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Beaches to reopen after spill
By James Gonser, Advertiser Urban Honolulu Writer

Popular beaches from Point Panic to Sand Island to Ke'ehi Lagoon are expected to reopen today after being contaminated last week in one of the largest Honolulu sewage spills on record.

Initial estimates placed Thursday night's spill into Honolulu Harbor, Nu'uanu Stream and Kapalama Canal at 4.6 million gallons, but the state Health Department has since determined that it totaled 7.5 million gallons.

Since the spill, swimming has been prohibited from Kaka'ako Waterfront Park to the reef runway at Honolulu Airport, but the recent heavy rain has diluted the spill and put the beaches on the verge of being reopened, said Libby Stoddard, an engineer in the department's Clean Water Branch.

"Tests Friday at the spill site into the harbor showed 14 million colony-forming units for fecal chloroform per 100 millimeters," Stoddard said yesterday. "We consider that raw sewage. The following day it was only 3,800 — a very dramatic drop."

By comparison, an area not affected by the sewage spill on Nu'uanu Stream tested Saturday morning showed more than 2,000 parts for fecal chloroform per 100 millimeters, which is just from normal runoff, she said.

If test results show a continued drop in fecal chloroform in the contaminated area, the beach restriction could be lifted today, Stoddard said.

A power failure Thursday night at the city's Hart Street pumping station in Iwilei also affected another station on Awa Street, causing raw sewage to spill at both locations, city officials said. At about 8 p.m. Thursday, a short-circuit in the plant's electrical system disabled pumps that transfer raw sewage to the Sand Island treatment facility. The problem also affected the Hart Street plant's emergency generator.

The spill was stopped by 9:30 a.m. Friday.

A stray cat triggered the power outage when it crawled into an electrical panel, which shorted out and started a fire.

"The pump station is currently being refurbished, so there is construction going on," said Stoddard. "The poor little wet thing was looking for a warm, dry place. I don't see negligence on the city's part."

The largest previous recent spill occurred in March 2002, when an estimated 3 million gallons of untreated sewage flowed into Ke'ehi Lagoon over 15 hours.

Last week's spill sent sewage into Honolulu Harbor near piers 16 and 36. Health Department spokeswoman Laura Lott said the Honolulu harbor master told her that the currents moved much of the effluent away from the popular Ala Moana and Waikiki beaches and toward 'Ewa.

Frisky seal sent to Johnston Atoll
By Peter Boylan. Honolulu Advertiser Staff Writer

A mischievous Hawaiian monk seal was banished to Johnston Atoll yesterday, after weeks of groping beachgoers on Maui and the Big Island.

The endangered 300-pound male monk seal known as RM-34 was flown 800 miles away to the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands aboard a Coast Guard C-130 Hercules from Air Station Barbers Point.

"He's just doing what young juvenile seals do — it's not necessarily aggressive," said Margaret Akamine, a protected species coordinator with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "This is the third time we've moved the seal. It has been a long six weeks."

The 7-foot-long, 2-year-old seal began nipping and fondling swimmers at Kealakekua Bay before being moved closer to its South Point birthplace on Oct. 20. It swam back to Kealakekua within days, was recaptured Oct. 27 and taken to a remote Kaho'olawe shore.

During the weekend of Nov. 15, the seal showed up again on Maui, and scores of people were said to have been in the water playing with it.

One woman was held underwater, and a few other swimmers were nipped. Onshore, people were seen petting the seal and posing for photographs.

RM-34 is the only seal known to have been born on the Big Island, Akamine said. It eluded capture for a week before it was caught napping on the rocks at La Perouse Bay on Maui. The species is protected under the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

"You can be fined and go to jail for harassing, disturbing or interacting with the animal," Akamine said. "The reason they need these protections are because they are so endangered."

Groups say marine life needs more protection
Honolulu Star Bulletin, November 20, 2003

Environmentalists, Hawaiian cultural practitioners and fishermen are alleging in a federal lawsuit that the National Marine Fisheries Service has failed to protect Hawaii’s false killer whales from longline fishing fleets.

The suit was filed by EarthJustice on behalf of the Center for Biological Diversity, Hui Malama i Kohola and the Turtle Island Restoration Network. The groups hope to increase protection for false killer whales by reclassifying Hawaii waters, requiring the creation of plans to reduce the killing and wounding of false killer whales.

In the suit, the groups said the fisheries service reported that the longline fishing industry is responsible for killing or seriously injuring an average of seven a year—above the limit of an average of 0.8 whales a year.

Biodiesel going for $2.29 a gallon
Maui News, November 30

The Paia Chevron Service Station has become the first Chevron station in the country to offer a biodiesel blend to its customers - while offering it at the lowest price of any fuel for motor vehicles in Maui County. The “B20” fuel is selling at $2.29 a gallon. It is a blend of 20 percent biodiesel and 80 percent petroleum diesel fuel that qualifies for both state and Maui County fuel tax exemptions.

The biodiesel is produced by Pacific Biodiesel, the Maui-based company that developed the process for converting waste cooking oil into diesel fuel. While it has been generally accepted as a suitable replacement for petroleum diesel, Pacific Biodiesel President Bob King said he still has more production than he has market for the environmentally friendly fuel.

King said Pacific Biodiesel produces about 12,000 gallons of biodiesel every month from recycled cooking grease on Maui. He also has put up a plant on Oahu that is producing 20,000 gallons of biodiesel monthly.

Japan Aided Whale Discovery
Associated Press; November 20, 2003

A Japanese scientist who helped identify a new whale species on Thursday credited his country’s controversial research whaling program with contributing to the discovery.

Tadasu Yamada, also curator at Tokyo’s National Science Museum, described the new, smaller-than-usual baleen whale species in this week’s issue of the science journal Nature.

Yamada said eight of the nine whales studied by his team had been caught by Japan’s high-seas whaling fleets. The ninth was a dead whale found beached in western Japan in 1998.

“If the research whaling program were carried out more strongly, then a result like ours could have come out much earlier,” he said.
However, he said the beached whale was the vital piece of evidence. His team only had access to parts of other whales, which had already been butchered.

France celebrates twin sea cows

A zoo in central France is very proud of its newest inhabitants. One of its sea cows has given birth to twins - believed to be the first twin sea cows born in captivity.

"It's the first time in the world, they are twin sea cows and it is at Beauval Zoo," exclaims the zoo's web site.

The mother Daphne was watched round the clock at the zoo in the town of Saint-Aignan in the last days of her pregnancy but the birth of two sea calves came as a surprise to everyone.

"It was a shock to see one and then two calves appear behind Daphne," said the zoo's Director Rodolphe Delord.

The twins, Quito a boy and Luna a girl, weighed around 20 kilograms each and measured 1 metre in length.

Fully grown, the sea cows can measure up to 4.5 metres in length and weigh up to one tonne. Beauval Zoo is the only place in France which breeds the marine mammals - also know as manatees.

The two new arrivals take the number of sea cows at the zoo to six. The zoo receives funding from the European Endangered Species Programme.

Sea cows are threatened with extinction due to pollution of the sea grass beds and shallow tropical waters throughout the Indo-Pacific region that they inhabit.

They are also at risk of injury from leisure boats.

Whales drawn to emergency sirens
By Paul Rincon, BBC News Online science staff

A species of whale that ignores most man-made noises - including passing boats - is attracted to sounds like the sirens used by emergency services.

It is the first time such a strong response to a man-made signal has been reported in whales, researchers claim.

The alarm could be used to check waters for the endangered northern right whales before conducting military exercises which could harm the animals.

Details of the study are published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Northern right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) are particularly prone to collisions with ships. About two of the marine mammals are killed each year from injuries sustained through these so-called "ship strikes".

No one quite knows why this is, but there are a few theories.

The whales feed near the surface - usually in the top 10 metres - sifting the water for plankton. This means they are often invisible from above, but are still vulnerable to being hit by the submerged hulls of passing ships.

They also frequently get tangled in fishing gear.

Northern right whales also tend to swim slowly, though they speed up when chasing females during the mating season.

Because the sound of a ship builds up as it approaches, the whales may be lulled into a false sense of security. They may also get used to the sounds of ships through a process of habituation.

"Vessels are so common where right whales live that if they responded every time a vessel came by, they'd never get anything done," said Dr Peter Tyack of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, US, and a co-author of the study.

"By the time a vessel gets to a kilometre away or so, it's just too late." The team developed the "whale alarm" by looking at the kinds of sounds used to put humans on alert, particularly those used in hospitals.

They tagged five different right whales and then measured their responses as they played three different siren sounds back-to-back to them underwater. One of these sounds much like a police siren.

Four out of five whales powered to the surface at an astonishing speed rarely recorded in the animals when the sirens were played, said Dr Douglas Nowacek, of Florida State University, a co-author of the research.

"The whales were responding to sounds two orders of magnitude lower than the safe exposure limits in underwater sonar trials. The signal itself was the important thing for the whales," Dr Nowacek told BBC News Online.

The findings suggest the whales are put on alert by the same sounds as those that make humans jump to attention.

Dr Nowacek said the sirens could be used to check if whales were in the vicinity when the US Navy carries out military exercises in water used by the animals, or when demolition work is carried out on bridges over water.

But by luring the whales to the surface, the alarms also make them vulnerable to being hit by ships.

There are only about 300 northern right whales left, making them one of the most endangered whale species on Earth. Based on current demographic data for the species, they are expected to go extinct within 200 years.

Recently, Dr Andrew Pershing of Cornell University developed a mathematical model that apparently predicts 65% of the variability in right whale birth rates.

"What that told us is that there's not a lot we can do about their reproduction," said Dr Peter Tyack, senior scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, US. "Which is why we have to concentrate on the human causes of mortality to right whales," he added.

The US National Marine Fisheries Service sponsored a report, released in 2001, that strongly urged the placement of route and speed restrictions for ships in areas inhabited by right whales.

The agency is currently deciding whether to make the recommendations part of its policy.

Bruce Russell, a maritime consultant who contributed to the report, said the estimated cost to the shipping industry of adopting the recommendations in the report would be up to $20m (£11.6m) but probably nearer $10m (£5.8m).

"This really is a minor amount for the shipping industry. The aggregate impact is small, but the impact on specific ports might be large," said Mr Russell.

"The proposals had caused concern from the operators of two ports: Boston in Massachusetts and Jacksonville in Florida, which is near to the right whales' calving area," he added.

The operators in question are said to be concerned they will lose business to other ports.

Whale births linked with climate
There may be only 300 individuals left
By Paul Rincon, BBC News Online science staff

US scientists say monitoring the North Atlantic climate can predict the birth rate of an endangered species of whale.

There are thought to be just 300 right whales left in the North-West Atlantic.

Atmospheric conditions above the ocean can affect zooplankton concentrations on which the whales depend for food, impacting their reproductive success.

The team developed a mathematical model to describe the relationship which it will report in the journal Frontiers In Ecology And The Environment.

In late winter, North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) make their way to the Gulf of Maine, where they feed on its high concentrations of copepods - crustaceans about the size of rice grains.

The concentrations of one abundant copepod species, Calanus finmarchicus, are linked to a pattern of atmospheric pressure called the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO).

The NAO is said to be in either a positive or a negative state. When the NAO has been in the positive state, the deep waters of the Gulf of Maine become warmer and saltier.

These conditions favour zooplankton, typically leading to higher abundances of these creatures.

Following a period of negative NAO conditions, the waters become colder and fresher - conditions that are less hospitable to zooplankton, leading to a fall in their numbers.

It takes about two years for these changes in the NAO to affect zooplankton concentrations.

The researchers found that flips in NAO and consequent fluctuations in abundances of zooplankton affected the birth rate of right whales.

Andrew Pershing of Cornell University developed the "transitional probability" model.

Dr Robert D Kenney, University of Rhode Island
"We can explain about 65% of the variability of right whale calving rates using this model," said colleague Professor Charles Greene, of Cornell University, and lead author on forthcoming research papers on the subject.

A two-year period of physiological stress and poor reproduction in the whales between 1999 and 2000 can be traced to a dramatic negative flip in 1996 and a decline in copepod abundance in 1998.

The NAO has been in a predominantly positive phase since the 1970s. But this may be changing.

"There are tantalising indications that we may be shifting towards a more negative phase [in the NAO]," said Professor Greene.

At the end of 2002, there was a large negative shift in the NAO. The team have not yet analysed this data to see how it affected the zooplankton.

"But if there's anything to this hypothesis, we would expect right whale calving to be adversely affected," said co-author Jack W Jossi of the US National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS).

Mr Jossi added that he expected to see adverse effects on zooplankton concentrations by winter 2004.

"A female right whale needs to put on a lot of fat to give birth. The bigger you are as a whale, the better you can get through pregnancy," said Dr Robert D Kenney, of the University of Rhode Island.

Dr Kenney said that drops in the concentrations of the zooplankton that right whales feed on may affect fertility in several ways.

Firstly, the whales may need to achieve a certain level of fat in order to physiologically support a pregnancy.

Secondly, when starved of food, they may not able to produce enough milk to support their calves - and the youngsters die.

Thirdly, lack of food may cause an increase in miscarriages. Females have a minimum three-year period between pregnancies.

The most recent figures show that the population growth rate is -2.4% per annum. Other researchers have predicted the extinction of the species in 200 years based on this current trend.

But Professor Greene said extinction could occur in a much shorter time if conditions worsen.

The whales have high mortality rates as well as their decreasing birth rates. They frequently collide with ships and become entangled in fishing gear.

Group Seeks Protection for Washington Whales
Associated Press, November 18, 2003

Killer whales swimming in Puget Sound and nearby waters whose numbers declined almost 20 percent from 1996 to 2001 should be placed on the endangered species list, environmentalists say.

The Puget Sound orcas are genetically distinct and don’t mingle or reproduce with any other group of whales, according to a coalition of environmentalists suing the federal government. The coalition, led by the environmental public interest law firm Earthjustice, says the whales deserve more protection than allowed under the current “depleted species” listing under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

The Puget Sound whales include three pods of orcas with a total of 84 individual whales. That’s down from a historical high of more than 120 in the 1960s, before the whales were captured in large numbers for display at marine parks.

No one is sure what is causing the orca population to fall. Factors scientists frequently cite include declining salmon runs, pollutants that build up in the whales’ systems and disturbance from vessel traffic.

Animal welfare groups seek federal protection for Alaska sea otters
Associated Press

ANCHORAGE - Two Bay Area animal welfare groups sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Thursday to force the federal government to place an Alaska sea otter population on the endangered species list.

"I want the federal government to begin protecting the sea otters from extinction," said Brent Plater, a lawyer for the Center for Biological Diversity in Oakland, Calif. "We are asking the government not to stand idly by and let this species go extinct."

The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco by the center and the San Francisco-based Turtle Island Restoration Network against Interior Secretary Gale Norton, Assistant Secretary Craig Manson and the Fish and Wildlife Service.

The southwest Alaska Northern sea otter population has been in dramatic decline since the 1980s in the western Gulf of Alaska stretching toward the Bering Sea, including the Alaska Peninsula, the Aleutian Islands and Kodiak Island.

Last spring, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said sea otter numbers had dropped since 1986 by at least 55 percent, and possibly by as much as 67 percent, to about 41,000 in an area covering roughly the length of the Eastern seaboard.

"I think our biggest concern is not the absolute number - it's the trend," said Douglas Burn, a Fish and Wildlife Service biologist.

"In the past 20 years, they've undergone a pretty dramatic decline."

The Center for Biological Diversity submitted a petition seeking an endangered species listing for the southwest Alaska Northern sea otter in 2000. Plater contends the government has everything in hand to list the animals but has failed to do so because of the Bush administration's antipathy toward the Endangered Species Act.

"We need to start doing something, and we need to start doing something now," Plater said.

The Fish and Wildlife Service has recommended that this population of Alaska Northern sea otters be listed for federal protection, Burn said.

The proposal is being reviewed in Washington, D.C., he said.

No one from the U.S. Department of the Interior was immediately available for comment after regular business hours.

Plater contends the sea otters need the protection of the Endangered Species Act because they are threatened by contamination, disease, starvation, predation and the collapse of the Bering Sea ecosystem.

"This is a race against time with this population, and we need an order issued as soon as possible," he said. "This population once constituted 80 percent of all sea otters in the world. Now it's down to a handful."

Some researchers have theorized that killer whales preying on the otters may be responsible for their decline.

The fur trade in the 18th and 19th centuries nearly wiped out the otters. The population began to rebound after a 1911 international treaty banned hunting the otters.

Rescuers hope to refloat stranded whale
Saturday, 29 November 2003 - ABC News Australia

It is hoped an incoming tide will provide some relief for rescue workers trying to save a sperm whale stranded on Flinders Island. The whale is the only survivor from a pod which beached last night.

Six rescue workers from the state's nature conservation branch flew to the beach at Arthurs Bay near Whitemark last night to find nine of the 10 sperm whales already dead.

They are now concentrating their efforts on saving the one surviving whale which is caught on a sand bar 200 metres.

The rescue team has gathered equipment from around the island to use in an attempt to refloat the whale on the high tide.

The stranding is the second in Tasmania in a month. Last week the carcasses of 110 long finned pilot whales and 20 bottle nosed dolphins were found on a remote beach south of Strahan. The causes of the strandings have not been determined.

More than 100 whales die in mass beaching in Australia
November 25, 2003, AFP

More than 100 pilot whales have died after beaching themselves on the coast of Australia’s island state of Tasmania. Tasmanian Environment Minister Bryan Green told parliament the carcasses of 103 short-finned pilot whales had been found on a remote stretch of the state’s west coast.

“I understand a similar event in New Zealand occurred only a week ago,” Green said, referring to 12 giant sperm whales who washed up on beaches near Auckland.

Scientists have long puzzled over why whales, and particularly pilot whales, beach themselves in large groups. Some experts suggest pilot whales are particularly susceptible to mass beachings because they live in herds and if one animal gets stranded, the others may simply follow or get caught trying to help the beached whale.

White whale boosts watcher numbers

And even if the whale watchers have not spotted Migaloo as he heads south, there have been plenty of other humpback whales to watch.

The humpback whale population has steadily increased by about 10 per cent a year, rising from about 500 when hunting stopped on the east coast in the 1960s to more than 5000 today.

Tourists this season reported seeing four or more pods of humpbacks, many with calves, on their Hervey Bay cruises. A southern right whale was also reported.

Migaloo is thought to have suffered injuries to his dorsal fin after colliding with a trimaran near Townsville in August. The Queensland Government brought in extra restrictions to protect Migaloo by declaring him a "special interest whale", and the NSW Government applied a similar ruling.

The white whale, thought to be a young adult male, did not visit Hervey Bay this year. This was no surprise to whale researchers, as most whales stopping in the Bay's calm waters on their southward migration are mothers, calves and sub-adults.

It may be some years again before he visits Queensland waters, but there is already conjecture that there might be more than one white whale.

QPWS is responsible for the protection of humpback whales and, through its conservation plan, has assisted the species' gradual recovery.

Japan to sell research whale meat
Nov. 27, 2003; United Press International

Japan will offer 400 tons of whale meat for sale following its summer season of “research” culling. The Japanese Institute of Cetacean Research said selling the whale meat is an annual event that began after Japan launched its research whaling program in 1987 under an International Whaling Commission rule.

The institute will distribute a total of 1,346.20 tons of meat and by-products from 100 minke whales, 50 Bryde’s whales and 50 sei whales captured from May to August in the Northwest Pacific, an institute spokesman said at a news conference. Of the 1,346.20 tons of meat, 327.50 tons will go to local governments for consumption at public institutions such as schools, while 425.70 tons will be sold to wholesale markets and 591.40 tons will be processed and canned, he said.

A pound of red meat from minke and Bryde’s whales will be priced at around $12 when the institute sells them to wholesalers.

Call for moratorium to protect seamounts from high seas bottom trawling

Queenstown, New Zealand - At the opening of a major international conference today on deep sea fisheries, major conservation organizations including IUCN–The World Conservation Union, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), WWF, and Greenpeace called for immediate protection of seamounts, cold-water corals, and other vulnerable deep-sea habitats from damaging high seas bottom trawling.

Concern for high seas biodiversity and the sustainability of deep-sea fisheries has been growing in recent years as scientists and conservationists have begun to learn more about vulnerable deep-sea environments. Recent scientific exploration of seamounts and cold-water coral reefs indicate that they can be hotspots of marine biodiversity. As many as 50 per cent of the species observed during recent seamount cruises have been new to science, representing unique species of which little is known.

Deep-sea species such as corals and sponges typically are slow-growing and long-lived, which makes them particularly sensitive to disturbance. Fish inhabiting these deep-sea ecosystems can live for up to 150 years and sometimes reach reproductive maturity at 30 years of age, characteristics making them especially vulnerable to overfishing. A WWF and TRAFFIC report released last week concluded that overfishing of deep-sea orange roughy (also known as deep-sea perch) has led to severe stock declines all around the world, accompanied by dramatic impacts on deep-sea ecosystems.

Bottom trawling is the primary threat to deep sea environments, due to the destructive nature of the technique. The nets completely destroy bottom habitats like cold-water coral reefs — some of which are thousands of years old — in a single trawl. A preliminary study commissioned by IUCN, NRDC, WWF, and Conservation International has found that high seas bottom trawling is limited to a small number of vessels and countries, and that the amount and value of the catch is less than 1 per cent of global marine-capture fisheries production. Moreover, the assessment found that bottom trawling on the high seas is almost completely unregulated. Only a handful of international Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOs) have authority to regulate bottom fishing, and few if any have restricted the practice to protect sensitive ecosystems.

Earlier this year, at the 10th Deep-Sea Biology Symposium in Coos Bay, Oregon in August, and the Second International Symposium on Deep Sea Corals in Erlangen, Germany in September, more than 100 scientists signed a Statement of Concern to the United Nations General Assembly regarding the risks to seamounts, cold-water corals and other vulnerable ecosystems of the deep sea. Among other recommendations, they urged the UN General Assembly to adopt an immediate moratorium on bottom trawl fishing on the high seas.

"Seamounts, deep-sea corals, and other deep ocean features represent a treasure trove of biodiversity that belongs to all nations," said Lisa Speer, Senior Policy Analyst with the New York based Natural Resources Defense Council. "International action to protect them from the devastating impacts of bottom trawling is urgently needed."

"Bottom trawling for orange roughy on seamounts around the world has decimated its populations," said Simon Cripps, director of WWF's Endangered Seas Programme. "If we don't take immediate measures to regulate and better manage the fisheries, orange roughy will become commercially extinct."

"The fact that bottom trawl fisheries on the high seas are largely unregulated represents an important gap in the governance of the world's oceans," said Kristina Gjerde, High Seas Policy Advisor of the IUCN Global Marine Programme. "A moratorium on high seas bottom trawling to protect seamounts and other vulnerable habitats would provide time to develop an enforceable legal regime."

"It appears that high seas bottom trawl fishing constitutes at present only about 0.2 per cent of global marine fisheries capture production, and approximately 0.5 per cnet of the estimated value of the global marine fish catch in 2001," said Matthew Gianni, independent consultant and author of the WWF, NRDC, IUCN and CI-commissioned report on high seas bottom fisheries. "A moratorium on high seas bottom trawling would not have a widespread economic impact nor significantly affect fish supplies, prices, or food security."

"The deep sea is rapidly plundered," said, Carmen Gravatt. Oceans Campaigner for Greenpeace in New Zealand. "The shift towards deep-sea fish is only another attempt to temporarily escape the global depletion of fish stocks. The last unknown wilderness should not be sacrificed to short term economic profit."

For further information:
Lisa Speer
Natural Resources Defense Council
Tel: +1 212 727 4426
E-mail: lspeer@nrdc.org

Peter Bryant
WWF Endangered Seas Programme
Tel: +41 22 364 9028
E-mail: pbryant@wwfint.org

Kristina Gjerde
High Seas Policy Advisor, IUCN Global Marine Programme
Tel: + 48 22 754 1803
E-mail: kgjerde@it.com.pl

Carmen Gravatt
Greenpeace Oceans Campaigner
Tel: +64 9 6306317 or +64 21 302251 (mobile)

Copies of the report: “High Seas Bottom Fisheries and their Impact on the Biodiversity of Vulnerable Deep Sea Ecosystems: Preliminary Findings” by Matthew Gianni is available at www.iucn.org/themes/marine. Further information on the issue can be found at www.panda.org; www.nrdc.org; and www.greenpeace.org.

Driftnets Said Decimating Mediterranean Dolphins
November 20, 2003; Reuters

Driftnets are killing tens of thousands of dolphins in the Mediterranean despite bans on the fishing method by the European Union and United Nations, a major environmental group said on Thursday

WWF marine expert Simon Cripps said the only way to prevent the slaughter “is to make the Mediterranean a driftnet-free sea by enforcing a total ban on all driftnet fisheries.” EU member states violating the ban should be prosecuted, the WWF said. The 15-nation EU banned all driftnet fishing by member states from January 1 last year and there has been a U.N. moratorium on large-scale driftnets since 1992.

The nets, aimed at catching fish varieties, stretch for anything between four to eight miles and entangle dolphins and other endangered marine species, most of which die or have to be killed.

Coral Reefs May Be Healthier Than Thought
Associated Press, November 20, 2003

An inspection of deeper-water Caribbean coral reefs found them healthier than previously believed, scientists said.

A three-year survey of 20 coral reef areas in the western Atlantic found those in 20 feet to 65 feet of water had an average of 26 percent living coral cover. Previous studies in both shallow and deep water have found as little as 15 percent coral cover, said Robert Ginsburg, a professor of marine geology and geophysics at the University of Miami.

The results were published in the July edition of the Smithsonian journal “Atoll Research Bulletin,” which is just being distributed.

Australia to Boost Great Reef Protection
December 3, 2003; Associated Press

Fishing would be outlawed on one third of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef in a bid to protect its fragile marine environment and the multibillion dollar tourism industry it supports, the government announced Wednesday.

The proposal would increase so-called high protection green zones from 4.5 percent to 33.3 percent of the reef or from 6,200 square miles to 44,000 square miles. In these areas tourism would be the only industry allowed, and all fishing would be banned.

Mercury in ocean fish may come from natural sources, not pollution
From American Chemical Society

Mercury levels in yellowfin tuna caught off the coast of Hawaii have not changed in 27 years, despite a considerable increase in atmospheric mercury during this time, according to a new study. The findings suggest that the high levels of mercury that have been found in tuna and other ocean fish may not be coming from pollution, but from natural sources.

The report will appear in the Dec. 15 edition of Environmental Science & Technology, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society.

Nearly all fish contain trace amounts of mercury, but longer-lived predators -- like tuna, swordfish and sharks -- generally have higher levels. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration warns pregnant women against eating large amounts of fish to avoid harming an unborn child's developing nervous system.

Mercury enters the environment naturally and through industrial pollution, mostly from coal-fired power plants. Scientists have estimated that the amount of mercury in the atmosphere today is about two to three times what it was 150 years ago.

"People have assumed that the high mercury in fish must be from pollution," says François Morel, Ph.D., a professor of geochemistry at Princeton University and an author of the study. "We have about tripled the mercury in the atmosphere, and therefore it should be tripled in the ocean, right? But maybe mercury that occurs in fish is a natural thing, and it may have been there all along."

The first step in exploring this assumption is to clarify the chemical nature of mercury in the environment. "The question is not where mercury is coming from, but where methylmercury is coming from," Morel says. Mercury concentrations in the air are of little concern, but when mercury enters water, microorganisms transform it to a highly toxic form -- methylmercury -- that builds up in fish.

Unfortunately, scientists are not yet able to measure methylmercury in ocean surface waters, so Morel and his coworkers approached the problem from a different angle. They measured methylmercury levels in yellowfin tuna caught off the coast of Hawaii in 1998 and compared the numbers to a similar study from the same area in 1971.

They found no change in methylmercury levels in the tuna over that 27-year period.

The researchers predicted that mercury in the surface waters should have increased by up to 26 percent during this time, according to a computer model. The model took account of the change in atmospheric mercury, the sub-equatorial Pacific waters and the potential for mixing in the "thermocline" -- a transition layer in the ocean where temperature changes rapidly.

The findings imply that the high levels of methylmercury in these fish are not coming from increased pollution, but from a natural source. The specific source is not yet clear, Morel says, but he suggests it could be hydrothermal vents and deep ocean sediments.

The research should also extend to other ocean-going predatory fish, like swordfish and sharks, according to Morel, which could mean that whatever is passing the mercury up to the tuna is probably doing the same to these other fish.

Morel is more cautious, however, about extending the findings to coastal fish. Bluefish, for example, run up and down along the eastern coast of the United States feeding on the continental shelf, and they may be taking up human pollution there. Lake fish are also a different situation, Morel says, since scientists have established a strong link between pollution and mercury levels in lakes.

Study: Sea Ice at Poles Shrinking
Larry O'Hanlon, Discovery News

Nov. 24, 2003 — Sea ice expanses at both poles have shrunk over the last 30 years — but in very different ways, said NASA scientists who have created the first coherent 30-year satellite record of Arctic and Antarctic sea ice.

"I would say that there are two surprising results," said Donald Cavalieri of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center of the 30-year survey. One is the accelerated loss of Arctic sea ice and the other is that Antarctic sea ice is actually increasing, but hasn't made up for huge losses in the 1970s.

In the Arctic there has been a net loss of 20 percent loss of the sea ice over the last 20 years — which is a faster rate then seen over the entire 30-year record. Since the early 1980s the Arctic has lost an Arizona-sized amount of sea ice each decade, according to a report on the work that appears in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. That's nearly 116,000 square miles of sea ice lost each decade.

In Antarctica, on the other hand, there was a huge loss of sea ice in Antarctica in 1973 and 1977, but since then it's been mostly on the increase, Cavalieri explained. Averaged out from 1972 to 2002, there is still an ice deficit of almost 58,000 square miles per decade.

The losses of sea ice do not, however, threaten to raise sea levels around the world, Cavalieri pointed out. Just like ice in a glass of water, melting does not change the overall water level. On the other hand, when large ice sheets break free from the coast of Antarctica they can release pressure on glaciers that can then push forward and calve off ice into the ocean. That's the ice that could contribute to sea level rise, Cavalieri explained.

It's also important to note that the satellite data does not contain any information about the thickness of sea ice, Cavalieri added.

Among the things the long-term sea ice record could do is help global climate modelers better fit the poles into their simulations. "None of (the climate models) do a very good job reproducing what sea ice is doing," Cavalieri said.

The historical record might also help military and non-military sea ice forecasters make better seasonal forecasts, said oceanographer Kyle Dedrick of the National Ice Center.

"The long term historical sea ice record could help in long-range and seasonal sea ice forecasting," Dedrick said, "much the way knowledge about El Nino conditions has helped weather forecasters extend the range of weather forecasts in recent years."

Billions Face Water Shortages as Glaciers Melt
November 27, 2003; Reuters

The world’s glaciers could melt within a century if global warming accelerates, leaving billions of people short of water and some islanders without a home, environmentalists said Thursday.

“Unless governments take urgent action to prevent global warming, billions of people worldwide may face severe water shortages as a result of the alarming melting rate of glaciers, the WWF group said in a report.

It said human impact on the climate was melting glaciers from the Andes to the Himalayas, bringing longer-term threats of higher sea levels that could swamp island states.

WWF said that nations most at risk also included Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia, where melt water from Andean glaciers supplies millions during dry seasons. Island states like Tuvalu in the Pacific, meanwhile, could be submerged by rising sea levels triggered by melting glaciers.