Two butterflies
from The annotated budak
Random Gallery - Yellow Grass Dart
from Butterflies of Singapore
Sharing about our shores with Dunman High
from wild shores of singapore
七月华语导游Madarin guide walk@SBWR,July(XXXI)
from PurpleMangrove
My message to all litterbugs
from Trek through Paradise
Industrial logging leaves a poor legacy in Borneo's rainforests
from Mongabay.com news by Rhett Butler
Plans for airport's expansion to ensure it remains competitive
Karamjit Kaur Straits Times 18 Jul 12;
SINGAPORE has earmarked 1,000ha of land for the expansion of Changi Airport - a move which will almost double the airport's size in the coming decades.
The planned expansion comes as rival airports in China, India and the Middle East formulate bold expansion plans to meet the growing demand for air travel.
Changi now occupies 1,350ha of land. The extra space for the future, about the size of Toa Payoh, is located where the biennial Singapore Airshow is held.
The plot is now separated from the existing airport by Changi Coast Road and already has a runway used for military purposes.
Minister of State for Transport Josephine Teo, who helms a 10-member multi-agency committee studying Changi's future needs, revealed the plans in a wide-ranging interview on Monday.
Among other areas, the committee is looking at when new terminals will be required and how they will be connected to the existing airport.
To prepare for the final report to be out by the year end, the team recently visited several airports in the region, including those in Hong Kong, Incheon in South Korea and the Middle East.
Mrs Teo said the study trips gave a good sense of the developments being planned by other airports, and also reaffirmed the belief that growth in aviation - especially in this part of the world - will sustain itself over a fairly long while.
She said: 'As a result of this, we saw that many of these airports have very bold, ambitious plans.' Hong Kong for example, has set in motion plans for a third runway; Incheon, which has three, is thinking of two more.
A key priority for the Changi committee is to decide when the airport, which now uses two runways, will need a third, Mrs Teo said.
Fuelled mainly by low-cost carriers, the number of flights at Changi has grown significantly in the last few years, outpacing the percentage increase in passenger traffic.
Last year, the number of aircraft movements rose 14.5 per cent over that in 2010. This triggered flight delays, which sparked the argument for a third runway.
But even as Mrs Teo's panel considers when this can be developed, steps have been taken to use the two existing runways more efficiently.
These include reducing the distance between two aircraft and scheduling maintenance work in off- peak periods.
Experts have pointed to Heathrow - which also has two runways - to underscore Changi's relatively inefficient use of its runways: The London airport pulled off 476,197 take-offs and landings last year; Changi had 302,000.
The capacity of airport terminals to handle passengers is a less pressing issue, but the committee will still decide when and how many new terminals will be needed, said Mrs Teo.
'If you have capacity, you have the opportunity to capture future growth. If you don't, then there is really no opportunity to do so.'
If Changi does not build enough capacity in time, it will lose out to other airports, she said, identifying this as Changi's key challenge.
Singapore's airport can now handle more than 70 million passengers a year; by 2017, when Terminal 4 is ready, the figure will be 85 million. Terminal 4 will replace the Budget Terminal, to be demolished in September.
Beyond that, Mrs Teo said, the committee is eyeing the possibility not just of a Terminal 5, but even a Terminal 6, if needed.
But even as the committee looks to Changi's future, the airport also has to innovate.
She cited the example of Incheon airport, which is 70km from Seoul. A mini city catering to travellers has sprung up around it.
Mrs Teo said: 'So it is not just a matter of building pure capacity, but also of how the airport can enhance the value it brings to the local economy - creating jobs and building opportunities for industry and commerce to take off.'
She added that as Changi Airport readied itself for the lap ahead, one thing was clear: 'Changi is in a position of strength, and with the right moves, we have the opportunity to keep it flying high.'
Mohd Haikal Isa Bernama 17 Jul 12;
JOHOR BAHARU, July 17 (Bernama) -- The RM60 billion Petronas' initiated Refinery and Petrochemical Intergrated Complex (RAPID) project in Pengerang is set to turn Desaru's long pristine coastline as the new "playground" for deep-pocketed oil and gas executives.
With the massive effort to build RAPID set to begin soon, Desaru, a stone throw away from Pengerang, is to reap major benefits as it transforms itself as the region's hottest new tourism destination.
Malaysian Association of Hotels Johor Chapter Chairman Tengku Ahmad Faizal Mohamed said Desaru's hospitality industry would be positively impacted with the commencement of the RAPID project.
"Desaru hotels will definitely be positively impacted by the massive Petronas project. This major project, which aims to be larger than Kertih by the national oil company, will bring in corporate business visitors from the oil and gas companies to stay in the hotels surrounding the project.
"Those employed at RAPID, such as expatriates and their families, can treat Desaru and Desaru hotels as an ideal destination to unwind and relax," he told Bernama. Desaru is about 30-minute drive from Pengerang.
The massive project, which will start construction next year and completed by 2016, will transform the lobster town Pengerang in eastern Johor, into Asia's very own Port of Rotterdam.
Port of Rotterdam is the largest oil hub in the world.
Besides Petronas, a local company, Dialog Group Bhd, is also building a multi-billion ringgit independent oil terminal in Pengerang to complement the RAPID project.
Tengku Ahmad Faizal said several high-end hotels and resorts are set to open their doors in Desaru soon, giving the "forgotten tourist destination" the much-needed makeover.
Among high-end hotels to open in Desaru are Sheraton Desaru Resort, The Plantation Hotel, The Datai Desaru Resort and The Aman Country Club and Villas, he said.
The Sheraton Desaru will have 357 rooms, Aman Country Club and Villas 50 rooms and 50 luxury villas and The Plantation Hotel 400 rooms.
Besides the spanking new hotels, he said, visitors would be treated to a gamut of attractions currently being built such as turning a 17Km beachfront into a luxury integrated destination named "Desaru Coast".
"Desaru Coast comprises luxury resorts, hotels and golf residences, complemented with leisure and entertainment including designer golf courses, a retail mall and theme parks," Tengku Ahmad Faizal said.
Other new tourism attractions in Desaru two championship golf courses, a convention centre, Riverwalk, a landscaped retail mall and resort village that integrates the attractions and theme parks in Desaru Coast, namely marine park, water park and wildlife park.
It was reported recently that a unit of Khazanah Nasional's leisure and tourism arm, Themed Attractions and Resorts Sdn Bhd, will invest RM267 million to develop and operate two theme parks in the Desaru coast.
Called "Ocean Splash Water Park" and "Ocean Quest Marine Park", the theme parks are expected to open in mid-2014.
-- BERNAMA
Natalie Heng The Star 17 Jul 12;
Beach patrols by volunteers are helping to deter turtle egg poachers at Pulau Perhentian, Terengganu.
BETWEEN the months of April and September, water traffic gets a little chaotic in the channel between the islands of Pulau Perhentian Kecil and Pulau Perhentian Besar in Terengganu for that is the time when tourists arrive and leave by the boatloads.
There is one spot in the channel, however, where you will find life-jacketed swimmers bobbing in the sea alongside the speed boats, with their heads down in the water. But there are no corals underneath, just patches of sea grass and large, moving dark masses.
Welcome to Turtle Bay. Green turtles are one of the highlights of the island, though Perhentian has much more to offer – pristine beach fronts, stunning sunsets and shoals of colourful fish.
As the islands, virtually unknown as a tourist destination before the 1990s, evolved to become one of Malaysia’s most popular beaches, turtles have become valuable assets. A 2005 gazettement of Perhentian as a turtle reserve recognises the need to protect the animal’s breeding grounds. Now, unauthorised egg collection by locals who have for generations consumed the eggs as traditional delicacies, is prohibited. These measures, though unpopular, are important, given the challenges posed by development along the beach front.
Bright lights and a lack of shade have dramatically reduced suitable nesting habitat, whilst heavy water traffic has led to an increase in mortality as turtles are hit by boat propellers.
The rising popularity of Perhentian as a budget to mid-range tourist destination has allowed locals – many of whom earn a living as guides, chalet operators, or water taxi operators – to prosper.
But as business booms and chalets jostle for space on the beach, the island’s success throws up a big question: can it still support a healthy, breeding, turtle population?
Turtles nest at night, under cover of darkness. This is when the poachers come out. Despite efforts by the Fisheries Department through its Turtle and Marine Ecosystem Centre (Tumec) to hire local contractors who transfer all freshly laid turtle eggs at Perhentian to its guarded hatchery at Pantai Tiga Ruang, budget limitations have been restrictive.
For starters, there is only enough money to hire three people to scour the island’s six nesting beaches – Pantai Seribu, Tanjung Tukas, Tanjung Besar, Tanjung Tengah, Tanjung Menangis and Tanjung Buntung. And at RM4 a pop, a nest of around 100 eggs can fetch up to RM400 in markets on the mainland, where consumption of green turtle eggs is still legal.
Keeping an eye on poachers
Poaching is still a threat; Gareth Turner, 34, knows this. Accounts from those who have witnessed poaching at other beaches, as well as various personal encounters at Tanjung Tukas where he works, have convinced Turner that volunteer patrols organised by Bubbles Dive Resort, his employer, are making an important impact.
A conservation project facilitator for the resort located in a secluded corner of Pulau Perhentian Besar, Turner has not had a day off in three months, because in addition to inducting new volunteers and single-handedly running the Turtle and Reef Conservation Project during the day, he spends most nights patrolling, and pouncing on would-be poachers. These are often just local villagers out to make a quick buck.
“You may speak to people who detest poachers, but I’ve got no problems with them as people,” he says, pointing out that in times of financial opportunity, many people lose their moral compass. “And besides, the poachers often don’t have a deep enough understanding about how far-reaching the environmental consequences of what they do are.”
The poachers usually ride in from the west. As soon as they get round the rock line to Tanjung Tukas, they stop the engine and use a bright light to search for turtle tracks on the beach.
Turner likes to surprise them. He will turn off his red torchlight (red light is less intrusive for turtles) and hide behind some bushes. When the poachers come ashore, he will approach them. “I’ll just ask what they’re doing here. They usually ignore me. So I ask if I can take a picture, which they also usually ignore, and when I do, the only time using a camera flash is acceptable on the beach, they generally get straight back onto the boat and leave.”
Turner, a man of significant stature, is from Sheffield, Britain. He is happy to move into more “front-line” work, having spent many years doing animal management in veterinary clinics and safari parks.
Having him on the nesting beach is clearly working to deter poachers, as his absence one night demonstrated. Recently arrived volunteer Maelle Pelisson, 26, recounts her first night at Bubbles: “Normally, we will patrol the beach in two shifts, 8pm to 2am, and 2am to 8am. When I arrived, the resort hadn’t had any volunteers the week before, and on one of those nights, a nest had been poached because Gareth was too exhausted to do both shifts. He was really cut up about it and insisted that he do the second shift this time, because that is when the poachers had made their move. So I had to do the first one … all on my own.”
Patrolling the secluded beach was daunting for Pellison, who had signed up as a volunteer with Ecoteer. Fresh from France, she had never been to Malaysia before, let alone wander around a dark, lonely beach. But having received her induction during the day, she plucked up the courage and went for it. Equipped with her torchlight, she walked up and down the shore, with nothing but a sky full of stars for company, and it wasn’t long before she spotted some tracks.
“They led up the beach and into some trees. I was so scared because it was dark and eerie but I told myself ‘I must do this’.” Her bravery was rewarded for in the bushes was a gigantic green turtle, awkwardly using its flippers to dig into the sand. As per protocol set by Bubbles, the next step was for Pellison to alert resort guests and deliver a briefing on ethical turtle-watching.
Non-intrusive
Part of the philosophy at Bubbles is to allow guests the chance to see turtles in a controlled manner, and it seems to be going well, because over 47% of turtle landings since 2006 (when the resort started taking records) have resulted in nestings – a ratio comparable to other nesting sites in the country and in Costa Rica. This implies that guests have not posed a stressful situation to nesting turtles, which might not return to the same spot if disturbed.
Even so, you do get the occasional wilfully disobedient guest. “We have a strict no touch, no flash photography policy, and conduct compulsory briefings for all our guests before taking them to see the turtles” explains Pellison.
“But there was this one group which had been watching a turtle for half an hour, during which everyone behaved, and no one used flash. I had to briefly go and check on another turtle, and the minute I turned my back, a flash went off! So now I tell everyone, if anyone uses the flash, no one is allowed to take any pictures at all.”
The briefing sessions followed by the turtle watching sessions are designed to educate and inspire people into doing their part for conservation. Often, it is actually tourists who flock to Pasar Payang in Kuala Terengganu to get a taste of turtle eggs, even buying them as souvenirs. This is why for Turner, education is key.
“At the briefings, we teach our guests just how vulnerable the turtle’s life cycle makes them,” he explains. “It can take between 26 and 40 years for turtles to reach sexual maturity, a journey only one in every 10,000 hatchlings will go through.”
These statistics are sobering, considering only 8,763 eggs were laid out of the 100 nestings along Tanjung Tukas in 2011, according to data from Bubbles.
According to Tumec, there was an annual average of 245 green turtle nests and 21,125 eggs counted in Perhentian for the years 2006 to 2011, giving new meaning to the phrase “every egg counts”.
Bubbles has at least made an impression on one boy. Turner recounts how one teenager volunteer told him that seeing a turtle struggle out of the water to shore to lay her eggs and then witnessing baby turtles emerge from the sand and rush to sea, has changed him.
“Now, when he sees a turtle in the water, peacefully grazing, he thinks of all the odds it has beaten. In fact, he became extremely protective of the turtles and said we shouldn’t be letting all these tourists come and watch the nestings because sometimes, people try and touch the turtles or take pictures with flash.” In return, Turner pointed out to the boy: “But how are you supposed to educate people if all the cool things happen behind closed doors? Just think about what a difference getting to see the turtles has made for you.”
Ethical turtle tourism
Natalie Heng The Star 17 Jul 12;
UP UNTIL 2005, divemaster Huang Pei See, 42, had never seen a turtle come ashore to nest. So when she woke up one morning to find tracks all over the sand in Tanjung Tukas, a secluded enclave at Pulau Perhentian Besar, the first thing she thought was: “Who drove a tractor across the beach?”
It eventually dawned on Huang, who had set up a dive shop there with her two business partners, that these were turtle tracks. However, she dismissed it as a one-off occurrence. It wasn’t. As the turtle nesting season (which runs from April to September) wore on, the ancient reptiles kept coming, and Huang began to stay up at night to watch them.
“It was a life-changing experience for me. I’ve been diving in Perhentian since the 1990s and seen them many times in the water but witnessing them struggling up to nest on land was just amazing.”
Unfortunately, she was not always alone. Egg poachers were not an uncommon sight on the beach and though she questioned their presence there, Huang felt it unwise to let the confrontations escalate, knowing how isolated her business was.
“It was frustrating. I knew we had something special here and I desperately wanted to protect the nesting beach, so I started writing to various government agencies and NGOs for help.” When she failed to get any meaningful response, Huang decided to collect data on her own, thinking that if she could show how many turtles were nesting there, people would take her more seriously. It eventually became clear that running a dive centre and staying up all night to patrol and collect data was highly impractical, so she drafted a volunteer project, and enlisted the help of a company called Way Out Experiences (WOX, which has since changed their name to Animal Projects and Environmental Education or APE) to get volunteers to patrol the beach against poachers.
That was when she met Daniel Quilter, who worked for WOX. Quilter has experience as a research assistant at a marine park in Sabah. With his background in environmental science, he helped bring more structure to Huang’s initiative, and introduced standardised data collection methods.
Quilter ran the volunteer turtle conservation project known as HOPE (Help Our Penyu), before leaving to concentrate on his other company, Ecoteer, which connects people with volun-tourism opportunities around the world.
In the meantime, things were not going well at the dive centre. Business was suffering as the chalets on the beach were not actively managed. Huang then took over operations of the chalets.
Wary after what had happened with the leatherbacks in Rantau Abang, Huang was determined to make sure the resort ran things responsibly, which meant respecting that they shared a beach with a healthy population of nesting turtles. Today, Bubbles Dive Resort – unlike many other resorts whose selling point is a picturesque view of the ocean – is the only establishment in Perhentian which is deliberately constructed behind the tree line.
“It was built this way so the lights don’t interfere with nesting turtles at night,” explains Huang. They also run a Turtle and Reef Conservation Project with volunteers from Ecoteer, which helps provide the resort with people keen to combine their holiday with meaningful volunteer work. The volunteers conduct daily dinner-time briefing sessions, educating guests about turtles and the threats they face, during which they remind guests to switch off their mobile phones and avoid camera flashes on the beach at night.
A typical week for these “volun-tourists” might include a diving package and involvement in monitoring nesting turtles, hatchery maintenance, and coral-regrowing projects. Seven years since her first encounter with turtles at Tanjung Tukas, Huang thinks that Bubbles Dive Resort has come up with a model demonstrating that responsible tourism can coincide with the protection of one of the island’s most charismatic resources – turtles.
“I believe the largest part of conservation is spreading awareness, and that’s what we are doing here. Like the environmentalist Baba Dioum once said, ‘In the end, we will conserve only what we love, we will love only what we understand, and we will understand only what we are taught’.” – Natalie Heng
Fidelis E. Satriastanti Jakarta Globe 17 Jul 12;
Indonesia’s forests are home to at least 600 Sumatran tigers, a recently released survey has found, providing a more optimistic picture than a 1994 official report that put the head count for the rare species at between 400 and 500.
The latest survey was conducted from 2007 to 2009 on more than 250 square kilometers of forest covering 38 nature reserves.
“Sumatran tigers were detected in 27 to 29 nature reserves,” Hariyo T. Wibisono, chairman of the Harimau Kita (Our Tigers) conservation forum told BeritaSatu on Monday. “There are Sumatran tigers in those areas but the exact figure is still not known. [We] only know the distribution, in which [areas] they are high, low or stable.”
Hariyo attributed the higher figure not to an increase in population, but to a better extrapolation method. He said the method used in the 1994 survey was not as accurate as that used in the more recent study, adding that the earlier research surveyed only seven locations: five national parks and two conservation forests in Sumatra.
“The figure [400 to 500] was announced in 1994 and the counting was conducted in 1992. But after a population-viability analysis was conducted, it turned out the extrapolation method was inaccurate,” he explained.
To find out about the distribution pattern of the Sumatran tigers, several NGOs whose primary concern is to prevent the extinction of the species conducted the latest survey and publicized the result in a scientific journal last year.
A second survey covering 59 percent of the 38 nature reserves showed that Sumatran tigers inhabit 72 percent of the total tiger habitat area.
“Data compilation used to count the population came from camera traps set up by several NGOs,” Hariyo explained. “They showed there were at least 600 individual tigers. But this hasn’t covered all [areas].”
He said that counting tiger population with camera trapping was difficult due to insufficient resources given the breadth of land that needed to be supervised.
Hariyo said counting the tiger population was not as important as finding ways to protect the rare species.
“In protecting Sumatran tigers, information about their population estimates is not important,” Hariyo said. “What’s important is for the management to know whether they are increasing, declining or remaining stable, as seen from the indicators of their presence and distribution.”
He added that he was always careful about mentioning figures because of the methodology issues.
Dara, a critically endangered Sumatran tiger rescued from a hunter’s trap in Bengkulu in February, was transferred to the Taman Safari Indonesia park in Bogor earlier this month. The female tiger, estimated at 4 to 5 years of age, was found by officials in a logging concession in Mukomuko district. Her front legs were seriously injured from the metal cables in which she was ensnared. The trap was believed to have been set up by poachers.
Sumatran Tiger Kills Plantation Worker in Indonesia
Jakarta Globe 17 Jul 12;
A Sumatran tiger attacked and killed a palm oil plantation worker in Indonesia, a conservation official said Tuesday, underlining the growing problem of human-animal conflicts.
Animals including tigers and elephants are coming into closer contact with people in Indonesia as forests are destroyed for timber or to make way for crops such as palm oil.
The 18-year-old female worker was killed Friday in the village of Indragiri Hulu, Riau, said provincial conservation agency chief Bambang Dahono Aji.
“Some of her co-workers were there when the tiger attacked the worker and tore her apart,” he said.
He added that about two weeks ago a Sumatran tiger was killed in the vicinity after getting snared in a trap villagers set to catch wild boars.
Estimates of the number of Sumatran tigers remaining in the world range from 300 to 400. Several die each year as a result of traps, poaching or other human actions.
Agence France-Presse
AFP Yahoo News 17 Jul 12;
The "unique habit" of whale sharks that converge to feed from fishing nets in Indonesia has allowed them to be tagged with low-cost technology usually used on pets, conservationists said Tuesday.
Experts in June injected tiny pill-sized radio transmitters beneath the skin of 30 whale sharks in Cenderawasih Bay in the eastern province of Papua, conservation group WWF said.
And it was only made possible because the giant animals, which measure up to 45 feet (13.7 metres) but are harmless to humans, were gathered to feed on fish caught in fishermen's nets, WWF Indonesia project leader Beny Ahadian Noor told AFP.
A YouTube video by Conservation International (CI) showing a whale shark sucking fish from a hole in a net in clear blue waters has now attracted more than one million views (www.youtube.com/watch?v=71FLO_6JJVo).
"Radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags have been used on pets such as dogs, but this is the first time on whale sharks," Noor said.
Researchers would usually use a more sophisticated satellite method, at $4,000 a tag. But Noor said each radio-frequency tag used in Cenderawasih Bay cost only $4.
"It's good enough for a start since we have little information about the behaviour of whale sharks here," he said.
Marine biologist Mark Erdmann, who joined the expedition, said it was "fairly impractical to swim after the giants with a receiver wand under water".
"What makes this tagging possible in Cenderawasih Bay is the unique habit this population has of aggregating at... fishing platforms to feast upon the small silverside baitfish that the fishers are catching," he said.
Whale sharks, the world's largest fish, are classified as "vulnerable" by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN.)
AFP Yahoo News 17 Jul 12;
South Korea has decided to scrap its fiercely criticised plan to resume "scientific" whaling, apparently because of international pressure, a report said Tuesday.
"Discussions between government ministries have been concluded in a way that effectively scraps the plan to allow whaling in coastal waters," an unnamed senior government official told Yonhap news agency.
"Even if it is for scientific research, we have to take into consideration that this has emerged as a sensitive issue at home and abroad."
The Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries declined to confirm the report.
Kang Joon-Suk, a senior ministry official, said last week that South Korea may scrap its plan if experts come up with non-lethal means to study the mammals.
South Korea unveiled its plan to resume whaling at an International Whaling Commission meeting this month in Panama, sparking an international outcry.
It said it would use a loophole in a global moratorium that permits killing of whales for "scientific" research.
Greenpeace described scientific whaling as "thinly disguised commercial whaling". France, the United States, Australia and New Zealand also spoke out strongly against Seoul's plan.
South Korea cited what it called a significant increase in whale stocks in its waters and consequent damage to fisheries.
If it went ahead, it would be the fourth country to kill whales, excluding allowances for indigenous groups. Norway and Iceland openly defy the 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling, saying they believe stocks are healthy.
Japan already uses the loophole for scientific research, with the meat then going to the dinner plate.
Stephanie Pappas LiveScience.com Yahoo News 18 Jul 12;
Scientists loaded their ship to the max this month off the coast of Hawaii, but their bounty wasn't fish or coral or any other scientific specimen. It was garbage.
The crew of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) ship Oscar Elton Sette pulled 50 metric tons of marine debris out of the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument off the northwestern Hawaiian Islands last month, part of an ongoing mission since 1996 to clean up the shallow coral reef environment.
"What surprises us is that after many years of marine debris removal in Papahanaumokuakea and more than 700 metric tons of debris later, we are still collecting a significant amount of derelict fishing gear from the shallow coral reefs and shorelines," Kyle Koyanagi, the chief scientist for the mission, said in a NOAA statement. "The ship was at maximum capacity and we did not have any space for more debris."
NOAA has been sending out garbage-removing ships every year since 1996. On the mission that ended Saturday (July 14), 17 scientists cleaned up the coastal waters and shorelines of the Kure Atoll, Midway Atoll, Pearl Atoll, Hermes Atoll, Lisianski Island and Laysan Island, all in the northern section of the Hawaiian Islands.
About half of the marine junk was broken fishing gear and plastic from Midway Atoll. Though the researchers looked, they found no evidence of debris from 2011's tsunami in Japan. Some debris from that disaster has shown up on the west coast of North America, including an enormous floating dock covered with marine organisms. [Images: Japanese Tsunami Dock]
Marine debris such as discarded nets can trap sea turtles, seals and other marine animals.
"[M]arine debris is an everyday problem, especially right here in the Pacific," Carey Morishige, the Pacific Islands regional coordinator for NOAA's Marine Debris Program said in a statement.
The massive amount of garbage pulled from the ocean will now be put to use as fuel for electricity generation. Hawaii's Nets-to Energy program removes metal from broken-down nets and cuts them up for combustion. The steam from the fires runs a turbine to create energy.
Maggie Lu Yueyang and Colin Packham PlanetArk 18 Jul 12;
Climate indicators for an El Niño event in the western Pacific have eased slightly in the past fortnight, but meteorologists still expect the weather pattern which can bring drought to the Asia-Pacific and damage crops to form late in 2012.
El Nino indicators such as the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI), sea surface temperatures and trade winds have eased over the past two weeks, but are still close to El Niño thresholds, Australia's Bureau of Meteorology said on Tuesday.
"This is a bit of a short-term blip, which is not unexpected," said Andrew Watkins, manager climate models for the Australian Bureau of Meteorology.
"We have to wait to see how long it takes for this weather event to pass, but we would expect things to continue around the weather threshold."
El Nino weather phenomenon could form as early as the third quarter of 2012, the U.S. Climate Prediction Center said on July 6.
Japan's weather bureau, in its monthly assessment, said its model was forecasting a high chance of an El Nino developing between June and August.
The pattern typically brings below average rainfall for the Asia Pacific region, threatening the yields of agricultural crops, while America is often hit by wetter than average weather.
Global food production may suffer massive disruptions from the warming caused by El Nino.
Three years ago, it slowed development of India's vital monsoon rains, sparking a rally in sugar prices to 30-year highs as the No. 2 producer in the world suffered a poor cane crop.
Malaysia, the world's second-largest palm oil producer, may have lower output in 2013 if an El Nino forms and results in poor rainfall. China, a key buyer of overseas corn in recent years, may be forced to step up imports.
Australian wheat production could also be hit if the country experiences lower-than-average rainfall.
The formation of an El Nino over the western Pacific means La Nina conditions over the eastern Pacific, bringing unwanted rains and damaging crops in agricultural powerhouses like Brazil and Argentina. Brazil is the world's biggest producer of sugar, coffee and soybeans. Argentina is a major soybean exporter
The normally dry areas of Chile, the world's No. 1 copper producer, could see floods due to a La Nina.
(Reporting By Maggie Lu Yueyang and Colin Packham; Editing by Michael Perry)
Wildfacts updates: cool critter maps and more!
from wild shores of singapore
Differentiating Millipedes and Centipedes
from Macro Photography in Singapore
Netizens
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Feeding birds in Punggol Park
from Urban Forest
Spiderhunter collecting nest material
from Bird Ecology Study Group
WWF 17 Jul 12;
Over the past decade, Singapore and Malaysia combined have accounted for 93% of all birds imported from the Solomon Islands, with significant numbers being re-exported, especially to Taiwan.
Singapore — Tens of thousands of wild birds exported from the Solomon Islands have been laundered into the global wildlife trade by declaring them as captive-bred, a new TRAFFIC study has found.
Between 2000 and 2010, more than 54,000 birds, mainly parrots and cockatoos, were imported from the Solomon Islands and declared as captive bred. Yet local authorities confirmed to TRAFFIC that the Solomon Islands is not known to have substantial bird breeding facilities and registered bird breeders in the islands primarily use their facilities as holding sites for wild-caught birds bound for export.
All the birds were of species listed in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES), which restricts trade in wild-caught individuals, but has less stringent rules if they are captive-bred.
Native species exported included 18,444 Yellow-bibbed Lories, 15,994 Solomons Cockatoos, 8,050 Eclectus Parrots, 5,803 Cardinal Lories and 4,957 Rainbow Lorikeets. 12,820 of these birds were declared as wild-caught and 40,428 were reportedly captive-bred.
“Declaring exported birds as being captive-bred has all the hallmarks of a scam to get around international trade regulations,” said Chris R. Shepherd, Deputy Regional Director of TRAFFIC Southeast Asia and an author of the new report.
More than 13,000 non-native birds, mostly species naturally occurring in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, were exported, yet no export records exist that could explain how any stock for captive-breeding operations had reached the Solomon Islands.
They included Critically Endangered Yellow-crested Cockatoos, which cannot be commercially traded under CITES regulations even if captive-bred, plus other threatened parrots, such as Pesquet’s Parrot, Chattering Lory, Blue-eyed Cockatoo and White Cockatoo, all claimed to be captive-bred.
Even more extraordinary was the claim that in 2005, 76 birds-of-paradise of seven species, including the threatened Blue Bird-of-paradise, were captive-bred in the Solomon Islands. Birds-of-paradise are notoriously difficult to breed in captivity, and only a few specialized centres have ever succeeded. No records of birds-of-paradise being imported into the Solomon Islands exist.
In August 2006, the Solomon Islands government suspended trade in the country’s native wildlife, to allow new legislation to be drafted. Although bird exports have fallen sharply since, expired permits are revalidated to allow existing stock possessed by traders to be exported, creating an obvious loophole for the captive-breeding scam to continue.
Over the past decade, Singapore and Malaysia combined have accounted for 93% of all birds imported from the Solomon Islands, with significant numbers being re-exported, especially to Taiwan.
Because of concerns over the trade, Malaysia has suspended bird imports from the Solomon Islands. Now TRAFFIC considers Singapore should do the same.
“Singapore should follow Malaysia’s lead in suspending bird imports, not only from the Solomon Islands but anywhere else if there is a lack of clarity as to their legal origin,” said Shepherd.
The report recommends an investigation into captive breeding operations in the Solomon Islands is carried out through CITES processes. If irregularities are found, CITES ultimately has the authority to suspend all trade in CITES-listed species from the island archipelago.
Later this month, a CITES meeting takes place in Switzerland, where a report into the use of captive-breeding to circumvent CITES trade regulations is on the agenda for discussion.
Wild birds 'smuggled through Solomon Islands'
(AFP) Google News 18 Jul 12;
SINGAPORE — More than 54,000 wild birds, including critically endangered species, were laundered through the Solomon islands into the global wildlife trade between 2000 and 2010, a wildlife group said Tuesday.
The birds, classified as "captive-bred" to skirt wildlife trafficking laws and in the main not native to the islands, were exported mostly to Singapore and Malaysia from where they were sold to other parts of the world, TRAFFIC said in a report.
"Between 2000 and 2010, more than 54,000 birds, mainly parrots and cockatoos, were imported from the Solomon Islands and declared as captive-bred," said the report, launched in Singapore.
"Yet local authorities confirmed to TRAFFIC that the Solomon Islands is not known to have substantial bird breeding facilities," it added.
TRAFFIC said Singapore and Malaysia accounted for 93 percent of all birds imported from Solomon Islands between 2000 and 2010.
Malaysia however has suspended its bird imports and TRAFFIC is urging Singapore to do the same.
"Singapore should follow Malaysia's lead in suspending bird imports, not only from the Solomon Islands but anywhere else if there is a lack of clarity as to their legal origin," said TRAFFIC's Southeast Asia deputy director Chris Shepherd.
The birds included vulnerable, endangered and critically endangered species such as the Yellow-crested Cockatoo, which cannot be traded under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna, or CITES.
In addition, a majority of the birds were not native to the Solomon Islands but are found in Indonesia or Papua New Guinea.
The absence of records showing the Solomon Islands had imported the birds indicated that they had been caught in the wild, TRAFFIC said.
Shepherd said the smugglers were deceiving authorities to gain access to the global pet trade.
"Declaring exported birds as being captive-bred has all the hallmarks of a scam to get around international trade regulations," he said in the report.
Laura Yuen, Minnesota Public Radio 16 Jul 12;
APPLE VALLEY, Minn. — When a young dolphin named Taijah died on Feb.6, officials at the Minnesota Zoo knew they had a problem on their hands.
Dolphins are one of the most popular attractions at the zoo, and Taijah was the sixth in the collection to die in as many years.
Staff emails show zoo officials were worried about bad publicity in the days and weeks following the death. Those fears were warranted, as news about Taijah's death quickly spread throughout the world.
"A dolphin dies in Minnesota, and people in Singapore know about it five minutes later," Zoo Director Lee Ehmke said in an interview.
The string of dolphin deaths at the zoo has become a flashpoint for a broader debate about keeping dolphins in captivity. Zoo officials were worried about the fatalities and the public heat surrounding them, according to emails and other documents MPR News obtained through the state Data Practices Act.
Zoo officials, however, say the deaths had nothing to do with their decision to close the exhibit this fall, which they said largely has to do with the scarcity of dolphins.
When officials decided a few months later to close the dolphin exhibit, Ehmke received thousands of phone calls and emails. He said they were split between dolphin-rights groups applauding the decision, and zoo visitors outraged to see the animals go. The response shows just how divided people are about keeping these smart, fascinating creatures in concrete tanks.
Industry experts say the zoo's decision to find new homes for the dolphins doesn't portend any kind of national trend. Forty-four zoos and aquariums in the United States display dolphins, and that number has held steady over the years.
The documents obtained by MPR News suggest zoo officials were paying attention to that larger debate. Taijah's death quickly prompted a high-level discussion about whether to keep dolphins on display.
Kevin Willis, the zoo's director of biological programs, raised key questions in an email to Ehmke.
"Is the question whether we can responsibly keep dolphins, or is the question whether anyone can responsibly keep dolphins?" Willis asked. "Maybe the question is: Given that dolphins are going to die, can we stand the political and public heat in terms of maintaining a good reputation (and of course our attendance and donors?)"
When asked about the email, Willis said he did not mean to express doubt about whether dolphins belong in captivity. He said he was simply trying to determine where the conversation about the exhibit's future was headed.
"I just asked, 'What is the framework of this discussion? Is it philosophical? Is it money?' " he recalled.
Willis said he believes zoos can and do responsibly care for dolphins. He's not convinced that dolphins in human care are under more stress than those in the wild.
"They're not worried about predators, they're not worried about food," Willis said of dolphins in captivity. "They generally know everybody. There are no dolphins coming in, trying to disrupt the social order. I don't know which would have more or less stress."
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which regulates zoos, found that Minnesota's dolphin tanks were in compliance with federal rules.
Willis points out that the six dolphins in the zoo's care died of unrelated reasons.
"If there was some way we could tie the deaths together, it would be very helpful," he said.
DEATHS A HARD BLOW TO ZOO
The first death came in 2006, when a seven-month-old calf named Harley popped out of the water and cracked his skull. At the time, zoo officials said he smacked his head on the concrete deck when he landed. But it's also possible he hit his head while trying to swim between two pools, Willis said.
Harley's mother, Rio, died two months later of an undetermined cause.
Fourteen-year-old Ayla was euthanized after suffering complications from scoliosis.
In 2009, a calf was stillborn.
Last year, 44-year-old April died of respiratory and cardiac arrest.
Taijah died in February after experiencing an ulcer that could have been related to stress. The exact cause of the death is unknown, said University of Minnesota veterinarian Arno Wunschmann, who performed the necropsy.
Taijah's medical records from the zoo showed that a fire alarm set off four days before her death caused her to act nervously. Dolphins have excellent hearing and can be sensitive to vibrations. But Willis said trainers didn't think much of Taijah's anxiety. He said it wasn't out of the ordinary.
"She's had the same reaction when we've wanted to install a graphic and started drilling somewhere," he said. "That vibration is enough to get her nervous, and swimming back and forth. Some dolphins react strongly."
Willis doesn't believe the fire alarm contributed to Taijah's deterioration.
Her death was a hard blow for the zoo, which had spent years trying to breed new dolphins in hopes of making the collection sustainable.
After she died, the zoo's dolphin group dwindled to two. Zoo officials preferred to have at least three or four to create a healthy social group.
Acquiring new dolphins is no easy task. Zoos can apply for permits to catch wild dolphins from U.S. waters, but public pressure against such captures makes that practice highly unlikely.
Zoos and aquariums rely on other breeding facilities for dolphins, but reproduction is not keeping up with demand.
Officials at the Minnesota Zoo say it's that dolphin shortage that forced their decision to close the exhibit — not concerns about the safety of dolphins in their care.
Zoo officials were coached to tell the media that animal-rights advocates had no bearing on the decision to get rid of the dolphins, according to plans zoo communications officials distributed to staff to read, provided by the zoo in response to the MPR News data request.
But it's also clear from zoo documents that zoo officials considered the controversy over captive dolphins. A zoo task force that met to determine the future of the exhibit was briefed on the growing influence of groups opposed to keeping dolphins and whales in tanks.
A PUBLIC FAVORITE
On the other hand, many Americans have an unabated love affair with the ocean creatures, and there is popular support for opportunities to experience dolphins in captive situations. A poll released last year by the Alliance of Marine Mammal Parks and Aquariums found 97 percent of people ages 18 to 24 would like to swim with a dolphin.
Despite the controversy, crowds at the Minnesota Zoo adore the dolphins. At a noontime training session, hundreds sitting on concrete steps cheer the two remaining animals, Allie and Semo.
Semo is believed to be approaching 50, making him the oldest male dolphin in human care. This geriatric star is like the Billy Crystal of show dolphins. He jumps arcs across the pool, and in the next beat, he's dribbling a ball with his nose.
Thirteen-year-old Dana Marble of Eagan, Minn., grew up watching Semo. Dolphins have been part of the state zoo since it opened in 1978, and the animals are still a big draw for kids like Dana and her friends.
"It's always fun to see them," she said. "They're so happy all of the time. It always brings a smile when we see them."
Yet the aging Semo can't do the tricks he used to, and a few years ago the zoo scaled back the high-flying shows to shorter and less demanding presentations. The zoo's decision to close the exhibit was the nail in the coffin for what zoo officials have described as a dysfunctional dolphin group.
"THE DOLPHIN SMILE IS AN ILLUSION"
Many of the families cheering in the stands want the dolphins to stay. But activists and scientists who oppose dolphins in captivity hope other zoos and aquariums across the country will follow Minnesota's example. They say these highly social animals don't thrive in captive settings — even if they appear to be enjoying themselves.
"It's an illusion," said Lori Marino, a neuroscientist at Emory University in Atlanta. "The dolphin smile is an illusion.
"The fact that they are active during the shows, and seem to be happy, doesn't mean that they are."
More than a decade ago, Marino co-authored a groundbreaking study showing dolphins could recognize themselves in the reflection of a mirror. At the time, that kind of self-awareness was proven only in humans and chimps. Marino's research on captive dolphins advanced scientific understanding of the animals.
But the two dolphins that were Marino's test subjects died of infections shortly after they were transferred to new facilities. That led her to conclude dolphins did not belong in captivity.
That would become a personal crusade for Marino.
"What we were doing was manipulating these individuals' lives in a way that was causing them a lot of damage," she said. "I started to feel that was not something I wanted to participate in anymore."
Marino now considers herself a scientist-advocate, and opposes any research on captive dolphins. She said saltwater pools like the one at the Minnesota Zoo cannot duplicate a dolphin's natural ocean environment, where it can swim tens of kilometers a day. She said dolphins swim not only for food, but as part of their social life.
"Even the largest tank in the world is a small fractional percentage of what their natural range would be," Marino said. "There's nothing about the captive situation that is natural."
That stress is compounded if a dolphin is trying to flee a bully in the tank, Marino said.
Semo, for instance, has been known to show aggression toward his poolmates, especially young males. One email from Willis described Semo's tendency to, in his words, "womp" on other dolphins.
Marino and others say that kind of aggression could have caused Harley, the calf, to jump out of the water and fatally crack his skull six years ago.
"The problem with captivity is there is no way for these individuals to work out their differences," Marino said. "There's nowhere to go. In the wild, if there was aggression, the way they would work that out would be to disperse. But in a tank, you don't have that option."
A dolphin at the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago last year suffered a similar fatal injury. In that case, the animal may have collided with another dolphin as they jumped into the air.
Proponents of dolphin exhibits say keeping dolphins under close watch is what has brought people closer to the animals. They say it's through these captive settings that our understanding of dolphins, and our love for them, has grown.
"I think it's really ironic that the semi-deification, almost, of dolphins among some people probably didn't happen until dolphins were brought into captivity in the '50s and '60s, when they first came into marine parks," Zoo Director Ehmke said. "That's where people really got to experience how incredible these guys really are. Before that, many people assumed they were just fish."
The Minnesota Zoo plans to renovate its aquarium exhibit this fall, and then introduce fish and stingrays into the pools where dolphins once swam.
Fish might not be exciting as dolphins, but they'll probably be a lot less controversial.
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