Study: Overfishing Large Sharks Impacts Entire Marine Ecosystem, Shrinks Shellfish Population

Fewer big sharks in the oceans mean that bay scallops and other shellfish may be harder to find at the market, according to an article in the March 30 issue of the journal Science, tying two unlikely links in the food web to the same fate.

A team of Canadian and American ecologists, led by world-renowned fisheries biologist Ransom Myers at Dalhousie University, has found that overfishing the largest predatory sharks, such as the bull, great white, dusky, and hammerhead sharks, along the Atlantic Coast of the United States has led to an explosion of their ray, skate, and small shark prey species.
"With fewer sharks around, the species they prey upon – like cownose rays – have increased in numbers, and in turn, hordes of cownose rays dining on bay scallops, have wiped the scallops out," says co-author Julia Baum of Dalhousie.

"This ecological event is having a large impact on local communities that depend so much on healthy fisheries," says Charles Peterson, a professor of marine sciences biology and ecology at the Institute of Marine Sciences, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and co-leader of the study.

The research builds upon an earlier study by Myers and Baum, published in Science in 2003, which used data from commercial fisheries to show rapid declines in the great sharks of the northwest Atlantic since the mid-1980s. Now, by examining a dozen different research surveys from 1970-2005 along the eastern U.S. coast, the research team has found that their original study underestimated the extent of the declines: scalloped hammerhead and tiger sharks may have declined by more than 97 percent; bull, dusky, and smooth hammerhead sharks by more than 99 percent.

"Large sharks have been functionally eliminated from the east coast of the U.S., meaning that they can no longer perform their ecosystem role as top predators," says Baum. "The extent of the declines shouldn't be a surprise considering how heavily large sharks have been fished in recent decades to meet the growing worldwide demand for shark fins and meat."

Sharks are targeted in numerous fisheries, and they also are snagged as bycatch in fisheries targeting tunas and swordfish in both U.S. and high seas fisheries. As many as 73 million sharks are killed worldwide each year for the finning trade, and the number is escalating rapidly.
Ecologists have long predicted that the demise of top predators could trigger destructive consequences. Researching such effects, however, has been a challenge.

"This is the first published field experiment to demonstrate that the loss of sharks is cascading through ocean ecosystems and inflicting collateral damage on food fisheries such as scallops," says Ellen Pikitch, a professor at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science and executive director of the Pew Institute for Ocean Science. "These unforeseen and devastating impacts underscore the need to take a more holistic ecosystem-based approach to fisheries management."

As great shark populations plummeted, their elasmobranch prey—rays, skates, and smaller sharks—increased considerably, according to research surveys looking at the past 16 to 35 years. Cownose rays are most conspicuous among the 12 species showing increases because of their near-shore migrations. With an average population increase of about eight percent per year, the east coast cownose ray population may now number as many as 40 million. The rays, which can grow to be more than four feet across, eat large quantities of bivalves, including bay scallops, oysters, soft-shell and hard clams, in the bays and estuaries they frequent during summer and migrate through during fall and spring.

In the early 1980s when Peterson sampled bay scallops in North Carolina sounds in late summer before and after the cownose rays passed through, he found that most scallops survived the ray predation, allowing the scallop population to support a fishery and still replenish itself each year. In contrast, sampling by Peterson and co-author Sean Powers in recent years—after the cownose ray population explosion—showed that the migrating rays consumed nearly all adult bay scallops in the area, except those protected inside fences that the researchers had put up to keep the rays out. By 2004, cownose rays had completely devastated the scallop population, terminating North Carolina's century-old bay scallop fishery.
"Increased predation by cownose rays also may inhibit recovery of oysters and clams from the effects of overexploitation, disease, habitat destruction, and pollution, which already have depressed these species," says Peterson, noting shellfish declines in areas occupied by cownose rays and examples of stable or growing shellfish populations in areas beyond the ray's northernmost limit.

Ecosystem effects of increases in the other ray, skate, and smaller shark species are unknown, but like the cownose ray, may also be cascading down to species lower in the food web.
"Despite the difficulty of piecing together ecosystem impacts of overfishing," co-author Travis Shepherd of Dalhousie emphasizes, "the real challenge will be to move beyond retrospective analyses and instead prevent ecosystem-wide changes from happening in the first place."
"Our study provides evidence that the loss of great sharks triggers changes that cascade throughout coastal food webs," says Baum. "Solutions include enhancing protection of great sharks by substantially reducing fishing pressure on all of these species and enforcing bans on shark finning both in national waters and on the high seas."

"Maintaining the populations of top predators is critical for sustaining healthy oceanic ecosystems," says Peterson. "Despite the vastness of the oceans, its organisms are interconnected, meaning that changes at one level have implications several steps removed. Through our work, the ocean is not so unfathomable, and we know better now why sharks matter."

SHARKWATER

For filmmaker Rob Stewart, exploring sharks began as an underwater adventure. What it turned into was a beautiful and dangerous life journey into the balance of life on earth.
Driven by passion fed from a lifelong fascination with sharks, Stewart debunks historical stereotypes and media depictions of sharks as bloodthirsty, man-eating monsters and reveals the reality of sharks as pillars in the evolution of the seas.

Filmed in visually stunning, high definition video, Sharkwater takes you into the most shark rich waters of the world, exposing the exploitation and corruption surrounding the world's shark populations in the marine reserves of Cocos Island, Costa Rica and the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador.

In an effort to protect sharks, Stewart teams up with renegade conservationist Paul Watson of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. Their unbelievable adventure together starts with a battle between the Sea Shepherd and shark poachers in Guatemala, resulting in pirate boat rammings, gunboat chases, mafia espionage, corrupt court systems and attempted murder charges, forcing them to flee for their lives.

Through it all, Stewart discovers these magnificent creatures have gone from predator to prey, and how despite surviving the earth's history of mass extinctions, they could easily be wiped out within a few years due to human greed.

Stewart's remarkable journey of courage and determination changes from a mission to save the world's sharks, into a fight for his life, and that of humankind.

Will your house flood?

Most people are wondering how your property will fare in a world with higher sea-levels? Here's a tool that could help. Click Here! Once the site has loaded use your mouse to drag the map around and find the area you live in, the slider at on the left side zooms in and out, and at the top then choose between 1 metre to 14 metres of sea-level rise. However, I think who put this site together, just looked at altitude. Since, the shaded flooded areas that occur, when you select 3 m of sea-level rise, is simply land with an elevation of 3 m above current sea-level. I'm saying this because the shaded areas will not include areas that may be on higher ground but are nevertheless at greater risk of floods and storms. This site can take a while to load everything, so be patient! It very interesting.

Taiwan discovers frozen natural gas

Taiwan has found off its coast huge deposits of frozen natural gas, known as the 'ice that burns' and billed as the energy source of the future, a newspaper said Saturday.A team of Taiwanese and Japanese researchers have succeeded in extracting samples of methane hydrate from the ocean floor off Taiwan's southwest coast and will publish their report in May, the Liberty Times reported.The team began its exploration two years ago, after US and Japanese scientists suspected methane hydrate deposits in the region through monitoring by satellite and scientific equipments.Relying on a deep-sea remote-controlled research ship, the team recently extracted crystallized methane hydrate from a depth of 1,100 metres and recorded how it began to melt at 500-metre depth and vaporize at 400-metre depth.Methane hydrate, in its original form, looks like whitish-yellow ice or ice cream. But at room temperature, it vaporizes and can be ignited, thus the name 'the ice that burns'.'One unit of methane hydrate contains 170 units of natural gas. So the ocean floor is like a gas cylinder holding compressed methane hydrate in crystal form,' Professor Yang Tsan-yao from the National Taiwan University and one of the team members was quoted as saying. The team estimates that Taiwan's southwest coast holds about 600 billion cubic metres of methane hydrate, enough to meet Taiwan's energy needs for 60 years.Several countries, including Japan, the US and Canada, have begun to explore methane hydrate - also called the 'greenhouse energy' - with Japan hoping to start commercial exploration in 2010.

Biggest, Smallest, Fastest, Deepest:Marine Animal Records

Whales and Dolphins

Largest Whale: Blue Whale, Balaenoptera musculusfemale: 33.27 meters (109 feet 3.5 inches) 190 tons estimated weightmale: 32.64 meters (107 feet 1 inch)Both captured near the South Shetland Islands in 1926

Largest Fin Whale, Balaenoptera physalus 90 feet, 97 tons estimated weight

Largest Sei Whale, Balaeonoptera borealis 72 feet, 45 tons estimated weight

Largest Sperm Whale, Physeter catodon 67 feet 10 inches, 72 tons estimated weight

Largest Humpback Whale, Megaptera novaeangliae 65 feet, 64 tons estimated weight

Largest Gray Whale, Eschrichtius robustus 51 feet, 39 tons

Fastest Swimming Baleen Whale (short distance)Sei Whale, Balaenoptera borealis: 35 miles per hour in short bursts

Fastest Swimming Dolphin:

Dall's porpoise, Phocoenoides dalli, recorded at 56 km/hr
Killer Whale, Orcinus orca , recorded at 56 km/hr
Common Dolphin, Delphinus delphis - 37 km/hr

Seals and Sea Lions

Largest Northern Elephant Seal, Mirounga angustirostris: 18 feet, taken in 1852 off Santa Barbara Island, 15 feet 7 inches taken in 1929 off San Diego

Largest Southern Elephant Seal, Mirounga leonina: 21 feet, 4 inches, taken near South Georgia Island in 1913

Smallest Pinniped: Baikal Seal, Pusa sibiricaAdults are 4 feet 6 inches and 140 pounds

Fastest Swimming Pinniped: California Sea Lion, Zalophus californianus 25 miles per hour

Greatest Age for a Pinniped:Ringed Seal, Phoca hispida: 43 years, collected on Baffin Island and based on growth layers in the teethGrey Seal, Halichoerus grypus, 41-42 years, kept in captivity in Sweden from 1901-1942

Fish

Largest Fish Whale Shark, Rhinodon typus 59 feet, for a specimen captured in Thailand in 1919

Largest Basking Shark, Cetorhinus maximus 45 feet. Weight estimated at 32,000 pounds

Largest Tiger Shark, Galeocerdo cuvieri 20 feet, 10 inches, 2070 pounds

Largest Hammerhead Shark, Sphyrna mokarran 18 feet, 4 inches, 1,860 pounds

Largest Thresher Shark, Alopias vulpinus 18 feet, 1,100 pounds

Largest Six-gill Shark, Hexanchus griseus 15 feet, 1,300 pounds

Heaviest Fish in the Class Ostyichtheys (bony fish)Ocean Sunfish, Mola mola: 10 feet in length, 14 feet between dorsal and anal fins, 4,928 pounds, struck and killed by a ship off Australia in 1908

Longest Fish in the Class Ostyichtheys (bony fish)Russian Sturgeon, Acipenser huso: 24 feet in length, weight 1,470 kg (3,250 pounds) caught in the Volga river in 1827

Shortest Marine FishSchindleria praematurus, found in Samoa in the South Pacific: 12-19 mm in length, weight 2 mg.

Fastest Fish:

Sailfish, Istiophorus platypterus: 68.18 mph
Mako Shark, Isurus oxyrinchus: 60 mph
Marlin, Tetrapturus sp. 50 mph
Wahoo, Acanthocybium solandri 48.5 mph
Bluefin Tuna, Thunnus thynnus 43.4 mph
Blue Shark, Prionace glauca 43 mph
Bonefish, Albula vulpes 40 mph
Swordfish, Xiphius gladius 40 mph

Slowest Fish:Sea Horse 0.01 mph

Echinoderms

Largest Sea Star: Evasterias echinosomo 96 cm (37.79 inches) in diameter, weight 5 kg (11 pounds), collected in the North Pacific

Smallest Sea Star: Leptychaster propinquus 1.83 cm (0.72 inches) total diameter

Deepest Sea Star: Eremicaster tenebrariusCollected in 7,630 meters (25,032 feet)

Fastest Sea Star: Sun Star, Pycnopodia helianthoides 75 cm per minute (0.027 miles per hour)

Largest Sea Urchin: Sperosoma giganteumTest diameter of 38 cm (13 inches)

Smallest Sea Urchin: Echinocyamus scaberTest diameter of 5.5 mm (0.21 inches)

Deepest Sea Urchin: Unidentified specimentaken from 7,250 meters (23,786 feet) near Indonesia in 1951

Largest Sea Cucumber: Members of the genus Stichopus have been measured up to 1.3 meters (40 inches) in length and 20 cm (8 inches) in diameter

Smallest Sea Cucumber: Rhabdomolgus ruber, found in the North Sea10 mm (0.39 inches) in length

Deepest Sea Cucumber: Unidentified specimen taken from the Philippine trench in 1951 in 10,190 meters (33,431 feet)

Largest Crinoid: Helimoetra glacialis, found in the Northeast Pacific90 cm (36 inches) in diameter

Smallest Crinoid: Unidentified species with a diameter of 3 cm (1.18 inches)

Deepest Crinoid: Unidentified specimen taken from the Kermadec Trench in 1951 in 8,210 meters (26,935 feet)

Crustaceans

Largest Crustacean: Giant spider crab Macrocheira kaempferiIndividuals can measure 12-14 inches across the body, with a claw span of 8-9 feet. There is a report of a crab weighing 14 pounds with a claw span of 12 feet.

Smallest Crab: Pea crabs in the family Pinnotheridae are about .25 inches across the shell

Heaviest Crustacean: Atlantic Lobster The record, however goes to a lobster weighing 44 pounds, 4 ounces, which was caught in Nova Scotia waters.

Molluscs

Heaviest Mollusc (and heaviest invertebrate): The giant squid (Architeuthis sp.)The largest giant squid ever recorded (Architeuthis princeps) was captured in 1878. One of the "arms" (probably a tentacle) measured 35 feet long. It is estimated that the animal weighed in the neighbourhood of 4000 pounds.

Largest Clams: Tridacna gigas, with a length of 137cm, as reported by Rosewater, J. 1965. The family Tridacnidae in the Indo-Pacific. Indo-Pacific Mollusca 1: 347-396. Tridacna derasa, found on coral reefs in the South Pacific. One was collected on the Great Barrier Reef in 1917 that measured 49 inches by 29 inches, and weighed 579.5 pounds.

Largest Gastropod: Syrinx aruanus, the trumpet or baler conch found off the coast of Australia. In 1979, a 40 pound animal was found with a shell that measured 30.4 inches in length and 39.75 inches in girth.

Cnidarians

Largest Jellyfish: Cyanea arctica, found in the North AtlanticSpecimens have been measured up to 7 feet 6 inches across the bell with a tentacle of 120 feet.

Porifera

Largest Sponge: Xestospongia muta, the barrel sponge, found in tropical coastal waters. Some individuals in the Caribbean measure 6-8 feet tall, and 6-8 feet across. It should be noted, however, that some species of encrusting sponge can cover a very large area.

Seaweed

Largest Seaweed: Macrocystis pyrifera, a brown algae called the giant kelp. The longest recorded length is 54 metres long! M. pyrifera is the type of kelp that makes up the majority of the giant kelp forests off the California coast.

Disaster as Thousands of Harp Seals 'Assumed' Dead Over Lack of Ice Floes; '100% Pup Mortality'

Charlottetown, Canada (Mar 27, 2007 17:33 EST) Thousands of harp seal pups are assumed dead in Canada's Gulf of St. Lawrence due to the lack of ice floes, which mother seals require to give birth and nurse their pups successfully. Experts with IFAW (International Fund for Animal Welfare - www.ifaw.org) have been carrying out daily surveillance flights over the region. They report that the Gulf of St. Lawrence, which is the annual birthing ground of hundreds of thousands of harp seals, is essentially devoid of both ice and seals.
"The conditions this year are disastrous. I've surveyed this region for six years and I haven't seen anything like this" said Sheryl Fink, a senior researcher with IFAW. "There is wide open water and almost no seals. I only saw a handful of adult harp seals and even fewer pups, where normally we should be seeing thousands and thousands of seals."
The ice conditions this year are among the worst on record. Scientists have recorded below average ice conditions in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and off Newfoundland for the past nine out of 11 years. In 2002, 75% of harp seal pups born in the Gulf died due to lack of ice before the hunt even began. This year, the ice conditions appear to be even worse than in 2002 and scientists with IFAW are concerned that pup mortality will be extremely high.
"It's highly likely that this year we could have close to 100% pup mortality in the Gulf of St. Lawrence due to the poor ice conditions caused by rising temperatures," said Dr. David Lavigne, IFAW's science advisor, who recently co-authored a report on the impacts of global warming on harp seals.
Experts with Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), which monitors the harp seal population and sets targets for annual commercial seal hunt in Canada, have also acknowledged the increase in seal pup mortality this year. It is cited as one reason why the Canadian government has yet to announce the total allowable catch (TAC) or official start date of the this year's hunt, which is due to begin any day.
"It would be reckless for the government to allow the hunt to proceed this year, given the high pup mortality that has apparently occurred," said Fink. "We may not be able to save these seals from the effects of global warming, but the Canadian government can save the survivors from being hunted. I can only hope that they will do the right thing and cancel the hunt."
The Canadian government has permitted nearly one million seals to be killed in the past three years. The government quotas have continually exceeded the number of seals that can be safely removed without causing the population to decline. Last year, the TAC was set at 335,000 seals (far above the estimated sustainable level of 250,000) and the total number of seals reported killed was over 354,000 - exceeding the legal limit by 19,000 animals. Of the 354,000 seals killed last year, 98% were under three months of age.

Somalia: Pirates Rule the World's Most Dangerous Waters

Fred OluochNairobi
The hijacking of MV Rozen by pirates off the coast of Somalia is the latest in a series of hijackings that have been going on for years since Somalia became stateless in 1991.
The ship was on its way to Kenya after offloading 1,800 tonnes of maize, rice and vegetables, when pirates stuck at Ras Shuful off the Somali coast.
The crew of six Kenyans and six Sri Lankans had delivered cargo to different ports on behalf of the World Food Programme.
Though the Somalia Transitional Federal Government (TFG) is struggling to restore civil authority in Somalia, pirates continue to operate off the Somalia coast with impunity. Cases of piracy on the coast increased sharply in 2005, when a total of 48 vessels were attacked and 35 detained with crew and cargo.
Indeed, Somali waters are currently the most dangerous in the world, forcing some shippers to withdraw their operations from the region, while the few that continue plying the route do so at a high risk.
Yet, the route remains important for the region and the global sea trade. Piracy in the area is also encouraged by illegal fishing, which is extremely lucrative given that there is no government in place to monitor deep-sea fishing.
In March last year, a suspected pirate was killed when a group tried to attack a US navy ship off the coast of Somalia.
Various attempts by countries in the region to come up with anti-piracy measures have done little to stamp out the menace in Somali waters.
For example, 10 Somali pirates were last November jailed for seven years each after a trial in Kenya.

In February last year, various countries from the region and observers from the UK, the US, Australia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and India, converged on Mombasa to brainstorm on how to curb piracy and armed raids on ships in the Somali waters.
However, a full-fledged monitoring programme was found to be too costly for the struggling economies of the region.
Again, an attempt by the TFG to contract a private security firm to combat persistent insecurity along Somalia's 2,000 km coastline was met with controversy when critics argued that Top Cat marine Security of the US, did not have the capacity to carry out such an operation. TFG had signed a $55 million agreement with Top Cat to tackle piracy in the Horn of Africa.

Cod Aquaculture: The Next Step in the “Blue Revolution”

Introduced in the late 1960s and early 1970s, salmon aquaculture today produces greater tonnages of salmon a year than wild catches. Just go to the grocery store and you’ll find farm-raised salmon for about $5 per poound (on sale) while wild salmon hovers near $10-14 (at least in my area, this may be significantly different if you live near major fish ports). Though some folks claim that there’s a significant difference between the two types of salmon, it’s just likely to be positive attribution error, or simply that wild-caught salmon is more carefully prepared. Either way, many consumers, including myself, find the farm-raised salmon to be an excellent way to add salmon to their diets.

Critics of the methods of industrialized salmon farming have been many and varied. Among the criticisms leveled against it are that it spawns algal blooms due to the nitrogen content in the concentrated fish waste, that it leads to interbreeding between farmed and wild stocks–thus reducing the genetic variability of wild stocks and increasing their susceptibility to mass disease–, and that it destroys crucial shallow estuarine ecosystems by virtue of the fact that farming salmon is easiest near shore. These criticisms have paradoxically led to either one of two decisions if you are eco-conscious: 1) eat much less fish that is wild-caught from only the most carefully managed fish stocks ($$$$), or 2) don’t eat fish. For those of us without the $$$$ and that like fish, we are stuck with a poorly-regulated, dirty, destructive source of this occasional delicacy.

Like most frustrating aspects of environmental protection, aquaculture is not going to disappear, in fact given the reasons I discussed above it is likely only to intensify. In an excellent and lengthy article in today’s NYTimes Magazine, Paul Greenberg discusses what may take aquaculture from big niche industry to big business: Cod Farming. Once thought so abundant that no amount of fishing could decrease their yields, Cod fueled the growth and prosperity of colonial America, and much of the shipping and fishing fleets of Atlantic Europe. But of course, “they” were wrong and Cod stocks plummeted to un-fishable levels in the 1980s and 1990s. Cod farming may help to change all that by reducing pressure on the wild stocks and by helping to re-energize recently destitute stretches of northern coastlines.

But farming Cod is a tricky business–far trickier than salmon. To reach profitability, farmers have had to overcome a host of obstacles including cannibalization, premature sexual maturity, and low survival rates that plagued early efforts. The article describes these obstacles and how they may be overcome. The bottom line is that large-scale commercial cod farming may become a reality in the next decade. And, of course, cod is just the first foray into farming the bulk of ocean fish species. Tuna, swordfish, and host of others are next.

Realty projects threaten reefs

Experts collect data on growth of coral reefs in Mina Al Fahal area off Oman.

Realty projects threaten reefs
By Sunil K. Vaidya, Bureau Chief
Muscat: Rich coral colonies in Oman's waters need close monitoring to protect them from threats that is posed by various elements, including development projects that are sprouting like mushrooms.
Oman is rapidly becoming an important destination for global tourists, especially the diving aficionados, who get drawn to this country's virgin beaches, pristine blue sea water and rich coral colonies, which can be very important habitats for fish and some of the other marine life.
The rising inflow of tourists is good for the country's economy as development is also rapidly increasing, but the flip side is that it also poses threat to marine life along Oman's 1,700 km coast.
"In the Gulf of Oman some of the best coral is found around Muscat, the Damaniyat Islands and in Musandam. Unfortunately corals here and around the world are suffering from various impacts," Dr Barry Jupp, a senior Marine Scientist with the Ministry of Regional Municipality, Environment and Water Resources, told Gulf News yesterday. "With rapid development of tourism there will be increasing impacts on reefs."
Development projects
In fact, marine scientists around the world are predicting that over 50 per cent of the coral reefs in the world may be destroyed by 2030.
Oman has witnessed major projects along the beaches in Muscat and a couple of more are coming up fast. "Sedimentation from coastal construction is one of the major threats to corals in Omani waters," Dr Jupp reckons.
Talking about the human impact on corals, Dr Jupp said: "Fishing activities, especially from abandoned nets, traps and anchor damage, pose a big threat to corals in Omani waters." He said that the marine environment department in Oman was making every effort to educate fishermen about the danger their activities could pose to corals.
"Litter and pollution such as oil spills from passing tankers also pose threat to this nature's wonder," felt the marine scientist, who is working hard to ensure that the corals in the Omani waters are protected. Interestingly, according to an estimate 16-17 million barrels of oil cross Musandam every day.
Of course, he pointed out, natural impacts such as up welling-related effects of low temperature and high nutrient levels, fluctuating temperatures, predation by the Crown-of-Thorns Starfish, storm damage, diseases, and "coral bleaching", also pose threat to corals in Omani waters.
Dr Jupp said: "Coral can be sensitive to environmental changes. A coral reef can easily be swamped in algae if there are too many nutrients in the water. Coral will also die if the water temperature changes by more than a degree or two beyond its normal range or if the salinity of the water drops."
Important habitat
Coral reefs are important habitats for fish, lobsters and cuttlefish, and are increasingly important for diving tourists in Oman, said Dr Jupp.
Taking personal interest in monitoring of coral growth as well as threat posed by various elements, Dr Jupp had placed modern data collection gadgets five metres under water in Mina Al Fahal area to monitor various impacts on corals but were stolen.
"In spite of the theft we have managed to log important data about light and temperature impact on corals," he revealed.
Talking about the development projects that have or are coming up along Oman's coastal areas, Dr Jupp said that there was a system in place to monitor this. "For every project the developer has to acquire Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) certificate," he said. However, the marine scientist added that EIA was a primary assessment of the impact that activities like dredging, reclamation etc could have on the marine life.
"Still threat persist," he reiterated, adding that Oman was not bad as quite a lot of regulations were in place and Ministry of Regional Municipality, Environment and Water Resources strictly monitors the adverse impact of any activities on marine life in the area.

Newborn captive polar bear: Too soft to live?

He's just 3-months-old, cute, fluffy and healthy - but zoologists in Germany want to kill little Knut with a lethal injection, because they say it is cruel to keep him alive. Knut is the first polar bear cub born in Berlin Zoo to survive in 30 years.He was born on 5 December last year and immediately rejected by his mother Tosca - a grumpy, former circus performer. Zoo keepers rescued the helpless fella with a fishing net, placing him in an incubator, where they hand fed him with human milk and cod liver oil every half hour. Knut survived, but therein lies the rub: he is just not fierce enough.The pampered creature - who has become something of a celebrity in Germany - is a big softie. According to The Times: "He is fed chicken puree, was given his own Christmas tree, sleeps with a teddy bear, plays with a football and his pony-tailed keeper strums Elvis Presley songs to improve his mood."Animal-rights campaigners say Knut will now never grow to become a "proper polar bear", and should have been killed when his mother rejected him. "Hand-feeding is not appropriate to the species and is in grave violation of the animal protection laws," one campaigner said. "Legally speaking, the zoo should kill the baby bear. Otherwise it is condemning the bear to a dysfunctional life and that too is a breach of the law.""One should have had the courage to kill him much earlier," agrees Wolfram Ludwig, director of Aachen zoo, also in Germany.What do you reckon? If the point of a zoo is to protect biodiversity by raising endangered animals in captivity for their later release into the wild, then, yes, the Berliners have failed in their mission. But, in trying to nurture examples of such species in captivity, and in terms of endearing a wild and dangerous animal to the general public, they have surely succeeded.So, in the 21st century, what are zoos for?

World Water Day

It's World Water Day today, an international day that was initiated by the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, in 1991. Each year has a different theme, and this year's is "Coping with water scarcity".

To mark the day, here are a few relevant numbers. Taken from UNWater, UNStats and the World Conservation Union.

Up to 50 litres of water are flushed down the toilet every day in industrialised, urban households.

Nearly 70% of freshwater drawn by humans is used to produce food.

70% of water used for agricultural production is wasted.

15,000 litres of water are needed to produce 1 kg of grain-fed beef.

1500 litres are needed to produce 1 kg of wheat.

More than 1 in 6 worldwide (1.1 billion) don't have access to the minimum amount of water recommended by the UN to meet daily needs (that minimum amount is between 20 and 50 litres).

3800 children die every day from diseases associated with lack of drinking water and sanitation.

96% of North American households, but only 18% of African households, are connected to piped water supplies.

100% of North American households are connected to sewers; in Africa, that number drops to 43%.

If anyone want to get involved in this or future World Water days contact WaterAid.

World Water Day Link

Zooplankton survey plumbs the depths

Unlike pteropods that "fly" through the water like a bird, this heteropod, Oxygyrus keraudreni, uses its flat foot like a paddle to push it through the water.
Clio pyramidata is a pteropod – a swimming snail – and was one of the first zooplankton species ever to have its genes sequenced at sea.



A massive effort to map the genomes of some of the world’s tiniest sea creatures has probed the briny depths more thoroughly than ever before.
The latest research cruise in the ongoing Census of Marine Zooplankton project pulled weird and wonderful looking organisms up from as deep as 5000 metres, far surpassing the 1000 m depth of previous expeditions.
The goal of the project is to create a comprehensive genetic "encyclopaedia" of all the zooplankton species that live in the open ocean by 2010.
Zooplankton are a broad range of protozoans, tiny crustaceans and other animals. They are a vital link between larger sea creatures and the microscopic algae that form the base of the marine food chain.
As over-fishing and climate change create unprecedented stresses for ocean life, scientists want to monitor how the entire community of organisms is responding. Only the tools of modern genetics make such a daunting task possible.
At a glance
"Separating and counting all those tiny organisms can take months or years, and by the time you're done, the conditions in the ocean have already changed again," says Peter Wiebe, chief scientist for the expedition and senior scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, US.
By collecting a comprehensive sample of zooplankton and sequencing all the species' genomes, scientists are creating a database of unique genetic "barcodes" that allows microscopic ocean life to be identified much more quickly. Scientists can then use "gene chips" that read these barcodes to identify and count all the tiny organisms in a sample of water, all at once.
"In the future, one can use these barcodes to see changes happening in whole ecosystems of zooplankton at a glance," Wiebe told New Scientist.
Deceiving looks
"This genetic approach is the next important step for this kind of research," says Tracy Mincer, a marine microbiologist at MIT, US. "They're the only group I know of doing this kind of genetic survey of ocean zooplankton." The latest cruise drew samples from the Atlantic Ocean between the south-eastern US coast and the mid-Atlantic ridge. Onboard gene sequencing machines allowed the scientists to map 220 of the 500 captured species' genomes while still at sea.
Scientists will use the genetic data to settle questions about how many species of zooplankton exist. Only about 5% of the genomes for the roughly 7000 known species of zooplankton have been sequenced, and identifying whether two individuals are the same species by appearance alone can be difficult.
The team have already found that some individuals previously thought to belong to the same species are actually separate species. "We're in the earliest stages of being able to assess the ocean's biodiversity," Wiebe says.

Video Link

'Take shark fin soup off the menu'

Beijing - China should take all shark fin dishes off the menu for foreign visitors before the 2008 Olympic Games, a lawmaker said on Tuesday.Officials in China traditionally honour distinguished guests with huge banquets climaxing with rare or exotic dishes featuring such delicacies as bear's paw, swallow's nest, monkey brains as well as the famous soup made from shark fin.Xu Hongzhi, deputy to the National People's Congress and president of the prestigious Peking University, said such menu items might upset foreign guests."Serving shark fin to foreign guests during the Olympic Games could greatly hurt China's national image and officials should start to remove the dish from the dining table right now," he told state Xinhua news agency.Xu said China should also stay away from dishes using other species of wildlife such as snake during the Games."It's not only an environmental issue, but one that has a direct bearing on the image of Chinese people," he said.Figures show imports of shark fin rocketing in China in recent years, though Chinese NBA player Yao Ming and gymnastics great Li Ning took part in a campaign last year to convince the Chinese to stop eating it.

Korea’s rivers run heavy with copper: study

An official cleaning off contaminants in September last year.

High levels fatal to fish, serious danger to human health.

South Korea’s four major rivers were found to have been seriously contaminated with copper, a survey showed.
According to the report by the Ministry of Environment, the nation’s four major rivers contained an average of 12 parts per billion (ppb) of copper, more than two times higher than the level of 5 ppb deemed to pose a threat to living creatures in fresh water.
In Nakdong River, the copper levels reached 28.7 ppb, the highest among those surveyed, followed by Yeongsan River with 10.3 ppb and Han River with 5.0 ppb.
The ministry said that salmonoid fish are susceptible to the 5 ppb level of copper and a level between 5-15 ppb of copper represents a fatal dose to half of young fish, algae, and daphnia species.
Considering the hazardous impact of copper in fresh water, the Environmental Protection Agency of the U.S. lowered permissible levels there to 1.3 ppb.
"Copper contamination in the nation’s major water sources has reached dangerous levels in terms of health for aquatic life," said Hong Jun-seok, a ministry official. The ministry plans to set forth guidelines for limiting copper contents in rivers and other areas.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization announced it is preparing a new set of guidelines for water quality standards, which will include information on the hazardous impact of copper on human bodies. The WHO said that copper exceeding a certain level can cause not only chronic liver and kidney problems in humans, but is also linked to the onset of Alzheimer’s disease.

My thoughts on ITQ's

A traditional fishing vessel.

A modern fishing vessel.


ITQ A Fisherman’s Perspective: The Monopoly Begins…

ITQ Wow, almost an international sounding and looking abbreviation but what does it mean? ITQ: Individual Transferable Quota.

I: Individual: I, that sounds pretty good for a fisherman. I, all of a sudden they are talking about me; they are including me, the fisherman in the strategy…good!

Let’s switch that around a little.

Q: Quota. Hey, the amount of fish I can catch. MY FISH when included with the “I”, even better now. I am being recognized! They are giving me a personal piece of the pie, great!

T: Transferable. I can catch my fish myself or I can give it or sell it to someone else. Hey, if I get busy some year, I can sell it to the next person; I can still make some money from my quota, Wow!


Hey, it all sounded great, so they bought into the program. Problem is as the quota decreased, fewer and fewer fish resulting in smaller and smaller quotas. The many sold to the few, everybody made a few bucks. Nobody could make a living. The number of fishermen declined and communities died. THE few are ending up with a monopoly.

The World’s Longest Underwater Cave

An under water cave system has been discovered, that has not even been published in scientific journals yet!

Video Link

Polar ice-melting getting worse

Sea-level rises and polar ice-melting might be worse than earlier thought, a leading oceanographer has revealed.

Sea levels, rising at one millimetre a year before the industrial revolution, are now rising by three millimetres a year because of a combination of global warming, polar ice-melting and long natural cycles of sea level change.

'All indications are that it's going to get faster,' said Eric Lindstrom, head of oceanography at Nasa, at a global oceans conference in Hobart, Australia.

He also pointed to huge splits in Antarctic ice shelves in 2002, then seen as once-in-100-year events that created icebergs bigger than some small countries.

The mega icebergs were first thought not to affect global sea levels because the ice broke off from shelves already floating on the surface of the ocean.

But the disintegration of ice shelves that had blocked the flow of ice from the Antarctic continent could allow sudden flows by glaciers into the ocean, raising sea-levels.

'What we're learning is that ice isn't slow. Things can happen fast,' Mr. Lindstrom said.
'If the (polar) ice sheets really get involved, then we're talking tens of metres of sea level - that could really start to swamp low-lying countries,' he said.

A report by the UN climate panel released last month cited six models with core projections of sea level rises ranging from 28 to 43 centimetres by 2100.
© Independent Television News Limited 2007. All rights reserved.

Researcher:Cancer-fighting Properties Found in Bacterium Protecting Sea Life; 'An Uncultivated Symbiont'

A possible cancer-fighting bacterium protects the larvae of the bushy marine bryozoan Bugula neritina.

An Oregon Health & Science University researcher believes the discovery of a gene cluster from a bacterium that protects a moss-like marine invertebrate from predators may be the first step toward engineering cancer-fighting drugs.

Margo Haygood, Ph.D., professor of environmental and biomolecular systems at OHSU's OGI School of Science & Engineering, has detailed her research team's discovery of the large gene cluster in a bacterium that protects the larvae of the bushy marine bryozoan Bugula neritina.
The bacterium, Endobugula sertula, acting as a symbiont to its bryozoan host, secretes a bioactive molecule that makes the poppy seed-sized larvae distasteful to predatory fish. But that molecule, known as a bryostatin, also confounds a variety of cancer cell lines.

"The larvae are covered with a skin of bryostatins," said Haygood, whose research was described recently in the Journal of Natural Products. "They need this kind of protection. We also discovered there are bryostatins on the root structures of the adults, perhaps to help them maintain their territory. But their main function is protecting the larvae."

And, it turns out, protecting people. Scientists have long known bryostatins, particularly a type of the compound called bryostatin 1, have anti-cancer properties, including activity against pancreatic and renal cancer, leukemia, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and melanoma that involves flipping a switch that makes the cancer cells behave like normal cells. Bryostatin 1 is even in phase I and II clinical trials alone and in combination with other drugs.

But the problem has been getting the bryostatins in the large quantities needed for pharmaceutical development. Culturing the bacteria, for example, is challenging because the organism doesn't adapt well to conditions outside the narrow range provided by the host bryozoan. In addition, aquaculture of the bryozoan to produce the compounds is costly. "Getting enough of the bryostatin to do real chemistry is difficult," Haygood said.

So Haygood and her team, including colleagues at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the University of Michigan, came up with a method that may someday lead to the commercial production of bryostatins themselves. By sequencing the genes from two closely related strains of the Endobugula sertula bacterium found in different Bugula neritina bryozoan species - one living in deep waters, the other in shallow waters - they isolated a gene cluster "proposed to code for the biosynthetic machinery to make a common precursor" of the 20 known bryostatins, called bryostatin 0, according to the study.

"What's exciting and unusual about this is this is an uncultivated symbiont," Haygood said of the Endobugula sertula bacterium.

Haygood said the next step is moving the bacterial genes into a host organism that can process them properly and go on to produce bryostatins, partial bryostatins or new relatives of bryostatins in the laboratory and, ultimately, on an industrial scale.

"We are making progress," she explained. "If we could get the whole cluster properly expressed in a single cell, you could make bryostatins as simply as you make beer. That's the holy grail. But there are a lot of intermediate steps before we get to that."-Oregon Health & Science University.

Furry 'lobster' found in Pacific

Marine biologists have discovered a crustacean in the South Pacific that resembles a lobster or crab covered in what looks like silky fur.

Link

20 New Shark Species Discovered in Indonesia; 'The Largest Shark Fishery in the World'

At least 20 new species have been discovered in the first comprehensive survey of Indonesia's sharks and rays since the 1850s.
The five-year survey of catches at local fish markets provided the first detailed description of Indonesia's shark and ray fauna - information which is critical to their management in Indonesia and Australia.
Based on the survey's findings, the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research has published a 330-page, full-colour, bilingual 'field guide' entitled: Economically Important Sharks and Rays of Indonesia.

"Indonesia has the most diverse shark and ray fauna and the largest shark and ray fishery in the world, with reported landings of more than 100,000 tonnes a year," says one of the guide's co-authors, Dr William White of CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research. "Before this survey, however, there were vast gaps in our knowledge of sharks and rays in this region.
"Good taxonomic information is critical to managing shark and ray species, which reproduce relatively slowly and are extremely vulnerable to over-fishing. It provides the foundation for estimating population sizes, assessing the effects of fishing and developing plans for fisheries management and conservation."
The survey represents the first in-depth look at Indonesia's sharks and rays since Dutch scientist Pieter Bleeker described more than 1100 fish species in 1842-1860. Many of Bleeker's proposed new shark and ray species were rejected by his peers who were skeptical of such high levels of diversity.
After more than 250 days 'in the field', Dr White and his colleagues agreed with Bleeker's findings and uncovered further taxonomic riches.
From 2001-2006, they photographed and sampled more than 130 species on 22 survey trips to 11 ports across Indonesia. More than 800 specimens were lodged in reference collections at the Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense at Cibinong, Java, and the Australian National Fish Collection at Hobart.
Six of their discoveries have now been formally described. These include two species found only in Bali: the Bali Catshark and Jimbaran Shovelnose Ray, and one found only in West Papua: the Hortle's Whipray.
The survey was part of a broader project working towards improved management of sharks and rays in Indonesia and Australia. The project documented the value of sharks and rays to the small-scale fishing sector, helped to develop a National Plan of Action for sharks and rays and enhanced Indonesian capacity in fisheries research. Participants were: CSIRO, Murdoch University, Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries and Indonesia's Research Centre for Capture Fisheries and the Indonesian Institute of Sciences.

Cook Islands Teen Attacked by Tiger Shark While Spearfishing, Lucky to be Alive

Penrhyn Island, Cook Islands (Mar 5, 2007 15:36 EST) A northern Cook Islands boy is lucky to be alive after being bitten on the leg by a Tiger shark.
The Cook Islands Times says 16-year-old Turua William Maretapu was swimming over the reef into the lagoon at Penrhyn after spearfishing.
He spotted the shark and fired at it.The shot missed and the shark bit his leg.
The newspaper says luckily others were on the reef nearby and helped him.
They included his uncle, who had been trained in first aid by the Red Cross.
The Cook Islands Times said Turua was rushed to hospital, where the doctor said the first aid probably stopped him bleeding to death.

Lawmakers tout Great Lakes cleanup plan

WASHINGTON - A massive cleanup plan to restore the Great Lakes for future generations needs to be a priority in Congress this year, lawmakers and environmental activists said Wednesday. Members of Congress representing Great Lakes states outlined a $20 billion plan to improve water quality, restore fish and wildlife around the lakes and guard against invasive species that could inflict economic pain on the region.
The Great Lakes provide drinking water to about 40 million people and represent about 20 percent of the world‘s supply of fresh water. The waters are key to the region‘s tourist economy and industrial base.
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The proposal would help implement a Great Lakes restoration plan issued in December 2005 and based on suggestions from a broad array of lawmakers, environmentalists and regional activists.
President Bush ‘s budget proposal includes $7.6 million to complete an electronic barrier to target the Asian carp, which emerged from Southern fish farms in the early 1990s and has been making its way up the Mississippi River.
Congress approved a measure last year to reauthorize up to $16 million a year for grants to restore fish and wildlife habitats in the lakes. Lawmakers noted that Congress has supported large programs to restore the Florida Everglades in the past and must not shortchange the Great Lakes.
A large portion of the funding could come from a state loan program that helps communities improve their wastewater infrastructure. But supporters of the Great Lakes plan said a restoration plan would pay dividends in future years.

Threats to coral include warmer water, pollution

Two species of coral are considered threatened as the vital organisms face more danger than ever.

Walter C. Jaap, a St. Petersburg marine ecologist, vividly recalls the reefs off the Florida Keys he saw during research dives in the 1970s:
Thousands of chocolate brown and golden corals teeming with fish. Snapper, goatfish and grunts darting into thickets of the darker colored elkhorn coral to escape predators like barracudas. Other fish finding refuge by swimming into the golden staghorns.
These gardens of coral covered 40 to 50 percent of the reefs that Jaap and fellow scientists visited. But when he returned to monitor them from 1996 to 2005, the coral cover had dropped to 7.2 percent.
"It's pretty barren," said Jaap, now a consultant after retiring from the state Fish and Wildlife Research Institute.
Last year the National Marine Fisheries Service declared elkhorn and staghorn coral to be threatened species. They were the first corals to be listed in such danger.
And the news is not getting better.
Coral reefs, a key feature of Florida's ecology and tourism, have been called underwater rainforests because they abound with a diversity of life, at least when they're healthy. They also are a good measure of the state of Florida's seas.
"Coral reefs," says Jaap, "are probably a good parallel to the canary in the coal mine."
The canary's in trouble.
Florida coral is facing more danger than ever. And it's not just one threat, but many: hurricanes, pollution, unexplained diseases and maybe even global warming.
"The overall state of Florida's coral is pretty bleak," said marine science professor Pamela Hallock Muller of the University of South Florida.
* * *
Kim Ritchie, a microbiologist from Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, is diving in 15 feet of water at Looe Key Reef in the Florida Keys. She pulls out a syringe, and takes a sample from the very edge of a bronze, antlerlike branch of elkhorn.
Ritchie goes to this reef every month, looking for mucus and bacteria. Which does sound obscure. But by studying the slime and the bugs, she is hoping to unravel a mystery about what keeps coral alive, and what kills them.
The mucus covering these coral contains an antibiotic, which can fight disease. But this protection vanishes when water temperatures get too high. Water temperatures have been high in recent years, which could explain why so much coral in Florida and the Caribbean is suffering from disease.
"I'm looking at coral health to figure out why they're getting diseases," Ritchie said.
Scientists like Ritchie shuttle between the reefs and the labs because they believe that to understand threats to Florida's coral, they need to understand coral itself.
Coral can look like underwater plants, and their skeletons can form rock-solid structures.
But they're actually animals, related to sea anemones and jellyfish. Individual coral animals, called polyps, have mouths they can open to swallow plankton. Coral polyps tend to spend their lives stuck together in large colonies, so they're not hunters.
Fortunately for shallow-water species like the elkhorn and staghorn, they have another way of getting food: They derive nourishment from tiny algae that seep inside their tissue from the water.
The algae are essentially plants, and therefore survive by photosynthesis, the same process tree leaves use to drink in the energy of the sun.
This explains one of the threats: Coral need the algae to thrive; algae need sunlight to live; murky water means less sunlight. Every time dredging or construction stirs up sediment, or storms churn the water, that hurts the algae and the coral.
Of course hurricanes have battered Florida for eons, but they may inflict more damage now that coral is in such a weakened state, scientists say.
Other threats include:
- Higher-than-normal water temperatures. Warm waters in 2005 damaged coral throughout the Caribbean Basin, including South Florida reefs. The highly sensitive coral expel the helpful algae when warm waters combine with other environmental factors, depriving the coral of food. The process is called coral bleaching, because they turn bone-white.
Global warming is likely to blame for the warmer waters, many scientists say.
Jaap said that when he first began researching coral, bleaching happened about once a decade. "Now it seems to go on every other year or every third year or sometimes in consecutive years," he said.
- Scientists are studying several possible sources of pollution such as pesticides and fertilizer that drain off the lawns of suburban Florida.
Fertilizers contain nutrients that can cause algae to grow, but not necessarily the helpful algae that corals rely on. The wrong types of algae can work against coral by competing for resources.
- Unexplained diseases. They are affecting coral more often than before, and "we don't know why they're there or what causes them," said Erin McDevitt, of the state Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
"When you start to add the cumulative impact of multiple stressors is when you start to see decline," she added.

Ready to take Panuke plunge

Dartmouth diving company will closely follow hearings for N.S. natural gas project.

A green light for the $700-million Deep Panuke offshore natural gas project could mean millions of dollars for John Scott’s Dartmouth diving business.
"We definitely hope to get something from it," said the business development director of Dominion Diving.
The company plans to closely watch the review of EnCana Corp.’s plan to bring gas from fields about 250 kilometres southeast of Halifax to landfall at Goldboro and then deliver it to markets in Atlantic Canada and the energy-hungry U.S. northeast.
Government regulators will spend the next two weeks hearing evidence from the Calgary energy giant and about 44 interveners at the Halifax Marriott Harbourfront hotel. Hearings get underway today at 10 a.m.
EnCana filed its development plan for Deep Panuke in November to kick-start the offshore project, considerably downsized from the one that was originally predicted five years ago.
Dominion Diving hopes to get work laying the subsea pipelines along the ocean floor during the construction of the project, expected to begin in 2009 for its in-service date of 2010.

Link

Research: Huge Underground 'Ocean' Found Beneath Asia; 'The Beijing Anomaly'

St. Louis, Missouri (Mar 1, 2007 20:05 EST) A seismologist at Washington University in St. Louis has made the first 3-D model of seismic wave damping — diminishing — deep in the Earth's mantle and has revealed the existence of an underground water reservoir at least the volume of the Arctic Ocean.

It is the first evidence for water existing in the Earth's deep mantle.
Michael E. Wysession, Ph.D., Washington University professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences, working with former graduate student Jesse Lawrence (now at the University of California, San Diego), analyzed 80,000 shear waves from more than 600,000 seismograms and found a large area in Earth's lower mantle beneath eastern Asia where water is damping out, or attenuating, seismic waves from earthquakes.

The traditional method seismologists use to image the Earth below us is to measure the speed of seismic waves. This will provide a sort of CAT scan of the Earth's core and mantle. Using wave speeds alone is a problem, however, because they cannot distinguish between temperature and composition variations.

The research is described in a forthcoming monograph, Earth's Deep Water Cycle, which is in press to be published by the American Geophysical Union.
Analyzing damped-out waves

An increasingly popular method, which Wysession used, is to analyze the way waves damp out from their source. If you take a hammer and pound it hard on a desk, waves will go from the source to the end of the table with the mass of the table lessening, or attenuating, the power of waves. A picture near the striking point might topple, but a stapler two feet away might not even budge. Attenuation data tell seismologists how stiff a region is, which is a function of how hot it is and how much water it contains. Looking at the seismic wave speeds and attenuation at the same time can tell whether an anomaly is due to temperature or water.

In analyzing the data, Wysession first saw large patterns associated with known areas where the ocean floor is sinking down into the earth. Beneath Asia, the fallen Pacific sea floor piles up at the base of the mantle. Right above that he observed an "incredibly highly attenuating region, that is both very damping and slightly slow," he said. "Water slows the speed of waves a little. Lots of damping and a little slowing match the predictions for water very well."

Previous predictions calculated that a cold ocean slab sinking into the earth at 1,200 to 1,4000 kilometers beneath the surface would release water in the rock that would escape the rock and rise up to a region above it, but this was never previously observed.
Beijing anomaly

"That is exactly what we show here, the exact depth and high attenuation amounts right above it," Wysession said. "I call it the Beijing anomaly. Water inside the rock goes down with the sinking slab and it's quite cold, but it heats up the deeper it goes, and the rock eventually becomes unstable and loses its water. The water then rises up into the overlying region, which becomes saturated with water.

"If you combine the volume of this anomaly with the fact that the rock can hold up to about 0.1 percent of water, that works out to be about an Arctic Ocean's worth of water."
In recent years, seismologists have become excited at the possibility of a feature like the Beijing anomaly. The availability of vast amounts of digital seismograms made possible the discovery by Wysession and Lawrence, who wrote many thousands of lines of computer codes to do the analyses.

Seventy percent of the earth is covered by water, which is very important for the earth's geology, serving as a lubricant that allows efficient convection and plate tectonics and the continental collisions that form mountains.

"Water is like a lubricant, constantly oiling the machine of mantle convection which then drives plate tectonics and causes the continents to move about Earth's surface," Wysession said. "Look at our sister planet, Venus. It is very hot and dry inside Venus, and Venus has no plate tectonics. All the water probably boiled off, and without water, there are no plates. The system is locked up, like a rusty Tin Manwith no oil."

Mysteries of the Atlantic: Scientists Set Sail to Investigate Seafloor Spot Where Earth's Crust is Missing

U.K. (Mar 2, 2007 15:54 EST) Cardiff University scientists will shortly set sail (March 5, 2007) to investigate a startling discovery in the depths of the Atlantic.

Scientists have discovered a large area thousands of square kilometres in extent in the middle of the Atlantic where the Earth's crust appears to be missing. Instead, the mantle - the deep interior of the Earth, normally covered by crust many kilometres thick - is exposed on the seafloor, 3000m below the surface.

Marine geologist Dr Chris MacLeod, School of Earth, Ocean and Planetary Sciences said: "This discovery is like an open wound on the surface of the Earth. Was the crust never there? Was it once there but then torn away on huge geological faults? If so, then how and why?"

To answer some of these questions Dr MacLeod with a team of scientists, led by marine geophysicist Professor Roger Searle, Durham University, will travel to the area which lies mid-way between the Cape Verde Islands and the Caribbean.

The expedition will be the inaugural research cruise of a new UK research ship RRS James Cook. The team intends to use sonars to image the seafloor and then take rock cores using a robotic seabed drill. The samples will provide a rare opportunity to gain insights into the workings of the mantle deep below the surface of the Earth.

Mexico Passes Shark Finning Ban, New Protections for Great White, Whale and Basking Sharks, Manta Rays

California (Mar 3, 2007 14:40 EST) In a surprising move, the Mexican government has recently published sweeping new regulations and protections for sharks, including a shark finning ban, an extension of the moratorium on new commercial shark fishing permits, and extensive protections for great white sharks, whale sharks, basking sharks and manta rays.
Patrick Douglas, CEO of Shark Diver, a commercial white shark cage diving company operating out of San Diego, welcomed the move. “Mexico has taken a real leadership position here” says Douglas. "The rest of Latin America is watching what Mexico does with great interest now. This is good news indeed”.

In the past few years, Mexico has been recognized as one of the few places on the planet where large congregations of Great White sharks appear each year at Isla Guadalupe. Along with Whale shark aggregations in Holbox, destination tourism with these shark species and others is growing.

Captain Mike Lever owner of expedition dive vessel MV Nautilus Explorer was thrilled with the news “The people of Mexico afford us a great privilege in allowing us to dive with the white sharks at Guadalupe Island. The enactment of Mexican rules for responsible shark and ray fisheries is incredibly good news and really bodes well for the survival of these magnificent animals. Our hats are off to all of the scientists who helped make this happen”.
The new rules and regulations came after 10 years of debate and the broad support of researchers, scientists, conservations groups, eco-tour operations and local citizens.

Japanese Whaling Ship rams Greenpeace vessel

?Japanese Whaling Ship rams "Arctic Sunrise" Greenpeace vessel, as shown above?

Both sides have said that no one was hurt in the collision, although some damage was sustained above deck and to a mast on the Arctic Sunrise.

According to an ABC report, Shane Rattenbury from Greenpeace said that the Arctic Sunrise had been observing their activists onboard inflatable zodiacs as they painted the words "whale meat from sanctuary" on the side of the Japanese supply vessel, Oriental Bluebird, shortly before the collission occurred. According to Mr Rattenbury, it appeared to be a deliberate move by the Japanese Factory ship.

Links to articles and videos!

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Tides hold promise of electricity.

Underwater currents could be harnessed to help light our homes, under a dream the Snohomish County PUD hopes will become reality.

Link to article.

Warming Climate, Cod Collapse, Have Combined To Cause Rapid North Atlantic Ecosystem Changes

Algae and copepod species near the bottom of the food chain have increased in the Northwest Atlantic shelf ecosystems.

Why haven’t the cod been able to rebound in numbers?

Link to article.

'No water, no birds, no tourists'

Bharatpur - For years, tourists have come to India's Keoladeo Ghana National Park to gaze at shimmering, bird-flocked wetlands stretching to the horizon.But where there were once vast lakes, visitors now find puddles nursed by a network of stuttering diesel-fuelled pumps, which suck up groundwater from deep beneath the parched earth.Years of poor monsoon rains have left most of this World Heritage site near Bharatpur in the desert state of Rajasthan dry and cracked, while local farmers insist on getting most of what little rain water is dammed to irrigate their fields.This has forced most of the thousands of migratory birds that would once spectacularly descend on Keoladeo every year for the winter to make alternative arrangements elsewhere."Before, the skies were so full of birds it was a wonder they didn't collide into each other," recalled Mahendra Vyas, a lawyer who advises India's Supreme Court on conservation issues."Now there is nothing there," he added.Although the park has not yet been added to the United Nation's danger list, the World Heritage committee warned in 2005 that if the park continues to dry up then it risks losing its status as a World Heritage site."The situation is not good and the prognosis for the future also doesn't appear to be very encouraging," Kishore Rao, the deputy director of the United Nation's World Heritage Centre, told Reuters by telephone from his Paris office."Delisting has not happened before but that doesn't mean it won't happen in the future," said Rao.When India succeeded in getting Keoladeo listed as a World Heritage site in 1985, it promised to look after the unique wetlands for the benefit of humanity.But word is spreading, especially on travel websites, that India is failing in that undertaking. As a result, visitors are showing up in ever smaller numbers, locals say.February should be a busy month at the height of the tourist season; but most of the men dozing on their cycle-rickshaws at the park gates are lucky these days to get hired."No water, no birds, no tourists," complained Rampal Singh, who says he and his fellow rickshaw drivers are struggling on their reduced earnings. Hoteliers also say bookings are down.Inside the park, a handful of foreign tourists cluster around the edge of the largest stretch of pumped water, binoculars trained on kingfishers and other resident birds.Their disappointment at the mostly empty skies increased in proportion to the size and cost of their bird-spotting gear.German tourist Franziska Freitag, who had stopped off at the park between visits to the nearby Taj Mahal and the famous pink city of Jaipur, said she was happy to have seen a python and some "very beautiful" owls.But Leif Jonasson, who had lugged several thousand euros' worth of camera equipment from Sweden, said he was saddened to find that bleak reports of the park's deterioration were true."It's a pity to see these small puddles. They're like peas in an ocean," he said.Rajasthan's forestry department thinks the best solution is to top up the park with water piped in from the Chambal river, about 80km away, or from the Goverdhan floodwater drain, about 20km away.But that might not help much as an entire wetland ecosystem would have to be created - with fish, turtles and other aquatic life vital to wetland ecology - to establish a habitat for wintering cranes, storks and ibises who migrate to the region from as far as China and Siberia."Money is one of the other constraints," said Mehrotra, Rajasthan's chief wildlife warden. Neither pipeline has yet been approved.In the wheat fields behind the park lies Rajasthan's last, unsuccessful, attempt to bring a new water supply to the area: rusting sections of pipeline that have sat abandoned since 2004 because of legal wrangles with the contractor.In the meantime, the park must wait at the back of the queue for water from the Panchana Dam about 80km away.In 2004, police had to break up angry protests at the dam by farmers, who were enraged to learn the local government had opened sluice gates to release water into the park.Since then, no dam water has been released to the park, which critics say is due to the fact that, unlike birds, farmers can vote."They don't dare raise the sluice gates again because they fear violence," Rao Raja Rahuraj Singh told Reuters beneath the gaze of a portrait of his grandfather, the former maharajah of Bharatpur, who created the park in the 1850s to feed his passion for shooting ducks.The wetlands have now been dry long enough for new woodland species of trees to take root, despite frantic plucking of seedlings by park workers."It's deteriorating every year," said Sunayan Sharma, the director of the park, one of many people who believe that although the park could partially recover, each dry year leaves more permanent scars.

The Atlantic Coast seal hunt

Great Link

Scientists: Gases 'strangling' Southern Ocean

SYDNEY, Australia (Reuters) -- The pristine Southern Ocean, which swirls around the Antarctic and absorbs vast amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, is slowly losing a fight against industrial gases responsible for global warming, scientists say.
The Southern Ocean's unique wind and storm conditions make it the world's greatest carbon "sink"; the earth's oceans absorb a third of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and the Southern Ocean absorbs a third of that.
But the waters that surround Antarctica are becoming more acidic as they absorb increasing amounts of carbon dioxide produced by nations burning fossil fuels such as oil, coal and natural gas.
Deforestation and slash-and-burn farming also releases vast amounts of carbon dioxide stored in timber or peat bogs.
The more acidic an ocean gets, the less carbon dioxide it can soak up.
"It is becoming more difficult for the Southern Ocean to absorb the excess carbon dioxide," said Dr Will Howard of Australia's Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre.
Howard has just returned to the Australian Antarctic and Southern Ocean Research Program's base in southern Tasmania state after leading a team of 60 international scientists on a five-week expedition to gather evidence on how ocean systems are struggling to cope with the build-up of greenhouse gases.
"I would not say it's being killed," Howard said in a telephone interview. But it is being changed. "And once the system is altered ... it's going to be a different ecosystem," he said.
Rising acidification of the Southern Ocean has already begun to affect the ability of plankton -- microscopic marine plants, animals and bacteria -- to absorb carbon dioxide, scientists have found.
In the sea as on land, plants absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis. Oceans soak up carbon dioxide from the air and sink it to the depths.

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Waterspout

The storm system that passed by created a waterspout off Antigua.

My camera was not the greatest, but within the square you can see the waterspout if you look carefully. It looked much more impressive from the beach!

A waterspout is an intense columnar vortex (usually appearing as a funnel-shaped cloud) that occurs over a body of water and is connected to a cumuliform cloud. In the common form, it is a nonsupercell tornado over water, and brings the water upward. Also, it is weaker than most of its land counterparts.

Ocean pollution

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Octopus Attacks Shark

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