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Kaua'i surfer's arm lost to 14-foot shark
By Jan TenBruggencate, Honolulu Advertiser Kaua'i Bureau

HA'ENA, Kaua'i — The shark that took 13-year-old surfer Bethany Hamilton's left arm Friday morning was a massive animal, a tiger shark about 14 feet long and weighing probably a ton.

"There were a couple of real good tooth imprints in her board, and it was definitely a tiger shark. From the size of the bite, I would say it was 14 to 15 feet long," said Randy Honebrink, spokesman for the state Shark Task Force, who inspected the board yesterday morning. "The biggest tiger shark ever caught in Hawai'i is 16 feet," he said.

Bethany talked about the attack yesterday in an interview with KGMB-TV. "My arm was hanging in the water, and it just came and bit me," Hamilton told the television station. She said the shark pulled her back and forth, "but I just held on my board, and then it let go."

Fellow surfer Jeff Walba described what he saw Friday as he, Bethany and a half dozen others were in 5-foot-deep water at a section of the Ha'ena or Tunnels reef known as West Reef. "I was looking right at her. There wasn't even a splash or a ripple. It never surfaced. I don't think she saw the shark hit her," Walba said. "She looked down and saw her arm was gone, and she freaked."

Bethany was having a joyous time just before the attack, Walba said. "There was no wind — it was perfectly calm. The waves were small. I couldn't surf it, it was too small. She could. She's a little munchkin," Walba said.

Bethany and her best friend and surfing buddy Alana Blanchard had a habit, when they were happy, of making sounds like dolphins. "She was making a dolphin noise. ... And then all of a sudden it turned into a scream," Walba said.

Bethany was paddling after riding a wave, and he recalls that her left arm was down in the water at the end of a stroke when it happened.

Walba said he paddled straight for shore, ran up to a beach house, and pounded on the door to call for an ambulance. Family friend Holt Blanchard, Alana's father, joined others in getting Bethany to shore. Blanchard wrapped his rash guard around her shoulder initially to control the bleeding. Later, he and others used a surfboard leash on the stub of Bethany's arm to form a tourniquet. The girl's mother, Cheri, said she believes Blanchard's actions saved her daughter's life.

Bethany, whose arm was bitten off just below the left shoulder, was at Wilcox Hospital yesterday. Family members said she was alert and conscious. "It was a very clean amputation," Dr. David Rovinsky said.

Hamilton's background in competitive surfing helped her survive, he said. "This is a woman who is a highly trained athlete, and because of that she's able to handle a huge blood loss really well," Rovinsky said.

"She is probably the best young surfer I have ever seen," said Bobo Bollin, who works at the Hanalei Surf Co., which sponsors a surf team that includes Hamilton. "She was going to be the women's world champion, and I think she still will be."

Many here said they expected Bethany to ride the waves once again. Her father wasn't so sure. "She's back and forth," Tom Hamilton said.

For now, Bethany is taking things day by day, undergoing a blood transfusion yesterday and preparing for a second surgery tomorrow. Anyone wanting to write to her can send e-mail to bethanyhamilton@mac.com.

Lifeguards and fishermen yesterday morning reported seeing a large shark on the reef fronting Ha'ena, not far from the attack site, but by the time Honebrink and firefighters flew over the reef in a helicopter at 1 p.m., there was no sign of the shark. The county's Ha'ena Beach park was reopened to swimming at 2:30 p.m.

The story of Bethany Hamilton's miraculous survival is international news. Newspapers, magazines and TV networks around the world have been calling Kaua'i trying to arrange interviews with family members, friends, Fire Department officials and local reporters.

Surfers and ocean experts say sharks, even huge ones, are no surprise to regular surfers and others who know Kaua'i's north shore.

"There's big sharks here. They cruise through the lineup," where the waves break, said lifeguard Chad Listman, who was staffing the Ha'ena Beach Park lifeguard station yesterday. Fellow lifeguard Bruce Stine said a shark he saw on the reef about 9:30 a.m. yesterday morning appeared to him to be about 12 feet long.

"I noticed four to six turtles in the shallow water, kind of cowering," Stine said.

Honebrink said that when he flew over the area at 1 p.m., there was no large shark visible, but there were lots of turtles — a food source for big sharks. "They're not hunting people, but they certainly are hunting turtles," said John Naughton, a marine biologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Naughton said that from below, a small surfboard or bodyboard with arms and legs moving on its sides can look like a turtle.

Southern migration of seals a concern
By Jan TenBruggencate, Honolulu Advertiser Science Writer

The number of Hawaiian monk seals in the main Hawaiian islands is growing, even as the larger population in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands falls, and researchers want to know why.

They also want to know whether seals exposed to land mammals and their diseases in the main chain, from the Big Island to Kaua'i, could endanger the fragile populations in the outlying islands from Nihoa Island to Kure Atoll.

"The big concern is: What is the health of these seals, what are the health hazards and do they pose a threat to the seals in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands," said Bud Antonelis, chief of the protected species division in the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration's Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center.

The agency awarded a grant to marine mammal veterinarian Robert Braun to oversee a project to study the animals. He will conduct tests on seals to assess their physical condition and will attach satellite transmitters to track their movements in Hawaiian waters.

"Monk seals involved in this work will be tested for exposure to ... bacteria, viruses and parasites from wildlife, livestock, feral animals and pets as well as humans," Braun said.

Researchers also are concerned about the relationship between people and seals on popular beaches. Last week a 2-year-old, 300-pound seal was moved from Kona's Kealakelua Bay for a second time because it was grappling with swimmers and nipping them. On Kaua'i, federal wildlife officials warned residents not to feed a monk seal that appears to have grown accustomed to handouts at Nawiliwili and Port Allen.

Hawaiian monk seals are one of only three species of tropical seals. While the survival of the Hawaiian species has been a longtime concern, those seals are healthiest of the lot. The Caribbean monk seal species is believed to be extinct since the late 1950s; Mediterranean monk seals number about 500.

At first glance, the population of monk seals in the main Hawaiian islands, though small, appears to be remarkably healthy.

There are about 1,250 Hawaiian monk seals in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, and at least 50 in the main islands. While the population in the isolated atolls, reefs and islands to the northwest has declined by about 60 percent since the 1950s, the numbers in the main islands are growing.

Only a decade or two ago, seals were rare sights in the main islands. Now, there have been births on each of the eight main islands, including Kaho'olawe. The biggest population seems to be around Ni'ihau.

"The ecosystem here is so different, but the animals here seem to be thriving," said Jeff Polovina, acting director of NOAA's Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center.

One recent finding from biological surveys is that the percentage of predators that feed near the surface of the ocean and compete with the seals — notably sharks and jacks — is much higher in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

The result may be that seals in the main islands face less competition for food.

The environment in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands is different. Reefs there, which are larger and in a more natural state, appear to have a greater quantity of biological resources. There is less human interaction and less sedimentation of the habitat.

One question, Polovina said, is whether the seals in the main islands are using the coastal resources differently than their cousins up north.

There are no clear estimates of the population of Hawaiian monk seals before humans arrived. They were killed by early sailors for food, for their pelts and for oil. The population dropped steadily through the past half-century, until it stabilized in the past decade.

"The best we've been able to do is stabilize the decline," Antonelis said.

Scientists have identified a series of threats to the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands seal population. A shortage of food appears to reduce pup size and their ability to survive in certain years. Shark attacks also cull the population, and seals have been killed when they become entangled in nets and ropes.

Monk seal behavior in itself is another problem: Aggressive males can injure or kill females and pups, a trait seen in other seal and sea lion species.

Antonelis said researchers are conducting several programs to protect the seals. One, at French Frigate Shoals, is to move newly weaned pups whose mothers are no longer protecting them to areas where sharks are less common.

Teams of researchers spend each pupping season on six islands: French Frigate Shoals, Laysan, Lisianski, Pearl and Hermes Atoll, Midway and Kure Atoll. They conduct population studies by identifying individual seals by their scar patterns and other unique features, then documenting the life of the seal. The researchers also remove debris that could entangle seals and they disentangle seals when necessary.

State wildlife manager Dave Smith said his teams regularly find entangled seals when they visit the state refuge at Kure Atoll.

"On numerous occasions we've found seals entangled in nets or with packaging straps cutting into their flesh. There are a lot of ghost nets (lost nets that kill wildlife) out there that we never see. We don't know how big that impact might be," Smith said.

Public warned away from 2 seals
Honolulu Star Bulletin, 10/31/03

Wildlife officials are warning people to avoid feeding or touching Hawaiian monk seals, after two of the endangered animals were getting too cozy with humans on Kauai and the Big Island.

People have recently been feeding an adult male known as K07, or "Lucky," in Kauai's Nawiliwili Harbor. The animal swims up to docks and begs for fish, said Shawn Farry, a biologist who has researched monk seals in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Fisheries Service.

The more time a seal spends around people in harbors, the more risk it could be injured by a propeller, tangled in nets or hooked by a fishing line, Farry said. And people could get bitten if the seal begs for food and does not get any. "He's a 600-pound animal," Farry said. "He may not have the intention to hurt somebody, but may incidentally."
"Potentially, if he keeps it up, he might have to be relocated," Farry said of Lucky, so called because of scars that seem to show the seal survived a shark attack or propeller wound.

Another seal, RM34, born on the Big Island, has recently been relocated twice. Swimmers in Kealakekua Bay said they were "nipped and groped" by the seal Oct. 17, prompting wildlife officials to move it Oct. 20 to South Point, its birth area. By last weekend the seal was back at Kealakekua Bay.

On Tuesday, RM34 was taken by boat to Kahoolawe in hopes that the island's small population of seals and lack of humans might prove a suitable new home, said Jeff Walters, a biologist with the state Division of Aquatic Resources. Walters said such relocations are rare.

There are an estimated 1,200-1,400 Hawaiian monk seals, most of them in the uninhabited Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. More than 50 seals have been identified in recent years as living around the main islands, prompting concerns about their health and well-being. The NOAA Fisheries Service is now studying the seals in the main Hawaiian Islands.

"Responsible wildlife viewing includes no approaching, touching, petting or disturbing," said Margaret Akamine, an NOAA Fisheries Protected Resources Division manager. "When curious seals approach people, we recommend that people steer clear -- even if that means getting out of the water until the seal loses interest and swims off."

Seal sightings can be reported to the NOAA Fisheries' toll-free, 24-hour Marine Mammal Hotline at 888-256-9840.

UH space station camera to map all coral on Earth
By Helen Altonn

University of Hawaii scientists hope to have a camera on the International Space Station by December 2004 to begin mapping the world's coral reefs.

In a study on the project for NASA, the scientists concluded that in a year they could produce a map of the abundance of living coral for every known reef in the world, said Paul Lucey in the Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, School of Ocean, Earth Science and Technology.

"This is pretty revolutionary," he said, explaining there are about 500,000 square kilometers of reef in the world, and only 10 to 20 square kilometers have had detailed study.

"Measuring the total aerial abundance of coral in the world is like finally knowing how many trees are in the forest," he said.

Lucey, a planetary scientist, and Marlin Atkinson, Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology professor who studies coral reef biogeochemistry, have been working on the project for about seven years as partners.

Lucey said he saw the potential of mapping coral reefs from the air after hearing Atkinson describe the discovery by one of his students that coral has a unique spectral signature or color.

Atkinson said he and Eric Hochberg, now a post-doctoral researcher, were looking at airborne images of Kaneohe Bay in 1995 and identified a wave band in the blue light that distinguishes corals from algae on the sea bottom.

At that time, there were only 20 published measurements on how light reflects off the bottom on coral reefs, Atkinson said.

He said Hochberg, then working on a master's degree, and a couple of other students went to all the best dive spots in the world and got 20,000 measurements confirming the unique spectral band in corals.

Atkinson said his group has researched how light moves through water on the reefs and knows a lot about how different bottoms reflect light.

"We're trying to apply fundamental knowledge to truly be able to identify coral from space. ... If we get the same coverage we're expecting -- a good 78 percent of coral reefs in the world -- it would be fantastic."

While their goal is to do coral reef measurements, they're also getting UH involved in building space hardware, Lucey said.

Collaborating on the project are the Hawaii Institute for Astronomy, the Naval Research Laboratory, Utah State Space Dynamics Laboratory and NovaSol, a local firm.

Lucey said the Navy has already built a camera for the space station and UH will build an engineering model and its pointing system.

The UH and NovaSol also will build an infrared camera for the space station to monitor natural hazards on Earth such as volcanoes and fires, he said.

NovaSol will produce a spectrometer and the Institute for Astronomy will build the infrared detector.

"I'm really excited about this because it is another beautiful example about the interdisciplinary synergys we have at this institution," said IFA Director Rolf-Peter Kudritzki.

The Rockwell Co. will develop basic technology for producing chips and IFA scientists will do all the electronics and testing of chips, he said.

The Institute for Astronomy has worked for more than a decade on infrared detectors, which will also be used on the next-generation space telescope, Kudritzki said.

"We're really proud of this development," he said, noting that whenever visual and infrared light detectors are used in astronomy all over the world, they're called "Hawaii detectors."

Lucey said most of the data from the space station camera will be returned on discs by astronauts, but he also expects to get a large amount of live data.

He said funding for a space operating center to receive real-time data has been tentatively approved by Manoa Chancellor Peter Englert. It would be located near his office in the Pacific Ocean Science and Technology building.

Atkinson said his group, working at the marine laboratory on Coconut Island, will receive some data and focus on images of coral reefs.

They want to be able to identify coral in the background of different types of bottoms, he said. One of the big questions is the worldwide distribution of coral and algae.

NASA awarded Lucey and Atkinson $300,000 three years ago to compete for $15 million to develop a camera for the space station to map and assess the health of coral reefs.

The project faltered when NASA canceled all university space hardware projects, Lucey said. Then, about eight months ago, he got together with Curtiss Davis, a friend at the Naval Research Lab with a similar system.

The UH scientists went to U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye for funding to participate in the Navy's Hygeia project, and $2 million has been budgeted for it by the Department of Defense, Lucey said.

UH planetary scientists have participated in many space projects over the years, he said, but they haven't built anything for space work.

"The $2 million is considered seed funding to get UH into the space game," Lucey said.

The Navy's interest is to test spectral techniques to map shallow ocean depths for support of amphibious warfare, he said.

It plans to map 10 sites from the space station, with divers measuring the depth of the water to prove the concept for use on a satellite, he said. Kaneohe Bay will be added as a test site because it has been well studied, he said.

When the Navy isn't using the camera, it will automatically take pictures of the coral reefs, Lucey said.

Atkinson, Hochberg and students will go to sites around the world to validate findings from the space images.

Atkinson also hopes to find a ship working in tropical environments that his team could use as "a ground truth boat."

He said the coral reef mapping program has wide support from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Inouye is excited about it.

Hopefully, the project will lead to a platform in space dedicated to mapping coastal environments, he said, pointing out coral reefs comprise just one type of ecosystem scientists are interested in.

Orcas might land on state's endangered list
Pods in Puget Sound face variety of threats
by JOHN DODGE, THE OLYMPIAN

Orcas that prowl the waters of Puget Sound could be headed onto the state's endangered species list. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has proposed the listing, pointing to an 18 percent decline in killer whale numbers from 1996 to 2001.

While a state listing doesn't carry the weight of a federal listing, it's seen by many as a way to increase public awareness of the orcas' plight and afford some additional protection.

"Certainly, it's a move I support," said Olympia-based marine mammal researcher John Calambokidis. "This is a small population that has clearly declined and clearly faces three distinct threats."

Threats to the 83 individual whales in the J, K and L pods include:

- Historic decline in their main prey -- salmon.

- Accumulation of pollutants such as PCB and DDT residues. Sitting at the top of the marine food chain, killer whales are considered among the most contaminated marine mammals in the world.

- Disturbance and noise from whale-watching activities that have mushroomed in recent years.

Researchers remain divided over which of the three threats is most significant to the whales.

The three pods that make up the so-called southern residents typically are found in Puget Sound and Canada's Georgia Basin from spring through fall. They have been spotted as far north as the Queen Charlotte Islands in British Columbia and as far south as Monterey Bay in California. Occasionally they venture into South Sound.

The most southern sightings so far this fall have been around Seattle and Vashon Island, according to Susan Berta of Orca Network, a Whidbey Island nonprofit group that keeps tabs on the whales' movements.

If the orca listing is approved, Fish and Wildlife will begin work on a recovery plan for killer whales in Washington waters. Canada is working on its own plan, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries is developing a conservation strategy under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

"The killer whale is not only a magnificent animal, but it is an indicator of the overall health of the Pacific Northwest ecosystem," said Jeff Koenings, director of the state Fish and Wildlife Department. "It is vital we work together to achieve its recovery."

Unlike the federal Endangered Species Act, the state lacks the authority to protect the whale's habitat.

However, a state listing would require state agencies to consider potential harm to the killer whales when they issue project permits, said Harriet Allen, endangered species manager for Fish and Wildlife.

"The main thing a listing does is raise public awareness and acknowledge the status of the species," Allen said.

"Any opportunity to look into the causes of their decline is important," Berta said. "It helps the public understand there is a problem."

Canada pledges money to return Luna to pod
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER STAFF AND NEWS SERVICES

Canada will match the money pledged by the U.S. government to reunite the wayward orca Luna with his whale family -- but the move will be delayed until spring, Canadian officials said yesterday.

Fisheries and Oceans Minister Robert Thibault said his government will contribute $135,000 Canadian to the effort, the equivalent of about $103,000 U.S. Earlier this week, the American government announced that it would spend $100,000.

Thibault pledged to work closely with the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service to come up with a new plan for reuniting Luna with his pod.

Luna has been in Nootka Sound, along the west coast of Vancouver Island, since he became separated from his pod more than two years ago. Authorities had hoped he would rejoin the other whales on his own, but he has not.

Instead, he has grown increasingly aggressive in his interaction with boats, posing risks to both himself and people. After consulting with experts, Canada decided earlier this month to attempt to move the whale and put him in a place where he could easily rejoin the L pod, one of the three whale families that spend a lot of time around the San Juan Islands.

Although some orca-advocacy groups had been pressing for quick action, Canadian officials said Luna, also known as L-98, will have a better chance of reuniting with the pod in the spring, a season when his pod sometimes swims near the mouth of Nootka Sound.

"The exact timing will really depend on us sitting down with the National Marine Fisheries Service and determining what a revised plan would look like," said Marilyn Joyce, marine mammal coordinator for Fisheries and Oceans Canada. "We want to see the relocation occur. We want it to be at a time that we believe gives L-98 the best opportunity to reunite with his pod."

As fall slips into winter, though, "the odds of L-98 meeting up with L pod become slimmer and slimmer," she said. "It's about weighing the odds and the risks and trying to maximize the opportunity for success."

Luna's pod leaves the waters around the San Juan Islands, about 200 miles southeast of Nootka Sound, for parts unknown in the winter and returns in the spring. Some activists have expressed concern about moving the whale in the winter.

"Rushing relocation at this time presents a very uncertain outcome," said John Ford, head marine mammal scientist with Fisheries and Oceans Canada's Pacific Region.

"It's gale force and above out there. This is not the time," said Ken Balcomb with the Center for Whale Research in the San Juans. But he added, "It's too bad this has dragged on as long as it has."

Fred Felleman of the Orca Conservancy said he hopes the time will be used to assess Luna's health, consult with local tribes about the undertaking and enlist U.S. Navy help in tracking Luna's family over the winter.

"Today is the first day the two countries are really talking as peers, with both putting financial resources on the table and committing their resources to it, which is a very good thing," Felleman said.

State officials yesterday invited public comment on a proposal to add orcas to the state's list of endangered animals.

Federal officials last year refused to extend the protections of the stronger federal Endangered Species Act to the orcas. Instead, they are pursuing protection for the animals under the less-stringent Marine Mammal Protection Act.

Members of the public who want to comment on the state proposal can write to Harriet Allen, Wildlife Program, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, 600 Capitol Way N., Olympia, WA 98501-1091. Comments are due by Feb. 3. They will be considered when the state Fish and Wildlife Commission meets April 2-3 in Spokane to take action on the proposal to extend state protection to the animals.

Groups Urge Marine Park to Free Dolphins
AFP

Oct. 22, 2003 — Dolphins being kept at a popular Singapore resort island to perform for the public are being exploited and should be set free before they die in captivity, an animal welfare group said Wednesday.

The Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (ACRES) said that six Indo-Pacific humpbacked dolphins at the Dolphin Lagoon on Sentosa Island were beginning to show stress-related signs that could be fatal.

It submitted a petition backing its call for the dolphins' release signed by 8,399 people and 44 worldwide animal rights organizations, including the World Society for the Protection of Animals.

Haw Par Corporation, which owns the Dolphin Lagoon, issued a statement on Wednesday denying all of ACRES' allegations.

ACRES' president and biologist Louis Ng said one female dolphin at the Dolphin Lagoon died of acute gastritis, a stress-related illness, and two male dolphins fought this year in the enclosure — a sign of stress.

Ng also said the dolphins were being kept in a one-hectare (2.47-acre) enclosure that is about four meters (13 feet) deep — only 0.0003 percent of their natural home range of about 30 to 400 square kilometers (12 to 160 square miles.)

Some of the dolphins are also made to perform "unnatural" tricks during 30-minute performances four times daily, Ng said.

Ng urged Singapore to follow the path of "progressive countries", including the United Kingdom and Brazil, which no longer have dolphinariums but dolphin-watching tours instead.

Haw Par Corporation said in its denial of ACRES' charges that the dolphins were not being mistreated and their shows for tourists increased awareness and sympathy for the plight of the species.

It said keeping the dolphins in captivity did not shorten their lifespan.

"Scientific studies have in fact shown that dolphins in marine parks live as long as those in the wild," the company said in the statement.

Dolphin Lagoon is part of the Underwater World oceanarium on Sentosa, an island popular with foreign tourists as well as locals.

Walruses Prefer Right to Left Flipper
Bob Beale, ABC Science Online

Oct. 27, 2003 — Walruses have joined the fast-growing list of animals that, like humans, show a distinct preference for using one hand or limb — in this case, walruses are right-flippered — a new study suggested.

The discovery marks the first time an aquatic animal has been shown to have a flipper preference when foraging for food and is the first instance of handedness in the seal family, said a report last week by a research team led by Nette Levermann, of the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources and the University of Copenhagen, in the online journal BMC Ecology.

"It used to be thought that this trait was unique to humans, that right-handedness was linked to laterality in the brain due to the left hemisphere being used for speech and tool use," Professor Lesley Rogers, an expert on brain lateralization at the University of New England, Australia, told ABC Science Online.

"This study and others show that this is clearly wrong. There are now many examples in animals — and not necessarily in our close [animal] relatives."

Examples have been found among fish, birds, reptiles, frogs and mammals, she said, suggesting strongly that the specialization of one side of the brain for certain tasks occurred very early in the evolution of vertebrates (backboned animals).

Levermann's team notes that very little is known about the foraging habits of wild walruses, not least because of the dangers involved in getting close to these large and aggressive animals.

Caught on camera
But the team was able to use scuba divers to make 12 video-recordings of foraging adult male Atlantic walruses at depths of between 20 and 52 feet in Young Sound, off Northeast Greenland, in the summer of 2001. At least five different animals were involved.

Walruses are highly specialized feeders, eating bivalve shellfish that burrow up to 16 inches deep in sand and sediments on the sea floor.

Once they obtain a shellfish, the walruses suck out the soft fleshy contents, leaving the shell intact. Their feeding technique is clearly effective — the report notes that one walrus was found to have the remains of almost 6400 shellfish in its stomach.

The recordings revealed that the walruses use three different foraging behaviors to find the shellfish: swishing away sediment by beating a flipper; removing sediment by squirting a water-jet from the mouth; or rooting pig-like through sediment with the muzzle.

The animals anchored themselves with their large tusks, usually positioned to face the current, and with their bodies rolled at an angle of between 45 and 90 degrees to the sea bottom. The hind flippers were used only for moving forwards and backwards and the front flippers as stabilizers when the animals were not feeding.

But when they were actively seeking out shellfish using their favored flipper-beating technique, the walruses used their right flipper — a trait known as dextrality — 89 percent of the time. No walrus showed a left-flipper preference.

Because the sample size was small, the researchers also studied museum specimens and found evidence of a similar pattern of right-side preference in the shoulder and limb bones. "Measurements of the dimensions of forelimbs from 23 walrus skeletons revealed that the length of the right scapula, humerus, and ulna was significantly greater than that of the left, supporting our field observations of walruses showing a tendency of dextrality in flipper use," they said.

The scapula, or shoulder blade, in particular was much larger on the right side: "Many of the muscles that control the forelimb attach to this bone, which means that a longer right scapula could indicate a greater muscle mass associated with the right flipper."

"The implications of these findings suggest that tool-use and object manipulation is not mandatory for development of strong limb preferences approaching handedness."

Human skeletons show similar disparities according to the hand preference of the individual, they note. About 90 percent of humans are right-handed.

Among other marine mammals, one study showed that 77 percent of humpback whales used their right flipper to slap the water surface during behavioral displays.

Rogers has discovered that chickens and toads show a clear lateral preference for certain behaviors: chicks seeking out fallen seeds preferentially turn their right eye to the ground, while at least three species of toads prefer their right forelimb for wiping debris from their faces.

Not all lateral preferences are to the right: when fish snap suddenly at food they tend to snap to the left, and a species of American lizard in the U.S. tends to make courtship displays when another lizard approaches from its left.

Environmentalists Ask Federal Court to Close California Longline Fishery and Protect Sea Turtles
From Earthjustice
Friday, October 31, 2003

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - Today, two environmental organizations, in an effort to prevent the extinction of leatherback sea turtles in the Pacific, filed a legal motion to close the California-based longline fishery.

In August, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the NOAA Fisheries (formerly NMFS), a federal agency charged with managing the nation's fisheries, violated the Endangered Species Act by failing to analyze the impacts on endangered sea turtles and sea birds of the California-based longline fishery for swordfish. Today, Turtle Island Restoration Network and the Center for Biological Diversity, the two environmental organizations, represented by Earthjustice Environmental Law Clinic at Stanford are requesting a temporary restraining order and a permanent injunction from the United States District Court, Northern District of California.

If the motion is successful, it will halt all California-based longline fishing activity and prevent the killing of critically endangered sea turtles and other species, while the NOAA Fisheries makes a final determination on the impact of this fishery.

The California-based longline fishery grew rapidly over the past four-years after previous litigation by Turtle Island Restoration Network shut down the Hawaii-based longline fishery for swordfish in November 1999. Approximately three dozen longline vessels relocated from Hawai`i to southern California.

"These fishermen are acting like pirates," said Todd Steiner of Turtle Island Restoration Network. "Rather than figuring out a more sustainable way of fishing, they make us chase them through the courts to close the loopholes."

The California longline fleet, based largely out of San Pedro, fishes primarily for swordfish using nearly invisible monofilament lines up to 60 miles long and carrying thousands of baited hooks. In addition to the fish they target, these longlines are known to ensnare the critically endangered leatherback turtle, as well as loggerhead, olive ridley, and green sea turtles. Each year the longliners also entangle numerous marine mammals, hundreds of seabirds such as albatross, and thousands of sharks.

"This fishery is pushing the giant, Pacific leatherback to the brink of extinction," said Brendan Cummings, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity. "The time has finally come for this illegal and highly destructive fishery to be closed."

Turtle Island Restoration Network, along with more than 100 environmental and sportfishing organizations and more than 400 leading scientists from 50 nations, has called upon the United Nations to ban longlining in the Pacific to prevent the extinction of the leatherback sea turtle and numerous species of albatross.

Scientific data show that the leatherback sea turtle is in imminent danger of extinction in the Pacific. A scientific report published in Nature (June 2000) predicts the species will go extinct in 10 to 30 years without reductions in adult mortality from fishing activities. Leatherbacks nest in Mexico and Costa Rica in the eastern Pacific, and, in the western Pacific, in Malaysia and Irian Jaya. Although in 1980 it was estimated that there were 126,000 adult female leatherbacks in the eastern Pacific alone, scientists estimate that there are fewer than 3,000 total leatherbacks left in the eastern Pacific. The western Pacific nesting populations have also been devastated, and are near extinction.

Longlining has also been implicated in the demise of the giant fishes it pursues. In May 2003, another study published in Nature demonstrated a 90 percent decline in large predatory fish, due primarily to longline fishing. Scientists estimate that pelagic longlining in the Pacific, by all the world's fleets, each year catch, 3.7 million sharks, 422,000 marlin, 41,500 sea turtles, 5,000-14,000 black-footed albatross, 2,000 dolphins and 1,500 whales. Many, if not most, of these animals are killed or injured in the process.

"NOAA Fisheries must consider the impacts of California longliners on protected species under the Endangered Species Act," said Deborah Sivas of the Earthjustice Environmental Law Clinic at Stanford, attorney for the environmental organizations. "The agency's failure to consider the impacts of this fishing gear is undermining the effectiveness of international conservation and management measures, and setting a bad example for the rest of the world."

The lawsuit was the first ever regarding the High Seas Fishing Compliance Act, a statute that requires U.S. fishermen to comply with international treaties when fishing on the high seas.

Read the complaint here:
http://www.earthjustice.org/news/documents/10-03/HScomplaint.pdf

Senate Defeats Climate Bill, but Proponents See Silver Lining
By JENNIFER 8. LEE and ANDREW C. REVKIN

WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 — The Senate defeated a bill on Thursday to combat global warming by restricting the emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases.

The 55-to-43 vote was the Senate's first vote on such a bill, and proponents said it had won a surprising amount of support, signaling that the concept of a policy on global warming has gained traction.

The measure's opponents, meanwhile, hailed the defeat, saying it was a vindication of their view that the bill would harm the economy and drive companies overseas.

Six Republicans joined Democrats in backing the measure, breaking ranks with the Bush administration, which opposes mandatory controls.

The bill's sponsors, Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, and Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, Democrat of Connecticut, said the vote was a first step in an inevitable move toward reducing the human contribution to global warming.

"We will be back on this issue just like we were back on the issue of campaign finance reform," Mr. McCain said in the Senate debate.

The Republican senators backing the bill were Mr. McCain, Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, Olympia J. Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine, Judd Gregg of New Hampshire and Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island.

The vote was the first time the Senate has taken up specific legislation to restrict emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases. In 1997, just before the talks that eventually led to the international climate treaty known as the Kyoto Protocol, senators passed a resolution to reject any treaty that significantly harmed the American economy or that failed to include third-world countries. The protocol, which was rejected by President Bush in 2001, did exempt developing countries.

Thursday's vote, supporters of the bill said, reflected a growing concern among voters about global warming. Recent polls, including one by The New York Times, show that Americans strongly support actions to curb emissions of heat-trapping gases.

In the poll, conducted Sept. 15 and 16, 66 percent of the 675 adults surveyed said they knew at least something about global warming. More than 80 percent supported higher mileage standards for cars and trucks as a way to cut climate and pollution risks, and 69 percent said they would support such standards even if it meant paying more for a car.

Attitudes about higher prices for gasoline or other fuels, however, were mixed. When asked if they would be willing to pay an extra 25 cents a gallon for gasoline to reduce pollution and global warming, 50 percent of those familiar with the issue said no, while 46 percent said yes.

Opponents of the bill said the support it had received meant little, because the senators were aware that the bill would never win approval in the House. Many voted for it only because doing so allowed them to gain points with environmentalists while avoiding true political costs, the opponents said.

"In actuality," said Scott Segal, executive director of the Electric Reliability Coordination Council, a coalition of six major power companies, "the vote shows that most senators are extremely reluctant to potentially handicap the U.S. economy and energy production."

The backers of the bill argued that not taking action to slow global warming would also have severe economic consequences. In the debate, Senator Daniel Akaka, Democrat of Hawaii, and Senator Snowe, of Maine, said that rising sea levels and increasing temperatures would hurt agriculture and tourism in their states.

The United States, with less than 5 percent of the world's population, accounts for 25 percent of carbon dioxide emissions worldwide.

The bill would have required that companies restrict carbon dioxide emissions so that they will be no higher in 2010 than they were in 2000. Homes, farms and small businesses would have been exempt.

The proposal was far more modest than the Kyoto Protocol, which called for a 7 percent reduction in emissions in the United States from 1990 levels by 2010. The protocol also included a second phase that was to begin in 2016.

Mr. McCain and Mr. Lieberman modeled the bill after acid rain programs that were included in 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act.

Warming ocean 'likely to cause further Antarctic collapse'

Two sections of Antarctica's Larsen ice shelf have collapsed over the past decade and another could be headed for the same fate due to warming ocean waters.

Large sections of the shelf collapsed and broke into icebergs in 1995 and 2002 and, according to a research team, the major section could be weak enough to fail within a century.

Currents of water deep beneath the surface are melting the floating ice shelf from below, said Andrew Shepherd of the University of Cambridge in England, who led the team.

Changes in the surface level of the ice shelf, which rests along the Antarctic Peninsula extending toward South America, were studied using nine years of measurements from the European Remote Sensing satellite.

Researchers found that between 1992 and 2001 the surface level of a 30,720sq km region of the shelf lowered between seven and 17 centimetres per year, with the decline more pronounced at the northern end of the shelf. It was in the northern part of the shelf that the earlier collapses occurred.

Scientists have attributed the ice thinning to surface melting, with meltwater running into crevices and weakening the shelf. But Shepherd's team concluded surface melting and increasing ice density were lesser factors, leading them to suggest that melting at the bottom of the ice caused by water currents was the main cause of ice shelf decline. The research is published in the journal Science.

While not positive about the melting rate at the ice bottom, Shepherd's team estimated the average annual thinning of the shelf at about 76 centimetres, with melting of about two to three metres per year in some locations.

Shepherd says the main part of the ice shelf is about 290 metres thick, while the sections that collapsed previously had thinned to about 195 metres thick. That means that at the estimated melting rate, the main shelf could fail within a century, sooner if the water warms more.

If the current undermining of the Larsen ice shelf is the same one observed in the nearby Weddell Sea, which has been warming, the collapse could come sooner, he added. However, it has not been confirmed that it is the same current.

Because ice shelves float, their collapse doesn't threaten any increase in sea levels, but the breakup of such giant sheets can affect ocean circulation in ways not well understood. Researchers say the Larsen shelf could signal similar problems with other Antarctic features including the massive Ross ice shelf, a field of floating ice the size of France.

Judge says timber companies that engage in forest logging need federal pollution permits
Friday, October 17, 2003
By David Kravets, Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO — Timber companies that engage in forest logging should be required to obtain federal stormwater pollution permits, a federal judge has ruled.

U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel said the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has misconstrued the 1972 federal Cleanwater Act by exempting logging companies from going through the permitting process for stormwater runoff.

Runoff of dirt, debris, and chemicals is a major pollutant in rivers and harms fish and wildlife.

The Tuesday ruling was based on a lawsuit brought by the Environmental Protection Information Center and other groups against the EPA and a Pacific Lumber Co. logging operation in California's Humboldt County. The groups charged that Pacific Lumber was violating the Clean Water Act in the same manner as a factory that dumps pollutants into a river without a permit.

"This case is about requiring the same permitting that has been applied to most other industries for polluted storm water," said Mike Lozeau, an attorney working with the Environmental Protection Information Center.

Jim Branham, a Pacific Lumber spokesman, said the Northern California logging concern was considering its legal options, including appealing the ruling to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

"Obviously, we're concerned that her ruling, which seems to take the position that culverts, ditches, and other kinds of conveyances on forest lands are point sources like pipes out of a factory. It's very disappointing," Branham said. "If, ultimately, that decision becomes the law of the land, it will create complete chaos."