Butterfly of the Month - July 2010
from Butterflies of Singapore
Chek Jawa boardwalk with the Naked Hermit Crabs
from wild shores of singapore
Fruity Sengkang
from Urban Forest and Mutant Asystasia
随便贴几张照片
from PurpleMangrove
Nest of the Zitting Cisticola
from Bird Ecology Study Group
Straits Times 25 Jul 10;
Chef and restaurant owner Johnny Tan has drawn some flak for buying and dishing out the 220kg giant grouper.
At least one Straits Times reader pointed out in a letter that the fish is listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) - the world's oldest and largest global environmental network - as a vulnerable species.
A species is said to be vulnerable when its population more than halves over the previous 10 years or occupies less than than 2,000 sq km.
In parts of Australia, the fish is also protected.
Under the Fisheries Management Act in New South Wales state, those who take or possess the protected fish may be fined up to A$55,000 (S$66,650) for corporations or A$11,000 for individuals. There may also be prison terms.
In the Andaman Islands and India, fishermen are also banned from capturing and selling the fish.
On its website, the IUCN said Hong Kong is a major importer of this species, caught mainly in countries like Indonesia and the Philippines.
When queried, the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority said the Queensland grouper is not listed under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora appendix.
Species found on the list are either endangered, threatened or illegally exploited.
To Mr Tan, the situation has been played up.
'People will say protect, protect, but they have little knowledge about the fish,' said the 48-year-old. He said the Queensland grouper is not rare in the region.
There are also breeding facilities for the fish in Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore, he pointed out.
Mr Tan himself rears about 300 giant groupers in a fish farm in Sabah but they are not for consumption.
Giant grouper eaten up - fins, skin and all
Jamie Ee Wen Wei Straits Times 25 Jul 10;
Big fish eat small fish but not this one. It got eaten by diners, from a tycoon to a chef to ordinary folk.
Reeled in on July 13, the once majestic 220kg Queensland grouper was all bones by last Friday, leaving restaurant owner Johnny Tan grinning to his gills.
Groupers served in restaurants typically range in weight from 20kg to 50kg. That was why this big fish, with a girth of 1.52m and a length of just over 2m, made a media splash when it was caught off Sabah.
It was sold on July 16 for $6,000 to Mr Tan, the chef-owner of Second Kitchen, a Chinese restaurant in Balestier Road.
Work on the fish started at once. Mr Tan and two workers took six hours to scale and clean it. The scales alone came up to 5kg, while the guts weighed about 7kg.
Diners had read about it in The Straits Times and there was no lack of table reservations at the start of last week.
Among them were Malaysian sugar tycoon Robert Kuok, who ordered the fish abdomen, and local celebrity chef Daniel Koh, who tucked into the 3cm thick skin with his family.
Businessman Vincent Chiang, 45, placed an order for an eyeball that weighed 3kg.
'I've eaten giant groupers before but it's not every day that you can eat one this size,' he said.
Businessman Dave Ong, 36, is not a fish gourmet but he returned to the restaurant five times in the past week to eat the grouper.
Mr Ong, who owns a fishing equipment company, first tried the pectoral fins, served with orange cordyceps, and was hooked. He has since eaten the tail, flesh and soup, paying about $80 for each portion.
'My fiancee likes it because the skin is rich in collagen. I like the soup because they use herbs like orange cordyceps.'
While the flesh of big fish tends to be tougher than that of small fish, what set them apart are prized parts like the eyes, throat and lips, which are said to be rich in nutrients like collagen and are regarded as Chinese delicacies.
Mr Roger Wang, 43, director of an events company, made four trips to the restaurant last week for the fish meat, skin and soup.
'The texture is special. Fish is usually very soft but this is chewy. Certain parts tasted almost like meat,' he said.
Mr Tan, 48, declined to say how much he has made. He said he paid a few thousand dollars for ingredients like the orange cordyceps.
Now he has diners hooked, Mr Tan has ordered five Queensland groupers from Indonesia, each weighing over 50kg.
He has also ordered an 80kg grouper for a businessman who asked for a $20,000 fish feast to treat his staff.
But Mr Tan may have created a 'problem' for himself. Customers may now fancy only the big catch, he said.
'I've got more of a headache now,' he said. 'It's very hard to catch these types of fish because they are very heavy. Sometimes, the fishermen can wait up to two to three years before they catch one.'
But should a fish of this size be reeled in again, Mr Tan will not hesitate to buy it.
'Too many people are asking for it,' he said.
Related posts
Singapore restaurant serves another giant endangered grouper from wild shores of singapore
Straits Times 25 Jul 10;
Mr Hafizzan Shah and Ms Sharlene Tan, both from the animal welfare group Acres, helping to free the wild boar that was stuck in a barrier along Kranji Expressway yesterday. They were assisted by a tow truck driver who was passing by. -- ST PHOTO: WONG KWAI CHOW
Why did the wild boar try to cross the road? No one knew, but its body got stuck in a roadside barrier.
Yesterday's incident happened on the Kranji Expressway (KJE) near Woodlands.
An 11am phone call to animal welfare group Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (Acres) triggered a rescue operation.
It took about an hour for a team that included Mr Hafizzan Shah, 26, an animal caregiver at Acres - with help from a tow truck driver - to set the boar free.
'It weighed 5kg to 7kg and was quite aggressive. While it had no major injuries, it had some abrasions likely caused by the constant rubbing against the (barrier),' said Mr Shah.
He said the rescue bid would have taken longer if tow truck driver Thambi Rajah had not stopped his vehicle to help.
Mr Rajah, 36, who has been a truck driver for 16 years, said: 'When I stopped, I thought a dog, not a wild boar, was stuck. The animal welfare people were trying their best to free it.
'I decided to help prise open the fencing, which did the trick.'
Once free, the wild boar wasted not another minute and bounded into the bushes near the Home Team Academy.
Said Mr Rajah: 'In my line, I have seen many strange cases. But this is the first time I have seen a wild boar stuck like this. It must be happy to be free again.'
Deepika Shetty
Melissa Pang Straits Times 25 Jul 10;
Tree species such as the Albizia (left) and the Andira inermis are kept on a special watch by NParks. Albizias have soft branches that are likely to snap. Branches of the Andira inermis tree are prone to breaking at old pruning wounds. -- PHOTOS: NPARKS & UNIVERSITY OF PUERTO RICO
There are trees and there are trees, with some species more prone to 'stress' and others more resilient. That is why the National Parks Board (NParks) keeps a special watch on species like the Albizia and Andira inermis.
On the other hand, species like the raintree have stood the test of time - as well as freak weather - and there is even a 'succession plan' to ensure that the older hardy trees have a chip off the old block, so to speak.
Regular inspection is NParks mantra, so that old and weak trees or those that are prone to falling are replaced or removed to minimise such occurrences. Weak trees are felled, with the wood and branches made into woodchips for mulch.
A team of 120 arborists carries out the inspections. 'Our officers would be able to recommend the point at which we fell some of the trees,' said NParks' director of streetscape, Mr Simon Longman.
Visual inspection and the use of technology like a resistograph, which detects internal defects in wood, help the arborists in making these decisions.
While NParks is careful to plant trees that are suitable for Singapore's environment, it still has to do regular work to look for and replace old and weak trees.
NParks maintains more than a million roadside trees.
The Albizia poses a particular problem as it grows wild and is not a species that NParks plants. There is an ongoing culling programme to remove this species.
NParks works with other agencies to identify and remove trees in poor condition, or in close proximity to areas with public access, Mr Longman explained.
Albizias have fast-growing soft wood, with the branches likely to snap. About 650 Albizias have been removed in the past three years.
In 2007, a 43-year-old woman was crushed to death by a falling Albizia tree at Bukit Batok Nature Park.
The Singapore Land Authority and NParks had earmarked 63 Albizia trees in South Buona Vista Road to be cut down after the incident, but it sparked an intense lobbying effort by tree lovers.
Eventually only 13 were felled.
NParks has also culled almost all Andira inermis trees over the last six years due to problems of branches snapping at old pruning wounds.
Hardier species such as the raintree are NParks' preferred choice of trees.
The mahogany and Yellow Flame are also resilient, Mr Longman said.
'Trees here have to be able to withstand tough conditions, the traffic running by, all the fumes and the heat building up into the branches of the tree.
'We choose trees that can withstand those kinds of conditions well,' he said.
Mr Longman also elaborated on the succession programme for trees.
'Our process now is to have something already growing in between these (older) trees, so that when the time comes to have to fell them because they're declining, those new interplanted trees will be ready to provide the greenery on the roads.
It's a succession situation,' he said.
Mr Veera Sekaran of landscape firm Greenology agreed with NParks' choice of trees, saying that 'they've stood the test of time'.
'These trees have been around for many years and they were selected because studies have shown them to be safer.'
Ng Lian Cheong, Sharon See Channel NewsAsia 24 Jul 10;
SINGAPORE: The National Environment Agency (NEA) said the number of dengue cases at Cairnhill Rise and Cairnhill Circle has passed its peak.
NEA said it has been closely monitoring the situation in the Cairnhill area with day and night inspections.
It also increased the number of inspection officers from 55 to 76 a day.
So far, it seems the effort has paid off, and there were only two cases of dengue last week.
But at the same time, officers found breeding sites in the neighbouring Clemenceau Avenue North and Cavenagh Road areas.
The agency urges contractors and home owners to clear out stagnant water regularly so as to stop any mosquito breeding from taking place. - CNA/vm
New Straits Times Asia One 25 Jul 10;
KUALA TERENGGANU, MALAYSIA - The coral bleaching which had forced the closure of some diving sites could be a blessing in disguise.
It could even be a launch pad for research into minimising the effects of global warming, ecosystem management and bio-medical field.
Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry's National Oceanography Directorate undersecretary Prof Dr Nor Aieni Mokhtar said the ministry had collaborated with local universities to carry out research on coral transplanting methods.
She said Universiti Malaysia Terengganu here had been successful in coral transplanting research and had the expertise to breed microbes that kept the corals alive.
"The most common method is to graft a section from a healthy coral to the bleached coral. With proper care, the graft will multiply and colonise the bleached coral, making it healthy again."
She was speaking at the launching of the Prime Marine Scientific Research and the National Oceanography Data Centre by Deputy Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Fadillah Yusof at Permai Inn yesterday.
"Another method, which has shown a high success rate, is using current to induce calcium carbonate formation on the seabed. We had successfully revived bleached corals in Pulau Mabul in Sabah with this method," she said, adding that the coral microbes would attach themselves to the artificial calcium substrate and grow into healthy, new coral.
She said the coral bleaching study would point scientists to hardy corals that survived and the hardy species would become suitable candidates for transplanting.
"We will also gain insight into the medical properties of the hardy corals."
She said the research could lead to the discovery of how corals adapted to global warming.
"Since global warming has led to climatic and environmental changes, we could battle its effects if we learn how corals faced the changes and survived."
In his speech, Fadillah said marine research was important because marine and coastal resources were under threat from human activities.
"It has been reported that 70 per cent of the coral reef bed near Pulau Tenggol and Pulau Redang has been affected in various degrees by coastal development and fishing-related activities."
He said the activities also contributed to coral bleaching.
Universiti Malaysia Terengganu To Carry Out Coral Breeding To Prevent Extinction
Bernama 24 Jul 10;
KUALA TERENGGANU, July 24 (Bernama) -- In a bid to prevent corals from extinction, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT) has taken the initiative to breed the spineless species.
Its vice-chancellor, Prof Dr Aziz Deraman said, the university conducted research on breeding corals as a faster method for recovery.
"In addition to turtle conservation, UMT is also carrying out efforts to conserve corals which are facing various threats such as coral bleaching which can cause it to die," he told reporters at the launching of the 'Ekspedisi Pelayaran Saintifik Perdana' (EPSP 2009) seminar organised by the university here Saturday.
The event was officiated by Deputy Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Fadillah Yusof.
Dr Aziz said coral seeds and artificial tyre reefs are placed in problematic areas to help revive marine life there.
The damage on coral reefs, which is among the country's tourist attractions, is at an alarming stage with coral bleaching affecting between 60 to 90 per cent of corals.
Several diving and snorkeling spots in Terengganu will also be temporarily closed until Oct 31, to carry out coral restoration works.
Among the areas affected are Pulau Redang (Teluk Bakau), Pulau Tenggol (Teluk Air Tawar), Pulau Perhentian Besar (Teluk Dalam) and Pulau Perhentian Besar (Tanjung Tukas Darat and Tanjung Tukas Laut).
Meanwhile, National Oceanography Directorate secretary Prof Dr Nor Aieni Mokhtar said the closure was viewed positively as it would help restore the corals.
She said the directorate would also carry out coral transplant, where healthy corals are placed in weak areas, to help the species to continue living.
She added that these method was already implemented in Pulau Redang and Pulau Perhentian.
-- BERNAMA
Phuket Gazette 24 Jul 10;
PHUKET: Fisheries experts are trying to find ways to culture hardier types of giant clams in order to make the huge mollusks better able to cope with rising sea temperatures, the state-run Thai News Agency has reported.
Kongkiat Kittiwattawong, a researcher with the Phuket Marine Biological Center (PMBC), said giant clams in local waters face a variety of natural and man-made threats.
Like coral, they also suffer “bleaching” if water temperatures rise too high.
“With the return normal temperatures, the bleaching disappears,” he explained.
Experts generally agree bleaching is not a symptom of dying sea-life, but the situation must nonetheless be monitored closely, Mr Kongkiat said.
Of particular worry is the state of giant clam species once abundant along Thailand’s Andaman coastline. Out of the eight species of giant clam in the world, five species were found in Thai waters but two of these are already extinct, according to PMBC.
“Many have been dug up and sold off…Those that remain are found most often in Phang Nga's Surin Islands and at Koh Adang in Satun,” he said.
Known as hoy meu seua in Thai, giant clams are highly prized as decorative items.
The colorful shell of the giant clam is wanted by aquarium fish owners in what is a lucrative but illegal trade, causing the population to dramatically decrease. It’s raised fears of extinction for this marine animal in its natural habitat.
According to Thailand’s Enhancement and Conservation of National Environmental Quality Act, giant clam species are protected and no hunting, possession or trade is allowed.
Giant clams are also listed as an endangered species in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, better know as CITES.
The Giant Clam Rehabilitation Project in the Andaman coastal areas is one channel to preserve and spawn more giant clams.
Yet, releasing this sea life into the wild is a problem and despite their size authorities have found it hard to stamp out giant clam smuggling.
To aid their battle, the PMBC has been cultivating the creatures and then releasing them in waters around Phuket.
"We've put them in many places and found that Koh Racha is where they show the best chance for survival," he said.
"The clams must be cultivated until reaching a breadth of 15 - 20 centimeters: smaller than that and other sea creatures eat them."
PMBC researchers are also studying the species with the ultimate goal of producing a strain able to withstand higher water temperatures without discoloring.
"We have been raising them in water warmer than normal as part of a long-term plan to promote their survival," he said.
Colorful corals and other sea life are one of the island's principal tourist attractions, but higher water temperatures resulting from factors ranging from pollution to the “El Nino” effect produces a morbidity inspiring alarm rather than admiration in visitors.
Fishing, mining, the run-off from construction and other development have further contributed to the destruction of Phuket's once thriving coastal habitats.
The Jakarta Post 24 Jul 10;
Environmental degradation will cause 117 bird species in Indonesia to vanish, a non-governmental organization predicts.
Fahrul Paja Amama of Burung Indonesia said on Saturday that 17 species were in a critical condition, 30 species were endangered and 70 others were vulnerable to extinction.
Conversion of green areas as habitat of the birds into buildings has been blamed for the disappearance of the species, other than uncontrolled hunting.
Indonesia is home to 1,599 bird species, including 353 endemic birds, joining the ranks of the world’s mega bird diversity. There are approximately 10,000 bird species all over the world.
Burung Indonesia’s head of business and communication development Henny M Sembiring added that rapid disappearance of bird species was even more obvious in Bogor Botanical Garden.
She said there were only about 50 bird species currently found in the garden, down from roughly 90 in 2006.
"We are not certain yet what have caused the birds to disappear, but we suspect their food supply has diminished due to the conversion of green areas into resettlement areas and the worsening quality of Ciliwung River,” she said as quoted by kompas.com.
234 Indonesian bird species endangered
Antara 25 Jul 10;
Bogor, W Java (ANTARA News) - The Association of Indonesian Wild Bird Watchers said 234 out of 1,599 Indonesian bird species are on the brink of extinction.
"Indonesian bird species is the fourth largest in the world totalling 1.599, but 234 of them are now on the brink of extinction," the association`s spokesperson, Henny M Sembiring, said here Saturday.
Of the 234 endangered species 117 threatened with extinction, 17 under critical conditions, 30 in a crucial state and 70 vulnerable, Henny said.
The threat of extinction faced by the birds came from among others human activities such as illegal logging, land conversion and hunting that have destroyed their habitats.
Henny said that birds are very sensitive animals and would migrate and seek other places to nest if their habitat is damaged.
Now birds can hardly be seen on the Ciliwung river banks where many of them used to be there, such as the Purple Swamphen (Porphyrio porphyrio), Kingfishers and Javan Kingfisher (Halcyon cyanoventris).
"Nowadays, we can no longer see some water birds species in the Ciliwung river areas because they have already migrated after their habitat became no longer safe for them," Heny said.
According to a research, there were 150 bird species in the Bogor Botanical Garden in 1950, but the number has decreased to 90 species now.
Birds are part of the ecosystem, and the loss of the birds will affect the cycle of life because they also play a role in plant pollinating.
The loss of bird species is a warning about human survival indicating a bad environmental level that should make people more aware of the need to preserve the environment.
Indonesia has the greatest biological diversity which is highly respected by other nations but due to a lack of awareness in maintaining it some of it is endangered.
Henny urged the community to be more concerned over the threat of extinction on the bird species and would strive to preserve the the environment and stop animal hunting.
The association has been engaged in various activities and campaign to protect the bird`s ecosystem.
Various observations on the birds have also been carried out including identifying and documenting the types of birds in Indonesia for use as reference.(*)
Time Elliot, The Sydney Morning Herald The Age 25 Jul 10;
In Australia alone we have used almost 14 million tonnes of plastic since 2000, according to the latest industry figures.
But tonnes and tones of discarded plastic wind up polluting the ocean and waterways and endangering wildlife.
"Marine debris is now a real threat to marine life," said Lydia Gibson, policy manager for marine species at the World Wildlife Fund.
"Plastic garbage, which decomposes very slowly, is often mistaken for food by marine animals,'' she said.
''High concentrations of plastic material, particularly plastic bags, have been found blocking the breathing passages and stomachs of many marine species, including whales, dolphins, seals, puffins and turtles. Plastic six-pack rings for drink bottles and cans can also choke marine animals."
The UN Environment Program estimates that plastic debris causes the deaths of more than 1 million seabirds and more than 100,000 marine mammals every year. In 2006, the UN concluded that every square mile (260 hectares) of ocean contained 46,000 pieces of floating plastic.
Some of the most damaging material comes in the form of lightweight every-day items such as bottles caps and supermarket bags.
"Plastics are lighter but more damaging than heavier waste like timber and concrete," said Jeff Angel, from the Total Environment Centre. "If you [throw away] a brick, it stays in the same place, but plastic floats around."
He believes the problem is worse than previously thought, and authorities have routinely "massaged" data on consumption and recycling.
"[The Plastics and Chemical Industries Association] says that Australia consumes about 1.5 million tonnes of plastic annually, but their figures are wrong because they do not include plastic packaging on imported goods or empty plastic films imported for filling. The fact that they do not count these not insubstantial segments means their recycling rates are also wrong."
The association said Australia recycled 18 per cent of all plastics and 36 per cent of all plastic packaging. In a recent release, it boasted the 36 per cent figure was "a record high and now above the target band set under the National Packaging Covenant".
But Mr Angel, who is a member of the NPC, puts the recycling rates at more like 12 to 15 per cent and less than 30 per cent respectively.
Despite fines of up to $22,000 per individual for anyone caught dumping garbage, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority said increasing amounts of debris, such as plastics and discarded fishing line, were entering the marine environment every year.
The federal Department of Environment now believes that such pollution, including increasing amounts of plastic debris, along with oil spills and dumping of industrial waste in waterways and the sea, are leading to a bio-accumulation of toxic substances in the bodies of marine mammals.
The stomach of a rare eight-metre Bryde's whale, found washed up near Cairns in north Queensland, was found to be jammed with almost six square metres of plastic, including supermarket bags, food packaging, three large sheets of plastic and fragments of garbage bags.
An immature green turtle found dead near Moreton Bay in Brisbane had more than 50 items in its digestive tract, including plastic bags, cling film, nylon rope, lolly wrappers and balloons.
Environmentalist David de Rothschild, skipper of the Plastiki, a yacht made of recycled plastic bottles, said one of the biggest problems with plastic in the ocean was that it's "out of sight, out of mind. We have created this false dichotomy - nature and us, out there and in here. If the garbage isn't right on our doorstep, nobody seems to care."
Learning grounds
Alycia Lim The Star 25 Jul 10;
The outdoors can be a classroom for endless learning if some changes are made to our teaching methods in school.
CLASSROOM learning has been the key learning method for generations, but with technological gadgets as distractions in today’s society, many from generation Y have become removed from the outdoors and nature in general.
Children who grow up in urban cities especially, know only of a world that revolves around the Internet and digital technology, and their definition of school is of nothing but a concrete building.
Lest we forget, learning does not merely have to be confined to the classroom. There are many options to be explored, if parents are willing to take the first step, and let children get their hands dirty.
For some like American Rick Gregory, who has been residing in Malaysia for about 20 years, exposing his 10-year-old son, Jeren, to the outdoors has become “a natural thing to do”.
Gregory, 52, believes that the outdoors is a great learning ground, and to make the outing more interesting, he gives Jeren a camera when they go on hikes.
“I let him take pictures of whatever he sees or finds interesting. That way, he gets to be creative, and it makes hiking a fun activity.”
Although it is clear that the government is pushing for more physical activities amongst school-going children, many, especially those who live in apartments and condominiums, may find the call rather difficult to comply with, due to the limited amount of “green” space.
“Sometimes, building management officials use safety as an excuse to prevent residents from cycling. They are even prohibited from playing with balls in the premises,” laments Gregory, who lives in a condominium in Sri Hartamas, Kuala Lumpur.
At the same time, he points out there are many overprotective parents, who would prefer to have their children within the confines of their home, rather than show them the thrill of the outdoors for fear that it may be too wild and rough for them.
“Children are much tougher than we think. There really isn’t any harm in your child getting hot and sticky... a few mosquito bites won’t hurt them either,” says Gregory.
Realising the need for more outdoor sports and green activities, Gregory decided to start up a website, Nature Escapes, to connect people to the various green holiday destinations in Malaysia.
“There are so many places people can go to if they have a car. In fact, there is a beautiful rainforest, a mere two-hour drive away from the Klang Valley.”
An outdoor classroom
Gregory is quick to share that while there are not as many outdoor nature camps and activities locally compared to those in other countries, they do exist and while a few are run as business entities, most are managed by societies and non-governmental organisations.
Take for instance the Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) which has been actively involved with schools around Malaysia since the early 1990s.
It has to date about 420 schools registered under the various zones around the country. A camp is organised once every two years to bring together students who learn about all things connected to nature like plants, animals and even insects.
MNS Environmental Education Division head I. S. Shanmugaraj says that there are a range of activities run by the society that are related to what students learn in school.
“For example, when we take students out to teach them about larvae, we are showing them the real thing instead of just images of it, and at the same time they are learning about ecology.
“Students may learn about mangroves, but their knowledge is limited to what is written in their textbooks or even on the Internet.
When they actually go into the mangroves and do mangrove replanting, they get to touch and feel it. From there, they will be able to link their book knowledge to the real thing from an experiential point of view.”
With other projects such as measuring the pH level of the river waters, Shanmugaraj adds that experiencing nature through their own senses enriches the learning experience as it gives them a better and deeper understanding, which sometimes cannot be described in words.
SMK Convent, Taiping, Nature Lovers Society teacher adviser Norizan Zainal says that apart from being more nature-savvy, students who participate in the MNS activities have also improved their soft-skills.
Norizan shares that the students, apart from being well-versed about nature, were equally confident and adept at giving talks and presentations to the public.
She adds that their knowledge of the environment also affected their lifestyle and they have become more aware and conscious about preserving the environment.
“They don’t even use polystyrene boxes any more because they know it is non-recyclable, and in school, they set a good example for their peers through recycling activities.”
Starting young
It is never too early to start, and that’s the motto adapted by Universiti Malaysia Terengganu’s (UMT) Sea Turtle Research Unit (Seatru). It organises an annual three-day camp for Year Five pupils, where they get to learn about basic sea turtle biology in Pulau Redang.
At the camp, the pupils are taught basic sea biology through activities such as drawing, colouring, treasure-hunts, and role-playing.
They are also given an opportunity to watch turtle nest excavations, and to check on the status of turtle eggs.
Seatru project leader and UMT Marine Science department lecturer Dr Juanita Joseph shares that Seatru first started a camp in 1996, three years after they started conservation works, for the children of turtle egg collectors.
“Instead of educating the outside world, we wanted to start educating children at the grassroots first, so we reached out to the children of the egg collectors themselves.”
She says that due to a lack of staff and funding, it was difficult for Seatru to run turtle conservation camps for outsiders, however, over the years, they have been approached by various international schools to conduct sessions for them as part of their own marine awareness camps.
Former UMT student Felicity Kuek, who was part of the project team, says that based on the questionnaire handed out before and after the programme, it was obvious that the students’ knowledge about turtles and the marine environment improved by about 90%, and over 80% of them pledged not to eat turtle eggs.
Having done a follow-up after the programme, Felicity adds that many students also went back to their homes to share what they had learnt with their friends and family.
Dr Juanita adds: “I once bumped into an ex-participant, and she told me her father scolded her because she refused to eat turtle eggs... that’s how committed they are.”
“Many of the programme’s earlier participants are now married and it is great to see how they have instilled in their children ‘green habits’. They’ve also made them aware of the many endangered species.’’
Similarly children are also being taught about marine life in Sungai Pulai, Johor.
Save Our Seahorses Malaysia (SOS) project leader Choo Chee Kuang, 33, who founded the organisation in 2004, says that the organisation recently started a Parents and Kids programme, aiming to expose primary school children to the marine ecosystem, and to educate them on the importance of the organisation’s conservation plans.
“We organise trips for children and their parents during low-tide seasons. This allows them to walk around the seagrass beds to learn about marine vegetation and coral reef.”
Low says trips are only organised during low-tide seasons, so that the public can learn about these sea creatures in their natural habitats without them having to get wet.
“Low tide is for about two to five days a month, and it varies from month to month according to the tide table.”
One of the programme‘s coordinators Foo Fang Meng, 24, says that the half-day programme on Pulau Merambong in Johor, has proven to be a fulfilling exercise for children and their parents as it is the largest seagrass bed in the country.
“Children who participate in this programme sometimes cannot contain their excitement and exclaim upon seeing sea creatures although such loud expressions are not really encouraged.”
Run on a small scale, each trip out to the seagrass beds only consists of about 10 to 12 people.
Foo added that the programme also brings along volunteers who would look out for seahorses, and other sea creatures which are usually harder to find, and would point them out to the participants.
A non-profit organisation, participants pay a small fee to cover the hiring of the boat and use of its apparatus.
Confidence building
Experiential learning takes on a different meaning, when the outdoors are used as a tool to build an individual’s soft skills.
Wilderness Malaysia Business Development and Corporate Affairs general manager Mariana Halim says that through doing outdoor activities, participants are expected to lead and be responsible for their group.
Running camps throughout the year, Wilderness Malaysia offers a variety of activities for participants, both for students, as well as working individuals, to push themselves physically and mentally.
“This means we have to use navigation skills to map out their journey, and whether they realise it or not, they would brush up on their communication skills when they are in charge of a team.”
“What we also do is to learn through reflecting on the activities.”
At the end of each session, Mariana says that participants will go through a de-briefing session to recall their experience, pinpoint what they have learnt through the experience, and see how they can apply their newly-acquired skills to their daily lives.
Soft skills aside, many participants also go through certain programmes and activities to overcome their fear.
“For instance, if a participant has a fear of water and is faced with challenges like raft building, he or she would be supported and encouraged by teammates to join in, and with such a positive environment, the individual will definitely conquer his or her fear.
Regardless of the activity they do, Mariana says that “at the end of the day, the learning experience they bring back from the outdoors is priceless”.
Bangkok Post 25 Jul 10;
Land subsidence, not climate change, is the biggest factor causing tidal flooding, a researcher says.
Subsidence is the main cause of coastal tidal flooding and coastal line erosion along the upper Gulf of Thailand, says Thanawat Jarupongsakul, head of the unit for disaster and land information studies at Chulalongkorn University's science faculty.
Many people believe that climate change causes rising sea levels, which could one day inundate Bangkok and neighbouring provinces, he said.
But according to his study, climate change accounted for less than 10% of the risk.
Another cause was low levels of estuary sediment, a key element in strengthening tidal mudflats which act as a barrier against erosion.
"We have found that 82.5% of the flooding is due to land subsidence," Mr Thanawat told a recent seminar on rising sea levels organised by Chulalongkorn University.
Land subsidence is getting worse, especially in Samut Prakan, Samut Sakhon, Samut Songkhram and Chachoengsao provinces, which are close to the upper Gulf of Thailand.
Although those provinces have a similar rate of land subsidence, losing three centimetres a year on average, the problem is worsening because of powerful coastal tidal flooding, he said.
In 1984, Bangkok experienced high levels of land subsidence, losing over 10 centimetres of shoreline that year, caused by uncontrolled underground water pumping, as the city tried to keep its people supplied with water.
A regulation was imposed banning underground water pumping in Bangkok, which alleviated the problem.
"We can do nothing about rising sea levels. We can do nothing about falling levels of sediment.
"But what we can do is prevent land subsidence," Mr Thanawat said.
In 2007, the intergovernmental panel on climate change said world sea levels were rising on average about three millimetres a year, with 2.4 millimetres in Malaysia, 2.5 millimetres in Vietnam, 7.8 millimetres in Bangladesh and 4.1 millimetres in Thailand.
Mr Thanawat said that if nothing was done about land erosion, Thailand could end up losing 8.2 kilometres of shoreline a year by next century.
Ramit Plushnick-masti, Associated Press Yahoo News 24 Jul 10;
HOUSTON – Federal biologists are releasing thousands of endangered baby sea turtles into the western Gulf of Mexico, betting that by the time the silver dollar-sized swimmers make it to the oil-fouled waters of the eastern Gulf, BP will have cleaned up its goopy mess.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Park Service are proceeding with the annual release of Kemp's ridley turtle hatchlings off Padre Island National Seashore because Texas has not been significantly impacted by the oil spill. For years, scientists have incubated and hatched the turtles to give the endangered creatures a boost.
The risks of holding turtles in captivity at a critical stage in their life cycles could be worse than the dangers of oil more than 400 miles away, the plan's supporters say.
Hundreds of days-old hatchlings have been freed on Texas beaches since the June 8 decision. Another large group is expected to be released early next week.
The decision, however, has stirred controversy among some scientists, environmentalists and turtle lovers.
Supporters say there should only be intervention with animals directly in the oil's path, like loggerhead turtles in Florida. In 1979, after a rig blowout in the Mexican Gulf, authorities airlifted Kemp's ridleys to oil-free waters.
Critics argue the decision to free vulnerable hatchlings doesn't adequately account for hurricanes, storms or a seasonal change in current, all of which could bring the oil west and directly into their path. Nesting mothers, they say, are also at risk because many deposit their eggs in northern Mexico or south Texas and head for heavily impacted areas.
"We have raised them in captivity and learned the hard way that there are also a lot of negative potential from that," said Deborah Crouse, a sea turtle biologist in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Endangered Species Recovery Program.
However, Crouse acknowledged the release does present a risk of oil exposure. It took a team of 14 experts days to decide whether to release the Kemp's ridleys.
"It was a balancing act between the danger of holding them in captivity vs. the damage that could be done to them by the oil," Crouse said. "That's why it was not an easy decision."
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said that as of Wednesday, 167 visibly oiled sea turtles of various species had been collected alive. At least 482 have been found dead, but no oiled turtles have been found in Texas.
Carole Allen, director of the Sea Turtle Restoration Project's Gulf office in Houston, is a vocal critic of the hatchlings' release in Texas. At least some of the babies and nesting mothers should be kept in captivity until the oil is cleaned, she said.
"Don't just send them out to the Gulf to die cause they're going to get oiled eventually," Allen said.
Andre Landry, a sea turtle expert at Texas A&M University in Galveston, said baby turtles swim out and attach themselves to algae mats or other floating habitats. It's possible those habitats are oiled, he said.
In Florida, because of the proximity to the oil, loggerhead turtle nests are being collected and incubated. Hatchlings are being released on the state's eastern coast, far from the oil.
"That goes in direct opposition to what's been decided with the Kemp's ridleys," Landry said.
The Kemp's ridleys have been on the endangered list since 1973 after their population was depleted from years of hunting their eggs and trapping the animals in fishing nets. They are among the smallest sea turtles, and live mostly in warmer Gulf of Mexico waters.
Their population numbers have slowly recovered. This year, there were nearly 13,000 nests — or about 4,300 nesting turtles — in Mexico and Texas, down from last year when there were about 22,000. Scientists attribute the slip to natural variation and an unusually cold winter.
Still, scientists were so encouraged in March by the Kemp's ridleys recovery they believed they might see 10,000 nesting females within five to 10 years. That would upgrade the species from endangered to threatened, allowing them to still be protected by some federal laws.
While it won't be clear until next year whether the oil spill damaged the turtles' progress, it has put upgrade hopes at risk.
Donna Shaver, chief of the Division of Sea Turtle Science and Recovery at Padre Island National Seashore has been monitoring the Kemp's ridleys for 30 years. She collects their nests from Texas beaches, incubates them and watches them hatch. Finally, she releases the babies at the precise moment when they enter a "frenzy" of activity and have extra energy from the yolk they've ingested, allowing them to get past the surf and float on the currents to their new homes.
Federal agencies have long maintained a policy that collected wildlife should be released, Shaver said.
"Any time you release hatchlings, you realize it's a perilous situation for them," Shaver said. "They can fall victim to fish, they can fall victim to birds. Only a fraction of them survive into adulthood. And this year, this is another risk they face, so it's frustrating."
Allowing the Kemp's ridleys to remain in captivity, however, creates other risks.
Early efforts aimed at recovering the species taught scientists that prolonged captivity can mess with the turtles' navigation and foraging skills, putting long-term survival in danger, said David Godfrey, executive director of the Sea Turtle Conservancy in Gainesville, Fla.
He supports the loggerhead program in Florida, but thinks the Kemp's ridleys should be released so long as Texas is oil-free.
"Everybody who is critical of that decision has a right to be critical because it's not a black or white decision," Godfrey said. "If oil comes into Texas with a hurricane, nobody knows what would happen. Is it absolutely foolproof, 100 percent, signed, sealed, delivered? I don't know. Nobody knows."
Yahoo News 25 Jul 10;
BEIJING (AFP) – Four pregnant pandas bred in captivity have been released into an area of forest in southwest China to prepare their cubs for life in the wild, state media reported.
The pandas, aged four to five, have been taken to a tract of forest at a training base in Sichuan province that was built to help the endangered animals adapt to the wild, the official Xinhua news agency said.
They are expected to give birth to their cubs in the woodland, which covers two hectares (five acres), and live there until the young animals turn three or four, the report said late Saturday.
"All of the carefully-chosen pandas have experience of living in the wild and three of them... have given birth to cubs," Tang Chunxiang, an expert at the Wolong panda reserve that is behind the initiative, was quoted as saying.
"We hope the mothers can teach their cubs life skills to help them survive in the wild."
There are only about 1,590 pandas left in the wild in China, and authorities would like to increase that figure to save the endangered species.
But so far, the only attempt at releasing a captive-bred panda into nature ended tragically.
Xiang Xiang, a male cub who was trained to adapt to the wild and released in 2006, was found dead 10 months later, apparently killed by wild pandas native to the area.
This new attempt aims to see the four pandas give birth and raise their cubs on their own, while workers keep watch through surveillance cameras.
"If they need help, the workers will show up dressed in costumes that make them look like giant pandas, in order to reduce the animals' reliance on humans," Tang was quoted as saying.
The workers will also simulate the sounds and smells of the panda's natural enemies, in a bid to improve their vigilance and raise their chances of survival, the report said.
Yahoo News 25 Jul 10;
TADO, Colombia (AFP) – His worn hands have worked tirelessly since dawn, churning the soil, cleaning sand in a pan and finally revealing tiny flakes of "green gold", the world's first certified fair trade gold.
Luis Americo Mosquera, 52, is repeating the same gestures passed on from generation to generation of Colombia's black slaves brought by the Spanish conquistadors to toil in gold mines for centuries.
In the city of Tado in the western Colombian department of Choco, known for its large Afro-Colombian population, each gold digger is his own master and the gold is removed from alluvia by using a plant mixture.
This ecologically-friendly process caught the attention of Oro Verde, a Colombian group that has trademarked gold mined in this fashion with Choco residents, allowing families to secure more income than the norm for their work.
Oro Verde gold is sold for two percent higher than the market price and jewelers pay a 13 percent premium that funds local development projects reaching families who have owned the land for generations.
Under the program, workers "cannot use toxic products like mercury, must not kill fish and other aquatic species, must restore any layer of soil that is removed and fill it so that it is suitable for replanting," explained Luis Alfredo Hurtado of the Asocasan association that verifies the criteria are met.
Some 194 families have adopted the program in the region, including 112 living in and around Tado.
With the revenue -- about 250,000 pesos (134 dollars) per month -- each family can buy everything they need.
"We are also helping grocers, shoe vendors, clothing vendors. Many people benefit from the program, even if they don't work directly" with gold, said Americo.
Green gold mining goes against the grain of the new gold fever that has spread across Colombia as the precious metal snatches record prices on the market -- it hit 1,260 dollars per ounce in mid-June.
As soon as miners hit a gold vein, unscrupulous entrepreneurs, sometimes financed by illegal paramilitary groups, show up with a dozen excavators to churn the soil and divert rivers before using toxic mercury to separate the gold from the alluvia.
The Zaragoza mine, located close to Buenaventura, has cause so much environmental damage that officials have recently declared a state of emergency in the region.
Careless entrepreneurs "use undeclared labor, including children, and ruin the environment," said Arturo Quiros, who heads the Association of Colombian Miners (Asomineros).
In 2009, Oro Verde won the international Seed prize for promoting sustainable development. The award is sponsored by the United Nations and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
The Colombian project, associated with a dozen others in South America, has now been entered on the Fairtrade Foundation's international list of environmental labels. Gold certified as having been mined in this way will bear Fairtrade and Fairmined marks.
The label will be launched first in Britain and later rolled out to other countries in an attempt to capture five percent of the gold jewelry market over 15 years, for a total of 15 tonnes of fairly traded gold each year.
But the 14 kilograms (31 pounds) of gold already produced by Oro Verde's gold washers has already reached 11 countries, including Canada, Denmark, France, Germany and the United States.
Eleonore Dermy Yahoo News 25 Jul 10;
MOKRYE KURNALI, Russia (AFP) – Russian farm owner Ilshat Gumerov stands in the middle of his fields under the mercilessly hot sun with a look of despair on his face.
His 700-hectare land in the central Volga region of Tatarstan has not been touched by a drop of rain in weeks amid one of the severest heatwaves of the century in Russia. He already fears he has lost two thirds of his harvest.
"It is a catastrophe," he said, ruefully fingering the dried-up ears of wheat. "This year I am going to make no profit. It will only be enough to buy fodder."
No rain has fallen since April in this largely Muslim region 800 kilometres east of Moscow while temperatures over the last weeks have jumped over 30 degrees Celsius. And this after a bitter winter whose thaw destroyed winter crops.
The drought is not just bad news for Gumerov and thousands of other farmers across Russia but also for grain consumers worldwide and the country's ambitions to become a leading global grain exporter.
Twenty three of Russia's 83 regions, mainly situated in the European part of the country, have declared a state of emergency over the drought.
According to the ministry of agriculture, 10 million hectares of land have been destroyed by the heatwave, equivalent to around 20 percent of all of Russia's arable land.
"The drought is extremely unusual because we have never seen such temperatures and such a lack of rain in the European part of Russia," said leading Russian agriculture expert Dmitry Rylko.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin this week told First Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov to take the situation under "firmer" control. "The situation is not getting better, it is getting worse," he said bluntly.
According to Rylko, director of the Institute for Agricultural Market Studies, the problems have not been evenly spread across Russia, with the Volga region, including Tatarstan, the Urals and the southwest, suffering the worst.
By contrast, the harvest in Siberia and the south of Russia has been relatively strong, he said.
Tatarstan is one of Russia's leading agriculture regions, with one third of its land covered by the famous chernozyom, the black earth known for its richness in humus formed by the decomposition of plant matter.
But its earth and the large water resources in the Volga region have not been enough to temper the effects of one of the severest droughts in Russia in living memory.
The drought comes at the worst possible time for Russia, which has launched a drive to increase its share of the global grain market with the aim of more than doubling its grain exports to 40-50 million tonnes a year.
But Rylko said it was likely that Russia is going to harvest only 80 million tonnes of grain in 2010, compared with 97 million last year.
Agriculture Minister Elena Skrynnik said that the forecast for exports this year was set to be less than 20 million tonnes, down even on last year's figure of 21 million tonnes.
In a country where average annual domestic consumption is 77 million tonnes of grain, Russia will have to call on its reserves. As of June 1, Russia was believed to have 24 million tonnes of grain reserves.
Rylko said the effects were already being felt on the global wheat market, with Russia already the world's number three wheat exporter and the number two behind the United States of medium quality wheat.
Prices for Russian wheat have spiked on international markets, moving to 195 dollars from 165 dollars within the space of two weeks. But this will hardly compensate producers for the lower harvest.
"In a boomerang effect, the prices of other products will rise proportionally," said Kamiyar Baitemirov, head of the association of farmers and landowners in Tatarstan.
Rylko said he hoped that the Russian agriculture market would be able to recover in the next two years. A full recovery in one year would be hard as "after bad harvests you never have good harvests," he said.
Russia has been seeking to open up major export markets in the Middle East and North Africa, most notably taking 50 percent of the Egyptian wheat market in the last 3-4 years.
"Now we have to re-stablish ourselves and this is always easier than starting from scratch," Rylko said.
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