SPROUT! Environmental workshops with a twist!
on the wild shores of singapore blog
Life History of the Metallic Caerulean
on the Butterflies of Singapore blog
March Mayhem
on the Adventures with the Naked Hermit Crabs blog
Of insect diet and nesting Coppersmith Barbets (Part 7)
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog
Updates on whale shark at Resorts World Sentosa
on the wild shores of singapore blog
93.8Live 30 Mar 09;
It’s been more than two weeks since an online campaign was launched against plans by Resorts World Sentosa, RWS, to import dolphins and Whale Sharks for their Marine Life Park.
As of last week, more than 5,300 people had signed the petition.
Melissa Tan speaks to several activists to find out why they are against the import.
The online petition launched by seven Animal Rights Groups in Singapore has drawn much attention - both in Singapore and across the world.
Addressed to the Ministry of National Development, the Singapore Tourism Board and RWS, the petition points to several instances of Whale sharks faring poorly in Captivity.
One example it cites is that of two whale sharks that died within five months of each other at the Georgia aquarium in the United States in 2007
The person behind the online petition is Jaki Teo, who is a director of a local web design agency.
"It’s something I feel very strongly about. I’m a diver as well and I have seen whale sharks in the wild. I think it’s just the most horrible thing to put them in a tank and because I have an agency, it’s something I can actually do for the first time. "
Whale Sharks are the world’s largest fish and can grow up to 20 metres in length - or as large as the lenght of two buses.
They are listed as ‘vulnerable’ in the red list of threatened species by the International Union for conservation of Nature and Natural Resources.
Deidre Moss from the Soceity for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals feels holding such large creatures in captivity will jeopardise their welfare.
"Number one, they’re the biggest fish in the ocean. And they’re very deep divers. They’ve been recorded at depths of 1500 metres. Their migratory patterns also have been traced over 13,000 kilometres so confiding them in a man made structure will definitely compromise their welfare, not without great risk to their health this would be done."
Grant Pereira from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society agrees.
"It’s really not necessary to have an endangered species in a glass tank. What kind of tank can you build for it? If you love them, you don’t put them in a fish tank."
Plans by Resorts World Sentosa to import whale sharks also
angered people beyond Singapore's shores.
Maria Fernandez Salom is an activist with the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, the world’s largest animal rights organization.
"We at PETA Asia Pacific believe that whale sharks are just as any other beings with feelings, have the right to be free. We believe that keeping animals in captivity causes them stress and trauma of being taken from their natural homes. Humans shouldn’t interfere with the course of nature, and that breeding these animals is just a way to bring more tourists who are attracted by the babies, just to earn more revenue."
Louis Ng of local NGO ACRES says the main issue is that wild animals should not be brought into captivity in the first place.
"And if we look at the history of people keeping whale sharks in the world, most of them have actually died in captivity. Mainly because we really don’t know how to cater to their needs and it’s hard to tell whether they’ve even eaten or not."
RWS has since posted a response letter on its website, to the online petition, saying that it is considering alternatives to the Marine Life Park design plans.
But it also noted that the whale shark exhibit at the park was submitted as part of the winning bid in an international competition for the Integrated Resort.
It is thus bound to deliver the pledge and any replacement has to be viable and compelling in bringing in visitors to Singapore.
In response to that, the animal welfare organizations point out that
marine parks elsewhere are already excluding captivity and that is the direction Singapore should take.
ACRES' Louis Ng again.
"If you look, other marine parks in the UK are saying no dolphins in captivity, there are government that are more progressive, who have said, no more dolphins in captivity. And I think we’ve progressed, but we have to progress in the right direction, and not do something other countries are stopping."
Jaki feels although the whale shark exhibit formed part of the winning bid, RWS should explore other ways to attract tourists.
"Granted it was part of the bidding agreement that they have whale sharks, but I’m sure if they had a think about it, there are so many other ways to bring in tourists. If there’s people from different countries, like America and Dubai and even Taiwan and China signing our petition and saying that that’s a bad idea, I don’t think anyone would really believe that it’s for conservation, I think it’s bad for our own image."
PETA’s Maria points out that any wild animal once bred in captivity, would no longer be able to go back to the wild.
"Even if these animals were bred in captivity, they wouldn’t be able to be released in the wild again, because they wouldn’t be able to hunt for themselves or to survive in the wild. So these breeding programmes don’t really help the conservation of the species."
Giving its take, the Singapore Tourism Board says in importing animals for the Marine Life Park, RWS will have to comply with international regulations as well as the requirements of the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority.
The marine animals have to be provided with adequate space and care, among other requirements.
When contacted, AVA said that RWS would have to demonstrate that they have the necessary facilities and infrastructure in place for marine animals.
The facilities must be large enough to house the shark and have a good water maintenance system - and in addition, adequate professional staff, including veterinarians and marine biologists.
More than 5,300 people from all over the world have come on board since the online petition by animal rights groups got going earlier this month.
Louis Ng said he was heartened by Jaki’s initiative to launch the petition.
"That was what was a very good sign for us, that it’s not just the NGOs that are campaigning, but here’s an individual who came forward and said, I want to do something about this, I think that really is active citizenry, where someone says, here is a problem and wants to fix it, instead of just keep compaining."
You can visit www.whalesharkpetition.com to view the petition.
I’m Melissa Tan, for 938LIVE.
Letter from Marine Life Park
undated and unsigned letter from the Resorts World Sentosa website
Dear all,
Thank you for the interest that you have expressed towards our Marine Life Park. Although the feedback we have received till now is not always positive, it shows how concerned everyone is towards the success of the Marine Life Park and its ability to balance the need to educate the public on marine conservation while at the same time not doing anything to harm the marine environment.
As of today, over 3,000 of you have written to us and we hope you can spare a few minutes for our side of the story. As an organization that is committed to inspire the conservation of the ocean through education, we fully understand your concerns with regards to the feasibility of whale sharks in captivity. That is why we have been, and still are - to this date - considering alternatives for our overall Marine Life Park design plans, while simultaneously peer reviewing our animal collection and exhibits content.
While we go about our work, we also want to highlight that the whale shark exhibit at the Marine Life Park was submitted as part of the winning bid in an international competition for the Integrated Resort on Sentosa in late 2006. As such, the organization is bound to deliver the integrity of the bid, and any proposed replacement for the whale sharks must be defensible in that it must be viable and be as broad, if not compelling, in its appeal to bring in visitors to Singapore - the reason Singapore decided to have the integrated resorts.
Last week, we put out a press statement specifying that plans for the Marine Life Park are still being finalized and options are being explored. Two things are being done right now: consolidating the education and conservation studies of what aquariums have done for potential collection species, and assessing how the Marine Life Park and its conservation and research programs might contribute further to the scientific knowledge of the species.
We do not take these undertakings lightly and as such, we need time to investigate all available options to provide Singapore with a world-class Marine Life Park. The process of replacing promised attractions in a winning bid is neither simple nor unilateral. Papers, presentations, permits and many rounds of fine-tuning and debate are required. We welcome ideas at csr@rwsentosa.com.
We apologise for not being able to reply singularly to everyone. Do visit our website http://www.rwsentosa.com/en_marinelifepark.html to know us better. There, you can also read about our conservation efforts in both the marine and environmental fields. The Marine Life Park is committed to engage all persons who share our goal: the conservation of the oceans and its inhabitants. Our commitment has not changed.
See also Updates on whale shark at Resorts World Sentosa on the wild shores of singapore blog.
Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post 4 Apr 09;
The government says Indonesia’s marine environment can absorb millions of tons of carbon, but scientists say the claim has not yet been proven through scientific studies.
“It is merely a prediction, there is no scientific research yet,” Augy Syahailatua, head of marine resources at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), said Friday.
He said Indonesia has never conducted research to determine how much carbon its marine ecosystems can absorb.
“Many countries like the United States and Australia have conducted research on their marine biodiversity,” Augy told a group of journalists in the run-up to the World Ocean Conference in May.
Indonesia will host the first-ever international conference on marine ecosystems in Manado, North Sulawesi, in the hopes of establishing commitment to the sustainable management of marine resources to help combat climate change.
Around 10,000 delegates, including ministers and scientists from 121 countries, are set to attend the forum, scheduled for May 11-15.
Organizers have said the Manado declaration, expected to be issued at the end of the meeting, would not be legally binding but would be tabled for discussion at a UN climate change conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, by the end of this year.
The Copenhagen Climate Conference is expected to yield a new binding protocol for emissions cuts.
Abdul Halim, manager of the coral triangle at the Nature Conservancy also acknowledged that no research had been conducted to determine if Indonesia’s marine environments could absorb carbon.
He expressed hope that the ocean and Coral Triangle Initiative conferences in Manado will boost public awareness of the importance of marine conservation.
“We hope with the conferences more scientists will conduct marine research on this matter,” Halim said.
Augy said that scientific studies to find out whether the country’s marine and mega biodiversity can sink or release climate emissions were also crucial to boosting the country’s bargaining position in international arena discussing climate change.
After claiming that the country’s marine environments can absorb carbon, the government called on donor countries to help Indonesia finance conservation programs to save the world from climate change.
The blue print on a national plan of action on climate change, which was launched by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono during the climate change conference in Bali in 2007, states that Indonesia’s marine biodiversity can absorb some 67 million tonnes of carbon, equal to about 245.6 million tons of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) per year.
CO2 is the main contributor to global climate change.
Indonesia has about 5.8 million square kilometers of marine territory.
The action plan states that the country’s 61,000 square kilometers of coral reefs has the capacity to absorb up to 73.5 million CO2 per year.
Moreover, the country’s 93.000 square kilometers of mangrove areas could absorb 75.4 million tons of CO2 annually.
Global warming has the potential to cause ocean acidification, rises in temperature and sea levels which could flood entire small island states, such as the Maldives.
The heads of states of six countries — Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, the Solomon Islands and Timor Leste — will launch the Coral Triangle Initiative with the aim of reducing carbon emissions on the sidelines of the WOC.
The region is home to 53 percent of the world’s coral reefs and 3,000 fish species and is considered important to the health of the world’s oceans, according to experts.
Mike Stark, Associated Press Yahoo News 4 Apr 09;
SALT LAKE CITY – The American pika — a short-legged, hamster-sized fur ball that huddles in high mountain slopes — isn't built for long-distance travel.
So as the West's climate warms, the tiny pika has little choice but to scurry a little farther upslope to beat the heat.
Problem is, in some places, they've run out of room to run, according to scientists. Without cool rocky refuges, the finicky pika can't survive.
Soon, if conservationists have their way, the pika could be the first species in the lower 48 states to get federal endangered species protections primarily because of the effects of climate change.
"It's feeling an exaggerated brunt of global warming," said Greg Loarie, an Earthjustice attorney involved with lawsuits to get the pika protections. "Unlike others, it can't move north. It's stuck."
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is scheduled to decide by May 1 whether to take an in-depth look at the pika — a diminutive relative of the rabbit that inhabits 10 Western states — and whether it may need to be on the endangered species list.
The polar bear is already listed because of threats of global warming. The pika could be next. And more petitions naming climate change as a cause of species decline are likely in the coming years, said Dan Ashe, science adviser to the head of the Fish and Wildlife Service.
"It's like the 'check engine' light that comes on in your car. It tells you something's going on here," Ashe said.
For pikas in the Great Basin, which includes parts of Nevada and Utah, the news is already grim.
Donald Grayson, a University of Washington archaeologist, studied 57 archaeological sites dating back 40,000 years. Where pikas once typically lived at about 5,700 feet above sea level, they are now averaging higher than 8,000 feet, according to Grayson's research published in 2005.
"In the Great Basin, pikas now are at such high elevations, there's not any place for them to go any higher," he said. "I actually think that pikas in the Great Basin are probably doomed."
The pika also lives in parts of California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming.
A study in 2003 found six of 25 previously known pika populations in the Great Basin had disappeared. Researchers have returned to the 25 sites since then but their results have not yet been published.
"Climate seems to be the single strongest driver but it's interacting" with other factors such as grazing, habitat loss, roads and human disturbance, said Erik Beever, a U.S. Geological Survey ecologist in Anchorage, Alaska, who studied pikas for about 15 years, including the 2003 study in the Great Basin when he was a graduate student.
Part of the problem is that the pika's peculiar traits are suited for alpine conditions: dense fur, slow reproductivity and a thermal regulation system that doesn't do well when temperatures get above about 78 degrees.
"There's not a lot of wiggle room with these guys," Beever said, referring to the small difference between pikas' mean body temperature and the temperature at which they die.
That could spell trouble for the pika, especially in parts of the West where climate change is expected to produce some of the most significant temperature changes in the country.
But pikas aren't running into trouble everywhere.
Connie Millar, an alpine ecologist with the U.S. Forest Service, spends much of her research time in the Sierra Nevada mountains. On her travels, she notes signs of pikas: sightings, distinctive squeaks, telltale heaps of grasses the animals gather and save for winter munching.
Over the last two years, she found only 2 percent of 279 pika sites were abandoned, and in some places pikas were showing up at lower-than-expected elevations. In parts of the western Great Basin she checked, about 17 percent of expected pikas sites showed no signs of the animals.
Climate change, interacting with complex ecosystems, isn't likely to have uniform effects, especially on a widespread species such as the pika.
"What it's doing in one place, it might not be doing elsewhere," Millar said.
Teams fanned out across Utah last summer looking for pikas at 113 spots where they might be living. Of those, about 75 percent had signs, state officials said.
Although pikas are well-known to hikers along high, rocky slopes in several flagship national parks, including Yellowstone, Glacier and Yosemite, population studies have been sporadic across their range.
The Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group, sued the federal government to protect the pika under the Endangered Species Act. A similar suit was also filed against the state of California.
The federal lawsuit resulted in a settlement in February requiring a decision from the Fish and Wildlife Service by May 1. A hearing on the lawsuit in California — where state wildlife officials have disputed the assertion that pikas are threatened — is scheduled for later this month.
"What the loss of the pika shows us is that global warming is impacting wildlife here in our own backyard," said Shaye Wolf, a San Francisco-based biologist for the environmental group. "It provides an early indicator of what's to come if we don't reduce our greenhouse gas pollution."
But listing the pika or any other species because of threats from global warming raises a new set of questions for wildlife managers.
The Bush administration listed the polar bear as a threatened species in 2008, the first to be protected because of the threats of global warming. Officials quickly completed regulations, though, to ensure the listing couldn't be used to block projects that contribute to global warming. That decision is now being challenged in court.
Ashe said it's unclear exactly what steps could be taken to protect the pika from climate change. Recovery plans could address other specific threats such as grazing or roads — or target certain pika subspecies — but climate change has international causes and implications.
For wildlife managers, it's a new and shifting territory. But that doesn't mean efforts shouldn't be made, said Loarie, the Earthjustice attorney.
"The pika is the tip of the iceberg," he said. "Scientists are saying if global warming continues on this track, there are more extinctions coming. I don't think that most people are willing to accept that."
Sylvie Lanteaume Yahoo News 4 Apr 09;
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Territorial claims targeting riches hidden at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean and preservation of the pristine environment of Antarctica will top the agenda of the first meeting on the future of the North and South Poles that opens here Monday.
The State Department said the meeting, to be hosted by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, will focus on the use of both the Arctic and Antarctic.
Clinton will preside over the first joint session of the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM) and the Arctic Council on April 6 in Baltimore, Maryland, according to a press release from the State Department.
The joint meeting brings "together the two most important bodies involved with diplomacy at the Poles," the statement said.
"Ministers and other high-ranking officials will discuss accomplishments of the International Polar Year, an international and interdisciplinary undertaking that has mobilized thousands of researchers from more than 60 countries, to work on more than 160 projects in the polar regions," it said.
The ATCM meeting also occurs on the 50th anniversary of the Antarctic Treaty, which was signed in Washington.
It "will note its historic significance as the first modern multilateral arms control treaty," which stipulates that Antarctica be used "for peaceful purposes only and guarantees freedom of scientific investigation."
Although the official agenda focuses on peaceful activities in Antarctica as well as freedom of scientific research, participants are likely to focus on rich oil and gas deposits in the continental shelf around the North Pole.
Now that global warming has opened new navigation routes in the area, these deposits have sparked fierce competition among nations surrounding the Arctic, according to French ambassador for international negotiations Michel Rocard.
The US Geological Survey estimates that the Arctic holds about 90 billion barrels of oil and even bigger deposits of gas.
These resources constitute 13 percent of the world's untapped reserves of oil and 30 percent of reserves of natural gas.
The riches are being disputed by the United States, Russia, Canada, Norway and Denmark, whose island of Greenland could become independent.
A Russian submarine symbolically planted a flag on the sea bed at the North Pole in 2007 and Moscow recently announced plans to militarize its part of the Arctic in order to protect its interests there.
Canada meanwhile is trying to extend its control over Arctic waters to 200 nautical miles.
Ottawa has been consistently reaffirming its sovereignty over the region, in particular the North-West Passage and its thousands of uninhabited islands, which due to melting ice could become an important future maritime route linking Asia to Europe.
The United States and other countries consider it an international waterway.
In order to protect the environment, France has proposed "improving governance" over the region. The suggested priorities include, according to Rocard, international control over fishing rights.
During the ATCM meeting, US delegates propose to "limit the size of vessels that can land passengers in Antarctica and to establish higher standards for the use of lifeboats aboard tourist vessels that visit Antarctica," the State Department statement said.
"US participation in International Polar Year included research conducted by a range of federal agencies," it added.
These include the National Science Foundation, the National Aeronautic and Space Administration, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the US Geological Survey, it said.
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S.Ramesh, Channel NewsAsia 3 Apr 09;
SINGAPORE: The Singapore Botanic Gardens first took root in 1859. Since then, it has evolved into a much-loved civic space and one of the country's top attractions. To celebrate its 150th anniversary, a series of activities have been lined up to connect plants with people.
Singapore's Botanic Gardens had an important role to play in the rubber revolution in Southeast Asia.
The first 22 rubber seedlings were given to the Singapore Gardens by the world-renowned Kew Gardens of the United Kingdom and this contributed to the economic boom in the region.
Not many Singaporeans may be aware of these milestones. So the Singapore Botanic Gardens is having an exhibition entitled "The Seed that Changed the World" till the end of this month.
It has also documented the Botanic Gardens' 150-year history.
It will be holding year-long events to educate and engage the people on the economic importance and beauty of the Gardens. That is why the theme for the celebrations has been aptly coined as 'Connecting Plants and People'.
National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan said: "The Gardens must and remain a Peoples' Garden. It must remain a place that families and their loved ones can come and share, and it must be a place where the community can come and bond because it is a custodian of our collective memories."
The day's event, described as "A Tale of Two Gardens," also paid tribute to the close ties Singapore's Botanic Gardens has with its London counterpart, which is celebrating its 250th birthday.
To mark the collaboration, special trees were planted simultaneously in Singapore and London, with guests watching the event via video conference. - CNA/vm
Treasury of plants
Straits Times 4 Apr 09;
DR CHIN See Chung, director of the Singapore Botanic Gardens, leafs through plant samples at its herbarium.
'Here is where the real history is,' he says.
Some of the 650,000 dried plant samples in the Botanic Gardens' herbarium date back to 1790, 80 years before the plant archive was officially established.
That is because herbaria - institutes that store plant specimens - swop their samples like collectors' trading cards.
There is a sprig of jasmine from 1700s India collected by Moravian missionaries.
There is a century's collection of ginger from Penang, Perak and Pahang, dating from the 1890s to the 1990s.
Some of the plants once grew here, but are now extinct.
Once plucked, the samples are pressed in newspaper and dried on low heat in an oven.
It is a recipe that ensures the plants last 'almost forever, without chemical preservatives', says Dr Chin.
The herbarium is open to the public by appointment, and to researchers from all over the world, who can borrow the plant samples - desiccated leaves, twigs, fruit and all - to study.
But the herbarium's most important work is collecting and documenting the hugely diverse flora of Malesia.
Malesia is a term used by botanists to refer to a part of South-east Asia with characteristic types of flora. It spans Singapore, parts of Malaysia and parts of Indonesia and the Philippines.
The Botanic Gardens is part of an international project, coordinated by the National Herbarium in the Netherlands. to catalogue the region's flora.
But so far, less than 25 per cent of the perhaps 50,000 species have been documented.
'Everybody is desperately trying to document the flora here before it's all lost,' Dr Chin says.
GRACE CHUA
Helping Botanic Gardens blossom
Jalelah Abu Baker, Straits Times 4 Apr 09;
THE Singapore Botanic Gardens have a strong supporter in Lady Yuen-Peng McNeice, 92.
Among her donations to the gardens is a collection of bromeliad plants in 1994. Besides a book commemorating the gardens' 150th anniversary launched yesterday, she had sponsored another book on the attraction in 1989.
The mother of two and grandmother of four has gone on African safaris to enjoy nature and take photographs, for which she was made an associate of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain.
Born in Malaysia, she grew up surrounded by flora and fauna. She moved to Singapore in 1947 when she married Sir Percy McNeice, the first president of the City Council here. He died in 1998.
She has not lost touch with nature even now. She still does her own gardening at her Holland Road house every afternoon. It is filled with pretty blooms and pandan, lemongrass and belimbing, a fruit commonly used in Nonya cooking.
Lady McNeice said: 'I try to collect unusual plants that I knew during my childhood.' She also has plants from Brazil and the United States, some of which she has given to the Botanic Gardens.
She first saw bromeliads - a family of flowering plants that includes the pineapple - on display at the Chelsea Flower Show and was impressed by their shapes and colours, thinking them suitable for Singapore.
So when a Californian nursery wanted to sell its bromeliads, she bought them for the Botanic Gardens. The 320 species have since been planted near the orchid garden, in a site that now bears her name.
A tree at the Botanic Gardens has also been dedicated to her for all her contributions. When asked which was her favourite spot at the gardens, she said with a smile: 'I don't have one, everything is so beautiful.'
Anusha K., The New Straits Times 4 Apr 09;
The Alstom Foundation has taken it upon itself to teach the young about the importance of conserving marine life. ANUSHA K. writes.
AS a child growing up in a city, I never knew much about marine life and the importance of conserving them.
During holidays at the beach, I would pick up as many corals as I could and sometimes even bring jellyfish back to the city, much to the amazement of my parents.
To stop kids from doing such things, it is important to educate them, especially when they are young, about conserving marine life, particularly the coral reefs, which are essential in sustaining the biodiversity of the marine ecosystem.
A healthy reef supports 25 per cent of all marine animal species. Ten per cent of coastal commercial fish species live in coral reefs while 40 per cent use it as a spawning ground.
In line with its philosophy of providing environmentally-friendly products and services, Alstom (which specialises in power generation and rail transportation) aims to educate Malaysian children about the importance of our country’s coral reefs.
The move is initiated by the Alstom Foundation whose headquarters is in France. It provides funds for environmentally-friendly projects worldwide.
Alstom has 70,000 staff in 70 countries. All are given the opportunity to propose any environmentally-friendly project that fits in with its philosophy.
The Rainforest to Reef programme was among the 12 projects chosen worldwide by the foundation.
The Rainforest to Reef Programme:
This outreach programme aims to educate schoolchildren on the conservation of coral reefs. Alstom provides funding for the development of a curriculum to educate children on the Marine Park islands of Tioman, Redang and Perhentian, off the East Coast of Malaysia, which are renowned for its beautiful corals.
This programme is in collaboration with Reef Check Malaysia (RCM) and the Marine Parks department.
“The programme was proposed by one of our staff as it complements our offerings in electricity generation and rail transportation technologies which enhance economic development, social progress and environmental protection,” said Saji Raghavan, Alstom’s country president.
The curriculum will include Coral Reefs Camps for the schools on all three islands.
Tailored for primary schoolchildren in Standard Five, it was developed by RCM, a non-governmental branch of the Marine Parks Department.
The programme features local facilitators who will be responsible for its implementation in selected schools.
Saji and his team as well as several members of the media spent two days on the islands during the recent launch of the programme. This programme not only aims to protect the environment but also the livelihood of the communities involved.
The programme (which was carried out simultaneously on all three islands), started with a beach clean-up in Tioman. Some 180 children from Sekolah Kebangsaan Kampung Tekek, Pulau Tioman, a dozen teachers and 50 employees of Alstom took part in the clean-up with an equal number of participants on each island.
The children picked up trash along the roadside and on the shores. The group with the largest trash collection was the winner.
The pupils were even seen picking up trash from the bins of restaurants. They were only allowed to collect man-made trash such as plastic bottles, cigarette butts, plastic bags and wrappers. They were not allowed to collect natural things such as leaves, coconuts, tree branches and seashells.
The official launch of the programme was held on the second day at the Marine Park Exhibition Centre in Tioman Island.
Besides conserving the coral reefs, other activities will include jungle trekking, a recycling campaign, snorkelling as well as the Coral Reefs Camp.
The first batch of Coral Reef Camps 1 will be held from today until April 6 (Redang), April 11 to 13 (Perhentian) and June 27 to 29 (Tioman).
The second batch — Coral Reefs Camps 2 — will be held from July 11 to 13 (Redang), July 18 to 20 (Perhentian) and Aug 1 to 3 (Tioman).
The Coral Reef Camps 2 uses the same syllabus as Camp 1 but goes to different schools. The syllabus is a mix of educational and recreational activities.
Julian Hyde, general manager of RCM, said Standard Five pupils were chosen as they were more receptive with a better attention span.
“To target young adults may be a little harder as it’s hard to gain their attention for a long period,” he said.
“However, children are not the only ones who need to be educated on coral reefs. There are also certified divers who cause damage to the corals with their negligent behaviour.
“By educating the younger generation we’re already taking the first step in saving marine life,” Hyde added.
The Rainforest to Reef programme will continue until 2011.
Jeff McNeely, Simon Stuart, Jane Smart and Jean-Christophe Vié
New Scientist 3 Apr 09;
THE IUCN's Red List of Threatened Species is widely recognised as one of the best tools we have for guiding nature conservation. It is widely used to identify species in need of conservation measures and sites of crucial importance for biodiversity, and also to track progress on reducing biodiversity loss and to guide resource allocation. It is not perfect and no stranger to criticism, most recently in the pages of this magazine, where it was described as "unscientific and frequently wrong" (New Scientist, 14 March, p 8). This is wide of the mark.
The first IUCN Red Data Book was published in 1963 as an essentially subjective list of extinction risks. Over the past 45 years it has evolved considerably. It is no longer simply a register of species and their level of risk, but a rich compendium of information on where species live, their ecological requirements, the threats they face and the conservation actions that can be used to prevent them becoming extinct. It also covers common species, not just threatened ones.
As such, the Red List helps to answer many important questions. What is the overall status of biodiversity and how is it changing over time? What is the rate at which biodiversity is being lost? Where is biodiversity being lost most rapidly? What are the main drivers of the loss of biodiversity? What is the effectiveness and impact of conservation activities?
While we at IUCN welcome constructive criticism, we are exasperated by critics who fail to recognise the steady improvements IUCN has been making in trying to present an objective picture of the conservation status of species worldwide, as well as helping to ensure that biodiversity loss is recognised as a crucial issue at the highest political levels.
In recent years, a large number of articles have been published in the scientific literature championing the Red List's merits (for example Trends in Ecology & Evolution, vol 21, p 71). No other conservation tool can claim the same level of rigour, the same degree of transparency and the same amount of debate and consultation. It is important to note that the Red List is one of the very few biodiversity indices, if not the only one, for which the methodology has been published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal (PLoS ONE, vol 2, e140).
One oft-repeated criticism is that the list is excessively cautious because it assigns too many species to a category labelled "data deficient", meaning there is not enough information to assess conservation status. This is a weak argument. Rather than rushing to a judgement based on poor data, we highlight those species that need more research before an objective decision can be made. Handling uncertainty in a structured way is not common practice in the conservation world, but this is what the Red List does. Given the magnitude of the extinction crisis there is a need to provide sound advice to decision-makers who are pressing scientists to inform them about the state of biodiversity.
Similarly, we have heard arguments faulting the Red List for assigning extinction risk based on how fast a species is declining, rather than on absolute numbers. While this can lead to species such as the green turtle being listed as endangered when there are still more than 2 million individuals, criticising it on these grounds is misleading. Decline is a key indicator of extinction risk. As many conservation experts can attest, there are numerous instances of formerly abundant species declining to extremely low levels very rapidly - think of American bison and passenger pigeons in the past and, more recently, Asian vultures and saiga antelope.
Both these criticisms were addressed in a major paper that appeared in Conservation Biology last year (vol 22, p 1424). It was disappointing to see New Scientist repeating them without reference to that paper.
One criticism in the article was new even to us: that the Red List diverts resources away from species that really need them. This argument is baseless. It is like accusing humanitarian organisations of putting children in Eritrea at risk because they are publishing a report on Darfur.
Of course, the Red List is open to improvement. IUCN regularly convenes a group of respected scientists to review and refine the system, and its guidelines are constantly updated to reflect the latest scientific thinking and insights. One important issue this group is working on at the moment is how to integrate climate change into the listing process. Our preliminary results show that a large number of species that do not currently appear as threatened on the Red List are susceptible to climate change.
The Red List remains the most accurate tool for measuring the state of species. The fact that it is based on the work of more than 7000 scientists does not mean it is "cobbled together". It makes it richer, with an unparalleled reach. Yes, it is open to debate and challenge, but the diversity of the sources it draws on makes it unique and irreplaceable. There are countless examples showing that, where used properly, it can be deployed to develop conservation programmes that have enormous benefits.
It is extremely difficult to raise awareness among decision-makers about the crucial importance of giving attention to all life forms on our planet. Everybody in the conservation movement wants biodiversity to receive the same level of attention as climate change, but this is no easy task. The Red List, thanks to its objectivity and high standards, is one of the very few tools that could allow this to happen.
Jeff McNeely is chief scientist of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Simon Stuart is chair of IUCN's species survival commission. Jane Smart is head of IUCN's biodiversity conservation group. Jean-Christophe Vié is deputy head of IUCN's species programme
WWF 3 Apr 09;
Bali, Indonesia: The Indian Ocean Tuna Commission – in the spotlight as some coastal fishers whose stocks it has failed to protect turn to piracy instead - is continuing in its unbroken record of failure to regulate one of the world's largest tuna fisheries.
The commission, which has just concluded its 13th meeting in Bali, failed to set catch limits for any of the fisheries it is supposed to be regulating, failed to agree any new measures to restrain rampant over-fishing, failed to set effective rules on shark finning and put off a much needed decision to reform itself.
IOTC scientists, grappling with dangerously inadequate information on all stocks, had warned that yellowfin tuna was “probably” overfished..
"Most of the world's large tuna fisheries are poorly managed by bodies that commission scientific assessments and then set catch quotas that ignore them, but the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission is the most dysfunctional of all," said WWF International Marine Director Miguel Jorge.
“Another stumbling block in the negotiations has been EU intransigence on large Spanish and French fleets maintaining their swordfish catch levels at dangerously high levels.
“At the same time the commission has just been wringing its hands on the piracy issue, with a resolution failing to note that the pirates now attacking merchant shipping are from coastal communities that got into the aggressive habit of trying to defend their fishing livelihoods from illegal fishing by foreign fishing boats.”
The meeting also failed to make adequate progress on proposals to ban shark-finning by requiring sharks to be landed whole – with fins naturally attached - rather than with the existing limited restriction of having a whole shark to fins ratio of just five percent, making it hard to identify how many sharks of which potentially endangered species are being taken in what may be one of the most wasteful and unsustainable fisheries.
Other controversial measures were a failure to extend the high seas large scale drift net ban to coastal waters, deferring consideration of vital Catch Documentation Scheme improvements and failure to adopt a realistic observer program.
“Many member States appear to be operating on a hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil basis which supports continuing rampant non-compliance with even a lax management regime,” said Jorge.
“No-one knows what is really going on, few seem to care, States report their catches late or not at all and the scientists that are supposed to be the cornerstone of the system are doing the best they can with the scraps of data they are given.”
While some regional fisheries management organizations are functioning better than others, WWF is taking its dissatisfaction with the workings of some of the flagship commissions such as the IOTC to the marketplace and work with the seafood industry to demand better management by RFMOs and sustainable tuna fishing
Allison Winter, The New York Times 3 Apr 09;
A remote location and special federal protection can't shield a new Hawaiian national monument from debris, invasive species and climate change, according to a new report.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's peer-reviewed report is aimed at providing a baseline for monitoring the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument and identifying management priorities.
The 1,100-mile chain of islands in the Papahanaumokuakea monument is home to almost 70 percent of U.S. tropical near-shore corals, endangered monk seals and sea turtles. A quarter of the 7,000 or so species that live there are unique to the islands.
The report found monk seals in significant decline, with their reproductive success falling by about 60 percent over the past 50 years. NOAA said a 2006 recovery plan for the seal could reverse that decline.
President George W. Bush created the monument two years ago, establishing one of the largest marine conservation areas in the world. The move won Bush rare praise from environmentalists and was followed by the designation of three additional Pacific monuments last winter.
Bush applied the highest level of protection to the Papahanaumokuakea monument, preventing all fishing and mining. But the remote location of both monuments poses some management challenges.
Past activities in the area permanently degraded part of the monument, the report says. Some beaches and reefs are deteriorating because of debris, though the report found most habitats in good condition.
The monument also faces ongoing threats from climate change, ocean acidification, rising sea surface temperatures and sea level rise.
"Global issues of concern arising outside monument boundaries, such as marine debris, ocean acidification and invasive species, degrade fragile monument living resources and habitats," said Aulani Wilhelm, the monument superintendent.
Hawaii has one of the worst marine trash problems in the world because of its location in circular currents that send trash its way, threatening marine mammals and birds. The monument is jointly managed by NOAA and the Interior Department's Fish and Wildlife Service.
The Bush administration's budgets designated some cash for cleaning up the monument -- but not enough to allow the agencies to do the job effectively. About 57 tons of garbage a year washes into the 140,000 square-mile island chain, and debris removal fell to 35 tons a year after the monument was designated.
Restricted human access to the monument has helped its water quality, the report says. Despite past military use that left behind contamination on the atolls, water quality remains good.
Audrey Mcavoy, Associated Press Yahoo News 3 Apr 09;
HONOLULU – The population of false killer whales in waters close to Hawaii appears to have dramatically declined over the past 20 years, a new study says.
It's not known for sure why the dolphin species is decreasing, but the academic paper says the reason likely has to do with declining food supplies and how the mammals are getting caught and injured on the longline fishing lines that stretch as many as 50 miles long from some commercial fishing vessels.
The report's publication in this month's edition of Pacific Science comes weeks after environmental activists sued the federal government for allegedly failing to prevent longline fishing fleets from accidentally capturing the animals off Hawaii.
False killer whales can grow as long as 16 feet and weigh over one ton. They look like killer whales, but they're almost completely black instead of black and white.
They're found in tropical and temperate waters worldwide, including Maryland, Japan, Australia and Scotland.
Robin Baird, one of the study's co-authors, estimates about 120 false killer whales currently live in waters up to 60 miles off Hawaii's coasts.
Researchers who conducted an aerial survey of waters up to 34 miles offshore in 1989 counted 470 individuals in one group of false killer whales. They also found groups of 380 and 460 individuals.
In contrast, researchers saw no false killer whales during aerial surveys of the same area in 2000 and 2003.
Baird, a marine biologist with Cascadia Research Collective in Olympia, Wash., said several surveys analyzed for the paper don't say much about the false killer whale population when viewed individually. But taken together the data make a convincing case, he said.
The data "came together to present really a much more alarming picture," he said.
Baird suspects a combination of longline fishing, declining prey, and environmental toxins are hurting the dolphins.
False killer whales tend to get caught by longline fishing because they eat the fish fishermen have snagged for human consumption: yellowfin tuna, mahimahi, and ono.
The dolphins also have less food to eat because heavy fishing by humans has depleted stocks of yellowfin tuna and other fish they like, including mongchong, albacore tuna and swordfish.
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