A Forest Worth Fighting For (I)
from Diary of a Boy wandering through Our Little Urban Eden
Celebrating 10 years of Tropical Marine Science Laboratory on St John's Island from Psychedelic Nature
References on plants of Southeast Asia
from Bird Ecology Study Group
Decade-old St John's station 'needs long-term funding' to fulfil potential
Grace Chua Straits Times 2 Oct 12;
SINGAPORE'S first post-independence marine research station celebrates its 10th anniversary this year - and there are big plans for its future.
But the Tropical Marine Science Institute's (TMSI) laboratories and aquariums need long-term funding if they are to match the standards of the world's leading ocean research centres.
The station is on St John's Island, just 6.5km off the southern coast of Singapore, beyond Sentosa. An outpost with a chequered past, the island was once a quarantine area, then a drug rehabilitation centre.
The 40ha island is home to much of Singapore's marine research work. Among its major projects are the study of the movement of currents in the Singapore Strait, the breeding of giant clams, how to prevent ships' hulls from becoming encrusted with sea life and collection of data on marine mammals in local waters.
TMSI's director, Professor Peter Ng, said the station has the potential to be Singapore's answer to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute or the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, American institutes renowned for their studies of the sea and sea life.
But a long-term funding programme is needed if it is to succeed, he said.
On Sunday, the island research station opened its doors to some 200 of TMSI's research collaborators and their families, including those from government agencies like the National Parks Board.
Researchers showed off their projects and some recounted how the St John's station was set up.
In 1996, a multi-disciplinary group of scientists campaigned for a marine science initiative, which was then housed on Kent Ridge.
An island nation, they pointed out, ought to have marine research on aquaculture and food safety, and how land reclamation and shipping might affect water quality and the marine environment, among other things.
For research tanks of fish and corals, they had to truck seawater into the National University of Singapore's (NUS) main Kent Ridge campus and haul it from a main storage tank in jerrycans.
After talks with the then Singapore Tourist Promotion Board, they leased space on St John's Island and secured about $10 million to build the station, which pumps seawater from the island's southern edge into aquariums.
The institute's budget was much smaller than the more than $1 billion a year Singapore was then pouring into biomedical and life sciences research.
Professor Chou Loke Ming, the first director of the Tropical Marine Science Initiative before it became TMSI, said: "We went through the 'dark age' when resources and funding were focused on biotechnology. The situation has changed now with a balanced focus on environment, accompanied by resources and research funding."
Professor Chan Eng Soon, who succeeded Prof Chou until he left in 2008 to become the dean of NUS' engineering faculty, said that early dedication has been borne out.
"If you look at some of the grand challenges today, they include climate change, sustainability and biodiversity", in which marine research plays a key role, he said. "In that sense, we believed in it ahead of its time and we pursued it."
Today, the institute runs on $10 million to $14 million a year, much of it from competitive government consultancy tenders and research grants.
For example, a three-year collaboration with the Housing Board and planners Surbana found that cultured coral could survive and grow on man-made seawalls.
And TMSI has recently revived its aquaculture programme, developing cockles free of hepatitis A by feeding them nutrients from seabass vaccinated against the virus.
Prof Ng, the current director, now wants to do more outreach and education for secondary to tertiary students, and wants the island station to play a "more national role as well", answering more research questions of strategic national importance.
"To build a Scripps or Woods Hole, you need to look 20 years down the road," he said.
"A lot of different agencies are involved here. How do we get them to come together and put forth a national agenda?"
Long-term plan will raise efficiency of port operations and free up prime land
Alvin Foo Straits Times 2 Oct 12;
SINGAPORE has officially decided to consolidate all its container port activities at Tuas over the long term with the first berths to be built there in 10 years.
Announcing the decision yesterday, Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew said the move would free up prime land occupied by the terminals in the city area for redevelopment and result in more efficient port operations.
The announcement came at a launch ceremony at which PSA Singapore Terminals (PSA) said it is investing $3.5 billion to develop Phases 3 and 4 of its Pasir Panjang Terminal.
This will be spent on leading infrastructure and the latest port technology, such as an automated container yard and unmanned cranes.
The idea of a mega port at Tuas was proposed by the Government's Economic Strategies Committee in 2010.
Yesterday, Mr Lui said: "We will work towards consolidating all our container port activities at Tuas over the longer term."
This means that the city terminals at Tanjong Pagar, Keppel and Brani, plus those at Pasir Panjang will eventually be merged at Tuas. The port leases at Tanjong Pagar, Keppel and Brani will end in 2027.
Tuas is suitable given its "sheltered deep waters and proximity to (Singapore's) major industrial areas and international shipping routes", said Mr Lui.
Tuas Port will be a long-term project rolled out in phases, with the first set of berths to be operational in about 10 years, he added.
The target is for Tuas Port to handle up to 65 million standard containers a year, nearly double the current total container handling capacity of 35 million 20ft equivalent units (TEUs). It will also result in greater efficiency.
Now, Singapore has five container terminals - Tanjong Pagar, Keppel, Brani, Pasir Panjang Terminal 1 and Pasir Panjang Terminal 2. Containers are often trucked between these terminals for transhipment, adding to time taken, business costs and road congestion.
Mr Lui said: "Consolidation will eliminate this need for inter-terminal haulage."
The new port will also give a clean slate and the chance to introduce more advanced technology and processes to meet future challenges, he added.
Meanwhile, PSA said Pasir Panjang Terminal Phases 3 and 4 will have 15 new berths, with nearly 6,000m of quay length and up to 18m draft. These new phases can accommodate the next generation of container vessels.
"It will showcase state-of- the-art technologies that will take our overall capacity, productivity and customer service to new heights," said PSA International group chief executive Tan Chong Meng.
The upcoming phases at Pasir Panjang Terminal will feature an automated container yard with proprietary intelligent planning and operation systems, and unmanned, rail-mounted gantry cranes.
When completed by 2020, these additions will boost Singapore's total container handling capacity from 35 million standard containers a year now to 50 million. Last year PSA handled 29.37 million containers.
All container port activities to be consolidated at Tuas in future
Sim Ping Khuan Channel NewsAsia 1 Oct 12;
SINGAPORE: Singapore will work towards consolidating all container port activities at Tuas over the long term as recommended by Singapore's Economic Strategies Committee.
The first set of berths at the new Tuas Port is expected to be operational in about ten years' time.
Speaking at the launch of Pasir Panjang Terminal Phases 3 and 4 by PSA Singapore, Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew said the development of Tuas Port will free up prime land, which the city terminals at Tanjong Pagar, Keppel and Pulau Brani are currently occupying, for future redevelopment.
The port leases for the city terminals at Tanjong Pagar, Keppel and Pulau Brani will expire in 2027.
Consolidation of port activities at Tuas will improve capacity to meet longer term demands, achieve greater efficiency and economies of scale.
It will also reduce the need for containers to be moved by trucks between existing terminals.
There are currently five container terminals - Brani, Keppel, Tanjong Pagar, Pasir Panjang Terminal 1 and Pasir Panjang Terminal 2.
Mr Lui said: "Tuas provides a suitable location because of its sheltered deep waters and proximity to both our major industrial areas and international shipping routes. We will plan for Tuas Port to be able to handle up to 65 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) per annum."
Meanwhile, PSA will spend S$3.5 billion to bring in class-leading infrastructure and latest port technology to develop Phases 3 and 4 of its Pasir Panjang Terminal.
Phase 3 is expected to be operational in 2014.
When fully completed with 15 berths by 2020, the development will increase the total port capacity by 50 per cent to 50 million TEUs.
- CNA/fa
Full speech at SG Press Centre: Speech by Mr Lui Tuck Yew, Minister for Transport at "Unveiling the Future - The Launch of Pasir Panjang Terminal Phases 3 and 4, 1 Oct 2012 at PSA Auditorium.
The Star 2 Oct 12;
DUNGUN: About two million newly-hatched turtles were released by the Turtle and Marine Ecosystem Centre (Tumec) in collaboration with the Fisheries Department since 2001, in efforts to preserve the species for future generations.
Tumec chief Syed Abdullah Syed Abdul Kadir said that they had been working with the Fisheries Departments of Terengganu, Pahang, Johor, Malacca, Negri Sembilan, Perak and Penang to preserve four turtle species, namely leatherback turtles, karah, agar and cockroach.
“We managed to increase agar turtle nestlings to 820 as of Sept 25 this year compared with 450 nests in 1992, on Mak Kepit Beach in Pulau Redang.
“The nesting of the turtles on Mat Kepit Beach were increased and can be a model for turtle management in the country, as one million newly-hatched turtles were released on the beach within 20 years,” he said.
He said Tumec had managed to increase the number of turtle nestlings in Teluk Mak Nik Pantai in Kamaman by about 1,000 nests every year from 2009 compared with only 400 to 600 nests from 2000 to 2006.
“Tumec's success is due to the close co-operation with the Fisheries Department and 30 private companies which undertake the turtle conservation activities throughout peninsula Malaysia.
“We also managed to include almost 150,000 Malaysians through various awareness programmes each year at seven information centres and conservation of turtles nationwide,” he said.
He said Tumec is a research centre which conducts studies on turtles and marine mammals as well as provides technical services on management and turtle conservation programmes in Labuan and Pulau Layang Layang. - Bernama
* Great Barrier Reef suffers unprecedented coral loss
* Study says storms, starfish, bleaching cause most damage
* Risk of rapid decline unless world adopts tough CO2 goals
David Fogarty Reuters 2 Oct 12;
SINGAPORE, Oct 2 (Reuters) - The world's largest coral reef - under threat from Australia's surging coal and gas shipments, climate change and a destructive starfish - is declining faster than ever and coral cover could fall to just 5 percent in the next decade, a study shows.
Researchers from the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) in the northeastern city of Townsville say Australia's Great Barrier Reef has lost half of its coral in little more than a generation. And the pace of damage has picked up since 2006.
Globally, reefs are being assailed by myriad threats, particularly rising sea temperatures, increased ocean acidity and more powerful storms, but the threat to the Great Barrier Reef is even more pronounced, the AIMS study published on Tuesday found.
"In terms of geographic scale and the extent of the decline, it is unprecedented anywhere in the world," AIMS chief John Gunn told Reuters.
AIMS scientists studied data from more than 200 individual reefs off the Queensland coast covering the period 1985-2012. They found cyclone damage caused nearly half the losses, crown-of-thorns starfish more than 40 percent and coral bleaching from spikes in sea temperatures 10 percent.
The starfish are native and prey on the reefs. But plagues are occurring much more frequently.
Ordinarily, reefs can recover within 10 to 20 years from storms, bleachings or starfish attacks but climate change impacts slow this down. Rising ocean acidification caused by seas absorbing more carbon dioxide is disrupting the ability of corals to build their calcium carbonate structures. Hotter seas stress corals still further.
Greens say the 2,000 km (1,200 mile) long reef ecosystem, the centre-piece of a multi-billion tourism industry, also faces a growing threat from shipping driven by the planned expansion of coal and liquefied natural gas projects.
Those concerns have put pressure on the authorities to figure out how to protect the fragile reef.
FALLING FAST
The researchers say the pace of coral loss has increased since 2006 and if the trend continues, coral cover could halve again by 2022, with the southern and central areas most affected.
Between 1985 and 2012, coral cover of the reef area fell from 28 percent to 13.8 percent.
"Coral cover on the reef is consistently declining, and without intervention, it will likely fall to 5 to 10 percent within the next 10 years," say the researchers in the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal. They called for tougher curbs on greenhouse gas emissions as a crucial way to stem the loss.
Shipping and new ports on the Queensland coast are another major threat, Greenpeace says.
Coal is one of Australia's top export earners and the state of Queensland is the country's largest coal-producer. It also has a rapidly growing coal-seam gas industry for LNG exports.
Earlier this year, Greenpeace estimated port expansion could more than triple Queensland's coal export capacity by 2020 from 257 million tonnes now. That would mean as many as 10,000 coal ships per year could make their way through the Great Barrier Reef area by 2020, up 480 percent from 1,722 ships in 2011, according to the group.
The Queensland and national governments, which jointly manage the reef, have launched a major review of managing the risks facing the UNESCO-listed reef and its surrounding marine area. The review will look at managing the threats from increased shipping to urban development.
Gunn said better management was all about buying time and improving the reef's resilience to climate change. A key area was improving water quality from rivers flowing into the reef area, with studies suggesting fertiliser-rich waters help the crown-of-thorns starfish larvae rapidly multiply. (Editing by Jeremy Laurence)
Half of Great Barrier Reef Lost in Past 3 Decades
Katharine Gammon LiveScience.com Yahoo News 2 Oct 12;
Australia's Great Barrier Reef is a glittering gem — the world's largest coral reef ecosystem — chock-full of diverse marine life. But new research shows it is also in steep decline, with half of the reef vanishing in the past 27 years.
Katharina Fabricius, a coral reef ecologist at the Australian Institute of Marine Science and study co-author, told LiveScience that she has been diving and working on the reef since 1988 — and has watched the decline. "I hear of the changes anecdotally, but this is the first long-term look at the overall status of the reef. There are still a lot of fish, and you can see giant clams, but not the same color and diversity as in the past."
To get their data, Fabricius and her colleagues surveyed 214 different reefs around the Great Barrier Reef, compiling information from 2,258 surveys to determine the rate of decline between 1985 and 2012. They estimated the coral cover, or the amount of the seafloor covered with living coral.
That overall 50-percent decline, they estimate, is a yearly loss of about 3.4 percent of the reef. [Photos of Great Barrier Reef Through Time]
They did find some local differences, with the relatively pristine northern region showing no decline over the past two decades.
Cyclones and starfish
The reef’s decline, detailed this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, can be chalked up to several factors, they found. The biggest factors are smashing from tropical cyclones, crown-of-thorns starfish that eat coral and are boosted by nutrient runoff from agriculture, and coral bleaching from high-temperatures, which are rising due to climate change. (Coral bleaching happens when ocean temperatures rise and cause the corals to expel their zooxanthellae — the tiny photosynthetic algae that live in the coral's tissues.)
Other coral experts say the precipitous decline matches what they have found. "This is a really grim wake-up call," said John Bruno, a biologist at UNC Chapel Hill. "The GBR [Great Barrier Reef], which only 10 years ago was considered the world's most pristine and resilient coral reef is clearly not better off and no less threatened than any other reef. I am bullish on the long-term survival of reefs, but science like this is challenging that outlook."
Saving the reef
As for what can be done to save the reef, or what's left of it, some say reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions is key. "International efforts to cap and reduce CO2 emissions are equally critical and must occur at the same time as cleaning up local impacts," said Les Kaufman, a biologist at Boston University who is part of an international consensus statement on climate change and coral reefs.
Fabricius says not much can be done in the short term about the climate-change-driven frequency of cyclones — five category 5 storms in the past seven years have pounded the reefs — or high temperatures. However, there are efforts in place to stem the damage from starfish, which can grow up to 3 feet (0.9 meters) in diameter and sport long venomous spines and 21 arms. Young starfish feed on coral-making algae, and leave behind the coral's skeleton.
One project encourages farmers to adopt practices that limit the amount of nutrient-rich runoff draining into reef areas. Another would allow tour operators to manually remove starfish from tourist areas, which Fabricius admits isn't a solution, just a temporary fix.
Another option is to examine ways of harnessing natural starfish diseases that typically keep starfish numbers low. "Starfish normally are rare," Fabricius said. "We want to help Mother Nature keep them rare." The research shows that the reef could rebuild itself in 20-30 years despite the cyclones and bleaching, if the starfish population died back.
The experts agree that doing nothing is not an option at this point. "The problem is entirely soluble, and coral reefs can be saved through concerted effort over this and the following two or three generations," said Kaufman. "There is absolutely no excuse for failure to do this, and if we do fail our generation will forever be remembered for unimaginable, unforgivable stupidity and sloth."
Katharine Gammon LiveScience Yahoo News 2 Oct 12;
MONTEREY, Calif. — The world's oceans are getting more acidic, a phenomenon predicted to wreak havoc on most sea life. But some organisms are performing better in these caustic conditions than researchers had anticipated, raising questions about what the oceans will look like in the future.
"We know evolution can occur on relatively short ecological timescales," said Gretchen Hofmann, a biologist at the University of California at Santa Barbara, at the Third International Symposium on the Oceans in a High CO2 World meeting last week. She added that the big remaining question is which species will survive, and which won't be able to cope.
As carbon dioxide levels increase in the atmosphere (as a result of burning fossil fuels), about a quarter of that atmospheric carbon makes its way into the oceans, where it dissolves and makes the waters more acidic. Currently, because of this process, the oceans are about 30 percent more acidic than they were at the start of the industrial revolution.
Species that make shells out of calcium carbonate are particularly compromised in acidic waters, where the carbonate ions needed for shell-making are not available. But other ocean-dwellers that rely on protein instead of calcium carbonate to create shells fare better. For instance, small crablike arthropods about the size of sand fleas actually increase productivity in extremely acidified water, said Kristy Kroeker, a biology doctoral student at Stanford University. "These are rapidly growing, small-bodied creatures with larvae that crawl instead of swim, and they actually do very well," Kroeker told LiveScience. [Spectacular Photos of Sea Creatures]
Hofmann's lab has found that purple sea urchins are able to cope with highly acidic waters, probably because of the amount of genetic diversity within the species. The group collected sea urchins from a spot off the Oregon coast that has naturally high acidity from the upwelling of deep ocean water. In the lab, the researchers compared the genetic data of these urchins when raised at high-acidity and normal-acidity conditions, finding 150 genes turned on that helped the urchins move calcium around their systems.
In addition to urchins, some corals tolerate the changing oceans better than others. Katharina Fabricius, a coral reef ecologist with the Australian Institute of Marine Science, said that colorful branching coral can't cope with higher temperatures and ocean acidity, but massive boulder corals and sea grasses survived in these conditions. Fabricius has worked in Papua New Guinea, along vents that bubble carbon dioxide into shallow water, giving a good experimental lab to researchers looking at future ocean conditions. [Photos of Colorful Corals]
Her research suggests these reefs will still exist in 100 years. "But they would be much more simple. The complex species are unable to deal with high carbon dioxide situations," she said. Reefs are hope to hundreds of thousands of species, and replacing the branching coral — with its myriad nooks and crannies for habitat — with boulder coral means a drop in biodiversity. "If you don't have the structure, you don't have the habitat," Fabricius said.
Other parts of the world share a similar story. Kroeker works in carbon-dioxide-bubbling vents off the coast of Italy. As waters become more acidic there, Kroeker explained, fewer patches of bright orange-and-pink algae can survive. "Instead, we see lots of fleshy seaweed. It looks like a dark mat on the seafloor." Kroeker’s 2010 meta-analysis detailed in the journal Ecology Letters also showed that crustaceans generally do better than other calcium-carbonate shell-making creatures. Some lobsters, prawns and crabs actually increase their shell-building when faced with more acidic waters.
Even different algae species differ in their responses to ocean acidification. Dave Hutchins, a marine biologist at UCLA, said that harmful algae blooms like those that cause red tides are likely to produce more toxins in future ocean conditions.
"These blooms cost around $100 million per year in the U.S. alone, and may get more toxic in the future," Hutchins told LiveScience, adding that they're a special problem on the West Coast; sea lions washing up around the LA area were poisoned by algae called Pseudo-nitzschia that produce a powerful neurotoxin that leads to memory loss, nerve damage and death.
A group of cyanobacteria called Trichodesmium that turn atmospheric nitrogen into a form other organisms can use for growth are also winners. His lab has looked at hundreds of generations of algae, and found that they produce far more nitrogen in high carbon-dioxide (CO2) conditions.
"For hundreds of generations, we grow them under lab conditions, and their production of nitrogen goes way up under high CO2," he said.
Hutchins said he also found the algae couldn't scale back their nitrogen production, even when the carbon dioxide level drops. "They're stuck in an 'on' position, and we're trying to understand what that means in terms of marine food chains," he said.
Ocean acidification also interferes with some fish's ability to sense predators. One bit of research presented at the conference showed that juvenile clownfish lost their ability to sniff out predators in high carbon-dioxide environments.
Latest Green Jobs in Singapore [24 - 30 Sep 2012]
from Green Business Times
Weevils fighting
from Everyday Nature
What I learnt at the TMSI Open House
from wild shores of singapore
Mega Marine Survey at the TMSI Open House
from Mega Marine Survey of Singapore
Eartheater Cichlid
from Monday Morgue
Opposition joins protest against mega project's impact on villagers
Carolyn Hong Straits Times 1 Oct 12;
KUALA LUMPUR - Thousands of Malaysians turned up in a small village in Johor yesterday to protest against a massive petrochemical project which villagers say would cause them to lose their homes and livelihoods.
Opposition Johor politicians joined the peaceful protest in a state that will be keenly fought in the next general election, which must be called by next April.
The opposition Pakatan Rakyat (PR) hopes to make inroads into Johor which has always been a Barisan Nasional bastion.
This Himpunan Hijau (Green Gathering) protest is among a growing number of environmental rallies held around the country in the last two years.
After the green movement stopped a coal plant from being built in Sabah two years ago, environmental groups mobilised a campaign against a rare earths plant by Australian miner Lynas and a gold mine, both in Pahang.
Political analyst P. Sivamurugan, from University Sains Malaysia, said the green movement can be powerful but its appeal is largely restricted to urban middle-class voters. "The government has been trying to address the issues, for instance, by setting up a committee to look into concerns over Lynas," he said.
The Johor protest comes after months of complaints from the villagers, many of them fishermen, that the RM60 billion (S$24 billion) petrochemical project in south-east Johor would cause them severe losses. The protesters gathered for two hours in Kampung Sungai Rengit, Pengerang, to demand a better deal for the 2,000 villagers asked to relocate.
State opposition leaders such as the Democratic Action Party's Johor chief Boo Cheng Hau were present.
Opposition Parti Islam SeMalaysia vice-president Salahuddin Ayub, who is leading the PR campaign in Johor, said at the rally they are not opposing the project but wanted the government to consider the people's welfare.
"There are nine fishing villages that would be affected due to the project. The government should have moved the project farther down to Desaru where the spillover effect will benefit the people without affecting their lives," he was quoted as saying by The Star Online.
The Pengerang Integrated Petroleum Complex aims to turn south-east Johor into a mega petrochemical hub so as to add value to Malaysia's oil and gas industry.
Some 9,100ha have been allocated for the project, of which 2,400ha have been taken up by the national oil firm Petronas for its refinery project that is causing unhappiness among the villagers.
Other projects there include a liquefied natural gas terminal and a petroleum storage terminal.
A news website quoted a leader of the protesters, Ms Anis Afida Mohd Azli, as saying they will go to the Johor Menteri Besar's office this month to voice their protest.
"Today, I think, was enough to send a message to the government that Pengerang folk want to be able to enjoy their God-given blessings," she said.
The Johor government had earlier met the villagers to resolve their complaints but to no avail. The Pengerang location is seen as vital to the project, given its proximity to Singapore, its deep waters and other advantages.
Pengerang's Umno MP Azalina Othman Said blamed the opposition for stirring up hatred towards the government.
The BN will be concerned by this protest as Johor is set to be a key battleground in the next general election. Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has made his rally rounds in the state several times.
"If the opposition can even make slight inroads, it would be a major morale booster for it," said Professor Sivamurugan, but added it would not be easy to do so.
The Star 1 Oct 12;
BACHOK: The Department of Marine Park has set up a team of 100 scuba divers to protect marine life in 38 marine parks in the peninsula, as well as in four other locations in Labuan.
Its director-general, Dr Sukarno Wagiman, said the team was entrusted to track down poachers who collect valuable marine life.
Efforts to detect such culprits had been difficult as the activities were carried out on the seabed using scuba gear, he said.
He said poaching activities were on the rise due to the high demand from foreign markets for exotic marine life. - Bernama
Tunggadewa Mattangkilang Jakarta Globe 1 Oct 12;
Balikpapan. Thousands of sea turtle eggs and offspring in East Kalimantan are under threat, a leading environmental group warned on Sunday, after a land dispute involving the turtle’s breeding ground forced all conservation officials off the premises.
Rusli Andar, marine coordinator for the Berau district office of WWF Indonesia, said that since last week sea turtle conservation efforts had stopped in the Sangalaki island of Berau because several residents protested the conservationist’s presence.
“The hatched eggs produce baby sea turtles, and a lot of them couldn’t get out [of] the sands. This is what conservation officials have tried to monitor [in order] to save the sea turtles,” he said.
Rusli noted there are 20 to 30 breeding sites scattered across the island, which is also a popular diving site, and each spot can produce up to 100 eggs.
But locals have been complaining about the harsh treatment they have been getting from conservationists, who have been accusing them of stealing the eggs. Locals in the area recently told the Tribun Kaltim newspaper that conservation officials have even extorted fishermen.
“For nearly 10 years, we have been nothing but spectators,” one local, Yakobus, told the newspaper, adding that conservationists are also seeking control of the island’s management. “We are asking Sangalaki to be free [of conservationists].”
But the chairman of the Berau Sea Turtle Foundation, Ahang Moord, said that with locals driving conservationists out of the island, the creature’s population is under threat, particularly in September to November, the turtle’s mating season.
“Officials there are tasked with relocating the hatchery two to four times a day to prevent sea turtles from dying,” he said.
Ahang added that conservationists in the island have been relocating eggs to softer sands and areas with less predators like rats, lizards and birds. “We can only hope that the locals and the conservation agency can resolve this dispute soon, because a lot of damage is being done,” he said.
The island is now guarded by the local police to prevent poachers from stealing the eggs and locals from occupying the island. But East Kalimantan conservation chief Muhammad Zaidi added that police are not trained and tasked with saving the turtles.
“We will quickly resolve the matter with the locals. We shall accommodate their demands but still prioritize the existing rules because this area is a conservation area protected under the law,” he said.
SP/Nanda Aries Jakarta Globe 1 Oct 12;
Forest fires that have razed the Arjuno Mountain in East Java during the past month have burned hundreds of hectares of forest land in the Pasuruan and Malang districts. The blazes have now spread to Batu city and the Mojokerto district.
New hotspots were detected in Block Nggabes, forest areas in Tulungrejo and Giripuro, and villages in the Bumiaji subdistrict in Kota Batu.
Gatot Sundoro, the head of the R. Soerjo Forest Park Malang-Pasuruan division, told reporters that the fires have burned an estimated 800 hectares of forest in Pasuruan, Malang, Kota Batu and Mojokerto. Some of the fires in Lawang and Pasuruan have started to diminish but some have also spread, moving westward and southward.
Gatot said that he and his men were having difficulties containing the fires that were spreading to the touristic city of Batu due to visibility problems from the thick smoke. He added that he could only pray that the fire in Nggabes doesn’t spread farther.
Meanwhile, fires also burned 2.5 hectares of teak forest in Pemangku Hutan Resort (RPH) in Malang from Thursday night until Friday. The forest is located next to Jalan Raya Karangkates, the border of the districts of Malang and Blitar. The forest fire is believed to have stemmed from a fire that was intentionally lit by an irresponsible person in the area.
“It seems like somebody had intentionally [set] fire to the bushes near the road,” said Agus Salim, head of the RPH Sukowilangun, on Friday night.
Although there were no casualties or material losses caused by the fire, the condition of the teak trees worsened.
“The land that got burned had actually been given fertilizer. [The fire] is causing the land’s contour and fertility [to] become [limited].” he said.
RPH officers were forced to contain the fire manually using tree branches.
“It’s difficult to extinguish it with water. The way to do it is by hitting it with branches,” Agus said. He was relieved that he and his men were able to extinguish the fire by midday on Friday.
Meanwhile, in Karanganyar, Central Java, more than 500 hectares of forests and tree nurseries burned on the slopes of Mount Lawu.
Aji Pratama, head of the Karanganyar Disaster Mitigation Agency, said the extremely dry conditions and strong winds helped to spread the fires and made it difficult for firefighters to douse them.
“It’s not just the brush and shrubs that are getting burned, but also trees, especially pines,” he said.
Sumatra Fires Create Breathing Problems
SP/Usmin & Radesman Saragih Jakarta Globe 1 Oct 12;
Almost 2,000 people in Bengkulu and Jambi are suffering from breathing problems after both provinces experienced a series of forest fires for more than a month, officials said over the weekend.
Bengkulu city health agency chief Mixon Syahbudin said the number of people suffering from respiratory ailments, known as ISPA, continues to rise because of a fire-induced smoky haze that has settled into the western part of Sumatra.
“If rain does not fall in Bengkulu in October, the number of people with ISPA in the area will rise,” Mixon said. “This is happening because the air quality in Bengkulu is getting worse and the haze is getting thicker.”
Mixon said his office has treated more than 400 people with respiratory problems. Sixty percent of those affected are children while the remainder are elderly people.
“We hope the rain will come soon so that the haze covering this area will diminish and the air quality will return to normal,” he said.
Meanwhile, in Jambi, the local health agency has recorded more than 1,400 people with ISPA in the capital alone since the start of September. At the provincial level, the figure has exceeded 3,000 people.
“The air pollution caused by the haze during the drought has caused many to suffer ISPA,” said Jambi city health agency chief Polisman Sitanggang. The people affected by ISPA are mostly children and the elderly.”
Polisman added that his office distributing 10,000 masks over the last few days as the forest fires continue to spread and haze thickens.
The Ministry of Forestry recently said that it counted 24,663 hot spots — areas of high temperature indicating forest or brush fires — this year, with Sumatra and Kalimantan having the most, because of drought and land clearing by fire.
The forest fires have also forced several airlines to cut down the number of flights to Jambi because of poor visibility.
“The flight schedule from Jambi to Jakarta, and Jakarta to Jambi has been reduced,” said Rudi Iriandi, marketing manager at the Jambi office of flag carrier Garuda Indonesia. “We have canceled all of our morning flights because Sultan Thaha Syaifuddin airport in Jambi cannot operate because of the haze.
“We have been canceling flights dozens of times over the last three weeks. The cancellations have cost the company a lot of money.”
Visibility early in the morning at the airport has been limited to 500 meters, preventing planes from landing. Planes have only been able to land and take off after 8:30 a.m., when the haze partially clears.
Separately, Samsul Bandri, chief of the Fatmawati Airport in Bengkulu, said the haze in the province had not forced any flight cancelations. He added that visibility in that area is still acceptable to most pilots. But Samsul warned that the haze is thickening and could force flights to be canceled if the fires continue.
Haze Forces Garuda Flight Suspensions, Disruptions in Several Airports
Jakarta Globe 29 Sep 12;
Jambi. Garuda Indonesia has suspended morning flights to and from Jambi as a blanket of smoke continued to shroud the Sumatran city.
Garuda has suspended its morning flights GA 130 from Jambi to Jakarta, and GA 131 from Jakarta to Jambi, according to Alzog, the operations manager of Sultan Thaha Syaifuddin airport in Jambi, who spoke to the media on Saturday.
Rudi Iriandi, sales and marketing officer at Garuda Indonesia's branch office in Jambi, said the morning flight suspension is to continue until October 7.
"Only two flights are postponed. Meanwhile, the flight schedules for GA 132, GA 133, GA 134, and GA 135 remain unchanged," he said.
A blanket of smoke has also disrupted flights in other areas in the country.
In Banjarmasin, capital of South Kalimantan province, six flights had to be postponed from the city's Syamsudin Noor airport on Saturday due to the smog, an official of state airport operator PT Angkasa Pura I said.
"You can't see more than five meters away, so it is not possible for an aircraft to take off," Haruman said.
The smog was believed to be coming from forest or bush fires in undeveloped lands following the long drought.
Further, Lion Air had to delay three flights, including those to Jakarta, Surabaya and Yogyakarta, and Garuda Indonesia, Sriwijaya Air and Batavia Air each had to postpone take offs to Jakarta.
"They have to wait for the haze to dissipate and the line of vision to clear to at least 400 meters before planning take offs," Haruman said.
"The clouds this morning are the worst ever crippling the airport operations," he said, adding we have had hazes before but never caused a delay in take off."
Antara
ScienceDaily 30 Sep 12;
Changes in ocean and climate systems could lead to smaller fish, according to a new study led by fisheries scientists at the University of British Columbia.
The study, published September 30 in the journal Nature Climate Change, provides the first-ever global projection of the potential reduction in the maximum size of fish in a warmer and less-oxygenated ocean.
The researchers used computer modeling to study more than 600 species of fish from oceans around the world and found that the maximum body weight they can reach could decline by 14-20 per cent between years 2000 and 2050, with the tropics being one of the most impacted regions.
"We were surprised to see such a large decrease in fish size," says the study's lead author William Cheung, an assistant professor at the UBC Fisheries Centre. "Marine fish are generally known to respond to climate change through changing distribution and seasonality. But the unexpectedly big effect that climate change could have on body size suggests that we may be missing a big piece of the puzzle of understanding climate change effects in the ocean."
This is the first global-scale application of the idea that fish growth is limited by oxygen supply, which was pioneered more than 30 years ago by Daniel Pauly, principal investigator with UBC's Sea Around Us Project and the study's co-author.
"It's a constant challenge for fish to get enough oxygen from water to grow, and the situation gets worse as fish get bigger," explains Pauly. "A warmer and less-oxygenated ocean, as predicted under climate change, would make it more difficult for bigger fish to get enough oxygen, which means they will stop growing sooner."
This study highlights the need to curb greenhouse gas emissions and develop strategies to monitor and adapt to changes that we are already seeing, or we risk disruption of fisheries, food security and the way ocean ecosystems work.
Journal Reference:
William W. L. Cheung, Jorge L. Sarmiento, John Dunne, Thomas L. Frölicher, Vicky W. Y. Lam, M. L. Deng Palomares, Reg Watson, Daniel Pauly. Shrinking of fishes exacerbates impacts of global ocean changes on marine ecosystems. Nature Climate Change, 2012; DOI: 10.1038/nclimate1691
Climate change 'may shrink fish'
Matt McGrath BBC World Service 30 Sep 12;
Fish species are expected to shrink in size by up to 24% because of global warming, say scientists.
Researchers modelled the impact of rising temperatures on more than 600 species between 2001 and 2050.
Warmer waters could decrease ocean oxygen levels and significantly reduce fish body weight.
The scientists argue that failure to control greenhouse gas emissions will have a greater impact on marine ecosystems than previously thought.
Previous research has suggested that changing ocean temperatures would impact both the distribution and the reproductive abilities of many species of fish. This new work suggests that fish size would also be heavily impacted.
The researchers built a model to see how fish would react to lower levels of oxygen in the water. They used data from one of the higher emissions scenarios developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Warming the fish
Although this data projects relatively small changes in temperatures at the bottom of the oceans, the resulting impacts on fish body size are "unexpectedly large" according to the paper.
As ocean temperatures increase, so do the body temperatures of fish. But, according to lead author, Dr William Cheung, from the University of British Columbia, the level of oxygen in the water is key.
"Rising temperatures directly increase the metabolic rate of the fish's body function," he told BBC News.
"This leads to an increase in oxygen demand for normal body activities. So the fish will run out of oxygen for growth at a smaller body size."
The research team also used its model to predict fish movements as a result of warming waters. The group believes that most fish populations will move towards the Earth's poles at a rate of up to 36km per decade.
"So in, say, the North Sea," says Dr Cheung, "one would expect to see more smaller-body fish from tropical waters in the future."
Conservative model
Taking both the movements and the physiological impacts of rising temperatures together, the research team concludes that fish body size will shrink between 14% and 24%, with the largest decreases in the Indian and Atlantic oceans.
When compared with actual observations of fish sizes, the model seems to underestimate what's actually happening in the seas.
The researchers looked at two case studies involving North Atlantic cod and haddock. They found that recorded data on these fish showed greater decreases in body size than the models had predicted.
Other scientists say the impact could be widely felt.
Dr Alan Baudron, from the University of Aberdeen, UK, has studied changes in the growth of haddock in the North Sea. He says this latest research is a "strong result".
He believes it could have negative implications for the yields of fisheries. And it could also seriously impact the ability of fish to reproduce, he adds.
"Smaller individuals produce fewer and smaller eggs which could affect the reproductive potential of fish stocks and could potentially reduce their resilience to other factors such as fishing pressure and pollution," he told BBC News.
The authors point out a number of limiting factors in their study, including uncertainties in the predictions for the climate and the oceans. According to Dr Cheung, further research is required.
"Our study shows that climate change can lead to a substantial decrease in the maximum body weight of fish. We need to look more closely at the biological response in the future."
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