Desdemona Despair

17 February 2012 (bigpondnews.com) – The Rena oil spill clean-up has reached another milestone with the last group of birds being released into the wild.

Seven little blue penguins oiled after the container ship Rena crashed into Astrolabe Reef off Tauranga, have been released near Motiti Island, Maritime New Zealand says.

Hundreds of birds have been treated and more than 2000 found dead since October.

Teams have only found five oiled birds in the past month, National Oiled Wildlife Response Team coordinator Kerri Morgan says.

'This is really reassuring as it shows us that the amounts of residual oil in the environment are not having a significant effect on wildlife.'

Two birds remain in treatment, which will be released, and wildlife teams don't expect to release more groups of birds, she says.

National On Scene Commander Mick Courtnell says wildlife teams will no longer be at the incident command centre, but will still follow up reports of oiled birds.

'The fact we have got to the point where we can count the number of affected birds left in care on one hand is a real milestone in the response and recovery operation.' […]

Last oil spill penguins released

By Steve Connor, Vancouver
18 February 2012

The indiscriminate slaughter of vast numbers of turtles, sharks, albatrosses, and other endangered marine animals that get unintentionally caught by fishermen as “by-catch” could be prevented by a radical proposal of mobile marine reserves, scientists said yesterday.

Protected areas of the ocean where commercial fishing is banned would work far better if they were not static conservation areas, as they are at present, but moveable reserves that take into account the mobile nature of sea life, they said.

The idea for migrating reserves has come about as a result of a revolution in satellite and tagging technology that has allowed scientists to routinely monitor the seasonal movements of marine creatures, which would have been impossible a decade ago.

Scientists said that existing marine protection areas (MPAs), where fishing is controlled to enable wildlife to recover, frequently fail to do their job because the endangered animals simply migrate to unprotected regions where they get caught accidentally by nets and fishing lines.

This is believed to be the main reason why populations of loggerhead and leatherback turtles, which are both critically endangered, have slumped dramatically in recent years as commercial fishing with nets and extremely long fishing lines has become more intense.

Leatherback turtles, a species as old as the dinosaurs, have suffered particularly badly in the Pacific Ocean where populations have fallen by more than 90 per cent in just 20 years. Sharks and albatrosses have also declined significantly as a result of being caught accidentally by fishermen.

Creating mobile protection areas monitored by satellite and other high-tech systems would enable some of the world’s most endangered species to recover, as well as allowing fishermen to ply their trade in other parts of the ocean where by-catch is less likely, said Larry Crowder, professor of marine biology at Stanford University in California.

“I thought 12 years ago that we would not be able to do this, but I would say in the last 5 years the science has grown so quickly, at least in areas where we have rich data, we are on the cusp of doing this,” Professor Crowder said.

“Small, stationary reserves do little to protect highly mobile animals, like most fish, like the turtles and sharks and seabirds. You might say that the only way to achieve conservation of these kinds of organisms is to protect them everywhere in the ocean, and that was the early approach,” he said.

“But we don’t need to close the entire ocean, we only need to close the place where they are concentrated, where by-catch is particularly likely to be found, and leave the rest of the ocean open,” he told the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Vancouver.

Satellite tagging and other ways of monitoring the movements of marine creatures has shown that sea life tends to congregate near oceanographic features such as “upwellings”, where rising currents bring minerals to the sea surface, and “convergence zones”, where ocean currents collide.

“Those are the buffet lines where everything in the ocean goes to feed, and the fishermen understand that, and the things that they are fishing for understand that,” Professor Crowder said.

These features tend to move, taking sea life with them. One of the best examples is North Pacific convergence zone which moves more than 1,000 miles during the year, he said. […]

Caught in the net: Threatened species

• Turtles – The number of leatherback turtles in the Pacific have declined by 90 per cent in 20 years with by-catch a main cause. The loggerhead turtle has been hit particularly hard by shrimp trawling.
• Albatrosses – They can become caught on fishing lines and drown. The northern royal albatross is an endangered species.
• Sharks – An estimated 50 million sharks are caught unintentionally every year. The angel shark, vulnerable to by-catch, is now one of the five most endangered shark species.

Charlie Cooper

Mobile marine reserves may end slaughter of endangered sea life

By Ruairidh Villar and Yuriko Nakao; Writing by Elaine Lies; Editing by Michael Perry
10 February 2012

FUKUSHIMA (Reuters) – On the snowy fringes of Japan's Fukushima city, now notorious as a byword for nuclear crisis, Zen monk Koyu Abe offers prayers for the souls of thousands left dead or missing after the earthquake and tsunami nearly one year ago.

But away from the ceremonial drums and the incense swirling around the Joenji temple altar, Abe has undertaken another task, no less harrowing -- to search out radioactive "hot spots" and clean them up, storing irradiated earth on temple grounds.

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, some 50 km (31 miles) away, suffered a series of explosions and meltdowns after the massive earthquake and tsunami last March 11, setting off the world's worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl in 1986 and forcing 80,000 people from their homes.

Radiation, carried on winds and by snow, spread far beyond the 20 km (12 miles) evacuation zone around the plant, nestling in hot spots across the region and contaminating the ground in what remains a largely agricultural region.

Many of those who fled have no idea when, if ever, they can return to land held by their families for generations.

"The damage here in Fukushima is different from the destruction caused by the tsunami," Abe said.

"You can't see it. Nothing looks as if it's changed, but really, radiation is floating through the area. It's hard for those hit by the tsunami, but it's hard to live here too." […]

Now he is trading his ceremonial robes for a protective mask, working with volunteers to track down lingering pockets of radiation and cleaning them up.

One participant is Masataka Aoki, a 65-year-old engineer at nuclear plant maker Hitachi for more than 40 years. None of the Fukushima Daiichi reactors were made by Hitachi.

Aoki had long been a believer in nuclear power, but he had a change of faith after the meltdowns and now seeks to assuage a sense of guilt.

"The thing I'd come to believe was good and useful to society turned out to be useless and caused everybody trouble," Aoki said. "I feel a deep sense of remorse." […]

Japan priest fights invisible demon: radiation

NEW YORK, New York, 15 February 2012 (ENS) –  Bangladesh has established three new wildlife sanctuaries for endangered freshwater dolphins in the world's largest mangrove ecosystem, the Sundarbans.

Officially declared on January 29, the sanctuaries are intended to protect the last two remaining species of freshwater dolphins in Asia - the Ganges River dolphin, Platanista gangetica gangetica, and the Irrawaddy dolphin, Orcaella brevirostris.

While there is no global population estimate for either species, both have disappeared from major portions of their range but still survive in the Sundarbans. Rough estimates indicate populations of about 225 Ganges River dolphins and 450 Irrawaddy dolphins there.

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species lists the Ganges River dolphin as Endangered and the Irrawaddy dolphin as Vulnerable to extinction.

Freshwater dolphins are among the most threatened animals on Earth because human activities, such as dam construction, toxic contamination, and unsustainable fisheries, disturb their habitat. Population surveys find Ganges River and Irrawaddy dolphins living in the very waterways where human activities are most intense.

The three sanctuaries - in the Dhangmari, Chandpai and Dudhmukhi areas of the Eastern Sundarbans mangrove forest - safeguard 19.4 miles (31.4 km) of watery channels with a total area of 4.1 square miles (10.7 sq km).

The newly-protected areas were identified as dolphin hotspots by the Bangladesh Cetacean Diversity Project, a project of the Bronx Zoo-based Wildlife Conservation Society.

These small areas could be the safety net that prevents extinction for these species, says the WCS, in view of the recent extinction of another freshwater dolphin - China's Yangtze River dolphin whose last confirmed sighting was in 2002. Fatal entanglement in nets and habitat degradation killed off this species after it had survived in the Yangtze River for more than 10 million years.

To mark International Freshwater Dolphin Day last October 24, the Bangladesh Forest Department approved the boundaries for the three new sanctuaries and forwarded the notification document to the Ministry of Environment and Forests for final approval.

All three sanctuaries are based on recommendations from the Wildlife Conservation Society's Bangladesh Cetacean Diversity Project, which has been working on freshwater dolphin conservation in the Sundarbans since 2002.

"Declaration of these Wildlife Sanctuaries is an essential first step in protecting Ganges River and Irrawaddy dolphins in Bangladesh," said Brian D. Smith, director of the WCS's Asian Freshwater and Coastal Cetacean Program, a scientist who has been studying cetaceans in Bangladesh since the early 1990s.

Smith's research conducted with the Bangladesh Forest Department and published in the journal Oryx in 2010, helped to determine the locations and sizes of the sanctuaries in the Sundarbans.

The Bangladesh dolphins are threatened by fatal entanglements in fishing gear and depletion of their prey from the by-catch of fish and crustaceans in fine-mesh "mosquito" nets used to catch fry for shrimp farming.

The surviving dolphins are at risk from increasing salinity and sedimentation of the rivers caused by sea-level rise and changes in the availability of upstream freshwater flow.

"As biological indicators of ecosystem-level impacts, freshwater dolphins can inform adaptive human-wildlife management to cope with climate change, suggesting a broader potential for conservation and sustainable development," said Smith.

Now that the three sanctuaries have been officially declared, Bangladesh officials will post signs so that local fishermen do not enter the protected areas. […]

Bangladesh Declares Sanctuaries for Rare Freshwater Dolphins

Editing by Robert Birsel
18 February 2012

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia will carry out a comprehensive assessment of development pressure on the Great Barrier Reef to help preserve the world's largest coral reef system, ministers said Saturday.

The assessment will take into account how development along Australia's northeast coast is affecting the reef, Environment Minister Tony Burke said in a joint statement with the Queensland state government.

In 2010, part of the reef was damaged when a Chinese-owned coal ship, the Shen Neng 1, ran aground on it.

The assessment would be the largest of its type ever conducted in Australia and would examine planning applications for rapidly developing Queensland, they said.

The state is an important exporter of commodities as well as a major tourist destination. The reef is one of its main tourist attractions and is visible from space.

"Rather than always dealing with one application at a time this allows an assessment of the region as a whole," Burke said in the statement. "That gives us an opportunity to take into account the cumulative impacts and any indirect impacts such as increased shipping movement." […]

Australia to assess development pressure on Barrier Reef

By Richard Gray, Science Correspondent
19 February 2012

Biologists at the University of Sussex have been analysing how effectively different species of flowers attract foraging insects.

Preliminary results have revealed there is a 100-fold difference in the lure that some popular garden plants have for honey bees and bumblebees.

The best plants are the Mexican giant hyssop, which was particularly good for bumblebees, while borage was best for honeybees and lilac sage was second best.

Wild marjoram and Greek Origanum were found to be most attractive to wild solitary bees.

Lavenders such as the white Lavender edelweiss and the blue lavender grossblau were also good for attracting the insects.

In contrast some geranium species, which are a favourite among gardeners, are barely ever visited by the insects and popular types of Dahlia such as the cactus Tahiti and pom pom shaped Dahlia Franz Kafka were found to be poor at providing food for foraging bees.

In the UK honey bee numbers have halved in the past 25 years while numbers of bumblebees have fallen by around 60 per cent since 1970 with three species going extinct and seven suffering serious declines.

The researchers hope their work can help reverse the decline in many bee species by allowing gardeners to choose plants that will ensure bees have a good supply of food in their flower beds.

Mihail Garbuzov, who is leading the project at the Laboratory of Apiculture and Social Insects at the University of Sussex, said: “While there are a lot of lists recommending flowers to plant to promote bees in gardens, but as far as we know, few seem to be based on empirical evidence.” […]

Loss of wild flowers and disease are thought to be the main reasons why bee numbers have plummeted in recent years around the world. […]

Save our bees: scientists reveal the plants that could halt bee decline

By Richard Gray, Science Correspondent
19 February 2012

Biologists say they have found the rosette agent, a disease that has caused widespread damage in the United States, in a UK waterway for the first time.

They have shown the disease, which is carried by an invasive fish called the topmouth gudgeon, can cause 90% mortality in salmon species found in British rivers.

It can also cause high numbers of deaths in other fish including the common carp, beam and roach.

They are now calling for widespread testing of Britain's waterways for the disease so it can be controlled.

Professor Rudy Gozlan, said: "We have shown that British salmon are not just vulnerable to this parasite but suffer 90% mortality.

"We knew from the experience in the United States, where the parasite has been a problem for some time, that it can cause high mortality, but this shows just how susceptible British species are."

Topmouth gudgeon, which are originally from Asia, have spread rapidly through out Europe since they were first introduced in the 1960s and came to Britain in the 1980s to be put in ornamental ponds, but have since entered the wild.

They breed four times faster than native British fish and spread rapidly.

In research published in the journal Parasitology, Dr Demetra Andreou and Professor Gozlan show that sunbleak, a fish in the same family as carp introduced from elsewhere in Europe, from a pond in North Stoneham, Hampshire, are infected with the parasite.

Rosette agent, also known as Sphaerothecum destruens, is a microorganism that infects the cells of fish, destroying their internal organs.

Researchers claim there are at least 26 isolated lakes, ponds and watercourses in England and Wales that are infested with topmouth gudgeon.

The fish, which grow to be about an inch to two inches long, also eat the eggs and food of Britain's native freshwater species.

The disease has caused widespread damage in the United States with more than 80% of salmon on fish farms being killed by the parasite.

Until now, the parasite had never been detected in the UK. […]

Salmon under threat from parasite

By Hiroki and Ngaire Takano
15 February 2012

The earthquake and nuclear meltdown in Japan last year compounded pre-existing issues like falling birth rates, fragmented families and shrinking communities. What does the future hold?

The triple disaster of the earthquake, tsuanami and Fukushima nuclear station meltdown in March 2011, saw intense media focus on the safety of nuclear power. Another of the repercussions not much - if at all - considered in depth by the international media is the social dimension of the disaster: the massive upheaval it brought to local communities.

To someone like me who has lived in, and has had family ties with Japan, an overriding question remains how the disaster affected these communities. The triple disaster has highlighted and compounded such pre-existing underlying issues as falling birth rates, the fragmenting of the family unit, and the shrinking of local communities. During the five years before the disaster, birth rates had been steadily falling in Japan. The now daily concerns about radiation levels, safe food and water have left many young couples unwilling to take on the perceived risky task of raising children in a dangerous environment.

The prevalent trend during the pre-quake years, brought about primarily by lack of economic development in local communities, had been for young people to leave their villages to seek higher-paid jobs in the larger towns and cities, only returning home for holidays and other celebrations.The immediate consequence of this has been the decline of village communities. The longer-term consequence will be the erosion of regional identity, at a time when, more than ever, communities affected by the earthquake need their younger generation.

The March disaster divided families. Mothers and children were forced to move to towns and cities, sometimes 200 - 300 miles away, where securing basic day-to-day services is easier than in their earthquake-stricken communities.

Fathers, many bound by loyalty to their families and too, by the need to meet financial commitments, including repaying mortgages on homes that have been destroyed, have remained behind in their villages. Survivors of the disaster have spent on average five months in government-provided temporary shelters. Temporary accommodation was allocated in a lottery deemed the fairest way of distributing accommodation. Many have found themselves unable to face this additional upheaval compounding the fragmenting of communities, brought about by the failure of governmental officials to consider keeping people from the same area together. […]

Fukushima: the social impact of a nuclear disaster

By MICHELLE FAUL Associated Press
16 February 2012

JOHANNESBURG (AP) – Poachers have slaughtered at least 200 elephants in the past five weeks in a patch of Africa where they are more dangerously endangered than anywhere else on Earth, wildlife activists said.

The money made from selling elephant tusks is fueling misery throughout the continent, the International Fund for Animal Welfare warned.

Many elephant calves orphaned by the recent killings have been spotted in Cameroon's Bouba Ndjida National Park, and activists fear the animals may soon die of hunger and thirst.

"Their deaths will only compound the impact of the poaching spree on the Cameroon's threatened elephant populations," the organization said Thursday in a statement.

It is not known how many elephants remain in the West African nation. The latest figures from the International Union for Conservation of Nature estimated there were only 1,000 to 5,000 left in 2007.

The fund blamed poachers from Sudan, who it said were crossing through Chad to reach the remote northern Cameroonian wildlife reserve. Ongoing shooting is making it impossible to conduct a detailed assessment, activists said.

The fund said armed insurgents have crossed porous borders on poaching raids for years, but it called the scale of this year's killings "massive and unprecedented."

Embassies of the United States, the European Union, Britain and France had sounded alarm bells about the slaughter and had called on Cameroon's government to take urgent action to stop the killing.

"The ivory is smuggled out of West and Central Africa for markets in Asia and Europe, and the money it raises funds arms purchases for use in regional conflicts, particularly ongoing unrest in Sudan and in the Central African Republic," said the fund's Paris-based spokeswoman Celine Sissler-Bienvenu.

Wildlife experts said recently that large seizures of elephant tusks made 2011 the worst on record for elephants since ivory sales were banned in 1989.

The fund said estimates suggested as many as 3,000 elephants were killed by poachers across the continent last year.

It warned that countries such as Chad could lose their entire elephant population in the very near future if current poaching levels are sustained.

TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network, said Asian crime syndicates have become increasingly involved in poaching and the illegal ivory trade across Africa, a trend that coincides with growing Asian investment on the continent.

Activists: Poachers Kill 200 Elephants in Cameroon