UNEP launches new online system to view and study the world's marine protected areas

UNEP 8 Jun 09;
UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre in Cambridge, UK

8 June 2009, Cambridge – At a time when the world's oceans are facing unprecedented pressures from human impacts in the marine environment, a new decision-making tool is being launched to provide the most current and relevant information about marine and coastal biodiversity and its protection status.

This marine protected areas tool (www.wdpa-marine.org), created by the United Nations Environment Programme's World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), is part of the recently redeveloped World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA) – the authoritative and most globally comprehensive list of marine and terrestrial protected areas.

"Marine protected areas are critical to the future of the oceans and they will ensure that the ecosystem services on which millions of people around the world rely for their livelihoods and existence will be maintained," explained Kristian Teleki, Head of the One Ocean Programme and Director of the International Coral Reef Action Network (ICRAN) at UNEP-WCMC.

"Without Marine Protected Areas and the efforts of governments, conservation organisations and communities around the world to manage and conserve the marine environment, the future of the oceans and the diversity of life contained within them will be jeopardized."

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are locations which receive protection because of their environmental, scenic or socio-economic value. Although some countries have marine protected areas, these vary considerably in size and designation from country to country, depending on national needs and priorities, and on differences in legislative, institutional and financial support.

MPAs cover different marine and coastal environments from shallow coastal waters to the deepest sea, from polar oceans to tropical seas and often span national boundaries. When combined with other conservation measures such as spatial planning and ecosystem-based management, these areas can be very effective.

Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), said: "Currently somewhere around 12 per cent of the land is held in protected areas, but less than one per cent of the marine environment has been given such status - so this needs to change, and to change fast too. It is our hope that the WDPA-Marine will help nations redress this imbalance and that in the next decade we will have achieved significant progress in protecting the seas through MPAs."

The WDPA-Marine serves as the data source for the marine protected area layer of Google Ocean through UNEP-WCMC's partnership with IUCN and the marine theme of IUCN's World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA).

"Obtaining and promoting accurate information on marine protected areas is a top priority. I am therefore delighted on World Oceans Day that we are launching WDPA – Marine as another critical tool alongside Protect Planet Ocean and Google Ocean to show the world how much of our seas are protected," said Dan Laffoley, Chair of IUCN's WCPA – Marine. "These new innovative approaches show everyone the urgent need for governments and all of us to radically scale up MPA networks as well as the ambition and effectiveness by which we manage marine resources."

As one of the foremost repositories of information on marine protected areas, WDPA-Marine is intended to help managers and decision makers to better understand the nature of the marine environment where human activity is regulated or restricted in order to maintain the integrity and biodiversity of the ecosystem. It is the culmination of contributions from many governments, regional partnerships, NGOs, and academicians who have participated greatly in the development and improved quality and quantity of MPA data over the past decades.

This new system allows users to view information on marine protected areas in their web browser, to visualise them in Google Earth, to download data, to bring together other important data like species and ecosystem information into the same portal and more.

The WDPA-Marine "has been designed with marine protected area practitioners, stakeholders and policy makers within conservation organisations, governments, UN agencies and multinational environmental agreements in mind," Teleki said.

UNEP-WCMC Director Jon Hutton added, "The most important element of this project is that it allows the "repatriation" of critically important biodiversity information to coastal nations which may not have their own systems. I look forward to working with many of them as they develop their capacity based around this data, which is being made freely available for the first time."

The WDPA-Marine comes as nations, communities and people around the globe mark World Oceans Day - a day designated by the United Nations to raise awareness of the current challenges faced by the international community in connection with the oceans and to seek solutions such as those offered through the establishment of marine protected areas.

Notes to editors

This press release is available in English, French, and Spanish.

The WDPA-Marine can be accessed online at www.wdpa-marine.org

Originally established in 1981 by the IUCN and containing more than 150,000 records, the World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA) provides the only comprehensive global inventory of the world's protected areas. Incorporating the official UN List of Protected Areas, this database is a key conservation resource, not only within the biodiversity community, but also for commercial organizations striving to minimize the impact of their activities on the environment.

The WDPA - Marine is supported by the public-private partnership – Proteus ( http://proteus.unep-wcmc.org ). Launched in 2003, this innovative partnership was created to make biodiversity information more freely available to the world and since 2006 has focused on rebuilding the WDPA and improving its quality in priority areas. The WDPA is a 'foundation' dataset for conservation activity worldwide, and central to high-level risk assessment for private sector activities that have a footprint on the natural world. The information it provides is strategic for private sector decision-making to meet their sustainability and corporate responsibility commitments.

The objectives of the WDPA-Marine are to provide:

• the most up-to-date and comprehensive information for the analysis of marine protected areas as well as marine and coastal ecosystems;

• the basis of the UN Millennium Development Goals and 2010 Biodiversity Indicators Partnership information on marine protection;

• the best source of information on marine protection (throughout the world/at national and regional levels);

• the most up-to-date spatial marine protected areas and marine and coastal ecosystems information available free of charge to view and download for non-commercial use;

• the platform where marine protected areas spatial data is uploaded into the United Nations List of Protected Areas;

• a official repository and back-up system for government data on marine protected areas; and

• the foundation database for tools dealing with high-level risks associated with the development of the marine environment.

MPA and Ocean Statistics:

There are just over 5,000 marine protected areas covering more than 3.1 million sq. km (<1% earth's surface), compared to more than 115,000 terrestrial protected areas which cover 18 million sq. Km (11.9% earth's surface).

The smallest MPA is Echo Bay Provincial Park in Canada with a documented area of 0.4 ha and the largest MPA is the Phoenix Islands Protected Area in Kiribati with a documented area of 41,050,000 ha.

The average nationally designated MPA size is 55,278.465 ha.

The oldest designated MPA is the San Juan County/Cyprus Island Marine Biological Preserve in the United States which was designated in 1923.

52 per cent of the 441 global fishing stocks through the world are fully exploited, 17 per cent of these fishing stocks are over exploited and 7 per cent are depleted (Review of the state of world marine fishery resources (2005). FAO Fisheries Technical Paper . No. 457. Rome, FAO. 235p.);

90 per cent of big fish are gone (Myers, R. & Worm, B. (2003). Rapid worldwide depletion of predatory fish communities. Nature 423: 280-283);

By 2025 the world's coastal populations are expected to reach 6 billion people (UNEP (2007). Global Environmental Outlook – 4. United Nations Environment Programme. 540p.);

By 2050 it is estimated that 91 per cent of the world's coastlines will be impacted by human development (Sale, P.F., M.J. Butler IV, A.J. Hooten, J.P. Kritzer, K.C. Lindeman, Y. J. Sadovy de Mitcheson, R.S. Steneck, and H. van Lavieren, 2008. Stemming Decline of the Coastal Ocean: Rethinking Environmental Management, UNU-INWEH, Hamilton, Canada);

80 per cent of ocean pollution originates from land-based activities (Nellemann, C. and Corcoran, E. (Eds). 2006. Our precious coasts – Marine pollution, climate change and the resilience of coastal ecosystems. United Nations Environment Programme, GRID-Arendal, Norway, www.grida.no);

Outside of Europe and North America, more than 80 per cent of sewage enters the ocean untreated (Sale, P.F., M.J. Butler IV, A.J. Hooten, J.P. Kritzer, K.C. Lindeman, Y. J. Sadovy de Mitcheson, R.S. Steneck, and H. van Lavieren, 2008. Stemming Decline of the Coastal Ocean: Rethinking Environmental Management, UNU-INWEH, Hamilton, Canada);

Certain parts of the ocean contain almost 1 million plastic particles per square kilometre (Greenpeace (2006). Plastic Debris in the World's Oceans. Greenpeace International, Amsterdam, Netherlands. www.oceans.greenpeace.org ).

About UNEP

The United Nations Environment Programme, established in 1972, is the voice for the environment within the United Nations system. UNEP acts as a catalyst, advocate, educator and facilitator to promote the wise use and sustainable development of the global environment. To accomplish this, UNEP works with a wide range of partners, including United Nations entities, international organisations, national governments non-governmental organisations, the private sector and civil society.

About UNEP-WCMC

The UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre is the biodiversity assessment and biodiversity policy support arm of the United Nations Environment Programme, the world's foremost intergovernmental environmental organization. The Centre has been in operation for over 25 years, providing objective, scientifically rigorous products and services to help decision makers recognize the value of biodiversity and apply this knowledge to all that they do. The Centre's core business is locating data about biodiversity and its conservation, interpreting and analysing that data to provide assessments and policy analysis, and making the results available to both national and international decision makers and businesses.

About the World Commission of Protected Areas – Marine

WCPA – Marine is the world's premier network of Marine Protected Area (MPA) expertise and is the driving force behind the recently launched MPA initiative Protect Planet Ocean (www.protectplanetocean.org). The mission of WCPA-Marine is 'to promote the establishment of a global, representative system of effectively managed and lasting networks of MPAs'. As part of the World Commission on Protected Areas it works in partnership with IUCN's Global Programme on Protected Areas and IUCN's Global Marine programme, and has members in many of the countries of the world that border an ocean or sea.

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Best of our wild blogs: 8 Jun 09

The naked bulldog bat, Cheiromeles torquatus in Singapore
latest on Nature in Singapore on the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research website

At Tanah Merah
on the Half a Bunny and the Salmon of Doubt blog and the wild shores of singapore blog and annotated budak blog and the lazy lizard tales blog

Hantu underwater world
on the wonderful creation blog and the discovery blog

In One "Nudited" Voice We Say ...
a colourful celebration on the colourful clouds blog

Blogging for nature with SPROUT
on the wild shores of singapore blog and Can you sea me? blog

Cat Welfare Society at the Singapore Animal Welfare Symposium
on the Midnight Monkey Monitor blog

Changi Tree sculptures at zoo entrance
on the Otterman speaks blog

Lesser Coucal on the railing, drying its wings
on the Otterman speaks blog

Butt we're in love
on the annotated budak blog and this neck of the woods and crab, it's monday

Rufous-tailed Tailorbird takes a leaf bath
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog

Black-and-red Broadbill and a mosquito
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog

Monday Morgue: 8th June 2009
on the Lazy Lizard's Tales blog

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Getting down to 'monkey business'

Grant for Singapore-based students, researchers to research primates
Grace Chua, Straits Times 8 Jun 09;

A MONKEY scampered up to a woman at the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve and snatched the sandwich right out of her hand. She shrieked and backed away.

'Did you see that?' asked primate researcher Michael Gumert, who has been observing the troop of long-tailed macaques roaming the park.

Such incidents are a perennial problem for park visitors; those who live nearby have even had food stolen from their kitchens.

In answer to the call by scientists and conservationists for more research into local monkey populations in order to understand their behaviour, a new research grant programme has been launched.

The Primate Research Initiative, unveiled yesterday, is funded by a conservation group, the Jane Goodall Institute (Singapore).

Dr Goodall, an eminent conservationist and chimpanzee researcher, said yesterday that the initiative will help conservation, and, it is hoped, will 'set some young people on a career in research'.

The grants for primate-related research projects will be between $1,000 and $5,000.

Singapore-based students, post-doctoral fellows and other researchers are invited to apply for these from the third quarter of this year.

Dr Gumert of Nanyang Technological University's psychology division, has, with Mr John Sha, formerly of the National Parks Board, added to the body of knowledge on the long-tailed macaques here; they have had two papers published, one in the American Journal of Primatology and the other in Biodiversity & Conservation.

The team found, for instance, that the island has 1,500 macaques - not a particularly large population - but because these primates live along forest edges, they are especially visible.

'People think there are lots of monkeys based on the number of sightings rather than actual population count,' he said.

He also found that two in three close encounters between macaques and humans took place when the human was carrying food or something that looked like food; another one-quarter of incidents happened when someone provoked the animal.

But despite the fear or irritation these incidents cause, more than 430 out of 500 people polled here think it is important to protect the animals.

Programmes like the Primate Research Initiative are important as much remains to be found out about the animals' behaviour, Dr Gumert said.

'Even the best primatologists may know just 40 to 50 per cent of why the animals do what they do,' he added.

So far, he and his students have studied a particular troop of about 55 animals.

He would like to find out how individuals' ranks in the group, their blood ties and facial 'attractiveness' shape their social behaviour.

He believes that his study of Thai macaques using stones to crack open clams and snails may shed light on how prehistoric humans came to use tools.

Teaching visitors a trick or two about primates
Straits Times 8 Jun 09;

TWO years ago, a long-tailed macaque leapt through Jessica Chan's window and pinched her acne cream.

Rather than set a trap for 'Curious George', the Raffles Girls' School (Secondary) student and her schoolmates embarked on a mission to understand why people run into conflict with monkeys.

Their project, Monkey Business, started with a poll of park visitors' attitudes towards Singapore's 1,500 long-tailed macaques.

The conclusion was unsurprising: Many people viewed them as pests.

But what they learnt by working with Nanyang Technological University primate researcher Michael Gumert was surprising: For example, what people perceive as a snarl by a macaque is actually a 'grin' - of fear. Also, much of the human-macaque conflict can be prevented by not feeding the animals.

So the girls trained student volunteers to educate visitors about monkey behaviour, and sold T-shirts, postcards and pins to raise awareness and funds.

The project has been successful.

Team member Emily Loh said: 'Sometimes, we meet visitors whom we had talked to earlier, and it's very encouraging when they recognise us and tell us they have not been feeding or going too near the monkeys.'

Soon, 'do not feed the monkeys' signs in cartoon form designed by the girls will go up in parks, and an illustrated children's book they produced will be distributed to libraries and schools.

Last Saturday, the students manned a booth at a National Parks Board roadshow in Tampines, speaking to visitors about macaques.

Last year, besides funding from the National Youth Council and the Lee Foundation, the girls received $1,000 in an 'Animal Protectors Grant' from the Animal Concerns Research and Education Society, an animal welfare group.

The grant supports projects with a 'positive impact' on animal welfare here. Also among last year's eight grant recipients was a group which ran a cat sterilise-and-release programme in East Coast Park.

Anyone can apply for the grant, capped at $1,500 a project. The application deadline is July 31. Log on to www.animalwelfare.sg/grants.html

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MOH probe into malaria hot spots

Straits Times 8 Jun 09;

THE Health Ministry (MOH) is investigating two clusters of malaria transmission on Jurong Island and in the Sungei Kadut/Mandai area.

A total of 14 people, all but one of whom are foreign workers, fell ill last month and were found to have malaria. One full-time national serviceman was also among the clusters. Twelve of them have been discharged as of last Saturday.

All 14 patients, aged between 20 and 40, had no recent travel history, leading the MOH to suspect that there is local malaria transmission in the areas.

Malaria, like dengue fever, is a mosquito-borne disease. It is spread by the Anopheles mosquito.

The National Environment Agency (NEA) has inspected the worksites, dormitories and its surrounding areas. The agency is conducting adult-mosquito trapping and search-and-destroy operations. NEA has also asked the dormitory operators to carry out measures to rid the area of mosquitoes.

The last local malaria cases were in 2007 when there were also two clusters - one involving three NS men and the other involving two Redhill residents.

First H1N1, now malaria
Today Online 8 Jun 09;

IF THE battle against Influenza A (H1N1) was not bad enough, now there are suspected malaria clusters to contend with - one on Jurong Island and the other in the Sungei Kadut-Mandai area.

The Ministry of Health (MOH) and National Environment Agency (NEA) said in a joint statement they are investigating the two clusters of suspected local transmission involving 14 people.

“All 14 cases had no recent travel history overseas, suggesting that there is possible local transmission in the affected areas,” they said. As of yesterday, all but one of the 14 had been discharged.

The Jurong Island cluster involves five cases comprising male foreign workers aged 25 to 37. They reportedly had the onset of illness between May 3 and 25, with symptoms such as fever, headache and chills.

Four of the infected individuals work at the same site and stay in the same dormitory on the island. The fifth person works on the island close to the dormitory and worksite of the other four.

The cluster in the Sungei Kadut-Mandai area involves nine people aged between 20 and 40 and includes eight foreign workers in different dormitories and one full-time national serviceman. They started experiencing the symptoms between May 16 and 30.

The NEA has conducted inspections at the worksites and dormitories of the workers and its surrounding areas.

Adult mosquito trapping and search and destroy operations are continuing. The agency has directed the dormitory operators and their pest controllers to carry out residual spraying to all blocks, night thermal fogging and adult light trapping.

Asked why the public was only informed now about the suspected outbreak, a Health Ministry spokeswoman explained: “It takes time for the epidemiological investigations to be done. The cases were also spread out over a few weeks.”

In their advisory, MOH and NEA said the best way to prevent malaria is to take precautionary measures against mosquitoes and prevent their breeding.

Persons diagnosed with illness should be isolated so as to reduce the risk of further mosquito bites and transmission of the virus.

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Five Fewer Tigers in the Wild

WWF 3 Jun 09;

Friday was a black day in Malaysia’s fight to save her wild tigers.

While the seizure of five tiger skins from smugglers near the Malaysia-Thailand border is testament to greater enforcement, the find has also delivered a grievous blow to Malaysia’s dwindling population of wild tigers.

With five confiscated skins in this one seizure, the official annual figure of tiger poaching has jumped by 500%, and this does not include the seizure of four tiger carcasses in northern Thailand earlier this year, which were believed to have been smuggled out of Malaysia.

The vigilance of the Anti-Smuggling Unit officers prevented the smugglers from slipping their illicit haul of skins through the Malaysian-Thailand border and into the illegal trade in tigers and their parts.

Though the skins did not reach the end buyer in this instance, these tigers are lost forever to our forests and the rest of the tigers’ parts; their meat, bones and skulls - may have found their way into those buyers’ hands by now.

The enforcement agencies may have won this battle but the war is still being won by smugglers seeking to strip our forests of wildlife, for profit.

Simply put, there are more smugglers than enforcement agents and they are taking full advantage of this situation.

Law enforcers sorely need more financial support, particularly for on-the-ground patrolling, in and around protected areas, and there must be greater co-ordination between the Police, Customs, Anti-Smuggling Unit and Wildlife Department each of whom are doing good work, but individually.

And when wildlife poachers and traders are caught, they should know that they will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, especially in this case where one poacher tried to pass himself off as a Thai policeman.

As it stands, taking a tiger or any part of a tiger is an offence under the Protection of Wildlife Act 1972. This allows for a maximum fine of RM15,000, a jail term of up to five years or both – paltry compared to the fortune awaiting the smuggler when his illegal haul is finally sold.

MYCAT is aware that this law is being amended and that other more stringent regulations are being finalized but this process must be hastened; so too must the implementation of the National Tiger Action Plan for Malaysia, which aims to have 1,000 wild tigers thriving in our forests by 2010.

With five dead tigers being found in this one seizure, the need for speed has never been greater.


MYCAT appeals to the Wildlife and National Parks Department to investigate the origin of these tigers. The seemingly undamaged skins–clear of snare marks and bullet holes – raises many troubling questions about how some smugglers now operate.

MYCAT also appeals to the Judiciary to impose the maximum sentence to illustrate to the World that Malaysia is doing all she can to protect tigers in the wild.

Saving the Malayan tiger is not only the responsibility of the authorities and a handful of NGOs under the Malaysian Conservation Alliance for Tigers.

We urgently need support from the public. If you have any information regarding poaching or smuggling of endangered wildlife, please notify the Wildlife and National Parks Department or sms the 24-hour Wildlife Crime Hotline at 019-356-4194.

The line is managed by the Malaysian Conservation Alliance for Tigers (MYCAT), which relays the information to relevant authorities and always respects the anonymity of callers.

If this tragic loss teaches us anything, it is that inaction and complacency are no longer viable options.

We are risking emptying forests of tigers to the extent that in the future the only places where Malaysians will be able to see their national animal will be in a zoo or on the Country’s crest.


Malaysian Nature Society
TRAFFIC Southeast Asia
Wildlife Conservation Society
WWF-Malaysia

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A world-first coral rescue for Nakheel

Nic Ridley, Business 24/7 5 Jun 09;

Even for a builder of Palm islands, the task of moving Dubai's biggest coral reef away from the effects of future development would raise more than a few problems for Nakheel.

The reef had been discovered at Dubai Dry Docks' breakwater, a site that had been chosen as a land-base for firms building on The World archipelago.

Experts quickly dismissed traditional methods of moving coral as too damaging to the fragile marine creatures

So scientists and engineers hatched a plan, believed to be a world-first, which involved moving more than 1,100 coral-encrusted rocks, each weighing about five tonnes.

But they had to be removed, lifted, and transported by barge without them ever leaving the water.

Now, Nakheel said the painstaking process, which took five weeks, has been a success and the coral was thriving at its new home, coincidentally on The World's breakwater.

"Traditionally, when coral is moved it is chiselled or drilled from rocks, placed in baskets and shipped to a new location," said Brendan Jack, Head of Sustainability and Environment for Nakheel Northern Projects.

"That wasn't open to us because each of the rocks was encased in coral, so we went back to the drawing board to find an engineering solution. This operation took considerable time and effort and, importantly, money and illustrates the extent to which Nakheel takes seriously its environmental management responsibilities.

"Nothing like this has ever been attempted before and we are very pleased with the outcome."

Typically, up to 30 per cent of coral dies when traditional relocation techniques are used. Seven per cent of coral died during Nakheel's operation.

Details of the relocation were kept under wraps for more than a year to ensure its success. It has been announced now to coincide with World Environment Day today.

Independent scientific study of the coral is continuing. A scientific peer-reviewed research paper will be published once the study is complete in the coming months.

The reef was discovered when an environmental assessment was carried out by Nakheel, consultants GHD and scientists on the 25-year-old breakwater.

Marine biologist John Burt, Assistant Professor at Zayed University, was brought on board as an independent expert and regularly visits the site to check on the progress of the coral.

He said: "What we found [in the initial assessment] was the biggest coral reef in Dubai and an area of extreme importance. Because of the conditions in the Gulf – where the water temperature can reach 35C and drop to 15C – coral has difficulty establishing itself.

"However, it has learned to adapt and we believed it was important to do everything we could to protect this reef.

"We could not take all of the coral. In some places the water was too shallow for the crane so the rocks had to be left. I believe once development around the Dry Docks breakwater begins the remaining coral has no chance of survival."

The operation involved engineers and divers drilling an iron bolt into each of the rocks and attaching a sling to hoist them from their resting place.

The rocks were not raised out of the water to ensure the delicate coral did not suffer from further, potentially fatal, stress. Instead each rock was attached by its sling to mountings welded to the deck of a 90-metre barge and left hanging in the water.

Once 20 were attached, the barge motored at no more than two knots (3.7kph) for more than 15km to the breakwater of The World where the rocks were carefully lowered into place.

The process was repeated for 49 days until 1,129 rocks were relocated. The total area now covered by coral at The World is 6,560sq m. Nakheel has asked the precise location of the new reef is not disclosed to avoid commercial and recreational fishing.

However, once the new coral colony is firmly established it could become a recognised dive site.

A Nakheel spokesman said:?"Initial observations show the project has been extremely successful with damage kept to a minimum, as indicated by a lack of breakage and stress.

"As the coral continues to thrive the waters around The World will see an increase in coral cover and diversity in the long term and will also attract reef-associated fish.

"A number of the dominant corals, now at The World, are 'broadcast spawners' and their reproductive activities could result in the development of coral on nearby rocks."

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A lesson from the Netherlands

Keith Magill houmatoday.com 7 Jun 09

U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu just got back from the Netherlands with a familiar message: Louisiana ought to model its hurricane protection efforts after theirs.

“The Dutch are teaching us that we do not have to retreat from the water,” Landrieu told The Courier in a story published Saturday. “They are taking land back from the water.”

It’s the same message Landrieu and others returned with after their first trip to the European nation, whose flood-protection system is considered by many to be the best in the world.

But a story published in December by Wired magazine indicates that incorporating the Netherlands’ aggressive, and expensive, fight against the sea will not be done easily here in Louisiana or anywhere in America.

The Dec. 22 story, written by David Wolman, is called “Before the Levees Break: A Plan to Save the Netherlands.” Here are some of the lessons I gleaned from it, along with some of my own observations:

n The Netherlands spends a massive percentage of its resources — 65 percent of its gross domestic product — on flood protection. This unprecedented dedication to controlling the North Sea, which now costs the country $450 billion a year, came after a 1953 flood that killed more than 1,800 people and inundated much of the nation, threatening to wipe it out of existence.

I’d like to see it happen, but can’t imagine the United States, or even Louisiana putting that much of its resources into saving the state’s coast. Louisiana might not need that much of any investment to save its coastal communities from inundation. But it will take federal money, and though billions in oil revenue are on their way, almost everyone acknowledges that it won’t be enough.

n The technology the Dutch use to prevent flooding makes our levees look like children’s mud pies. Check this column online for a link that will let you see for yourself.

As Landrieu noted, the Dutch protect against a flood that has a statistical change of occurring once every 10,000 years. In Louisiana, we’d be happy with levees that protected us against a 100-year flood.

Statisticians say that over the course of a 30-year mortgage, the chance of a 100-year flood hitting your home is more than 25 percent, Wired reports.

We need to think bigger.

n So, why don’t we just do what the Dutch do? As Wired notes, the obstacles are formidable.

Mathijs Van Ledden, a Dutch engineer, has run wave and water models for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to help determine the necessary height of new defenses in New Orleans. He told Wired that 1,000-year protection is economically justifiable in some areas.

And that leads to perhaps the biggest obstacle of all — it’s not cost effective to save everyone. We’ve learned that here, as local advocates and politicians seek to justify the federal investment it will take to save us by citing the billions of dollars worth of oil and gas and fish we produce for the nation, as well as the more than 2 million people who live and work along Louisiana’s coast. Those pleas, as we know, continue to go nowhere in Washington.

“American politicians could never get away with basing flood barrier specs on the value of what sits behind them,” Wired writes. “Ratcheting up defense levels in New Orleans to match those in the Netherlands would lead other areas of the Gulf Coast to demand equal treatment. And what about earthquake zones in California, floodplains in Iowa and Missouri, or blizzard territory in New England? Should similar standards be applied there?”

The problem is already being exacerbated as residents in communities across the U.S. coast have begun paying the same skyrocketing prices to insure their homes and businesses against hurricanes and floods that we do. Add the specter of global warming and rising sea levels, and you have hundreds of communities, some of them major metropolises, competing for money to save themselves. Who do you think will win?

“Van Ledden says many Dutch citizens may not know it, but their government has accepted — even legislated — unequal protection, or what engineers euphemistically call ‘differentiation,’ ” Wired wrote. “Everyone knows that all places can’t be protected up to the same standard; individual cost must be balanced against collective cost, he says.

“The U.S. certainly has variable protection levels throughout the country, but there’s a difference between de facto disparity and an explicit government policy of inequality. Imagine if Congress or the Army Corps were to recommend protecting the French Quarter and downtown New Orleans at the 10,000-year level while giving less economically productive areas such as St. Bernard Parish only a 100-year level of protection. Applying the Dutch model of risk-based design would be a political nonstarter, if not unconstitutional, and the efforts of the Army Corps of Engineers would in no time be halted by an army of lawyers.”

Replace “St. Bernard” in the above paragraph with “Terrebonne” or “Lafourche,” and you start to get the picture.

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Indonesia's fishery exports to EU need certification by January

The Jakarta Post 8 Jun 09;

The EU requires all fishery imports from Indonesia to be certificated from January 2010 as part of its sustainable fisheries policy, to curb illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.

The Directorate General for Distribution of Fishery Products said in a published statement Sunday that the certification applies to all fishery products except fish from fresh water farming, aquariums, shellfish, seaweed, scallops, oysters and some other specific items.

"The new regulation *concerning the EU certification requirements*correlates with the EU's reputation as the best in implementing a high quality of fish in relation to sustainable fisheries," said spokesperson for the director general, Soen'an H. Poernomo. He was confirming that there would be a new regulatory framework to ensure certification standards could be met.

Soen'an said the new certificate must be filled in by local exporters who already had an "approval number" and details should be filed with competent local authorities to complete the validation process.

"This would mean that all exported fishery products are produced from fishing activities that comply with all existing best practices in fishery management and conservation," he said.

The certification would also take account of variables such as the period needed for shipment from Indonesia to Europe and how long the fishery products stayed in cold storage during shipment, Soen'an said.

The standards for certification, however, will be less demanding for small scale fishery businesses.

"The European Commission has accepted the simplification of the certification for small scale fishery businesses as proposed by a team from the EU Directorate General for Maritime and Fisheries," Soen'an said.

The European Commission's definition of small scale fisheries are based on the following :- fishing with a boat no longer than 12 meters and without using towing gear, or fishing with a boat up to eight meters in length but is equipped with towing gear with a capacity of less than 20 gross tons.

"Hence all small scale fishermen does not have to fill in the certification form. This simplification will be translated into the implementing rules to be issued by the European Commission in July," he said.

Any violation of certification requirements would result in a notification from the European Commission to local authorities. Should no further steps be taken by the local authorities, the Commission would list the related exporter in the EC -IUU Vessel List (of illegal, unreported or unregulated suppliers).

All shipments from companies so listed would be automatically rejected from entering the 27 nation EU.

Any exporting countries that disregarded the notification would be listed in the "non-cooperating countries" category, which would result in a trading ban of all fishery products from that country.

"It could also result in the termination of fishery products trade cooperation between the European Union and the country," he said.

The Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries targets 9 percent growth in the value of fish products to be exported this year, amounting to US$2.8 billion. This target is slower than the growth from 2007 to 2008.

The US, EU and Japan are still the biggest importers of Indonesian fishery products, taking between them a total of 65 to 70 percent of all Indonesian exports, followed by East Asia (Taiwan, Korea, China, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia) contributing a total of about 24 percent.

Indonesia's main fisheries products are shrimps and tuna fish. Last year, shrimp exports contributed $1.2 billion or almost 50 percent out of the value of total fisheries exports, which reached $2.56 billion.

Read more!

Jellyfish threaten to 'dominate' oceans

Anna Salleh, ABC 8 Jun 09;

Giant jelly fish are taking over parts of the world's oceans due to overfishing and other human activities, say researchers.

Dr Anthony Richardson of CSIRO Marine & Atmospheric Research and colleagues, report their findings in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution."We need to take management action to avert the marine systems of the world flipping over to being jellyfish dominated," says Richardson, who is also a marine biologist at the University of Queensland.

Richardson says jellyfish numbers are increasing, particularly in Southeast Asia, the Black Sea, the Gulf of Mexico and the North Sea.

He says the Japanese have a real problem with giant jellyfish that burst through fishing nets.

"[They're] a jelly fish called Nomura, which is the biggest jellyfish in the world. It can weigh 200 kilograms, as big as a sumo wrestler and is 2 metres in diameter," says Richardson.
Overfishing and eutrophication

Richardson and colleagues reviewed literature linking jellyfish blooms with overfishing and eutrophication - high levels of nutrients.

Jellyfish are normally kept in check by fish, which eat small jellyfish and compete for jellyfish food such as zooplankton, he says.

But, with overfishing, jellyfish numbers are increasing. Jellyfish feed on fish eggs and larvae, further impacting on fish numbers.

To add insult to injury, nitrogen and phosphorous in run-off cause red phytoplankton blooms, which create low-oxygen dead zones where jellyfish survive, but fish can't.

"You can think of them like a protected area for jellyfish," says Richardson.

Richardson and colleagues say climate change may also encourage more jellyfish.

They have postulated for the first time that these conditions can lead to what they call a "jellyfish stable state", in which jellyfish rule the oceans.
Action

Richardson and colleagues recommend a number of actions in their paper, to coincide with World Oceans Day.

They say it's important to reduce overfishing, especially of small pelagic fish, like sardines, and to reduce run-off.

They also say it's important to control the transport of jellyfish around the world in ballast water and aquariums.

Richardson says researchers are experimenting with different ways of controlling jellyfish.

Some methods involve sound waves to explode jellyfish, while others use special nets to try and cut them up.
Simple animals

Jellyfish are considered simple jelly-like sea animals, which are related to the microscopic animals that form coral.

They generally start their life as a plant-like polyp on the sea bed before budding off into the well-known bell-shaped medusa.

Jellyfish have tentacles containing pneumatocyst cells, which act like little harpoons that lodge in prey to sting and kill them.

The location and number of pneumatocysts dictate whether jellyfish are processed for human consumption.

While dried jellyfish with soya sauce is a delicacy served in Chinese weddings and banquets, not all kinds of jellyfish can be eaten, says Richardson.

According to Richardson, the species increasing in number aren't generally eaten.

Jellyfish boom threatens ocean
University of Queensland, ScienceAlert 9 Jun 09;

Early action could be crucial to addressing the problem of major increases in jellyfish numbers, which appears to be the result of human activities.

New research led by University of Queensland and CSIRO Climate Adaptation Flagship scientist, Dr Anthony Richardson presents convincing evidence that this "jellyfish joyride" is associated with over-fishing and excess nutrients from fertilisers and sewage.

"Dense jellyfish aggregations can be a natural feature of healthy ocean ecosystems, but a clear picture is now emerging of more severe and frequent jellyfish outbreaks worldwide," Dr Richardson, of UQ's School of Mathematics and Physics, said.

"In recent years, jellyfish blooms have been recorded in the Mediterranean, the Gulf of Mexico, the Black and Caspian Seas, the Northeast US coast, and particularly in Far East coastal waters.

"The most dramatic have been the outbreaks in the Sea of Japan involving the gargantuan Nomura jellyfish which can grow up to 2m in diameter and weigh 200kg."

The new research, by Dr Richardson and colleagues at the University of Miami, Swansea University and the University of the Western Cape, was published in the international journal: Trends in Ecology and Evolution, in time for World Oceans Day on June 8.

"Fish normally keep jellyfish in check through competition and predation but overfishing can destroy that balance," Dr Richardson said.

"For example, off Namibia intense fishing has decimated sardine stocks and jellyfish have replaced them as the dominant species."

Climate change may favour some jellyfish species by increasing the availability of flagellates in surface waters – a key jellyfish food source. Warmer oceans could also extend the distribution of many jellyfish species.

"Mounting evidence suggests that open-ocean ecosystems can flip from being dominated by fish, to being dominated by jellyfish," Dr Richardson said.

"This would have lasting ecological, economic and social consequences.

"We need to start managing the marine environment in a holistic and precautionary way to prevent more examples of what could be termed a ‘jellyfish joyride'."

Read more!

A tuna cartel?

Pacific states borrow OPEC idea to fix tuna price.

Samisoni Pareti, Island Business 8 Jun 09;

What began as a dream some years ago is becoming a reality for some Pacific islands countries; the formation soon of the world’s first cartel on tuna.

At a landmark decision in Niue last month, eight islands nations agreed to form a tuna corporation with the ultimate aim of controlling the supply of tuna on the world market.

Such a corporation, when it comes into being, will oversee all stages of tuna processing, from harvesting of raw tuna to marketing of the finished products.

Behind the development are the Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu—members of the Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA).

The eight are owners of the largest 200-mile exclusive economic zones (EEZ) in the Pacific Ocean and thus lay claim to the greater portion of the world’s last remaining healthy stocks of tuna.

The Pacific supplies half of the world’s tuna needs, it is estimated.

Already, the government of Papua New Guinea through its National Fisheries Authority has pledged US$1 million to go towards the establishment of a PNA secretariat.

This, the islands hope, will pave the way for the proposed Tuna Corporation that all eight islands countries will own.

Once this happens, they will control pricing in much the same way as OPEC—the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries—controls oil supplies to influence prices today.

“The strategic direction of PNA continues to evolve and could potentially include amongst other things the evolution of a cartel that would control the supply of tuna from their waters, the establishment of a PNA Tuna Corporation and registration of FADs as a pre-condition of fishing in their waters,” explained a briefing paper put before PNA Ministers of Fisheries at their Niue meeting.

“The relationship between PNA and the fishing states is also changing. It is becoming more commercially oriented and complex.”

Assert control

FADs is an acronym for fishing aggregate devices, a floating platform fishing boats employ to attract tuna.

PNA members agree with Greenpeace Pacific that such forms of industrial fishing lay waste to large numbers of juvenile tuna and other marine life such as sharks and turtles in the region.

As part of strategies to assert more control on how tuna is fished in their waters, Pacific islands countries led by PNA members imposed controls on the use of FADs.

From this year, FADs will not to be used for two months in a year.

PNA is also leading efforts to control the amount of tuna harvested in its waters through what it is calling the Vessel Day Scheme (VSD).

Through a formula drafted by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), each PNA member is allocated a quota of fishing days per year.

This quota is then sold or auctioned to interested fishing companies largely owned by distant water fishing nations (DWFNs).

“The PNA must be able to respond to the realities of these changes in a way that allows it to continue to be at the forefront of tuna fisheries management and development in the region through the advocacy of fisheries development aspirations,” the PNA briefing paper obtained by ISLANDS BUSINESS stated.

“An example is the implementation of the Vessel Day Scheme (VDS), in particular, the need to have more complex applications to the trading of days amongst the parties.

This might involve the establishment of a vessel days trading stock exchange mechanism.

“Furthermore, one aspect of the changing nature of the relationship between PNA and other stakeholders would also be to explore commercial arrangements between PNA and major tuna processors.

“This would effectively reduce the control that tuna operators have in the fishery and could significantly transform the fisheries dynamics in the region, entrenching their long-held aspirations to control the region’s fisheries.”

Tuna cartel

Talks of a tuna cartel had actually begun in earnest in South Korea last December at the margins of the Fifth Session of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC).

WCPFC is the other regional fisheries body whose mandate covers tuna conservation oversight in waters not covered by the Pacific islands’ EEZs, what many refer to as the high seas.

The commission brings together harvesters and owners of tuna; DFWNs—Canada, China, European Commission, France, Japan, Korea, Philippines, Taiwan and the United States on one side, and the 17 Pacific islands who are members of the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA) including Australia, New Zealand and Tokelau, on the other.

All eight PNA states are key members of FFA.

At that meeting in Busan, South Korea, delegates from the Marshall Islands outlined the need for a PNA secretariat.

It offered to host the new body in its capital Majuro and that the secretariat should be up and running by the end of this year.

As to how the new PNA secretariat would be funded, documents obtained by ISLANDS BUSINESS revealed very little.

Under the PNA Coordinator budget, a briefing paper did propose an amendment to PNA’s current agreement with the FFA in that bulk of the coordinator’s budget should come from VDS (Vessel Day Scheme) earnings.

For now, the PNA coordinator is funded by 50% of VDS funds, 25% each from PNA states and fees paid by Pacific domestic fishing vessels under a treaty that is known as the FSM Arrangement.

The coordinator’s budget for 2008/2009 is US$297,327.

Special need

Will the formation of the secretariat and indeed the Tuna Corporation weaken the purpose and focus of FFA?

PNA officials had a lot to say about this, justifying the special need to have its own body while at the same time affirming their commitment to the work of the Honiara-based regional organisation.

“The establishment of a PNA secretariat will strengthen the FFA region through the enhancement of the strategic leadership role the FFA region plays in conservation and management,” said another PNA brief.

“The PNA secretariat will not be assuming the functions and responsibilities of the FFA secretariat.

“The PNA secretariat will supplement and complement, thereby enhancing the FFA secretariat’s technical and advisory services.”

Another document offers an opinion on the legal status of the proposed PNA secretariat in light of the text of the Parties to the Nauru Agreement, as well as the proposed secretariat’s standing with the FFA.

“The [Parties to the Nauru] agreement does not stipulate that the FFA shall be the secretariat of the agreement, rather it directs the parties to “seek the assistance” of FFA to provide such services to implement and coordinate the provisions of the agreement.

“The original intent was to minimise costs, utilise existing facilities and give the Director of FFA administrative charge of meeting arrangements for the parties.”

What the remaining nine members of the FFA think of this move by PNA states is unknown.

PNA’s decision to form its own secretariat with the ultimate aim of establishing a tuna cartel is yet to appear on the agenda of any FFA meetings.

FFA’s deputy director Dr Transform Aqorau agreed with the current PNA thinking that the two organisations complement each other.

“Our work at FFA covers matters relating to fisheries policy and technical support,” said Dr Aqorau when contacted by telephone at FFA headquarters in Honiara late last month.

“PNA members, on the other hand, want to take on a more commercial focus in order to manage their tuna resources.

“Differences might arise in the future if PNA becomes stronger but there’s hope the demarcation of our roles will remain.”

If developments in other sectors are any guide however, then a PNA secretariat would be the source at the very least of some disquiet among non-PNA members.

Success rate

At the 2007 Pacific Islands Forum in Tonga for instance, Samoa wanted the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat to look into the wider implications of forming sub-regional groupings.

Prime Minister Tuilaepa Lupesoliai Sailele Malielegaoi was particularly anxious then about the Melanesian Spearhead Group and its high profile position in negotiations for regional trade agreements.

With Tuvalu the sole Polynesian member of PNA, some fear the old Polynesia/Melanesia rivalries will only be perpetuated.

There is no doubt that since its formation some 27 years ago, PNA has developed into a powerful negotiating bloc within the FFA and WCPFC when it came into being in 2004.
Many of the regional initiatives aimed at controlling tuna fishery in the Pacific were PNA proposals.

This include its declaration late last year of the closure from January 2010 of two high seas pockets.

The decision to extend that ban to two more high seas pockets is to be discussed in December this year.

High seas pockets are waters that are uncovered in any of the countries’ recognised 200-mile EEZs as provided for under the United Nations Law of the Sea Convention.
Banning FADs for two months in a year is another PNA concept, as is the regional register of foreign fishing vessels, a harmonised minimum terms and conditions of access by foreign fishing vessels, the FSM Arrangement for regional access and the Palau Arrangement for the management of the Western and Central Pacific purse seine fishery.

One hundred percent placement of Pacific observers on foreign purse seiners is another significant achievement as well as VDS.

What could be the reason for the high success rate of PNA as a regional sub-group?
Dr Aqorau believes it is all about empowerment, eight islands states—most of them small and vulnerable—recognising the lucrative resource they have and acting in unison to manage that resource.

“In my mind, it is the same principle you see in forestry, mining and other resource-based sectors where resource owners feel empowered to take control of their resources.

“Today, the dynamics in fishery are so much different from say 20 years ago.

“In those days, we were still trying to organise ourselves.

“We didn’t have tools for monitoring tuna for example and above all, there was no organisation to look after conservation of tuna like we now do with WCPFC.”

“In wanting to form a cartel, what PNA members are doing is basically taking the conservation measures of WCPFC and turning them to maximise economic returns.”
Another reason behind PNA’s high success rates is to do with the good response from some DWFNs.

South Korea had indicated its desire to engage with Pacific islands states on the matter of “domestication”, a reference to the policy of planting tuna processing plants in the islands.

Japan is also receptive to the PNA concept, offering to match the bloc’s tuna cartel idea with its own “islandisation” initiative.

Fisheries treaty

The matter is expected to be included in a MOU Japan is negotiating with PNA states and the ‘islandisation’ concept is due to be thrashed out by both parties in 2010.
Under it, Japan like South Korea wants to develop a long-term relationship with the eight Pacific islands members of PNA.

Building canneries in the islands is part of Tokyo’s ‘islandisation’ plan. But not all DWFNs share the enthusiasm of Tokyo and Seoul.

The United States, through its multilateral fisheries treaty with FFA members, is a hindrance. At least that’s the view of PNA states.

Since its fishing agreement with Pacific members of the FFA came into force in 1987, US boats can fish in the Pacific for a fee of US$3 million per annum. The maximum number of US boats was pegged at 40.

This, however, contradicts the VDS provision of WCPFC, which uses the number of fishing days and not the number of fishing boats as a more sustainable method of managing tuna resources.

PNA now wants the US to revert to VDS, and not the treaty’s 40 purse seiners as the benchmark, a move Washington through its powerful Tuna Association is resisting.
Some PNA members led by Papua New Guinea claim the US treaty is being abused by unscrupulous operators to bypass the stringent fishing day quota offered under VDS.

“In 2004, there were no more than 22 boats fishing under the US treaty,” said Sylvester Pokajam, managing director of PNG’s National Fisheries Authority.

“Today, there are 40 boats fishing and some of these we know are former European, Korean and Taiwanese-owned boats now fishing in the Pacific using the US flag.
“This is clearly unacceptable and unsustainable and the view of my government is that we must re-negotiate the full text of the US treaty.”

This treaty is not due to expire until 2013 but negotiations on its future will begin in October this year.

Housekeeping issues

For Pokajam, some fishing boat owners see the loophole in the stringent measures of VDS through the US treaty and are clearly exploiting it.

“If a boat operating under VDS is only allocated 250 days of fishing in one year and you have these 40 US boats fishing un-restrained all throughout the year, then you tell me whose interest is being served?” asked Pokajam.

“Before we start working towards this long-term goal of a tuna cartel, this is one housekeeping matter that members of PNA ought to resolve first.”

The other ‘housekeeping’ issue the PNG senior fisheries expert wanted determined is the current formula offered by the SPC (Secretariat of the Pacific Community) under VDS.

He said the current formula based on 50% of total catch and 50% of biomass is not fair as it results in the uneven distribution of fishing days to PNA member countries.

“Forming a cartel is, of course, the way to go as it will allow us to achieve our aspirations in the development of our own on-shore fish processing plants.

“On the other hand though, we will need to watch that we don’t push the price of tuna so high that it becomes expensive and drive buyers away.

“We have to strike the right balance,” added Pokajam.

When he first came into office five years ago as president of Kiribati, Anote Tong spoke to this magazine about his desire to see the formation of a tuna cartel in the region.

“Increasing the fishing effort in our EEZs is contrary to the provisions of the Law of the Sea Convention in terms of preserving the resource,” President Tong said in the ISLANDS BUSINESS’ July 2004 cover story.

“So the only other way to do it is to increase our returns from the lower volume of fish taken from our EEZs.

“In other words, reduce the fishing quota and increase our return from the lower catch.

“This will ensure value-adding.”

Interestingly, it was Kiribati who floated the idea of a Tuna Corporation at a PNA meeting in May last year.

Its recent meeting in Niue was chaired by Taberannang Timeon, currently Kiribati’s Minister for Fisheries and Marine Resource Development.

“The PNA has come together as owners of one of the last remaining healthy tuna stocks in the world to increase the economic gains from tuna,” an FFA press
statement quoted Timeon as telling delegates at the Niue meeting.

Read more!

Extending responsible fisheries management to the ocean deeps

FAO 8 Jun 09;

On World Oceans Day, FAO releases technical guidelines on deep sea fishing

8 June 2009, Rome - On the first-ever UN World Oceans Day FAO has published a set of technical guidelines aimed at helping the fisheries sector reduce its impacts on fragile deep-sea fish species and ecosystems.

The guidelines provide a framework that countries can use, individually and in the context of regional fisheries management organizations, to manage deep sea fisheries (DSF) in high-seas areas outside of national jurisdictions.

Many deepwater fish species grow slowly, reach sexual maturity late, and may not always reproduce every year. As a result they have low resilience to intensive fishing, and recovery from overfishing can take generations.

Stating that all fishing activity in deep sea areas should be "rigorously managed," the guidelines prescribe steps for identifying and protecting vulnerable ocean ecosystems and provide guidance on the sustainable use of marine living resources in deep-sea areas. They also outline ways that information on the location and status of vulnerable marine ecosystems, including vulnerable deep-sea fish stocks, should be improved.

Fishing nations should assess the deep-sea fishing being undertaken by their fleets in order to determine if any significant adverse impacts are involved. Deep sea fishing activity should cease in any area where significant adverse impacts to vulnerable marine ecosystems are taking place and remedial steps have to be taken if these are likely to occur. And where it is determined that DSF can be undertaken responsibly, appropriate fishing methods should be used to reduce impacts such as impacts on non-target species.

Much needed guidance

Because deep sea fishing is a relatively new activity and requires considerable resources in terms of investment and technology, few countries have developed policies and plans specifically related to managing it.

"These guidelines provide much-needed guidance on the responsible way to approach deep sea fishing, and are a breakthrough in that they address both environmental and fisheries management concerns in an integrated manner," said Ichiro Nomura, Assistant Director General of FAO's Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture.

The guidelines published today were adopted by FAO members at a technical consultation held in Rome in September 2008.

Sensitive ocean ecosystems

Deep sea fishing in the high seas also raise serious concerns about vulnerable non-target species, such as delicate cold water corals and sponges, and also for fragile sea-bottom seep and vent habitats that contain species found nowhere else as well as for underwater seamounts that are often home to sensitive species.

The deep sea is the world's largest habitat, accounting for roughly 50% of the Earth's surface.

World Ocean Day

The idea of celebrating World Oceans Day on June 8th started at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro as the result of a Canadian initiative to inspire awareness and action.

where it was proposed by Canada. Growing numbers of countries, organizations and individuals used the day to promote awareness of the importance of oceans to all life on Earth. On 5 December 2008 the United Nations General Assembly resolved that starting in 2009 the UN would formally observe World Ocean Day on the 8th of June each year.

UN observances of World Ocean Day are being coordinated by the UN Division of Oceans and the Law of the Sea in partnership UN Oceans, a broad consortium of various UN agencies that includes FAO.

The theme of this year's World Ocean Day is "Our oceans, our responsibility."

Read more!

Search for downed plane highlights ocean trash problem

John D. Sutter, CNN 5 Jun 09;

(CNN) -- The massive amount of garbage in the ocean likely complicates the search for the remains of an Air France flight that went missing Monday near Brazil, oceanographers who spoke with CNN said.

Earlier this week, investigators said they had located pieces of the plane in the southern Atlantic Ocean, which might have given them clues to the origin of Air France Flight 447's crash.

But on Thursday, Brazilian officials said what they had found was nothing more than run-of-the-mill ocean trash.

This highlights a little-seen environmental problem: Scientists say the world's oceans are increasingly filled with junk -- everything from large items like refrigerators and abandoned yachts to small stuff like plastic bottles.

Much of the ocean trash is plastic, which means it won't go away for hundreds of years, if ever. And the problem has gotten so bad that soupy "garbage patches" have developed in several locations, called gyres, where ocean currents swirl.

One of them is estimated to be the size of Texas.

There are about five or six major trash-collecting gyres in the world's oceans, with the most famous located in the Pacific Ocean about midway between North America and Asia, experts said. Trash collects at these locations, where ocean currents swirl, and forms a gunk of small plastic pieces. See a map of Pacific Ocean debris

There is not a major "trash island" near the site of the Air France plane crash in the south Atlantic, oceanographers said, but splitting currents do create a smaller area for trash to congregate.

"That area [of the crash site] has got lots of debris that's just out there, coming from Europe heading over the Americas," said Curtis Ebbesmeyer, a oceanographer and author of a book called "Flatsometrics and the Floating World." "And it's notoriously difficult to spot debris from the air."

The south Atlantic near Brazil is driven by two currents, one that pushes debris to the north, along the coast of Florida, and one that would push it to the south, perhaps all the way to the tip of South America, he said. So the plane's wreckage could span that massive area, he said.

Most debris from the crash of Air France Flight 447 would head toward Brazil and arrive within a couple of months; but wherever the remnants land, the plane debris would be difficult to distinguish from the mountains of trash that wash up on beaches every day, Ebbesmeyer said.

"The trouble is that there is so much debris on eastern Florida that's from South America. Anywhere, it's very unlikely that anyone will recover [the plane debris]," he said. "It's very likely that debris that would provide closure for loved ones would go in the Dumpster because [beachgoers] don't know what it is."

The search for signs of the Air France flight highlights what environmentalists say is a pressing issue for the world today: We produce a lot of trash that biodegrades slowly, and too much of it ends up in the ocean. Out at sea, plastics suffocate sea turtles and choke birds, which look at the bits of floating gunk as food.

Endangered sea turtles become entangled in discarded fishing line and also ingest plastic bags, like those from grocery stores, said Bamford.

"They love to eat jellyfish, and when they see a plastic bag it looks exactly like a jellyfish, basically," she said.

Still, scientists say they know relatively little about the scope of the problem and the effects that trash has on ocean life.

Finding answers to those unknowns is among the current initiatives of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said Holly Bamford, director of the U.S. agency's marine debris program.

Enough is known about ocean trash to know that it's time to act, she said.

"It's a global problem. You can go do a collection almost anywhere and you'll probably come up with a piece of debris in your sample. The question is what all is out there and what is it doing," she said. "It's something that needs to be addressed."

About 80 percent of the trash that ends up in the ocean starts on land and is swept out to sea either from beaches or through waterways and sewer systems, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The garbage can make its way to the ocean via rivers from the very heart of a continent, Bamford said.

Once it hits the sea, ocean currents -- and to a lesser extent, wind -- determine where the trash goes. Since the mid-1900s, people have been making plastic, which decomposes much more slowly than other materials.

International treaties ban ship captains from dumping their trash into the sea, scientists said, but the rules are not well-enforced.

Education is the key to preventing trash from ending up in the ocean in the first place, said Peter Niiler, an oceanographer and distinguished researcher at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

Niiler said too little is known about the oceans, and there are gross misconceptions about their size.

"I think the [idea of an] ocean being an infinitely large thing comes from the fact that you've never been there or you don't have data from there. You don't know what's there. So you're just living on the coast and you can't hardly imagine going from North America to China," he said.

He added: "The ocean is just like land. It's part of our whole ecosystem of the whole earth. We know a great deal about land but we know very little about the oceans."

While they aren't likely to help with the plane search, volunteer groups seek to collect trash before it hits the ocean and is swept away to a garbage patch. The Ocean Conservancy says it organizes the largest of these efforts. Last year, 400,000 volunteers from 100 countries collected trash off of the beaches, preventing it from harming the ocean, said Tom McCann, a spokesman for the group.

"It's entirely preventable," he said of the problem of trash in the ocean. "It's something we can solve ourselves."

Read more!

Rising acid levels at sea a serious threat

Michael Richardson, Straits Times 8 Jun 09;

MOST of us live and work on land. So we tend to forget that oceans cover more than 70 per cent of the earth and play a vital role in regulating the climate.

For centuries, humans have used the sea as a convenient dumping ground, even as they have intensified their harvesting of fish and other marine products. Vast amounts of waste have been tipped into the sea, which has been treated as an inexhaustible rubbish dump.

It might be so for normal trash. But 70 national academies of science, from both developed and developing countries, recently joined forces to warn that the massive release into the atmosphere of carbon dioxide (CO2), the main global warming gas, is raising acid levels at sea, 'with potentially profound consequences for marine plants and animals, especially those that require calcium carbonate to grow and survive, and other species that rely on these for food'.

The joint statement, issued on June 1, is intended to persuade international negotiators crafting a new framework to combat global warming to treat ocean acidification as one of the world's most important climate change challenges.

When CO2 is absorbed in sea water, it forms carbonic acid, making the water more acidic. Not only that, it reduces the availability of carbonate ions, which many creatures use to build shells and skeletons out of calcium carbonate. As a result, organisms such as plankton, algae, corals and molluscs struggle to build or maintain their protective or supportive structures.

Some scientists reckon that the oceans have absorbed as much as 50 per cent of the CO2 released by human activity over the past 200 years. The national science academies, in their joint statement, took a more conservative view, saying that approximately 25 per cent of the CO2 had been absorbed by the sea.

Still, there is no disagreement among mainstream scientists on the significance of what is happening and why. France's National Centre for Scientific Research, which is in the midst of a major study of ocean acidification with 26 partners, calculates that more than 25 million tonnes of CO2 dissolve in sea water every day, making the oceans a giant natural sink. If that were not so, the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere would be far greater.

If recent trends in CO2 emissions continue, computer projections suggest that by 2050, concentrations of the gas in the atmosphere will be more than double pre-industrial levels and the oceans will be more acidic than they have been for tens of million of years.

The current rate of change is much more rapid than at any time over the past 65 million years. Scientists say that these changes in ocean chemistry would be irreversible for many thousands of years, while the biological consequences could last much longer.

The acid level of the world's oceans is not consistent across the globe. However, no region is expected to escape the impact and South-east Asia is expected to be among the regions hardest hit.

Marine food supplies, already threatened by pollution and over-harvesting, are likely to be reduced, adversely affecting food security, as well as human health and well-being, in places dependent on fish protein.

A study published last month by the World Wide Fund For Nature looked at the future of the coasts, reefs and seas of Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Timor Leste. These countries form the so-called Coral Triangle. Although just 1 per cent of the earth's surface, this zone includes 30 per cent of the world's coral reefs, 76 per cent of its reef-building coral species and more than 35 per cent of the coral reef fish species. The zone is a breeding ground for many fish, including tuna, and sustains the lives of more than 100 million people.

The study said that the Coral Triangle and its resources were imperilled by rising ocean temperature, acidity and sea level. It warned that as poverty increased, tens of millions of coastal dwellers would migrate to already crowded cities and urban slums.

The national science academies have reinforced this sombre outlook, saying that tropical waters will suffer rapid declines in the carbonate ions important for coral reef construction.

Calling for cuts in global CO2 emissions of at least 50 per cent below 1990 levels by 2050, the academies said that without such cuts coral reefs may dissolve globally by the end of the century and other parts of the marine food chain would be unable to adapt.

Another development climate scientists are watching with concern is whether the oceans will reach the point where they are so saturated in CO2 that they will be unable to absorb as much of the gas as now, leaving more of it in the atmosphere to intensify global warming.

The writer is a visiting senior research fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.

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Medvedev slams biofuel producers at grain summit

Yahoo News 6 Jun 09;

SAINT PETERSBURG (AFP) – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Saturday urged countries to switch to non-food sources of biofuel to prevent the spread of hunger in a world where every sixth person is malnourished.

"We are advocating production of biofuel from other, non-food sources," Medvedev said in a speech inaugurating the launch of a global grain summit in his native Saint Petersburg.

"The development of bioenergy should not become a reason for a growing deficit of grain for food needs," he said, adding there were countries that still did not realize the importance of eradicating hunger.

His comments appeared to be a thinly veiled attack on the United States, Brazil and the European Union which are among the leading producers of biofuel.

"Many today have simply resigned themselves to the fact that a child dies from hunger every five seconds in the world," Medvedev said.

Starvation in a world where nearly one billion people go hungry is "the most difficult trial for mankind," Medvedev said, expressing hope that the grain summit attended by top food officials would help tackle the problem.

Medvedev first proposed holding the grain summit during a Group of Eight summit in Toyako, Japan last year.

Medvedev said Russia was concerned about an imbalance between grain supply and demand, adding nations should agree on mechanisms to keep this in check and set up an "early warning" system to monitor grain markets in the future.

"We intend to strengthen positions on the world grain market (and) support this direction both financially and organizationally," he said.

Russia now is getting ready to begin cultivation of 20 million hectares (49.5 million acres) of farmland that have not been used since the start of market reforms in the 1990s, he added.

The head of Russia's largest lender Sberbank, German Gref, who took the floor after Medvedev, said food security issues were "more important than currency problems."

The UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) says the number of starving people in the world will increase drastically because of the economic crisis.

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Kitchen bin war: tackling the food waste mountain

A UK Government campaign will see the end of confusing 'best before' labels, reduced packaging, and five new plants to convert waste into energy

Rachel Shields, The Independent 7 Jun 09;

An ambitious "War on Waste" campaign to tackle Britain's mountains of food-based rubbish with a range of radical new measures is to be launched tomorrow.

The programme will scrap "best before" labels on food, create new food packaging sizes, build more "on-the-go" recycling points and unveil five flagship anaerobic digestion plants, to harness the power of leftover food and pump energy back into the national grid. The government hopes that its plans will reduce the 100 million tons of waste the country produced last year, which included 20 million tons of food waste and 10.7 million tons of packaging waste.

On Tuesday, Hilary Benn, Secretary of State for the Environment, will announce plans to dispense with "best before" labels, in an attempt to reduce the estimated 370,000 tons of food that is thrown away despite being perfectly edible. The latest government research into food labelling showed that the British are very cautious when it comes to eating anything that has passed its "best before" date: 53 per cent of consumers never eat fruit or vegetables that has exceeded the date; 56 per cent would not eat bread or cake; and 21 per cent never even "take a risk" with food close to its date.

"One of the things we found in our research is that confusion over date labelling is one of the major reasons for throwing food away. Often people don't realise the difference between 'best before' and 'use by'," said Richard Swannell, director of retail and organics at Wrap, the Government waste watchdog. It is working with the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and leading retailers to get rid of the "sell until", "display until" and "best before" tags, which confuse customers, causing them to throw away edible food.

"It is an issue that we want to address, but there has to be a balance, as we have to protect consumer safety," said an FSA spokesman. "Not eating out-of-date food is one of the simplest ways of preventing food poisoning."

Ahead of the launch, Mr Benn said: "It's time for a new war on waste. It's not just about recycling more – and we are making progress there – it's about rethinking the way we use resources in the first place.

"We need to make better use of everything we produce, from food to packaging, and the plans I'm setting out over the next few days will help us to achieve that. We all have a part to play, from businesses and retailers to consumers."

The minister added: "Too many of us are putting things in the bin simply because we're not sure, we're confused by the label, or we're just playing safe. This means we're throwing away thousands of tons of food every year completely unnecessarily. I want to improve labels so that when we buy a loaf of bread or a packet of cold meat, we know exactly how long it's safe to eat."

On Tuesday, the Government will also unveil plans for dealing with packaging, including increased glass collection from pubs, clubs and restaurants, a huge expansion of "on-the-go" recycling points for aluminium cans, and new packaging sizes for supermarkets.

In addition to tackling food waste and packaging, the Government will reveal plans to use the waste we do produce as fuel. Tomorrow Mr Benn will announce the location of five new anaerobic digestion plants, built with the help of £10m in state funding. The facilities compost waste in the absence of oxygen, producing a biogas that can be used to generate electricity and heat.

Mr Benn said: "We need to rethink the way we deal with waste – to see it as a resource, not a problem."

The UK produces 100 tons of organic waste a year. If processed anaerobically this would produce enough energy to power two million homes, or Birmingham five times over. Anaerobic digestion plants are widely used across Europe, and are already being used by high street retailers such as Sainsbury's and Marks & Spencer to tackle their food waste.

Michael Warhurst, senior waste and resources campaigner for Friends of the Earth, said: "This should be happening across the country, instead of councils still putting money into building incinerators. They are the technology of the past – this is the future."

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Think twice about 'green' transport, say scientists

Yahoo News 7 Jun 09;

PARIS (AFP) – You worry a lot about the environment and do everything you can to reduce your carbon footprint -- the emissions of greenhouse gases that drive dangerous climate change.

So you always prefer to take the train or the bus rather than a plane, and avoid using a car whenever you can, faithful to the belief that this inflicts less harm to the planet.

Well, there could be a nasty surprise in store for you, for taking public transport may not be as green as you automatically think, says a new US study.

Its authors point out an array of factors that are often unknown to the public.

These are hidden or displaced emissions that ramp up the simple "tailpipe" tally, which is based on how much carbon is spewed out by the fossil fuels used to make a trip.

Environmental engineers Mikhail Chester and Arpad Horvath at the University of California at Davis say that when these costs are included, a more complex and challenging picture emerges.

In some circumstances, for instance, it could be more eco-friendly to drive into a city -- even in an SUV, the bete noire of green groups -- rather than take a suburban train. It depends on seat occupancy and the underlying carbon cost of the mode of transport.

"We are encouraging people to look at not the average ranking of modes, because there is a different basket of configurations that determine the outcome," Chester told AFP in a phone interview.

"There's no overall solution that's the same all the time."

The pair give an example of how the use of oil, gas or coal to generate electricity to power trains can skew the picture.

Boston has a metro system with high energy efficiency. The trouble is, 82 percent of the energy to drive it comes from dirty fossil fuels.

By comparison, San Francisco's local railway is less energy-efficient than Boston's. But it turns out to be rather greener, as only 49 percent of the electricity is derived from fossils.

The paper points out that the "tailpipe" quotient does not include emissions that come from building transport infrastructure -- railways, airport terminals, roads and so on -- nor the emissions that come from maintaining this infrastructure over its operational lifetime.

These often-unacknowledged factors add substantially to the global-warming burden.

In fact, they add 63 percent to the "tailpipe" emissions of a car, 31 percent to those of a plane, and 55 percent to those of a train.

And another big variable that may be overlooked in green thinking is seat occupancy.

A saloon (sedan) car or even an 4x4 that is fully occupied may be responsible for less greenhouse gas per kilometer travelled per person than a suburban train that is a quarter full, the researchers calculate.

"Government policy has historically relied on energy and emission analysis of automobiles, buses, trains and aircraft at their tailpipe, ignoring vehicle production and maintenance, infrastructure provision and fuel production requirements to support these modes," they say.

So getting a complete view of the ultimate environmental cost of the type of transport, over its entire lifespan, should help decision-makers to make smarter investments.

For travelling distances up to, say, 1,000 kilometres (600 miles), "we can ask questions as to whether it's better to invest in a long-distance railway, improving the air corridor or boosting car occupancy," said Chester.

The paper appears in Environmental Research Letters, a publication of Britain's Institute of Physics.

The calculations are based on US technology and lifestyles.

It used 2005 models of the Toyota Camry saloon, Chevrolet Trailblazer SUV and Ford F-150 to calibrate automobile performance; the light transit systems in the San Francisco Bay Area and Boston as the models for the metro and commuter lines; and the Embraer 145, Boeing 737 and Boeing 747 as the benchmarks for short-, medium- and long-haul aircraft.

Train can be worse for climate than plane
Catherine Brahic, New Scientist 8 Jun 09;

True or false: taking the commuter train across Boston results in lower greenhouse gas emissions than travelling the same distance in a jumbo jet. Perhaps surprisingly, the answer is false.

A new study compares the "full life-cycle" emissions generated by 11 different modes of transportation in the US. Unlike previous studies on transport emissions, this one looks beyond what is emitted by different types of car, train, bus or plane while their engines are running and includes emissions from building and maintaining the vehicles and their infrastructure, as well as generating the fuel to run them.

Including these additional sources of pollution more than doubles the greenhouse gas emissions of train travel. The emissions generated by car travel increase by nearly one third when manufacturing and infrastructure are taken into account. In comparison to cars on roads and trains on tracks, air travel requires little infrastructure. As a result, full life-cycle emissions are between 10 and 20 per cent higher than "tailpipe" emissions.

Mikhail Chester and Arpad Horvath of the University of California, Berkeley, included in their calculations data on the "life expectancy" of each component of each mode of transportation, such as the tracks used by a train and the airports used by aircraft.

They calculated the total "travel kilometres" each component allows and how many tonnes of greenhouse gases were emitted to build and maintain each component. This allowed them to calculate the component's emissions per kilometre travelled, for each mode of transport per kilometre for each traveller on board.
Empty seats

Cars emitted more than any other form of transport with the notable exception of off-peak buses, which often carry few passengers. Passengers on the Boston light rail, an electric commuter train, were found to emit as much or marginally more than those on mid-size and large aircraft. This is because 82 per cent of electricity in Massachusetts is generated by burning fossil fuels.

The researchers found that travelling 1 kilometre on a nearly empty bus during off-peak hours emits eight times more per person than taking the same bus at rush hour – suggesting peak-time commuters may suffer, but they do less harm to the environment.

The occupation level of a vehicle is an important but often-overlooked factor, says Chester. "Although mass transit is often touted as more energy efficient than cars, this is not always the case." Buses turned out to be the most sensitive to how full they were – those with only five passengers were less efficient than cars; even large SUVs and pick-up trucks.
Clearer view

The results make it easy to target attempts to cut emissions and could change how politicians think about measures to improve transportation, say the researchers.

The life-cycle emissions generated by cars, buses and aircraft are dominated by tailpipe emissions pumped out in day-to-day running of their engines. Hence, the best way to reduce emissions from these modes of transportation would be to increase fuel efficiency and push for renewable fuels.

Crisscrossing the US with a rail network, however, creates a different problem. More than half of the life-cycle emissions from rail come not from the engines' exhausts, but infrastructure development, such as station building and track laying, and providing power to stations, lit parking lots and escalators

Any government considering expanding its rail network should take into account the emissions it will generate in doing so, Chester says. Setting up a public transportation system that only a small proportion of the population uses could generate more emissions than it cuts, he adds – especially if trains and buses are not well connected.

"New rail systems should serve as links to other transit modes, as is often the case in Europe and Japan," he says. "We should avoid building rail systems that are disconnected from major population areas and require car trips and parking to access."

Transport studies expert Abigail Bristow of Loughbourough University, UK, says the paper is valuable because it attempts to compare transport on equal terms. "The conclusion that rail emissions are best reduced by reducing the use of concrete in station construction is a nicely different perspective that a purely transport oriented analysis might have missed," she says.

Journal reference: Environmental Research Letters (DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/4/2/024008)

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