one of them has died during the day so we've only got one alive now," Brennan told AFP.

Officials would remain in the area overnight and return to the site at first light to assess conditions for an attempt to free the sole survivor from the pod of dead whales and get it out to sea, he said.

"The tide's coming in, which is always better as it gets more water around it and everything, but obviously now we're dragging into another day, which makes it a lot harder," he said.

"But while the animals are alive we try to maintain them, keep them cool, prevent them overheating and if an opportunity arises and they are strong enough we can give it a go, see if a rescue's possible."

Brennan said the sandbar was in a difficult area which was not accessible for machinery, and it would be difficult to move the corpses, which were "incredibly large".

Male sperm whales can grow to 18 metres and females 12 metres in length, weighing in between 20 and 50 tonnes.

More than 150 long-finned pilot whales died, with many sustaining deep cuts after thrashing onto rocks, after beaching themselves on the remote west coast of Tasmania state in November.

Tasmania, Australia's southern island state, experiences about 80 percent of whale beachings in the country, a phenomenon so far unexplained by science.

Read more!

Guam's Birds Gone: Can Forest Survive?

Haldre Rogers, University of Washington
LiveScience.com Yahoo News 23 Jan 09

This Behind the Scenes article was provided to LiveScience in partnership with the National Science Foundation.

Can forests that have lost all of their birds still function normally? This is an important question for the now bird-less forests on the island of Guam, an island in the western Pacific.

How did Guam lose its birds? In the mid-1940s, the brown tree snake was accidentally introduced to what was then snake-free Guam. This snake became Guam's new top predator and ate its way through a buffet of the island's bird community. As a result, 10 of the island's 12 forest bird species are now extinct on Guam and the two surviving forest bird species remain only in tiny, localized populations where snakes are controlled. Guam's now silent forests currently hold about 13,000 snakes per square mile.

I started to think about the potential ecological impacts of bird loss in 2002, when two years out of college, I was hired by the U.S. Geological Survey to develop a "Rapid Response Team" that would identify and eradicate new populations of brown tree snakes on U.S.-associated Pacific Islands. Although I had heard the snake story in my college conservation biology course, I did not know where Guam was when I applied for the job. Yet, three weeks later, I was on a plane headed there.

Bird loss and seed movement

As I worked on Guam during the next three years, I often wondered why no one was studying how Guam's bird losses impacted the forests' remaining organisms. So in 2005, I began a Ph.D. program in biology at the University of Washington to investigate how bird loss changes the movement of seeds around Guam's forests.

This spring, I, along with my co-advisers Joshua Tewksbury and Janneke Hille Ris Lambers, our collaborator at the University of Guam Ross Miller, and my field assistant Theresa Feeley-Summer, began to examine whether the loss of birds had caused changes in how the seeds they typically eat are distributed.

The study is funded by the Budweiser Conservation Scholarship and the National Science Foundation (NSF) Integrated Graduate Education, Research, and Training (IGERT) and Graduate Research Fellowships. In this study, we set seed traps at various distances from fruiting False Elder (Premna obtusifolia) trees in the forests of Guam and Saipan, a nearby island with birds, and then counted the number of seeds that fell into each trap. This shows us how far the seeds of fruiting trees are traveling in Guam's bird-less forests as compared to Saipan's forests with birds.

Screen-door netting and a mile of PVC

The first step in our research was to design traps to catch falling seeds using locally available materials. This task required many trips to the new Home Depot on Guam; we purchased the store's entire supply of screen-door netting, flexible PVC piping and PVC connectors. Believe me, I got some strange looks when I asked the Home Depot sales person for 2,000 feet of screen-door netting and a mile of PVC.

Although our study is still ongoing, we have already produced some important results: we found that all of the seeds from the fruiting trees on Guam remained near their parent trees and maintained intact seed coats. By contrast, many more of the seeds from the fruiting trees on Saipan were found without seed coats away from their parent tree.

The differences between the distributions of the seeds on Guam and Saipan can be attributed to the differences in their bird populations: In Saipan's forests, birds stop at fruiting trees, eat fruit, swallow the seeds and then fly to the next tree, where they defecate, effectively moving seeds away from where they are produced. We believe the handling of seeds by birds removes the seed coat and promotes the germination of seeds. In the bird-less forests of Guam, however, fruits ripen, fall off of the tree and settle at tree bases without being eaten or moved by birds.

Unfortunately, our results do not bode well for the future of Guam's fruit-producing trees. Research from around the world has shown that seeds from fruits falling under parent trees (like fruits in Guam) tend to experience higher mortality from predators and fungal infections than seeds that are moved away from their parent trees. In addition, for many species, seeds that are not handled by birds are less likely to germinate than seeds that are handled by birds.

More on seed dispersal

Where will our research go from here? I hope that Home Depot has restocked its screen-door netting and PVC piping, because we plan to construct about 1,000 more seed traps. We will use them to study seed dispersal for 14 more species of trees. This will give us a community perspective on seed dispersal patterns.

We will also investigate how the lack of bird handling and seed dispersal by birds impacts the germination and growth rate of seeds. In addition, we will evaluate the impacts of bird loss on local people by interviewing people who extract forest products for traditional uses. Several tree species used for medicinal purposes or as carving wood have seeds dispersed by birds, and thus may be experiencing population declines noticed by local people.

Although the introduction of a non-native snake caused Guam's bird loss, other factors are causing bird losses in forests around the world. The ecological impacts of all of these declines - no matter what the cause - are likely to be similar. Therefore, the complete loss of Guam's birds provides an extreme example that can inform us about the ecosystem impacts of bird losses around the world. The results of our research may be used by conservationists to develop and apply timely management approaches that will minimize the ecological impacts of bird loss.

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Giant Toxic Coal Ash Spill Threatens Animals

Kelly Hearn, National Geographic News 23 Jan 09;

It's been called the Exxon Valdez of coal ash—a wakeup call for a fossil fuel industry.

But the recent toxic ash spill in Tennessee is greater in scope than the 1989 oil spill, and despite what some conservationists are calling very real threats, the ash disaster has so far inspired apparently little concern for local wildlife.

State wildlife officials said they have collected live fish and will collect more in the coming months to monitor the situation.

The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency says it will work over the next three to five years with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to assess the long-term impact of contaminants from the Kingston spill on animals.

On December 22 a billion gallons of poisonous sludge—largely coal ash, a byproduct of coal burning—broke through an earthen dike at the Kingston Fossil Plant. The torrent half-buried area homes and elevated long-running health concerns over heavy metals in the ash.

Those worries, experts say, are not limited to human health. In addition to the animals killed by the initial spill, wildlife may be threatened for years by the trace amounts of arsenic, cadmium, mercury, thallium, and other toxins in the coal ash.

(Related: "Heavy Metal-Eating 'Superworms' Unearthed in U.K." [October 7, 2008].)

"We're concerned about tremendous human health threats but also serious biological threats to animal species," said Stephen Smith, veterinarian and director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.

"Already mussels, snails, and aquatic species are in grave danger, but no one seems to be talking about it."

Other local animals that could be affected include river otters, mink, muskrat, ospreys, and black-crowned night herons, according to the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. No endangered species are believed to inhabit the spill region.

Toxins Accumulating in Animals?

Of the dead animals retrieved from the spill site so far, none had died of poisoning, according to Dave McKinney, chief of the Environmental Service Division of the Tennessee government's Wildlife Resources Agency.

"They were either buried in mud or stranded when a water surge pushed them into fields and forests and then receded," McKinney said.

Even so, he said, "there is certainly the potential that toxins will bioaccumulate"—build up in animals' bodies. "But we're talking months to years, not days to weeks."

State wildlife officials said they have collected live fish and will collect more in the coming months to monitor the situation.

The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency says it will work over the next three to five years with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to assess the long-term impact of contaminants from the Kingston spill on animals.

Food Warning

Eventually any toxic effects in animals could work their way up the food chain to humans, officials say.

The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation has issued an advisory against eating striped bass caught in rivers around the spill zone as well as a precautionary advisory for catfish and sauger. A precautionary advisory means that children, pregnant women, and nursing mothers shouldn't eat those species, and everyone else should limit consumption to one meal a month.

Conservationists are particularly concerned over the fate of one ecologically important species, freshwater mussels, which live on river bottoms, where sediment and pollution accumulate.

Losing mussels could result in greater pollution levels in area rivers, because a single mussel can filter several gallons of water a day, "improving quality for human use," according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Mussels are also a major food source for ducks, birds, and fish, which could in turn suffer if the mussels are tainted by the ash spill. (Related: "Hatcheries Strengthen Mussel Species on Appalachian River" [December 6, 2005].)

How Dangerous?

Coal ash, or fly ash, is a residue left over from burning coal for power. It is collected in ponds like the one at Kingston in 32 U.S. states, according to the Associated Press. Massive amounts of ash are sold for use in concrete, mulch, construction fill, and other purposes.

The U.S. government considers the ash a health and environmental risk, but the residue remains unregulated, and debate burns over just how toxic coal ash is.

A 1998 study by the Electric Power Research Institute, a nonprofit association allied with the power industry, found that "health risks from coal ash are minimal, whether it is in the form of a waste coal combustion by-product or a material used in construction products."

The study pointed out that heavy metals make up a small proportion of coal ash—and that these same substances occur naturally in rocks and sand.

But other experts point to evidence that the toxins in coal ash—also called coal combustion residues (CCR)—build up in bodies over time, sometimes with lethal effects.

"Whether accidentally discharged into natural aquatic systems or present in impoundments that attract wildlife, CCR appears to present significant risks to aquatic and semiaquatic organisms," Michael McKinney, the chair of the University of Tennessee's environmental-studies program, said in an email.

Specifically, coal-ash spills have caused behavioral and physical problems in some vertebrates and invertebrates, McKinney said. For example, exposure to ash toxins has been found to lead to severe deformations of tadpoles and fish.

Coal-ash exposure has also led to "fish kills and extirpation [local extinction] of some fish species," McKinney added.

Biologist Robert Jenkins of Roanoke College in Virginia witnessed just such an event about 40 years ago on the Clinch River in Tennessee, which was partially filled with sludge from the December 22 spill.

"I saw hundreds of thousands of dead fish at that spill" in 1967, Jenkins said, noting that water alkalinity, or pH levels, shot to 12.0 to 12.7—slightly less alkaline than household bleach—from a normal range of 7.8 to 8.5. "That was a huge chemical shock," he said.

Tests to determine the post-spill alkalinity of the Clinch are pending.

Should Coal Ash Be Regulated?

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has long held that coal ash poses no substantial risks to the environment.

Currently, the EPA has produced no coal-ash regulations and strongly supports the substance's use in commercial products such as paints, kitchen countertops, concrete, and agricultural products such as mulch.

Jim Roewer, executive director of the industry-funded Utility Solid Waste Activities Group, said that while the EPA may not have broad-ranging regulations governing the ash, individual states do.

Critics, however, see a void and want coal ash declared a toxic substance.

Kert Davies, research director for the environmental group Greenpeace, says hundreds of coal ash dumps across the country lack meaningful oversight.

Green groups are now pointing to the Tennessee spill as evidence of regulatory need, and they're pressing the new U.S. President to act.

A group of six Tennessee environmental groups recently sent a letter to President Obama, requesting that he move to declare coal ash a hazardous waste.

The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy has even filed a lawsuit seeking to force the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)—the federally owned utility that produced and stored the ash—to restore ecological health to the spill zone.

Dave Goss, executive director of the industry-affiliated American Coal Ash Association, said, "It doesn't surprise us that people are calling for a re-review of federal regulations.

"We are going to let the science speak for itself. It is dangerous to mix science, policy, and passion."

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