Prince of Wales backs Green Ambassador awards

The Prince of Wales has declared his support for the WWF’s Green Ambassador Awards, which aim to recognise young people and schools that are making a difference to the environment.

His Royal Highness Prince Charles hopes the new awards initiative will inspire your people to explore their own connection with nature, develop their knowledge of environmental issues and their skills to make a make a difference to the future of the planet.

Read more ..

Thousands of River Thames fish killed by storm sewage

8 June 2011

Thousands of fish have died after large amounts of storm sewage flooded into the River Thames.

More than 450,000 tonnes of sewage overflowed into the river in west London when heavy rain fell on Sunday.

The Environment Agency said oxygen had been added along a 1km (0.6m) stretch of water where dead fish and sewage debris has been spotted.

Thames Water is carrying out a clear-up operation along a 12km (7.5m) stretch between Kew and Albert Bridge.

The Environment Agency said more than 250,000 tonnes of storm sewage from sewer overflows, and at least 200,000 tonnes of storm sewage from the Mogden sewage treatment works in Isleworth, was released into the river at the weekend.

Oxygenation vessels

This, combined with the current warm, dry weather and low river flows, resulted in low oxygen levels and fish deaths along a 1km stretch of the river.

Fish, including flounder, bream, roach, eel, dace and other aquatic life such as water shrimps, have been found dead.

Thames Water has put hydrogen peroxide into the water at three different locations, to add oxygen, and the agency has sent its oxygenation vessels to the area.

According to the agency's director, Howard Davidson, discharges from combined sewers happen 50 to 60 times a year and can be caused by as little as 2mm of rainfall.

Mr Davidson said that on Sunday, more than 30mm had fallen over west London.

He said: "This is a major sewage pollution incident which has caused the death of a huge number of fish.

"We are currently monitoring Thames Water's clean up efforts and assessing the full impact but unfortunately we may never know the exact numbers of fish that have died."

'Totally unsatisfactory'

Storm sewage is waste diluted with rainwater and occurs where a combined sewage network operates - one which takes both sewage from homes and businesses and rainfall run-off from roads and other hard surfaces.

Martin Baggs, from Thames Water, said: "Incidents like this are clearly totally unsatisfactory in a modern capital city and we have a major programme of work under way to sort the problem out."

Thames Water is currently reviewing responses to the first round of consultation on plans for a 20-mile (32km) "super-sewer".

The proposed Thames Tunnel would run from west to east London, broadly following the route of the river, collecting storm sewage.

If approved, construction on the tunnel would begin in 2013 and be completed by 2020.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-13693265

Endangered gourmet sea snail could be doomed by increasing ocean acidity

Public release date: 25-May-2011

Increasing levels of ocean acidity could spell doom for British Columbia's already beleaguered northern abalone, according to the first study to provide direct experimental evidence that changing sea water chemistry is negatively affecting an endangered species.

The northern abalone--prized as a gourmet delicacy--has a range that extents along the North American west coast from Baja California to Alaska. Even though British Columbia's northern abalone commercial fisheries where closed in 1990 to protect dwindling populations, the species has continued to struggle, largely due to poaching.

To better understand the impact climate change — and specifically, increasing ocean acidity — has on this endangered species, UBC researchers exposed northern abalone larvae to water containing increased levels of CO2. Increases from 400 to 1,800 parts per million killed 40 per cent of larvae, decreased the size of larvae that did survive, and increased the rate of shell abnormalities.

"This is quite bad news, not only in terms of the endangered populations of abalone in the wild, but also the impact it might have on the prospects for aquaculture and coastal economics," says Christopher Harley, Associate Professor with the Department of Zoology and one of the authors of the study.

"And because the species is already thought to be limited by reproductive output and recruitment, these effects are likely to scale up to the population level, creating greater limits on population growth."

Average CO2 levels in the open ocean hover at 380 parts per million, a number which is excepted to increase slowly over the next century.

What concerns the researchers are the much higher spikes in dissolved CO2 that are already being observed along the BC coast, particularly in late spring and early summer when northern abalone populations are spawning.

The findings were published in the latest issue of the Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology.

"While we're looking at a single species that is culturally important as a source of food and artistic inspiration for many coastal Pacific Northwest First Nations, this information may have implications for other abalone species in other parts of the world," says Ryan Crim, lead author on the paper who conducted the research while a graduate student with the UBC Department of Zoology.

Other species of abalone are farmed around the world, principally in China, Taiwan, Japan and Korea. The black, white and pink abalone are also endangered on the west coast--red abalone are still an economically viable food species.

The study was funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and conducted in collaboration with the Bamfield-Huu-ay-aht Community Abalone Project, a small abalone hatchery in Bamfield which has subsequently gone out of business. The dual mission of the hatchery was to produce cultured abalone for high end restaurants, and to restore endangered abalone by culturing and releasing larvae and juveniles to the wild.

Harley and Crim will continue to work with the aquaculture industry to study the effects of acidification on oysters and other shellfish.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-05/uobc-egs052511.php

US publishes white-nose bat killer action plan

18 May 2011
By Mark Kinver
Science and environment reporter, BBC News

US experts have published an action plan that aims to halt the spread of white-nose syndrome (WNS), which has killed more than a million bats.

The document offers guidance on a range of issues, including how to identify the disease and improving bio-security.

WNS has spread rapidly since it was first found in 2006, and now affects 18 states and four Canadian provinces.

The action plan was unveiled at the fourth annual WNS conference in Arkansas, which runs until Thursday.

'Swift effort'

The US Fish and Wildlife Service, which led the formulation of the plan, said that the mobility of bats, the rapid spread of WNS, the potential for human-assisted transmission and the severity of the disease for infected animals meant that it was necessary for a "swift national effort to avoid irreversible losses to bat populations".

Jeremy Coleman, national white-nose syndrome co-ordinator for the US Fish and Wildlife Service, said it was vital to bring all the relevant groups - from government agencies to research institutions - together.

"Without a formal structure, it is very difficult for a lot of the agencies to be able to engage in a meaningful way," he told BBC News.

"It gives us all a common language, allowing us to compare information and come up with strategies that can be implemented throughout the continent, such as surveillance, monitoring bat populations and the collection of data."

While acknowledging that it was still early in the process, Dr Coleman said that such a structure was essential if there was any hope to tackle such a virulent disease that had spread so rapidly.

He also said that it was hoped that the plan would become an international blueprint in the not-too-distant future by including groups from Canada and Mexico.

Recent studies have painted a bleak picture for at least half of US bat species, which rely on hibernation for winter survival and are therefore potentially susceptible to the disease.

Writing in the journal Science in August 2010, a team of researchers warned some species' populations could become locally extinct within two decades.

And in April, another team estimated the loss of bat species, which help control pest populations, would cost US agriculture more than $3.7bn a year.

WNS has been described by some biologists as the worst wildlife health crisis in the US in living memory, is named after a white fungus that appears on the muzzle and/or wings of infected animals.

However, bats with WNS do not always have the characteristic visual symptoms, but may display abnormal behaviour around their hibernacula (caves and mines where bats hibernate during winter months).

These behaviours include flying outside during the day (when their insect prey is not available) in sub-zero temperatures, or clustering near the entrance to the hibernaculum.

Researchers say the fungus associated with the disease, Geomyces destructans, thrives in the dark, damp conditions - such as caves and mines.

It is believed that the fungus associated with WNS arrived in the US after it was somehow transported (probably via humans) from Europe or possibly Asia.

A team of European researchers followed up unconfirmed reports in Europe that bats had white fungal growths appearing to match the symptoms of WNS.

In a paper in the Emerging Infectious Diseases journal, they suggested that the Geomyces destructans fungus was present throughout Europe.

However, they added, it seemed as if species of bats in Europe were possibly more immunologically or behaviourally resistant to the fungus than North American species, as it did not increase mortality.

More than 150 of the world's leading bat experts are currently attending the fourth annual white-nose syndrome symposium, being held in Little Rock, Arkansas, until 19 May.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13438594
(Submitted by Dawn Holloway)

Animal protection statute threatened, says veterinarian

February 20, 2011

Veterinarian Yesenia Fernández Santos spoke out in favor of the newest animal welfare law Friday, saying it was a far reaching legislation which only needs to be understood better.

However, she said an animal registry is necessary to protect people and animals from the threat of rabies. The registry has been an unpopular measure which also must be explained before it can be effective, she said.

Law 154 — known as the Law for the Welfare and Protection of Animals — signed by Gov. Aníbal Acevedo Vilá in August 2008, is considered the best animal protection law to date.

Fernández testified in a public hearing of the Senate Natural and Environmental Resources Committee which was considering eliminating the 2008 law and integrating it into yet another proposed law.

Senate Bill 1811, introduced by Sen. Melinda Romero, would eliminate Law 154 and two earlier ones. The bill would create the Welfare Code for Animal, Wildlife and Flora and supersede the laws of Regional Animal Refuge (Law 36 of 1984), the New Wildlife Law (Law 241 of 1999) as well as Law 154.

Fernández said that Law 154 should not be included in Bill 1811, because a law of such length would become diluted within the measure, she said at the hearing presided by Sen. Ramón Díaz Hernández substituting Chairwoman Luz M. Santiago González.

“The deficiencies of that statute have nothing to do with the content of the law, but rather with the limited knowledge of the law, on the part of the general public, the police as well as prosecutors and judges.”

The law covers a number of issues relating to domestic animals, including classing many actions of mistreatment, abuse or abandonment as felonies, with harsh penalties.

Despite her endorsement of Law 154, she suggested in her testimony that the government mount an anti-rabies campaign in the same way they did for dengue and flu.

“Since rabies is a deadly illness and endemic in our country, the veterinarians have been advocating an animal registry for years,” said Fernández. “I am happy to know that this piece of legislature is considering this action. However, I should mention that the way the animal registry has been developed, the people see it as just another tax and not a solution to the problem of rampant animal overpopulation. If we want to change that mentality, we must educate the people about rabies and its implications, as much for the sake of our health as for that of the animals.”

She noted that since the bill provides for the free registry of farm animals, it would be wise to begin with mandatory rabies vaccination for dogs, cats, cows and horses, which are the link between humans and our “principal carrier of rabies, the mongoose.”

The Health Department has long endorsed the need for mandatory rabies vaccines, but have consistently shown figures which indicate that only one or two cases of rabies have among humans have ever been reported in Puerto Rico.

http://www.prdailysun.com/news/Animal-protection-statute-threatened-says-veterinarian

Nearly 38 species of birds spotted at Vaduvur Bird Sanctuary

A variety of birds flocking at the bird sanctuary in Vaduvur near Mannargudi, Tiruvarur District. Photo: M. Srinath

TIRUVARUR, February 10, 2011

G. Srinivasan

Birds have extended their stay at the Vaduvur Bird Sanctuary near Mannargudi due to the availability of water in the lake. Thousands of birds can be seen chirping in the early hours and in the evenings. They are perched on the trees in the mounds created by the forest department in the sprawling lake abutting the beautiful Sri Kothandaramaswamy Temple at Vaduvur. A watch tower on the Thanjavur-Mannargudi roadside helps bird watchers to have a close look of the winged visitors.

According to K. Soundarapandiyan, Wild Life Warden and S. Chandrasekaran, Forest ranger, nearly 20,000 birds visited the lake this season i.e., from October to February. Nearly 38 species of birds have been spotted. The birds that visit the lake every year are the Open bill stork, Cattle egret, Little egret, Pelicans, Grey Pelicans, Darter, Little Cormorants, Common coots, Little tern, Pond heron, Night heron, Painted stork, Common keat, Kingfisher and so forth. The birds are best viewed between 5.30 a.m. to 6.30 a.m., and between 5.30 p.m. to 6.30 p.m.

The birds may leave the sanctuary by the second fortnight of March. Following this, the forest department will take up desilting of the lake at a cost of Rs. Two lakh. The Ipomea will be removed at a cost of Rs. 60,000 and a visitors road will be formed along the lake for three kms, Mr. Chandrasekaran said. Eco Development Committees have been formed in villages around Vaduvur for joint forest management. A six member committee will help the forest department in the management of the bird sanctuary and forest in the surrounding areas.

There is a forest guest house in Vaduvur.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Tiruchirapalli/article1318355.ece

Mountain species at risk in climate change

by Staff Writers
Nairobi, Kenya (UPI) Jan 21, 2011

Changes both man-made and natural have sent populations of birds in Kenya's highlands plummeting, and many conservations say they fear some may not recover.

An increasing number of settlers who have moved to the country's highlands to farm in the last two decades have affected bird habitats and reduced bird populations by cutting down forests and turning grasslands into fields, The New York Times reported.

Climate change is adding to the problem, sending some populations into steep decline, researchers say.

Some scientists predict a 20 percent to 30 percent species loss if temperatures rise by 3.6 to 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit, and if some of the more extreme warming predictions come to pass the loss rate could approach 50 percent, a United Nations climate change panel says.

Tens of thousands of species living on or near mountains are vulnerable, scientists say. These species, living in habitats from the high plateaus of Africa to the jungles of Australia to the Sierra Nevada in the United States, are already experiencing climate pressures, they say.

In response to warming, animals classically move to cooler ground, but mountain species face drastic limitations.

As they move upward they must compete for less and less space on the mountaintops, where they run into uninhabitable rocky terrain or a lack of their usual foods and have nowhere farther to go.

"It's a really simple story that at some point you can't go further north or higher up, so there's no doubt that species will go extinct," Walter Jetz, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Yale, said.

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Mountain_species_at_risk_in_climate_change_999.html

Vast toxic tailing ponds in Canada threaten a huge swathe of Canadian wilderness.

Canada's wilderness endangered October 2010. As the mixture of red sludge and alkaline water from the breach of a waste dam at a Hungarian alumina plant reached the Danube, Canadian campaigners have pointed out that tar sands operations inside Canada's Boreal Forest threaten to destroy or fragment vast lakes, rivers, forests and wetlands that provide nesting grounds for millions of birds.

Area the size of Florida under threat
Roughly 14 million hectares of boreal bird habitat, an area more than 7 times the size of Wales, could eventually be developed for tar sand operations, including strip mining, deep drilling operations and toxic tailings ponds.

Vast toxic reservoirs
Nearly a dozen massive tailings ponds, some several kilometres across, line both sides of the Athabasca River. Filled with toxic waste, many ponds are already leaking and creating their own tainted wetlands. Fish, birds and other wildlife face death from swimming or drinking from the ponds.

1600 ducks killed
Two years ago, more than 1,600 ducks died when they landed on a pond filled with toxic waste. As more waterfowl and shorebirds begin migration journeys thousands of kilometres long, they face death from swimming in or drinking from the pond
http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/toxic-tailings.html

The Salmon That Grew & Grew

30-Sep-2010


Sometimes science is wrong, and one example of this are Frankenfish: In order to grow bigger salmon that can feed more people, a genetically-modified Atlantic salmon has been created that grows twice as fast as wild ones. Its genes have been artificially augmented with DNA taken from two other fish in order to give it more growth hormone. 

Researcher Craig Altier says, "The fisheries of the world are being rapidly depleted and so advances in aquaculture will be needed to meet the growing demand for protein. Genetically engineered animals might help to feed the world, but they must first meet the most stringent requirements for human and environmental safety.

"Is the introduced growth hormone gene safe for the fish itself? The studies designed to determine this were flawed, and so we don't know yet whether this is true. The burden of proof here is on the producer of this fish, Aquabounty, to perform further research to establish safety for the fish.

"Is the fish safe for human consumption? Exhaustive analysis by the FDA showed no difference from conventional salmon. The growth hormone itself presents no specific risk, as we consume growth hormone in all meats we eat (but SHOULD we?) The FDA also found no increase in allergens, which is important, as fish is already a food that causes allergic reactions in many people.

"We advised the FDA on the possible environmental impacts of this fish. Containment of the fish is essential, as the release of this fast-growing animal could have devastating effects on native fish populations. We need to treat these fish as we would a potentially dangerous medicine or pharmaceutical, and apply all of the same security measures to its production and transport."


http://www.unknowncountry.com/news/?id=8606

Ice sheet in Greenland melting at record rate

The Greenland ice sheet is melting at a record rate due to global warming, according to a British-led expedition currently taking measurements from the treacherous glaciers.

By Louise Gray, Environment Correspondent
Published: 7:00AM BST 13 Aug 2010

The University of St Andrews team said 106 square miles broke away from the Petermann Glacier at the beginning of August.

The massive ice island is is the largest single area loss observed for Greenland and suggests the effect of rising temperatures is affecting the Arctic faster than anticipated.

The finding immediately raises fears about the long term effect on rising sea levels and ultimately ‘positive feedbacks’ as water absorbs more heat than ice, therefore speeding up the warming effect.

Dr Richard Bates, who is monitoring the ice alongside researchers from America, said the expedition had expected to find evidence of melting this year after “abnormally high” temperatures in the area. Climate change experts say that globally it has been the warmest six months globally since records began.

But he was “amazed to see an area of ice three times the size of Manhattan Island had broken off.

“It is not a freak event and is certainly a manifestation of warming. This year marks yet another record breaking melt year in Greenland; temperatures and melt across the entire ice sheet have exceeded those in 2007 and of historical records.”

The Petermann glacier, one of the largest glaciers in the northern hemisphere, has now retreated to a level not seen since 1962.

Dr Bates and his team are currently in Greenland trying to determine whether the breakup has led to a further acceleration and thinning of ice.

The geophysicists uses time-lapse cameras overlooking the glacier from the top of its towering 900m cliffs, as well as risking their lives trying to get as close as possible to the icebergs.

“It is very difficult logistically and expensive to get back,” he said. “The idea at present is to try and sail to close to the glacier with helicopter support on the passage up there and then for getting around when there. It could be a bit tricky doing this as it’s not only a long way but there will be ever increasing ice to negotiate on the way north,” he said.

The new research comes as scientists from Pennsylvania State University warned that temperature rise of between 2C and 7C would cause the entire ice mass of Greenland to melt, resulting in 23ft rise in sea level.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/7941035/Ice-sheet-in-Greenland-melting-at-record-rate.html
(Submitted by Lawrie Williams)

NOAA designates the eastern North Pacific basking shark a 'species of concern'

IMAGE: A basking sharks feeds in the Irish Sea off the Isle of Man. Photo by Dr Greg Skomal.

Docile filter-feeder is the second largest known shark species

NOAA's Fisheries Service has designated the eastern North Pacific basking shark, a "species of concern" because it has suffered a dramatic decline in population despite decreasing fishing pressure. The label "species of concern" may be given to a species when there are concerns regarding the population status.

The eastern Pacific basking shark is not being considered for listing pursuant to the Endangered Species Act, rather it is a species of concern because it has been over fished and its population has apparently not responded to conservation measures implemented to address fishing pressure. We expect that by identifying it as a species of concern we will raise public awareness of the species status, generate interest in additional research to identify factors that may be inhibiting its recovery and, with states and other partners, restore this population before listing under the ESA becomes necessary.

Basking sharks are filter feeders that exist throughout the world's oceans from the tropics to the Arctic, although they are most commonly found in temperate coastal waters where currents converge and plankton, their main food source, concentrate. The eastern North Pacific population of basking sharks is thought to be a single group that migrates seasonally along the West Coast from Canada to Central California.

Until the 1950s, commercial fishermen in California targeted the sharks primarily for fishmeal and fish oil, and Canadian fishermen targeted them until the 1970s, in response to an eradication program that sought to reduce interactions between the sharks and salmon fishing nets. Although there has been no commercial fishing pressure for decades, scientists are worried about the eastern North Pacific population of basking sharks, whose numbers have not rebounded. While hundreds, and even thousands, of fish were once observed together, no group larger than three has been reported seen since 1993.

The species is also still vulnerable to human impacts even though it is no longer actively targeted in the United States and Canada. Fishermen may inadvertently catch the shark while fishing for another species, or it may become entangled in commercial fishing gear or hit by vessels as it feeds near the surface.

In U.S. federal waters of the Pacific, sharks caught incidentally must be released immediately, and the state of California has likewise banned the retention of basking sharks. In Canada, the Species at Risk Act makes it illegal to take, harass, or destroy habitat for basking sharks there. The species is also listed on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List as endangered. Basking sharks may still be caught in some countries where they command a high price for their fins in shark fin soup.

###

NOAA's Fisheries Service is working with researchers along the West Coast to tag and track basking sharks. NOAA is also working on a website, due to be launched in December 2010, which will allow scientists and the public to report basking shark sightings. In the meantime, members of the public who see basking sharks are asked to report sightings by calling (858) 334-2884 or send an email to Heidi.Dewar@noaa.gov.

More information on basking sharks may be found at: http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/species/fish/baskingshark.htm

NOAA's mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth's environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and to conserve and manage our coastal and marine resources. Visit us on Facebook.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-09/nnmf-ndt090710.php

UN warns alien species are threatening biodiversity of Wadden Sea

27 August 2010 – A wide range of species not native to Europe’s Wadden Sea have invaded its ecosystem, threatening the biodiversity of the World Heritage Site, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said in a report unveiled today.

A diverse range of alien species are increasing at an alarming rate in the sea, which borders the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark, according to the report, delivered at a conference in Bonn, Germany, to mark Wadden Sea Day. Many species have become abundant and several can be regarded as invasive with a significant impact on the recipient ecosystem.

The Wadden Sea includes mud and sand-flats, salt marshes, islands, dunes, estuaries, gullies and open waters that stretch over 500 kilometres along the North Sea coast. It is one of the last remaining natural inter-tidal ecosystems in Europe and supports a huge number of plant and animal species. Between 10 and 12 million birds visit the Wadden Sea during their migratory journeys every year.

The alien species could also become a serious problem to human health, according to the report. For example, the sharp shells of Pacific oysters can cause injuries to the feet of mud-flat walkers and oysters or other aliens may carry agents that cause infections. Oysters covering blue mussel beds reduce fishermen’s yield.

Grasses, mussels and jellyfish are among the most damaging invaders. The common cord-grass (Spartina) is the main invasive plant in the Wadden Sea as it facilitates the build-up of sediment, thus transforming the sea’s tidal flats into salt marshes. The plant was deliberately introduced into the Wadden Sea to enhance the development of such salt marshes. Efforts to eliminate the plant failed and the spreading of the species increased.

Pacific oysters were introduced from Asia in the 1990s. Since then, they have begun to invade native blue mussel beds and create their own oyster reefs throughout the Wadden Sea, causing a food shortage for birds that feed on blue mussels.

Although there has been an increase in blue mussel populations in the Dutch parts of the Wadden Sea, numbers in the Danish and German areas have dropped. There are major concerns that the Pacific oyster might displace domestic blue mussel beds.

An invading jellyfish species could also be threatening fish populations. The sea walnut is originally native to the coastal waters of the western Atlantic Ocean and was first recorded in the Wadden Sea in 2006. It is thought that the species was introduced via ballast water – water carried by a commercial ship for stability that is then discharged upon arrival at its destination.

The sea walnut consumes zooplankton, crustaceans, other jellyfish and the eggs and larvae of fish. Elsewhere, this species is being blamed for the striking decrease of anchovy in the Black and Caspian Seas. Conservationists are concerned that the same phenomenon might occur in the Wadden Sea if the numbers of sea walnut continue to rise.

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=35741

Group seeks protection for 4 species

By The Associated Press
Wednesday, August 25, 2010 at 3 a.m.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — An environmental group is seeking federal protections for four mountain top species that it says are being threatened by climate change.

The Center for Biological Diversity filed petitions Tuesday for the white-tailed ptarmigan, a bird found in New Mexico and other Rocky Mountain states; Bicknell's thrush, a songbird found in the northeastern U.S.; the San Bernardino flying squirrel and the 'I'iwi (E-e-vee), a native Hawaiian bird.

The group's endangered species program director, Noah Greenwald, says climate change will have disproportionate impacts on species that live at higher elevations because they will have no where to go.

He says mountain areas are already seeing reduced snowpack and earlier spring runoff.

The Associated Press

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/aug/25/group-seeks-protection-for-4-species/

Government cuts ‘threaten wildlife’

7:00pm Sunday 22nd August 2010

By Diana Henderson

DORSET’S largest voluntary conservation organisation has warned that the county’s unique wildlife is under threat from government cuts.

Dorset Wildlife Trust is urging the government to put long-term environmental security ahead of short-term number crunching when making decisions on spending cuts.

The warning reiterates that of the Wildlife and Countryside Link, an umbrella organisation of 33 bodies, which has painted a grim picture of a countryside starved of funds, putting habitat such as Dorset heathland at risk.

The coalition government’s pledge to be the “greenest ever” is at variance with funding cuts of up to 40 per cent announced for Defra, says the trust, which represents 25,000 members.

“Defra accounts for just 0.5 per cent of total government spending,” said Imogen Davenport, the trust’s director of conservation.

And the UK was already set to fall short of the UN target to halt the decline in biodiversity by the end of 2010.

“The government has a crucial role in protecting and enhancing our most precious wildlife sites and species, and it is essential that this is maintained,” she said.

Among Dorset habitats at risk are some of the few remaining wildflower meadows, now restricted to less than one per cent of the county.

The trust has been working with the owners of these sites for more than 15 years and helped them get government funding for wildlife-friendly management.

Cuts to the stewardship grant scheme, administered by Natural England, could reverse the progress that farmers and landowners have made in managing wildlife habitats, says the charity.

“The landscape acts as a life support system and can, when managed sensitively, give us clean water, enable crop pollination, absorb greenhouse gases and provide places where we can take exercise and refresh our minds,” said Ms Davenport.

“Recent economic studies show that the costs of not conserving biodiversity now will be multiplied many times over for future generations to pay.”

The Wildlife Trusts and other conservation charities have suggested alternative cost savings, and the public can have their say on Defra’s future plans at engage.defra.gov.uk/reform-plan Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman, who set out the “greenest government ever”, has said: “At Defra, we help to strengthen the economy and tackle the deficit.

“The environment is a crucial component of economic growth, and we work to ensure it is managed sustainably.”

http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/8345381.Government_cuts____threaten_wildlife___/
(Via The Natural Stuff)

New batfish species found under U.S. Gulf oil spill

WASHINGTON | Thu Jul 8, 2010 5:18pm BST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Researchers have discovered two previously unknown species of bottom-dwelling fish in the Gulf of Mexico, living right in the area affected by the BP oil spill.

Researchers identified new species of pancake batfishes, a flat fish rarely seen because of the dark depths they favour. They are named for the clumsy way they "walk" along the sea bottom, like a bat crawling.

"One of the fishes that we describe is completely restricted to the oil spill area," John Sparks of the American Museum of Natural History in New York, said in a statement released on Thursday.

"If we are still finding new species of fishes in the Gulf, imagine how much diversity, especially microdiversity, is out there that we do not know about."

Writing in the Journal of Fish Biology, Sparks and his colleagues named the species as Halieutichthys intermedius and H. bispinosus. A third already known species called H. aculeatus also only lives in waters affected by the spill, they said.

Pancake batfishes have round, flat bodies with giant heads and mouths they can thrust forward. They use arm-like fins to drag themselves along the bottom and a modified dorsal fin excretes fluid to lure prey.

Sparks said the three species had been considered just one species, but his team found distinct differences.

"These discoveries underscore the potential loss of undocumented biodiversity that a disaster of this scale may portend," he said.

BP aims to plug the well late this month or in August.

The well has pumped millions of gallons (litres) of oil into the Gulf, coating shorelines and animals and having as yet unknown effects on creatures living in deep waters.

It threatens to devastate the Gulf region's multibillion-dollar fishing and tourist industries.

(Reporting by Maggie Fox, editing by Vicki Allen)

http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE66739Y20100708

Curry fed to sheep could curb global warming

Jul 6th 2010 By Tom Cullen

Scientists have claimed that coriander and turmeric - spices traditionally used to flavour curries - can reduce the amount of methane produced by sheep by up to 40 per cent, thus significantly reducing global warming.

The findings are part of a study by Newcastle University research student Mohammad Mehedi Hasan and Dr Abdul Shakoor Chaudhry who suggest that the two ingredients work like an antibiotic, the spices were found to kill the methane-producing ''bad'' bacteria in the animal's gut while allowing the ''good'' bacteria to flourish.

Mr Hasan told the Telegraph: ''Methane is a major contributor to global warming and the slow digestive system of ruminant animals such as cows and sheep makes them a key producer of the gas.

''What my research found was that certain spices contain properties which make this digestive process more efficient so producing less waste - in this case, methane.''

Odd, then, that last night's curry appears to have done the exact opposite to us.

http://www.asylum.co.uk/2010/07/06/curry-for-sheep-could-curb-global-warming/#ixzz0t0J3SipS

Health and safety concerns disconnect us from nature

ASPIRING naturalists and conservationists in Dorset and Somerset might not be able to pursue their hobby due to hypothetical risks raised by health and safety issues.

This is the view of veteran television presenter, wildlife conservationist and national icon, Sir David Attenborough.

The idea of young people frolicking across the countryside looking for insects, animal footprints and wild flowers is considered too dangerous due to fears over volumes of traffic and child abduction.

Sir David told a national newspaper: "It is my belief that there is barely a child born into this world who is not initially interested in nature and other creatures.

"Now it is much more difficult for children. We agreed that you cannot have everyone collecting birds eggs but children should be able to collect fossils here and there.

"Those are the ways naturalists are born. I am sorry for legal reasons and perfectly proper reasons that children are no longer allowed to do that."

In his childhood, Sir David cut his teeth to gain his legendary expertise by travelling around rural Leicestershire on his bike, sitting in fields, picking wild flowers and watching animals.

He has expressed his concern that many modern Britons are "out of touch" with their environment and they can do their own little bit to enable wildlife to thrive by digging ponds and planting bee-friendly plants.

Sir David said: "You can transfer the principles of what you see in a decent natural history programme into the studying of nature you see around you."

Whilst there may be many schools in Dorset and Somerset who are doing some sterling work in environmental education, they seem to be others who are unwittingly instituting a culture of fear.

If our communities want our land looked after by future generations, young people have to work with it and on it.

A recent survey carried out by the Home Grown Cereals Authority showed that 17 per cent of both children and young people under the age of 30 thought eggs were a staple ingredient of bread.

The survey also found that 26 per cent of children thought bacon comes from sheep and also that 29 per cent of them were convinced oats grew on trees.

In the same survey, the older generations fared better. The majority of over 40s correctly observed that bread consisted of flour, water and yeast and where oats came from.

NFU president Peter Kendall said: "Everyone should know where primary foods like cereals are grown and the role they place as part of a healthy, balanced diet.

"It is critical that children and adults alike understand more about their food and the role British farmers play in producing it."

What seems to come out through Sir David's observations and the HGCA's survey results is that if young people do not have practical exposure to the countryside and how it works, you are inevitably going to have a dearth of knowledge.

It is vital that groups like Farming and Countryside Education (Face) and Linking Environment and Farming (Leaf) continue their vital work contacting schools and the wider public to arrange farm visits and open days to address these issues.

It is absolutely essential that educational institutions like Kingston Maurward College near Dorchester and Cannington College in Bridgwater have secure futures.

These colleges will provide the next generation of conservationists, wardens, farmers, gamekeepers, food technologists, rural craftsmen and landscape contractors. The countryside can't function without these people.

It confirms what many already suspect that land management issues have been badly neglected in recent years and this has to be reversed immediately.

Rural education is at its most effective in a practical environment so anything that stops this from happening must be amended or scrapped.

http://www.thisisdorset.co.uk/westerngazette/Health-safety-concerns-disconnect-nature/article-2312403-detail/article.html

(Submitted by Mark North)

DEATH BY FIRE IN THE GULF (Via HerpDigest)

DEATH BY FIRE IN THE GULF -SO-CALLED BURN BOXES ARE TORCHING OIL FROM THE WATER'S SURFACE AT THE SACRIFICE OF TURTLES, CRABS, SEA SLUGS AND OTHER SEA LIFE.
By Kim Murphy, Los Angeles Times, June 17, 2010

Reporting from the Gulf of Mexico -
Here on the open ocean, 12 miles from ground zero of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the gulf is hovering between life and death.

The large strands of sargassum seaweed atop the ocean are normally noisy with birds and thick with crustaceans, small fish and sea turtles. But now this is a silent panorama, heavy with the smell of oil.

There are no birds. The seaweed is soaked in rust-colored crude and chemical dispersant. It is devoid of life except for the occasional juvenile sea turtle, speckled with oil and clinging to the only habitat it knows. Thick ribbons of oil spread out through the sea like the strips in egg flower soup, gorgeous and deadly.

A few dead fish float in the water, though dolphin-fish, tuna, flying fish and the occasional shark can still be seen swimming near the surface, threading their way through the wavy, sometimes iridescent gobs of crude.

"This is devastating. I mean literally, it's terrible. All this should be pretty much blue water, and - look at it. It just looks bad," said Kevin Aderhold, a longtime charter fishing captain who has been taking a team of researchers deep into the gulf every day to rescue oil-soaked sea turtles.

"When this first happened, a lot of us were like, they'll cap that thing and we'll be out fishing again. Now reality's set in. Look around you. This is long-term. This'll be here for-ev-er."

And then it gets worse. When the weather is calm and the sea is placid, ships trailing fireproof booms corral the black oil, the coated seaweed and whatever may be caught in it, and torch it into hundred-foot flames, sending plumes of smoke skyward in ebony mushrooms. This patch of unmarked ocean gets designated over the radio as "the burn box."

Wildlife researchers operating here, in the regions closest to the spill, are witnesses to a disquieting choice: Protecting shorebirds, delicate marshes and prime tourist beaches along the coast by stopping the oil before it moves ashore has meant the largely unseen sacrifice of some wildlife out at sea, poisoned with chemical dispersants and sometimes boiled by the burning of spilled oil on the water's surface.

"It reflects the conventional wisdom of oil spills: If they just keep the oil out at sea, the harm will be minimal. And I disagree with that completely," said Blair Witherington, a research scientist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission who has been part of the sea turtle rescue mission.

By unhappy coincidence, the same convergences of ocean currents that create long mats of sargassum - nurturing countless crabs, slugs and surface fish that are crucial food for turtles, birds and larger fish - also coalesce the oil, creating islands of death sometimes 30 miles long.

"Most of the Gulf of Mexico is a desert. Nothing out there to live on. It's all concentrated in these oases," Witherington said.

"Ordinarily, the sargassum is a nice, golden color. You shake it, and all kinds of life comes out: shrimp, crabs, worms, sea slugs. The place is really just bursting with life. It's the base of the food chain. And these areas we're seeing here by comparison are quite dead," he said.

"It's amazing. We'll see flying fish, and they'll land in this stuff and just get stuck."

Hardest hit of all, it appears, are the sea jellies and snails that drift along the gulf's surface, some of the most important food sources for sea turtles.

"These animals drift into the oil lines and it's like flies on fly paper," Witherington said. "As far as I can tell, that whole fauna is just completely wiped out."
The turtle rescue team sets out at 6 a.m. in the muggy warm stillness of the harbor at Venice, La. The researchers move into the open gulf about an hour later, past a line of shrimp boats deputized to lay boom along the coastal marshes.

Closer to the Deepwater Horizon site, the water takes on a foreboding gray pallor tinged with a rainbow-like sheen. Soon, the oil begins swirling around the boat and the seascape smells like an auto mechanic's garage.

Strewn among the oil and seaweed are human flotsam: an orange hardhat, a pie pan, a wire coat hanger, yellow margarine-tub lids, a black-and-green ashtray. The crew has found papers - long at sea on global currents - bearing inscriptions in Spanish, Arabic, Greek and Chinese.

The only sound that breaks the stillness is the deep thrum of the motors of the large charter boat and a small skiff carrying the turtle researchers. From dawn until nearly dusk, across sargassum islands that normally are alive with birds looking for crabs and snails - bridal terns, shearwaters, storm-petrels - only one bird is seen.

"What's amazing is there's so little bird life out here right now. Either they've moved on, or the oiling has had a tremendous impact," said Kate Sampson, a researcher with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who is part of the turtle rescue team.

"We saw a few yesterday. We saw a few laughing gulls fly by. They were oiled, but they could still fly. And we saw a northern gannet, a diving bird. It was oiled too," she said. "I can only imagine that the birds left because the dining hall is closed."

Soon, the rising towers of the Discoverer Enterprise drill ship, which is collecting oil and gas from the damaged well, and the tall rigs boring two relief wells miles into the seabed appear through the haze. A flare of burning natural gas is silhouetted against the gray hull of the ship.

The Premier Explorer, which is helping coordinate cleanup operations at the broken well, announces the day's burn box: A 500-square-mile field within which 16 controlled burns will be conducted.

In the days since the April 20 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon, more than 5 million gallons of oil have been consumed in more than 165 burns.

"The real issue is to stop this thing at the source, do maximum skimming, in-situ burning - deal with it as far off shore as possible, and do everything you can to keep it from getting to shore, because once it's into the marshes, quite frankly, I think we would all agree there's no good solution at that point," Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen told reporters last week.

But the burn operations have proved particularly excruciating for the turtle researchers, who have been trolling the same lines of oil and seaweed as the boom boats, hoping to pull turtles out of the sargassum before they are burned alive.

Much of the wildlife here seems doomed in any case. "We've seen the oil covering the turtles so thick they could barely move, could hardly lift their heads," Witherington said. "I won't pretend to know which is the nastiest."

Yet in one case, the crew had to fall back and watch as skimmers gathered up a long line of sargassum that hadn't yet been searched - and which they believe was full of turtles that might have been saved.

"In a perfect world, they'd gather up the material and let us search it before they burned it," Witherington said. "But that connection hasn't been made. The lines of communication aren't there."

The smoke starts rising on the horizon at midday. The two boats carrying the researchers head in different directions, hoping to find and rescue a few more turtles before their mission wraps up. They find 11, all of them heavily speckled with oil.

Each day, the chances of rescues grow smaller. That there are still so many left stranded in the oil without food is a small miracle. Their long-term chances "are zero," Witherington said.

"Turtles just take a long time to die."

Whale Poop Cleans the Environment

Whale waste is rich in iron so it stimulates the growth of phytoplankton, which then serve as carbon traps that remove some 400,000 estimated tons of carbon from the atmosphere each year.

Sperm whale waste isn't much to look at -- a diarrhea-like substance with a few squid beaks floating around -- but new research has found it removes carbon from the atmosphere, helping to offset greenhouse gases that have been tied to global warming.

Sperm whales in the Southern Ocean release 220,462 tons of carbon when they exhale carbon dioxide at the water's surface, but their poo stimulates the drawdown of 440,925 tons of carbon, according to the research, published in the latest Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

These ocean giants and certain other marine mammals may therefore be among the most environmentally beneficial animals on the planet.

"If Southern Ocean sperm whales were at their historic levels, meaning their population size before whaling, we would have an extra 2 million tonnes (2,204,623 tons) of carbon being removed from our atmosphere each and every year," lead author Trisha Lavery Told Discovery News.

Lavery, a marine biologist at Flinders University of South Australia, and her colleagues explained how the cleaning process works.

It begins with sperm whales feeding on squid and fish, their favorite prey, deep in the ocean. The whales then return to the water's surface to relieve themselves.

"They do this because they shut down their non-crucial biological functions when they dive," Lavery said. "So it's only when they come to the surface to rest that they defecate."

Their waste comes out as a giant liquid plume (save for the undigested squid beaks) that showers over minute aquatic plant "seed stocks," which she said are "just floating around waiting for nutrients so they can use them to grow and reproduce." The whale poo provides these nutrients, functioning as a natural fertilizer.

The plants -- phytoplankton -- take up carbon from the ocean as they grow. Through the entire life and death cycle of these plants, the carbon then stays "trapped" for centuries to millennium.

http://news.discovery.com/animals/whale-waste-greenhouse-gases.html

Graphic anti-whaling video released in protest of 'whale hunting plans'

A graphic anti-whaling video featuring Alice Dellal, the British model, appearing to paint with whale blood has been released, ahead of a key international meeting that could allow limited commercial whaling.

By Andrew Hough
Published: 7:00AM BST 16 Jun 2010

The one minute 21 second protest video, which has been posted on YouTube, was released by campaigners ahead of next week’s International Whaling Commission gathering in Agadir, Morocco.

Members of the international body, which regulates whaling, will meet to consider a controversial plan to legitimise the practice for the first time in a quarter of a century.

It is expected the 88 member nation body will approve a compromise between pro and anti-whaling countries, which could include allowing commercial whaling on a limited scale.

Conservationists fear any overturning of the ban on hunting whales could “potentially open the floodgates to whaling across the globe once again”. Britain is a strong supporter of the whaling ban.

On Tuesday, the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS) released the video in protest against the controversial practice.

It also started an online petition, where protest messages will be sent to world leaders who favour overturning the ban, including Barack Obama, the US President.

The video, narrated by Christopher Eccleston, the former Doctor Who star, shows Miss Dellal, 22, painting a wall with a brush that appears to be soaked in whale blood and animal body parts.

Miss Dellal, also a socialite who has been dubbed the new Kate Moss, said she was happy to lend her name to the short film.

“The whole thing (whaling) just sounds so wrong to me,” she said.

Profit-driven whale hunting has been banned for 25 years and international trade in whales or whale parts is forbidden under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.

Japan, Norway and Iceland, the three countries which still hunt whales, have used loopholes in the moratorium to continue to track and kill the animals.

Japanese ministers on Tuesday threatened to pull out of commission if no progress was made to ease the banning.

It is estimated around 35,000 whales have been slaughtered since the ban was introduced in 1986.

Japan particularly hunts whales under the legal loophole that allows killing of the ocean giants for "scientific research" despite failing to hide the fact whale meat is sold in shops and restaurants throughout the country.

Japan targets culling up to 935 whales in the Antarctic each year although it was able to catch only about half of that number in its latest hunt because of harassment by militant anti-whaling activists.

But under the IWC draft proposal, the three countries would reduce their whale kills over the next decade, subject to tight monitoring, with Japan eventually cutting its Antarctic whale culls by three-quarters.

The whaling states would each be granted annual kill quotas through 2020, totalling nearly 12,000 specimens, in return giving up the right to invoke unilateral exemptions.

The 10-year deal is designed to create a pressure-free zone for hammering out a durable agreement.

But anti-whaling groups fear it will legitimate commercial hunting and provide an incentive to push for an overturn of the ban once the decade-long deal expires.

They also warn that ending the moratorium will threaten the long-term survival of whale populations and will be a symbolic defeat for countries trying to preserve the endangered species.

Anti-whaling states, including Australia and New Zealand, have also called the proposed whaling quota system unacceptable.

It is thought that Britain's opposition to whaling will go uncounted because EU members of the IWC vote as a block and Denmark is expected to support lifting the ban.

“This deal is not in the interests of whales and means a return to a world of industrial whaling,” said Chris Butler-Stroud, the WDCS chief executive.

The Australian government has announced that it will take Japan to the International Court of Justice in The Hague in an attempt to stop whaling in the Southern Ocean.

Reports in the US have suggested the White House was leading a push within the commission to lift the ban on whaling against. Critics say Mr Obama was breaking a campaign promise to support such a lifting.

The US is said to have been concerned that if it blocks the plan, Japan will veto the renewal of IWC permission for small-scale whale catching by indigenous American peoples in Alaska.

Japan, which would be allowed to catch 120 whales a year under the plan, needs three quarters of the vote to lift the ban on whaling. It is thought it currently has support of just under half of the nations.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/7830002/Graphic-anti-whaling-video-released-in-protest-of-whale-hunting-plans.html