Third of open ocean sharks face extinction: study

Yahoo News 24 Jun 09;

PARIS (AFP) – A third of the world's open water sharks -- including the great white and hammerhead -- face extinction, according to a major conservation survey.

Species hunted on the high seas are particularly at risk, with more than half in danger of dying out, reported the Shark Specialist Group at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

The main culprit is overfishing. Sharks are prized for their meat, and in Asia especially for their fins, a prestige food thought to convey health benefits.

The survey of 64 species of open water, or pelagic, sharks -- the most comprehensive ever done -- comes days before an international meeting on high-seas tuna fisheries that could potentially play a role in shark conservation.

For decades, significant numbers of sharks -- including blue and mako -- have perished as "by-catch" in commercial tuna and swordfish operations.

More recently, the soaring value of shark meat has prompted some of these fisheries to target sharks as a lucrative sideline, said Sonja Forham, Policy Director for the Shark Alliance, and co-author of the study.

The Spanish fleet of so-called surface longline fishing boats ostensibly targets swordfish, but 70 percent of its catch, by weight, from 2000 to 2004 were pelagic sharks.

"There are currently no restrictions on the number of sharks that these fisheries can harvest," Fordham told AFP by phone. "Despite mounting threats, sharks remain virtually unprotected on the high seas."

Sharks are especially vulnerable to overfishing because most species take many years to mature and have relatively few young.

Scientists are also set to meet in Denmark to issue recommendations on the Atlantic porbeagle which, despite dwindling numbers, failed to earn protection at the last meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), in 2007.

Canada led the charge to block the protective measure, supported by Argentina, New Zealand and some Asian countries.

Europe is the fastest growing market for meat from the porbeagle and another species, the spiny dogfish.

The demand for shark fins, a traditional Chinese delicacy, has soared along with income levels in China over the last decade. Shark carcasses are often tossed back into the sea by fishermen after the fins are cut off.

Despite bans in international waters, this practice -- known as "finning" -- is largely unregulated, experts say.

The report identified the great hammerhead and scalloped hammerhead sharks, as well as giant devil rays as globally endangered.

The smooth hammerhead, great white, basking, and oceanic whitetip sharks are listed as globally vulnerable to extinction, along with two species of makos and three types of threshers.

Some 100 million sharks are caught in commercial and sports fishing every year, and several species have declined by more than 80 percent in the past decade alone, according the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).

The IUCN issues the Red List of Threatened Species, the most comprehensive and authoritative conservation inventory of the world?s plants and animals species.

One third of sharks and rays 'threatened with extinction'
The Telegraph 25 Jun 09;

Almost a third of sharks and rays found in the open ocean are threatened with extinction - largely as a result of overfishing, conservationists have warned.

The first assessment of the global fortunes of 64 species of pelagic, or open ocean, sharks and rays found 32 per cent were under threat.

And more than half (52 per cent) the species which are caught in high seas fisheries are at risk of dying out, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) warned.

Many sharks are caught in high seas tuna and swordfish fisheries, some as accidental "by-catch" of those industries, but increasingly targeted themselves to supply growing demand for shark meat and fins.

The valuable fins are used for shark fin soup - a delicacy in Asia.

To supply the market the wasteful process of "finning" often takes place, in which the fins are cut off the shark and the rest of the body is thrown back into the sea.

Bans on the practice have been introduced in most international waters, but are ineffective and not being properly monitored, conservation group Shark Alliance said.

Despite the threats they face, sharks are "virtually unprotected" on the high seas, according to Sonja Fordham, deputy chairwoman of the IUCN shark specialist group and policy director for Shark Alliance.

"The vulnerability and lengthy migrations of most open ocean sharks calls for co-ordinated, international conservation plans," she urged.

The IUCN shark specialist group is calling on governments to set catch limits for sharks and rays based on scientific advice, protect critically endangered and endangered species and ensure better monitoring of fisheries and an end to finning.

Sharks including the great hammerhead and the scalloped hammerhead, along with great devil rays, are all classified as endangered under the IUCN's assessment.

The great white shark, basking shark and oceanic whitetip are all classed as vulnerable to extinction.

So too is the porbeagle shark - but in the Northeast Atlantic it is critically endangered and in the Northwest Atlantic it is endangered.

Almost a quarter (24 per cent) of the species assessed were classed as "near-threatened", the lowest level of risk, while there was insufficient information to assess another quarter.

According to the IUCN, sharks are particularly sensitive to overfishing because they generally take many years to mature and have relatively few young.

Many sharks 'facing extinction'
Victoria Gill, BBC News 24 Jun 09;

Many species of open ocean shark are under serious threat, according to an assessment by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

The Red list gives the status of 64 types of shark and ray, over 30% of which are threatened with extinction.

The authors, IUCN's Shark Specialist Group, say a main cause is overfishing.

Listed as endangered are two species of hammerhead shark, often subject to "finning" - a practice of removing the fins and throwing away the body.

This is the first time that IUCN Red List criteria, considered the world's most comprehensive inventory of the conservation status of plants and animals, have been used to classify open ocean, or pelagic, sharks and rays.

The list is part of an ongoing international scientific project to monitor the animals.

The authors classified a further 24% of the examined species as Near Threatened.

Sharks are "profoundly vulnerable" to overfishing, they say. This is principally because many species take several years to mature and have relatively few young.

"[But] despite mounting threats, sharks remain virtually unprotected on the high seas," said Sonja Fordham, deputy chair of the IUCN Shark Specialist Group and one of the editors of the report.

"[We have] documented serious overfishing of these species, in national and international waters. This demonstrates a clear need for immediate action on a global scale."

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization recognised the potential threat to sharks over a decade ago, when it launched its "International Plan of Action for the Conservation and Management of Sharks" in 1999.

But the "requested improvements fisheries data from member states... have been painfully slow and simply inadequate", according to this report by the IUCN.

Many pelagic sharks are caught in high seas tuna and swordfish fisheries.

Although some are accidentally caught in nets meant for these other fish, they are increasingly targeted for their meat, teeth and liver oil, and because of high demand, particularly in Asia, for their fins.

Discarded bodies

"The hammerheads are special because they have very high quality fins but quite low quality meat," explained Ms Fordham. "They often fall victim to finning."

She told BBC News that, although finning is widely banned, this ban is not always well enforced.

"The EU finning ban is one of the weakest in the world," she said.

"The best, most sure-fire way to enforce a ban is to prohibit the removal of fins at sea.

"But in the EU, you can remove them, providing the fins you bring ashore weigh less than 5% of the weight of the bodies."

This rule was designed to prevent finning, but it provided "wiggle room", said Ms Fordham.

"The IUCN has estimated that, under these rules, you could fin and discard two to three sharks for every shark you keep, " she explained.

'No fishing'

Species listed as Vulnerable included the smooth hammerhead shark, the porbeagle shark and the common, bigeye and pelagic thresher sharks.

Fisheries have fought to keep their right to fish porbeagle sharks because their meat is so valuable, according to Ms Fordham.

"Yet we've already had recommendations from scientists that there should be no fishing of these sharks."

For certain species - that are considered particularly vulnerable - the authors have recommended their complete protection.

"The big-eyed thresher shark, for example, is very slow growing," explained Ms Fordham.

"Fishermen can very easily identify it, because it has a very big eye. So if they catch it accidentally, they can throw it back.

"These sharks tend to survive well when they're thrown back."

By the end of this year, the Shark Specialist Group will publish a complete report, outlining the status of all 400 species of shark, and closely-related skates and rays.

Endangered sharks unprotected on high seas: report
Reuters 24 Jun 09;

GENEVA (Reuters) - Sharks, among the most endangered species of fish, are effectively unprotected in the world's oceans, the IUCN environmental organization said on Thursday.

Its report urges governments to halt shark "finning," the slicing of fins from captured sharks which are then tipped back into the sea to die, which it says is a growing industry providing ingredients for the Asian delicacy, shark fin soup.

Although finning bans have been declared in most global waters, little effort is made to enforce them, said the IUCN.

A third of shark species and their evolutionary cousins, the rays, are at risk of extinction due to overfishing, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature said.

The body's experts say sharks are especially sensitive to over-fishing because they take many years to mature and have relatively few young. It is vital for governments boost monitoring of boats catching them, they said.

"Sharks remain virtually unprotected on the high seas," IUCN shark specialist Sonja Fordham said in a statement.

Its report, "The Conservation Status of Pelagic Sharks and Rays", says that some of the best-known sharks -- the Great Hammerhead, the Great White and the Basking -- as well the Giant Ray are either endangered or vulnerable to extinction.

The study was released on the eve of a conference in Madrid of managers responsible for high seas tuna fisheries. In these operations, as in swordfish catching, sharks are taken without limit, said the IUCN, based near Geneva.

(Full text of the report)

(Editing by Laura MacInnis)

Third of open ocean sharks threatened with extinction
IUCN 25 Jun 09;

The first study to determine the global conservation status of 64 species of open ocean (pelagic) sharks and rays reveals that 32 percent are threatened with extinction, primarily due to overfishing, according to the IUCN Shark Specialist Group.

The percentage of open ocean shark species threatened with extinction is higher for the sharks taken in high-seas fisheries (52 percent), than for the group as a whole.

“Despite mounting threats, sharks remain virtually unprotected on the high seas,” says Sonja Fordham, Deputy Chair of the IUCN Shark Specialist Group and Policy Director for the Shark Alliance. “The vulnerability and lengthy migrations of most open ocean sharks mean they need coordinated, international conservation plans. Our report documents serious overfishing of these species, in national and international waters, and demonstrates a clear need for immediate action on a global scale.”

The report comes days before Spain hosts an international summit of fishery managers responsible for high seas tuna fisheries in which sharks are taken without limit. It also coincides with an international group of scientists meeting in Denmark to formulate management advice for Atlantic porbeagle sharks.

IUCN experts classify the Great Hammerhead (Sphyrna mokarran) and Scalloped Hammerhead (Sphyrna lewini) sharks, as well as Giant Devil Rays (Mobula mobular), as globally Endangered. Smooth Hammerheads (Sphyrna zygaena), Great White (Carcharodon carcharias), Basking (Cetorhinus maximus) and Oceanic Whitetip (Carcharhinus longimanus) sharks are classed as globally Vulnerable to extinction, along with two species of Makos (Isurus spp.) and three species of Threshers (Alopias spp.).

Porbeagle Sharks (Lamna nasus) are classified as globally Vulnerable, but Critically Endangered and Endangered in the Northeast and Northwest Atlantic, respectively. The Blue Shark (Prionace glauca), the world’s most abundant and heavily fished open ocean shark, is classified as Near Threatened.

Many open ocean sharks are taken mainly in high seas tuna and swordfish fisheries. Once considered only incidental “bycatch”, these species are increasingly targeted due to new markets for shark meat and high demand for their valuable fins, used in the Asian delicacy shark fin soup. To source this demand, the fins are often cut off sharks and the rest of the body is thrown back in the water, a process known as “finning”. Finning bans have been adopted for most international waters, but lenient enforcement standards hamper their effectiveness.

Sharks are particularly sensitive to overfishing due to their tendency to take many years to mature and have relatively few young. In most cases, pelagic shark catches are unregulated or unsustainable. Twenty-four percent of the species examined are categorized as Near Threatened, while information is insufficient to assess another 25 percent.

The report is based partially on an IUCN Shark Specialist Group workshop funded by the Lenfest Ocean Program. Fifteen experts from government agencies, universities, non-governmental organizations, and institutions around the world took part. This and other regional workshops have contributed to the development of the Shark Specialist Group’s Global Shark Red List Assessment, supported by Conservation International and the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation.

“The completion of this global assessment of pelagic sharks and rays will provide an important baseline for monitoring the status of these keystone species in our oceans,” says Roger McManus, Vice-President for Marine Programs at Conservation International.

The IUCN Shark Specialist Group calls on governments to set catch limits for sharks and rays based on scientific advice and the precautionary approach. It further urges governments to fully protect Critically Endangered and Endangered species of sharks and rays, ensure an end to shark finning and improve the monitoring of fisheries taking sharks and rays.

Governments should invest in shark and ray research and population assessment, minimize incidental bycatch of sharks and rays, employ wildlife treaties to complement fisheries management and facilitate cooperation among countries to conserve shared populations, according to the group.

Notes to editors

* The full report, The Conservation Status of Pelagic Sharks and Rays: Report of the IUCN Shark Specialist Group Pelagic Shark Red List Workshop, can be downloaded here http://cmsdata.iucn.org/downloads/ssg_pelagic_report_final.pdf. It was compiled and edited by Merry Camhi, Sarah Valenti, Sonja Fordham, Sarah Fowler and Claudine Gibson.
* This week, scientists from the International Council for Exploration of the Sea (ICES) and the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) are meeting in Copenhagen to assess all Atlantic porbeagle populations and formulate recommendations for fishery managers.
* Next week, San Sebastian, Spain will be the site of the second Joint Meeting of the five Regional Fishery Management Organizations (RFMOs) for tuna.

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Australia pledges big funds for small whale conservation

WWF 24 Jun 09;

Madeira, Portugal – Australia’s top environmental official on Wednesday pledged AU$500,000 (€284,927) to help save the world’s small whales as part of a major contribution to the International Whaling Commission.

Peter Garrett, Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts committed to using the funds to protect small whales, dolphins and porpoises during an appearance at the 61st meeting of IWC member countries, taking place this week in Madeira, Portugal. The money will be dedicated to the IWC’s Small Cetacean Fund.

Garrett’s announcement coincided with the release by WWF of a new report entitled Small Cetaceans: The Forgotten Whales, which was unveiled simultaneously with the Australian funding commitment.

Small whales are disappearing from the world’s oceans and waterways as they fall victim to fishing gear, pollution, and habitat loss – compounded by a lack of conservation measures such as those developed for great whales, according to the report.

The report states that while great whales are now protected (to an extent) by the international commercial whaling moratorium, in effect since 1986, small cetacean hunts continue around the globe, largely unmanaged and unchecked by the international community.

“For many small cetaceans the scientific information available is so limited that we are unable to make informed decisions on their conservation status,” Garrett said.

The contribution is part of a larger AU$1.5 million (€854,900) commitment to support IWC activities in three key areas: the Southern Ocean Research Partnership; conservation management plans; and small cetacean conservation research.

“It’s time that someone stood up for the underrepresented whales, dolphins and porpoises,” said Dr. Susan Lieberman, Director of the Species Programme for WWF-International. “Australia’s commitment is a step in the right direction and we call upon other governments to follow suit.”

Meanwhile, the IWC Commissioner of Belgium, Alexandre de Lichtervelde, called for a review of work on conservation and management for small cetaceans to take place before IWC 62 in 2010. Belgium will produce a collaborative paper as a contribution to the discussions on the future of the IWC.

IWC 61 runs June 22 to 26 in Madeira, Portugal.

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Whaling commission to extend negotiations for a year

Yahoo News 24 Jun 09;

FUNCHAL, Portugal (AFP) – International Whaling Commission members agreed Wednesday to extend negotiations over the disputed hunting of the marine mammals for a year, avoiding a disastrous split in the group.

Spokeswoman Jemma Miller said the IWC, which regulates world whaling between hunters and conservationists, recognised that it "is at a crossroads beset by fundamental disagreements as to its nature and purpose."

By consensus the 85-nation IWC agreed to reconstitute a working group set up last year which would "intensify its efforts to conclude a package or packages" by the 2010 IWC conference "at the latest," Miller said at the meeting held on the Portuguese island of Madeira.

IWC chairman William Hogarth supported the call for more consultations.

"There is a will, now we have to find the way. If in 2010 we haven't had any progress, set a course and made some changes, there will be no more delays," he said.

Whales are protected by a moratorium on hunting dating back to 1986 with some exceptions limited by quota.

Regardless of the moratorium, almost 40,000 whales have been killed worldwide since 1985 by countries which refuse to sign up to the IWC treaty, or use loopholes allowing scientific or "lethal" research, or maintaining "aboriginal" or subsistence hunting.

However, some members voiced reservations about more talks, warning that "we're not writing a blank cheque for endless consultations," said Australian Environment Minister, Peter Garrett, a key opponent of the scientific whale hunting practiced by Japan.

The main stumbling block in the negotiations is a proposal to let Japan resume commercial whaling off its coast in exchange for a cut in its scientific whaling in the Antarctic.

Japan, which says whaling is part of its culture, kills more than 1,000 whales a year through a loophole in the treaty that allows the ocean giants to be killed for research, although the meat still ends up on dinner tables.

The Japanese delegate to the conference defended his nation's position.

"We are not asking other countries to eat whale, but to agree to disagree," said Yoshimasa Hayashi.

A delegate from New Zealand warned that unless an agreement is reached by 2010 the whaling organisation is in trouble. "If we fail, the IWC will die," he told the meeting.

Iceland, looking to join the European Union, has significantly raised its self-imposed quotas for this year in a move condemned by countries including Britain, France, Germany and the United States.

Denmark on Tuesday officially requested permission from the IWC to resume hunting humpback whales off Greenland, with a quota of 10 per year for the 2010-2012 period, in a move that has angered environmentalists.

The hunting would be carried out under so-called "aboriginal" or subsistence hunting to support local communities, but opponents say it is unnecessary.

Conservationists also were sceptical about another round of IWC negotiations.

"There has been a year of talking already and no evidence from the new proposal that there will be anything more than talking for another year," said Sara Holden, Greenpeace International's whales campaign coordinator.

Meanwhile, a Norwegian fisheries organisation said Wednesday that Norway's whalers had suspended their hunt mid-season this year with less than half a government quota of 885 whales killed because demand was saturated.

Whaling peace talks 'to continue'
Richard Black, BBC News 23 Jun 09;

Peace talks on whales and whaling are to continue for a further year.

Delegates to the International Whaling Commission (IWC) annual meeting here agreed it was worth extending reform talks that began a year ago.

Pro- and anti-whaling countries emphasised that fundamental differences remain between the two blocs.

Earlier, animal welfare groups released a new report arguing that whaling countries would gain economically by switching to whale-watching.

They calculate that whale-watching
around the world, dwarfing income from whaling, which is measured in tens of millions of dollars.

Potential benefits

In recent years this has become one of a battery of arguments the anti-whaling camp has assembled against the industry.

But with attempts to end hunting in Iceland, Japan and Norway showing little sign of success, anti-whaling countries led by the US embarked last year on talks with Japan and its pro-hunting allies aimed at finding a compromise that everyone could live with.

For the anti-whaling side, potential gains include a possible reduction in the total number of whales being killed each year, greater oversight of hunting, and reform of the IWC's scientific whaling clause under which any country can set its own catch quotas irrespective of the 1982 global moratorium on commercial hunting.

Whaling nations, particularly Japan, see political benefits in making a deal that would reduce the barrage of criticism they receive from whaling's opponents.

Japan also wants to secure quasi-commercial quotas for four coastal communities with a history of whaling.

Divided rules

The talks were supposed to conclude a package deal at this week's meeting, but it became clear last month that this was not going to happen.

Most member nations wanted to continue for another year, but some delegates said before this meeting began that the process could collapse - which, in some people's eyes, would have meant the end of the IWC.

Of the six countries involved in small group talks aimed at developing the compromise "package", Australia has been the most hawkish.

Environment minister Peter Garrett laid out his government's condition for the talks - that they must bring an end to scientific "special permit" whaling as it is currently practiced.

"I do not believe it will be possible to reach any package predicated solely on reductions in the size of certain special permit programmes," he said.

"While Australia certainly wishes to see fewer whales killed under special permit programmes, reductions in catch cannot solve the fundamental problem."

Japan has agreed to refrain from including humpback and fin whales in its annual Antarctic hunt and reduce the number of minke whales targeted from 935 to 600.

However, it is adamant that at this stage it will not concede on the principle, enshrined in the 1946 whaling convention, that each country can set its own quotas for special permit catches.

Japan's whaling commissioner Akira Nakamae responded that his country had made the running so far.

"In the last year during the small working group meetings, Japan declared to make the major concessions including a reduction in the sample size of scientific whaling," he said.

"Even though we disagree with the principle, we could also agree to including a South Atlantic whale sanctuary (a key demand of Latin American countries) as part of the package.

"But we cannot accept that some contracting parties... continue to demand the phase-out of scientific whaling."

The gulf between Australia and Japan may prove hard to bridge over the coming year.

Although on the surface Australia has the backing of its traditional allies - New Zealand, the EU and the US - in private, some members of this bloc are concerned that successive Canberra governments have made whaling into such an emotive public issue that Australia now has no room for diplomatic manoeuvre.

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Swine flu puts porpoise on brink

Richard Black, BBC News 24 Jun 09;

Mexico's twin crises - swine flu and the economy - may derail a plan to save the world's most endangered cetacean.

Only about 150 vaquita are left, and about 30 are dying each year through becoming entangled in fishing nets.

The government has cut funding aimed at taking fishing boats out of service or adopting vaquita-friendly equipment.

The vaquita, which is also the world's smallest cetacean, is emblematic of the plight of other dolphins and porpoises around the world, say campaigners.

As government delegates, scientists, whale-hunters and environmentalists discuss the large ocean-traversing cetaceans at the International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting here, green group WWF's new report, The Forgotten Whales, concludes that some of the leviathans' smaller brethren are more at risk.

Earlier this year the baiji or Yangtse River Dolphin was declared probably extinct, and the Critically Endangered vaquita ( Phocoena sinus ) - another species restricted to a small, specific habitat - will follow suit without swift action, conservationists believe.

"The estimated mortality comes to more than 30 animals per year, and having a population that is only 150 - you can imagine that the population will not survive if nothing is done," said Lorenzo Rojas-Bracho, Mexico's IWC commissioner and the head of the national marine mammal research and conservation programme.

"The situation is so critical, you can't kill more than one vaquita per year of you want to save it for future generations."

After years of successive Mexican governments denying the problem, the current administration recently put $18m into a fund aimed at removing vaquita-threatening gillnets from the waters in the north of the Gulf of California, which is its only habitat.

Dr Rojas-Bracho said the programme had removed about 500 illegal fishing vessels from the area, while about 400 legal ones had taken funding either to leave the industry or to adopt other types of gear.

Another tranche of similar size had been due, he said, but had been cut by about 60% because of the country's other problems.

"Our environment minister has insisted it's a priority for the government, so we're happy with that - but it won't be easy," he told BBC News.

Other countries including Sweden and the US had contributed, he said, and the work had been supported by WWF and the International Fund for Animal Welfare (Ifaw).

But other conservation organisations that complained about the vaquita's plight had not been so quick to contribute funding, he said.

With full funding, he added, it might have been possible to bring vaquita deaths from fishing nets down to zero - which is probably needed to save the species - but now that might not be possible.

Responsible urge

The vaquita and the baiji head a list of eight small cetaceans that WWF says are under threat.

Others include the river dolphins of the Indus and Ganges, Hector's dolphin of New Zealand, the Atlantic humpbacked dolphin that lives off the West African coast, and the boto or Amazon dolphin.

Pollution, loss of habitat and shipping are among the factors reducing their populations.

WWF points out that of 69 small cetacean species, 40 are categorised as Data Deficient by the Red List of Threatened Species, meaning there is not enough evidence to know whether their populations are declining or not.

Many environment groups would like the IWC's remit to include conservation of these small cetaceans.

"It is time for the IWC and its members to take full responsibility for the conservation future of all whales great and small," said Heather Sohl, species policy officer with WWF UK.

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Burmese pythons slithering their way north in the US?

Alysia Patterson, Associated Press Yahoo News 24 Jun 09;

AIKEN, S.C. – One by one, seven slithering Burmese pythons were dumped into a snake pit surrounded by 400 feet of reinforced fence at the Savannah River Ecology Lab in South Carolina.

As they were released last week by a handful of scientists, some of the serpents hissed and lunged, baring their fangs. Others coiled up under the brush. Two slid into a pond in the center of the pit, disappearing in a snaking trail of bubbles. Some were more than 10 feet long and thicker than a forearm. And for the next year all of them will call this snake pit — an enclosed area of tangled brush and trees — home.

Ecologists will track the exotic pythons, all captured in Florida, to determine if they can survive in climates a few hundred miles to the north. Using implanted radio transmitters and data recorders, the scientists will monitor the pythons' body temperature and physical condition.

The test could show whether the giant imported snakes, which can grow up to lengths of 25 feet, are able to spread throughout the Southeast.

The fast-growing population of snakes has been invading southern Florida's ecosystem since 1992, when scientists speculate a bevy of Burmese pythons was released into the wild after Hurricane Andrew shattered many pet shop terrariums.

Now scientists fear this invasive species is silently slithering northward.

"They of course have an impact on native species," said herpetologist Whit Gibbons, a professor of ecology at the University of Georgia and a member of the python project. "If you have a big old python eating five times as much as another species that eats the same prey, it's a competitive thing." The pythons compete with alligators, among other top predators.

Gibbons said a human is "just another prey item" to a python — especially a small human. Pythons are constrictor snakes and have been known to eat people in their native areas of Southeast Asia, he added.

"A 20-foot python, if it grabbed one of us, would bite us and then within just — instantly — seconds, it would be wrapped all the way around you and squeezing the life out of you," Gibbons said.

While pythons don't make a habit of attacking people and most aren't large enough to eat a person, Gibbons called the possibility a "nightmare."

"What about the first kitty cat they eat? Or the first little poodle? They'd love poodles, I imagine," he said.

Mike Dorcas, a professor at Davidson College in North Carolina, has sliced open pythons in Florida to find the remains of white-tailed deer, bobcats and large birds.

Dorcas is leading the experiment at the Savannah River Ecology Lab as part of a collaboration between the U.S. Geological Service, the National Park Service and the University of Florida.

He was prompted by a study released last year showing that the native habitat of Burmese pythons in Asia is a climate match for much of the southeastern U.S.

"The question is really, well, can they survive in a place like South Carolina or North Carolina or Arkansas or Tennessee?" Dorcas said.

One day before releasing the pythons into the pit, Dorcas snapped on latex gloves and surgically implanted radio transmitters into all seven. The transmitters enable scientists to keep track of the pythons' location and allow them to hunt down any that manage to escape.

What are the chances of escape? "We never want to say never. We've made the enclosure as snake-proof as possible but we've taken some other precautions," Dorcas said, noting that all of the pythons are males, so they wouldn't be able to reproduce.

The ecologists also inserted micro data loggers into each snake to record the internal temperature of the python every hour. After a year, Dorcas will remove the chips and download the information into a computer to discover how the snakes thermoregulate in a cooler climate.

Pythons are masters of disguise — slippery and quick — and all but one of the serpents was invisible within minutes of being deposited into the pit.

So counting pythons in the wild is a daunting task. Scientists don't have an accurate estimate of how many pythons are in Florida.

"It's certainly in the thousands, or tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands," said Gibbons.

Fugitive pythons terrorise Florida
Burmese snakes that escaped from pet shop 17 years ago threaten Everglades' unique eco-system
Guy Adams, The Independent 15 Jul 09;

The alligators of the Florida Everglades are struggling to hang on to their status atop the famous swamp's food chain because of an invasion of Burmese pythons that first escaped from local pet shops 17 years ago.

The enormous snakes have thrived in the vast, humid national park and now number more than 100,000, severely threatening its unique eco-system, according to scientists who want to organise a massive python hunt there this winter.

"They are threatening endangered wildlife there and Lord forbid a visitor in the Everglades ever encounters one," said Senator Bill Nelson, a Democrat, in a letter to Barack Obama's Interior Secretary, Ken Salazar. "There's only one way to [stop] this: kill the snakes."

Last week, a 17ft python broke out of its tank at a home in Orlando, and strangled a two-year-old child sleeping in her cot. Other specimens, who have escaped from homes, have been blamed for denting the population of wading birds, raccoons, and even deer.

Mr Nelson recently introduced a bill to ban imports of the creatures, describing it as "a matter of time" before a tourist is killed by one. "They have become such a problem in the park, you could spend the next 10 years setting traps," said his spokesman.

Dozens of the creatures, whose natural habitat is the tropical jungles and swamps of Burma, first escaped from pet shops during Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Their breeding population has since been supplemented by escapees from private homes.

Mr Salazar, the US government's top wildlife official, now supports population control, despite stiff lobbying from the animal rights organisation Peta, which claimed yesterday that the alien invaders "ended up in Florida through no fault of their own".

Confusion now reigns over how to actually go about killing 100,000 large and potentially deadly snakes. The animals are tough to find during the summer, but frequently emerge in winter months to sun themselves in open areas, where they could be stalked by licensed hunters. Other options include trapping and shooting.

One expert hunter, Tom Rahill, told the Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel that he stalks the big snakes at night, wearing animal-handling gloves and snake-proof boots. His preferred method of capture involves using a pole with a loop at the end, to seize the snake by the head. "It explodes with activity and generally wraps around the catch pole," he said. "You take a catch bag, like a laundry bag, and wrestle the bag around the snake and close the bag. It's amazing the power these snakes have. I grabbed one and it dragged me into the water."

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Rare fish 'pummelled to death' during dam water release

Brisbane Times 25 Jun 09;

Up to 50 rare lungfish were killed when tonnes of water was released from a southeast Queensland dam this week.

Water was released from North Pine Dam from Monday morning to Tuesday night as a safety measure, as heavy rain threatened to overfill the dam.

Its managers, SEQWater, say up to 100 native fish went with the release, including around 12 lungfish, a species listed as vulnerable.

But Wide Bay Burnett Conservation Council spokesman Roger Currie said conservationists on the scene had found up to 50 lungfish, either killed or maimed by the force of the water.

"Some were found caught in trees yesterday and last night," Mr Currie said.

"They've just been pummelled by the sheer force of it."

Mr Currie said some of the rare fish were up to one metre long, suggesting they could be 100 years old.

The conservation council has lobbied against the Paradise Dam and the proposed Traveston Crossing Dam, claiming that both pose serious threats to the lungfish and other species.

Mr Currie said his group would document the event and advise federal Environment Peter Garrett, who was now considering the Traveston Dam, proposed for an area near Gympie.

SEQWater spokesman Mike Foster said staff were on the scene at every dam release to check for "fish kills".

Mr Foster said a handful of lungfish had been rescued from pools, but staff would return on Thursday to see if more could be done.

"We are very, very mindful of the ecological importance of the lungfish," he said.

Last month, when North Pine's gates were opened for the first time in many years, up to 150 lungfish were rescued and returned to the dam.

The Wide Bay Burnett Conservation Council has called for a study into lungfish numbers in North Pine Dam, and measures to protect them when water is released.

AAP

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Cancer Kills Wild Animals Too

livescience.com 24 Jun 09;

Cancer accounts for about 10 percent of all human deaths. If you think that sets us apart, scientists have news for you: Wild animals die of cancer at about the same rate, and it threatens some species with extinction.

"Cancer is one of the leading health concerns for humans," Dr. Denise McAloose, a pathologist for the Wildlife Conservation Society, said in a statement. "But we now understand that cancer can kill wild animals at similar rates."

McAloose and her colleagues compiled information on cancer in wildlife and concluded that cancer poses a conservation threat to certain species. The team called for greater protection of animals and people through increased health monitoring. They published their research in the July edition of the journal Nature Reviews Cancer.

Cancer threatens the survival of entire species, McAloose said. For instance, the Tasmanian devil, the world's largest carnivorous marsupial, faces extinction from a cancer known as devil facial tumor disease. This contagious cancer spreads among devils usually through fighting and biting. To save the species, conservationists are relocating cancer-free Tasmanian devils to geographically isolated areas or zoos.

The study suggests links between wildlife cancers and human pollutants, as well. For example, beluga whales in the St. Lawrence River system have an extraordinarily high rate of intestinal cancer - it is their second leading cause of death. One kind of pollutant in the waters, called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, is known to cause cancer in humans. The compounds are suspected carcinogens for beluga whales as well. Fish in other polluted waterways, including brown bullhead catfish and English sole, also exhibit high levels of cancer.

Viruses are another culprit. In some animals, viruses can induce cancers that interfere with reproduction. Genital tumors in California sea lions occur at much higher rates than previously documented, the paper shows. Dolphins, such as the dusky dolphin and Burmeister's porpoise, found off South American coasts, are also showing higher rates of genital tumors.

Other virus-induced cancers can affect an animal's eyesight or its ability to feed. Green sea turtles suffer from fibropapillomatosis, a disease that causes tumors to grow on the skin and internal organs. A virus is suspected to cause these tumors.

Monitoring the health of wildlife can illuminate the causes of cancer in animal populations and better safeguard us and them against diseases, McAloose said.

Wildlife Faces Cancer Threat
ScienceDaily 24 Jun 09;

While cancer touches the lives of many humans, it is also a major threat to wild animal populations as well, according to a recent study by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).

A newly published paper in the July edition of Nature Reviews Cancer compiles information on cancer in wildlife and suggests that cancer poses a conservation threat to certain species. The WCS authors highlight the critical need to protect both animals and people through increased health monitoring.

"Cancer is one of the leading health concerns for humans, accounting for more than 10 percent of human deaths," said Dr. Denise McAloose, lead author and Chief Pathologist for WCS's Global Health program. "But we now understand that cancer can kill wild animals at similar rates."

In certain situations, cancer threatens the survival of entire species. The Tasmanian devil, the world's largest carnivorous marsupial, is at risk of extinction due to a cancer known as devil facial tumor disease. This form of contagious cancer spreads between individual Tasmanian devils through direct contact (primarily fighting and biting). To save the species from this fatal disease, conservationists are relocating cancer-free Tasmanian devils to geographically isolated areas or zoos.

Many species living within polluted aquatic environments suffer high rates of cancerous tumors, and studies strongly suggest links between wildlife cancers and human pollutants. For example, the study cites the case of beluga whales in the St. Lawrence River system. These whales have an extraordinarily high rate of intestinal cancer, which is their second leading cause of death. One type of pollutant in these waters—polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (or PAHs)—is a well-known carcinogen in humans, and PAHs are suspected carcinogens for beluga whales as well. Fish in other industrialized waterways, including brown bullhead catfish and English sole, also exhibit high levels of cancer.

Virus-induced cancers can affect the ability of some wildlife populations to reproduce. Genital tumors in California sea lions on North America's western coast occur at much higher rates than previously documented. Oceanic dolphin species, such as the dusky dolphin and Burmeister's porpoise (both found in the coastal waters of South America), are also showing higher rates of genital carcinomas.

Other virus-induced cancers can affect the feeding ability or eyesight of wildlife. Green sea turtles—a migratory species in oceans across the globe—suffer from fibropapillomatosis, a disease that causes skin and internal organ tumors. A virus is suspected as the cause these tumors, and environmental factors such as human-manufactured carcinogens might exacerbate their severity or prevalence.

Monitoring the health of wildlife can illuminate the causes of cancer in animal populations; thereby, better safeguarding animals and humans against possible disease. Evaluating cancer threats in wildlife populations requires the collaborative efforts of biologists, veterinarians, and pathologists as well as the earnest engagement of governments and international agencies. The paper concludes that more resources are necessary to support wildlife health monitoring.

"Examining the impact of cancer in wildlife, in particular those instances when human activities are identified as the cause, can contribute to more effective conservation and fits within the One World–One Health approach of reducing threats to both human and animal health," said Dr. William Karesh, Vice President and Director of WCS's Global Health Program.

Adapted from materials provided by Wildlife Conservation Society, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

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Where giant plants dare to grow

Matt Walker, BBC News 24 Jun 09;

Tropical plants like to grow tall, while temperate zone plants are dwarfs in comparison.

This global pattern to plant height has been discovered for the first time, after scientists reviewed the size and locations of more than 7000 species. Species growing at the equator are around 30 times taller on average than those at high latitudes, they found.

Their analysis also shows that rainfall has a bigger influence on plant height than temperature or soil fertility.

Finding such a clear global trend in plant height surprised the researchers who conducted the analysis.

"It might seem obvious that plants are taller in the tropics, after all tropical rainforests are clearly taller than Arctic tundra," says Angela Moles of The University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, who led the review.

"However, there are plenty of tropical ecosystems that are dominated by short plants, such as savannas, and plenty of high-latitude ecosystems that are dominated by very tall plants, such as boreal forests."

What's more, she points out, the tallest plants in the world do not grow in the tropics.

"The tallest plant species on earth is the coast redwood, from California, which grows over 100m tall and the tallest flowering plant is mountain ash, which grows in southern Australia."

Moles explains that until now, no-one had quantified the differences in plant height around the world.

"The lack of information is kind of surprising," she says. "Plant height is such an important trait."

In particular, the differences in the heights of plants in each ecosystem affects the variety and type of animal living there.

So to evaluate any trend, Moles and colleagues from Australia and the US collated data on 7084 plant species, including their locations and maximum height reached, from research already published in databases and scientific journals. In all, the team collated over 32,000 records of plant height around the globe.

They found that plant species at the equator are, on average, 29 times taller than those growing between a latitude of 60 degrees and 70 degrees North, and 31 times taller than those between a latitude of 45 and 60 degrees North. Plants within each region grew an average of 7.8m, and 27cm and 25cm respectively.

However, the researchers were surprised to find that there is not a smooth decrease in plant height moving further from the tropics.

"There is a zone at the edge of the tropics where plant height suddenly drops," says Moles. This two-fold decrease in height suggests plants switch growing strategies in temperate zones.

"We're not sure why. But it may be to do with the deserts around this latitude," Moles explains.

They were also surprised to discover that the best predictor of plant height was not net primary productivity, a measure of how much plants grow in a given location, which is affected by temperature, rainfall and soil quality.

Nor did low temperatures, which can limit the growth of large trees by freezing the water inside their trunks, have a strong influence.

Instead, the single best predictor of plant height was how much it rained during the wettest month of the year.

The final surprise related to short rather than tall plants.

"We thought that very cold or very dry ecosystems would lack tall plants, but there would be short plants just about everywhere," says Moles.

"Instead there turns out to be a remarkable scarcity of very short plants in very warm, wet, productive environments like rainforests."

"We hadn't predicted this, but in hindsight, it seems likely that in these highly productive ecosystems it is just so dark at ground level that there aren't many species that can actually make a living on the forest floor."

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Evolution faster when it's warmer

Victoria Gill, BBC News 24 Jun 09;

Climate could have a direct effect on the speed of "molecular evolution" in mammals, according to a study.

Researchers have found that, among pairs of mammals of the same species, the DNA of those living in warmer climates changes at a faster rate.

These mutations - where one letter of the DNA code is substituted for another - are a first step in evolution.

The study, reported in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, could help explain why the tropics are so species-rich.

DNA can mutate and change imperceptibly every time a cell divides and makes a copy of itself.

But when one of these mutations causes a change that is advantageous for the animal - for example, rendering it resistant to a particular disease - it is often "selected for", or passed down to the next few generations of that same species.

Such changes, which create differences within a population but do not give rise to new species, are known as "microevolution".

The idea that microevolution happens faster in warmer environments is not new. But this is the first time the effect has been shown in mammals, which regulate their own body temperature.

"The result was unexpected," said Len Gillman from Auckland University of Technology, who led the study.

"We have previously found a similar result for plant species and other groups have seen it in marine animals. But since these are 'ectotherms' - their body temperature is controlled directly by the environment - everyone assumed that the effect was caused by climate altering their metabolic rate."

Scientists believe that this link between temperature and metabolic rate means that, in warmer climates, the germ cells that eventually develop into sperm and eggs divide more frequently.

"An increase in cell division provides more opportunities for mutations in the population over a given time," explained Dr Gillman.

"This increases the probability of advantageous mutations that are selected for within the species."

'Sister species'

"We suspected the same effect might be happening in mammals, because seasonal changes affect the animals' activity," Dr Gillman told BBC News.

He and his team compared the DNA of 130 pairs of mammals, looking at genetically similar "sister species" - where each of the pair lived at a different latitude or elevation.

They tracked changes in one gene that codes for a protein known as cytochrome b, comparing the same gene in each of the pair of mammals to a "reference" gene in a common ancestor.

By looking for mutations in the DNA code for this gene - each point where one letter in the code was substituted for another - the researchers were able to see which of the two mammals had "microevolved" faster.

Animals living in environments where the climate was warmer, had about 1.5 times more of these substitutions than the animals living in cooler environments.

Dr Gillman explained that, at higher latitudes where environments are colder and less productive, animals often conserve their energy - hibernating or resting to reduce their metabolic activity.

"In warmer climates annual metabolic activity is likely to be greater, so this will lead to more total cell divisions per year in the germline."

These results support the idea that high tropical biodiversity is caused by faster rates of evolution in warmer climates.

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Amazon bill controversy in Brazil

Gary Duffy, BBC News 23 Jun 09;

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is due this week to make one of the most keenly awaited decisions about land ownership in the Amazon rainforest.

The president has to decide by 25 June whether to veto parts of a bill that is due to transfer an area of public land - estimated to be around 670,000 square kilometres (259,000 square miles) - into private hands.

The government originally introduced what is called "Provisional Measure 458" as a way of bringing security to small farm owners in the Amazon region.

But critics say the proposal amounts to an amnesty for land-grabbers, and that the original measure has been altered by Congress in a way that will only serve to encourage deforestation.

Uncertainty over land ownership has long been a cause of violent conflict in the Amazon region, and presented an enormous obstacle for the authorities in their efforts to prevent illegal deforestation.

It was in order to tackle this issue the government introduced the proposal to transfer a vast area of land, roughly the size of France, into private hands.

'Huge pressure'

The so-called "provisional measure" was meant to settle the question of ownership of hundreds of thousands of properties where those who occupied the land before 2004 had never been formally granted legal title. The smallest areas, of less than 100 hectares (247 acres), would be handed over for free; medium-sized territory would be sold for a symbolic value, while larger estates of up to 1,500 hectares (3,707 acres) would be auctioned at market prices, but with 20 years allowed to make a repayment.

However, changes to the law mean the largest areas could then be sold on after a period of three years instead of 10, and critics fear this will lead to further exploitation of the rainforest.

Environmental groups have also complained that the law may allow lands to be registered by companies or by frontmen acting on behalf of large landowners. Greenpeace says it was expecting the decision last week, but the fact that it did not come is a sign of division within government, and an indication of the huge pressure on President Lula, who it says is receiving thousands of phonecalls and e-mails on the issue.

"We know that within his government there is a lot of tension between the ministries of agriculture and environment, land reform and strategic studies," Marcelo Furtado, executive director of Greenpeace in Brazil, told the BBC News website.

"If he did not decide on any of the vetoes last week, our reading is that it is a bad indication that eventually the big landowners are actually having an impact on his approach."

"We are extremely concerned."

Mr Furtado says the bill, as it was originally presented, was already deeply flawed "in terms of the areas that would be privatised, in terms of who would have access to the land, in terms of lack of verification from any government authority on the status of the land".

"The problem is what we are finding in the Amazon is either the attitude of 'I am not going do anything because I am sure we will win this fight and change the law and make all the deforestation I have legal'," he said.

"Or the other attitude is that because there is so little governance here, because the government is so absent the truth is that we can just keep cutting down the forest and nothing will happen to us."

"This bill will be a major signal indicating to the people who enjoy impunity that it is worth committing a crime in the Amazon."

Divided society

Not surprisingly, supporters of the measure dispute this assessment, and point as well to other initiatives that are under way in the Amazon.

On Friday, the Brazilian government announced its so-called "Green Arch" proposal in which it will pay small farmers up to $51 (£31) per month to reforest degraded lands in 43 municipal areas where deforestation is a major issue.

The government has also set a target to reduce deforestation by some 70% by 2018, and says the indications from recent months are that it will be at its lowest level in two decades, due in part to an increase in policing measures.

President Lula says non-governmental organisations are "not telling the truth" when they say that the provisional measure will encourage land grabbers.

"What we exactly want to do is to guarantee that people have ownership of land, to see if we can end the violence in this country," he said last week.

"This is what we want to do, and this is what we are going to do," the president insisted.

There is a consensus that the issue of land ownership badly needs to be sorted out in the Amazon - but it seems this bill has not built on that common ground.

The heated debate over the measure has once again highlighted the divide in Brazilian society between a strong agricultural lobby keen to promote development, and environmental groups who fear for the future of the Amazon.

Whatever decision President Lula takes, it is unlikely to be free from controversy.

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A £180m weeding job: The lake that has shrunk to half its original size

Andrew Buncombe, The Independent 24 Jun 09;

Kashmir's Dal Lake is dying, choked by algae that thrives on pollution. But a plan to clean it up threatens the livelihoods of local people

Every day, amid the early morning mists that sit low over the water of Dal Lake, a remarkable piece of theatre is played out. Emerging from the islands and the alleyways of reeds, men paddle traditional wooden boats to an area of the lake that is heavy with weeds. There, using nets fixed atop willow branches, they haul the weeds into their boats. With their vessels partially submerged by the weight, they then paddle slowly away, to use their bounty as fertiliser for crops.

On Kashmir's Dal Lake – whose tranquillity has lured everyone from Mughal emperors to George Harrison and Ravi Shankar – there is no shortage of boatmen and no shortage of weeds. Indeed, despite more than a decade of efforts to arrest its spread, the clogging, spinach-green algae appears to be everywhere.

This week, in what might underline a new determination to try to rescue the lake, the Indian government announced £180m to fund a new clean-up of the Dal and another of the state's iconic lakes, the Wular, one of the largest freshwater bodies in Asia. "This conservation effort is the first serious fully-funded effort," announced the Environment Minister, Jairam Ramesh.

The slow death of Dal Lake, which less than 30 years ago measured at least double its current size, is a story of tawdry neglect that has played out against the backdrop of Kashmir's separatist insurgency. Once a favoured spot for both the elite of the British Raj and backpacking hippies who escaped the crushing heat of India's plains by relaxing on the lake's famous houseboats, the Dal is now polluted with litter, rubbish and thousands of tonnes of sewage that are pumped into it untreated. The increased nitrogen in the water gives rise to the growth in algae and weeds which choke the lake's aquatic life.

Yet for all that, the lake's majesty is still obvious and the tragedy of its decline all the more sad.

Pushing off his wooden shikhara from a shoreline shaded by huge chinar trees and alive with the song of wakening birds, boatman Lassa Dar gave a tour of his world. His paddle angled in the weed-filled water, he remembered the days when the water used to be much cleaner and people swam in it. "The weeds have got much worse," he said. "It is all the run-off that enters the lake."

On the east of the lake boatmen were hauling out weeds on behalf of the local authorities. On this side, however, the boatmen gathering the dark-green algae were farmers collecting it for their own use. Mr Dar, 62, who has been working as a boatman for 50 years, paddled to one of the lake's numerous floating gardens where, on a buoyant "field" made of reeds and composted weeds, the farmers raise a variety of crops.

"I grow tomatoes, melons, cucumbers and marrows," said Gulam Hassan, who was gathering weeds, leaning with all his weight on the supple willow pole to lever his dripping green haul from the water.

It is estimated that there are around 40,000 farmers such as Mr Hassan living on islands dotted around the lake who make their living in this way. As part of the plan for the Dal drawn up by the state and federal authorities, all will be forced to relocate to new homes in Srinagar, the state's summer capital that sprawls around the southern end of the lake. Many of these farmers are angry about the plan, saying it will mean an end to their livelihoods.

Although the new money to clean up the Dal has come from Delhi, much of the energy behind the effort belongs to Jammu and Kashmir's youthful Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah. He has made restoring the lake one of the top policy priorities. In an interview, the Chief Minister said that for decades people had considered the Dal a refuse dump where sewage could be pumped. "We did not wake up to the fact that it was going to fill up and catch up with us. A very concerted effort is now needed to clean it up," he added. "I am sure that we can rescue it. Without the Dal, Srinagar is just another town in the hills."

In addition to the shifting of the lake's residents, the two-year clean-up plan involves the building of new treatment works, a halt to deforestation and the purchase of heavy-duty de-weeding machines from Finland. Houseboat owners will also be required to fit septic tanks.

Some observers have expressed the hope that now the militant violence that has killed at least 70,000 people appears to have paused, more focus can be put on the Dal. Yet the authorities may also wish to consider the need for greater oversight. Talk of corruption abounds in Srinagar. Earlier this year it was reported that 50 officials with the government's Lakes and Waterways Development Authority had been cited by the state's top anti-corruption body.

Though such allegations might breed a degree of cynicism among the people of Kashmir, the public desire to save and restore the Dal is overwhelming. Earlier this year, Kashmir's most famous playwright, Mohammed Amin Bhat, produced a play, April Fool, to highlight the plight of the lake. It was performed to enthusiastic reviews. "For us, it's not just a water body," said Bhat. "It's a symbol of our culture and our heritage. That is why we are so possessive of it."

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U.S. pulp-maker pioneers new biofuel

Jason Szep, Reuters 24 Jun 09;

OLD TOWN, Maine (Reuters) - From the outside, the rustic red-brick mill on a bend in Maine's Penobscot River resembles any other struggling American pulp and paper mill.

But along with its usual business of pulp-making, the century-old mill is doing something unprecedented: Developing technology to produce bio-butanol, a jet fuel, from parts of trees that would otherwise go to waste, one of the world's first to do so.

Production is still two years away, but the reinvention of Maine's Old Town Fuel & Fiber mill is already drawing interest as a potential model for a new wave of biofuel companies that could slash dependence on oil, create jobs and reduce the emissions that lead to global warming.

Loggers, a fading way of life in rugged northern United States and Canada, see the mill as a lifeline for their crippled industry. Environmentalists see it as a test of the Obama administration's push for a big expansion in biofuels.

And chemical and oil companies are waiting to see if the mill can do what none has done before by extracting sugars from wood chips into a biofuel that many regard as more efficient than corn-based ethanol as a possible substitute for gasoline.

"There has been a lot of interested parties in what we are doing here," said Old Town's president, Dick Arnold. "There have been several oil companies that have been interested in our extract and production of biofuels. There has been a number of chemical companies that have expressed the same desire."

Like its once-mighty peers, Old Maine's mill has suffered in recent years from declining pulp prices and loss of market share to Chinese and Latin American rivals. Georgia-Pacific Llc, the maker of Quilted Northern bathroom tissue, shut it in May 2006, laying off all 400 workers. A group of investors known as Red Shield bought it a few months later.

Red Shield won a $30 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to work with the nearby University of Maine on a pilot ethanol production plant, but they ran out of cash and filed for bankruptcy last year, shutting the plant again.

Enter Lynn Tilton, a New York venture capitalist who owns one of the nation's largest helicopter makers. Tilton's Patriarch Partners bought the mill in November, invested about $40 million and shifted its focus to cellulosic bio-butanol.

ALTERNATIVE TO ETHANOL

Tilton can use bio-butanol in her own helicopter and aircraft businesses but is eyeing a potentially huge market after Congress decreed that the United States must use 21 billion gallons of "advanced" biofuels such as cellulosic ethanols, bio-butanol and "green gasoline" a year by 2022.

Whether the technology takes off comes down to cost -- and to corn. For much of the last decade, federal officials have touted the potential of corn ethanol as the best substitute for gasoline, but critics question that assumption, noting it corrodes pipelines and raises food prices.

Bio-butanol, a relative of ethanol, is less corrosive and easier to mix with gasoline. Unlike ethanol, it can be transported by pipeline. And its energy content is about 30 percent higher than ethanol's. If regulations allow, it could be pumped into a fuel tank with no changes to a car engine.

Butanol is also sometimes used as a petrochemical in brake fluids, paint thinners and plastics. Its supporters include chemicals maker DuPont Co and oil giant BP Plc, which have formed a joint venture to make bio-butanol.

"It's really comparable to gasoline," said Mark Bunger, a biofuels analyst at Lux Research, a Boston consulting firm specializing in emerging technologies. "The issue has been that ethanol is easier to make, it's just not easier to use. Butanol doesn't have those same restrictions.

"For a lot of chemical reasons, it's a good alternative. If you're a venture capital company and you said you are going to be making ethanol, I would say, 'Do you have another idea?'. But if they are really focusing on butanol, that is a smart move."

He cautioned, however, that it remains unclear if bio-butanol can compete on cost with oil or substitutes like ethanol without government subsidies. "A lot more research and technical development is needed to make it cost competitive."

OBAMA FACTOR

Other companies are trying, such as startups Tetravitae Bioscience in Chicago and Cobalt Biofuels in Mountain View, California. But Old Town is the first to do so with a fully functioning timber mill that already generates cash flow by selling traditional pulp to paper companies.

Bio-butanol will be derived from wood that would have gone to waste in pulp production, or have been left on the forest floor as unusable by loggers.

"I wouldn't go deep into a hole without the ability to generate cash flow on what we do now," Tilton said. "That is the beauty of this. We are not building a start up facility to create ethanol where you are out $300 million before you start creating any kind of cash flow."

Already the plant has put in place a system for extracting sugars from the wood and expect by year end to start construction of a biorefinery to turn it into butanol. She expects the mill will need another $75 million to meet its target of producing butanol in two years.

"Some of that will come from the Department of Energy and some we will invest. And how that return on investment will be garnered will be deeply dependent on government demands, pricing for the product as well as our ability to take this technology and roll it out across other platforms."

A big factor, she said, is the Obama administration's push for renewable energy through tax breaks, loan guarantees and millions of dollars in grants, with more support expected in upcoming energy bills.

"If one believed that ultimately this would peter out and green energy would become less of a focus going forward, this would be a very risky investment because truthfully pricing will be dependent on supply and demand. If it is not forced as a mandate, then I think the pricing won't be there," she said.

To that end, the mill is on track, said Arnold. Two towering vessels, each 100-feet (30-metres) high, extract sugar from wood chips that will eventually make butanol, while also maintaining the traditional process of extracting fiber from wood to create sheets of dried pulp to sell.

"That $30 million award from the government will help us finance the building of the balance of the biorefinery," he said. "We believe that in the next two years we will have an operating biorefinery at the mill."

Initial volumes will be small, about 1.5 million gallons of bio-butanol a year produced from 80 dry tons of wood. "But we believe this technology can be replicated. And there are a lot of assets out there in terms of pulp and paper mills that are suffering that could be used for expansion," Arnold said.

(Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

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