Best of our wild blogs: 24 Oct 12

A New Taxon for Singapore!
from Butterflies of Singapore

Tigertail seahorse feeding
from Pulau Hantu and Damselfish nesting

Northern Expedition in the news!
from Mega Marine Survey of Singapore

What has the Mega Marine Survey found so far?
from Mega Marine Survey of Singapore

VIP visit and otter again at the Northern Expedition Day 9
from Mega Marine Survey of Singapore

Another Ladybird Mimic?
from Macro Photography in Singapore

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Northern Expedition: Creatures of the sea, great and small

200 scientists and volunteers taking part in biggest marine life audit, dredging the seas and examining waterways
Grace Chua Straits Times 24 Oct 12;

BENEATH the scorching noon sun and pelting rain, a small army of scientists and volunteers have been scouring Singapore's northern shores.

Whether they are examining the Chek Jawa mudflats or trawling the sea off Changi by boat, their lives have revolved around tide tables, boat landings and the persistent smell of fish.

The researchers are taking part in Singapore's largest marine biodiversity expedition to date. Close to 200 people - including 20 scientists from abroad - are involved in the audit of marine life around the Republic's northern islands and coasts.

The Northern expedition, which started on Oct15, is led by the National University of Singapore (NUS) and National Parks Board, and is part of the five-year Comprehensive Marine Biodiversity Survey.

About $1.5million in funding has been obtained for the survey from corporate sponsors and the Government, but at least another $1.5million needs to be raised, said the board's deputy chief executive, Dr Leong Chee Chiew, at the expedition's official launch at Pulau Ubin yesterday.

Senior Minister of State for National Development Tan Chuan-Jin, who was at the launch, said the survey will allow government planners to assess and prioritise the areas to conserve.

Mr Tan, who is also Acting Manpower Minister, said in a Facebook post last night: "Much as we would like to, we will not be able to conserve all areas with biodiversity as some of these areas will be needed for development."

A typical day for those taking part in the expedition goes as follows: A pair of young scientists from the United States might lug metres of net out to catch thumbnail-sized ponyfish that give off their own light.

A National University of Singapore shrimp researcher might sift through bits of shell and coral as though panning for gold. And an Australian fish expert might net gobies in tide pools.

The highlight of the expedition is a series of seabed trawls and dredges, for example, between Pulau Ubin and Punggol. Dredges are preferable to diving in Singapore's murky waters.

Scientists and crew on the university's 12m-long boat, the Galaxea, winch a beam trawl - a net with a beam to keep it open - 18m down to the seabed. When it comes up 15 minutes later, it is full of spider crabs, soft corals and even a small electric stingray.

Mishaps can happen. NUS biologist Peter Ng sprains his hand as he stumbles backwards while trying to shake a crab out of a tree. But he is richly rewarded: The crab lives only on nipah palms, and this is the first time it has been spotted in Singapore.

Specimens are lugged back to Outward Bound School on Pulau Ubin, where student volunteers in a large shed pore over trays of tiny shells, looking for movement and sorting out the creatures.

Dr Kathe Jensen, of the University of Copenhagen Zoological Museum, is excited over a minuscule sea snail that looks like a leaf. It has been seen in Australia before, but not here.

Said Professor Ng: "The myth of Singapore is that because we are so urbanised, everything has changed, and there's not much around." But Singapore plays host to a third of the world's hard coral species, and other creatures are still being discovered. Some may be tiny and not "sexy", he said. "But at the end of the day, these are all fellow Singaporeans."

Additional reporting by Melody Zaccheus

Photos by Ng Sor Luan

An assortment of sea creatures dredged up from the seabed near Coney Island off Punggol. The creatures, originally covered in mud, have been given a rinse and are awaiting an initial phase of sorting out on the dredging vessel. The creatures are caught by lowering a beam trawl - a net with a beam to keep it open - 18m to the seabed.

Scientists study specimens brought in from the field trips and dredging (above, left) in a temporary laboratory at the Outward Bound School on Pulau Ubin, while (above, right) Dr Joelle Lai and Dr Arthur Anker of NUS pan for shrimp, which Dr Anker studies, at Chek Jawa's seagrass beds.

These ponyfish give off their own light. The Northern expedition is led by the National University of Singapore and National Parks Board, and is part of the five-year Comprehensive Marine Biodiversity Survey.

Creatures like this crab may not be "sexy", says NUS biologist Peter Ng, but they are "all fellow Singaporeans". The myth of Singapore, he says, is that everything has changed with urbanisation.But discoveries are still being made, and the survey will help the Republic decide what to conserve and how to develop industry with minimal harm to marine life here. -- ST PHOTOS: NG SOR LUAN

1,000 specimens collected in marine biodiversity expedition
Today Online 23 Oct 12;

Singapore - About 1,000 specimens have been collected, including five new records and two rediscoveries, as the country's biggest scale marine biodiversity expedition gets underway in the Johor Straits.

Among the new discoveries included Subtidal Lantern Shells, which are found in intertidal habitats, as well as Plate Crabs, known from several places in the Indian Ocean and the Pacific.

The expedition is part of Singapore's first Comprehensive Marine Biodiversity Survey, which is a national initiative to take stock of the Republic's marine ecosystem, species diversity and distribution.

The survey, launched in 2010, was initially projected to last for only three years, but has been extended to five, in view of the diversity and volume of specimens collected, said the National Parks Board (NParks) today.

The three-week long expedition, which began on Oct 15, involves 150 local scientists, conservation officers and volunteers. A team of 20 renowned scientists from 10 countries is also participating in the expedition to help collect and study specimens from Singapore's estuarine and seabed habitats.

NParks said it plans to conduct coral reef surveys next year. There are also plans for deep sea surveys, to sample the seabed fauna in areas which are deeper than 80 metre.

New marine specimens found in Johor Straits
Today Online 24 Oct 12;

SINGAPORE - About 1,000 specimens, including five new records and two rediscoveries, have been collected in Singapore's biggest-scale marine biodiversity expedition in the Johor Straits. Among the new discoveries are Subtidal Lantern Shells, which are found in intertidal habitats, as well as Plate Crabs, known from several places in the Indian Ocean and the Pacific.

The expedition, which begins on Oct 15, is part of Singapore's first Comprehensive Marine Biodiversity Survey, a national initiative to take stock of the Republic's marine ecosystem, species diversity and distribution.

The survey, launched in 2010, was initially projected to last for only three years but has been extended to five, in view of the diversity and volume of specimens collected, the National Parks Board (NParks) said yesterday.

NParks added that it plans to conduct coral reef surveys next year. There are also plans for deep sea surveys, to sample the seabed fauna in areas which are deeper than 80m.

Scientists take part in largest ‘sea-fari’
The Star 25 Oct 12;

Beneath the scorching noon sun and pelting rain, a small army of scientists and volunteers have been scouring Singapore’s northern shores.

Whether they are examining the Chek Jawa mudflats or trawling the sea off Changi by boat, their lives have revolved around tide tables, boat landings and the persistent smell of fish.

The researchers are taking part in Singapore’s largest marine biodiversity expedition to date. Close to 200 people – including 20 scientists from abroad – are involved in the audit of marine life around the Republic’s northern islands and coasts.

The northern expedition, which started on Oct 15, is led by the National University of Singapore (NUS) and National Parks Board, and is part of the five-year Com­­prehensive Marine Biodiversity Survey.

About S$1.5mil (RM3.75mil) in funding had been obtained for the survey from corporate sponsors and the government, but at least another S$1.5mil needed to be raised, said the board’s deputy chief executive Dr Leong Chee Chiew at the expedition’s official launch on Pulau Ubin yesterday.

Senior Minister of State for National Development Tan Chuan-Jin, who was at the launch, said the survey would allow government planners to assess and prioritise the areas to conserve.

Tan, who is also Acting Manpower Minister, said in a Facebook post on Tuesday night: “Much as we would like to, we will not be able to conserve all areas with biodiversity as some of these areas will be needed for development.”

A typical day for those taking part in the expedition goes as follows: A pair of young scientists from the United States might lug metres of net out to catch thumbnail-sized ponyfish that give off their own light.

A National University of Singa­pore shrimp researcher might sift through bits of shell and coral as though panning for gold. And an Australian fish expert might net gobies in tide pools.

The highlight of the expedition is a series of seabed trawls and dredges, for example, between Pu­­­lau Ubin and Punggol. Dredges are preferable to diving in Singa­pore’s murky waters.

Specimens are lugged back to Outward Bound School on Pulau Ubin, where student volunteers in a large shed pore over trays of tiny shells, looking for movement and sorting out the creatures. — The Straits Times / Asia News Net­work

Related links
Chinese media reports on the Raffles Museum News blog.

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Malaysia: Stalking sea mammals in Langkawi

Marc De Faquite The Star 23 Oct 12;

Marine biologist Dr Louisa Ponnampalam is ‘living her dream’, studying marine mam mals. Marine biologist Dr Louisa Ponnampalam is ‘living her dream’, studying marine mam mals.

Biologists are collecting data on cetaceans in Langkawi in a bid to understand how best to protect them.

WHENEVER Langkawi is mentioned, it usually conjures up images of sandy beaches, rainforests, waterfalls, mangroves and duty-free shopping. Few visitors realise that the waters around Langkawi’s 104 islands are home to dolphins, porpoises and even whales.

Marine biologist Dr Louisa Ponnampalam, co-founder of the MareCet Research Organisation which is involved in marine mammal research, hopes that this will change and is working hard to increase awareness and collect data about marine mammals in the island off Kedah.

“If we can do good research here in Langkawi, then we can start to think about starting similar research projects in places like Penang and Perak,” she says.

Last month, she conducted a week-long survey of marine mammals with volunteers and members of Langkawi Dolphin Research, a project of MareCet. The organisation derives its name from the Latin mare – meaning sea – and a contraction of the word cetacean, which is the collective noun for whales, dolphins and porpoises. As the name suggests, these are the animals that are the object of Ponnampalam’s study.

“We’ve been doing this since 2010. The more data we collect, the more we will know about the habits of these mammals in their natural environment. We can use this knowledge to understand how best to protect them.”

Some of the data gathered during the field trip includes new information on the distribution of marine mammals around Langkawi, including estimates of group size and the movement and abundance of these groups. By comparing photos from previous field trips, Ponnampalam has shown that some individual humpback dolphins seem to prefer certain sites around Langkawi, while others tend to move around the archipelago a bit more.

When asked why the organisation chose to focus on Langkawi, she replies: “We had already heard of quite a few sightings in Langkawi, so we knew there were marine mammals here, but there was no reliable data to say exactly how many and of what species. Since Langkawi is one of Malaysia’s top tourism destinations, we felt it important to understand the dynamics of how land-based and water-based human activities may be affecting the animals and their marine environment. The fact that Langkawi is easily accessible compared to the islands on the east coast of the peninsula makes a difference, too.”

As well as spending time at sea looking for cetaceans, members of MareCet are also actively involved in establishing a dialogue with local fishermen who are also an important source of first-hand information about the presence and behaviour of marine mammals. MareCet provides guidelines to them on safe fishing practices, particularly the types of nets and hooks to be used to avoid injuring or killing marine mammals. Their website also provides advice for tourism operators, which include not allowing anyone to feed, touch or swim with the animals.

Living her dream

Ponnampalam is a dynamic young woman who clearly has the dedication and drive necessary for her chosen career.

“This is what I’ve always wanted to do,” she says. “I am living my dream. When I was 13, I told everyone that I would go to Hawaii and study to become a marine biologist and that I would set up my own research facility back in Malaysia. I haven’t quite achieved the second part yet, but MareCet is a starting point.”

Although she studied in Hawaii and Scotland and did research for her PhD in Oman, she always planned on returning to Malaysia. “I love to travel, but Malaysia is my home. And the marine mammals here are begging to be studied. Marine biology is still very young in Malaysia. Compared to other countries, there is still a lot to do here. That makes it exciting to be a marine biologist in Malaysia. In a way, we are pioneers.”

During last month’s survey, the group sighted Indo-Pacific finless porpoises, Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins, Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins and Bryde’s whales around Langkawi as well as Irrawaddy dolphins close to Kuala Perlis. Group sizes for the dolphins and porpoises ranged from one to 150 individuals but for whales, only one or two were seen at a time.

I was lucky enough to be invited to join the survey team on two of their field trips. Both days, we set off before 7am and did not get back until 10pm. Most of that time was spent out on the water.

“It’s a reality check for some of the young students who are considering a career in marine biology,” says Ponnampalam. “My friends say, ‘Oh, you’re so lucky to go out on the boat’ but they don’t see the long hours we put in. Not everyone is willing, or able, to spend time in such basic conditions, or eat peanut butter sandwiches every day,” she says with a laugh.

Most of her days on board are spent in a high seat that reminds me of a tennis umpire’s chair. From that vantage point, there is a greater field of vision, but it is exhausting to keep watching the waves for any sign of movement in the water. Every wave and shadow makes you wonder if something is there.

The first morning, after barely half an hour out of Kuah harbour, we spot something. The boat idles to a halt. The silence ringing in my ears after the engine cuts out is soon replaced by the splash of waves against the fibreglass hull of the boat.

“Indo-Pacific finless porpoise – three, possibly five,” calls out Ponnampalam from her perch, looking through a pair of binoculars. This information is noted down, along with the GPS coordinates. Visibility and wave swell height according to the Beaufort scale are jotted down as well and we take measurements of depth, water temperature, salinity, level of dissolved oxygen and the presence of any other boats in the vicinity. All this raw data will be fed into a computer at the end of the day and will provide Ponnampalam with plenty of work at her post in the Institute of Ocean and Earth Sciences in Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur.

“We’ve seen large groups of Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins during this trip and they appear to consist mainly of mother-calf pairs, perhaps a strategy of ‘safety in numbers’. We also observed very high-energy social and sexual activity in the groups of humpback dolphins that we encountered.”

Helpful technology

This year, another boat has joined in the survey. Dr Satoko Kimura of Nagoya University in Japan is an acoustics specialist conducting research on freshwater ρnless porpoises found in the Yangtze River in China and has come to Langkawi to further her research.

“We are very lucky that she can join us on this field trip,” says Ponnampalam. “It’s the first time that we are using acoustic methods to study dolphins in Malaysia.”

I join Kimura’s boat in the afternoon. The skipper is a sleepy fisherman who spends his nights fishing for squid. I help Kimura keep him awake, but occasionally he falls asleep and the boat steers wildly off course. Her boat travels more slowly than the lead boat and trails a long cable with specially designed microphones attached.

“Dolphins and porpoises make sounds all the time,” says Kimura. “If there is poor visibility, they use sounds to let each other know where they are. They communicate in very high-frequency sounds that humans cannot hear. We can hear 16-20 hertz but Yangtze finless porpoises can hear up to 125 hertz.”

There are two NBHF (Narrow-Band High-Frequency) units on the cable, each with two microphones. Analysing the sounds by triangulation can give the precise location of a mammal and, in a small group, give an idea of the number of individuals present. This data will later be compared to Ponnampalam’s visual sightings.

“Maybe she can see two or three dolphins but the acoustic readings can sometimes show that there were more individuals below the surface. This gives us more accurate data,” says Kimura.

Other than the few porpoises in the morning, we don’t see anything else for the rest of the day. The steady hypnotic hum of the boat engine and the rocking of the waves conspire to lull me to sleep. I wake to find that the wind has picked up. White crests are zipping across the peaks of the waves as the weather hovers between three and four on the Beaufort scale.

GPS coordinates have been pre-set and we follow invisible transect lines along the sea, ranging from almost all the way south to Pulau Payar, where fishing trawlers hover just beyond the border of the designated marine park, close to Kuala Perlis in the north, just a couple of nautical miles shy of the border with Thailand. It is dark by the time we return to Kuah harbour.

Biggest fish

The following evening, Ponnampalam tells me that the team sighted 152 Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins. This was something I really wanted to see, so I joined the team again the following day in the hopes of sighting something similar. This time, the transect lines were shorter and ranged more to the south of Langkawi, skirting Pulau Tuba, Pulau Dayang Bunting and dozens of smaller islands with isolated empty beaches and interesting rock formations. I discovered parts of Langkawi that I had never seen before, well off the paths of the standard island-hopping tours that are so popular with the island’s visitors.

I was travelling in Kimura’s boat. Ponnampalam and her team had reached the end of the line and were waiting for us to arrive. Suddenly everyone was standing up and pointing at something in the water. I saw see a few ripples, but couldn’t tell what it was.

“A whale shark,” shouts Ponnampalam excitedly. I took from her demeanour that this was something quite exceptional.

Our boatman took us in a bit closer to the ripples, but I still couldn’t see anything except the reflected glare off the surface of the water. Then suddenly it was there right beside our boat, barely a metre beneath the surface. I was stunned by the size of it – almost as long as our boat and more than big enough to overturn us if it should so wish, but the whale shark seemed content to let us admire the rows of star-like patterns on its back and give us the time to snap a few photos. The whale shark is the world’s biggest fish and can measure up to 14m. The creature we spotted is roughly half that size.

After a few minutes, it dived deeper and then the surface ripples appeared further out. The boatmen turned their boats and we headed back towards the main island.

“According to local fishermen, they are found near Langkawi from September to February,” says Ponnampalam .

The following day, the MareCet team made two more whale shark sightings in addition to all the other data gathered over the week.

Malaysia is a maritime nation and a fish-eating nation. It depends on the health of its waters to feed its population and maintain its fisheries. In order to protect its maritime assets, more has to be understood about these complex ecosystems and that requires dedicated researchers like Ponnampalam and her team and the facilities necessary to do their work.

“I hope that we can raise awareness of the importance of marine conservation in Malaysia and that the work we are doing will someday materialise into a permanent research facility here in Langkawi,” says Ponnampalam.

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World pledges more money to protect biodiversity

Mariette le Roux (AFP) Google News 21 Oct 12;

HYDERABAD, India — Efforts to stem the worrying loss of Earth's dwindling natural resources received a boost Saturday when a UN conference in India agreed to double biodiversity aid to poor countries.

But in a week that saw 400 plants and animals added to a "Red List" at risk of extinction, some observers said this was not enough to reverse the decline in species and habitats that humans depend on for food, shelter and livelihoods.

A quarter of the world's mammals, 13 percent of birds, 41 percent of amphibians and 33 percent of reef-building corals are now at risk of extinction, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

"Efforts to conserve nature must be urgently scaled up if we want to meet the 2020 deadline to save all life on Earth," it said of the deal.

Governments reached an early-morning agreement after long nights of tough bargaining in Hyderabad, south India, to double biodiversity-related funding to developing countries by 2015 and maintain the rate until 2020.

This was from a baseline of average annual aid in the period 2006-2010, said a document issued at the close of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) meeting.

No figures were mentioned, but there was consensus among observer groups that a doubling of government biodiversity aid from developed countries to poor ones should yield an annual figure of about $10 billion (8 billion euros).

It was also agreed that at least 75 percent of recipient countries must report on their spending by 2015 and draw up national biodiversity plans.

UN countries decided at the last CBD conference in Nagoya, Japan, two years ago to an ambitious 20-point plan to turn back the tide of biodiversity depletion by 2020.

The so-called Aichi Biodiversity Targets include halving the rate of habitat loss, expanding water and land areas under conservation, preventing the extinction of species on the threatened list, and restoring at least 15 percent of degraded ecosystems.

Green group WWF said about $200 billion must be invested in biodiversity every year if the targets are to be met.

"What's been agreed in Hyderabad represents less than half this number," it said in a statement and called the deal "disappointing".

Conservation International, too, said much more must be done.

"We do have concerns about what the investment levels will actually be and whether or not they will be sufficient," said the group's biodiversity director Lina Barrera.

In crunch talks that once again saw battle lines drawn between developing and affluent states, negotiators in Hyderabad clashed over the extent and timing of additional aid.

Canada objected to the deal, but did not block its adoption, complaining that many recipient countries had failed to meet a target for reporting on their biodiversity spending and needs.

Francisco Gaetani, chief negotiator for Brazil -- a country which other delegates accused of taking a tough stance on behalf of the developing world -- said the deal "could be more ambitious", but the country was "satisfied".

CBD member countries lamented at the close of the talks that "the lack of sufficient financial resources" was hampering progress.

And they called on one another in a joint statement "to consider all possible sources and means that can help to meet the level of resources needed".

The global economic troubles have left governments less keen to divert money to conservation, especially in developing countries battling inflation, poverty and unemployment.

"In the context of the financial crisis, this is a good deal," French Environment Minister Delphine Batho told AFP.

And European commissioner for the environment Janez Potocnik said it was "an essential contribution".

The conference awarded the next CBD meeting in 2014 to South Korea.

It also identified more than 50 zones that need protection on the high seas, where no national laws apply and international rules are often vague, leaving them vulnerable to damaging fishing and oil prospecting practices.

The CBD, to which 193 countries are signatories, marks its 20th anniversary this year.

It has already missed one key deadline when it failed to meet the target set to arrest biodiversity loss by 2010.

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