Best of our wild blogs: 12 Feb 09

Whistleblower
you can make a difference on The Green Volunteers blog

Whistleblower is an ongoing direct action project where we take the initiative to identify and report polluters, illegal environmental, cruelty and other socially unacceptable practices to the relevant authorities.

A New Species Of Bornella Nudibranch?
on the colourful clouds blog

Discovery @ Sentosa on 9 Feb 2009
on the Discovery blog

Can’t tell heads from butts
on talfryn.net and Handfuls of feathers

Yellow-vented Flowerpecker eating Indian cherry
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog

White-bellied Sea Eagle catching terrapin
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog

My Little Office Garden - Part 1
on the Garden Voices blog

National Sustainability Conference
on the Midnight Monkey Monitor blog

Shell may move refinery to Indonesia
on the wild shores of singapore blog

Words change, grass dries up, but not much else changes
on the Postcards from Seletar blog

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Wildlife Reserves to open S$140m River Safari attraction in 2011

Channel NewsAsia 11 Feb 09;

SINGAPORE : Wildlife Reserves of Singapore plans to develop a new River Safari - the first of its kind in Asia - that will open by 2011.

Construction of the S$140 million river-themed park, comprising boat rides and freshwater habitat displays with a strong conservation theme, will begin this year in anticipation of eventual economic and tourism recovery. The park aims to attract at least 750,000 visitors annually.Wildlife Reserves said construction will not affect the bio-diversity of the Mandai Nature Reserve area as the River Safari will be housed within the zoo's and Night Safari's current 89-hectare compound.

Wildlife Reserves said it had also consulted various government bodies such as NParks and PUB on the environmental viability of the project.

It said 30,000 new trees will be planted in the new attraction, while some affected trees will be relocated.

Wildlife Reserves added that some current animal exhibits will also be relocated to make way for the attraction and it will acquire new animal species to reside in the various habitats through animal exchange programmes with other zoos. - CNA /ls

New wildlife draw: River safari ready in 2011
Tessa Wong & Lim Wei Chean, Straits Times 12 Feb 09;

SINGAPORE will get another top-drawer tourist attraction in 2011, when a $140 million river safari theme park will be completed.

To be carved out of the same 89-hectare Mandai area which houses the Zoo and Night Safari, the park, the first of its kind in Asia, will have some new species of wildlife, boat rides and special displays of freshwater habitats.

Few other details were released yesterday - the park has not even been named yet - but it is understood that some of the 4,000 animals in the Zoo and Night Safari's collection, mostly aquatic animals like manatees and fish, will be moved there.

Successful river theme parks elsewhere, such as Florida's Silver Springs Nature Theme Park, give visitors the chance to view marine life through cruises on glass-bottomed boats, as well as animal exhibits and fun rides.

Yesterday, Ms Fanny Lai, the group chief executive officer of Wildlife Reserves, which will run the new park in addition to the Zoo and Night Safari, said the attraction will give visitors a chance to get up close and personal with the animals. This will help create a 'greater awareness of freshwater habitat conservation', she said.

She added that the company began working on the idea of a new park two years ago, and that it is now an 'opportune time' to embark on it.

Though Singapore is now grappling with a drop in tourism as economies the world over reel from the effects of a recession, observers expect things to pick up by the time the new park is ready in 2011.

The river safari will make Mandai, already a must-visit destination for tourists and Singaporeans alike, even more popular: The Zoo and Night Safari pulled in 1.6 million and 1.1 million visitors, respectively, last year.

The new park is expected to draw at least 750,000 more, said Wildlife Reserves Singapore, the operator of all three attractions.

Tourism players and Singaporeans alike were excited by the prospect of a new park.

Royal Plaza on Scotts' general manager Patrick Fiat said: 'The more, the merrier. These new attractions will allow tourists to spend more time here, or come again because they didn't manage to visit something the first time round.'

Added taxi driver Ng Seng Nguan, 52: 'It will cater to different people and give more variety, which is more interesting.'

Additional reporting by Goh Yi Han

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Do CNG cars have a future?

Green rebates will end and their clean-fuel advantage could be lost
Christopher Tan, Straits Times 12 Feb 09;

ARE compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles viable here?

After a slow but steady introduction of tax breaks and funding assistance from the Government, after the opening of two refuelling stations on the main island (with two more to come this year), and after last year's record pump prices, you would think we would have by now a clear answer to that question.

The truth is we are not much closer to finding an answer than when an inter-ministerial committee started studying CNG's feasibility back in the 1990s.

Last year's spurt in CNG vehicle numbers - with bi-fuel car numbers growing by more than 10 times over 2007's 248 - may be interpreted as a positive development.

But the boom was in fact on the back of motor dealers aggressively marketing gas-retrofitted cars - based solely on the 40 per cent green vehicle tax cut accorded to environmentally friendlier vehicles. The upfront savings work out to be $6,100 for something small like a Honda Airwave and $14,400 for a Toyota Estima - one of the most commonly-converted cars here.

Alas it was also on the back of ill-informed consumers who knew little about CNG cars, other than the fact that they are cheaper because of the tax break.

Many new owners soon became disenfranchised. They discovered that CNG cars need to be refuelled frequently because of their limited range. And that there are long queues at CNG stations.

Some retrofitters did not do a good job, resulting in poor performance in many cases, and vehicle-stalling in some. The quality of CNG gas can fluctuate, leading to unpredictable engine efficiency.

Of the 2,500 converted cars here today, many run mainly on petrol - often lugging a huge, heavy and empty CNG tank in the boot.

When pump prices fell back to saner levels towards the last quarter of last year, interest in gas cars dissipated quickly, largely also because CNG suppliers were slow in lowering rates.

Around the same time, there was growing speculation that the Government may lift a tax exemption on CNG vehicles. That looked to be the final nail in the coffin.

Of the 20 motor workshops which ventured into CNG retrofitting, 10 have stopped the business. New sales of CNG vehicles slowed to a crawl in the final months of the year.

Last month, during the Budget announcement, the Government shed new light when it said the tax exemption will carry on. However, it added that the 40 per cent green vehicle rebate will no longer be offered on new cars from 2012.

It also said CNG will be taxed at the pumps from that year, starting with 20 cents per kg of gas.

With the clarity, will consumers warm to natural gas again? Should they?

The short answer: It depends. If they have the means to buy a bi-fuel Mercedes-Benz E-class (the only purpose-built CNG car available here), and a refuelling station is within easy reach, then they should definitely go for CNG.

The fuel is relatively clean and inexpensive. Even after a 20 cent/kg duty is levied on it from 2012, CNG is likely to be cheaper than petrol.

Currently, CNG is retailing at about $1.20 per kg, or 89 cents per equivalent litre. That is about 60 cents lower than 95-octane petrol.

Converting a conventional petrol-powered car to run on CNG is a less attractive option. But it can still be viable if you are prepared to live with an appreciably smaller boot, or in some instances, fewer seats.

Much depends on who retrofits your car. A poorly converted car will have lower efficiency, less refinement and questionable dependability.

Currently, there is no industry certification or auditing body. So the consumer has to suss out for himself which outfits are competent.

Hint: Find out how long a retrofitter has been in the business, and visit the facility to get an impression of how well-run it is.

Again, a refuelling station - preferably a big one - must be within easy reach.

Next, the choice of car. It is foolish to convert something that is compact and already fuel-efficient. Likewise, it would be counterproductive to convert a sports car.

Obviously, the space the kit takes up, and the weight it adds (about 70kg) would be quite detrimental to such cars.

A bigger car can afford the space; and its suspension and braking system are more likely to be able to withstand the additional and unevenly-distributed weight of a CNG kit better.

Certain engine types may not be suitable for conversion, including turbocharged, supercharged, direct-injected and engines with sophisticated valve timing and lift control.

The rule of thumb: The simpler the engine, the more trouble-free the conversion.

For Singapore, a sizeable CNG vehicle population is desirable. Firstly, it reduces our complete dependence on oil. The competition that gas will bring to the fuels market should also help keep pump prices in check.

Finally, let us look at the environmental benefits of going CNG (if any).

Compared with diesel vehicles - from public buses to heavy trucks and taxis with 20-year-old engine technologies - CNG is as clean as a whistle.

Even when compared with our cars - among the youngest population in the world - CNG is superior, notably in terms of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide emissions.

But as Singapore adopts more stringent emission standards, and legislates cleaner fuels, the present environmental advantage of gas may diminish.

Advances in hybrid technology, electric propulsion systems, and perhaps even hydrogen know-how will soon bring new possibilities to folk seeking alternatives to the petrol and diesel choices available today.

Until then, going gas is a reasonably affordable way to do your bit for the environment, and save several hundred dollars at the pumps each year in the process.

Then again, you can do practically the same by picking a fuel-efficient petrol car and adopting good driving habits. The only thing is, you will not enjoy the 40 per cent tax break with this option.

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Solar energy for Budget Terminal

Nicholas Yong, Straits Times 12 Feb 09;

CHANGI Airport's Budget Terminal is taking the green route, with a plan to utilise solar energy to meet part of its electricity needs.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) is issuing a tender to convert electricity from direct sunlight on the airport terminal's rooftop.

It is estimated the project will result in savings of $60,000 annually. This forms at least 10 per cent of the lighting consumption at the Budget Terminal.

The project will take about 12 months, beginning from June.

The initiative is not the first to be given the green light. Similar solar energy projects have been sprouting up in recent years.

City Developments has incorporated solar-powered eco-roofs into many of its residential and commercial projects, such as Oceanfront @ Sentosa Cove.

And the Housing Board's Treelodge@Punggol estate is projected to be the first eco-precinct of its kind here.

Associate Professor Tseng King Jet of Nanyang Technological University welcomed the Budget Terminal initiative as a means of improving knowledge about solar technology.

The system will be placed on the rooftop of the terminal's Departure Hall, an area that covers about 15,000 sq m.

A series of photovoltaic (PV) panels will be installed to capture sunlight during daytime for conversion into usable electricity.

But Prof Tseng also acknowledged the current limitations of PV solar technology. 'The amount produced is usually not enough,' he said.

As an example, if the rooftop of a typical HDB block was covered with panels, it would probably produce enough electricity for only the residents on one floor.

While there is little additional cost once PV panels are installed, Prof Tseng noted the prohibitive cost of PV panels and large storage batteries.

One PV panel which produces a kilowatt of energy, or the power needed to boil a kettle of water, costs an estimated $10,000.

Budget Terminal to go green with solar roof panels
Asha Popatlal, Channel NewsAsia 11 Feb 09;

SINGAPORE: Singapore's Budget Terminal could soon have a "green" roof over its Departure Hall that uses solar panels to help convert sunlight into electricity.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) on Wednesday announced that it is calling a tender for the project.

The aim is to produce an alternate source of clean and sustainable energy to supplement the terminal's main power supply and reduce electricity costs.

CAAS estimates that the year-long project, slated to take off in June, could translate into savings of around S$60,000 per year.

The testbed project is part of a new clean energy programme launched one and a half years ago by the Economic Development Board and Clean Energy Programme Office.

In addition to being more green, CAAS hopes to boost research efforts by making the data generated from this project available to research organisations.

CAAS will assess the project's outcome before deciding whether to extend it to the other terminals at Changi Airport. - CNA/vm

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Koala Love Story Wins Hearts After Deadly Aussie Fires

Belinda Goldsmith, PlanetArk 12 Feb 09;

CANBERRA - A love story between two badly burned koalas rescued from Australia's deadliest bushfires has provided some heart-warming relief after days of devastation and the loss of over 180 lives.

The story of Sam and her new boyfriend Bob emerged after volunteer firefighter Dave Tree used a mobile phone to film the rescue of the bewildered female found cowering in a burned out forest at Mirboo North, 150 km (90 miles) southeast of Melbourne.

A koala named Sam is given a drink of water by Country Fire Authority volunteer fire fighter Dave Tree after he rescued her following deadly fires that swept through the area of Mirboo North, about 120km (75 miles) southeast of Melbourne, February 8, 2009
Photo: Mark Pardew

Photos and a video of Tree, 44, approaching Sam while talking gently to her, and feeding her water from a plastic bottle as she put her burned claw in his cold, wet hand quickly hit video sharing website YouTube (www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XSPx7S4jr4), making her an Internet sensation.

But it was after reaching a wildlife shelter that Sam met and befriended Bob, who was saved by wildlife workers on Friday, two days before Sam, in Boolarra, about 180 km from Melbourne.

Tree, who has been a volunteer firefighter for 26 years, said it was extremely rare to get so close to a koala so he asked his colleague Brayden Groen, 20, to film him.

"You can how she stops and moves forward and looks at me. It was like a look saying "I can't run, I'm weak and sore, put me out of my misery,"" Tree told Reuters.

"I yelled out for some water and I sat down with her and tipped the water up. It was in my hand and she reached for the bottle then put her right claw into my left hand which was cold so it must have given her some pain relief and she just left it there. It was just amazing."

INSPIRING LOVE STORY

Sam was taken to the Southern Ash Wildlife Shelter in Rawson. Her story was reminiscent of a koala named Lucky who survived the 2003 bushfires that destroyed about 500 homes and killed four people in the capital of Canberra. Lucky became a symbol of hope.

Colleen Wood from the Southern Ash Wildlife Shelter that is caring for Sam and Bob said both koalas were doing well while other animals like possums, kangaroos, and wallabies were also starting to emerge from the debris.

She said Sam had suffered second degree burns to her paws and would take seven to eight months to recover while Bob had three burned paws with third degree burns and should be well enough to return to the bush in about four months.

"They keep putting their arms around each other and giving each other hugs. They really have made friends and it is quite beautiful to see after all this. It's been horrific," said Wood.

"Sam is probably aged between two to four going by her teeth and Bob is about four so they have a muchness with each other."

Wood said about 20 koalas had been brought into her shelter in recent days, several of whom had bonded as koalas are known to clump together, but none had garnered the same attention as the new Internet star Sam.

Tree, a volunteer with the Country Fire Authority Victoria, has visited Sam since her rescue and was delighted to see she had found a boyfriend in Bob.

"They've really taken a shine to each other as they are both burned and share the same burned smell," he said.

"My heart goes out to the people in these fires and this was so innocent so people have used this to distract them from all the sad stuff that has gone on. It gives people a bit of hope."

Donations for bushfire support can be made to the Country Fire Authority Victoria via their website here

(Editing by Jeremy Laurence)

Thirsty koala becomes Australia's wildfire star
Wed Feb 11, 8:59 pm ET

SYDNEY (AFP) – A thirsty koala rescued from the Australian wildfires has become a star on video-sharing website YouTube, providing much-needed relief from the disaster that has killed more than 180 people.

Firefighter Dave Tree stumbled across the female marsupial, nicknamed Sam, as he was battling blazes in Victoria state and was amazed when the parched animal guzzled down water from a bottle as he held her scorched paw.

"Things do survive the bushfire ... are you alright buddy," he says in the footage captured by a fellow volunteer on a mobile phone.

Tree described the koala as "looking pretty bewildered".

"This is amazing ... how much can a koala bear?" he said as he poured two bottles of water into her mouth.

Koalas' cuddly appearance sometimes leads to them being likened to teddy bears, although in reality they are notoriously ill-tempered and possess powerful claws capable of inflicting savage wounds.

But Sam sat placidly as the firefighter gently stroked her.

The clip on the koala has attracted more than 30,000 hits on Youtube and Melbourne's Herald Sun newspaper is selling photographs of the extraordinary encounter, with proceeds going to volunteer firefighting organisations.

The newspaper reported the animal suffered burns to her paws and was in a lot of pain, but was on the road to recovery at the Mountain Ash Wildlife Shelter.

However, wildlife experts fear millions of native animals may have been killed in the firestorm.

"It will be in the hundreds of thousands, possibly millions," Gayle Chappell from the Hepburn wildlife shelter told the national AAP news agency.

"We are not just talking the animals we are familiar with, there are gliders and all sorts of possums, antechinus (a mouse-like marsupial), bandicoots, birds -- there is so much wildlife.

Victoria police on Wednesday issued an appeal for supplies for pets affected by the fires.

They said donations of food for cats and dogs, rugs, blankets and feed for horses and any other animal supplies would be gratefully accepted.

Pauleen Bennett, an animal welfare expert at Melbourne's Monash University, said research after the Hurricane Katrina disaster in the United States showed people who lost pets showed higher rates of distress and depression than those whose animal companions survived.

"So every effort needs to be made to reunite pets with owners and keep families, including pets, together," she said.

The clip on the Koala

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Hundreds Of Dolphins Stranded At Philippine Bay

Manny Mogato, PlanetArk 12 Feb 09;

PILAR - Dozens of Philippine fishing boats tried to stop hundreds of disoriented dolphins from beaching themselves near the mouth of Manila Bay on Tuesday, officials said.Inspector Edgardo Bernardo, police chief in Pilar town in Bataan, said many of the dolphins were found in shallow water and some had come ashore, including three in a bad condition due to wounds.

Malcolm Sarmiento, head of the fisheries and aquatic resources bureau, said experts were studying whether an underwater quake had disoriented the animals or the pack of dolphins followed a sick leader.

"Many strange things are happening in our oceans now and we still don't have any explanation for these occurrences," Sarmiento said.

(Editing by Rosemarie Francisco)

Why those dolphins beached themselves
Capt. David Williams, Special To The Manila Times 12 Feb 09;

Several hundred dolphins entered Manila Bay on Tuesday. Never before had so many dolphins been seen in one group in the Philippines. I can explain why these animals visited the area in such great numbers.

Dr. Malcolm Sarmiento Jr., the director of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, announced on television that a “seaquake” might have caused the stranding. He was right. I developed the Seaquake Theory in the early 1980s and published a 106-page report dedicated to the US Marine Mammal Commission entitled “Auditory Trauma as the Major Factor in Whales and Dolphin Strandings” in which I showed how undersea earthquakes injure pods of whales.

The US government was not ready in the 1980s to talk about auditory trauma in dolphins and whales, so my work got swept under the rug so to speak. Even today, most scientists find it difficult to comprehend earthquake-associated injury in whales because they apparently do not appreciate the intensity of pressure changes in the water above the epicenter of a potent seaquake.

Rest assured, diving-related injuries from undersea disturbances are a hundred times more common than today’s scientists can even imagine. They have closed their eyes so tightly to pressure-related auditory trauma that they often become angry at the mere suggestion that an undersea earthquake could cause injury in a whale. This is so because most governments and naval establishments do not want the scientists they support with grant money to talk about such things as deafness and barotrauma in marine mammals because of implications that sonar and oil-industry airgun arrays might also do the same thing. They have been able to suppress the truth by selectively funding scientists who are willing to look the other way in exchange for a grant. Most scientists know the truth. If they come out in support of pressure-related sinus injury in whales, they will be blacklisted by government funding agencies in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada. Just asked the ones on the side of the whales in the recent battle over sonar use. They know that they will likely never get another government-funded grant.

Undersea quakes to blame

Regardless of what scientists might say, the pod of melon-headed whales (dolphins) on Manila Bay were injured by a rather nasty group of more than 120 undersea earthquakes. The swarm started with a small magnitude-4.5 event on December 21, 2008. Things got red-hot on January 3, 2009 when a magnitude-7.6 event erupted near the water’s edge on Papua Island in Indonesia, 700 miles southeast of Davao City in Mindanao. The 7.6 magnitude quake was followed by more than 120 major aftershocks each one capable by itself of inflicting injury on a pod of dolphins.

Just as it would be if a large group of Navy scuba divers were suddenly exposed to rapid pressure changes from explosive depth charges, a pod of feeding dolphins caught off-guard by rapid and excessive changes in the surrounding water pressure during a series of potent thrusting earthquakes are subject to barotraumatic injury in their heads and middle ear sinuses when the rapid changes in pressure exceed the dolphins’ ability to adjust.

The volume of air contained in each sinus cavity is in direct proportion to the surrounding water pressure. As the pressure increases, the volume decreases. As the pressure decreases, the volume increases. The dolphins can normally deal with a certain amount of pressure change, but, on occasion, a major disturbance on the seafloor, a volcanic eruption or a meteorite impact sends intense waves of changing pressures over the entire pod. The fluctuations in pressure come too fast and are too excessive, causing the volume of air in the sinuses to expand and contract to the point of injury, thereby disabling the entire pod at the same time. Sinus injury would naturally disrupt feeding and diving because of extreme pain.

Sensitive air sacs

Of particular concern to whales and dolphins are the small air sacs (pterygoid sinuses) that surround each inner ear and help the dolphins sense sound direction underwater. These air sacs bounce sound waves around inside the dolphins’ heads in a fashion so that they can determine the direction from which the signals originate. The first symptom of a damaged pterygoid air sac is the lose of echonavigation and echolocation. Additionally, biosonar requires two balanced ears so even a slight injury to one air sac will knock out echonavigation.

To repeat, oscillating pressure changes in the water above the epicenter of an undersea earthquake or volcanic eruption causes the volume of air in the head sinuses to expand and contract excessively resulting in a pressure-related injury (barotrauma) that interrupts diving and causes biosonar failure. An earthquake-injured dolphin could hear sounds perfectly well, but would not be able to determine from which direction the signals were coming.

I have found that often it is not just one seaquake that causes the stranding. Of the several thousand beachings I have studied over the last 40 years, more than 80 percent were associated with a swarm of 10 or more earthquakes as was the case for the recent event on Manila Bay.

Recovery time

Some pods recover within a few days. Others within a few weeks. Those that do not recover stand an excellent chance of beaching or being culled by sharks.

The swim path of the injured pod is determined by the surface currents. Common sense says that the flow of the water offers many times the resistance when swimming upstream as it does when swimming downstream, thus the lost pod is stirred by reduced resistance into the fastest downstream flow where it remains until some other factor causes it to change direction. Of course, the pod can and often does use its excellent vision to help guide it, especially during the day. This explains why dolphins usually go ashore at night when they can no longer see the bottom.

The pod on Manila Bay was first carried east of Papua Island and away from the Philippines by prevailing surface currents. The dolphins then encountered a counter-current that carried them north for a few hundred miles and then northwest to a point north of Samar Island. The fast current flowing through the San Bernardino Strait directed the pod to the Ticao Pass around Ticao Island and into the Sibuyan Sea. The surface currents then carried the pod through the narrow Verde Island Passage and past Balayan Bay and into Manila Bay by way of the South Channel on a rising tide. I am certain that this route will be verified by local fisherman who surely saw this large pod moving toward Manila.

That the dolphins were milling around Manila Bay was a dead giveaway that the current at the time was calm, as can be verified by pictures of small boats near the dolphins.

When the current picks up, a lost pod will swim downstream in the path of least resistance. Current is what builds the beaches so the odds are good that the pod could be directed to a sandy spot somewhere nearby. If the current carries the dolphins back out to sea on a falling tide, they are subject to return on the next rising tide. If winds remain as predicted, the pod will slowly leave the coast and head out to sea toward China and the Gulf of Tonkin. If they survive for another week, they will strand somewhere near the Chinese island of Hainan. Likely, they will not survive more than another week.

Final words

In summary, my Seaquake Theory indicates that barotrauma, as a result of exposure to potent earthquake-induced changes in ambient pressure, solves the centuries-old mystery of why whales and dolphins mass-strand on beaches around the world.

Forty years of experience tells me it is too late to save the dolphins that were stranded on Manila Bay. They had been at sea for over 30 days without fresh water and food. They were weak and likely had a large parasitic burden and were unable able to rid themselves of these worms unless given large doses of antibiotics, which could have damaged their sensitive ears, resulting in fatal hearing impairment. Bottom line is that at this point, the dolphins that beached themselves on the bay stand zero chance of recovery.

Editor’s note: Capt. Williams is a 67-year-old retired marine mammal researcher now living in Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental. He was a commercial sea captain for 40 years and has been very active in whale conservation since he was 14 years old. He said he has been “obsessed” for more than 50 years trying to understand why whales and dolphins strand themselves.

Marine mammal studies pushed
Alexander Villafania, The Inquirer 11 Feb 09;

MANILA, Philippines – Tuesday's stranding of an unusual number of melon-headed whales in the coast of Pilar, Bataan should spur the government to pursue more studies on the country's marine mammals, an expert said Wednesday.

The Philippines does not have comprehensive data on marine mammal ecology, Associate Professor Lemnuel Aragones of the University of the Philippines Institute of Environmental Science and Meteorology (UPIESM) (http://www.iesm.upd.edu.ph/) told INQUIRER.net Wednesday.

Aragones said the comprehensive data was necessary to enable a proper response to the strandings of whales and dolphins that belong to the family of cetaceans.

Nelson Bien, head of the fisheries resource and management division of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, said that the melon-headed whales or Peponocephala electra are listed under the family Delphinidae, commonly known as dolphins.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has listed these whales in its list of threatened species, said Bien.

Aragones, a post-graduate degree on tropical environmental science from the James Cook University in Australia, said it was difficult to get funding from government on marine mammal studies largely due to the lack of economic value from marine mammals.

Aragones noted that the BFAR, a sub-agency of the Department of Agriculture, was the main agency with jurisdiction over marine mammal programs.

He added that the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) was looking into cetacean conservation studies.

He also said there were at least 26 types of cetaceans present in the country, ranging from ordinary bottle-nose dolphins to pygmy blue whales.

Incidentally, Aragones said BFAR, UPIESM, and the Ocean Adventure Marine Park in Subic started the Philippine Marine Mammals Stranding Network (PMMSN) in 2005 as a response to cetacean strandings or beachings.

Aragones cited the PMMSN training received by BFAR officials in Bataan during the mass strandings.

Whale and dolphin strandings are common yet unexplained occurences worldwide but is rare in the Philippines. Aragones said the last mass stranding in the Philippines was in 1956 when around 12 sperm whales were stranded in a coastal area in Capiz.

Incidentally, Aragones said there were at least 10 strandings that happened in the Philippines every year but which involved only one or two animals that were either sick or dying.

The Bataan incident involved at least 300 stranded melon-headed whales (scientific name: Peponocephala electra). The International Union for Conservation of Nature (http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/16564) said the melon-headed whale was widely distributed throughout the world's oceans.

Project Jonah, a non-government organization in New Zealand claims that the largest recorded beach stranding

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Over 500 orangutans on trade in Indonesia annually

ANTARA News 10 Feb 09;

More than 500 Kalimantan`s orangutans (Pongo Pygmaeus), one of the endangered species included in appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), are illegally traded in the Indonesian market a year, an activist said.

"Those traded are their babies. Hunters kill their mothers in order to catch them," Arbi Valentinus of the Orangutan Conservation Service Program (OCSP), told a journalist training here on Monday.

He said that if the orangutan hunting was not stopped, the species would extinct in the next 50 years. After all, orangutan`s habitat in Kalimantan continued to decrease by about 3 sq km a year.

Law No. 5 / 1990 on Bio-diversity and Ecosystem has actually included orangutans in the list of protected species and unlicensed domestication is a violation.

"A year before the issuance of Government Regulation (PP) No. 7/1999 on Animal Stuff, a directorate general decree on the permit to raise wild animals was issued in the runup to the issuance of the PP. Sadly, the decree has yet to be scraped though the PP is already issued," he said.

He said it was believed legal sanctions were not taken against violators of species domestication so far because the PP had not yet been lifted.

Orangutan expert from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), Jito Sugardjito, said there were only four great ape species in the world, three of which were found in Africa while the other one in Indonesia and Malaysia, namely orangutans. (*)

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Galapagos damage 'must be curbed'

David Shukman, BBC News 11 Feb 09;

Famed for their unique biological treasures, the Galapagos Islands face irreversible damage unless tourism is curbed, according to conservationists.

On the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth, the director of the Darwin Foundation says there is only a decade to avoid an ecological disaster.

In a BBC interview, Gabriel Lopez calls for limits on the level of visitors. Last year, the number of tourists reached a record of 173,000, a four-fold increase over the past 20 years.

"The Galapagos is still the best preserved archipelago in the world. But what's at stake if current trends continue is that the Galapagos will be lost. Yes the Galapagos will still be there but the richness will be lost."

The rising numbers have led to a boom in the construction of hotels and a surge in imports from mainland Ecuador.

And the result is a sharp spike in the number of alien species arriving in this fragile ecosystem: 112 were recorded in 1900 but by 2007 the total had leaped to 1,321.

At the harbour in the main town of Puerto Ayora, I watched dock workers transfer crates and sacks of rice and maize from cargo ships on to barges for the journey ashore.

The airport on Baltra island, which serves the archipelago, sometimes handles half a dozen flights every day - the number has doubled in the last eight years. The aircraft cabins are sprayed before landing but evidently some insects are getting through.

One of the most aggressive is the fire ant - tiny but with a powerful sting - an example in its own right of the evolutionary principle of survival of the vicious.

Inexorable march

In a field outside the village of Bellavista, insect specialist Henri Herrera scraped away leaf litter to reveal a seething mass of the tiny red creatures.

"They're getting everywhere - it's a disaster. It could even mean that for some species the ants stop evolution."

Fire ants are known to attack baby birds and young tortoises and their march from one island to another seems inexorable.

Other threats include a parasitic fly which attacks young finches and mosquitoes - which could serve as a vector for diseases which are known to exist on the mainland but have not yet arrived here.

The government of Ecuador has drawn up an action plan to curb this menace. Criticised by the UN agency UNESCO - which in 2007 listed the Galapagos as a world heritage site in danger - the authorities are now introducing tougher measures.

The director of the Galapagos National Park, Edgar Munoz, accepts that invasive species pose the most serious risk to the islands but says the government's actions will tackle the threat.

"What we're hoping to accomplish is fifty more years in which any problems will be diminished."

Earlier conservation efforts - to cull several islands of feral goats which eat the plants giant tortoises depend on - have proved successful but some experts warn that eliminating particular insects will be far harder.

For Ecuador, a developing country, the Galapagos provides a major source of revenue. But a balance will need to found if the islands are to preserve what makes them so special.

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Ocean Advocates Slam Expanded U.S. Offshore Drilling

Deborah Zabarenko, PlanetArk 12 Feb 09;

WASHINGTON - Ocean advocates from Hollywood to North Carolina's fragile beaches on Wednesday assailed a proposed expansion of offshore oil and gas drilling along the entire U.S. East Coast and four parts of California.

"Ecosystems are disrupted top to bottom by the short and long term effects of oil," Ted Danson, actor and founder of American Oceans Campaign, told the House of Representatives Natural Resources Committee.

"More oil spills mean less abundant oceans. More oil spills mean fewer wonderful, pristine beaches. More oil spills mean fewer jobs," he said.

Danson spoke one day after U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar extended the period for public comment on the Bush administration plan to expand offshore drilling, delaying any decision until September.

The Bush plan, drawn up in the last days of that Republican administration, had called for only 60 days of comment.

Representative Nick Rahall, a Democrat who chairs the committee, said there are more drilling rigs operating in the United States than in the rest of the world.

"Anyone who implies that we are not currently going after our own resources is being misleading, perhaps a little disingenuous," he said.

TRADE-OFFS

He cited a U.S. Energy Information Administration statement saying that any effect on oil and gas prices from increased offshore drilling would be insignificant, producing roughly 200,000 barrels in additional oil per day in 2030, which is 1 percent of current U.S. consumption.

"If we are going to start drilling in new areas offshore, we have to be aware what the trade-offs are, we have to ensure that it is being done in the best interests of the American people," Rahall said.

Philippe Cousteau, grandson of legendary ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau and a board member of Ocean Conservancy, agreed with Rahall.

"If there is to be new drilling, we must at the very least legislate to ensure the process of new drill siting and the conditions applied to exploration and production minimize their impacts," Cousteau said.

Carol McCormick, who heads North Carolina's Outer Banks Visitors Bureau, told the committee: "Oil and gas development threatens coastlines, harms ecosystems and directly impacts our tourism, fishing and real estate economies ... . The well-documented socioeconomic and environmental risks outweigh the rewards."

Representative Doc Hastings, a Republican from the coastal state of Washington, cited reports that OPEC leaders plans to cut production to push up oil prices.

"We must send a message to the world that America will produce its own energy and no longer allow ourselves to be held hostage by foreign government's to high energy prices," Hastings said.

A second hearing will feature state and local officials and a third will have comment from the oil and gas industry.

(Editing by Xavier Briand)

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Biotech crops enjoying bumper growth: study

P. Parameswaran Yahoo News 11 Feb 09;

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Genetically modified crops enjoyed a bumper year in 2008, with an additional 10.7 million hectares (26.4 million acres) planted globally and growth prospects set to expand rapidly, a biotech group said Wednesday.

Some 13.3 million farmers in a record 25 countries planted 125 million hectares (309 million acres) of biotech crops last year, the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA) said in its annual report.

It reflected a 9.4 percent increase in area covered from 114.3 million hectares (282 million acres) in 2007, the group said. An additional 1.3 million farmers adopted the genetically modified technology last year.

"Future growth prospects are encouraging," ISAAA chairman Clive James and author of the study told reporters.

Citing both rich and emerging nations, he said political leaders were increasingly viewing biotech enhanced crops as "a key part of the solution to critical social issues of food security and sustainability."

By the end of the second decade of commercialization of biotech crops in 2015, ISAAA predicted that a total of 1.61 billion hectares (four billion acres) will have been planted.

With food security a key concern, biotech crops were increasing yields, which increase food availability and supply, and reducing production costs, which would also ultimately help reduce food, James said.

But biotech opponents claim these crops benefited biotech food giants instead of small farmers and the world's hungry population.

They also say that such crops have led to a jump in chemical use and failed to increase yields.

"GM crops are all about feeding biotech giants, not the world's poor," said Nnimmo Bassey, head of Friends of the Earth International, a global environment watchdog, said in a report this week that traditionally precedes the ISAAA report.

"GM seeds and the pesticides used with them are much too expensive for Africa's small farmers," he said in a statement.

GM seeds cost two to over four times as much conventional, non-biotech seeds, he said.

The rising grain prices behind the world food crisis have allowed biotech giants such as Monsanto to dramatically increase the price of GM seeds and chemicals they sell to farmers, Friends of the Earth charged.

Monsanto is the world's largest seed firm and also markets Roundup, the biggest selling herbicide.

Soybean continued to be the principal biotech crop in 2008, occupying 53 percent of global biotech area, followed by maize (30 percent), cotton (12 percent) and canola (five percent), said the ISAAA, which has been tracking global biotech crop adoption trends since the technology's inception in 1996.

It said that Egypt, Burkina Faso, Bolivia, Brazil and Australia had introduced for the first time biotech crops already commercialized in other countries.

Of the global biotech farmers in 2008, more than 90 percent or 12.3 million were small and resource-poor farmers from developing countries.

Others were large farmers from both industrialized nations such as the United States and Canada and developing countries such as Argentina and Brazil. The United States produces more than half of the world?s GM crops.

Of the small farmers, most were cotton farmers in China and India. Others were from countries such as the Philippines and South Africa.

The largest increase in the number of biotech farmers in 2008 was in India.

In Europe, while France did not plant biotech crops in 2008, seven other EU countries increased their planting 21 percent to again total more than 100,000 hectares, "a milestone reached for the first time in 2007," the ISAAA said.

It also said that the number of growers benefiting from the technology might soon "jump sharply."

Initial reports from China indicate the use of biotech cotton to control the bollworm was also suppressing the pest in other crops like maize, wheat and vegetables, allowing a potential 10 million additional growers to benefit from the technology, the ISAAA said.

But Friends of the Earth argued that "despite more than a decade of hype, the biotechnology industry has not introduced a single GM crop with increased yield, enhanced nutrition, drought-tolerance or salt-tolerance.

"Disease-resistant GM crops are practically non-existent."

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Dell expands US electronics recycling program

AFP Yahoo News 11 Feb 09;

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - Computer maker Dell on Wednesday expanded its US electronics recycling network to more states and began an online gadget trade-in program.

People can bring used computers and other electronics to Goodwill stores in 18 states, where items in decent shape are resold and devices in need of repair are either refurbished or broken down to salvage as scrap.

Goodwill trains people with disabilities or other disadvantages to test, refurbish or strip down devices.

Items not resold in Goodwill stores are broken into parts to be recycled by Dell partners at locations worldwide, according to Mike Watson, head of the firm's worldwide recycling program.

The partnership with Dell creates jobs while diverting electronic waste from landfills, according to Susanne Fredericks of Goodwill.

"Our mission is to create jobs for the people we serve," Fredericks said. "One of our big focuses is environmental. We want to handle donations in an environmentally sensitive manner."

More than 50 million pounds of electronic equipment have been recycled through Goodwill since the partnership with Dell started in Texas, according to Fredericks.

Also Wednesday, an online Dell Exchange tool is going live, letting people easily calculate trade-in value of used electronics, regardless of the brand, and ship them to redeem Dell gift cards.

"This is something our customers are asking for," Watson said. "It makes sense. It's the right thing to do and we are committed to the full life cycle of our products."

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Merged Climate, Pollution Fight Seen Saving Cash

Alister Doyle, PlanetArk 12 Feb 09;

OSLO - Merging separate fights against air pollution and climate change could save cash and encourage developing nations such as China to do more to curb global warming, researchers said Wednesday.

"There are big gains to be made" from a combined policy, said Petter Tollefsen, a researcher at the Center for International Climate and Environmental Research, Oslo (CICERO).

The European Union alone could make efficiency gains of 2.8 billion euros ($3.62 billion) a year by 2020 by combining assaults on air pollution and climate change, according to a CICERO study.

Air pollution and climate change are governed by separate international treaties even though some of the gases, such as nitrogen oxides or methane, are both air pollutants and greenhouse gases.

Measures to limit air pollution from fossil fuels can save billions of dollars a year, for instance in lower hospital bills for treating lung disease. Air pollution can also stunt crops.

The curbs can also be part of a longer-term drive to rein in emissions of greenhouse gases blamed by the U.N. Climate Panel for spurring warming set to cause ever more floods, droughts, heatwaves and rising seas.

Developing nations such as China and India might do more to fight climate change if it were viewed as a spinoff of a drive to protect public health and food supplies, CICERO said.

CHINA

"China's priority is to control air pollution," said Kristin Aunan, a researcher at CICERO. "The cost of a climate policy is not as high as perhaps the Chinese government perceives. In China, climate policy is treated as foreign affairs, it's not integrated into environmental policy."

China, which some studies show has overtaken the United States as top greenhouse gas emitter, argues that rich nations have to take the lead on fighting global warming.

About 190 countries have agreed to work out a successor to the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol, the main accord for fighting global warming, by the end of 2009. Air pollution is governed by deals such as Europe's 1999 Gothenburg Protocol.

The U.N. Climate Panel in a report in 2007 also said there were efficiency gains to be made.

"Integrating air pollution abatement and climate change mitigation policies offer potentially large cost reductions compared to treating those policies in isolation," it said.

CICERO said little had happened since then.

Many countries are wary of adding a new layer of complexity to negotiations on a new climate accord that is meant to widen the Kyoto Protocol to all nations. Kyoto binds 37 industrialized nations to cut emissions by 2012.

One complicating factor is that some types of air pollution can curb global warming. Some particles emitted by burning fossil fuels reflect sunlight back into space, cooling the planet.

(Editing by Janet Lawrence)

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Nicholas Stern: green investments needed

Nicholas Stern: Spend billions on green investments now to reverse economic downturn and halt climate change

Leading economists – including Nicholas Stern – call for immediate £277bn global fund to generate clean power, insulate homes and create jobs

David Adam, guardian.co.uk 11 Feb 09;

Governments across the world must commit to hundreds of billions of pounds in green investments within months in a combined attack on the global economic crisis and global warming, according to leading economists including Nicholas Stern.

The team says some $400bn (£277bn) should be channelled to support low-carbon technologies such as home insulation and renewable energy. Given the urgency of both the economic and climate crises, it wants the green investment made by this summer and to total 20% of the £1.4tn likely to be spent globally as fiscal stimulus.

Lord Stern, the former Treasury economist and now chair of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, said: "With billions about to be spent by governments on energy, buildings and transport, it is vital that these public investments do not lock us for many more decades into a costly and unsustainable high-carbon economy."

A report published today, written by many of the team that prepared the influential 2006 Stern Review on the economics of climate change, says politicians should not delay plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions because of the global slowdown. Instead, action to tackle climate change could form a central part of fiscal packages to stimulate national economies.

Lord Stern said: "The rich industrialised countries need to show leadership this year by committing to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80% by 2050, compared with 1990, and their economic recovery plans need to be consistent with this target."

The report assesses the likely success of investment in a variety of green policies. It says the most effective of these could be energy efficiency measures for homes and public buildlings, boiler replacement programmes, efforts to fit cleaner appliances and lights, and a switch to renewable sources of heat, such as biomass. It also calls for greater investment in energy research and development, streamlined planning to promote renewable energy projects such as wind farms, and moves to encourage less polluting vehicles by adjusting car tax bands. One of the most cost-effective measures to reduce emissions, it says, is to encourage simple checks on tyre pressure. A green stimulus could provide a boost to the economy, increase the demand for labour and build the foundations for strong, sustainable growth in the future, the report says.

Alex Bowen of the Grantham Institute and formerly of the Bank of England, who is lead author on the report, said: "Our assessment shows that $400bn spent globally in the next 18 months on green policies and investments, such as smarter use of electricity, will help us to deal with current economic crisis, create jobs and help tackle climate change."

The report said action on cutting emissions remained urgent and putting off cuts would increase the risks of global warming. But convincing people of the importance of a comprehensive framework to cut emissions could unleash a "wave of creativity and innovation in greening the economy" and a better foundation for economic growth than the dot.com boom or the housing bubble.

Dimitri Zenghelis, a senior visiting fellow at the Grantham Institute who helped write the report, said: "It is clear that green investments are not luxury items that should be put off until after the current economic crisis is over. Our assessment shows that many of these measures fit the criteria for stimulating recovery, and we hope that governments will judge their merits in the same way that we have."

A call for a "green new deal" will also made this evening by Lord Chris Smith, the chairman of the government's environmental watchdog, the Environment Agency. In his first major speech, he will say national politics in the UK had "lost the ability to be bold" but that a moment of crisis was precisely the time for action.

He will add: "2009 could, I believe, be the year when we radically change some of our economic and social habits, and make a historic shift towards a more sustainable pattern of human activity."

He will also call for all electricity to be generated carbon-free by 2030, including by building a new generation of nuclear plants, and say it was a "tragedy" that the UK had to date failed to seize the business opportunities offered by wind and solar power. He will also say the UK should become a world leader in carbon capture and storage technology, which allows the burial of carbon dioxide from fossil fuel power stations.

Further support for a green new deal is expected on Monday in a new report from the United Nations Environment Programme.

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