Life History of the Large Dart
from Butterflies of Singapore
Flaring up at Pulau Bukom
from wild shores of singapore
TeamSeagrass at Pulau Semakau
from teamseagrass and wild shores of singapore
Where has all the water gone?
from Rhinomania
A male Dark-necked Tailorbird
from Bird Ecology Study Group
Immature Ashy Minivet in a mixed species foraging flock
from Bird Ecology Study Group
Jamie Ee Wen Wei Straits Times 28 Feb 10;
Visitors to Underwater World Singapore in Sentosa can safely swim with the dolphins or dive with the sharks.
There is also a sharks' nursery pool, where visitors get to feed over 10 baby sharks like the bamboo shark and nurse shark using a feeding stick.
These activities at the attraction are safe, said its spokesman, because visitors will be accompanied by experienced trainers and staff.
She stressed that the attraction's sharks and dolphins cannot be compared to larger marine animals like whales in terms of size and strength.
The spokesman was commenting on last Wednesday's fatal incident in SeaWorld, Florida, in which a killer whale being given a rub before a watching audience suddenly grabbed its trainer and dragged her underwater. The woman drowned.
She described the Florida incident as unfortunate, adding that at Underwater World, animals are assessed on their consistency and stability in their training behaviour before they are involved in the visitors' programmes.
Singapore's other animal attractions also emphasised that the safety of visitors and their staff are of paramount concern, and that there are safety measures to ensure harm-free interactions with the animals.
At Jurong BirdPark, Night Safari and the Singapore Zoo - all part of Wildlife Reserves Singapore - a total of 115 species of mammals, birds and reptiles are involved in animal shows. These are trained to carry out certain actions through positive reinforcement, which rewards them with treats and praises. Those that display aggression are never used in the shows, said Mr Kumar Pillai, Night Safari's assistant director of zoology.
While rare, there have been at least 10 animal-related accidents involving visitors and trainers since the zoo opened 37 years ago. The most terrifying one took place on Nov 13, 2008, when cleaner Nordin Montong was mauled to death by Omar, a white tiger, after he climbed into the big cats' enclosure. His death was ruled a suicide.
The most serious incident in which an animal attacked its trainer happened in 2001, when Chawang, a bull elephant, gored Mr Gopal Krishnan, his keeper of 18 years. Mr Gopal was in hospital for nearly two months, with fractured ribs and a punctured lung. He is back at work as a zookeeper.
Chawang was later retrained and is now the star of the Night Safari.
Mr Pillai said large animals like hyenas and wolves that may be dangerous are managed under protected contact, which means there is no physical contact between them and their trainers. For bull elephants like Chawang, trainers use a 2m long pole with a ball to direct and move the animals.
Mr Pillai added that the attraction has safety procedures in place that all its zookeepers are familiar with. Zookeepers are assessed yearly on their knowledge of these regulations. Emergency drills are also conducted twice a year to ensure that staff are familiar with the procedures.
Only experienced keepers are allowed to care for or train animals. They also work on a 'buddy' system. Zoo curators are on hand to consult on animals due to appear in shows. Trainers are also instructed to not make sudden or loud movements that can startle animals under their charge.
Ed Zieralski, Union-Tribune, Sign On San Diego 27 Feb 10;
La Jolla Kayak Fishing’s Jim Sammons has paddled within casting distance of a pod of killer whales, and that was close enough to the orcas for a man who has had some incredible close encounters at sea with fish and mammals.
In 2008, Sammons and his TV production crew got between two pods of killer whales off Alaska while filming the kayak-fishing movie “Game On,” now a hit TV series on the World Fishing Network.
“We saw a pod of killer whales approaching from about a mile away, and we had another pod of killer whales between us and the shoreline,” Sammons said. “We decided to let the ones coming in get close. Then two big males in each of the pods breached, one about 100 yards from us. They breached three times, just to let us know they were bigger than us. I was paddling, but what you don’t see is I was paddling backwards. It was the most incredible sight I’ve ever seen in nature.”
I mention Sammons’ encounter today in the wake of the tragic death of SeaWorld orca trainer Dawn Brancheau. The 40-year-old veteran trainer was pulled by her braided hair into the Orlando SeaWorld mammal tank, dragged and thrashed to death by Sea World’s superstar orca and breeding machine, Tilikum. Brancheau’s is the third human death linked to Tilikum. I guess SeaWorld doesn’t have a three-strike rule for its big-water inmates.
And then there’s the unfortunate name of the program in which Brancheau was killed: “Lunch with Shamu.”
Sammons and I, and many others, agree that these killer whales do not belong in oversized aquariums, shown off by SeaWorld for fun and big profit. I authored a blog Thursday for the U-T Web site and linked it to Facebook. The comments on Facebook remain 100 percent against keeping orcas captive.
“Would you make a goldfish live in a shot glass?” waterwoman Michelle Woo-Bowman commented. “Why keep an orca in a tiny tank?”
Woo-Bowman, an avid surfboard angler, posted information about a YouTube video that depicts another SeaWorld orca going airborne in a tank for an unsuspecting pelican during a Shamu show. The video is amazing. Music plays in the background, and although some members of the crowd clearly are horrified, there’s also laughter as killer whales take turns ripping the poor pelican apart in a feeding frenzy. It’s a long video and even shows one of the trainers swimming out to gather the bird’s remains — wings, carcass, entrails and such.
To me, keeping a killer whale in a super-sized fish tank is no different from what these other warped nature lovers do by keeping mountain lions in so-called “sanctuaries.” In the case of killer whales and killer mountain lions, you’re taking apex predators, killing machines, and taking away the things they need most, freedom to roam and freedom to hunt and kill.
One of the witnesses of an earlier Orlando SeaWorld show starring Tilikum on Wednesday said it appeared the big mammal wasn’t taking commands and appeared upset, agitated. Geez, hard to figure why a 21-foot, 12,000-pound sea creature would be upset about being kept on land in a tank and ordered to perform for food.
There aren’t many common ground issues for me and animal rights activists, but ripping SeaWorld for keeping orcas in fish bowls is one of them.
There are other issues, such as SeaWorld’s practice of rescuing sea lions and seals and then placing them back out near shore, where they cause huge problems for recreational and commercial fishermen. SeaWorld has always had its head in its stern on this one.
I remember another incident with San Diego SeaWorld in 1981, when it attempted to keep alive a great white shark in captivity. The shark lasted 11 days before SeaWorld officials realized it didn’t like being in a glass bowl. That has been tried at other aquariums, but great whites never last long.
Finally, Sammons told me of a focus group he was part of that was asked to explore future attractions at San Diego SeaWorld. Just when I thought this group couldn’t be any more obtuse, it showed it can.
“One of the ideas they had was to do a whale shark lagoon,” Sammons said. “There would be rides and the whole deal to see the whale shark. I was the only dissenting one in the room who thought it was a very bad idea. That’s just wrong. It’s bad enough they have the huge mammals in tanks. Imagine a whale shark, the largest living fish species, in a tank.”
If SeaWorld can make a buck on it, count on that group to do it, even if it means sacrificing dedicated trainers in the process, even if it means taking Tiger-sized public relations hits.
Liz Jones, Mail Online 27 Feb 10;
I’m in a rubber dinghy two miles off the Cornish coast. I can see splashing in the distance, and we cut our engine.
Within seconds, two dolphins speed towards the boat. They have recognised not only the sound of the engine, but also the shock of blond hair of my guide, marine ecologist Duncan Jones, who takes tourists out each day to observe the wildlife in the bay off Penzance.
The dolphins – whom Duncan in turn recognises as Cookie and Sleeky, two juvenile male bottlenoses who live in a civil partnership pod – start showing off.
They show me their pale tummies, they perform back flips and they swim, at incredible speed – up to 30knots, or 35mph – straight at us, swerving at the last minute to disappear beneath the boat.
This, according to Duncan, is their idea of a joke. Dolphins have a sense of humour?
‘Oh yes,’ he says. ‘Like us, they are capable of abstract thought. By studying the noises they make, scientists have found that dolphins even have names for each other.
‘They form strong family bonds, using other adults to babysit, for example.’
Dolphins are incredibly tactile, too, and one of their means of communication and reassurance is flipper rubbing – a bit like hand holding.
They are just like us, then? ‘Not really. They have learned to live in peace and harmony with their environment. They are just full of the joy of being alive.’
Dolphins and whales in the wild are indeed incredibly optimistic creatures, according to Margaux Dodds, co-founder of the Marine Connection dolphin and whale welfare charity.
In captivity, though, it’s a different story. In dolphinariums, forced to perform tricks for food, the animals have been known to ram their heads against the sides, knocking themselves out, trying to end their torment.
Animals enclosed in ‘sea pens’ for all those ‘swimming with dolphins’ holidays, and no longer able to use sonar to find food, become bored and depressed, often entangling themselves in nets to drown.
I have taken my wet suit along for my boat ride in Cornwall, in the naive hope I’ll be able to get into the water and swim with these amazing animals. But Duncan tells me this is against the rules.
‘These animals are sociable, but they can become stressed by humans if we force ourselves on them, not to mention the grave danger of cross-species infection.’
There are no longer any dolphinariums in the UK – the last closed in the early Nineties – but Thomson and Virgin Holidays, to name just two tour operators, are actively selling ‘swimming with dolphins’ holidays worldwide.
When approached, the only response from Virgin so far has been a terse: ‘Swimming with dolphins holidays offer a valuable experience for our customers’.
But Margaux Dodds says: ‘Any holiday that promises you will interact with dolphins means you will be swimming with captive dolphins, and perpetuating this cruel trade.
‘Many believe these dolphins are born in captivity. But wild captures to supply facilities are still common, with some coming from the notorious annual drive hunts in Japan. Demand from marine parks makes this a lucrative business for dolphin traders.’
In the Solomon Islands a ban on captures was overturned by the government to allow dolphins to be taken to supply the Atlantis Palm resort in Dubai.
No one has been allowed near the dolphins in Dubai, but there are unsubstantiated reports that four have already died.
Last week, the inevitable happened. Animal trainer (I hate that word) Dawn Brancheau was killed when an orca, or killer whale, the largest member of the dolphin family, grabbed her by the hair and pulled her under the water.
Newspaper reports made much of the fact that Ms Brancheau had known the orca, Tilly, for 16 years but I could only think, my God, that intelligent animal had been performing circus tricks for her for nearly two decades!
He had been captured, aged two, in the waters of Iceland, and has been living in a glorified bathtub for 30 years. No wonder he finally snapped.
The animal has been spared by his owners (hate that word; let’s call them what they really are: jailers), Seaworld Orlando, not through any sense of compassion, but because he is a lucrative source of revenue.
Back in our boat off the coast of Cornwall, Duncan Jones switches on the engine, and as we point towards the shore, Cookie and Sleeky ride our bows, grinning widely, deliberately trying to splash me, before whizzing off to investigate another boat leaving the harbour.
I can’t help wondering why we think we have the right to exploit and humiliate such delightful creatures. Surely it’s time to end what is the modern-day equivalent of bear-baiting.
Come out and play
Nicholas Yong and Magdalen Ng Straits Times 28 Feb 10;
Kite flying, cricket, football, frisbee and flying model aeroplanes. These are just some of the weekend activities happening on more than 300 plots of vacant state land available to the public for social and recreational use since 2003.
The plots cover an area of 582ha or 895 football fields. Members of the public need not book or pay to use the open spaces.
Many are located near housing estates. And casual users as well as organised groups have been making full use of them.
At the open field along Sengkang East Way, opposite Anchorvale Community Centre, about 100 people turn up every weekend to fly kites.
The skies are dotted with kites of various sizes, shapes and colours in the evenings.
Service engineer Mohamed Sulhaimi, 37, comes from Jurong West to fly kites with his three young children.
'I drive there two to three times a month because it's not easy to find such a big open space to fly kites. Everyone is friendly and helps to keep a lookout for the children, so that's nice,' he says.
Housewife Ginnie Cheng, 29, says that with Compass Point mall nearby, toilets and other amenities are easily available.
Over at Compassvale Road, an ultimate frisbee league involving more than 600 players has been held for the past 10 weeks.
Ultimate frisbee is a fast-paced mish-mash of netball, basketball and rugby rules, played by two 7-a-side teams.
Frisbee player Sree Ganesh, 25, a member of Chuckies club, says: 'This place is great for a big-scale tournament.'
Before 2003, many of these plots of land carried 'No Trespassing' signs. Following an initiative started by Senior Minister of State for Law and Home Affairs, Associate Professor Ho Peng Kee, to open up fields for the public, the signs now declare that the sites are for 'casual community and recreational use'.
Singaporeans have long been creative about using the limited space available, judging by the stories on reclaimland.sg, a project started by four Nanyang Technological University students last year.
The stories include that of a barber who obtained a special licence to cut hair in an alley after he was evicted from his shop.
One of the students, writer Justin Zhuang, 26, noted: 'Land is so scarce here that there is a constant struggle between people and the state over how land is used. But we hear that the authorities are less strict now (about enforcement).'
And it is not just Singaporeans who are enjoying the use of state land.
Over at Tanah Merah MRT, Indian workers from Tamil Nadu play cricket on the field along New Upper Changi Road.
Safety supervisor Anthony Fernandoss, 24, joins a dozen men every Saturday after work at 5pm. The field is near his workplace in Bedok North and his dormitory in Loyang.
When asked how they all got together, he says with a smile: 'I call my friend, you call your friend.'
Elsewhere, in the shadow of Raffles Hospital and Parkview Square, about 20 men play football on the field on weekends.
Dispatch rider Remy Rahymie, 31, says they play there because 'it's free'.
While some in the group were school friends, others met through their mutual love for another sport, scooter riding.
Some Thai workers 'turned up one day and asked if they could join in' and they have now become regulars, says freelance safety officer Redwan Sumayani, 30.
Their bond extends off the field too - many of them will be attending Mr Remy's forthcoming wedding.
Along Sengkang East Way, opposite Anchorvale Community Centre
Straits Times 28 Feb 10;
It is 2pm on a sweltering Sunday afternoon, but kite enthusiasts are taking up spots on the open fields along Sengkang East Way.
Some are experts, flying kites more than 1m long. Others are children and beginners, who have difficulty getting their smaller kites up in the air.
But soon, colourful kites in many shapes and sizes dot the sky.
Amid all the action, an ice-cream vendor enjoys brisk business.
Picnicking families increase in number as the evening approaches and the time to reel in those high-flying kites draws near.
Compassvale Road
Straits Times 28 Feb 10;
More than 600 ultimate frisbee players have been coming to the field here every weekend to take part in a 10-week frisbee league tournament.
They come from all over Singapore, including Joice Tan, 19, who lives in central Singapore. 'This place is quite convenient because it's next to the LRT station,' says the student.
Although the contest ended last Sunday, you can catch more frisbee action when the players return to the field for the finals next month.
Tanah Merah Kechil Link (next to Tanah Merah MRT)
Straits Times 28 Feb 10;
A cricket bat, some tennis balls and some improvised poles are all that is needed to bring Indian workers from different workplaces and dormitories together.
'We all love cricket,' says safety supervisor Jalaluddin, 28, who has been working here for the last four years.
About a dozen men gather on weekends to play the game that is almost an obsession on the Asian sub-continent. As some play in pants and long-sleeved shirts, others wait their turn on the sidelines, listening to Tamil songs on their mobile phones.
Next to Parkview Square, at the junction of Beach Road and Ophir Road
Straits Times 28 Feb 10;
About 20-odd men have a kickabout every weekend at this field near Bugis MRT. While some of their wives and children watch from the sidelines, the men play beneath darkening skies.
It matters little that the field is bisected by a deep drain and littered with cigarette butts, cans and plastic bottles. Neither do they worry about the danger of the ball being miskicked onto the road.
Only a sudden thunderstorm interrupts the game, causing a scramble for shelter. The game resumes as soon as the rain stops.
Goh Chin Lian, Straits Times 28 Feb 10;
Chinese and Indian foreign workers are the focus of a series of TV commercials aimed at licking the habit of littering and spitting.
And to bridge the cultural gap, the ads take a leaf from Stephen Chow gongfu movies and Kollywood-styled comedies made popular by the Tamil movie industry.
The ads, commissioned by the National Environment Agency (NEA), were first aired in November last year and most recently over the Chinese New Year holidays.
NEA figures show that Singaporeans still make up the larger proportion of litterbugs caught, rising from 62 per cent in 2008 to 71 per cent last year. The share of foreigners has fallen correspondingly from 38 per cent to 29 per cent over the same period.
But the number of litterbugs is still large for both groups. Of those caught last year, 27,572 were Singaporeans and 11,059 were foreigners.
The NEA videos have even made their way to YouTube.
Though they differ in style, they target the pockets of foreign workers. They list the fines for first-time offenders, which are $300 for littering and $150 for spitting. And they tag on this pragmatic message: Is being fined the way to waste your hard-earned money?
The NEA told The Sunday Times: 'Survey findings show that most foreign workers are not aware of the fines.
'As the fine will constitute a large proportion of their salary, it serves as a huge deterrent and thus a motivating factor for not littering or spitting.'
The commercials are part of a comprehensive outreach and education programme to cover both Singaporeans and foreign workers, it added.
Conscious that people may resist a hard sell, the NEA said it chose a 'non-authoritarian' approach for its campaign.
The gongfu-styled ad is set in a back alley in Geylang, featuring a Chinese national who coughs and spits on the ground. His girlfriend wipes her mouth with a tissue and throws it away.
A local man lunges forward and catches the spit with his newspaper, while a local woman launches herself off a wall into the air and catches the tissue with two fingers.
The same message is conveyed in Tamil in a Kollywood-inspired ad, where an Indian man is chased by three other Indian men for tossing a water bottle on the ground.
Mr John Gee, president of Transient Workers Count Too, an advocacy group for migrant workers, does not think the targeted approach is offensive.
Littering has been recognised as a problem among foreign workers, he said.
Smokers, youth and mums too
Straits Times 28 Feb 10;
A new anti-littering campaign is being planned for the middle of this year.
It will target smokers, youth and mothers, the National Environment Agency (NEA) said.
It wants mums to set a good example for their children by placing litter into a bin, according to NEA tender documents obtained by The Sunday Times.
Youths below 35 years old are also a focus because they are prone to littering, based on the NEA's surveys of littering behaviour and enforcement statistics.
Previous studies also show that one in five of Singapore's population litters.
While people are aware that they should not do so, they are unaware of the harmful effects, the NEA said.
It indicated that the campaign should adopt a creative strategy 'that is less authoritarian and top-down' to motivate the target groups.
The campaign dovetails with existing efforts to take the anti-littering message to schoolchildren and the community, including recruiting youths as ambassadors.
The NEA also engages organisers of public events such as marathons, the River Hongbao celebrations and the National Day Parade to keep them litter-free.
Its efforts are bearing fruit.
The average number of plastic bags left behind on each 40-seater bench at the National Day Parade fell from five to eight in 2005, to one to two last year.
PUB opening up new legal fishing spots as the number of anglers caught fishing illegally grows
Teh Joo Lin, Straits Times 28 Feb 10;
At least once a week, often under the cover of darkness, a 26-year-old undergraduate goes fishing at the MacRitchie Reservoir, casting his line at an illegal spot.
The young man, who calls himself a 'professional poacher', takes a 11/2-hour trek through forests with friends, risking snake bites and being caught by park rangers.
Asked why he does not fish at an approved spot at the reservoir, he replied: 'No fish to catch. More and more are fishing illegally because there's a lack of places.'
Indeed, the number of people being netted for illegal fishing is growing. Last year, 488 summons were issued, up from 399 in 2008. In 2007, 336 tickets were handed out.
The infringements mainly concern fishing outside designated areas and using live bait that can pollute the water.
Noting the growing interest in fishing, however, the authorities have also hatched new fishing spots to hook anglers.
A PUB spokesman said another two spots - at the Pandan Reservoir and Jurong Lake - will be up by the second half of the year.
Currently, designated areas exist in the MacRitchie, Lower Peirce, Upper and Lower Seletar, Kranji and Bedok reservoirs, as well as in Jurong Lake.
The new development is part of a long-term blueprint to change waterways into 'beautiful and vibrant community spaces'.
The spokesman said: 'In the future, instead of designating grounds, we will allow fishing at most parts of the reservoir except where it is designated as a non-fishing zone.'
Fishing enthusiasts say some break the law because of overfishing in the sanctioned areas.
Mr Samuel Liu, 28, who runs a commercial fishing pond at Bottle Tree Park in Yishun, said: 'After so long, there's no more fish there. Some people also lay nets, which end up 'spooking off' the fish in the entire area. So people will go and find new spots.'
Another keen angler, lecturer Benjamin Gay, 36, pointed out that the fishes are 'all hiding at the illegal spots'.
But will more legal spots rein in illegal practices?
Sports Fishing Association president Chin Chi Khiong said some anglers are thrill-seekers who deliberately look for spots unknown to others.
'Humans are greedy by nature. If they can catch 100 a day, if they can catch 1,000 a day... very few people will think, 'It's enough'.'
Still, zoo curator Ang Cheng Chye said increasing the number of fishing grounds is a good idea.
This will help 'reduce the likelihood of anglers carving their way through the forests', he said, adding that the forays damage vegetation and disturb wildlife.
He suggested the use of fishing permits to govern the numbers and sizes of fish that can be removed from the reservoirs.
'However, this requires increased manpower to police the areas to prevent abuse of the system,' he said, adding that educating the anglers is also important.
Anglers do not think freeing up more spots for fishing spells bad news for the eco-diversity balance.
For one thing, the younger set of anglers prefer to practise catch-and-release with artificial lures.
No pollutive live bait is used and, as the catch is returned to the water, there is also no danger of depleting stocks, which can hurt the eco-system.
Mr Gay, who usually releases his catch, explained that the thrill lies in the fight with the fish. 'Those who do catch and release have been fishing for a long time. Bringing the fish home and cooking it is no big deal to them.
'You see the fish swim away... It's quite a nice thing to do.'
Some anglers intent on getting better bites are also turning to commercial fishing ponds. There are an estimated five to seven of these here.
Mr N. Mohan, 51, was at one such place at Bottle Tree Park in Yishun two weeks ago.
Speaking after he snared a red-tailed catfish weighing more than 7kg, the self-employed man said: 'I have tried fishing in a reservoir, but it's not exciting.
'Most likely, the designated areas are not infested with fish. Unless you want to go there and fish illegally. But why break the law?'
Additional reporting by Ng Hui Ying
Debby Kwong, Straits Times 28 Feb 10;
Residents complain, but when the pest control companies act, it can be a sorry sight.
Teacher Akiko Ng was on her way to her home in Block 51, Sims Drive when she saw a man pick up a dark object to put into a rubbish bag.
'It looked like a bird. But I dismissed it and thought it was probably a bottle,' Ms Ng, 33, said.
But then the 'object' struggled and flew off. She found out that the man, a pest controller, was clearing away the dead pigeons his team had poisoned.
About 10 pigeons were on the ground, she recalled. It was the first time she had seen pigeons being culled after living in the estate for 31/2 years.
Another Sims Drive resident, Mr Bernard Tan, had written to The Straits Times Forum page last December.
His letter had urged the authorities to adopt a more humane way of controlling the pigeon numbers.
'I was horrified to see several pigeons convulsing,' he wrote, adding that children who had witnessed the scene were 'visibly disturbed' too.
Ms Ng wondered too if there were alternatives to poisoning the pigeons.
In response, Mr Ng Cheng Tee, a senior property manager at Jalan Besar Town Council, which covers Sims Drive, said feeding of the birds was part of the pigeon pest problem. 'We've always urged residents to refrain from feeding the birds,' he said.
He added that there was a signboard on this in the open spaces as well as posters on notice boards at the town council.
He told The Sunday Times that the pest control firms found that poisoning was effective. Fixed methods like bird nets could not be used at different locations.
Mr Ng said about two to three complaints are received each week. They include gripes about the mess left by bird droppings, and concerns about the health hazards to humans.
Infections linked to birds include psittacosis, a bacterial infection of the lungs, which shows pneumonia-like symptoms.
Dr Tan Ai Ling, senior consultant and head of diagnostic bacteriology at the department of pathology, Singapore General Hospital, said: 'All birds, not just pigeons, are potential sources of infection.'
Other town councils also face the same issue: people feeding the birds.
'The leftover food and pigeon droppings are removed during our daily estate cleaning,' said a spokesman for Sembawang Town Council.
The pest control firms said they make an assessment before taking action.
Rentokil's managing director Joseph Ong said bird traps or bird spikes to prevent pigeons from landing on open spaces are some other methods used.
'Bird-proofing or bird-netting are alternative solutions to consider,' he added.
The Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) said pigeons often congregate in areas where there are roosting or feeding opportunities.
'These include hawker centres and places of worship,' said a spokesman for the AVA.
Since 1973, the feeding of pigeons in public places has been banned. Last year, eight people were fined $200 each for the offence. There is no ruling on the feeding of other birds.
Mr Alan Owyong, chairman of the Nature Society of Singapore's Bird Group, wants a longer-term solution, besides using repellents and chemicals.
'The most humane method would be to release them on the outer islands. Some may find their way back to the mainland, but many may die naturally due to scarcity of food, and certainly will not reproduce that fast,' he said.
Poisoning birds an inhumane method
Straits Times 7 Mar 10;
I refer to last Sunday's article, 'Shocked by pigeon culling? Then stop feeding them'.
The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) shares the views of concerned citizens that poisoning of the birds is an inhumane method of population control. Humane alternatives, such as the bird-proofing techniques pointed out in the article, exist.
However, if poisoning continues to be the preferred choice of the authorities, pest control companies and town councils must ensure that the welfare of the birds remains a high priority.
Under no circumstances should a live bird be placed into a bag for disposal. Even if a bird is exhibiting signs of distress or disorientation, it should not be assumed that the amount of poison ingested is sufficient to kill the animal.
In 2008, the SPCA attended a scene of pigeon poisoning, where we retrieved some birds that were having difficulty flying. After a few days under observation, the birds were back to normal.
Had they been left in their environment, they would have been susceptible to road accidents or been attacked by predators, and if they had been disposed of in bags, they would surely have endured much suffering before death.
It is evident that poisoning is an inhumane method which severely compromises the welfare of the birds. We hope the present method can be reviewed as soon as possible to prevent any further suffering.
Leaving dying birds in plain view of the public also serves to desensitise people to the act of killing and the suffering of the animals.
Deirdre Moss (Ms)
Executive Officer
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
Life's precious, stop pigeon culling
Straits Times 7 Mar 10;
In last Sunday's article, 'Shocked by pigeon culling? Then stop feeding them', Jalan Besar Town Council's senior property manager Ng Cheng Tee referred to complaints received about the birds, including concerns about health hazards to humans.
But the question we need to ask is: Has anyone been really ill as a result of exposure to the pigeons?
Singapore General Hospital's Dr Tan Ai Ling was quoted as saying that all birds, not just pigeons, are potential sources of infection.
If simply by being potential sources of infection, the pigeons are deemed to be cullable, should we not also consider fellow human beings cullable when they are sick and would rank higher in terms of the potential to spread diseases?
The teacher Akiko Ng mentioned in the article is my wife. I found her visibly shaken after witnessing the culling of the pigeons.
It was not too long ago when we found an injured pigeon lying on the pavement across the culling site.
In order to save it, we took it to an animal clinic and were prepared to pay for its treatment.
The vet, Dr Hsu, chose not to charge us for its treatment.
In the end, the pigeon did not survive, but we did our part to try to save a precious life.
What an irony it was to us when the town council decided to engage in the act of mass culling of the birds.
We would like to urge the authorities to hear our voices and stop the culling.
Lim Lee Nguan
Desy Nurhayati, The Jakarta Post 25 Feb 10;
The Environment Ministry has issued another warning against palm oil companies that have failed to abide by the environmental standards set under the compliance instrument of the Environmental Performance Rating Program (Proper).
Environment Minister Gusti Muhammad Hatta said Tuesday that companies deemed to have failed in environmental management efforts after two consecutive assessments would be taken to court.
“We will first approach the companies to find out if they face any obstacles in implementing the standards. But if they still fail to comply a second time, we will bring them to court,” Gusti said on the sidelines of the International Palm Oil Conference.
“The 2009 Environmental Protection and Management Law enables us to act more firmly,” he added.
The minister said that out of 209 registered palm oil companies, only 81 were listed on the rating program as of last year.
“Out of the 81 companies, between 60 and 70 percent have earned good ratings, while the remaining are still disobedient.”
The Proper scheme is aimed at improving companies’ commitment to environmental management. The ratings are set in five categories of color.
The highest rating is “Gold”, which is granted to businesses that have successfully conducted environmental management efforts and gained good results.
A “Green” rating is for companies that have made the same effort, but achieved better results.
“Blue” is for companies that have achieved the minimum requirement standard, while “red” is for companies that have achieved a part of the minimum standard. The lowest category of “black” is given to companies that do not engage in any environmental management.
The minister’s deputy, Masnellyarti Hilman, added the minister had already brought several noncompliant firms to court.
“Some of the court rules were in favor of us, but others didn’t meet our expectation.”
The ministry therefore provided training for judges and prosecutors dealing with cases of environmental violation.
Palm oil companies are often blamed for massive forest conversion in many areas across the
archipelago.
Wiwin Effendy, World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) national coordinator of the forest conversion program, said companies should stop converting forest into plantations and make use of degraded or unused lands for expansion.
“There are still many degraded lands available to be developed into palm oil plantations. We have conducted research and found there are more than 1 million hectares of land that meets the ecological requirements for palm oil cropping.”
Agriculture Minister Suswono said the government had issued permits for the development of palm oil estates for 9.7 million hectares.
Yahoo News 27 Feb 10;
FREETOWN (AFP) – Sierra Leone's fragile mangrove ecosystem risks being depleted if steps are not taken, the country's forestry director said Saturday after African countries adopted a plan to save coastal mangrove forests.
"There is (a) need to formulate and implement a sustainable policy... and a need for an integrated approach for the safeguard of the environmental and economic benefits of mangrove resources," Ahmed Mansaray said in a statement broadcast on national radio.
Mansaray spoke a day after Sierra Leone and five other west African countries -- Mauritania, Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Gambia and Guinea -- signed onto an action plan for sustainable mangrove management in Freetown.
Trees and shrubs that grow in saline areas of the tropics and subtropics, mangroves play a key role as nursery areas for fish and shrimp and in stabilising shorelines, environmentalists say.
Mangroves cover about 760,000 hectares (1.9 million acres) of Sierra Leone -- on par with the country's forest cover, according to government statistics.
But rice cultivation, wood cutting and other activities have taken a toll on the country's mangrove ecosystem, experts at the Freetown workshop were quoted as saying.
Worldwide, mangrove forests are among the most threatened tropical ecosystems, with pollution, climate change, overharvesting and overfishing among the factors accounting for their disappearance, according to international conservation group WWF.
Jeanna Bryner, livescience.com 27 Feb 10;
Chile is on a hotspot of sorts for earthquake activity. And so the 8.8-magnitude temblor that shook the capital region overnight was not a surprise, historically speaking. Nor was it outside the realm of normal, scientists say, even though it comes on the heels of other major earthquakes.
One scientist, however, says that relative to a time period in the past, the Earth has been more active over the past 15 years or so.
The Chilean earthquake, and the tsunami it spawned, originated on a hot spot known as a subduction zone, where one plate of Earth's crust dives under another. It's part of the very active "Ring of Fire," a zone of major crustal plate clashes that surround the Pacific Ocean.
"This particular subduction zone has produced very damaging earthquakes throughout its history," said Randy Baldwin, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
The world's largest quake ever recorded, magnitude 9.5, occurred along the same fault zone in May 1960.
Even so, magnitude-8 earthquakes occur globally, on average, just once a year. Since magnitudes are given on a logarithmic scale, an 8.8-magnitude is much more intense than a magnitude 8, and so this event would be even rarer, said J. Ramón Arrowsmith, a geologist at Arizona State University.
Is Earth shaking more?
The Ryukyu Islands of Japan were hit with a 7.0-magnitude quake just last night. News of this, the Haiti quake and now Chile make it seem Earth is becoming ever more active. But in the grand scheme of things, geologists say this is just Mother Nature as usual.
"From our human perspective with our relatively short and incomplete memories and better and better communications around the world, we hear about more earthquakes and it seems like they are more frequent," Arrowsmith said. "But this is probably not any indication of a global change in earthquake rate of significance."
Coupled with better communication, as the human population skyrockets and we move into more hazardous regions, we're going to hear more about the events that do occur, Arrowsmith added.
However, "relative to the 20-year period from the mid 1970's to the mid 1990's, the Earth has been more active over the past 15 or so years," said Stephen S. Gao, a geophysicist at Missouri University of Science & Technology. "We still do not know the reason for this yet. Could simply be the natural temporal variation of the stress field in the earth's lithosphere." (The lithosphere is the outer solid part of the Earth.)
And while the Chilean earthquake wasn't directly related to Japan's 7.0-magnitude temblor, the two have some factors in common.
For one, any seismic waves that did make their way from Japan to the Chilean coast could play a slight role in ground-shaking.
"It is too far away for any direct triggering, and those distances also make the seismic waves as they would pass by from the Haiti or Japan events pretty small because of attenuation," Arrowsmith told LiveScience. (Attenuation is the decrease in energy with distance.) "Nevertheless, if the Chilean fault surface were close to failure, those small waves could push it even closer."
In addition, both regions reside within the Ring of Fire, which is a zone surrounding the Pacific Ocean where the Pacific tectonic plate and other plates dive beneath other slabs of Earth. About 90 percent of the world's earthquakes occur along this arc. (The next most seismic region, where just 5 to 6 percent of temblors occur, is the Alpide belt, which extends from the Mediterranean region eastward.)
Colliding plates
The Chilean earthquake occurred at the boundary between the Nazca and South American tectonic plates. These rocky slabs are converging at a rate of 3 inches (80 mm) per year, according to the USGS. This huge jolt happened as the Nazca plate moved down and landward below the South American plate. This is called a subduction zone when one plate subducts beneath another.
(Over time, the overriding South American Plate gets lifted up, creating the towering Andes Mountains.)
The plate movement explains why coastal Chile has such a history of powerful earthquakes. Since 1973, 13 temblors of magnitude 7.0 or greater have occurred there, according to the USGS.
In fact, today's earthquake originated about 140 miles (230 km) north of the source region of the magnitude 9.5 earthquake of May, 1960, considered the largest instrumentally recorded earthquake in the world.
The 1960 earthquake killed 1,655 people in southern Chile, unleashing a tsunami that crossed the Pacific and killed 61 people in Hawaii, Japan, and the Philippines.
In November 1922, a magnitude-8.5 earthquake occurred about 540 miles (870 km) to the north of the Feb. 27 earthquake, triggering a local tsunami that inundated the Chile coast and crossed the Pacific to Hawaii.
Because the recent one was such a huge earthquake, the shaking would likely have caused just as much damage had a similar-sized event occurred elsewhere, said Baldwin, the USGS scientist.
"If [the quake] were in Los Angeles you'd probably have massive destruction too," Baldwin said in a telephone interview.
Andrea Thompson contributed reporting to this story.
Chile quake wave racing to Asia at jet speed: scientist
Yahoo News 28 Feb 10;
WASHINGTON (AFP) – A tsunami triggered by the powerful quake that rocked Chile was Saturday racing across the Pacific Ocean towards Hawaii and Asia at around 450 miles per hour, a quake expert said.
Estimating the depth of the wave's water column to be around four kilometers (2.4 miles) on average, Roger Bilham, a professor of geological sciences at the University of Colorado, calculated that at mid-ocean, the mass of water would be hurtling toward Hawaii at 200 meters per second, or 720 kilometers per hour (446 mph).
"Mid-ocean, the wave is traveling at around the speed of a jet plane," Bilham told AFP.
"The amplitude of the wave is small when it's mid-ocean, but it may rise to five to 10 meters when it reaches Japan or the Philippines," he said.
A huge arc of nations around the Pacific, from New Zealand to Japan, have gone on tsunami alert, while sirens sounded warnings of destructive waves around Hawaii for the first time in 16 years.
The powerful 8.8-magnitude quake that rattled Chile in the early hours of Saturday occurred offshore in a subduction zone -- the point where two tectonic plates meet and one plunges beneath the other.
The undersea earthquake that set off the 2004 Asian tsunami, which killed some 200,000 people and left hundreds of thousands homeless, was also a subduction earthquake.
"Subduction zone earthquakes produce the world largest tsunamis because the sea floor moves like a piston, heaving 100 kilometer by 50 kilometer (60 miles x 30 miles) or larger regions of sea floor water up or down," Bilham told AFP.
Walls of water of up to four meters (13 feet) crashed ashore in French Polynesia and the Marquesas Islands hours after the quake had rattled Chile.
But the tsunamis caused only minor damage and no casualties as they rampaged across the Pacific, where authorities had sounded warning sirens and urged residents of coastal areas to move to higher ground.
The tidal waves that devastated parts of southern Asia in 2004 struck without warning. It was after that deadly series of monster waves that the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, set up after a tsunami unleashed by a 9.5-magnitude earthquake in Chile in 1960, beefed up its warning system.
"This time, we're ready for the tsunamis. When the waves hit Hawaii, there will be cameras there to catch them," said Bilham.
"This is a huge success," he said.
Tsunami spares US, takes aim at Japan
Mark Niesse and Audrey McAvoy Associated Press Google News 28 Feb 10;
HONOLULU — With a rapt world watching the drama unfold on live television, a tsunami raced across a quarter of the globe on Saturday and set off fears of a repeat of the carnage that caught the world off guard in Asia in 2004.
The tsunami delivered nothing more than a glancing blow to the U.S. and most of the Pacific, but Japan was still bracing for a direct hit and waves up to 10 feet high (3 meters). Scientists worried the giant wave could gain strength as it rounds the planet and consolidates, though the first wave to hit Japan's outlying island's was just 4 inches (10 centimeters) high.
The tsunami was spawned by a ferocious magnitude-8.8 earthquake in Chile that sent waves barreling north across the Pacific at the speed of a jetliner. But Pacific islands had ample time to prepare because the quake struck several thousand miles away.
By the time the tsunami hit Hawaii — a full 16 hours after the quake — officials had already spent the morning ringing emergency sirens, blaring warnings from airplanes and ordering residents to higher ground.
The islands were back to paradise by the afternoon, but residents endured a severe disruption and scare earlier in the day: Picturesque beaches were desolate, million-dollar homes were evacuated, shops in Waikiki were shut down, and residents lined up at supermarkets to stock up on food and at gas stations.
Others parked their cars along higher ground to watch the ocean turbulence, and one brave soul stayed behind and surfed before being urged by an emergency helicopter pilot to get out of the water.
There were no immediate reports of widespread damage, injuries or deaths in the U.S. or in much of the Pacific, but a tsunami that swamped a village on an island off Chile killed at least five people and left 11 missing.
Waves hit California, but barely registered amid stormy weather. A surfing contest outside San Diego went on as planned.
Despite Internet rumors of significant problems in coastal areas of California, no injuries or major property damage occurred.
It was still possible that the tsunami would gain strength again as it heads to Japan. That's what happened in 1960, when a deadly tsunami killed dozens of people in Hilo, Hawaii, then went on to claim some 200 lives in Japan.
Japan and Russia were the only countries left on the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center's watch list, but some countries in Asia and the Pacific — including the Philippines, Australia and New Zealand — said their own warnings would remain in effect as a precaution.
Japan put all of its eastern coastline on alert for a "major" tsunami Sunday and ordered hundreds of thousands of residents in low-lying areas to seek higher ground. It was the first such alert for Japan's coasts in nearly 20 years.
Hawaii had originally prepared to bear the brunt of the damage, but the tsunami was smaller than anticipated.
"We dodged a bullet," said Gerard Fryer, a geophysicist for the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii.
The tsunami initially raised fears that the Pacific could fall victim to the type of killer waves that killed 230,000 people in the Indian Ocean in 2004 the morning after Christmas. During that disaster, there was little to no warning and much confusion about the impending waves.
Officials said the opposite occurred after the Chile quake: They overstated their predictions for the size of the waves and the threat.
"We expected the waves to be bigger in Hawaii, maybe about 50 percent bigger than they actually were," Fryer said. "We'll be looking at that."
The Navy moved more than a half dozen vessels to try to avoid damage from the tsunami. A frigate, three destroyers and two smaller vessels were being sent out of Pearl Harbor and a cruiser out of Naval Base San Diego, the Navy said.
The tsunami caused a series of surges in Hawaii that were about 20 minutes apart, and the waves arrived later and smaller than originally predicted. The highest wave at Hilo measured 5.5 feet (1.7 meters) high, while Maui saw some as high as 6.5 feet (2 meters).
Water began pulling away from shore off Hilo Bay on the Big Island just before noon, exposing reefs and sending dark streaks of muddy, sandy water offshore. Waves later washed over Coconut Island, a small park off Hilo's coast.
"We've checked with each county. There was no assessment of any damage in any county, which was quite remarkable," said Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle. "It's just wonderful that nothing happened and no one was hurt or injured."
Officials in Tonga and the Samoas evacuated coastal residents and used radio, television and mobile phone text messages to alert residents.
Sea surges hit 6.5 feet (2 meters) at several places in New Zealand. Waters at Tutukaka, a coastal dive spot near the top of the North Island, looked like a pot boiling with the muddy bottom churning up as sea surges built in size through the morning, sucking sea levels below low water marks before surging back.
A nude photo shoot involving scores of people scheduled for the coastline near the capital, Wellington, was canceled by the tsunami threat before any of the volunteers could strip.
Past South American earthquakes have had deadly effects across the Pacific.
A tsunami after a magnitude-9.5 quake that struck Chile in 1960, the largest earthquake ever recorded, killed about 140 people in Japan, 61 in Hawaii and 32 in the Philippines. It was about 3.3 to 13 feet (1 to 4 meters) in height, Japan's Meteorological Agency said.
Associated Press writers Jaymes Song and Greg Small in Honolulu; Kristen Gelineau in Sydney, Chris Havlik in Phoenix, Ray Lilley in Wellington, New Zealand; Eric Talmadge in Tokyo; Alan Clendenning in Sao Paulo, Brazil; Tiphaine Issele in Papette, French Polynesia; Pauline Jelinek in Washington; and Charmaine Noronha in Toronto contributed to this report.
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