Pacific island to introduce world-first 'reef-toxic' sunscreen ban

From 2020, lotions containing any of 10 chemicals linked to coral bleaching will be outlawed

Guardian staff and agencies

Fri 2 Nov 2018 00.32 GMTLast modified on Fri 2 Nov 2018 18.15 GMT

The tiny Pacific island nation of Palau will ban “reef-toxic” sunscreens from 2020 in what it claims is a world-first initiative to stop chemical pollution killing its famed corals.

Palau, which lies in the north-west Pacific, east of the Philippines and directly north of Australia, is regarded as one of the world’s best diving destinations, but the government is concerned its popularity is coming at a cost.

A spokesman for President Tommy Remengesau said there was scientific evidence that the chemicals found in most sunscreens are toxic to corals, even in minute doses.

He said Palau’s dive sites typically hosted about four boats an hour packed with tourists, leading to concerns a build-up of chemicals could see the reefs reach tipping point.

“On any given day that equates to gallons of sunscreen going into the ocean in Palau’s famous dive spots and snorkelling places,” he said.

“We’re just looking at what we can do to prevent pollution getting into the environment.”

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Giant bumphead parrotfish begin mating in their hundreds

2 June 2017

 
By Sandrine Ceurstemont

It was a sight to behold. A group of about 1200 giant bumphead parrotfish have been caught in the act of mating off Palau in Micronesia, turning the water cloudy with their sperm. It’s the first time the species has been seen doing so in such large numbers.

George Roff from the University of Queensland in St Lucia, Australia, witnessed the behaviour while diving. “I’ve only ever encountered schools of 30 to 40 individuals before,” he says. Mass spawning events among the fish were first observed in 2011, but never previously involving more than 100 individuals.

During the latest event, the fish tended to mate in groups of up to 10 individuals, comprising several males fighting over one or a few females.

The activity is usually far more sedate, involving just one member of each sex. “It’s a sharp contrast to the frenzied spawning rushes in the Palau aggregation,” says Roff.

Giant bumphead parrotfish (Bolbometopon muricatum), which can grow to a metre or more in length and weigh up to 46 kilograms, play a unique role in their ecosystem. They use their large jaws to graze on reefs, making space for new corals to settle.

But in recent decades, overfishing led to the Palau population shrinking. This was particularly visible in terms of a dramatic drop in individuals landed by fishing vessels, down from more than 1000 most years in the 1990s to less than 100 in 2006.

This prompted the government to issue a total ban on fishing the species in 2006. And the strategy seems to be helping the population to recover. “This large spawning aggregation is evidence that it is having a positive effect,” says Alan Friedlander from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, who filmed the event.



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Dog-faced Mangrove Snake Named for Finder – via Herp Digest

Gasparilla Gazette, Boca Grande, Florida, 11/6/12 by William Dunson

I was surprised to find that a colleague at the Chicago Field Museum of Natural History named a mangrove snake for me recently.

Many years ago I discovered a new type of salt gland in a mangrove snake, a dog-faced water snake I collected in Palau of the island group Micronesia, and (my wife) Margaret, and I published a paper on this in 1979.

Subsequently this snake has been found to be a new and isolated island species dubbed Cerberus dunsoni.

"This species is named in honor of William A. Dunson for his pioneering work in osmoregulation in reptiles," read the etymology on the research find published in Zootaxa, a peer-reviewed Magnolia Press scientific journal for animal taxonomists.

Cerberus dunsoni can be distinguished from all other members of the genus with 23 scales rows at midbody by its rounded, juxtaposed, plate-like scales on the crown. These scales appear to be thickened compared with the scales of other Cerberus species. The 9-inch upper labial is horizontally divided.

These characters, combined with large parietal scale fragments and its uniform black venter, make this a distinctive species. The large, plate-like fragments of the parietals may fuse with the temporal scales.

The parietal scales in other Cerberus snakes are usually fragmented into small scales similar to other scales on the crown.

Is it an honor to have a snake named for you? I think so and am very pleased to have my years of study of marine reptiles recognized in this way.

William Dunson, Ph.d., professor emeritus of biology at Penn State University, splits time between Southwest Florida and his farm in Galax, Va. He can be reached at wdunson@comcast.net.