Best of our wild blogs: 29 Sep 11

Ric O’Barry in Singapore next Tuesday!
from Green Drinks Singapore

Shell refinery fire at Bukom: what natural shores nearby?
from wild shores of singapore

Back from the dead
from The annotated budak

Monkeying around on Sisters Island
from wild shores of singapore

Snakey bornella feeding on hydoids
from Pulau Hantu

Oriental Pied Hornbills and the crow
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Chek Jawa Warriors in ICCS!!
from News from the International Coastal Cleanup Singapore

Great TED Talks for biologists!
from The Biology Refugia

Read more!

Shell refinery fire at Bukom continues on Thursday

3 more explosions heard at Bukom around noon on Thursday
Amanda Tan Straits Times 29 Sep 11 12:24pm;

Three more explosions were heard around Pulau Bukom at about 12 noon on Thursday, and the SCDF told The Straits Times that two of its fire engines were badly damaged by the fire at the Shell refinery there.

One fire-engine sustained partial damage.

The blaze, which began at about 1.15pm on Wednesday, appear to have re-started and witnesses saw a 'fire ball shooting into the sky around the time of the explosions.

Some laboratory staff and executives are still at the refinery but their office is far way from the pump room where the fire is.

The SCDF has confirmed that there has been a surge in the fire at the manufacturing facility. The fire is still contained within the bund wall.

Boundary cooling operations are still being carried out to prevent heat exposure to the nearby storage tanks.

Another explosion heard at Bukom
Sudden burst of flames, visible from mainland, say witnesses
Today Online 12:39 PM Sep 29, 2011

SINGAPORE - An explosion was heard and seen at Pulau Bukom at noon today - just hours after Shell had announced in a press release that the chemical fires at the oil refinery island, which started at 1.15pm yesterday, had been "significantly reduced".

Mr Ben Koh, who works at the PSA container port on the mainland across from Pulau Bukom, told Today he saw flames "suddenly shooting up from a distance" at around 12pm, accompanied by the sound of an explosion which he described as "an echoing boom".

Since then, the smoke plume from the island has been visibly larger, said Mr Koh.

The island is about 5km off the coast of Singapore.

Earlier today, the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said in a 6.30am pressrelease that while 100 firefighters were still battling the fires, the situation was "under control". Six fire engines and 13 support vehicles were also at the site.

In a 10am press release, Shell said it had "worked closely with the SCDF throughout the night to put out the fire at the Pulau Bukom Manufacturing Site", adding that "the fire has now been significantly reduced and is contained to within a bunded area".

The six Shell firefighters who sustained minor injuries battling the blaze have gone back to their normal duties, said the oil company. "Staff have also reported for work at Pulau Bukom and controls have been put in place on movements in the affected areas to ensure their safety," it added.

"Safety is our top priority. The units in the vicinity of the fire incident remain shut down as a precaution. As such we advise that a larger flare will be visible. The flare is a safety procedure and is no cause for alarm. There are no toxic vapours released."

The National Environment Agency said in a public advisory on its website that no toxic gases have been detected on the mainland. The NEA has been "closely monitoring" ambient air quality since yesterday, it added. The increase in the three-hour PSI reading this morning (peaking at 68 at 8am) is due to smoke haze being blown over from South Sumatra, and not the Buko fires, an NEA source told Today.

Update: Fire surges at Shell's S'pore refinery
Business Times September 29, 2011, 12.50 pm (Singapore time)

SINGAPORE - There has been a surge in the fire at Shell's Singapore refinery, the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said in a statement on Thursday.

'The fire fighting operations are still ongoing,' the statement added.

'There has been a surge in the fire at the manufacturing facility. The fire is still contained within the bund wall. Boundary colling operation is still being carried out to prevent heat exposure to the nearby storage tanks.'

Two SCDF fire engines were badly damaged by the fire, it said.

One fire engine sustained partial damage. -- REUTERS

Explosions heard at Pulau Bukom refinery
Channel NewsAsia 29 September 2011 1312 hrs

SINGAPORE: Explosions were heard at the Pulau Bukom Shell refinery around noon on Thursday.

Witnesses at the Pasir Panjang port and at West Coast said they saw more black smoke and fireballs shooting into the sky.

Mr Chen, who called the Channel NewsAsia hotline, said: "The smoke was thicker than yesterday."

In an update on Thursday, the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said there has been a surge in the fire at the Shell manufacturing facility.

Fire fighting operations are still under way and the fire is still contained within the bund wall.

SCDF said about 20 water jets are being used to carry out boundary cooling operations to prevent heat exposure to the nearby storage tanks.

At 8am, a fresh fire fighting crew has relieved the fire fighters who have been working throughout the night.

Two SCDF fire engines were badly damaged by the fire and one fire engine sustained partial damage.

There were no injuries reported.

The fire, which broke out on Wednesday afternoon, involves petroleum products from pipes in the tank farm at the manufacturing facility measuring 150 metres by 50 metres.

SCDF said early Thursday that it has about 100 fire fighters fighting the fire with six fire engines and 13 support vehicles.

About 250 essential Shell personnel are also on Pulau Bukom helping with the operations.

"We believe it was an accident. A full investigation will be conducted once
the fire is put out," said Shell in a statement.

All non-essential staff from Pulau Bukom have been evacuated from the island.

- CNA/AFP/cc/al

Shell still trying to contain Bukom fire
Today Online 04:24 PM Sep 29, 2011

SINGAPORE - Shell is still working with the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) to contain the fire at Pulau Bukom.

A statement from the company at 2pm said their global fire consultants are on site to provide input to the team.

Shell said that at around noon, they experienced a surge in the flames - visible from the mainland, with witnesses in the Pasir Panjang area saying they heard at least three explosions. However, the fire "continues to be contained", said Shell.

The source of the surge in the fire was "remnant light fuel components where the fire originated".

The smoke observed is from "hydrocarbons that are not fully combusted", added Shell in its statement.

Shell said the units in the vicinity of the fire incident remain shut down as a precaution. As an added precautionary measure, only essential staff remain on Bukom.

The explosions at noon came was just hours after Shell had announced in a press release that the chemical fires at the oil refinery island, which started at 1.15pm yesterday, had been "significantly reduced".

Mr Ben Koh, who works at the PSA container port on the mainland across from Pulau Bukom, told Today he saw flames "suddenly shooting up from a distance" at around noon, accompanied by the sound of an explosion which he described as "an echoing boom".

Since then, the smoke plume from the island has been visibly larger, said Mr Koh.

The island is about 5km off the coast of Singapore.

The SCDF confirmed in a 12.30pm press release that "there has been a surge in the fire at the manufacturing facility", though the fire "is still contained within the bund wall" at the facility. Boundary cooling operations are being carried out using water jets, to prevent heat exposure to the storage tanks nearby, it added.

Two fire engines had been "badly damaged" during fire fighting operations, while another sustained "partial damage", the SCDF said in its statement. No further injuries were reported.

Earlier today, the SCDF said in a 6.30am press release that while 100 firefighters were still battling the fires, the situation was "under control". Six fire engines and 13 support vehicles were also at the site.

The firefighters who had been working overnight were relieved and replaced by a fresh firefighting crew at 8am, the SCDF later added.

The six Shell firefighters who sustained minor injuries battling the blaze have gone back to their normal duties, said the oil company.

The National Environment Agency said in a public advisory on its website that no toxic gases have been detected on the mainland. The NEA has been "closely monitoring" ambient air quality since yesterday, it added. The increase in the three-hour PSI reading this morning (peaking at 68 at 8am) is due to smoke haze being blown over from South Sumatra, and not the Bukom fires, an NEA official told Today.

Pictures: Reinforcements sent to Pulau Bukom as fire rages more intensely
Amanda Tan Straits Times 29 Sep 11, 2:50pm

Three more fire engines and one support vehicle were sent on a barge to Pulau Bukom at 2pm.

The vehicles carried reinforcement supplies needed to help put out the blaze, which raged more strongly at 12pm on Thursday.

Hundreds of employees working in the island have been evacuated, although several executives from Shell are believed to be staying put.

Meanwhile, supervisors are rounding up their workers and conducting headcounts at Pasir Panjang Ferry Terminal and bussing them away.

At about noon on Thursday, three more explosions were heard around Pulau Bukom. The SCDF told The Straits Times that two of its fire engines were badly damaged by the fire at the Shell refinery there.

One fire engine sustained partial damage.

The blaze, which began at about 1.15pm on Wednesday, appear to have re-started and witnesses saw a 'fire ball shooting into the sky' around the time of the explosions.

Hundreds of workers have been ferried back to Singapore. Some laboratory staff and executives are still at the refinery, but their office is far way from the pump room where the fire is.

The SCDF has confirmed that there has been a surge in the fire at the manufacturing facility. The fire is still contained within the bund wall.

According to Shell in a statement released at 2pm on Thursday: 'The source of the fire are remnant light fuel components within the specific area where the fire originated. The smoke observed is from hydrocarbons that are not fully combusted.'

Shell has also stressed that only essential staff remain on the island.

Boundary cooling operations are still being carried out to prevent heat exposure to the nearby storage tanks.

UPDATE 5-Shell partially shuts Singapore refinery as fire rages
* Fire forces Shell to shut two of three crude units
* Shell Singapore refinery fire surges again -civil defence
* Smoke plume has not affected Singapore -environmental agency (Recasts with partial refinery shutdown)
Luke Pachymuthu and Yaw Yan Chong Reuters Thu Sep 29, 2011 3:43am EDT;

SINGAPORE, Sept 29 (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSa.L) has shut most of its half-a-million barrels-per-day Singapore refinery, sources said, as firefighters struggle to contain a blaze that has been burning for more than a day.

The plant, the company's biggest, makes up more than a third of refining capacity in the city-state, the world's largest market for fuel oil and Asia's hub for crude and refined product trading.

Any disruption to supply in the Asian region's oil trade hub could be out of proportion to the size of the refinery.

"There has been a surge in the fire at the manufacturing facility," the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said in a statement.

Industry sources said Shell has shut two of its three crude distillation units, including the largest No 5 unit, with the third running at reduced rates.

A Shell spokesman declined comment on the partial shutdown of the refinery or the status of the blaze. An earlier statement said the fire had been significantly reduced.

The cause of the blaze, being tackled by at least 100 firefighters on Bukom island off Singapore, is unknown.

At least one shipowner said his ship had to pull off from the loading berth at around 1000 GMT on Wednesday, more than 5 hours after the fire started.

"We had to cast off (from the berth) halfway through the loading," the shipping source said.

"Our vessel is sitting at anchorage now, waiting for further instructions from Shell's terminal, but no indication has been given on when we can go back in."

MARKET IMPACT

The cost of prompt delivery oil product cargoes in Singapore's swaps markets surged on Thursday, indicating traders expect near-term shortages even after Shell said it could continue to supply the market from storage and other refineries.

Front-month timespreads for gas oil, fuel oil and naphtha rose to over seven-month peaks, with the premium of October gas oil swaps over November hitting the highest in almost three years.

Production units near the blaze were shut as a precaution. Shell said in the process of the closure, a larger flare would be visible, but that it would not release any toxic vapours.

One Shell firefighter suffered a superficial injury, and five others had heat exhaustion and pulled muscles, the company said. Three Civil Defence Force fire engines were also damaged.

The company said the fire had damaged the pump room, which contains pipes used for blending refined fuels.

Shell is operating its ethylene cracker normally using alternative feedstock. The ethylene cracker is typically fed by products from the hydrocracking unit that was shut.

The smoke plume generated from the fire has not affected Singapore so far, the National Environment Agency said. In a statement, the agency said it was keeping a close watch on the situation and asked the public not to be alarmed. (Additional reporting by Harry Suhartono, Alejandro Barbajosa and Francis Kan; Writing by Manash Goswami; Editing by Michael Urquhart)

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Fire at Shell refinery on Pulau Bukom

Fire at Shell's Bukom refinery
Afternoon blaze flares up again in the evening; workers go home
Lin Wenjian, Leonard Lim, Maria Almenoar & Jennani Durai Straits Times 29 Sep 11;

MORE than 100 firefighters were last night battling a fire that broke out at oil giant Shell's Pulau Bukom refinery, its largest in the world.

Explosions were heard soon after the fire started at a pumphouse at about 1.15pm. It appeared at first that the blaze had been brought under control within an hour, but by evening, it had flared up again.

Shell evacuated 400 'non-essential' employees from the island, keeping 250 on site - including its fire-fighting team - to handle core operations.

It said it was closing down its multi-million dollar hydrocracking unit which makes diesel. It was also protecting several tanks from heat exposure, as a precaution.

At a hastily called 10.30pm press conference, Shell Companies in Singapore chairman Lee Tzu Yang said the company was 'working towards stabilising the situation'.

Speaking inside a Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) mobile command centre at Pasir Panjang Ferry Terminal, he said: 'We have blocked off the pipelines that run through this area so that there is no more fresh product.

'And the plants that are further away, we are slowing them down in preparation for shutdown.'

He said the fire - whose cause was still unknown and being investigated - was contained within a 150m by 50m space, about the size of a football field.

All staff had been accounted for, but one Shell firefighter suffered a superficial injury, and five others had heat exhaustion and pulled muscles. They were under observation.

'At this point in time, our priority is to ensure the safety of our people and to make sure that the fire goes out with the help of SCDF,' said Mr Lee.

While lighter fuels like gasoline are still alight, he gave the assurance that there was no danger of poisonous vapours when the affected hydrocarbons combust.

Shell will continue to supply Singapore's fuel markets with products from storage and other refineries, so the company expects no shortages locally. It exports 90 per cent of its products produced at Bukom to the Asia-Pacific and beyond.

But the company, Europe's largest oil company which is headquartered in the Hague in the Netherlands, has activated its network of refineries in countries like Malaysia and the Philippines to help out with external supply while the blaze is going on.

Said Mr Lee: 'We have quite an extensive network of other refineries in Asia and we also have a very active supply and trading function. So they have already been activated this afternoon as a precaution to secure product supply for the external markets. So we will cover our obligations.'

The company, which produces half-a-million barrels per day at its Bukom plant, said processing units were now running at reduced capacity.

Pulau Bukom houses the $4.1 billion Shell Eastern Petrochemicals Complex, which opened in May last year and is its largest petrochemical investment. A network of plants on Pulau Bukom and nearby Jurong Island are connected by sub-sea pipelines. The complex includes one of the world's largest monoethylene glycol plants, in operation since November last year.

Shell officials said the fire started in an open area where there were many criss-crossing pipelines carrying light fuels.

The SCDF received a call three minutes later, and when its firemen arrived, Shell's in-house firemen were already at work with eight water jets.

A 30-year-old process technician who works in nearby Jurong Island said he saw the fire break out while he was having lunch. He declined to be named.

Administration executive Khadijah Yaakop, 26, whose 18th-floor office is located at Alexandra Point, said she saw a thick blanket of smoke emanating from Pulau Bukom.

She said: 'There was a commotion in my office and my colleagues told me there was a fire at Pulau Bukom. I couldn't smell anything but I took photos of the fire.'

She sent the photos to citizen journalism website Stomp.

She added that by the time she left her office at 6pm, 'the fire seemed to have died down and there was only a slight haze in the sky'.

Indeed, there were conflicting statements from Shell and the SCDF about the fire throughout the day.

Shell issued a statement at about 3.30pm to confirm a fire had occurred at its 50-year-old manufacturing site at Pulau Bukom.

As smoke continued to be seen by those in the area over the next few hours, questions remained on just what was happening on the island.

At 5.15pm, a Shell spokesman said the blaze had been 'contained', but just two hours later, the company said the fire had spread.

At 8.30pm, the SCDF announced that non-essential staff had been evacuated. The Straits Times understands they could include those handling administration, planning, IT or instrumentation.

The SCDF dispatched two fire engines, two fire bikes, one Red Rhino and eight support vehicles to the island.

Meanwhile, the National Environment Agency (NEA) said the smoke plume generated from the fire is not affecting air quality on the mainland.

An NEA spokesman said: 'The ambient air quality at the mainland remains in the good range. NEA is keeping a close watch of the situation and the public is advised not to be alarmed.'

Firefighters battle Pulau Bukom refinery blaze through the night
Tan Weizhen Today Online 29 Sep 11;

SINGAPORE - A chemical fire which broke out at 1.15pm yesterday and had spread to other parts of the Royal Dutch Shell refinery on Pulau Bukom burned long into the night, as 100 Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) officers and 250 of the company's employees worked through the night to contain it.

The oil refinery is Shell's largest in the world in terms of crude distillation capacity.

At 1.30 this morning, the fire was still raging in an area about 150m by 50m. It damaged a pump house and pipes but no one suffered serious injuries.

Neighbouring units were shut down as a precaution and no toxic vapours were released into the air, a Shell spokesperson said in a statement issued after midnight.

The spokesperson said: "All staff are accounted for and non-essential staff have been evacuated to safety. One Shell firefighter sustained a superficial injury, and five other firefighters suffered heat exhaustion and pulled muscles."

The spokesperson said the fire was believed to have been caused by an accident. The company will conduct an investigation "once the fire is put out".

The spokesperson added: "We very much regret this incident and are glad that no one was seriously hurt. Safety is our top priority."

Pulau Bukom is more than 5km from Singapore. The fire and the thick plumes of smoke were visible from western areas of Singapore - such as Pasir Panjang, Redhill and Dover Road - as well as from Sentosa.

Refinery sources told Reuters the fire broke out where finished oil products are transferred from the final production unit into storage tanks by being pumped through pipelines.

According to the SCDF, petroleum products from pipes in the tank farm at the manufacturing facility were ablaze. The SCDF dispatched two fire engines, two fire bikes, one Red Rhino and eight support vehicles to the accident.

At a press conference late last night, Mr Lee Tzu Yang, chairman for Shell Companies in Singapore, explained that the substances that were burning were "light fuel products".

"They are not toxic and will not create gas clouds," said Mr Lee, adding that he was unable to say how long it would take to put out the fire.

He said: "There will be a continuous process of applying foam pressure ... the operation will continue as long as it takes."

Mr Lee said the company has taken precautions against any chemicals spilling into the sea.

Said Mr Lee: "(We) have deployed booms off Pulau Bukom in the sea to ensure that if in the event, any of this does escape to the sea it will be captured in the booms, and we have boats offshore keeping watch."

The refinery produces 500,000 barrels a day. About 90 per cent of its products are exported to countries in the region and beyond. It also accounts for more than one-third of Singapore's total refining capacity.

On the disruption to Shell's business, Mr Lee said the company has "quite an extensive network of other refineries in Asia".

He added: "We have a very active supply and trading function. They have been activated this afternoon as a precaution and to secure product supply for external markets. We supply almost all countries in Asia."

According to Mr Lee, there was no damage to the hydrocracker. He added: "We will be happy to source gasoline from our partners in Singapore. We have had good support from other oil companies here."

He added: "We have separate storage in Singapore to cater for Singapore market. The inventory will last long enough for us to find alternatives."

As to when Shell will be able to resume operations, Mr Lee reiterated that it was premature to say.

The first steps were to put out the fire, "assess the situation as to when we can safely start up the units", then investigate and find out what went wrong, Mr Lee said.

No one hurt in Pulau Bukom fire
Today Online 12:33 AM Sep 29, 2011

SINGAPORE - Fire broke out at the manufacturing site of oil company Shell on Pulau Bukom this afternoon.

A spokesperson from Shell said the fire started at about 1.15pm.

The fire has been contained and no injuries were reported.

The rest of the site's operations were not affected.

Shell said it's working with the authorities to investigate the incident.

UPDATE: The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) had called for a joint press conference with Shell earlier this evening.

They said 250 Shell and 100 SCDF personnel have remained on the island to try to put out the fire. Units close to the fire have been shut down as a preventive measure.

The SCDF and Shell also said there is sufficient containment in case of spillage into the sea.

They are still investigating the cause of the fire. AGENCIES

Fire at Shell manufacturing site
Channel NewsAsia 28 September 2011 1518 hrs

SINGAPORE: A fire broke out on Wednesday afternoon at the manufacturing site of oil company Shell on Pulau Bukom.

A spokesperson from Shell said the fire started at about 1.15pm.

The fire has been contained. No injuries were reported.

The rest of the site's operations were not affected.

Shell said safety is a top priority and it's working closely with the authorities to investigate the incident.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force sent two fire engines, two fire bikes, one Red Rhino and eight support vehicles when it was alerted at 1.18pm.

When its firefighters arrived at the scene, Pulau Bukom's in-house firefighting team was already fighting the fire with eight water jets. SCDF sent two more large water jets for the operation.

It said the fire was brought under control in about one hour.

The 500,000-barrels-a-day refinery is Shell's largest refinery in the world, in terms of crude distillation capacity. This makes Singapore a key regional supply and trading centre for the Group in the East.

Some 90 per cent of Bukom's products are exported to countries in the region and beyond.

- CNA/ck/ac

Fire at Shell oil refinery intensifies
Vimita Mohandas Channel NewsAsia 28 September 2011 2001 hrs

SINGAPORE: A fire that broke out at the refinery of oil company Shell on Pulau Bukom on Wednesday afternoon has intensified.

Shell had initially said that the fire at the refinery, which broke out at around 1.15pm, had been contained.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said the fire involves petroleum products from pipes in the tank farm at the manufacturing facility.

The SCDF sent two fire engines, two fire bikes, one Red Rhino and eight support vehicles when it was alerted at 1.18pm.

SCDF and Pulau Bukom's in-house fire-fighting team are at work with 25 water jets.

Shell said all efforts are directed to ensure the safety of staff and emergency responders on site.

No injuries have been reported and all staff are accounted for.

SCDF said all non essential staff from Pulau Bukom have been evacuated from the island following the fire and that fire fighting operations are still ongoing.

In a statement, SCDF has asked the public not to call the emergency numbers - 999 and 995 - unless it is life threatening.

SCDF said it will give an update when more information is available.

The complex comprises a 500,000-barrels-a-day refinery and is Shell's largest refinery in the world in terms of crude distillation capacity. This makes Singapore a key regional supply and trading centre for the group in the East.

Some 90 per cent of Bukom's products are exported to countries in the region and beyond.

-CNA/ac

Shell shuts down some units at Pulau Bukom refinery after fire
Vimitas Mohandas Channel NewsAsia 29 September 2011 0304 hrs

SINGAPORE: Oil company Shell shut down some units at its Pulau Bukom manufacturing site following a huge blaze on Wednesday.

The company said the fire, which broke out at about 1.15pm, had been contained and it is working with the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) to put it out completely.

Shell said the fire had affected a pump house and pipes on Pulau Bukom, which is more than five kilometres away from the mainland.

The area affected is about 150 metres by 50 metres.

Shell believes the fire was an accident and said a full investigation will be conducted once the fire is put out.

The company added that one of its firefighters sustained superficial injury, while five others suffered heat exhaustion and a pulled muscle.

Shell said no one was seriously injured and all staff are accounted for. Non-essential staff were also evacuated from the island.

As a result of the shutdown, Shell said the public may see a larger flare, but it is no cause for alarm.

The company also gave assurance that the public need not be concerned by the smoke emitted as a result of the fire.

Mr Lee Tzu Yang, Chairman of Shell Companies Singapore, said: "I can confirm that the hydrocarbons involved in combustion of catching fire do not produce any poisonous vapours, so it's not toxic. There is, of course, quite considerable alarm at the sight of the fire but these vapours are not dangerous, in a sense of being poisonous.

"We have blocked off the pipelines that run through this area, so there are no more fresh products and for the plants that are further away from the area we are slowing them down in preparation for shutdown. Because in a shutdown situation, there would be hydrocarbons that are vented to the atmosphere and you would see a larger than normal flare."

As a precautionary measure, Shell said it has closed down some of the units around the affected area which includes its hydrocracker unit.

Shell said some 250 staff are still on the island to man operations there.

The company is confident the Singapore market will continue as normal. It also assured the public there is sufficient petrol and diesel for Singapore's use.

The Bukom complex comprises a 500,000-barrels-a-day refinery and is Shell's largest refinery in the world in terms of crude distillation capacity.

This makes Singapore a key regional supply and trading centre for the group in the region.

Some 90 percent of Bukom's products are exported to countries in the region and beyond.

- CNA/de

Fire fighting continues at Pulau Bukom refinery
Channel NewsAsia 29 Sep 2011 0841 hrs

SINGAPORE: The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said fire fighting operations are still under way at Shell's Pulau Bukom refinery, but the situation is under control.

The fire, which broke out Wednesday afternoon, involves petroleum products from pipes in the tank farm at a manufacturing facility measuring 150 metres by 50 metres.

The fire is contained within the bund walls.

In an update issued at about 6:30am on Thursday, SCDF said it has about 100 fire fighters fighting the fire with six fire engines and 13 support vehicles.

About 250 essential Shell personnel are also on Pulau Bukom helping with the operations.

SCDF said about 20 water jets are being used to carry out boundary cooling operations.

This is to prevent heat exposure to nearby storage tanks.

SCDF said it is also closely monitoring the temperature levels of the storage tanks surrounding the manufacturing facility.

All non-essential staff from Pulau Bukom have been evacuated from the island.

- CNA/cc

Fire forces evacuation at Shell's Bukom refinery
Some facilities shut down, blaze contained around midnight
Winston Chai Business Times 29 Sep 11;

(SINGAPORE) A blaze at Royal Dutch Shell's Singapore refinery, its largest in the world, has prompted the firm to clear out employees and partially shut down facilities at its offshore complex.

'All non-essential staff from Pulau Bukom have been evacuated from the island,' the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said in a statement last night.

The evacuation order was issued after earlier attempts to contain the midday fire at Shell's Pulau Bukom Manufacturing Site proved unsuccessful. The fire was eventually contained around midnight.

In response to the incident, Shell has shut down a hydrocracker on the island but its ethylene cracker is still operating.

Shell Companies' Singapore chairman Lee Tzu Yang said at a press conference late last night that crude-processing units at the site are now running at reduced capacity.

The SCDF, which was notified three minutes after the blaze broke out at 1.15pm yesterday, had initially said the incident had been brought under control within the hour.

However, plumes of thick black smoke that could be seen from many parts of mainland Singapore continued to billow out from Pulau Bukom in the evening.

Eyewitnesses also reportedly heard explosions on the facility. A Shell spokesman subsequently confirmed that the fire had indeed intensified.

No fatalities have been reported but one firefighter sustained a minor injury. All staff are accounted for, the company said.

According to the SCDF, the fire involved products from pipes in the tank farm at the Shell complex.

The oil giant's Pulau Bukom facility has a crude distillation capacity of 500,000 barrels a day. Besides refining crude oil, the complex also includes a 800,000 tonne-a-year ethylene cracker and a 155,000 tonne-a-year butadiene-extraction unit.

Some 90 per cent of its products are exported to countries in the region and beyond, making Singapore a key supply and trading centre for Shell in the region.

The company did not comment by press time on the extent of the fire damage and the exact impact it has on its local production capacity.

Fire at Shell Singapore refinery intensifies
Reuters AsiaOne 28 Sep 11;

Update: Shell and SCDF have said that there are sufficient containment measures in case of spillage into sea.

SINGAPORE - A fire has intensified at Royal Dutch Shell's largest refinery, its half-a-million barrel per day Singapore plant, sending a plume of black smoke over the city-state.

Shell has evacuated non-essential staff from the refining complex, Singapore's Civil Defence Force said.

As of 6.30am on Thursday, firefighting operations were still underway, a Today report said. About 100 firefighters are fighting the blaze with six fire engines and 13 support vehicles, the SCDF said.

It also added that the situation is under control.

"There is a fire and it grew significantly, but I am not aware of an explosion," said Lee Tzu Yang, chairman for Shell Companies in Singapore told Reuters.

"My understanding is that there are no people injured."

The company declined to comment on what impact the fire was having on operations at the plant, which accounts for more than a third of the island nation's total refining capacity.

Singapore is the world's biggest market for fuel oil and as Asia's hub for crude and product trading, any disruption may have an impact regional prices out of proportion to the capacity taken offline.

A dark cloud of smoke could be seen over mainland Singapore and the Jurong Island oil hub, about five hours after the fire started at the refinery at 0515 GMT.

"The smoke has become much thicker and flames are rising up five to eight storeys every 15-20 minutes," said a Reuters witness.

NAPHTHA STORAGE HIT

"The fire at the manufacturing facility on Pulau Bukom is still on-going. The fire involves petroleum products from pipes in the tank farm at the manufacturing facility," a Singapore Civil Defence Force spokesman said.

Refinery sources said the fire occurred where finished oil products are transferred from the final production unit into storage tanks by being pumped through pipelines.

"There are a lot of pipelines in this area. And there are residues of flammable oil trapped in them. The fire got worse because it spread into the pipes, and that's what caused the explosions," said the refinery source.

The sources said that the damage was quite extensive as a result of the second fire, which was more intense than the first, and it would take some time before the area is able to resume operations.

Traders said Shell, one of the largest naphtha traders and suppliers in Asia, sold an usually heavy volume of at least 40,000 tonnes of prompt October/November naphtha swaps, implying that it is taking a bearish view of the market.

The damage to the area is expected to lead to inventories of naphtha being stuck in storage, and in a market where prices for prompt cargoes are stronger than for forward delivery, the stocks would lose value over time, traders said.

Some traders view Shell's move to sell an unusually-high volume of naphtha's October/November swaps, at higher price levels of US$4.75-US$5.00 (S$6.10 - S$6.42) a tonne versus week-ago levels, as a move to lock in higher profit levels for the inventories.

Fire Still Burning At Shell Singapore Refinery
Luke Pachymuthu PlanetArk 29 Sep 11;

A fire continues to burn on Thursday at Royal Dutch Shell's largest refinery, its half a million barrels per day Singapore plant, but the blaze is under control, Singapore Civil Defense Force (SCDF) said in a statement.

The fire hit the plant on an island off Singapore's shores on Wednesday, forcing Shell to close down a hydrocracking unit that helps make diesel fuel as a safety measure.

"Fire fighting operations are still underway at the affected area," the SCDF said in the statement. "There are currently about 100 SCDF fire fighters fighting the fire with 6 fire engines and 13 support vehicles. About 250 essential Shell personnel are also on Pulau Bukom."

Shell could not be immediately reached for comment on Thursday. In a statement issued earlier, Shell said the fire had been contained and that it had accounted for all staff.

Crude processing units at the plant, which accounts for more than a third of the island nation's total refining capacity, were running at reduced capacity, Shell said on Wednesday.

Production units at the refinery near the blaze were shut as a precaution. In the process of the shutdown, Shell said that a larger flare would be visible. The flare was no cause for alarm, as no toxic vapours were being released, Shell said.

One Shell firefighter sustained a superficial injury, and five other firefighters had heat exhaustion and pulled muscle, the company said.

(Editing by Simon Webb)

Shell shuts some Singapore refinery units after fire
Francis Kan and Seng Li Peng Reuters Sep 28, 2011 2:50pm EDT

(Reuters) - A fire that forced Royal Dutch Shell to shut down some units and evacuate non-essential staff at its massive Singapore refinery on Wednesday has been contained after burning for nearly half a day.

The fire hit the 500,000 barrel per day (bpd) plant, Shell's biggest worldwide, at 1:15 p.m local time (0515 GMT), forcing it to close down a hydrocracking unit that helps make diesel fuel as a safety measure, the company said earlier.

In an update at 12:15 a.m. on Thursday (1615 GMT Wednesday), Shell said the fire was contained and that no one was seriously hurt by the blaze, but that it had shut "neighboring units" as a precaution. It said the fire had damaged the pump room, which contains pipes used for blending refined fuels.

Crude processing units at the plant, which accounts for more than a third of the island nation's total refining capacity, were running at reduced capacity, Lee Tzu Yang, chairman for Shell Companies in Singapore, told reporters.

"All the crude distillation units, all the processing units are running at the moment in a stable situation," said Martijn van Koten, vice president for manufacturing operations at a media briefing.

"The hydrocracker itself is not affected. We have just taken a precautionary measure just to make sure that it is in a safe position," he added.

Singapore is the world's biggest market for fuel oil and Asia's hub for crude and product trading. Any disruption there may have an impact on regional prices out of proportion to the capacity taken offline.

"The FCCU (gasoline-making unit), on another island further back, is also running in a stable position," van Koten said. "Our priority is not to keep everything running. Our priority is to focus on (making sure) everyone is safe and to make sure that the fire doesn't spread."

Shell will continue to supply Singapore's fuel markets with products from storage and other refineries, so the company expects no shortages in the market, Lee said.

The company has evacuated nonessential staff from the refining complex, he added.

LIGHT FUEL STORAGE HIT

Refinery sources said the fire occurred where finished oil products are transferred from the final production unit into storage tanks by being pumped through pipelines.

"There are a lot of pipelines in this area. And there are residues of flammable oil trapped in them," said one of the refinery sources.

Shell is operating its ethylene cracker normally at the plant. The ethylene cracker is typically fed by products from the hydrocracking unit that was shut due to the fire. The company is supplying alternative feedstocks to the ethylene cracker to keep it running, van Koten said.

Shell, one of the largest naphtha traders and suppliers in Asia, sold an unusually heavy volume of at least 40,000 tonnes of prompt October/November naphtha swaps, traders said.

Some traders view Shell's move to sell an unusually-high volume of naphtha's October/November swaps, at higher price levels of $4.75-$5.00 a tonne versus week-ago levels, as a move to lock in higher profit levels for the inventories.

(Additional reporting by Alejandro Barbajosa, Yaw Yan Chong and Luke Pachymuthu, and Naveen Arul in Bangalore, Writing by Manash Goswami; Editing by Jane Biard and Marguerita Choy)

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Singapore's population reaches 5.1 million

Channel NewsAsia 28 Sep 11;

SINGAPORE: Latest statistics from the Population Trends 2011 report released on Wednesday showed Singapore's total population stood at 5.18 million as at end June this year.

The report also showed there were 3.79 million Singapore residents, of whom 3.26 million are Singapore citizens and 530,000 are permanent residents.

There were 1.39 million non-resident foreigners as at end June.

The report said the total population expanded by 2.1 per cent, or 107,000, in 2011, due to increased number of citizens and non-residents.

The number of Singapore citizens grew by 0.8 per cent between 2010 and 2011 to 3.26 million.

Growth in the number of non-residents was 6.9 per cent in 2011, down from the peaks of 15 per cent in 2007 and 19 per cent in 2008.

In contrast, the number of permanent residents declined by 1.7 per cent to 532,000, after growing 1.5 per cent last year and at least six per cent each year between 2005 and 2009.

Reflecting the ageing population, the proportion of Singapore residents aged 45 years and over expanded over time.

The median age of the resident population rose from 37.4 years last year to 38 years in 2011.

Consequently, the ratio of working-age residents to elderly residents dropped.

There were 7.9 residents aged 15-64 years for each resident aged 65 years and over in 2011, a decline from 8.2 in 2010.

In 2011, the Chinese formed the majority at 74 per cent of the resident population, followed by the Malays with 13 per cent and the Indians with 9.2 per cent.

The report also showed the first decline in general marriage rates since 2003.

The Singapore Department of Statistics said in 2010, 24,363 marriages were registered.

That is 6.6 per cent lower than the 26,081 registered in 2009.

Sociologists said this is a particularly worrying trend given that the number of singles in the population has risen.

With more singles, the general marriage rate should be going up but it has gone down instead.

Experts said the reason singles are not translating their relationships into marriage may have to do with global economic uncertainty.

Singles may be too focused on maintaining economic and job stability to even date.

The Population Trends report also found more people aged 30 to 34 have never been married.

It found more couples are not having children and there are more families with only one child.

Experts said the fact that more women are marrying past their prime reproductive years means the likelihood of them growing larger families will be smaller.

-CNA/wk

PR numbers down for first time in 20 years
Janice Heng Straits Times 29 Sep 11;

THE number of permanent residents (PRs) in Singapore has fallen for the first time in 20 years, according to latest government figures.

There were 532,000 PRs at the end of June, 9,000 fewer than last June.

One reason for the decline is Singapore's tighter immigration policy, said another government report that was also released yesterday.

But the pool of PRs is the only group to shrink.

Total population and the number of citizens and non-residents have all gone up this year.

The population has risen to 5.18 million. This is an increase of about 2 per cent from 5.08 million the year before.

Similarly, the number of citizens has gone up to 3.26 million. The increase is less than 1 per cent from a year ago, when it was 3.23 million.

The rise is proportionally steeper for non-residents - foreigners who are working, studying or living here but not granted PR status. Their numbers have risen nearly 7 per cent to 1.39 million. Previously, it was 1.31 million.

These figures were released by the Department of Statistics yesterday.

At the same time, the National Population and Talent Division (NPTD) issued a report, in which it attributed the fall in PR numbers to official policy.

'Due to the tightened immigration framework, the growth in our PR population has slowed significantly since 2010,' said the report.

PR growth peaked in 2009, when the number rose 11.5 per cent to 533,200, from 478,200.

Last year, the growth rate slowed significantly to just 1.5 per cent. This year, the number of PRs shrank 1.7 per cent.

In March last year, then Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng said in Parliament that Singapore would move to raise the quality of immigrants.

The NPTD publication suggests that new PRs and new citizens are more educated than their existing counterparts, although the bases for comparison differ.

Of new PRs aged 20 and older, 78.2 per cent have post-secondary education. This compares with 74 per cent of existing PRs who, however, are aged 15 and older.

Of new citizens aged 20 and older, 69.7 per cent have post-secondary education. Only 44.1 per cent of citizens aged 15 and older are similarly qualified.

MP for Moulmein-Kallang GRC Edwin Tong said the fall in PR numbers is not a surprise, given the tightened policy.

'The fall reflects greater reluctance to grant PR status, as compared with the case in previous years,' said Mr Tong.

He expects the PR population to dip further before levelling off in the next few years.

Dr Leong Chan Hoong, a research fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies, agrees but adds that the reasons for the fall in PR numbers are not clear-cut.

'The fall could reflect a number of things,' he said.

More of them are taking up citizenship in recent years. At the same time, the number of newly minted PRs has been falling.

From 2001 to 2005, Singapore saw an average of 8,300 new citizens a year, many of whom would previously have been PRs.

But from 2006 to last year, the average number of new citizens a year is 17,950 - more than twice that of the preceding five years.

As for newly minted PRs, the tighter immigration policy has caused their numbers to drop to 29,265 last year.

This is almost half the 2009 figure of 59,460, which is already fewer than 79,167 in 2008.

But tighter immigration policy may not be the sole factor driving down the total number of PRs in Singapore.

An NPTD spokesman cited other factors, such as death, people losing their PR status and PRs being absent from Singapore for more than 12 months.

Dr Leong pointed out that the economic uncertainty of recent years might have caused companies to relocate - and PRs to move out with them.

'It's a matter of both the economic attractiveness of Singapore as well as the government policy,' he said.

In the expatriate community, anecdotal evidence suggests that it is harder to get PR status nowadays.

British junior college teacher Nicola Perry, 50, said a friend applied recently and was turned down. 'But she plans to try again.'

She added that foreigners do not seem to be discouraged by the Government's stricter turn. 'I think people are still quite keen to become PRs here.'

Read more!

Hazy conditions in Singapore

Channel NewsAsia 29 Sep 11;

SINGAPORE: Many in Singapore woke up to a burnt smell and hazy skies in the air on Thursday morning.

A check with the National Environment Agency's (NEA) website showed that the three-hour PSI reading at 8am was 68, an increase of six points from an hour earlier.

This means that the air quality is in the moderate range.

NEA had said in an update two days ago that the Southwest Monsoon season lasting from June to September is the traditional dry season for the southern ASEAN region.

An escalation of hotspot activities can be expected during extended periods of dry weather.

NEA said in the past few days, scattered hotspots with slight to moderate smoke haze have been detected mainly over southern Sumatra.

With the prevailing winds blowing predominantly from the southeast or southwest, there is a likelihood that Singapore could be affected by transboundary smoke haze from Sumatra.

The impact of the smoke haze is dependent on factors such as the proximity and extent of the fires, the strength and direction of the prevailing winds and the incidence and amount of rain.

- CNA/cc

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Indonesia: Forest Loss Blamed for Animal Attack Death

Dwi Lusiana Jakarta Globe 28 Sep 11;

Malang, East Java. After a farmer was gored to death by a species of wild cattle, an animal protection group said a drastic decline in habitat may have pushed the animal into a populated area, and an inadvertent confrontation.

Sutini, 48, was tending her clove trees in Malang’s Lenggoksono hamlet on Monday when she was attacked by a banteng . She died at the scene after being gored in the neck and stomach.

According to ProFauna, which works to protect wildlife and their habitat, illegal logging in the Sumbertangkil Lenggoksono protected forest has led to shortages of food and shelter for banteng, which are endangered in the wild.

The number of wild banteng in the area fell from 20 animals in 1990 to just five when data was last collected, in 2001.

Rosek Nursahid, chairman of ProFauna, said the animal that killed Sutini had most likely come down from the protected forest looking for food.

“The fact that this animal came down from the forest shows that the population in Sumbertangkil Lenggoksono is not yet extinct. The government needs to take immediate steps to fix the damage to the forest and let residents know about this,” he said.

“The community needs to be aware of the presence of the banteng, which are not savage beasts. This is important to prevent any further conflict.”

Banteng are recognized as an endangered species by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

Wild Javan banteng can still be found in Baluran National Park in Banyuwangi, East Java, but their numbers are thought to have declined by 90 percent over the past 20 years because of habitat destruction.

Sutomo, an Indonesian Red Cross official in Malang, said Sutini’s goring death was the first known case in the area.

He speculated that the red scarf Sutini was wearing at the time of the attack may have angered the banteng, which reportedly appeared without warning from dense forest.

“Maybe it was afraid when it saw the residents’ homes, but whatever the reason the banteng ran around in a panic,” said Sutomo, who helped transfer Sutini’s body to the hospital.

After bringing the wayward banteng down, residents slaughtered the animal and distributed its meat among residents of the hamlet.

Read more!

Indonesia: Mass Dolphin Die-Off Puzzles Banten Officials

Fidelis E. Satriastanti Jakarta Globe 28 Sep 11;

Sixteen dolphins have died in the waters off of Ujung Kulon, Banten, after being stranded this afternoon, officials said.

“The 16 dolphins were stranded in Ujung Jaya village at about 2 p.m.,” said the head of Ujung Kulon National Park, Agus Priambudi. “Seven others returned to the sea.”

Officials haven’t been able to pinpoint why the dolphins were stranded. “Maybe because of strong northern currents or it can also be because of the hot weather,” he said.

This is the first such case of mass dolphin deaths in the country.

Agus said they would keep patrolling the waters until midnight to ensure the seven others remained safe.

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Thailand breaches rules on wild dolphins in captivity

Edwin Wiek, Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand
The Nation 29 Sep 11;

Thailand is witnessing an ever-increasing legal and illegal exploitation of local wildlife and marine life

Dolphins have been kept in captivity in Thailand since 1986. The first wild pink dolphin was caught and kept at Laem Singh in Chanthaburi by Mr Vichai Wattanapong, which later became Oasis Sea World. But it wasn't until recent years that interest in new dolphinaria has developed within Thailand.

Several attempts to start up aquariums containing wild-caught dolphins in Phuket and Koh Samui did not eventuate. One involved a Danish scientist who tried and failed to win the support of local politicians and businessmen to start a dolphinarium in Phuket in order to treat autistic children, three years ago.

Likewise, a Koh Samui resort owned by a politically influential Thai family purchased a locally caught wild pink dolphin in an attempt to increase tourist interest. While they claimed that they had rescued the dolphin from a collision with a fishing boat, the dolphin was trained to perform shows instead of being medically treated, with evidence of which being printed in The Nation in February 2007.

The poor animal was later confiscated and freed back into the gulf of Thailand, with the resort's further plans of obtaining more dolphins being cancelled.

Prior to this, two enterprises initiated the exploitation of dolphins many years earlier: Oasis Sea World in Chanthaburi (established in 1991) and the "Sanctuary of Truth" in Pattaya (established in about 2001).

Both resorts claimed to be merely rescuing wild dolphins that were harmed by the fishing industry, building ponds in order to nurse the "rescued" dolphins back to health. However, the dolphins were instead trained to perform shows, attracting tourists with the promise of rare and beautiful species of wild dolphins.

Oasis Sea World was even able to export six pink dolphins to Singapore in 1999, despite the international regulatory body the Conference on International trade of Endangered Species (CITES) clearly forbidding the trade of wild-caught specimens for entertainment purposes. The Sanctuary of Truth allegedly still does not even have a zoo permit to date.

Thankfully, a campaign led by the Thai Animal Guardians Association, the Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand and Care for the Wild International, which called on the Thai government to enforce the CITES regulations and local laws, put an end to the export of dolphins after the financially lucrative deals undertaken by Oasis Sea world.

With such exports banned and its location a little inconvenient for tourists, Oasis Sea World was forced to look into other options to increase profits. This resulted in the "Pattaya Dolphin World and Resort" being developed last year. A soft opening on August 12 this year saw the transfer of seven of 18 dolphins at Oasis Sea World, but improved visitor numbers and profits are expected by the end of this year for both Oasis and Pattaya Dolphin Worlds.

On Phuket Island, there were serious plans last year and early this year to construct yet another dolphinarium by a Canadian national and a group of foreign investors. After several articles in a local newspaper and a number of open blog discussions, it was clear that a lot of the locals and expatriates did not agree with the plans, resulting in some investors since retracting financial support. No zoo or building permits have yet been requested or issued.

People involved in the Phuket project wished to display local and imported species, but acquiring local species may be nearly impossible, and it could be similarly tricky to import species from the Solomon Islands after changes in the law disallowing any further export licences from January 1, 2012.

The Phuket project is not completely out of the question just yet, however, but with continued pressure from environmental organisations, it may be cancelled entirely.

The current figures on captive dolphins in Thailand are:

Dolphin species found in captivity in Thailand:

Pink or Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin (Sousa chinensis)* 7 to 8 individuals at 3 places.

Irrawaddy dolphin (Orcaella brevirostris)* 14-15 individuals at 3 places.

Bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncates) 6 or more at 1 place.

Beluga or white whale (Delphina-pterus leucas) 4 or more at 1 place.

Origin:

*Local dolphin species (wild-caught) 21-23 in total (both CITES Appendix 1 protected).

Imported (with CITES permits) dolphins or whales: 10 or more.

Locations where dolphins are found in captivity:

Sanctuary of Truth, Pattaya: 3 to 5.

Dolphin World and Resort Pattaya: 7.

Oasis Sea World, Chanthaburi: 11.

Safari World, Bangkok: 10 or more.

"The Cove", an Academy Award-winning

documentary that exposes the annual slaughter of dolphins in Japan, will show at the Foreign Correspondents' Club in Bangkok at 8pm tonight (Thursday). For details see

www.fccthai.com.

Read more!

New Zealand: Endangered dolphins near extinction

Experts say fishing methods are to blame, with one subspecies in New Zealand down to fewer than 100 mammals
Press Association guardian.co.uk 28 Sep 11;

The world's most endangered sea dolphins are sliding towards extinction in the face of damaging fishing methods, experts are warning.

Hector's dolphins are found only around New Zealand, where the population has fallen from 30,000 to around 7,000 since nylon fishing nets came into use in the 1970s, a conference on marine biodiveristy in Aberdeen will hear on Thursday.

The country's North Island population, a subspecies known as Maui's dolphins, is down to fewer than 100 mammals, according to Dr Barbara Maas, head of endangered species conservation for German environmental group NABU International – Foundation for Nature.

Research by Dr Liz Slooten, from Otago University in New Zealand, suggests commercial fishing gear known as gillnets – which create a wall of netting to catch fish – are drowning 23 Hector's dolphins a year on the east coast of the South Island.

She said the sustainable limit for the area was about one dolphin a year, and at the levels currently seen the population would fall by at least a further 14% by 2050.

Maas, who has worked to protect the species for more than a decade including for the New Zealand Department of Conservation, will warn the conference that gillnets are only part of the problem.

Other fishing methods which had not been included in the calculations are also killing Hector's dolphins, including the recreational use of gillnets, along with pollution, boat strikes and marine mining.

Trawl nets, which are pulled through the water from boats, were likely to kill as many endangered Hector's dolphins as commercial gillnets, bringing the number of deaths due to fisheries to 46 along the east coast, she warns.

"An annual loss of this size will wipe out 62% of the population by 2050. Only a scattering of animals will survive, potentially pushing the population beyond the point of no return."

She said that "absolute protection against commercial and recreational gill-netting and trawling is the only way to prevent their demise".

Dr Maas, who is speaking at the international marine conference organised by the Universities of Aberdeen and St Andrews, is urging the New Zealand government not to bow to industry pressure and to ban the fishing methods in waters up to 100m deep to save the species.

She suggests more selective fishing methods, such as hook and line fishing, or fish traps, which do not catch dolphins, could be used instead.

Read more!

Sharks in trouble on the Great Barrier Reef and worldwide

James Cook University Science Alert 29 Sep 11;

Sharks are in big trouble on the Great Barrier Reef and worldwide, according to an Australian-based team who have developed a world-first way to measure rates of decline in shark populations.

“There is mounting evidence of widespread, substantial, and ongoing declines in the abundance of shark populations worldwide, coincident with marked rises in global shark catches in the last half-century,” say Mizue Hisano, Professor Sean Connolly and Dr William Robbins from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and James Cook University.

“Overfishing of sharks is now recognized as a major global conservation concern, with increasing numbers of shark species added to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s list of threatened species,” they say in the latest issue of the international science journal PLos ONE.

“Evaluating population trends for sharks is complicated,” Professor Connolly said. “The simplest approach of looking at trends in fisheries catches doesn’t work well for sharks.

“First, many countries with coral reefs don’t keep reliable records of catches or fishing effort. Second, around 75 per cent of the world shark catch consists of illegal and unreported finning. Third, sharks may be caught, discarded, and not reported when fishers are targeting other species,” he said.

“An alternative is to take estimates of shark growth, birth, and mortality rates, and use these to calculate population growth rates. Estimates of growth and birth rates are easy to get, but it is very hard to get good estimates of mortality in sharks and other large animals.”

To deal with this problem, the team developed several alternative models, which combined birth rates and growth rates for sharks with a variety of different methods for estimating mortality.

They then used state-of-the art statistical methods to combine the uncertainty associated with each of these methods and arrive at a more robust long-term population prediction for two GBR shark species -- the grey reef shark and the whitetip reef shark.

As a further check on their results, the researchers used their population projections to see how well their models could explain differences in shark abundances on fished and unfished reefs, based on how long the unfished reefs had been protected.

The team found that results obtained by all methods of assessing shark populations were in close agreement that sharks are declining rapidly due to fishing.

“Our different approaches all painted a surprisingly consistent picture of the current state of population decline, but also of the potential recovery of these species if they are adequately protected,” says Mizue Hisano, the study’s lead author.

For the Great Barrier Reef shark populations, the close agreement between the different methods appears to justify management actions to substantially reduce the fishing mortality of reef sharks.

“More broadly, we believe that our study demonstrates that this approach may be applied to a broad range of exploited species for which direct estimates of mortality are ambiguous or lacking, leading to improved estimates of population growth.”

Population Growth Rates of Reef Sharks with and without Fishing on the Great Barrier Reef: Robust Estimation with Multiple Models by Mizue Hisano, Sean R. Connolly and William D. Robbins is published in PLos ONE 6.9, September 2011.

Read more!

Experts Identify World’s Most Threatened Sea Turtle Populations

IUCN 29 Sep 11;

Top sea turtle experts from around the globe have discovered that almost half (45%) of the world’s threatened sea turtle populations are found in the northern Indian Ocean. The study also determined that the most significant threats across all of the threatened populations of sea turtles are fisheries bycatch, accidental catches of sea turtles by fishermen targeting other species, and the direct harvest of turtles or their eggs for food or turtle shell material for commercial use.

The recent report, produced by IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Marine Turtle Specialist Group (MTSG) and supported by Conservation International (CI) and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), is the first comprehensive status assessment of all sea turtle populations globally. The study, designed to provide a blueprint for conservation and research, evaluated the state of individual populations of sea turtles and determined the 11 most threatened populations, as well as the 12 healthiest populations.

“This assessment system provides a baseline status for all sea turtles from which we can gauge our progress on recovering these threatened populations in the future,” explained Roderic Mast, Co-Chair of the MTSG, CI Vice President, and one of the paper’s authors. “Through this process, we have learned a lot about what is working and what isn’t in sea turtle conservation, so now we look forward to turning the lessons learned into sound conservation strategies for sea turtles and their habitats.”

Five of the world’s 11 most threatened species of sea turtles are found in the northern Indian Ocean, specifically threatened populations of both Loggerhead Turtles (Caretta caretta) and Olive Ridley Turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea) are found in the northern Indian Ocean in waters and on nesting beaches within Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) of countries such as India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.. Other areas that proved to be the most dangerous places for sea turtles were the East Pacific Ocean (from the USA to South America) and East Atlantic Ocean (off the coast of western Africa).

“The report confirms that India is a home to many of the most threatened sea turtles in the world,” said Dr. B. C. Choudhury, head of the Department of Endangered Species Management at the Wildlife Institute of India and a contributor to the study. “This paper is a wake-up call for the authorities to do more to protect India's sea turtles and their habitats to ensure that they survive."

The study also highlighted the 12 healthiest sea turtle populations in the world, which are large and currently populations facing relatively low threats. Five species, such as the Hawksbill Turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata) and the Green Turtle (Chelonia mydas) have populations among these dozen thriving habitats which include nesting sites and feeding areas in Australia, Mexico and Brazil. Other areas that harbor healthy turtle populations include the Southwest Indian Ocean, Micronesia and French Polynesia.

“Before we conducted this study, the best we could say about sea turtles was that six of the seven sea turtle species are threatened with extinction globally,” said Dr Bryan Wallace, Director of Science for the Marine Flagship Species Program at CI, and lead author for the paper. “But this wasn’t very helpful for conservation because it didn’t help us set priorities for different populations in different regions. Sea turtles everywhere are conservation-dependent, but this framework will help us effectively target our conservation efforts around the world.”

Map of the 11 most Threatened Sea Turtle Populations 2.81MB
Map of The 12 Healthiest Sea Turtle Populations 2.90MB

Global Conservation Priorities for Marine Turtles
ScienceDaily 28 Sep 11;

Marine turtles worldwide are vulnerable and endangered, but their long lives and broad distribution make it difficult for scientists to accurately determine the threat level to different populations and devise appropriate conservation strategies. To address this concern, researchers have developed a new method to evaluate spatially and biologically distinct groups of marine turtles, called Regional Management Units, or RMUs, to identify threats and data gaps at different scales.

The results are reported September 28 in the online journal PLoS ONE. In their analysis, the researchers identified 11 out of the 58 worldwide turtle RMUs that are most at risk. Of these 11, five reside in the Indian Ocean, four in the Pacific, and two in the Atlantic. Populations of four of the seven total species of marine turtle are included in this most threatened group.

The researchers suggest that these results should be used to help set conservation priorities. Furthermore, this approach is flexible and can also be used to assess other widely distributed taxa to generate a portfolio of conservation priorities that reflect the diversity of conservation needs associated with variation among different populations of a single species.

Journal Reference:

Bryan P. Wallace, Andrew D. DiMatteo, Alan B. Bolten, Milani Y. Chaloupka, Brian J. Hutchinson, F. Alberto Abreu-Grobois, Jeanne A. Mortimer, Jeffrey A. Seminoff, Diego Amorocho, Karen A. Bjorndal, Jérôme Bourjea, Brian W. Bowen, Raquel Briseño Dueñas, Paolo Casale, B. C. Choudhury, Alice Costa, Peter H. Dutton, Alejandro Fallabrino, Elena M. Finkbeiner, Alexandre Girard, Marc Girondot, Mark Hamann, Brendan J. Hurley, Milagros López-Mendilaharsu, Maria Angela Marcovaldi, John A. Musick, Ronel Nel, Nicolas J. Pilcher, Sebastian Troëng, Blair Witherington, Roderic B. Mast. Global Conservation Priorities for Marine Turtles. PLoS ONE, 2011; 6 (9): e24510 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0024510

South Asia most dangerous for sea turtles: study
(AFP) Google News 30 Sep 11;

MANILA — The waters around India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are home to the world's most endangered sea turtles, according to a study released Thursday aimed at setting a blueprint for global conservation.

While it was well known that almost all sea turtle species face extinction, the study by 30 scientists was the first to identify specific populations around the world that were most at threat, Conservational International said.

It identified the 11 most threatened populations around the globe, five of which were on the beaches or in the exclusive economic zones of Indian Ocean countries India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

Asia in general was found to be a particularly dangerous region for sea turtles, with Japan, Myanmar, the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia also named as having some of the most threatened populations.

In contrast, the study found the healthiest sea turtle populations in Australia, the South Pacific and Latin American countries including Mexico, Ecuador and Brazil.

The main threats for sea turtles, stunning creatures that have been in existence for at least 110 million years, are getting caught in the nets and long lines of the commercial fishing industry, the study said.

Other major threats are the gathering of turtle eggs and the eating of their meat by local communities. Coastal development, shipping and increasingly climate change are also endangering these populations, the study found.

Scientists involved in the study said it would play an important role in mapping out conservation plans for the must vulnerable sea turtles.

"We are excited by the clarity this new study provides by identifying areas around the world that are most important for sea turtle conservation," said Claude Gascon, chief science officer at the US-based National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

"This report is a guide for scientists, conservationists, policy makers, and funders to determine where conservation resources can be allocated to improve the status of these threatened populations."

Conservation International scientist Bryan Wallace emphasised in a blog that strong conservation efforts had proved to be successful, offering hope for the future.

He cited the example of green and olive ridley sea turtles -- once widely harvested particularly in Mexico for their eggs and meat -- but which now have some of the world's healthiest sea turtle populations.

This was credited to a 1990 ban imposed -- and strictly enforced -- on the consumption of such sea turtle products, Wallace said in the blog.

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South Africans, Vietnamese meet on rhino poaching

Donna Bryson, Associated Press Google News 28 Sep 11;

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — More needs to be done to dispel the myth among the Vietnamese that rhinoceros horn can cure cancer, Vietnamese officials said Wednesday after meeting with their South African counterparts about curbing rhino poaching.

This year already, 309 rhinos have been poached in South Africa, compared to the 2010 record of 333, according to the Department of Environmental Affairs. The 2010 figure was nearly triple the deaths in 2009.

Demand for rhino horn among a growing Vietnamese middle class is believed to be driving the poaching spike in South Africa and elsewhere in Africa — Vietnam's own rhinos are nearly extinct. David Newton of TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network of the World Wildlife Fund and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, said demand in China and Thailand also was a concern, but that recently, the "vast majority" of rhino horn smuggling prosecutions involved Vietnamese citizens.

"We need to raise public awareness of the importance of biodiversity and we need to get rid of the wrong understanding that rhino horn can cure cancer," said Kien Nguyen, a Vietnamese diplomat who took part in two days of talks with South African diplomats, conservationists and law enforcement and prosecuting authorities.

Tuan Cong Ha, a Vietnamese environmental affairs official who headed his country's delegation in South Africa, called on medical researchers in his country to study what he called the cancer-cure "rumor" and make their findings public. He also said attempts to educate Vietnamese should be more specific, saying previous campaigns have spoken only generally of the need to protect wildlife.

Newton said rhino horn has been used traditionally in Asia to treat fever. He said the focus on cancer was new, and that Wednesday's comments from Vietnamese officials showed they were aware of a growing problem.

The Vietnamese and South African officials said a key focus of their talks was the need to ensure that Vietnamese who come to South Africa as trophy hunters do not return and sell rhino horn on the black market. It is legal to keep rhino horn as a souvenir, but not to trade in it. Such illegal trade can lead to up to seven years in prison in Vietnam, Nguyen said.

The Vietnamese officials in South Africa on Wednesday could not provide figures for arrests and prosecutions in Vietnam.

Newton, of TRAFFIC, said Vietnam needed to be more open about the problem and what was being done to combat it.

"They're increasingly paying attention to it, but there's obviously a very long way for them to go," he said in an interview.

Fundisile Mketeni, who led the South African delegation in talks with the Vietnamese, said South Africa would schedule similar meetings with Chinese and Thai officials.

"All those countries have a role to play," Newton said. "It's absolutely urgent that South Africa does get those countries involved."

South Africa, Vietnam launch talks on rhino poaching
(AFP) Google News 28 Sep 11;

JOHANNESBURG — South Africa and Vietnam have launched talks toward an agreement to curb rhino poaching, which has soared in recent years driven by booming demand in Asia, officials said on Wednesday.

The talks, which aim to produce a Memorandum of Understanding between the two countries, come amid another bloody year for rhinos in South Africa and a rise in the price of rhino horn on the Asian black market, including Vietnam, where the substance is believed to cure cancer.

"Biodiversity conservation is a full-circle process which starts from the source country and ends in the destination country," Nguyen Trung Kien, a counsellor at the Vietnamese embassy in Pretoria, told journalists.

"We also understand that we need to raise public awareness of the importance of biodiversity. And we also need to get rid of the wrong understanding that rhino horn can cure cancer."

South Africa lost 333 rhinos to poaching last year and has lost 309 so far this year, up from 13 in 2007.

Police and parks officials say the increase has been driven by organised poaching syndicates.

The horns on the lucrative Asian black market fetch up to $500,000 per piece, according to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.

Officials from South Africa's environment ministry and Vietnam's forestry administration held two days of talks that the South Africans described as a "total package" bringing police, prosecutors and customs officers into the discussions.

Officials said the final document will be a wide-ranging agreement, including conservation, law enforcement, intelligence, prosecution and monitoring of legal hunts. They did not give a timeline for signing the deal.

South Africa and Viet Nam to co-operate on protection of wildlife
TRAFFIC 30 Sep 11;

Johannesburg, South Africa, 30th September 2011—South Africa and Viet Nam formally agreed on a process to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate on natural resource management wildlife protection and law enforcement.

At a joint press conference on Wednesday, Mr. Fundisile Mketeni, Deputy Director General of Biodiversity and Conservation in the South African Department of Environmental Affairs, and Dr. Ha Cong Tuan, Deputy Director General, Viet Nam Forestry Administration, announced technical agreement on promoting co-operation between the two countries to enhance wildlife protection, law enforcement and compliance with CITES.

The announcement came following a bilateral meeting that was facilitated by TRAFFIC to discuss the issue of rhino poaching and illegal trade in rhino horn between the two countries.

Viet Nam has been identified as the primary destination for rhino horns illegally coming from South Africa, where government officials announced that the death toll had reached 309 poached animals since the beginning of the year.

The MoU now moves into the final round of vetting before being signed in the near future.

The two countries have agreed to co-operate through information and intelligence sharing, the future introduction of a rigorous permit verification procedure, technology development and exchange, joint research and capacity building and training.

“We are now on the cusp of proactive law enforcement collaboration that harnesses the political will of both nations to actively combat the illegal trade in rhino horns. This can only be good news for Africa’s beleaguered rhinos and hopefully leads to a new era of diminishing rhino losses” said Tom Milliken, head of TRAFFIC’s Elephant and Rhino Programme.

Whilst the rhino crisis dominated the current round of discussions, the future MoU will broadly include other natural resource management, protected areas management, community development and sustainable livelihoods as they relate to biodiversity management.

“Today we are concerned about rhinos, but tomorrow our concerns may expand to elephants or reptiles or something else”, said Mr Fundisile Mketani. “We will now be prepared”.

Dr Ha Cong Tuan strongly signaled Viet Nam’s intention to co-operate with South Africa to address outstanding wildlife trade problems.

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