Ship owners must help cut pollution

Geoffrey Lee, Business Times 26 Mar 08;

THE sea evokes many different feelings and emotions in people. Adjectives that come to mind include majestic, tranquil, vengeful, beautiful, open, vast and endless.

Add polluted to that list.

From the United States to Singapore, along any major shipping lines and routes up the Atlantic or down the Pacific, tens of thousands of ships ply their trade every day.

And that in turn amounts to a great deal of garbage, ship waste and used oil that is dumped daily into the seas, as well as tonnes of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere.

Singapore pointed out at the 25th General Assembly of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) last November, 'shipping remains the most environmentally friendly mode of international transportation today', there being 'no viable alternative that can support the enormous movement of goods and resources between countries today with less impact on the environment'.

However, new research done by Intertanko, the International Association of Independent Tanker Owners, suggests that much more work needs to be done.

In a confidential report produced for the IMO, it said that the impact of shipping on environmental pollution has been seriously underestimated, with the shipping industry actually emitting almost twice the amount of greenhouse gases as the aviation industry.

Estimates suggest that the world's shipping uses between 350 and 410 million tonnes of fuel each year, which equates to up to 1.2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions. Previous reports had put that figure at only 600 million tonnes.

In contrast, the aviation industry produces an estimated 650 million tonnes annually, according to the Intertanko report.

Traditionally though, the worst visible form of shipping pollution occurs when collisions or wreckage result in oil spills.

The last major oil spill happened in December when an oil tanker carrying more than 260,000 tonnes of crude oil collided with a barge just off the west coast of South Korea, with the resulting damage causing at least 10,500 tonnes of oil to leak into the sea.

As with all other oil spills, the incident deeply affected not just the surrounding local population, but also a vast extent of the marine ecosystem in and around the area.

Oil discharges

Though figures vary from year to year, oil spills generally account for about only 5 per cent of the total amount of oil pollution in the seas. It is oil discharges from operational and maintenance purposes (although hard to pin down exact figures due to the nature of occurrence) that contribute a substantially larger share of maritime oil pollution.

Ships travelling across oceans also introduce potentially harmful foreign elements to different marine environments. Ballast water discharge in particular results in the establishment of harmful aquatic organisms and pathogens which pose threats to indigenous human, animal and plant life, and the marine environment. Studies have shown that many species of bacteria, plants and animals survive in the ballast water and sediment carried in ships even after several months.

Another new concern is anthropogenic (human-generated) noise levels in the marine environment that cause serious harm to marine creatures like whales and dolphins. Studies show that such noise results in increased stress levels among these animals, and could be a factor in issues such as whale beaching.

Recently, cruise ships have also been blamed for an increase in waste that enters the seas. In addition to operational discharges, these ships would also dump a higher amount of dirty water from sinks, showers, laundries and galleys, sewage from toilets and solid wastes (plastic, paper, wood, cardboard, food waste, cans and glass).

The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) tries to regulate ship pollution. IMO has 167 member states which form almost the full body of shipping countries around the world.

The MARPOL (short for marine pollution) Convention is the main international convention covering prevention of pollution of the marine environment by ships from operational or accidental causes. It is a combination of two treaties adopted in 1973 and 1978 respectively and updated by amendments through the years.

The convention includes regulations aimed at preventing and minimising pollution from ships - both accidental pollution and that from routine operations - and currently includes six technical annexes, covering pollution issues.

While most of the convention puts the onus on maritime states to ensure the prevention of pollution, part of it is also voluntary.

This effectively means that the job of preventing or scaling down pollution ultimately rests - as it should - on the shoulders of shipping conglomerates and ship owners.

There are some positive signs going forward. Engineering firms like Greenship have come up with technologies like Sedinox and the Sedimentator, that resolves the ballast water problem in compliance with IMO guidelines.

Homegrown Viking Engineering manufactures an oil discharge monitor known as Marpoil that meets new criterion adopted by legislative bodies and also helps monitor oil-like noxious liquid substances.

Norwegian firms Yara International ASA and the Wilhelmsen Maritime Services (WMS) even created the Yarwil joint venture, aimed at launching environmental solutions for the maritime market.

Yara's solution can cut emissions such as nitrogen oxide, which are formed during the combustion of fossil fuels and are harmful to human health and the environment, by 95 per cent.

The process involves passing the hot exhaust fumes from the engine mixed with a urea solution through a catalytic converter where the nitrogen oxide is broken up into harmless nitrogen and water vapour.

New regulation

The shipping industry has grown exponentially in the last century, and is expected to continue growing. And so will pollution figures. Singapore is doing its part in this situation. The government has announced that from April this year, new harbour craft licences will only be issued to bunker tankers that comply with the limits on nitrogen oxide emission as set out under the IMO's MARPOL convention.

But the onus will still be on the owners of ships that continually flout IMO guidelines. They must care for the environment as much as they care for profit.

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Krakatau child generates flames and fireballs

Antara 26 Mar 08;

Serang (ANTARA News) - After having remained quiet for the past two weeks, Mount Anak Krakatau in the Sunda Strait on Tuesday resumed its volcanic activity spewing glowing material and fire balls into the sky, an officer at an observation post in Serang said.

During the early morning of Tuesday (March 15), the volcano was five times recorded to have been shaken by volcanic tremors, to have produced explosiona and emitted glowing material, Jumono, the officer at the Anak Karkatau observation post in Pasauran village, Serang district, said.

To date, the weather in Banten province is mostly cloudy coupled with heavy rains which caused the Krakatau child condition was not clearly detected, he said.

In addition, waves averaged two meters in height coupled with high velocity wind occurred in Sunda Straits, Jumono said.

Jumono said, the recent tremor and explosion interval which was detected as a beyond normal activity compared with five years ago frightened the fishermen to go fishing.

"The Krakatau child which has generated flames coupled with loud sounds along Tuesday scared us to go nearer the waters as well as reduced our income," the Serang district fishermen, Dudung said.
(*)

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Chinese dams threaten Cambodia's forests, farmers

Ek Madra, Reuters 26 Mar 08;

CHAY ARENG RIVER, Cambodia (Reuters) - Along the Chay Areng valley in Cambodia's remote Cardamom mountains, children still scamper barefoot through one of mainland southeast Asia's last remaining tracts of virgin jungle.

If they take the same paths in a few years, they will probably have to be swimming.

Faced with a rapidly growing but power-starved economy, Prime Minister Hun Sen has decided the rivers flowing from one of the few elevated spots in a relentlessly flat country should become its battery pack.

With this in mind, in the last two years he has agreed to at least four Chinese-funded hydropower projects as part of a $3 billion scheme to boost output from a measly 300 MW today to 1,000 MW in a decade, enough to power a small city.

The indigenous communities who have lived off the forests in the Cardamoms since the dawn of time appear to be the ones who will be paying the biggest price.

"We have been living here without a dam for many generations. We don't want to see our ancestral lands stolen," said 78-year-old Sok Nuon, lighting a fire inside her wooden hut nestled in among the trees near the Chay Areng river.

"I do not want to move as it takes years for fruit trees to produce crops. By then, I'll be dead," she said.

WAR ON BLACKOUTS

Few people argue that Cambodia's 14 million people need more power.

After decades of war and upheaval, including the Khmer Rouge "Killing Fields" of the 1970s, the economy has finally taken off, growing at nearly 10 percent a year.

But its antiquated, mainly diesel-fuelled power plants can meet only 75 percent of demand, meaning frequent blackouts and unit prices around twice those of neighboring Thailand and Vietnam -- both factors inhibiting faster expansion.

With the closer ties Hun Sen has cultivated with Beijing in the last five years, Chinese cash and dam-building expertise has become a logical solution to what is one of the inevitable pains of breakneck growth.

"Chinese investment in hydropower is so important for Cambodia's development," Foreign Minister Hor Namhong said in January after meeting with his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi.

But critics maintain that much of the planning is taking place with scant regard for the long-term impact on the environment in a country where (80) percent of people still rely on agriculture for their livelihoods.

"Poorly conceived and developed hydro-power projects could needlessly and irreparably damage Cambodia's river system with serious consequences," said Carl Middleton of the U.S.-based International Rivers Network.

MUDDY WATERS

The Chinese embassy in Phnom Penh denied Beijing was taking any short-cuts in dam construction in Cambodia -- part of a massive aid package designed to ensure a compliant friend in the region.

"They comply with environmental standards and are approved by the Cambodian government," said a Chinese diplomat who did not wish to be named. "We just want to help Cambodia as much as we can."

But the Chay Areng project hardly appears to be a model of transparency.

The deal was signed in late 2006 with China Southern Power Grid Co (CSG), one of China's two grid operators, to build a 260 MW plant at an estimated cost of $200 million and with a completion date of 2015.

With no prior consultation, the first villagers knew of the project was when Chinese engineers turned up this year to start working on feasibility studies -- details of which CSG and the government are reluctant to discuss.

Environmentalists who have conducted their own studies say the dam's lake will cover 110 sq km (42 sq miles) and displace thousands of indigenous people in nine villages.

More than 200 animal species, including elephants, sun bears, leopards and the endangered Siamese crocodile, would be affected upstream, said Sam Chanthy, head of the NGO Forum, a foreign-funded non-governmental organization in Phnom Penh.

Downstream, the delicate ecosystem of the flooded forest, home to some of the world's rarest turtle species as well as hundreds of types of migratory fish, would also be hit by disruptions to water flow, he said.

"It won't take long for these invaluable assets to disappear when the dam is built," said Eng Polo, of wildlife group Conservation International.

(Editing by Ed Cropley)

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New road threatens Indonesian tigers: conservationists

Yahoo News 26 Mar 08;

A new road linked to one of the world's largest paper companies threatens a massive peatland forest sheltering rare tigers on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, conservationists said Wednesday.

The road's construction by companies linked to Asia Pulp and Paper (APP) could have "devastating effects" on the area, conservation group Eyes on the Forest said in a report.

The group says it is concerned APP, owned by the Indonesian conglomerate Sinar Mas, will use the new road to restart forest clearances in an area considered one of the last havens for the endangered Sumatran tiger.

"Even as our investigators were out surveying the site last month, they came across tiger tracks along the APP logging road," said the group's coordinator Nursamsu.

"The tigers of Kampar do not stand a chance once APP begins logging full-scale and the poachers discover there is easy access to this critical tiger habitat."

Sumatra's Kampar Peninsula lies on top of a deep peat dome and acts as one of the planet's biggest carbon stores, as well as being home to several rare species.

Sumatra is the only island where tigers can still be found in Indonesia, and their numbers are estimated at around 400 to 500.

Poaching and deforestation to make way for pulp, paper and palm oil plantations are the main factors behind the animal's decline.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono launched a 10-year conservation strategy for the Sumatran tiger last December.

APP did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

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US bans harves of horseshoe crabs to save rare shore bird

New Jersey protects crab to save rare shore bird
Jon Hurdle, Reuters 25 Mar 08;

TRENTON, New Jersey (Reuters) - New Jersey acted to save a rare shore bird on Tuesday, banning the harvest of horseshoe crabs whose eggs are an essential nutrient for the red knot on its 10,000-mile (16,000-km) annual migration.

New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine signed a law that bans the horseshoe crab harvest until both the crab and red knot populations have returned to sustainable levels, as determined by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The red knot stops on the New Jersey and Delaware beaches of the Delaware Bay each spring on its migration from the southern tip of South America to breeding grounds in Arctic Canada, one of the longest migrations in the avian world.

The bird's population has plummeted to around 15,000, well below the level of about 100,000 ornithologists believe is necessary for the species to sustain itself.

Many birds have recently been unable to find food because the crab population has been decimated since the early 1990s by fishermen, who use the crustaceans as bait.

At an average of 10 inches long and weighing about 4.7 ounces (135 grams), the birds will gorge themselves on the eggs, replenishing their fat reserves to complete their epic migration.

Some birds starve while others fail to reach the Arctic, or if they do, are too exhausted to breed, scientists say.

Dr. Larry Niles, a biologist who has worked on the red knot since the 1980s, said the law is the most important step yet to protect the bird, although it is still vulnerable to other factors beyond New Jersey's control, such as bad weather in its Arctic breeding grounds.

Niles said he expects the population to "skim along the bottom" for another two or three years but then show signs of recovery, thanks to the new law.

"If things go wrong in other places, at least we know we did the best that we could do," Niles said.

(Editing by Daniel Trotta and Sandra Maler)

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Best of our wild blogs: 26 Mar 08

Once upon a Tree review
Another super fast, mega detailed review on Jun's ashira blog PLUS lots of secret behind-the-scenes photos of the people who made this series possible.

Hantu Anniversary Dive
fabulous vis, fantastic sighting and more on the hantu blog with a video log and the colourful clouds blog

Labrador Park designated temporary holding area for barge used in rock-filling operation on the wildfilms blog

NUS advertorial featuring the Chek Jawa project
on the cj project blog

Nominating Heritage Trees
from Singapore's Heritage, Museums & Nostalgia blog

Sungei Buloh
by Dr Stan on his singapore blog

Antics of an Indian fantail
on the bird ecology blog

Chinese Pond Heron and its status
from the bird ecology blog

4 May 2008 - International Dawn Chorus Day!
on the habitatnews blog

Waving goodbye to frogs
New study finds no evidence that climate change causes amphibian decline on journal watch online

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Price of paper up by as much as 40% in Singapore

Channel NewsAsia 25 Mar 08;

SINGAPORE : The price of paper around the world has gone up by as much as 40 percent over the past year.

This has caused the price of recycled paper to increase by 100 percent. Raw pulp now costs almost US$1,000 per tonne.

Industry players said the higher prices are due to higher inflation.

There is also a bigger demand for paper this year, because of the US Presidential Elections and Beijing Olympics.

Many local printing companies have been affected by the price increase, so they are looking for alternatives to remain competitive.

Since the price of imported waste paper is now US$275 per tonne, local waste paper companies have raised their buying price to attract more waste paper collectors. And this has worked.

Companies said they have seen a 25 percent increase in the amount of waste paper collected.

This has led to stiffer competition between waste collectors.

Jimmy Tay, Managing Director, SembEnviro Tay Paper Pte Ltd, said, "We observed that (during) the weekends (and) the public holidays, we can see a lot of these foreign workers, they also go out and become collectors...which is unhealthy competition for our regular collectors." - CNA/ms

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Millions seen at risk in South Asia from warmer world

Reuters 25 Mar 08;

KOLKATA, India (Reuters) - Rising seas and water shortages will displace about 125 million people living along the coasts of India and Bangladesh by the turn of the century, Greenpeace said on Tuesday.

In a study on rapidly warming South Asia, the global environment group said climate change would also trigger erratic monsoons and break down agricultural systems in the vast and densely populated Gangetic delta.

India, whose economy has grown by 8-9 percent annually in recent years, is one of the world's top polluters and contributes around 4 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions as its consumption of fossil fuels grows.

"We cannot wait for the inevitable to happen and hope to adapt to it," Vinuta Gopal, the group's climate and energy campaigner in India said, releasing the report on the ecologically sensitive region, one of the poorest in the world.

"We need policies that reduce the risk of destructive climate change, and moves towards economic development through decarbonization," Gopal said.

The U.N. Development Program in its latest report has also warned climate change will hit the world's poorest countries, increasing risks of disease, destruction of traditional livelihoods and triggering massive displacement.

Together, India, Bangladesh and Pakistan have nearly 130 million people living along coastal areas less than 10 meters (33 feet) above sea level, the Greenpeace report said.

"We are already seeing the effects," said Sudhir Chella Rajan, the author of the report and a professor at the Indian Institute of Technology.

He said the effect of rising temperatures was already apparent in the recurrent floods in coastal Bangladesh.

The number of people displaced by global warming could dwarf the nearly 10 million refugees and almost 25 million internally displaced people already fleeing wars and oppression.

Christian Aid has predicted there will be one billion people displaced by climate change globally by 2050.

India, Bangladesh and Pakistan have a total population of about 1.4 billion people.

(Reporting by Tamajit Pain; Editing by Krittivas Mukherjee and David Fogarty)

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Land deal could open Alaska wildlife refuge to oil

Yereth Rosen, Reuters 25 Mar 08;

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - A controversial land swap proposal could open portions of an Alaska wildlife refuge to oil drilling, dividing Alaska natives and stoking opposition from environmentalists seeking to protect the bears, moose and birds that live there.

Supporters of the plan to exchange land in the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge, which lies just south of the more-famous Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, say they would like the plan to be approved by the administration of President George W. Bush before the election in November.

"The window is the election," Alaska Republican Rep. Don Young, a staunch backer of the plan, said at an Anchorage news conference. "We'd like to have an executive order out of the administration before they leave office."

The proposed land trade would give 110,000 acres of hydrocarbon-prone uplands within the refuge, plus mineral rights to another 97,000 acres, to Fairbanks-based Doyon Ltd. In exchange, the refuge would gain 150,000 acres of bird-friendly wetlands now owned by Doyon, plus 56,500 acres on which Doyon has pending land claims.

Doyon, owned by Athabascan Indians of interior Alaska, has long envisioned such a trade to give economic benefits to its shareholders while preserving traditional culture and the environment on which it depends.

"You can have both the subsistence lifestyle and the protection of that lifestyle, and you can have oil and gas exploration," said Norm Phillips, Doyon's resource manager.

But many people living closest to the potential development -- many of them Doyon shareholders -- oppose the plan because of the likelihood of oil pollution and the possibility of social upheaval such as a flow of drugs, alcohol and poachers over new roads.

"Usually, the indigenous people are at the losing end of any sort of oil development," said Dacho Alexander, first chief of the Gwichyaa Zhee Gwich'in Tribe in Fort Yukon, a village of 600 near the proposed exchange parcels.

Alexander said the dispute illustrates the perennial clash between corporate goals and noneconomic Native values.

The Yukon Flats basin holds an estimated 173 million barrels of oil -- accounting for less than nine days of U.S. consumption at current rates -- along with 5.5 trillion cubic feet of gas and 127 million barrels of natural-gas liquids, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

It also holds unique ecological values.

Straddling the Arctic Circle, cradled by two mountain ranges and bisected by the Yukon River, the refuge encompasses boreal forests that support moose, grizzly and black bears and many other mammals.

Its network of lakes, streams, ponds and sloughs attract Alaska's highest concentrations of breeding ducks. It has some of Alaska's coldest winter days and, thanks to around-the-clock sunlight, scorching summer temperatures as high as 100 degrees Fahrenheit, the hottest for this latitude in North America.

Fran Mauer, a retired Fish and Wildlife Service biologist and prominent critic of the land exchange, says the trade plan violates the refuge's conservation mission.

"I just don't see that it's in the public's interest to do it," he said.

But Doyon officials say that no matter what land the corporation ends up owning, oil and gas drilling is inevitable in the Yukon Flats.

"Even if the land trade doesn't happen, Doyon is still going to move forward with exploration out there," Phillips said.

(Reporting by Yereth Rosen; editing by Jim Marshall)

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Effect of dredging in an Australian bay

Troubled waters
Richard Cornish, The Age 25 Mar 08;

The die has been cast. But what effect will dredging have on the fish and seafood stocks of Port Phillip Bay, asks Richard Cornish.

SAM GEORGIOU powers his fishing boat through the water near Geelong. He grins as we ride across the choppy wake of another boat. "I love this," Georgiou shouts over the din of the motor. "I am one of the men who puts the fish on your table. Fresh, local fish. And we love what we do."

Fisherman Georgiou is also chairman of the Western Port and Port Phillip Professional Fishermen's Association. Hundreds of fishermen once worked in the bay selling their catch from the jetties and piers to which they tethered their boats.

Now there are just a dozen or so full-time licensed operators still fishing the 1950 square kilometres of the bay on a regular basis.

Although Port Phillip Bay is a relatively small catchment, producing about 400 tonnes of fish (worth roughly $2.5 million), its real importance lies in the fact that it is so close to Melbourne. A fish caught in the bay in the early hours of this morning could well be on your plate tonight.

Our city's bay of plenty has always been a reliable source of food. Scientist and author Tim Flannery has described its upper reaches at the time of settlement as being a "temperate Kakadu" - wetlands teeming with "brolgas, Cape Barren geese, swans, ducks, eels and frogs".

The middens of shells in the dunes along our beaches are evidence of the great feeds of native oysters the Bunurong and Wurundjeri tribes once ate. Today, Georgiou is testament to the edibles we reap from Port Phillip Bay.

Georgiou first fished the bay when he came to Australia from Cyprus 34 years ago and knows every sandbar, reef, rock, and, most importantly, where the fish are - King George whiting, flathead, garfish, snapper and squid.

He starts his working day in the late afternoon and continues until the break of dawn, ending up at the Melbourne Wholesale Fish Market in Footscray with his haul.

As he works, the Port of Melbourne Corporation is deepening the channels of the bay to make way for larger and deeper container ships. Opponents believe the dredging to be unnecessary, environmentally destructive and that by disturbing silt in the Yarra, the bay could be contaminated by buried agricultural and industrial chemicals.

But for now, according to Fisheries Victoria, fish stocks are healthy.

"It is in its best state for 30 years," says Peter Appleford, Fisheries Victoria executive director.

"We're looking forward to a good whiting season this year and the snapper looks good as well."

But what do the men who spend their every working day on the bay think of its most recent visitors - the dredgers?

While we wait for the net to be hauled in, Georgiou heads to another part of the bay. Underneath the boat, glimmers of green seagrass beds and sand flash by. Georgiou points to where we have arrived on his satellite navigation monitor. It reads: "spoil grounds".

"Over 10 years ago they dredged the Geelong Channel and dumped the waste right where we are now," he says. "The seagrass hasn't grown back.

"I'm not against dredging in the bay. But what I am worried about is what they are going to do with the toxic silt they are going to dredge up from the Yarra. The Government is not telling us, fee-paying licence holders, what they are up to."

He hands over the binoculars and points towards the shore in the distance. "We are not the only ones making a living out of the bay," he says, pointing to a cluster of buildings and tanks on a piece of land near the old Cheetham salt works at Avalon Beach, one of three abalone farms operating on Port Phillip Bay. Seawater is pumped into the farm channels from an inlet 350 metres from the beach, through 60 concrete tanks and then returned to the sea.

The farmed abalone are bred from hardy Port Phillip Bay natives used to the great temperature variations and natural turbidity of the water.

The three farms produce 150 tonnes of abalone annually, valued at $4.5 million, and employ about 25 full-time workers and a larger number of casual workers. Most of the abalone are sold live to the Asian restaurant market in Melbourne or flown to Japan and China. The rest are either canned or vacuum-packed.

Unlike the abalone farms to the west of Cape Otway, the dreaded abalone herpes virus hasn't reached Port Phillip Bay. The owner of Avalon farm, Peter Rankin, has been operating for 10 years and believes the dredging will have no effect on the industry.

There are also about 20 mussel growers producing the 1000 tonnes of mussels sold annually at markets and supermarkets across the state. But these growers take up just a portion of the nearly 2000 hectares the State Government has set aside for further aquaculture. It is possible the industry could expand tenfold.

Producers say a far bigger worry than the dredging is the spread of a natural parasite, the Japanese starfish.

Tiny baby wild mussels, or spat, are spawned from the breeding mussels that carpet large areas of the bay floor. The spat are captured on ropes and then grown out. The harvest of wild spat in recent years has been "hopeless", according to Lance Wiffen of Sea Bounty Mussels.

The Portarlington mussel farmer points the finger at the swarms of starfish that have invaded the bay in the past decade. "They decimate everything, including the wild mussel population, then they start to eat each other," he says.

The long-term viability of the industry could be ensured, however, if a new mussel breeding operation at Queenscliff, run jointly by the industry and the Department of Primary Industries, proves successful, he says.

Back on Georgiou's boat there is an urgent call on the radio that ends all talk of dredging. He has a more urgent worry. A seal has come across the net cast by his business partner Angelo Xenos and deck hand Chris Nicholson. Greek curses come through the radio's speaker, thankfully distorted. Georgiou speeds back to Xenos' boat. If he gets there in time he may be able to lure the seal away by trailing some net behind his boat.

By the time we reach the nets the seal is inside. Cormorants, terns and pelicans that have been picking off the trapped fish one by one have flown to safety. The seal rolls and snorts on the surface, diving below and reappearing with a black bream in his mouth.

"He'll scare all the fish out and eat the rest," says Georgiou.

"Send the bitch the bill!" shouts Xenos.

The men grab a quick bite to eat. Xenos opens a container filled with dried meats, olives, cheese and spanikopita, made by his wife that morning.

The sun drops behind the horizon flooding the sky with pinks and mauves. Pelicans wait nearby. Just as the catch is hauled in, the seal surfaces, snorts and jumps over the net. Waders on and standing chest high in the warm water, Georgiou and Xenos sort the fish. Measuring stick in one hand they throw their fish into bins on board. Undersized fish go back into the bay. "I'll see you next year," says Xenos to a little garfish. The catch is not great. Nicholson throws a single Moreton Bay bug on to the deck. "When I was working with the scallop boats 20 years ago we used to see lots of these," says Georgiou. "But not so many these days. The bay is much cleaner than it was back then. Then there was so much more algae, now it is the sun-bleached seagrass that is the problem."

A large flathead is landed, a slight discolouration on its head. "Remember a few months back there was the lesions scare with the bay fish?" asks Xenos. "That was due to the hot weather," he says. "Sunburned fish! Now they have recovered."

The sorting goes on. High-value fish, King George whiting, flathead and garfish are separated into boxes. The team motors on in the dark further down the bay. They shoot another net in the still water near Clifton Springs. A fat moon rises over the Bellarine Peninsula. There's a familiar snort. The seal has followed them. The catch is dismal.

They head back to shore and wash and sort their catch. Within the hour they'll drop the fish off at the fish market. It's 2am.

Georgiou looks at the boxes. "Bloody seal," he says. "But you know what? There's nothing we can do. His kind have been here long before we got here. It's everybody's bay."

OUR FISH BOWL - WHAT WE EAT FROM THE BAY

King George whiting

Considered the king of the bay with its delicate, sweet-tasting flesh.

Fillets rolled into rosettes and gently steamed offer an interesting way of sampling its flavour. Alternatively, lightly dust in seasoned flour and quickly shallow pan fry in a little butter and a sprinkle of salt.

Snapper

Snapper are best on the bone.

Steam whole by seasoning the inside, adding a few pieces of peeled ginger. Score the outside, place on a large heatproof plate, pour over a tablespoon of soy sauce and place in a large steamer over hot water and simmer for 15-20 minutes. When done, remove plate from steamer and heat three tablespoons of peanut oil in a small saucepan until smoking. Place a handful of coriander on the fish and carefully pour over the oil.

Flathead

There are many different flathead caught in Australasia, much of it coming from Gippsland, NSW or New Zealand. Flathead have lovely moist flesh with an annoying row of bones that creates the need for the "Y"-shaped fillet.

Bake whole, dress with some olive oil, lemon and salt, then lift the flesh away from the bones. For a Friday night favourite, mix a stubby of Coopers Pale Ale with two cups of self-raising flour, a teaspoon of salt and a pinch of saffron and let the mixture rest for an hour. Dip the fillets in beaten egg, seasoned plain flour then batter. Deep-fry in hot olive oil, drain then season with salt.

Flounder

An ugly bottom dweller with a twisted face but wonderfully gelatinous flesh.

Small flounder can fit perfectly in a frying pan. Rinse, pat dry, dust with well-seasoned flour and gently shallow fry in a mixture of butter and oil for a few minutes each side. Try seasoning a larger fish inside and out and drizzle with a little oil. Place in a very hot, preheated oven then turn it off. Allow the remaining heat to cook the fish for about 10-20 minutes. Dress with lemon and melted butter with capers.

Garfish

Wonderful little silver streaks with pronounced bills.

Cooked over coals and dressed with lemon juice and olive oil, garfish are a sweet delight. If you don't like the fine bones, ask the fishmonger to prepare the fish, leaving the head and tail on. These can be dusted in seasoned flour and lightly fried on the barbecue.

Squid

Fresh squid is a joy.

It must be just-cooked for a few minutes or slow cooked with liquid. Any way in between, you hit the dreaded rubbery zone. Cut into squares and score diagonally, it can then be dusted in seasoned cornflour, deep fried for a few minutes then served with aioli. Or marinate in oil, lemon and garlic for half an hour and grill over hot coals and sprinkle with salt.

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How macaques and humans can live together in Singapore

Michael D. Gumert, Straits Times 25 Mar 08;

PEOPLE come to Singapore for many reasons - the glitz, the shopping malls, the food, the entertainment, the conveniences. When I moved to Singapore, it was for none of these reasons.

I came to learn about a small population of long-tailed macaques that live in the few forest patches that remain on this once lushly forested island.

The Victorian naturalist and co-discoverer of the theory of evolution Alfred Russel Wallace once said that Singapore was one of the most species-rich locations in Southeast Asia.

Today, Singapore's rainforests are nearly gone and there's a new forest canopy of concrete, glass and steel. This human jungle has sprawled all over the small island, bio-diversity has been replaced with market diversity, and the space for one of our simian cousins, the long-tailed macaque, is dwindling.

That scarcity of space has sparked conflict between humans and macaques. And the humans are 'hitting back' in response to macaque food raids.

Recently, a few residents near Bukit Timah decided to catch macaques on their own and, according to The New Paper, the Agri-food and Veterinary Authority provided them with a trap. The trappers succeeded: They captured a baby macaque!

Naturally, the other macaques got mad and the humans became hysterical. This agitated the macaques even more and a simian rumble ensued.

Media reports of the event contained several alleged facts that struck me - a primatologist who has studied the long-tailed macaque for 10 years - as odd.

First, the macaques were said to have bared their teeth in a sign of aggression. But this display is known as the 'fear grin'. Macaques don't display such a grin when they are about to attack; they display it when they are surrendering. The grin is similar to the fake smiles that humans show sometimes, assuring their superiors they know their place.

Also odd was the report of a fear-grinning macaque chasing humans into their bedroom. Macaques just don't run full speed into unfamiliar places unless forced.

Finally, the reports claimed the macaques were howling. Macaques don't howl. They grunt, scream and bark but they don't howl.

The media reports would seem to have been exaggerated. They probably reflected how 'terrorised' people perceived things rather than reality. Moreover, it is altogether likely that humans helped provoke the simian riot by acting inappropriately in a dangerous situation.

First rule when faced with a dangerous macaque situation: Remain calm. The more emotional and distraught one becomes, the more agitated macaques get.

Second rule: When macaques are riled up, it's best to move slowly. Do not turn your back on them. Stand your ground, but don't stare.

Macaques rarely make contact aggression while you face them. If you turn and run, you may get chased.

So if you get into a stand- off with a macaque, walk backwards slowly but keep facing the assailant. Turn only when you are about 5-6m away from the macaque, and then walk away briskly. Check if the animal is following you. If it is, and you cannot get away quickly enough, turn and face the animal again.

Imagine if I trapped my neighbour's children because they had been disturbing me. Would you feel bad if the father slugged me and took his children back? I would think not.

So why would humans be surprised when macaques get mad when their infants are trapped? In many ways, their reaction shows courage.

How many creatures stand up to formidable foes to protect their kind? How many would not turn tail and run in the face of danger, as the 'terrorised' humans did when the macaques revolted?

As a whole, macaques stand little chance against humans. But if the situation demands it, they do stand up. One has to respect them for that - and learn how not to trigger macaque revolts.

We are lucky no one was hurt in this poorly planned 'hit back' against the food-raiding macaques. The surest way to get a macaque to attack a human is to mishandle its young. This recent simian rumble could have been avoided with different tactics.

Even to watch macaques in behavioural research, scholars must obtain ethics approval and park permits. So why were inexperienced residents provided with equipment and permitted to capture macaques? They endangered themselves and others in their communities. Monkey revolts are far more dangerous than monkey food raids.

How do we avoid conflicts with macaques? One key is urban planning. Building homes at forest fringes causes difficulties. People living near forests all over the world face wildlife problems. White-tailed deer eat ornamental plants in the United States, elephants trample houses in Africa and macaques raid homes in Singapore. All this happens mostly within 200m of forests. The only way not to get into conflicts with macaques is not to live near forests.

That does not mean, however, that those who have moved close to forest fringes - because they are nature enthusiasts, perhaps - are doomed to fight endless macaque wars.

First, never feed macaques. Once they know you are a food patch, they will visit you daily. Second, keep your house shut, don't leave food in open places and secure your trash. Lastly, keep large sticks, a hose or water-sprayer and an air horn. You can use any of these to scare macaques away. With a little effort, macaques will learn that your house has little to offer them.

Singapore has 4.5 million people and 1,400 long-tailed macaques. Scientists suggest Singapore's macaques may be distinct from other breeds of long-tailed macaques. Conservation biologists recommend animal populations should be greater than 5,000 to be genetically viable. But a population greater than 500 can be maintained through active management.

The macaque population in Singapore is small but viable. Some countries like Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia have millions of macaques. Maybe nowhere on earth is human-macaque conflict so well controlled as it is in Singapore, thanks to the National Parks Board's good management.

Most Singaporeans are not aware of this, but the species name Macaca fascicularis was coined by none other than Sir Stamford Raffles in 1821. I doubt he would be happy if Singaporeans were to turn the lights off on a species that he officially named.

The writer, a primatologist, is an assistant professor of psychology at the Nanyang Technological University.

Article gave macaques a human face
Letter from Chua Shuyi (Miss), Straits Times Forum 1 Apr 08;

I READ with great interest Dr Michael D. Gumert's article last Tuesday, 'How macaques and humans can live together'.

Wildlife and conservation articles are often dry and dull, yet Dr Gumert managed to convey his message by giving the macaques a human face, while not compromising on facts.

I have been a victim of teeth-baring macaques during runs in MacRitchie Reservoir. I've had energy drinks stolen and emptied by these creatures. These unhappy experiences caused me to fear long- tailed macaques and see them as a nuisance.

Never did I realise macaques bare their teeth to show submission, nor did I realise they steal our food because we first feed them and inadvertently cause them to become dependent on us. Imagine, these poor creatures have lost the ability to find their own food in the wild.

Who's the savage one? Man or beast?
Letter from Dudley Au, Straits Times Forum 5 Apr 08;

I REFER to Ms Chua Shuyi's letter on Tuesday, 'Article gave macaques a human face'. Whales, elephants, the American bison and a host of others are either on the threshold of extinction or have passed into extinction.

At present, the American bison is being nurtured (bred) in national reserves to try to pull it from the threshold of no return. The pitbull was bred on purpose by genetic mixture to produce a savage animal to fight the bull in the arena. If we look at it, in its proper perspective, both the bull and the pitbull are not enemies and would rather go their way in peace. Man, arbitrarily, brings them together in the ring, to satisfy his sadistic craving in the form of such 'entertainment'. When the pitbull is kept as a pet and it attacks or kills a human, the animal is killed.

Where does the culpability for savagery lie? Does it lie with the dog which was programmed to be this way or does it lie with the human species which programmed the animal? Ms Chua got it right when she said we feed the macaque until it becomes dependent on us and then we blame the macaque for this dependency.

There is a growing awareness of certain sections of the human population who are dedicated to the saving of animals from cruelty and from pushing them into extinction. The numbers are growing and it is hoped in time there will be great eradication of cruelty and killing. There can be no absolute eradication given the human species' irresistible compulsion to kill even each other. To believe otherwise would be specious.

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Indonesia to ban trade of live poultry in Jakarta

Straits Times 25 Mar 08;

JAKARTA - INDONESIA will ban the trade of live chickens in the capital in 2010 to sharpen the fight against bird flu in the world's hardest-hit nation, a livestock official said yesterday.

Poultry will have to be killed at government-licensed slaughterhouses outside Jakarta before being transported to the market, said Mr Edy Setiarto, adding that the authorities would need two years to prepare regulations and business owners for the changes.

Currently, many customers prefer to buy live chickens, which are then slaughtered to order to ensure the meat is fresh.

Mr Setiarto noted that 70 per cent of Indonesia's soaring bird flu cases occur in Jakarta and its surrounding districts.

Last year, city residents were told that they could no longer keep backyard chickens, but the order appears to have been largely ignored.

'The government will improve efforts to stop the spread of bird flu,' said Mr Setiarto.

Bird flu started sweeping through poultry populations across Asia in 2003 and has since jumped to humans, killing at least 236 people, nearly half of them in Indonesia, where 105 people have died.

It remains hard for people to catch, but experts worry the virus could mutate into a form that passes easily among humans, sparking a pandemic.

So far, most human cases have been linked to contact with infected birds.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation said this month that the virus was entrenched in 31 of Indonesia's 33 provinces despite millions of dollars in international aid.

It warned of an increased possibility that the virus may mutate into a deadlier form.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

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