Clues sought for decline in Hawaii humpback whale sightings

CALEB JONES, Associated Press Yahoo News 27 Nov 18;

HONOLULU (AP) — Researchers are gathering to compare clues on the reasons behind a significant decline in the number of sightings of North Pacific humpback whales in their traditional breeding grounds in waters around Hawaii.

The trend doesn't necessarily mean the iconic giants are dying off, or that they're not still migrating to the islands. But the apparent disappearance of many whales from a historically predictable location is causing concern and some researchers believe there's a link between warmer ocean temperatures in Alaska and the effect that has on the whales' food chain.

While scientists say it's too early to draw any conclusions about the phenomenon, the decline has sparked enough interest that a consortium of whale experts will meet Tuesday and Wednesday in Honolulu to compare data and attempt to better understand what's happening and what to do about it. The drop in sightings is estimated at 50 percent to 80 percent over the past four years.

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Best of our wild blogs: 25-26 Nov 18

Living shores of Beting Bemban Besar
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Terumbu Pempang Tengah is alive
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Night Walk At Windsor Nature Park (23 Nov 2018)
Beetles@SG BLOG

Butterfly Anatomy - Part 4
Butterflies of Singapore

[FREE Exhibition] Beneath tide, Running forest - An art and science exploration of Singapore's marine biodiversity
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Products from threatened species of sharks and rays sold in Singapore: Study

NEO CHAI CHIN Today Online 25 Nov 18;

SINGAPORE — Shops in Singapore have been found to sell meat, fins and other products derived from endangered and vulnerable species of sharks and rays.

The finding, made by researchers who did DNA sequencing and matched the results against databases, has prompted a call for active monitoring of the retail trade and better labelling of products here.

Monitoring the trade would require the authorities to check if retailers have obtained the appropriate permits under an international agreement that ensures trade does not threaten wildlife species with extinction.

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145 whales die on remote New Zealand beach

AFP Yahoo News 26 Nov 18;

Up to 145 pilot whales have died in a mass stranding on a remote part of a small New Zealand island, authorities said Monday.

The stranding was discovered by a hiker late Saturday on Stewart Island, 30 kilometres (19 miles) off the southern coast of the South Island.

Half of the whales were already dead and due to the condition of the remaining whales and the remote, difficult to access location, the decision was made to euthanise the remainder.

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Best of our wild blogs: 24 Nov 18

Sat 8th Dec 2018: Sungei Buloh Anniversary Walk - registration open for the 25th celebration!
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[Short Film] The Bottled-Up Truth about Singapore's Plastic Problem
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Saving Indonesia`s marine life

Rahmad Nasution Antara 24 Nov 18;

This week, Indonesia has been in the spotlight of the mainstream media in the country and abroad after a dead sperm whale that washed ashore in the marine national park of Wakatobi had 5.9 kilograms of plastic waste in its stomach.. (ANTARA /Ampelsa)

Bogor, W Java, Nov 23 (ANTARA News) - This week, Indonesia has been in the spotlight of the mainstream media in the country and abroad after a dead sperm whale that washed ashore in the marine national park of Wakatobi had 5.9 kilograms of plastic waste in its stomach.

The death of this ill-fated sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) was widely published and broadcast by reputable international news media, including Associated Press, Cable News Network (CNN), BBC, ABC, The Guardian, and National Geographic.

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Best of our wild blogs: 23 Nov 18

[Spotlight on IYOR Interns!] Our Seas, Our Legacy by Nathaniel Soon
Celebrating Singapore Shores!

Beneath tide, Running forest Exhibition 24 Nov 2018 - Apr 2019
Celebrating Singapore Shores!

Unveiling the world of mushroom
Love our MacRitchie Forest

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Lost villages of Pulau Ubin

Armed with only his mother’s photographs and directions from an old friend, Mr Syazwan Majid goes in search of an abandoned village where his grandparents used to live.
Rachel Quek and Toh Ting Wei Straits Times 21 Nov 18;

SINGAPORE - Mr Syazwan Majid grew up listening to his mother reminisce about her lost kampung in Pulau Ubin.

"It was like a broken record," the 22-year-old full-time national serviceman said.

But the repeated stories gradually piqued his curiosity in both the island and his family's heritage.

Mr Syazwan began to wonder if his family's old house was still standing in Ubin, since the island had yet to undergo a large-scale development.

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Malaysia: Resilient black panther dies after accident on LPT2

FITRI NIZAM, Rosli Ilham New Straits Times 22 Nov 18;

DUNGUN: A black panther sustained injuries and later on died, after it was hit by a car along the East Coast Expressway (LPT2) near Bukit Besi at about 6.30pm yesterday.

Nazaiwadi Mohamed who was driving at the time, hit the animal after failing to avoid it.

"The panther looked like it flew over the divider before falling on the hood of my car," he said.

During the incident, Nazaiwadi was heading home to Kampung Raja Besut from the Kuala Dungun toll plaza.

"I got out of my car to help the animal but it got up and tried to attack me," the 32-year-old project manager said, adding that out of fear, he went back into his vehicle.

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Indonesia: Plastic waste pollution serious - Minister

Antara 22 Nov 18;

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Noting that plastic waste in the archipelago`s sea have serious consequences for the nation, Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Susi Pudjiastuti stated all parties should work to resolve the matter.

"Marine debris is creating massive problems for humankind," the minister said in a press conference in Jakarta, Thursday.

The ministry has carried out all the necessary measures to its maximum capability, including by continuously campaigning about it, she remarked.

For example, the Directorate General of Marine Space Management of the ministry has distributed nets to be set up over a number of river estuaries so the waste materials do not flow into the open ocean through the river, she stressed.

Even though the regulation to ban the use of plastic does not come under the purview of the ministry, she reiterated her support and encouragement to the various local governments to issue rules relating to this matter.

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Climate-heating greenhouse gases at record levels, says UN

Carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide are far above pre-industrial levels
Damian Carrington The Guardian 22 Nov 18;

The main greenhouse gas emissions driving climate change have all reached record levels, the UN’s meteorology experts have reported.

Carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide are now far above pre-industrial levels, with no sign of a reversal of the upward trend, a World Meteorological Organization report says.

“The last time the Earth experienced a comparable concentration of CO2 was 3-5m years ago, when the temperature was 2-3C warmer and sea level was 10-20 metres higher than now,” said the WMO secretary general, Petteri Taalas.

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UCI and Singapore researchers find source of 2015 Southeast Asia smoke cloud

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - IRVINE EurekAlert 19 Nov 18;

Irvine, Calif. - Smoke from widespread fires in Indonesia in the summer and fall of 2015 hung heavily over major urban centers in Southeast Asia, causing adverse health effects for millions of people. The afflicted could not have known that the polluted air they were breathing contained carbon from plants that were alive during the Middle Ages.

During the prolonged conflagration, which was triggered by an El Nino-driven drought, scientists collected smoke particles on the campus of the National University of Singapore and sent the samples to their colleagues at the University of California, Irvine. UCI's researchers dated the isotopes of the particles' carbon atoms, finding them to have an average age of 800 years.

Combining this analysis with atmospheric modeling of the wind-driven movement of smoke plumes in fall 2015, the team sleuthed out the source of the harmful cloud: smoldering peat on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra. The findings were published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"Our research shows that almost all of the smoke emissions originated from the burning of Holocene-aged peat," said first author Elizabeth Wiggins, a postdoctoral research fellow at NASA's Langley Research Center who led the study as a Ph.D. candidate in Earth system science at UCI, graduating in 2018. "Although this peat has functioned as a massive terrestrial carbon storage reservoir over the last several thousand years, it is now a significant source of carbon to the atmosphere."

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