Best of our wild blogs: 12 Jul 13

Save MacRitchie Forest: 12. Mushrooms
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Rails by the river bank
from Life's Indulgences

Butterflies Galore! : Five Bar Swordtail
from Butterflies of Singapore and Down Memory Lane - Chocolate Tiger

Read more!

Malaysia: Government to study Pengerang petrochemical plant EIA

DOE to study differences
The Star 12 Jul 13;

THE Department of Environment will compare the detailed environmental impact assessment (DEIA) of the controversial Pengerang Rapid project with a similar rejected plan in Taiwan to further study the project’s effects.

Deputy Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Dr James Dawos Mamit said a panel, under the department, would study the DEIA on the proposed petrochemical refinery in Pengerang, Johor.

“As far as I know, the plans to build a similar plant in Taiwan was at a small area by the sea, which has been identified as a dolphin conservation site,” he said in reply to a supplementary question by Teo Nie Ching (DAP-Kulai).

Teo had pointed out that the Kuo Kuang Petrochemical Technology Company wanted to build its plant in Taiwan but the proposal was rejected by the Taiwanese people and their government.

She asked the deputy minister why the project was rejected if it brought revenue and job opportunities for the Taiwanese people.

It was reported that the company wanted to set up a refinery in Johor after failing to the go-ahead in Taiwan due to public protests.

National And International Standards Used For Rapid Project In Pengerang
Bernama 11 Jul 13;

KUALA LUMPUR, July 11 (Bernama) -- The Natural Resources and Environment Ministry uses national and international standards as guidelines for the environmental assessment impact (EIA) study for the integrated refinery and petrochemical project (RAPID) in Pengerang, Johor.

Its deputy minister Datuk Dr James Dawos Mamit said the evaluation through the two standards used could show the extent of environmental pollution caused by the project in a more specific manner.

"After evaluating using the national standards, we will refer to the international standards so that any information on pollution caused can be gathered for control measures to be taken," he said in reply to a question from Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said (BN-Pengerang) in the Dewan Rakyat today.

Azalina wanted to know the EIA status with regard to Kuo Kuang Petrochemical Malaysia Sdn Bhd which planned to invest in the RAPID project in Pengerang and whether the appointment of Daya Eco Techno as the environmental consultant was known to the Department of Environment (DOE).

Dawos said preparation of the EIA report also included evaluation of the project field by a group of consultants well-versed with the current environmental status and all their analyses were scrutinised by an evaluation panel for further action.

He said the evaluation panel comprised local and international environmental experts, representatives of non-governmental organisations and experts from related agencies who would meet to determine the level of pollution as stated in the report.

"The RAPID project will have many benefits and generate economic returns for the country, besides providing more career opportunities for the locals. That is why we are very careful about the environmental status of the project on the local community in future.

He said the evaluation report had been uploaded to the DOE website and was also displayed at selected public places in the area from May 30 to June 28 for public knowledge.

-- BERNAMA

National and international standards used for Rapid project in Pengerang
Sin Chew Jit Poh 11 Jul 13;

KUALA LUMPUR, July 11 (Bernama) -- The Natural Resources and Environment Ministry uses national and international standards as guidelines for the environmental assessment impact (EIA) study for the integrated refinery and petrochemical project (Rapid) in Pengerang, Johor.

Its deputy minister Datuk Dr James Dawos Mamit said the evaluation through the two standards used could show the extent of environmental pollution caused by the project in a more specific manner.

"After evaluating using the national standards, we will refer to the international standards so that any information on pollution caused can be gathered for control measures to be taken," he said in reply to question from Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said (BN-Pengerang) in the Dewan Rakyat today.

Azalina wanted to know the EIA status with regard to Kuo Kuang Petrochemical Malaysia Sdn Bhd which planned to invest in the Rapid project in Pengerang and whether the appointment of Daya Eco Techno as the environmental consultant was known to the Department of Environment (DOE).

Dawos said preparation of the EIA report also included evaluation of the project field by a group of consultants well-versed with the current environmental status and all their analyses were scrutinised by an evaluation panel for further action.

He said the evaluation panel comprised local and international environmental experts, representatives of non-governmental organisations and experts from related agencies who would meet to determine the level of pollution as stated in the report.

"The Rapid project will have many benefits and generate economic returns for the country, besides providing more career opportunities for the locals. That is why we are very careful about the environmental status of the project on the local community in future.

He said the evaluation report had been uploaded to the DOE website and was also displayed at selected public places in the area from May 30 to June 28 for public knowledge.


Related links
Pollutive petrochemical plant may be relocated near our Northern shores on wild shores of singapore

Read more!

Malaysia: Only 500 tigers left in the wild

Nuradilla Noorazam New Straits Times 12 Jul 13;

UNDER THREAT: Poaching most immediate threat to endangered animal's survival

KUALA LUMPUR: THE poaching of tigers in the jungles of the peninsula for their skins, bones and meat has resulted in a drastic population decline.

According to World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) estimates, there are about 500 tigers left in the jungles now compared to 3,000 recorded in 1957.

WWF-Malaysia executive director and chief executive officer Datuk Dr Dionysius Sharma said poaching posed "the most serious and immediate threat to the survival of tigers".

"We set up our own wildlife protection units in areas such as the Belum-Temenggor forest complex (BTFC) in 2008, as we recognised that tiger conservation efforts required more cooperation from various stakeholders, including local communities."

Under the National Tiger Action Plan for Malaysia, he said BTFC was recognised as one of the three priority sites for tiger conservation, and was believed to be supporting at least 10 per cent of the country's tiger population.

"Conservation can only work if people care. Thus, local communities, with greater awareness on conservation issues, can help protect flagship species and reduce the loss of biodiversity within their area."

On Wednesday, WWF-Malaysia received funds totalling RM52,500 from the Malaysian Wildlife Conservation Foundation (MWCF) to carry out tiger conservation work and community engagement and education in BTFC.

The money will also be used to help WWF-Malaysia in its awareness campaign around Terengganu to celebrate World Sea Turtle Day (WSTD) 2014.

"WWF-Malaysia appreciates the funding as it will go a long way towards the work we are doing on two iconic endangered species in Malaysia -- the tiger and sea turtle.

"With the funding from MWCF, we will be conducting an awareness workshop on wildlife hunting for the local communities in BTFC, which includes training the Orang Asli in species conservation and protection, as well as capacity building on sustainable livelihoods."

On turtle conservation, Sharma said their key message at these outreach programmes was to "not sell, buy or eat turtle eggs".

Four marine species of turtles have been identified in Malaysia, namely the Leatherback turtles, Olive Ridley, Green and Hawksbill.

The Leatherback turtles are facing a devastating decline in their population -- a shocking 99 per cent drop in population, followed by Olive Ridley turtles at 95 per cent.

Both species are threatened by the loss of nesting and feeding habitats, excessive egg collection, pollution, fishery-related deaths and coastal development.

"We have been relentless in our efforts in raising awareness on the need to protect the species and their nesting beaches."

On next year's WSTD celebration, WWF-Malaysia is planning to hold a two-day awareness campaign through road shows covering several towns from Chukai in the southern tip of Terengganu to the northern district of Setiu.

"Our ultimate goal is to achieve a national ban on the trade and consumption of turtle eggs."

At present, only the sale of Leatherback turtle eggs are banned in Terengganu, while the eggs of other turtle species can be consumed and traded.

Read more!

Indonesia: Ministry Says Forest Law Aims at Big Operators

Stephanie Hendarta & Marco Puguh Jakarta Globe 11 Jul 13;

The Forestry Ministry has defended a new law that critics claim fails to criminalize the setting of forest fires and reduces punishment for illegal logging, saying it is focused on large-scale, systematic destruction.

Sumanto, a spokesman for the Forestry Ministry, told the Jakarta Globe on Wednesday that the Law on Preventing and Eradicating Forest Destruction, passed on Tuesday, would focus on tackling organized forest destruction, while the issue of forest fires would still be dealt with under the 1999 Forestry Law.

He added that the government was optimistic about the new law, which was originally conceived in 2002.

“The new law is extraordinary. … Hopefully it will make law enforcement for forest crimes more effective and more synergistic. We are hoping to get more commitment from everyone, including people from rural areas within the forests, the police to government officials,” Sumanto said.

“While the issue of forest fires is not mentioned in the new legislation, the punishment for starting a forest fire will still be dealt with under other environmental legislation.”

The new law has also raised eyebrows over the fact that prescribed punishments for certain forestry crimes have been cut. The maximum prescribed sentence for illegal logging, for instance, has been cut from 10 years under the 1999 law to five years under the new law, according to the House of Representatives website.

But Sumanto said the new law was actually stricter in penalizing violators.

“The new law is no way more permissive of violators than the 1999 one. We are actually implementing harsher sentences in the new law. For illegal loggers, we have put down the minimum sentence duration, something that the old law did not have,” Sumanto said.

“Under the new law, an illegal logger can receive a minimum sentence of four years, along with a fine that can go from Rp 4 billion to Rp 14 billion [$401,000 to $1.4 million]. Additionally, the fine for the mastermind of the operation can go as high as Rp 1 trillion,” Sumanto said.

The 1999 law, however, had already prescribed a minimum sentence for illegal logging and other offenses.

Some environmental organizations have expressed doubt about the comprehensiveness of the new legislation, which has excluded mention of the protection of indigenous groups with ancestral claims to certain patches of forest, regulation of forest boundaries by the ministry as well as recently debated issues such as forest fires and illegal wildlife trafficking.

“I’m worried that the new legislation can be used against the unprotected indigenous groups,” said Nazir Foead, conservation director at the World Wildlife Fund.

“Previously, all of the forests in Indonesia were owned and controlled by the Forestry Ministry but a Constitutional Court decision in 2012 overruled the ministry’s claim. Now, the ministry is only allowed to control forests that are not regulated by indigenous ancestral laws.

“If an indigenous group can prove that they have lived in the area for generations, they are allowed to manage and log responsibly and independently. The new legislation has not accommodated this issue.”

Proponents of the new law maintain that in addition to harsher deterrence methods and better coordination between law enforcement agencies, the law will also attempt to differentiate large, organized logging activities from small-scale, noncommercial logging for household purposes, as well as target bureaucrats who fail to hold up the law.

Yuyun Indradi, a forest campaigner at Greenpeace Southeast Asia, said the key to the law’s effectiveness was its enforcement by the authorities.

“In order for the new law to work, the government will need to take assertive measures, such as properly monitoring companies that are logging in a certain forested area,” he said.

“The government cannot be hesitant in acting firm when penalizing violators of these forestry laws.”

Read more!

Romancing The Haze: Malaysia Still Choked By Indonesia's Haze After 14 Years

Alan Ting Bernama 11 Jul 13;

KUALA LUMPUR, July 11 (Bernama) -- The respective ministers in-charge of environment from Asean countries will convene here next Wednesday, for the transboundry haze pollution meeting which has been brought forward from the original schedule next month.

Malaysia, supported by Singapore, has asked for the meeting to be held earlier after the haze from forest fires in Sumatera and Riau engulfed parts of Indonesia and the two countries.

In the latest occurrence, Malaysia had to declare a state of emergency for Muar and Ledang, with many schools forced to close due to the thick smog and the Air Pollution Index reaching hazardous level.

The meeting, officially known as the Meeting of the Sub-regional Ministerial Steering Committee on Transboundary Haze Pollution has met 14 times in the past to discuss action plans and strategies to tackle forest fires and the haze.

However, the haze continues to mar our beautiful skyline annually, without fail. Why? Is there no solution in sight?

Malaysia's Centre for Environment Technology and Development executive director Dr Gurmit Singh has lamented it was due to a lack of political will, on the part of the Indonesian authorities.

"For 14 years, they didn't make any decision. Common sense will tell you that they are not interested. Why don't they prevent the fires? Same old problems," he told Bernama when contacted.

He said Indonesia was the only Asean country which had yet to ratify the Asean Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution which came into force in 2003 -- despite most of the forest and peat soil fires originating from Indonesia.

The Asean Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution was established in 2002 involving Asean nations to reduce haze pollution whereby, it recognises that transboundary haze pollution resulting from land or forest fires should be mitigated through concerted national efforts and international cooperation.

It was established due to haze that hit Southeast Asia in the late 1990s, following land clearing via open burning in the Indonesian island of Sumatra.

"By not ratifying it, they are not obliged to take any action. Even if Indonesia ratified it, what do you do, supposedly if there are forest fires? There is no provision in the treaty for them to take any action," noted Gurmit.

All Asean conventions and treaties rely on compliances by the governments of the countries which are a party to it.

Gurmit said this meant that the agreement did not empower Asean members or Asean institutions with authority to take action on the ground in Indonesia and elsewhere to deal with the haze.

Therefore, he said, the main issue was how to stop forest fires in Indonesia as peat soil there was thicker than in Malaysia, and once it caught fire, it would become extremely difficult to put out.

"I was at a hotel where the agreement was signed in 2002. At that time, I had already told some journalists that I don't see much coming out of it. The basic message is, let's put an end to this. Can you or can you not resolve this problem?," he asked.

So, what can we expect from the coming meeting attended by five environment ministers from Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand?

Malaysia's Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri G. Palanivel said the meeting should take stock of what had been achieved and what the immediate needs were.

Malaysia will also urge Indonesia to urgently ratify the agreement.

Singapore has been reported to be pushing for Indonesia to provide official and accurate land concession maps and with the satellite technology to help identify companies or individuals who cleared land illegally.

Not only that, Singapore has also urged other participating countries to agree on a date for launching a sub-regional haze monitoring system to help identify errant companies whose activities contributed to the air quality hitting hazardous levels.

On the Indonesian part, latest reports indicate that the Indonesian Government has begun preparations to ratify the regional agreement on combating the haze.

Indonesian Environment Minister Balthasar Kambuaya was reported as saying that the documents necessary for the ratification were now at ministerial level review and would be sent to the Indonesian Parliament.

-- BERNAMA

Read more!

Thailand: Bleaching leaves coral reefs in severe state of degradation

Janjira Pongrai The Nation 12 Jul 13;

Coral reefs at a popular marine national park, which covers the famous Phi Phi Island, have reached a severe level of degradation due to bleaching, a survey revealed.

"Bleaching has affected up to 70 per cent of the coral reefs around Hat Noppharat Thara-Mu Ko Phi Phi National Park. Of the affected corals, 47.52 per cent have died," a senior government official disclosed at an academic seminar yesterday.

Songtam Suksawang, who heads the National Parks and Protected Area Innovation Institute, described the situation as "worrying".

His institute conducted the survey between 2009 and 2013 across seven marine national parks and works under the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP), which hosted the seminar.

The state of the coral reefs at Mu Koh Lanta National Park is even worse, with up to 80 per cent of them in a bad state. "Now, only 17 per cent of the corals are alive," Songtam said.

The survey also revealed that the size of living corals along Mu Koh Surin National Park had shrunk by 70 to 90 per cent, while those along Mu Koh Similan National Park had shrunk by about 40 to 50 per cent.

At the Moo Koh Chumphon National Park, about 70 to 80 per cent of the staghorn coral that were seeded as an experiment have also died from bleaching.

Coral bleaching emerged as a serious threat to Thailand's marine resources around 2010 and 2011, prompting the DNP to shut down at least 10 diving sites to prevent further damage.

Songtam said there were signs that reefs in previously shut down diving spots such as Hin Klang at Hat Noppharat Thara - Mu Ko Phi Phi National Park had recovered satisfactorily.

"Now, we plan to propose that the number of tourists is limited at each spot," he said.

He also suggested that clear diving tracks be built to ensure that divers do not get too close to the coral reefs and cause damage.

Meanwhile, DNP chief Manopas Hua-mueangkaeo said the number of visitors to national parks had risen by 8.2 per cent last year, and this year, the DNP plans to open marine national parks to tourists from October 15.

Severe coral damage prompts DNP to limit dive tourists to Phi Phi Island
Phuket Gazette 12 Jul 13;

PHUKET: Coral reefs at the popular marine national park that covers the famous Phi Phi Islands near Phuket have reached a severe level of degradation due to bleaching, a senior government official revealed yesterday.

"Bleaching has affected up to 70 per cent of the coral reefs around Hat Noppharat Thara-Mu Ko Phi Phi National Park. Of the affected corals, 47.52 per cent have died," a senior government official disclosed at an academic seminar.

Songtam Suksawang, who heads the National Parks and Protected Area Innovation Institute, described the situation as "worrying".

His institute conducted the survey between 2009 and 2013 across seven marine national parks and works under the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP), which hosted the seminar.

The state of the coral reefs at Mu Koh Lanta National Park, another popular dive destination for Phuket tourists, is even worse, with up to 80 per cent of them in poor condition. "Now, only 17 per cent of the corals are alive," Mr Songtam said.

The survey also revealed that the size of living corals along Mu Koh Surin National Park had shrunk by 70 to 90 per cent, while those along Mu Koh Similan National Park had shrunk by about 40 to 50 per cent.

At the Mu Koh Chumphon National Park, about 70 to 80 per cent of the staghorn coral that were seeded as an experiment have also died from bleaching.

Coral bleaching emerged as a serious threat to Thailand's marine resources around 2010 and 2011, prompting the DNP to shut down at least 10 diving sites to prevent further damage.

Mr Songtam said there were signs that reefs in previously shut down diving spots such as Hin Klang at Hat Noppharat Thara - Mu Ko Phi Phi National Park had recovered satisfactorily.

"Now, we plan to propose that the number of tourists is limited at each spot," he said.

He also suggested that clear diving tracks be built to ensure that divers do not get too close to the coral reefs and cause damage.

Meanwhile, DNP chief Manopas Hua-mueangkaeo said the number of visitors to national parks had risen by 8.2 per cent last year, and this year, the DNP plans to open marine national parks to tourists from October 15.

Read more!

Mysterious Manatee and Dolphin Deaths in Florida Confound Scientists

Nadia Drake Wired 11 Jul 13;

Once a lush and healthy estuary, the Indian River Lagoon is now an enigmatic death trap. Running along 40 percent of Florida’s Atlantic coast, the lagoon’s brackish waters harbor a mysterious killer that has claimed the lives of hundreds of manatees, pelicans, and dolphins.

Nobody knows why.

In April, NOAA declared the spate of manatee deaths an Unusual Mortality Event, a designation granted when marine mammal deaths or strandings are significantly higher than normal, demand immediate attention, and are the result of a common but unknown cause. Soon, the bottlenose dolphin die-off may be given the same designation.

“We have to hope we can find the answer, because until we do, we don’t know how we can help prevent it in the future,” said Jan Landsberg, a research scientist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Since last July, 51 dolphins, 111 manatees, and as many as 300 pelicans have perished in the lagoon. The deaths don’t follow an obvious pattern: Manatees are dying so quickly that some still have food in their mouths, while the dolphins and pelicans appear to be starving to death.

Investigators don’t know if the die-offs are the work of the same killer, or if by some coincidence, nature has produced three unrelated carcass piles at once. The only clear link so far is the lagoon, a treasured and frail ecosystem that’s home to more than 3,500 species of plants and animals.

Scientists searching for the killer are following a long, branching trail; the story begins years ago, when a prolonged drought and cold snap set the lagoon’s resources toppling like a string of dominoes. Now, a multi-year, $3.7 million protection initiative has been adopted in an attempt to put the brakes on the lagoon’s collapse, and prevent future crashes. But its success depends on scientists uncovering the culprit behind the ecological mayhem.

Imperiled Paradise

Designated an “estuary of national significance” by the EPA in 1990, the Indian River Lagoon system stretches for 156 miles along Florida’s eastern coast. Though less than 6 feet deep on average, the lagoon is stuffed with more species of marine life than any other estuary in the continental United States. Salt marshes, mangrove swamps, oyster reefs, fish nurseries, and one of the densest sea turtle nesting sites in the western hemisphere are some of the ecological stars studding the stretch of coastline. Estimates suggest the barrier island complex brings in more than $3.7 billion each year from citrus farming, fisheries, recreation, and employment.

But there’s a darker side to the Sunshine State’s eastern oasis. Surrounded by developments, the lagoon has, for decades, been the drainage pool for leaking septic tanks, polluted streams, and storm water rich with nutrients from fertilizers. It’s a wind-driven system, and without tides to push the water around and flush it out, segments stagnate and pollutants accumulate.

Running from Ponce de Leon Inlet in the north to Jupiter Inlet in Palm Beach county, the lagoon’s waters flow into canals and through locks, twisting and pooling into three main segments: The Indian River, the Mosquito Lagoon, and the Banana River.

It’s here, in and around the Banana River that scrapes the shores of Cape Canaveral, that the animals are dying.

The trouble, scientists suggest, began a few years ago when a prolonged drought descended upon the region. Normal evaporation combined with scarce rainfall boosted the lagoon’s salinity; at one point, it was saltier than the ocean – an environment that tipped the normal balance of species and created a shifting, wobbling base for the ecosystem to rest on.

Then, in winter 2010, a cold snap settled in.

Freezing temperatures killed the macroalgae that normally live near the lagoon’s surface. As these seaweeds withered and died, their sequestered nutrients flooded the already nutrient-saturated, saline water, creating a potent soup that would fuel the lagoon’s collapse: A blue-green algae superbloom.

For nine months, beginning in early spring 2011, the northern lagoon’s waters were seasick-green. The bloom intensified through the summer and fall, at one point covering 130,000 acres. Cloudy, phytoplankton-filled waters shaded the lagoon’s floor, depriving its seagrasses of the sunlight they needed for photosynthesis and life, and stealing oxygen from fish.

Eventually, about 60 percent – or 47,000 acres – of the lagoon’s seagrasses died, including most of the seagrass beds in the Banana River. “We’ve used seagrasses since the 1980s to assess the lagoon’s environmental condition,” said Troy Rice, with the St. Johns River Water Management District, and director of the Indian River Lagoon National Estuary program. “They’re considered the primary indicator of the lagoon’s health.”

Rice has been studying and tracking the lagoon’s changes in fortune for years. Without those seagrass beds, he says, the estuary lost its ability to buffer environmental insults. Sediments that would normally be trapped by the grasses were left floating; nutrients normally sequestered were free to feed further algal blooms. Invertebrates and fish that lived in the seagrass beds were left homeless, manatees left without their primary, grassy food source.

In the summer of 2012, the lagoon turned the color of paper bags as a brown algal bloom took hold, further shading and choking off any recovering seagrasses.

Manatees in Distress

Manatees started dying in the Banana River last July. First a trickle and then a flood, the die-off reached its peak this spring, when more than 50 manatees were found in March. Since then, it has slowly tapered off. Now, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, in charge of investigating the manatee deaths, reports that carcasses are retrieved every other week or so. “At least the deaths from this cause are not showing up as frequently,” FWC spokesperson Kevin Baxter said in early June.

So far, the 111 carcasses recovered have provided little information about what’s killing the gentle marine mammals. Other than being dead, the manatees look remarkably normal. Whatever is killing them strikes quickly and without much warning. Biologists haven’t been able to find any suffering manatees – just dead ones – and are missing crucial behavioral observations.

“They’re in good body condition from what we can tell, no other diseases or signs of trauma,” said Martine DeWit, a veterinarian with the FWC who does necropsies on the dead manatees.

It appears the animals are dying from shock and drowning. Some still have food in their mouths – but it’s the wrong kind of food, if you’re a manatee. Instead of sea grass, pathologists are finding macroalgae, mostly Gracilaria, in the manatees’ digestive tracts. This type of seaweed is normally not toxic. But, “on microscopic examination of the tissues, we found some inflammation in the wall of their gastrointestinal system,” DeWit said, noting that the changes were only minor. “Our first thought is it has to be something associated with the algae – something in the sediment, absorbed by the algae, or a compound of the algae itself.”

Searches for signs of infection or toxin exposure have produced nothing. Looking in the lagoon for toxins, such as brevetoxin, saxitoxin, domoic or okadaic acids has also led nowhere. “None of the usual culprits are out there,” Landsberg said. “But then there’s always the unknown ones.”

If an anonymous toxin is on the loose in the Indian River Lagoon, finding out what it is will take time. If microbes or sediments are hitching a ride on macroalgae and killing the manatees, finding out why, and what, will also take time. “It’s not CSI, it doesn’t take an hour,” Landsberg said.

So far, scientists’ best guess is only that the manatee die-off is linked to the loss of seagrass, though the connection isn’t obvious. But even if that manatee mystery is solved, there’s no guarantee the same culprit is responsible for the demise of the lagoon’s other victims.

And Then There Were Dolphins

Starting in February, pelicans in the lagoon began dying. For two months, starving birds fell from the sky, spotting the shores with their skinny, wrecked bodies. But by the time manatee mortalities were at a peak this spring, the pelican die-off had waned.

And then the calls started coming in about dead dolphins.

As of July 3, 51 dolphins have been pulled from the northern and central parts of the Indian and Banana Rivers. It’s the largest dolphin die-off in the Indian River Lagoon system, said Megan Stolen, a biologist with Hubbs-Sea World Research Institute. Stolen is part of the team responding to reports of dolphin carcasses; she says only one suffering dolphin has been found alive, and that he’s doing well in dolphin rehab.

Unlike the manatees, the dolphins Stolen finds are not in good shape. Some carcasses are in pieces and too incomplete to learn anything from; many bear the marks of a puzzling plethora of postmortem shark bites. The ones that are intact are mostly sacs of skin and bones. “About 85 percent of those are emaciated,” Stolen said. “Which is pretty extreme.”

Whether the skinny dolphins are the result of depleted or shifting fish stocks, parasites, toxins, disease, or something that simply makes it hard for them to catch fish, is unknown. What scientists do know is that the number of dolphin mortalities during the first half of a normal year is around 17. With roughly 700 dolphins living in the entire lagoon, this year’s mortality rate is already approaching 10 percent of the population.

If NOAA declares an Unusual Mortality Event, the teams attending to the dolphins will get some help from the federal government, in the form of labs, scientists, and funding. That should help narrow the search for suspects.

“The entire lagoon is changing,” Stolen said. “We’re trying to look at the whole picture.”

But putting that picture together is not only difficult, it may be impossible.

“I think, always, the best approach with these investigations is to start with the most obvious hypothesis first,” Landsberg said. “Since these are all occurring coincidentally, is it coincidental or not?”

The scariest option is that the deaths might be unrelated to one another, and simply the result of a multi-pronged ecological catastrophe. Connecting crashing seagrasses with vegetarian manatees, fish-eating mammals and fish-eating birds is not easy. Complicating the picture is that other seagrass-eating species, such as sea turtles, appear unaffected. Other fish-eating species, such as cormorants and herons, are mostly unperturbed. The bull shark population scavenging the dolphin carcasses doesn’t appear to be in trouble. And though the dolphins and pelicans both eat fish, they’re not necessarily eating the same fish. Feasibly, Landsberg says, a toxin could be involved — but for whatever reason is not working its way evenly through the food web.

“It’s like trying to do this big jigsaw puzzle, looking at all this environmental information,” Landsberg said. “You could spend forever going down all these different rabbit holes and getting nowhere.”

The different teams working on solving the mysteries are still assuming the deaths are linked: Whatever is at large in the lagoon is exacting its effects on very specific populations, in a very specific area – for now.

Uncertain Future

With no clear culprit in sight, scientists, rescuers, and residents of the six counties bordering the estuary are on alert. A brown algal bloom is already coloring the Mosquito Lagoon, appearing earlier than it did last year. Florida newspapers are criticizing the state’s inability to enact tougher environmental regulations and keep Florida’s waterways clean, claiming that “State leaders won’t act to stop summer slime” and ”Gov. Rick Scott does not seem to care” (estimates place the 2011 algal bloom-related economic losses at somewhere between $230 and $470 million, but Florida’s governor vetoed a $2-million grant for the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute to study the lagoon), and applauding the Sierra Club for its move to report “Slime Crimes.”

“Any issues in the environment that are associated with animals or people affect the other,” said Mike Walsh, a a veterinarian at the University of Florida. Walsh and his colleagues are helping with the investigations (see sidebar). “If you have an algal overbloom that kills the seagrass, that affects the fish, affects dolphins, affects manatees — every one of these changes can have substantial long term side effects.”

The manatee population in particular is suffering. In addition to the mysterious east coast killer, hundreds of manatees have died from a particularly vicious red tide that settled off the state’s southwest coast. Those mass mortality events, plus boating accidents and deaths from natural causes, bring the total manatee deaths this year to 672. That’s already higher than five of the last six years, and is more than 10 percent of the state’s manatee population, estimated to be roughly 5,000 animals. In 2007, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recommended upgrading the manatees’ listing from “endangered” to “threatened.” Now, budget cuts have put that move on hold, says U.S. Fish and Wildlife spokesman Chuck Underwood. “This isn’t an indication that we know something about what the recent deaths mean,” he said. “It is strictly budget-related.”

What this year’s grim total means for the manatee population is still unknown, but it might take years for the population to recover.

“It’s a huge number, more than any other year at this point in time,” said Patrick Rose, president of the Save the Manatee Club, an aquatic biologist who’s studied manatees for decades. Rose suggests the Lagoon could take as long as a decade to recover. “From this point forward, if we do everything right, we’re still talking maybe 5-10 years for recovery,” he said. “The system is so unstable right now that it’s going to have to stabilize, even if it stabilizes in a much worse state.”

The lagoon is not without hope, though. Late last year, the St. Johns River Water Management District announced the adoption of a four-year, $3.7 million Indian River Lagoon Protection Initiative. Designed to help heal the ailing estuary, the initiative is still in its early stages. But a multidisciplinary taskforce of scientists is already studying and monitoring the embattled ecosystem, trying to sort out what triggered the blooms in 2011 and 2012.

“The lagoon’s health had been improving, and then out of the blue came this unforeseen superbloom,” said William Tredik, the Indian River Lagoon Protection Initiative’s team leader. “The algal blooms seem to have been the catalyst for a lot of other things, but we don’t have all those links figured out yet.”

Initial work is focusing on the northern lagoon, the killing zone that has been the most besieged by blooms. Then, when the taskforce has a better idea of what ignited the algal explosion, potential solutions will be suggested — ideas that could range from adding drainage canals to transplanting seagrasses to overhauling septic systems.

“It’s a beautiful area down there, just breathtaking when you’re out on the water,” Tredik said. “We want to make it as good as we can.”

Read more!

Are Aquariums Ruining Coral Reef Biodiversity?

Rod Fujita LiveScience.com Yahoo News 12 Jul 13;

When people think of fisheries, they generally think of seafood. But there is another, surprisingly large fishery that has not made it into the headlines. Millions of people benefit from it, both financially and aesthetically, yet no international agencies are monitoring it — even though it may strongly impact coral reefs, the centers of ocean biodiversity.

That little-recognized resource is the ornamental fishery, which harvests fish and invertebrates for display in aquariums and as curiosities.

Impact on coral reefs

In a new paper on ornamental fisheries in the journal Fish and Fisheries, my colleagues and I note that the impacts of fisheries are not well understood, but they may be very large. The ornamental trade is focused on coral reefs, which are home to much of the world's marine biodiversity, and involves at least 45 source countries. Every year, this fishery removes an estimated 20 million to 24 million fish, many millions of corals and shells, and 9 million to 10 million additional invertebrates. [Colorful Creations: Photos of Incredible Coral Reefs]

Coral reefs are extremely productive and teem with colorful life . But they also use a lot of energy, and there is much competition and predation in reefs, thus resulting in relatively low, net biomass production. In contrast to cold, nutrient-rich waters that can support very high fishery yields, the warm, nutrient-poor waters typical of coral reefs are probably unable to sustain large harvests.

What to do?

Researchers know that the fisheries that decline and collapse tend to be those that are not managed or assessed. Therefore, the first step toward a solution is to assess the status of ornamental stocks and the coral reefs that support them.

In our paper, my colleagues and I lay out a step-by-step approach for assessing and managing fisheries for which data are limited, and illustrate the methods using data from Indonesian fisheries.

The first step in that approach is to assess the status of an entire coral reef — not just the fish stocks — and develop conservation targets aimed at maintaining or restoring healthy reefs.

The next step is to estimate the vulnerability of the stocks and their degree of depletion. That information is combined in a decision matrix: For each category of vulnerability and depletion, a different set of management measures is appropriate. For example, for a highly vulnerable species that is also highly depleted, a ban on fishing may be appropriate, whereas for more resilient species that are less depleted, harvest might be increased to allow other, depleted stocks to recover.

Fishery managers can also use the decision matrix to prioritize stocks for more detailed assessments that can guide catch limits for high-priority stocks.

My colleagues and I hope this new analytical framework and management system will catch on before the ornamental fishery starts to generate headlines about a new fishery crisis.

Rod Fujita, oceans director of research and development for the Environmental Defense Fund, contributed this article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

Read more!

2 Million Deaths Yearly Worldwide Linked with Air Pollution

Rachael Rettner LiveScience.com Yahoo News 12 Jul 13;

Air pollution may be responsible for more than 2 million deaths around the world each year, according to a new study.

The study estimated that 2.1 million deaths each year are linked with fine particulate matter, tiny particles that can get deep into the lungs and cause health problems.

Exposure to particle pollution has been linked with early death from heart and lung diseases, including lung cancer, the researchers said; meanwhile, concentrations of particulate matter have been increasing due to human activities. The study also found that 470,000 deaths yearly are linked with human sources of ozone, which forms when pollutants from sources such as cars or factories come together and react. Exposure to ozone has been linked to death from respiratory diseases.

Most of the estimated global deaths likely occur in East and South Asia, which have large populations and severe air pollution, said study researcher Jason West, an assistant professor of environmental sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

"Air pollution is an important problem. It's probably one of the most important environmental risk factors for health," West said. The study suggests that improving air quality around the world would increase life expectancy for some, he said.

While some studies have suggested that climate change can make air pollution more deadly, the new study found that climate change had only a small effect on air pollution-related deaths.

Pollution and climate interact in several ways. Climate-related factors such as temperature and humidity can affect the reaction rates of particles in the air, which in turn determine the formation of pollutants; additionally, rainfall can affect accumulation of pollutants, the researchers said.

However, in the researchers' analysis, changes in climate were linked with just 1,500 yearly deaths from ozone pollution, and 2,200 yearly deaths from fine particulate matter.

The researchers used a number of climate models to estimate concentrations of air pollution around the world, in the years 1850 (the pre-industrial era) and 2000. Focusing on these two years allowed the researchers to determine what proportion of air pollution was human-caused (attributable to industrialization).

Then, the researchers used information from past studies on air pollution and health to determine how many deaths are linked with particular concentrations of air pollution, West said.

The new study had an advantage over previous work in that it did not rely on just one climate model, but instead included several. However, because the study used information from previous research on air pollution and health, the estimates are subject to the same uncertainties that characterized those previous studies.

In addition, most of the studies on air pollution and health were conducted in the United States, so applying those results globally, as the current study did, introduces some uncertainty, West said.

The study will be published in the July 12 issue of the journal Environmental Research Letters.

Read more!