Best of our wild blogs: 14 Apr 10

I and the Tiger: you CAN make a difference for tigers
from Celebrating Singapore's BioDiversity!

Ocean Conservancy releases the 2010 ICC Report “Trash Travels”: From Our Hands to the Sea, Around the Globe, and Through Time” from News from the International Coastal Cleanup Singapore and habitatnews

Here Is Something Green and No It Is Not A Chameleon
from Life's Indulgences

"World Atlas of Marine Fauna" - First Impressions
from ashira

A Crabby Issue!
from Ecological observations in Singapore and Dragonflies a good indicator and The Teddy Bears of Rocky Shores and Bats, not as bad as you think and The Bully in Singapore

stork billed kingfisher @ SBWR
from sgbeachbum

Brownie points
from The annotated budak and live and let leaf

Brown-throated Sunbird seeking out micro-moth pupae
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Temurun Waterfall Now Is DAMMED!
from Nature Is Awesome

Last days
from Rhinomania

$6B forest conservation plan lacking in transparency, indigenous participation, say activists from Mongabay.com news

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Mangroves may vanish in 100 years

World's mangrove species are threatened by rising sea levels and coastal developments
Grace Chua Straits Times 14 Apr 10;

MANGROVE expert Jean Yong was strolling with his wife along Pasir Ris beach in 2003 when he chanced upon a delightful find.

The National Institute of Education plant physiologist had spotted a mangrove plant he could not identify.

The mystery mangrove turned out to be a Bruguiera hainesii or berus mata buaya (crocodile eye in Malay and named for the big knob-like protrusions on its tree trunks), one of the two rarest mangrove species in the world, with just two plants left in Singapore. The other is at Pulau Ubin.

The other rare species is the Sonneratia griffithii found in India and South-east Asia. It has not been found in Singapore.

There are fewer than 90 adult Bruguiera hainesii trees left worldwide: four in Vietnam and some 80 in Malaysia, and conservation organisation the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) considers them 'critically endangered'.

And it gets worse: The world's 70 species of mangroves, which are located along coastlines, may be set to get rarer, as they are threatened by sea-level rise and coastal developments. They are also being cleared for aquaculture such as prawn farms.

Effectively, mangrove forests may disappear in just 100 years. That is what Assistant Professor Yong and 20 other mangrove experts and IUCN scientists have warned about, in a report published last week in international biology journal PLoS ONE.

'Mangroves are at the worst place in the world - the transition between coastal and marine habitats, which face the most pressure,' Asst Prof Yong said.

By expert estimates, these tidal wetland ecosystems provide at least US$1.6 billion (S$2.2 billion) worth of services a year, such as protecting coastlines from erosion, improving water quality and providing habitats for commercial fish species.

Here, they can buffer the coastline from waves more effectively than concrete berms, and are home to snails, mudskippers, crabs and the birds that feed on these swamp-dwellers.

Singapore has about 500ha to 600ha of mangrove area, mainly at Sungei Buloh and Pulau Ubin, and with pockets at Labrador Park, Pasir Ris and other areas.

That figure is on the rise as conservation projects take root, but it is still a tiny fraction of the 6,400ha of mangroves the country had in 1953.

There are 36 species of 'true' mangroves (trees which usually grow only in tidal habitats) here, or just over half of all known species.

And what of the very rare Bruguiera hainesii trees here? The National Parks Board (NParks) is monitoring the health of Singapore's two specimens and its staff prune weeds around them to let sunlight through.

NParks' care is not limited to the rarest mangroves - it collects and cultivates young plants of 10 or so rare species, which are then replanted in national parks and reserves, explained Dr Lena Chan, deputy director of NParks' National Biodiversity Centre.

It will take time to see results, however.

Bruguiera hainesii are the 'slow giants' of the mangrove world, Asst Prof Yong said.

They grow up to 33m and may live as long as 300 years, but the seedlings grow less than 30cm a year.

So while reforestation of mangrove areas is an option, the paper's authors write, it is usually successful only when large numbers of fast-growing species are planted - other rare and slow-growing species cannot be replanted easily.

'Mangrove areas may be able to be rehabilitated in some regions, but species and ecosystems cannot be effectively restored.'

Related links

• Singapore is home to the rarest mangrove in the world! from Celebrating Singapore's BioDiversity!
• Mangroves of the world and Singapore from wild shores of singapore
• IUCN Red List Categories for Mangrove Species from Habitatnews

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World Marine Debris Totals 10 Million Pieces In 1-Day Cleanup

Deborah Zabarenk, PlanetArk 14 Apr 10;

More than 10 million pieces of trash were plucked from the world's waterways in a single day last year. But for Philippe Cousteau, the beach sandals that washed up in the Norwegian arctic symbolized the global nature of the problem of marine debris.

"We saw flip-flops washing ashore on these islands in far northern Norway near the Arctic Circle," Cousteau, a conservationist and grandson of famed oceanographer Jacques Cousteau, said in a telephone interview.

Cousteau was commenting on marine debris statistics released Tuesday by the Ocean Conservancy group.

"People don't wear flip-flops in the Arctic, at least not if they're sane," Cousteau said. "I think people are starting ... to realize that this is a global problem."

The report detailed the amount and kind of trash that volunteers gathered on one day in 2009 along coastlines of six continents and the banks of inland waterways, stressing that as much as 80 percent of marine litter starts on land.

"Trash travels, and no beach, lakeshore or riverfront is untouched -- no matter how remote," Vikki Spruill, Ocean Conservancy's CEO, wrote in the report's introduction.

Last year, 10,239,538 pieces of junk were retrieved from shorelines on one day, September 19, 2009, by about half a million volunteers in the conservancy's annual international coastal cleanup. This year's cleanup day is September 25.

More than 40 percent of that total was collected in the United States, including everything from bottle caps and plastic six-pack holders to cigarette butts, washing machines, construction materials, diapers, condoms and medical waste. The United States had the most volunteers, nearly triple the number in the Philippines, which had the second-most.

Nearly 20 percent of the items collected threaten public health, including bacteria-laden medical waste, appliances, cars and chemical drums, the report said. Some debris is a threat to marine animals, which can become tangled in dumped fishing nets and line or ingest floating plastic junk.

As plastics break down in the oceans, they look a lot like organisms called plankton that form the base of the food chain, Cousteau said.

"Fish and other animals are ingesting them and in so doing ingesting the toxins that these plastics absorb," he said. "And then guess who eats the fish?"

Cousteau said these plastics contain high levels of dioxins, PCBs and other chemicals that can affect hormones, and also lack any nutritional value, so marine creatures can die with stomachs full of plastic.

(Editing by Will Dunham)

Related links
Ocean Conservancy releases the 2010 ICC Report “Trash Travels”: From Our Hands to the Sea, Around the Globe, and Through Time” from News from the International Coastal Cleanup Singapore and habitatnews

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Indonesian government drops designating plantations as forests

Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post 14 Apr 10;

The forestry ministry dropped its controversial initiative to classify oil palm plantations as forests after strong protests from environmental activists on fears that it would speed up deforestation.

The statement was made by the ministry’s head of research and development Tachrir Fathoni on the sidelines of a seminar on Indonesian forestry following the Copenhagen climate talks.

“We have dropped it. No more talk about it,” he told reporters on Tuesday.

He said the ministry acknowledged that any changes on forest definitions should be made by amending the 1999 forest law.

The law defines forest as an integrated ecosystem in the form of land comprising biological resources, dominated by trees in natural forms and surrounding environment, and which cannot be separated from each other.

The same statement was also made by Nur Masripatin, the ministry’s director of the center for social economics and policy research.

“Indonesia will not include palm plantations as part of forest although some countries have done it,” she said on the sideline of seminar.

Malaysia, the second largest producer of palm oil after Indonesia, uses the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) standard to identify forest — which is land with tree crown cover of more than 10 percent and an area of more than 0.5 hectares with trees reaching a minimum height of five meters.

The forestry ministry planned to draft a ministerial decree to include oil palm plantations as forest after the Copenhagen meeting.

But a group of activists from Greenpeace Indonesia and the Indonesian Environmental Forum (Walhi) criticized the government over its plans accusing the authorities of not being serious on promises to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Greenpeace Indonesia then put a giant banner at the ministry of forestry building reading “plantations are not forests”.

Greenpeace said inclusion of ‘plantations’ in the definition of forests, would lead to massive concealment of emissions from the destruction of peat land and forests.

On Tuesday, Walhi welcomed the decision from the government to drop the plan.

“The ministry’s decision to not include plantations in forest is correct, the most important thing
now is the ministry should exclude the industrial forest concessions (HTI) as part of the forest,” Walhi’s forest campaign director, Teguh Surya.

HTI usually carries monoculture plants like acacia for paper mills.

He said that the ministry should also audit the existing oil palm plantations which converted forest areas without permits.

“Forestry Minister [Zulkilfli Hasan] should gather the courage to withdraw the licenses of oil palm plantations operating in forest areas,” he said.
The Agriculture Ministry earlier said it planned to use 1.8 million hectares of land designated as industrial forests (HTI) for oil palm plantations.
Agriculture Minister Suswono said that of 9.7 million hectares
of land available for oil palm
plantation, some 7.9 million hectares was already developed, leaving
1.8 million hectares designated as HTI.

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Fifty two million hectares of Indonesia's forests damaged

Antara 14 Apr 10;

Karanganyar, C Java (ANTARA News) - Fifty two million hectares of forests in Indonesia are damaged to the extent of 40 percent.

Chairman of the Lestari Forest Circle Agus Sudarto made the statement during a planting campaign in a Karanganyar square, Central Java on Tuesday.

"Let us make a success of Planting One Billion Trees," he said, adding that the forestry ministry allocated Rp 2 trillion for reforestation this year.

The planting one billion trees movement began from the Bengawan Solo, Siliwung, and Citarum river basins as these area have become seriously damaged and deforested.

"The three river basins are in a very critical condition, and unless restored to normal soon, these areas will be facing floods during the rainy season, as what had happened recently to Ciliwung and Citarum river basins," he said.

It has been decided to prioritize the restoration of the Bengawan Solo river basin, as the population living along the river flow is very dense.

The reforestation of Bengawan Solo river basin will be centered in Karanganyar by planting 2,000 highly fertile and productive seedlings, like mango, durian and others.

To support the project, Karanganyar will not only have 2,000 trees, but four million this year, Karanganyar Regent, Rina Iriani said.

Toughing on tree felling, Ria Iriani said the Karanganyar administration has stopped issuing permits for the felling of forests in the past few years, both those of state forestry company Perhutani and those owned by individuals.(*)

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Illegal trade in whale meat points to Japan: DNA study

Yahoo News 14 Apr 10;

PARIS (AFP) – Whale meat sold secretly at a sushi restaurant in Los Angeles and another in Seoul can be linked to Japanese whaling, a trade that would breach global rules on protected species, scientists said Wednesday.

Japan carries out whaling under what it says is a programme of scientific research, although it does not hide the fact that the meat is later sold in Japanese shops and restaurants.

But trading this meat is not allowed with countries that have signed provisions protecting whales under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

The allegation is made in a genetic study published in Biology Letters, a peer-reviewed journal by the Royal Society, Britain's academy of sciences.

Its authors include activists who went undercover last year to acquire whale meat at a restaurant in Los Angeles called The Hump and another, unnamed, restaurant in the South Korean capital.

Caught in a massive media glare and investigation by the local authorities, The Hump has since closed down. Its owners face up to a year in prison and a 200,000-dollar fine, and its chef a fine of up to 100,000 dollars.

The new study confirmed that strips of raw meat purchased at The Hump had identical DNA sequences to sei whale meat previously bought in Japan in 2007 and 2008.

"Since the international moratorium on commercial (whale) hunting (in 1986), there has been no other known source of sei whales available commercially other than in Japan," said lead author Scott Baker, a professor and associate director of the Marine Mammal Institute at Oregon State University.

Thirteen whale products were also purchased on two occasions in June and September 2009 at the Seoul restaurant, said the paper.

Four came from an Antarctic minke whale, four from a sei whale, three from a North Pacific minke, one from a fin whale and one was from a Risso's dolphin.

The DNA profile of the fin whale meat genetically matched meat that had been bought in Japanese markets in 2007.

"Since the international moratorium, it has been assumed that there is no international trade in whale products," Baker said in a press release.

"But when products from the same whale are sold in Japan in 2007 and Korea in 2009, it suggests that international trade, though illegal, is still an issue.

"Likewise, the Antarctic minke whale is not found in Korean waters, but it is hunted by Japan's controversial scientific whaling programme in the Antarctic. How did it show up in a restaurant in Seoul?"

In addition to marine biologists, the study's authors include Louie Psihoyos, director of the Oscar-nominated documentary movie "The Cove," portraying the annual killing of dolphins in a Japanese bay.

Baker said he had filed a request to the Japanese government for access to a DNA register of caught whales in order to help genetic tracking of illegally-traded whale meat.

Under CITES, whales are listed on Appendix 1, which means they cannot be traded internationally for commercial purposes.

Japan, Iceland and Norway maintain "reservations" on the trading of some whales under Annex 1. However, these exceptions do not allow trading with countries that do not hold CITES "reservations," which include South Korea and the US.

Japan's Fisheries Agency announced on Monday it had killed 507 whales in its latest annual hunt in Antarctica, compared with 680 last year and a target of 850.

It blamed the fall on clashes at sea with a militant environmental group, Sea Shepherd.

Japanese whalers blame Sea Shepherd for smallest catch in years
Fleet of ships returns home with 507 whales, short of 935 target, and says conservation group sabotaged hunt
Justin McCurry, guardian.co.uk 13 Apr 10;

Japan's whaling ships have returned from the Southern Ocean with their smallest catch in years, prompting the fleet's leader to blame harassment by the Sea Shepherd marine conservation group for the shortfall.

The Nisshin Maru, the fleet's mother ship, returned to Tokyo harbour yesterday with just 507 whales, a little over half the target catch of 935, according to the fisheries agency. The haul of minke whales and a single finback was well down on last year's catch of 680.

The fleet said Sea Shepherd's attempts to sabotage the hunt had deprived it of 31 days' whaling.

The annual confrontation between the two groups reached its height in January with the sinking of Sea Shepherd's high-tech powerboat, the Ady Gil, after a collision with the Shonan Maru 2 harpoon boat.

The speedboat's skipper, Peter Bethune, later boarded the Shonan Maru 2 to carry out a citizen's arrest of the captain and hand over a £2m bill for the destruction of the Ady Gil. The 45-year-old New Zealander could face a lengthy prison term after being indicted by Japanese authorities on five charges, including trespassing and assault.

The whalers used water canon and a sonic crowd control device to deter Sea Shepherd, whose crew responded by hurling rancid-butter bombs.

The whaling fleet's leader, Shigetoshi Nishiwaki, said he was "furious" with Sea Shepherd for preventing it from reaching its quota during the five-month season.

"They say they protect the sea, but they don't care about leaking oil or leaving pieces of a boat behind," he said, in a reference to the stricken Ady Gil.

This winter's catch fell one short of the total for 2006-7 season, when the fleet returned home early after a fire broke out aboard the Nissin Maru.

Japan is permitted to slaughter the whales for "scientific research" thanks to a clause in the International Whaling Commission's 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling.

As the commission prepares to meet in Morocco in June, Japan has proposed scaling back its Antarctic hunts in return for permission to step up its coastal whaling activities.

Australia, which opposes the move, has threatened to take Japan to the international court of justice unless its ends its annual hunts in the Southern Ocean, in the Antarcatic region.

The whale wars will continue in Japan with the resumption of the trial of two Greenpeace activists charged with theft and trespassing while investigating alleged embezzlement by the whaling fleet. Toru Suzuki and Junichi Sato could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison if found guilty. A ruling is expected in June.

Greenpeace said yesterday it had called on Japanese authorities to reopen an investigation into its allegations of widespread corruption in the programme.

"Our initial allegations have been repeatedly upheld by industry insiders," Sato said. "It is time for the cover-ups, the lies, the corruption and the squandering of taxpayers' money to end."

The group said negligible demand for whale meat in Japan had created a 4,455-ton stockpile, adding that this year's catch would send another 1,800 tons into frozen storage.

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Counting the cost of alien invasions

Achim Steiner, BBC Green Room 12 Apr 10;

Far too many governments have failed to grasp the scale of the threat from invasive species, warns UN Environment Programme's executive director Achim Steiner. In this week's Green Room, he issues a call to arms to halt the alien invasion.

Ask an Asian rice farmer about a brown or green-coloured snail, some 10cm in length, and you could well be asking about sinister creatures from Mars.

The golden apple snail has become a scourge in the paddy fields, damaging a staple crop as a result of its voracious appetite and costing a small fortune to control via environmentally questionable chemicals.

The mollusc is among literally tens of thousands of life-forms classed as alien invasive species.

They are thought to be harming the global economy to the tune of $1.4 trillion (£913bn) a year, if not far more.

Free from natural predators and checks and balances, alien invaders - like the golden apple snail - can experience massive population surges in their new homes.

Native species are ousted, waterways and power station intakes clogged. Aliens also bring infections including viruses and bacteria, while poisoning soils and damaging farmland.

Invasive action

Some governments, such as New Zealand, are facing up to the challenge with tough customs controls on foreign plants and animals.

South Africa has well-funded removal programmes aimed at, for example, conserving the unique Cape Floral Kingdom and its economically-important nature-based tourist attractions.

But far too many countries have failed to grasp the scale of the threat, or are far too casual in their response.

In the British novelist HG Wells' celebrated science-fiction saga, The War of the Worlds, aliens invaded in space ships to wreak havoc and mayhem.

In the real world they are spread from one continent to another via the global agricultural, horticultural, aquaria and pet trades - or by hitchhiking lifts in ballast water and on ships' hulls.

The rice-consuming golden apple snail is thought to been brought to Asia from Latin America in the 1980s as an aquarium pet and a gourmet food.

After the snails proved less than popular for diners, importers released the creatures and perhaps their eggs into Asia's rivers and lakes, from where they spread to about a dozen countries including Japan.

True cost

The "red tides" seen, for example, in Europe's North Sea and linked with fish kills are blooms of algae brought accidentally in ballast water from the seas off China.

Alien invasive species also challenge the UN's poverty-related Millennium Development Goals.

Take water hyacinth as one example; a native of the Amazon basin, it was brought to continents like Africa to decorate ornamental ponds with its attractive violet flowers.

But there is nothing attractive about its impacts on Lake Victoria, where it is thought to have arrived in about 1990, travelling down the Kigera River from Rwanda and Burundi.

Hyacinth can explode into a floating blanket, affecting shipping, reducing fish catches, hampering electricity generation and human health.

The plant has now invaded more than 50 countries around the world and annual costs to the Ugandan economy alone may be $112m (£73m).

In sub-Saharan Africa, the invasive witchweed is responsible for annual maize losses amounting to $7bn.

Overall losses to aliens may amount to more than $12bn in respect to Africa's eight principle crops.

Damage to river banks in Italy by the introduced copyu rodent, brought in from Latin America for fur, is estimated at $2.8m annually, according to data compiled by the Global Invasive Species Programme (GISP).

In the Philippines, the golden apple snail causes damage to the rice crop of up to $45m.

The challenge is both a developed and developing economy one, but perhaps the true scale is perhaps only now unfolding.

Scientists with the Delivering Alien Species Inventories for Europe (DAISIE) say there are now 11,000 invaders in Europe, of which 15% cause economic damage and threaten native flora and fauna.

Meanwhile, climate change is also likely to favour some alien species currently constrained by local temperatures.

Scientists have termed them "sleepers" - foreign agents who become embedded in a community to be activated some years later. Rainbow trout, introduced into the UK, is a case in point.

In the War of the Worlds, the Martians were defeated by an Earthly infection - perhaps a bout of flu - to which they had no resistance. Real world aliens are often made of sterner stuff.

Fighting back

Improved international co-operation is needed alongside support for initiatives, such as GISP, and the work of organisations like the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

It is important too to boost the capacity of the responsible national customs, quarantine and scientific institutes able to provide early warning, especially in developing countries alongside strengthening agreements under the UN's International Maritime Organization (IMO).

Improved management of affected habitats can also assist. There is some evidence that introducing a variety of native freshwater plants into a golden apple snail-infested site can reduce impacts on the rice crop.

This year, the Japanese government will host the Unep-linked Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

2010 is when the international community is supposed to have reduced the rate of loss of the world's biodiversity. Raising awareness among policymakers and the public, and accelerating a comprehensive response via the CBD, when governments meet in Nagoya later this year, is long overdue.

As the economy recovers, global trade including via shipping, will resume the risk of further invasions.

Alien invasive species are part of the overall biodiversity challenge; for too long they have been given an easy ride.

Achim Steiner is UN Under-Secretary General and executive director of the UN Environment Programme (Unep)

The Green Room is a series of opinion articles on environmental topics running weekly on the BBC News website

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Study Shows Wild Birds Could Spread Avian Flu

Maggie Fox, PlanetArk 14 Apr 10;

Wild ducks that are immune to the effects of H5N1 avian influenza could be spreading the virus far and wide, U.S. government researchers said on Monday.

Satellite tracking of migrating northern pintail ducks showed they flew from a bird flu-infected marsh in Japan to nesting areas in Russia, said the scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey and the University of Tokyo said.

The study does not prove the pintails carried the virus, but the species can be infected with H5N1 with no ill effects.

H5N1 bird flu has been circulating in Asia and the Middle East, with occasional outbreaks in Europe, since 2003. It rarely infects people but when it does it is deadly: the World Health Organization has documented 493 cases and 292 deaths.

It wipes out chickens, who have no immunity, and some other bird species and can seriously damage poultry farms. Experts fear it has the potential to cause a human flu pandemic that would be much worse than the H1N1 swine flu pandemic.

Experts have argued about whether wild birds, spread the virus, or the poultry trade, or both.

Writing in the journal Ibis, the researchers described how they attached satellite transmitters to 92 northern pintail ducks several months before the H5N1 virus was discovered in dead and dying whooper swans in a wetlands in Japan.

Twelve percent of marked pintails used the same wetlands as infected swans. Then some of them migrated more than 2,000 miles to nesting areas in eastern Russia.

Birds can spread flu viruses orally and in their droppings.

"Consequently, infected wild birds that do not become ill, or birds that shed the virus before they become ill, may contribute to the spread of H5N1," said Jerry Hupp of the

USGS.

USGS scientists have been testing birds in Alaska, considered a potential place where H5N1 could enter the Americas from Asia. So far, no case of highly pathogenic H5N1 has been found in either birds or people in the Americas.

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Oil spill from coal-carrying ship threatens turtles in Orissa, India

Debabrata Mohanty India Express 12 Apr 10;

A coal-carrying Indian ship sailing from Indonesia that hit a berth at Gopalpur port in Ganjam district of Orissa on Monday started leaking oil endangering the lakhs of eggs of marine Olive Ridley turtles on Rushikulya beach.

The fuel oil leaked from the M V Malavika after it hit the berth yesterday, director of Gopalpur port Manmohan Maharana said.

As a result, a huge oil slick washed up on the Rushikulya river mouth since the early hours of today. Heavy oil was also found floating near the beach and some of it has washed ashore on the sands on the nesting grounds at Gokharkuda and Kantigada beaches where more than 1,00,000 of the endangered Olive Ridley turtles had nested last month.

Fishermen who had gone fishing in the early hours of today first reported the oil clogging their nets. They had to return without fishing.

Gopalpur port director said the situation is under control with both port and Coast Guard personnel working to stop any oil spill. "The entire fuel oil from the ship was transferred to a tanker within an hour," he said.

However, environmentalists said the oil spill could be a threat to Chilika lake as the oil may enter the lake through Palur canal from Rushikulya river.

"There could be irreversible damage to the eggs and the sea turtle population which are still present at the offshore waters. Marine fauna which are food for the turtles will be severely affected. Oil can be ingested by the turtles which are present now in the offshore waters leading to their death. Dolphins can be affected by the oil spills," alleged marine turtle expert Biswajit Mohanty.

The Chief Wildlife Warden of Orissa and the Orissa State Disaster Management Authority (OSDMA) have been alerted about this marine disaster and urged to take immediate mitigation measures. Mohanty said the spilled oil has to be recovered so that there is no adverse effect on the turtle eggs or the marine fauna.

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Great Barrier Reef could take 20 years to recover from grounding

Kristen Gelineau The Independent 14 Apr 10;

A coal carrier, which ran aground and leaked oil on the Great Barrier Reef, cut a two-mile-long scar into the shoal and may have smeared paint which will prevent marine life from growing back, it was revealed yesterday.

Even if severe toxic contamination is not found at the site, initial assessments by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority indicate it could take 20 years for the world's largest coral reef to recover.

The marine park authority's chief scientist, David Wachenfeld, said: "There is more damage to this reef than I have ever seen in any previous Great Barrier Reef groundings." In some areas, "all marine life has been completely flattened and the structure of the shoal has been pulverised by the weight of the vessel," Mr Wachenfeld added.

The Chinese coal ship, the Shen Neng 1, veered into protected waters and slammed into a shoal on 3 April. Coral shredded part of its hull, causing a leak of about three tonnes of fuel oil, which was later dispersed by chemical sprays and is believed to have caused little or no damage to the reef. Small amounts of oil, however, have begun washing up on beaches near where the ship ran aground, according to Maritime Safety Queensland.

Australian authorities are investigating alleged breaches of the law connected with the accident. The Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, has warned that cargo ships entering restricted waters would face the full force of the law.

The reef was hit particularly badly because the vessel did not stay in one place once it grounded. Instead, tides and currents pushed it along the reef, crushing and smearing potentially toxic paint on to coral and plants, he said.

Shen Neng 1 has now been lifted off the reef after crews spent three days pumping fuel from the ship to lighten it.

The Great Barrier Reef is a World Heritage site because of its gleaming waters and environmental value as home to thousands of marine species.

China ship 'gouged two-mile scar' in Great Barrier Reef
Talek Harris Yahoo News 13 Apr 10;

SYDNEY (AFP) – A Chinese ship that spent nine days stranded on the Great Barrier Reef gouged a three-kilometre (two-mile) scar in the coral that could take decades to recover, a top expert said on Tuesday.

David Wachenfeld, chief scientist at the body overseeing the heritage-listed marine park, said the Shen Neng 1 coal carrier had been grinding against and crushing the reef after it veered off course and smashed into it on April 3.

Officials have expressed anger over the incident and accused the crew of the ship, which was refloated late on Monday and towed away, of taking an illegal route.

"This is by far the largest ship grounding scar we have seen on the Great Barrier Reef to date," Wachenfeld told public broadcaster ABC.

"This vessel did not make an impact in one place and rest there and then was pulled off. This scar is more in the region of three kilometres long and up to 250 metres (yards) wide."

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd called the accident, which also leaked about two tonnes of fuel oil into the pristine seas, an "absolute outrage".

"It is still an absolute outrage that this vessel could've landed on the Great Barrier Reef," he said. "We will leave no stone unturned when it comes to finding out how that happened."

An approaching storm hurried authorities into refloating the 230-metre (750 feet) ship -- the length of two football pitches -- after nightfall on Monday. They pumped compressed air into its bunkers and pulled it free using tugboats.

Officials said the rescue had been carried out without adding to the initial oil spill, which created a three-kilometre slick.

Divers were due to assess damage to the ship, still carrying 68,000 tonnes of China-bound coal, which has been towed to a nearby island.

But concern on Tuesday focused on the plight of the reef, which was also left plastered with toxic anti-fouling paint from the ship's hull.

Divers "have found significant scarring and coral damage. They've also found quite a lot of anti-fouling (paint) spread across the reef," Russell Reichelt, chairman of the marine park authority, told ABC radio.

"It is a concern because it's designed to be toxic and stop things growing on ships. We've already seen observations where anti-fouling paint that's been scraped off onto the reef is killing corals in its vicinity."

Officials have promised to investigate allegations that ships have been taking short-cuts through the world's biggest reef, which covers 344,000 square kilometres (137,600 square miles) off the east coast and is a major tourist draw.

On Monday, three crew members from another large carrier appeared in court on charges of entering a restricted part of the reef without permission, and were bailed to reappear on Friday.

Conservationists say the incidents highlight the risk to Australia's environment posed by rocketing resource exports to Asia, which are fuelling a strong recovery from the global financial crisis.

The reef, which is visible from space and is one of the world's foremost ecological treasures, has already come under pressure from rising sea temperatures and pollution.

Chinese Coal Ship Refloated From Australian Reef
Rob Taylor, PlanetArk 14 Apr 10;

Australian salvage teams have refloated a Chinese coal ship which ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef, with the ship's owner likely to face heavy fines despite the avoidance of an environmental disaster.

Chinese bulk carrier Shen Neng 1 was fully loaded and traveling at full speed on Saturday when it struck the Douglas Shoal, toward the southern end of the protected reef, which covers 346,000 sq km (133,600 sq miles) off the northeast coast.

The ship, which leaked around two tons of heavy fuel oil, was refloated at high tide on Monday night and towed to safe anchorage near Great Keppel Island, a tourist resort, for a damage inspection.

"Until we get divers down you can't be totally certain how damaged this thing is underneath," said Queensland state Transport Minister Rachel Nolan on Tuesday.

The stranded ship belongs to the Shenzhen Energy Group, a subsidiary of China's state-owned China Ocean Shipping (Group) Company, better known by its acronym COSCO.

COSCO could face fines and costs of up to A$23 million dollars ($21.3 million) over the incident, according to international maritime law experts, while the vessel's captain could be handed an individual penalty of up to A$250,000.

"Make no mistake, this company will pay a very substantial price for this incident," Nolan told Australian radio. "Their ship was off course in very environmentally sensitive areas and they will pay the price."

Police have launched an investigation into the ship's grounding on the request of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, which manages the reef marine reserve.

Park chairman Russell Reichelt said toxic anti-fouling paint from the coal carrier's hull was killing coral and the ship had torn a kilometer-long gash in the reef.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd flagged tougher shipping laws as resource exports from Queensland state intensify. The Queensland state government has already moved to introduce stronger penalties for polluting ships.

(Editing by Mark Bendeich)

Australia refloats Barrier Reef oil spill ship
Talek Harris Yahoo News 12 Apr 10;

SYDNEY (AFP) – Australian authorities refloated a huge Chinese ship on Monday that had been stranded on the Great Barrier Reef for over a week after running aground, averting a potential environmental crisis.

Emergency workers successfully moved the 230-metre (750-foot) Shen Neng 1 coal carrier without adding to the two-tonne oil spill that spread a three-kilometre (two-mile) slick after the ship crashed on April 3.

The general manager of Marine Safety Queensland, Patrick Quirk, confirmed that no more oil had been lost and said the ship was being towed to an area east of Great Keppel Island, Australian news agency AAP reported.

"The refloat was a success. Salvors spent an hour-and-a-half assessing the vessel's stability and watching for any evidence of further oil spills," he said.

"Our intention has always been to keep oil loss to a minimum so we could take it to safe anchorage."

Emergency workers had pumped most of the 970 tonnes of heavy fuel oil from the vessel before they were forced to rush the after-dark refloating due to approaching stormy weather and high seas.

Once the ship has been safely anchored, divers will inspect its hull so that a decision can be made on its future movement, Quirk said.

Australia's transport minister has accused the ship's crew of taking an illegal route at the heritage-listed reef, by far the world's biggest, and said prosecutors would be "throwing the book" at those responsible.

The ship strayed about 15 nautical miles from the recognised shipping lane before ploughing into Douglas Shoal at full speed, sustaining heavy damage.

Australian officials immediately promised to investigate allegations that ships were taking short-cuts through the giant reef, which sprawls along 1,800 miles of coast and is a major tourist attraction.

On Monday, three crew members from another large carrier appeared in court on charges of entering a restricted part of the reef without permission, and were bailed to reappear on Friday.

South Korean Gang Chun Han, the 63-year-old master of the Panama-flagged MV Mimosa, and Vietnam's Tran Tan Thanh and Nguyen Van Sang face maximum fines of 225,000 dollars (205,000 US).

Conservationists say the incidents highlight the risk to Australia's environment posed by rocketing resource exports to Asia, which are fuelling a strong recovery from the global financial crisis.

The reef, which is visible from space and is one of the world's foremost ecological treasures, has already come under pressure from rising sea temperatures and pollution.

The government of the northeastern state of Queensland on Monday announced dramatically increased penalties for oil spills on the Great Barrier Reef, including fines of up to 10 million dollars.

The accident comes after a ruptured cargo ship leaked 270,000 litres (70,000 gallons) onto Queensland beaches last March. In August, a well platform caught fire, dumping 28,000 barrels of oil into the seas off northern Australia.

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Arctic Oil Drilling Threatens Norway Government

Gwladys Fouche, PlanetArk 14 Apr 10;

A classic battle pitting the oil industry against environmentalists and fishermen in Norway's Arctic seas is set to intensify on Thursday when the most thorough environmental study of the project to date is released.

Extracting oil from the chilly waters off the Lofoten and Vesteraalen islands is so divisive it could wreck the ruling Labour Party's coalition in this Nordic state that is the world's fifth largest oil and third largest gas exporter but also sees itself as a leader in environmental policies.

"If I were to point to one conflict that could spell the end of the present government, it would be this issue," said Frank Aarebrot, professor of comparative politics at the University of Bergen.

The Labour Party, led by Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, has kept the door open for drilling and has in the past been a supporter of the oil industry. But Labour's coalition partners, the Socialist Left and the Center party, are against.

The report commissioned by the environment ministry will assess conditions in the seas off the Arctic islands and assess the potential risks posed by oil and gas activities.

The area off Lofoten could hold some 20 percent of all remaining undiscovered reserves on the Norwegian continental shelf, according to the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD), at a time when petroleum production is on the decline.

Oil production in Norway peaked in 2001.

"In the long run Norway cannot afford not to investigate what is out there," Oystein Michelsen, Statoil's head of exploration and production in Norway, said.

"It's important for the country, there is a lot of value there. We should benefit from it," he told Reuters.

Not everyone is welcoming a potential oil boom in the region, however.

The seas off the islands are home to the spawning grounds of the world's largest cod stock and fishermen and environmentalists fear oil activities could endanger them.

"If any marine areas in Europe should be protected against the risk of oil exploration, these are the first candidates," said Rasmus Hansson, Secretary General of the World Wildlife Fund in Norway.

"They are the most productive and most valuable marine areas in Europe, no doubt about it," he told Reuters.

Thursday's report will be followed Friday with NPD's own report evaluating how much oil and gas could potentially be found in the areas, the result of seismic surveys it conducted.

The government is expected to make a decision on the issue by the end of 2010.

Aarebrot anticipated that Labour would be willing to break up the governing coalition on the issue as it could continue governing in a minority government.

In addition, he said, the politicians ruling northern Norway, a Labour stronghold, are in favor of oil drilling.

"It will be very difficult for Labour to deny the people in the North to have the same possibilities as the people in the West (where the oil industry in based) because they have many representatives in that region," he said.

(Editing by Michael Roddy)

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Mediterranean water conference ends in failure due to Israel-Arab row

Pierre Ausseill Yahoo News 13 Apr 10;

BARCELONA, Spain (AFP) – Talks aimed at adopting a water management strategy for the Mediterranean failed Tuesday due to a row between Israel and Arab countries over a reference to the Palestinian territories, participants said.

The stalemate was seen as a strong blow against the nascent 43-nation Mediterranean Union, which was set up two years ago to foster cooperation in one of the world's most volatile regions.

"Unfortunately we can not reach an agreement," French secretary of state for European affairs Pierre Lellouche said at the end of the 4th Euro-Mediterranean Ministerial Conference on Water in Barcelona where the body is based.

The conference aimed to reach an agreement on a strategy for managing fresh water in the Mediterranean to ensure equal access to the non-renewable resource and prevent the issue from becoming a source of conflict in the future.

But a reference to "occupied territories" in a proposed draft text prevented the approval of a final accord event though delegates were in agreement on 99 percent of the technical issues related to water management", said Lellouche.

Israel disagreed with this wording while Arab nations opposed to the alternative formulation of "territories under occupation" proposed by European participants, he added.

The head of the body, Jordan's Ahmad Masa'deh, said he was saddened by the failure to reach an agreement at the conference because it "casts doubt on the future of the Mediterranean Union."

The union groups all 27 EU member states with countries in North Africa, the Balkans, the Arab world as well as Israel in a bid to foster cooperation in the region.

It was established in 2008 in Paris by France and Egypt but was temporarily mothballed in early 2009 because of tensions caused by Israel's offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

"My disappointment is matched only by my hope, this structure is irreversible," said Lellouche, adding the body is a "fundamental project for peace in this region and it has not lost any validity".

Israeli Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau rejected responsibility for the failure of the talks and blamed Arab nations instead.

"We wanted to concentrate solely on the problems of water and avoid entering into political themes. But Arab League nations lapsed into pure propaganda and made political declarations against the state of Israel," he said.

"They decided to obstruct the meeting," he added.

The issue of access to water is of crucial importance for the inhabitants of the Mediterranean basin.

Some 290 million people in the region could lack water by 2025 due to the combined effects of population growth, rising needs of agriculture, industry and tourism and global warming, according to the United Nations.

Over 180 million people in the region already lack water and over 60 million people face chronic shortages, according to Mediterranean Union experts.

Water management is a major source of tension between Israelis and Palestinians.

Israel largely controls joint water resources and supplies most of the water consumed in the West Bank.

International organisations say Israel's water supplies fall short of Palestinian needs, but also that the Palestinians have failed to set up the infrastructure and institutions needed in the water sector.

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Glacier Breaks In Peru, Causing Tsunami In Andes

Marco Aquino, PlanetArk 13 Apr 10;

A huge glacier broke off and plunged into a lake in Peru, causing a 75-foot (23-meter) tsunami wave that swept away at least three people and destroyed a water processing plant serving 60,000 local residents, government officials said on Monday.

The ice block tumbled into a lake in the Andes on Sunday near the town of Carhuaz, some 200 miles north of the capital, Lima. Three people were feared buried in debris.

Investigators said the chunk of ice from the Hualcan glacier measured 1,640 feet by 656 feet.

"This slide into the lake generated a tsunami wave, which breached the lake's levees, which are 23 meters high -- meaning the wave was 23 meters high," said Patricio Vaderrama, an expert on glaciers at Peru's Institute of Mine Engineers.

Authorities evacuated mountain valleys, fearing more breakages.

It was one of the most concrete signs yet that glaciers are disappearing in Peru, home to 70 percent of the world's tropical icefields. Scientists say warmer temperatures will cause them to melt away altogether within 20 years.

In 1970, not far from Carhuaz, an earthquake triggered an avalanche of ice, rock and mud on the mountain of Huascaran that buried the town of Yungay, killing more than 20,000 people who lived below Peru's tallest peak, which sits 22,204 feet above sea level.

(Editing by Peter Cooney)

Peruvian glacier split triggers deadly tsunami
Chunk of ice the size of four football pitches falls from Hualcan glacier into Andean lake, resulting in at least one death
Rory Carroll, guardian.co.uk 13 Apr 10;

A massive ice block broke from a glacier and crashed into a lake in the Peruvian Andes, unleashing a 23-metre tsunami and sending muddy torrents through nearby towns, killing at least one person.

The chunk of ice, estimated at the size of four football pitches, detached from the Hualcan glacier near Carhuaz, about 200 miles north of the capital, Lima, on Sunday. It plunged into a lagoon known as lake 513, triggering a tsunami that breached 23 metre (75ft) high levees and damaged Carhuaz and other villages, according to authorities.

The Indeci civil defence institute said 50 homes and a water processing plant serving 60,000 residents were wrecked. Trout fishermen initially presumed dead survived, leaving one confirmed death.

Authorities evacuated mountain valley settlements fearing that the ice block, measuring 500 metres by 200 metres, could be followed by more ruptures as the glacier melts.

César Álvarez, governor of Ancash region, which includes the affected area, blamed climate change. "Because of global warming the glaciers are going to detach and fall on these overflowing lakes. This is what happened," he told Canal N.

Two people were injured when they saw the torrent of water, panicked in their car and crashed. The number of casualties could have been much greater had the lake level been higher when the ice block fell.

"This slide into the lake generated a tsunami wave, which breached the lake's levees, which are 23 metres high – meaning the wave was 23 metres high," said Patricio Vaderrama, an expert on glaciers at Peru's Institute of Mine Engineers.

It was the latest evidence that glaciers are vanishing from Peru, which has 70% of the world's tropical icefields. They have retreated by 22% since 1975, according to a World Bank report, and warmer temperatures are expected to erase them entirely within 20 years.

The same phenomenon is under way in neighbouring Bolivia, where the Chacaltaya glacier, 5,000 metres (17,400ft) up in the Andes, used to be the world's highest ski run. Predictions that it would survive until 2015 seem to be optimistic: according to recent pictures a few lumps of ice near the summit are all that remains.

The World Bank report warned that the disappearance of Andean ice sheets would threaten hydro-electric power and the water supplies of nearly 80 million people.

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