From www.fuelcelltoday.com
Published June 16, 2008 09:59 AM

New Eco-friendly Car That Runs on Nothing But Water
It is claimed the Water Energy System (WES) developed by Genepax can generate power by supplying water and air to the fuel and air electrodes. The basic power generation mechanism of the system is similar to that of a standard fuel cell. The main feature of the new system is that it uses a membrane electrode assembly (MEA), which contains a material that breaks down the water to hydrogen and oxygen.

Though the company did not reveal any more detail the company president said that they had “succeeded in adopting a well-known process to produce hydrogen from water to the MEA”, similar to the mechanism that produces hydrogen by a reaction of metal hydride and water. However the company claims that compared with the existing method, the new process produces hydrogen from water for a longer time.

Genepax unveiled a fuel cell stack with a rated output of 120W and a fuel cell system with a rated output of 300W. The 300W system is an active system, which supplies water and air with a pump. In the demonstration, the company powered the TV and the lighting equipment with a lead-acid battery charged by using the system. In addition, the 300W system was mounted in the luggage room of a compact electric vehicle “Reva” manufactured by Takeoka Mini Car

Products Co Ltd, and the vehicle was driven by the system.
In future Genepax intends to provide 1kw-class generation systems for use in electric vehicles and for residential applications. The production cost is presently about ¥2,000,000 (US$18,522), it estimated that it can be reduced to ¥500,000 ($5000) or lower if the company succeeds in mass production.

From Oceana
Published June 12, 2008 09:04 AM

Overdue Protections for Chinook Salmon Move Forward
A hard cap on salmon bycatch in the Bering Sea pollock fishery moved closer to reality today. The pollock fishery has been unintentionally catching alarming numbers of Chinook salmon in recent years, peaking at more than 130,000 salmon caught in 2007. To address this growing problem, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council is moving forward on setting a limit of 68,392 as the number of Chinook salmon that pollock trawlers are allowed to catch before the fishery is shut down. This cap is contingent on the pollock industry establishing an incentive program that also addresses by catch on a vessel-by-vessel basis.

In a series of letters and public testimony, Oceana and others have been pushing for the Council and National Marine Fisheries Service to “count, cap and control” bycatch, the unintentional catching and often killing, of non-targeted fish species. While conservationists were pleased the Council is moving forward with setting a cap, they also expressed concerns over the huge numbers of salmon that pollock trawlers will still be allowed to catch, and the continuing delay in getting in-the-water protections.


“This is outrageous. People, particularly those who rely on salmon for subsistence and personal use, have a right to be furious,” said Jim Ayers, Vice President for Oceana. “It is unfortunate that we continue to manage for collapse instead of sustainability – that we have to be near calamity before any action is taken to set hard caps and control the wasteful killing of salmon. It is equally disappointing that NMFS is saying they can’t do anything until next year at the earliest.”

While salmon bycatch in the Bering Sea pollock fishery has been reduced thus far in 2008, it has been an ongoing issue for the last few years. From 2003 to 2006, the number of Chinook salmon hauled up in pollock nets rose steadily from 55,594 to 87,771. 2007 saw that number skyrocket to more than 130,000. To put this 130,000 Chinook salmon in perspective, the number intentionally caught in the entire commercial salmon fishery of Chinook salmon in Alaska in 2007 was around 560,000, and the number of Chinook salmon caught by sport fishermen that same year was only 76,000. 

“Salmon stocks are collapsing all over the Pacific, and we have got to start managing for the health of the ecosystem and for what is sustainable for this and future generations,” said Jon Warrenchuk, Ocean Scientist for Oceana. “We’ve invested heavily in protecting salmon habitat and sustainably managing commercial, sport, and subsistence salmon fisheries. We now have to invest in protecting salmon from bycatch as well.”


Wild salmon are the lifeblood of Alaska’s commercial, sport, and subsistence fisheries. According to the Alaska Department of Labor, salmon generate more jobs than any other fishery in Alaska and accounted for 49% of fishing employment by species in 2004.
In some rural communities, particularly in Western Alaska, summer salmon harvests are often the only available source of income. In addition, salmon caught as bycatch in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands include stocks from the lower 48 that are the subject of long-standing legal disputes in Oregon and throughout the Pacific Northwest.

Most of the salmon in question are from the Yukon River, which winds through Alaska and eventually into Canada. Salmon are an important food source and critical to the subsistence way of life for Alaska Native communities along the Yukon River. In addition, due in part to salmon bycatch in the pollock fishery, only an estimated 24,585 Chinook made it to the Canadian border in 2007. This resulted in no commercial fishery, no sport fishery, and limited subsistence harvest from the Canadian side of the Yukon River. 

“Salmon are central to the lives of many Alaskans, and critically important to ecosystems and communities along the Yukon River and up and down the Pacific coast,” said Warrenchuk. “It is long past time for research, management, and enforcement to truly ensure we count, cap, and control the wasteful bycatch of Chinook salmon.”
The alternative identified by the Council includes tasking the pollock industry with establishing an incentive program to reward vessels that fish cleanly and punish vessels that engage in dirty fishing practices. The cap of 68,392 would be for those vessels that agree to participate in this incentive program, while any vessels that do not agree to participate would have to stop fishing after the entire industry catches 32,482 salmon. If the pollock fleet cannot or will not agree to a robust program, the Council recommended a cap of 47,591.

High volume groundfish fisheries like pollock are dominated by a few companies. The majority of fishermen employed by those companies are not Alaska residents: in 2002, 196 non-resident trawl fishermen landed 91% of the 2.7 billion pounds taken in the trawl fishery, earning $220 million. That same year, 4,852 Alaskan salmon fishermen shared $85.2 million. The Council’s preferred alternative will go out for public comment this fall.

From National Oceanic And Atmospheric Administration
Published June 9, 2008 09:04 AM

Caribbean Monk Seal Gone Extinct From Human Causes, NOAA Confirms
After a five year review, NOAA’s Fisheries Service has determined that the Caribbean monk seal, which has not been seen for more than 50 years, has gone extinct — the first type of seal to go extinct from human causes. Monk seals became easy targets for hunters while resting, birthing, or nursing their pups on the beach. Overhunting by humans led to these seals’ demise, according to NOAA biologists.

The last confirmed sighting of the seal was in 1952 in the Caribbean Sea at Seranilla Bank, between Jamaica and the Yucatán Peninsula. This was the only subtropical seal native to the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico. “Humans left the Caribbean monk seal population unsustainable after overhunting them in the wild,” said Kyle Baker, biologist for NOAA’s Fisheries Service southeast region. “Unfortunately, this lead to their demise and labels the species as the only seal to go extinct from human causes.”

Caribbean monk seals were listed as endangered on March 11, 1967, under the Endangered Species Preservation Act, and re-listed under the Endangered Species Act on April 10, 1979. Since then, several efforts have been made to investigate unconfirmed reports of the species in or near the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, southern Bahamas, and Greater Antilles. These expeditions only confirmed sightings of other seal types, such as stray arctic seals.

Five-year status reviews are a requirement of the Endangered Species Act to ensure that the status of a species listed as threatened or endangered remains accurate and has not changed, for better or worse. The most recent review began in 2003.
NOAA’s Fisheries Service plans to publish a proposed rule in the Federal Register, seeking public comment to permanently remove Caribbean monk seals from the Endangered Species List.

Species are removed from this list when their populations are no longer threatened or endangered, or when they are declared extinct.
“Worldwide, populations of the two remaining monk seal species are declining,” said Baker. “We hope we’ve learned from the extinction of Caribbean monk seals, and can provide stronger protection for their Hawaiian and Mediterranean relatives.”

Hawaiian and Mediterranean monk seals are endangered and at risk of extinction with populations dipping below 1,200 and 500 individuals, respectively. NOAA’s Fisheries Service is responsible for protecting the Hawaiian monk seal. That population is declining at a rate of about four percent per year, and NOAA biologists predict the population could fall below 1,000 animals in the next three to four years, placing the Hawaiian monk seal among the world’s most endangered marine species. Unlike the Caribbean monk seal, Hawaiian monk seals face different survival challenges, such as lack of food sources for young seals, entanglement in marine debris, predation by sharks, and loss of haul-out and pupping beaches due to erosion.

“The Hawaiian monk seal is a treasure to preserve for future generations,” said Bud Antonelis, biologist for NOAA’s Fisheries Service Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center. “NOAA’s Fisheries Service has developed a monk seal recovery plan, but we need continued support from organizations and the public if we are to have a chance at saving it from extinction. Time is running out.”

Other species of marine mammals that have gone extinct in modern times include the Atlantic gray whale (1700s or 1800s) and stellar sea cow (late 1700s), presumably due to over hunting by whalers. Exploitation of Caribbean monk seals began during the same time period.

Caribbean monk seals were first discovered during Columbus’s second voyage in 1494, when eight seals were killed for meat. Following European colonization from the 1700s to 1900s, the seals were exploited intensively for their blubber, and to a lesser extent for food, scientific study and zoological collection. Blubber was processed into oil and used for lubrication, coating the bottom of boats, and as lamp and cooking oil. Seal skins were sought to make trunk linings, articles of clothing, straps and bags.

Scientists are unsure about exactly when Caribbean monk seals went extinct. Although there have been no confirmed sightings since 1952, it is conceivable that undetected seals persisted for a short period thereafter. The seals lived 20 to 30 years, so experts believe that some adults possibly lived into the 1960s or 1970s.

From Reuters
Published May 29, 2008 12:58 PM

U.N. Experts Warn of Economic Cost of Species Loss
Mankind is causing 50 billion euros ($78 billion) of damage to the planet’s land areas every year, making it imperative governments act to save plants and animals, a Deutsche Bank official told a U.N. conference.

A study, presented to delegates from 191 countries in the U.N.’s Convention on Biological Diversity on Thursday, said recent pressure on commodity and food prices highlighted the effects of the loss of biodiversity to society. “Urgent remedial action is essential because species loss and ecosystem degradation are inextricably linked to human well-being,” said Pavan Sukhdev, a banker at Deutsche Bank and the main author of the report.
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On top of the current 50 billion euros annual loss from land-based ecosystems caused by factors including pollution and deforestation, the cumulative loss could amount to at least 7 percent of annual consumption by 2050, said the report.

Deforestation, if continued at current levels, would cost some 6 percent of world gross domestic product by 2050, he said.
The idea of the report is to spur action to safeguard wildlife in the way Britain’s Stern report sparked action to fight climate change after the economic costs were outlined, German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel said.

European Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said the study proved biodiversity was not just about saving pandas and tigers but underscored the need to preserve natural wealth. “The report shows we are eating away at our natural capital and making ourselves vulnerable to climate change,” he said.

Delegates and environment groups praised the report, entitled “The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity,” saying the figures helped make the case for integrating biodiversity into policy.
Sukhdev will present a second, fuller, report next year.
Delegates at the U.N. meeting are trying to agree on ways to save species, which experts say are facing their biggest crisis since the dinosaurs died out 65 million years ago. Three species vanish every hour, they say.

“CRUNCH TIME”

The conference ends on Friday and environmentalists warned that much still had to be done, even after 11-days of negotiations on issues like creating and managing protected natural areas, tackling deforestation and invasive species. “This is crunch time,” said WWF Director General Jim Leape. “We’re gathered here under urgent circumstances.”
Gabriel said progress had been made on a roadmap for rules on access to genetic resources and sharing their benefits.
Sukhdev warned if no action is taken, 11 percent of the earth’s natural areas could be lost by 2050, mainly due to farming, infrastructure growth and climate change.

He also said research showed the world’s commercial fisheries are likely to have collapsed within 50 years unless trends are reversed. That would be devastating for the 1 billion people who rely on fisheries for protein and could lead to up to $80 billion to $100 billion in income loss for the sector. The report says assigning just 1 percent of global GDP could achieve significant improvements in air and water quality and human health as well as ensure progress towards climate targets.

From: , Oceana, More from this Affiliate
Published May 26, 2008 09:03 AM

More Than 80 Percent of World’s Fisheries In Danger From Over-fishing
Geneva—A new report released by Oceana today concludes that more than 80 percent of the world’s fisheries cannot withstand increased fishing activity and only 17 percent of the world’s fisheries should be considered capable of any growth in catch at all. Too Few Fish: A Regional Assessment of the World’s Fisheries shows there is very little room for further expansion of global fishing efforts.
 
”The world’s fishing fleets can no longer expect to find new sources of fish,” said Courtney Sakai, senior campaign director at Oceana. “If the countries of the world want healthy and abundant fishery resources, they must improve management and decrease the political and economic pressures that lead to over-fishing.”

Oceana’s report, based on data from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), finds 58 percent of the world’s fish stocks are being fished at or beyond sustainable levels, 24 percent of the stocks have an unknown status and only 17 percent are considered underexploited or moderately exploited. The report also assesses the world’s fisheries by region. Some key findings include: 

In 6 regions that accounted for more than 50 percent of the total global catch in 2005, more than 85 percent of the stocks cannot sustain any further expansion of fishing; these areas include significant parts of the Atlantic Ocean, the western Indian Ocean and the northwest Pacific Ocean.

Major emerging fishing grounds, including the Southern Oceans, the western Indian Ocean and the southern Atlantic Ocean, have large numbers of fish stocks with unknown status, ranging from more than 50 percent to nearly 75 percent.

“The large numbers of fisheries with unknown status in major emerging regions is particularly alarming,” said Sakai. “These fisheries are at great risk of over-fishing and depletion, which threatens the economic stability and social welfare of the people and communities that depend on the resource.”
 
Many of the areas with high levels of unknown stocks also have high levels of exploitation on stocks that have been assessed. This level of uncertainty creates significant challenges to effectively managing the fish stocks and ocean resources in these regions. For example, there is historical evidence of overexploitation and stock declines of species whose assessment status was unknown at the time of greatest catch.
 


Too Few Fish highlights the essential need for limitations on global fisheries subsidies. These subsidies are estimated to be at least $20 billion annually, an amount equal to approximately 25 percent of the value of the world catch. Fisheries subsidies create strong economic incentives to over-fish and undermine good fishery management. The scope and magnitude of these subsidies is so great that reducing them is the single greatest action that can be taken to protect the world’s oceans.
 


The World Trade Organization (WTO) is currently engaged in a dedicated negotiation on fisheries subsidies as part of the Doha trade round to reduce and control subsidies that contribute to overcapacity and over-fishing. This week, nearly 70 ocean and fishery scientists from 16 countries called upon the WTO to stop over-fishing subsidies in new outdoor advertisements throughout Geneva.
Claire Nouvian, world-renowned author and curator, and ocean ambassador for the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), also launched a new exhibit, The Deep: Life on the Deep Sea Floor, at the WTO today. Nouvian was joined by WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy and Carl Gustaf Lundin, head of IUCN’s global marine programme. The Deep was organized specifically for the WTO and features stunning images of deep sea life from Nouvian’s widely acclaimed show of the same name, which opened at the Natural History Museum in Paris in November 2007.

From: Reuters
Published May 16, 2008

World Species Dying Out Like Flies says WWF
World biodiversity has declined by almost one third in the past 35 years due mainly to habitat loss and the wildlife trade, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) said on Friday. It warned that climate change would add increasingly to the wildlife woes over the next three decades. “Biodiversity underpins the health of the planet and has a direct impact on all our lives so it is alarming that despite of an increased awareness of environmental issues we continue to see a downtrend trend,” said WWF campaign head Colin Butfield.
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“However, there are small signs for hope and if government grasps what is left of this rapidly closing window of opportunity, we can begin to reverse this trend.” WWF’s Living Planet Index tracks some 4,000 species of birds, fish, mammals, reptiles and amphibians globally. It shows that between 1970 and 2007 land-based species fell by 25 percent, marine by 28 percent and freshwater by 29 percent.
Marine bird species have fallen 30 percent since the mid-1990s.
The report comes ahead of a meeting in Bonn next week of member states of the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity to try to find out how to save the world’s flora and fauna under threat from human activities.

Some scientists see the loss of plants, animals and insects as the start of the sixth great species wipe out in the Earth’s history, the last being in the age of the dinosaurs which disappeared 130 million years ago. Scientists point out that most of the world’s food and medicines come initially from nature, and note that dwindling species put human survival at risk.

“Reduced biodiversity means millions of people face a future where food supplies are more vulnerable to pests and disease and where water is in irregular or short supply,” said WWF director general James Leape. “No one can escape the impact of biodiversity loss because reduced global diversity translates quite clearly into fewer new medicines, greater vulnerability to natural disasters and greater effects from global warming.

The head of Britain’s world-renowned Kew Gardens in an interview last month likened biodiversity—the broad array of plants and animals spread across the planet—to a planetary health monitor.
“First-aiders always check the ABC —Airway, Breathing and Circulation—of a patient to see if anything needs immediate attention,” Stephen Hopper said.
“Biodiversity is the ABC of life on the planet—and it is showing it is in deep trouble,” he added.
Kew is doing its part through the Millennium Seed Bank project, which is well on the way to collecting and storing safely 10 percent of the world’s wild plants.
The next goal—as yet a wish without any financial backing—is to raise that total to 25 percent by 2020.

Smoke and Mirrors Plan for Spotted Owl Ignores Science

(Washington, D.C. – May 16, 2008) The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released a final Northern Spotted Owl Recovery Plan today that fails to incorporate the best available science concerning protection for the old-growth and mature forests that the owl inhabits.

“Under this plan, forest managers will have discretion to boost logging in areas essential to the recovery of the rapidly declining Northern Spotted Owl,” said Steve Holmer, spokesperson for American Bird Conservancy. “The science is clear, all remaining old-growth and mature habitat of the owl needs more protection, not less.”

To conserve the owl, the plan creates Managed Owl Conservation Areas (MOCAs) on 6.4million acres which is significantly smaller than the existing system of reserves on7.5 million acres created under the Northwest Forest Plan. While the MOCAs overlap with the reserves in many places, they provide 1.1 million acres less habitat protection, and do not include forests on the east side of Cascade crest. The agency may also be able use the creation of MOCAs to justify eliminating the existing system reserves.

The plan has already failed four independent science reviews because it severely downplayed the importance of protecting the owl’s old-growth forest habitat. The most recent science review, by the Sustainable Ecosystems Institute, was made public less than a month ago. The other three reviews were conducted by the Society for Conservation Biology, the American Ornithologists’ Union and The Wildlife Society.

“This plan threatens Spotted Owls, Marbled Murrelets, endangered salmon runs, and clean water supplies across the region,” said Holmer. “Science supports stronger habitat protection, not weakening the protective measures already in place under the Northwest Forest Plan. Congress needs to intervene and make sure another round of scientific peer review takes place before this flawed plan can be implemented.”

Independent science reviews all recommend maintaining current protections for the owl’s old growth forest home included in the Northwest Forest Plan, which created a system of reserves to conserve the owl and approximately 600 other old-growth dependent species. The Northwest Forest Plan is proving effective at slowing the Spotted Owl’s decline. The rate of decline for owl populations covered by the plan is about 2.4% per year compared with a rate of 5.8% per year for study areas not covered by the plan.

From Ecological Society of America
Published May 15, 2008 09:19 AM

Restoring Fish Populations Leads to Tough Choice for Great Lakes Gulls

You might think that stocking the Great Lakes with things like trout and salmon would be good for the herring gull. The birds often eat from the water, so it would be natural to assume that more fish would mean better dining. But a new report published in the April journal of Ecology by the Ecological Society of America says that the addition of species such as exotic salmon and trout to the area has not been good for the birds, demonstrating that fishery management actions can sometimes have very unexpected outcomes.

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Craig Hebert (National Wildlife Research Center in Ottawa, Canada) and his team analyzed 25 years of data on the gulls and found that throughout the Great Lakes region, the birds were in poor health in many areas. Tests of their fatty acids showed an increase in the type of transfat that mostly comes from food produced by humans.
“It seems that the birds are being forced to make a dietary shift from fish to terrestrial food, including garbage,” says Hebert.

Although no one is certain why the birds are eating more garbage, evidence points to fish stocking. When exotic salmon and trout have been added to the waters, the birds seem to be out competed for their favorite prey of smaller fish, such as alewifes. Herring gulls, which differ from the ring necked gulls that often populate American beaches and parking lots, are by no means endangered. But the birds have long been used as monitors of environmental conditions on the Laurentian Great Lakes. Their eggs are collected annually and analyzed for insights into how the region’s food webs are changing.
Gulls are top predators in this system. When fish are unavailable, the birds turn to land instead for their foraging. When given a choice between prey fish and garbage, the birds readily chose the fish. Thus scientists assume that they only eat garbage when the prey fish numbers are low.

Prey fish in the Lake have been declining since 1980. Although multiple factors may be at play, predation by piscivorous fish appears to be the one factor that was universally important across all five Great Lakes because of massive fish stocking. The stocking was done to create recreational activities, and to reduce populations of exotic prey fish in the hope of restoring populations of native fishes.
“The effects on other species that are more closely tied to the water, such as terns, may be more severe,” says Hebert. “Those kinds of birds can only eat fish, so their diet may be affected by this, too. They don’t have the option of eating food found on land.”

From Reuters
Published May 14, 2008 07:47 PM

Polar Bears Listed as U.S. Threatened Species

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Polar bears were listed on Wednesday as threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act because their sea ice habitat is melting away.

But the new protection was not accompanied by any proposals to address either climate change, which environmentalists say causes the deterioration of the bears’ habitat, or drilling in the Arctic for the fossil fuels that spur the climate-warming greenhouse effect.
In announcing the government’s decision one day before a court-ordered deadline, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne acknowledged that human-caused greenhouse gas emissions contributed to the global warming damaging the polar bears’ habitat.
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“While the legal standards under the Endangered Species Act compel me to list the polar bear as threatened, I want to make clear that this listing will not stop global climate change or prevent any sea ice from melting,” he said at a briefing. “Any real solution requires action by all major economies for it to be effective,” Kempthorne said. He also noted he was taking administrative and regulatory action to ensure this decision was not “abused to make global warming policies.”

The proper forum for combating climate change is among the world’s major economies, Kempthorne said. The Bush administration has convened the world’s worst greenhouse polluting nations in a series of international meetings.

Polar bears live only in the Arctic and depend on sea ice as a platform for hunting seals. The U.S. Geological Survey said two-thirds of the world’s polar bears—some 16,000—could be gone by 2050 if predictions about melting sea ice hold true. Presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain, who differs sharply with President George W. Bush on climate change, said he supported the polar bear decision but that a lot more must be done to address the core issue.
“I think it should have happened a long time ago,” said McCain, an Arizona senator. “It’s clearly one of the thousands of consequences of climate change and I think that now the first step of listing the polar bear is important.”

This is the first time climate change has been a factor in proposing a threatened status for any U.S. species, and was spurred on by environmentalists who claimed a limited victory in Kempthorne’s announcement.

‘MAJOR STEP FORWARD’ WITH ‘LOOPHOLES’
“Protecting the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act is a major step forward, but the Bush administration has proposed using loopholes in the law to allow the greatest threat to the polar bear—global warming pollution—to continue unabated,” Andrew Wetzler of the Natural Resources Defense Council said in a statement.
John Kostyack of the National Wildlife Federation, while gratified at the listing, saw little practical effect given the limits of Kempthorne’s regulations.

“By denying a direct link between the sources of global warming pollution and the loss of the polar bears’ sea ice habitat, and by denying that the polar bear will be protected from oil and gas development, they’re willing to sit by and let the polar bear go extinct,” Kostyack said by telephone.

The Endangered Species Act requires that decisions to protect wildlife be based solely on science, not on economic factors.
Bill Kovacs of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce praised the decision and its accompanying regulations, calling it a “common sense balancing” between environmental and business concerns.
Without the limiting regulations, Kovacs said, all carbon-emitters in the contiguous United States would have to go through a consultation process, which he said would have literally shut down federal activity overnight.

Canada, home to two-thirds of the world’s polar bears, will not for now follow the U.S. lead in listing the animals as threatened, Environment Minister John Baird indicated. The government of Nunavut, a territory home to most of Canada’s Inuit people and which manages or co-manages some 15,000 polar bears, expressed disappointment in the U.S. decision.

“It is unfortunate the (U.S. government) has decided to disregard facts collected by those who have the greatest contact and longest history with polar bears,” Nunavut Premier Paul Okalik said in a statement. “The truth is that polar bear populations are at near record levels.”

From: United States Geological Survey
Published May 9, 2008 09:22 AM

Dying Bats in the Northeast Remain a Mystery

Investigations continue into the cause of a mysterious illness that has resulted in the deaths of thousands of bats since March 2008. At more than 25 caves and mines in the northeastern U.S, bats exhibiting a condition now referred to as “white-nosed syndrome” have been dying.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) recently issued a Wildlife Health Bulletin, advising wildlife and conservation officials throughout the U.S. to be on the lookout for the condition known as “white-nose syndrome” and to report suspected cases of the disease.
USGS wildlife disease specialist Dr. Kimberli Miller advises that “anyone finding sick or dead bats should avoid handling them and should contact their state wildlife conservation agency or the nearest U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service field office to report their observation.”
Large-scale wildlife mortality events should be reported to the USGS at http://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/mortality_events/reporting.jsp.
The USGS National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wis. has received nearly 100 bat carcasses mostly from New York, Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. The syndrome affects species including the little brown, big brown, northern long-eared and eastern pipistrelle bats.

The condition was first observed in February 2007 in caves near Albany, N.Y. by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. Dead and hibernating bats had a white substance on their heads and wings. In early 2008, “white-nosed” bats were once again seen at hibernation sites.

Scientists have collected environmental samples from affected caves and mines in Vermont, New York and Massachusetts in an effort to determine the cause of the deaths. Live, dead and dying bats were documented in and outside of hibernation sites.

The most common findings in the bats have been emaciation and poor body condition. Many of the bats examined had little or no body fat; some exhibited changes in the lung that have been difficult to characterize; and a majority had microscopic fungi on their bodies.
The white substance observed on some bats may represent an overgrowth of normal fungal colonizers of bat skin during hibernation and could be an indicator of overall poor health, rather than a primary pathogen. Scientists from a variety of agencies are investigating underlying environmental factors, potential secondary microbial pathogens and toxicants as possible causes.

From: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
Published May 7, 2008 09:47 AM

Arctic Ice Melt Could See Rise of “Grolar bear”

Scientists have suggested that due to the adverse effects of Arctic ice melting, the hybrid of a polar bear and grizzly bear – dubbed the ‘grolar bear’, might rise in numbers.

According to a report in The Sun, the effects of climate change means that the hybrid bears could become more common as their habitats increasingly overlap due to global warming.

“One of the real things that is happening is that grizzlies are moving north, at the same time the polar bears are forced to be on the beach and we have found a number of grizzly bear polar bear hybrids,” said biologist Dr George Divoky, who has worked in the Arctic region for over three decades. “Essentially that could mean that it would save the polar bear genes in the grizzly population,” he added.

Biologists have already spotted the hybrid species. In April 2006, a white bear with brown patches was shot in northern Canada and DNA tests confirmed it was a ‘grolar’ bear. It was said to have been fathered by a male grizzly and a female polar bear.

In spite of the emergence of the hybrid bears, scientists fear that the overall impact of Arctic ice melting could have a disastrous effect in the long run. “Having seen things, I would never be surprised if in 2008 the summer ice disappears,” Dr Divoky said. “This has never happened in the period of human observation. We will know it when it happens and we will have to deal with that,” he added.

Some of Dr Divoky’s data has been used by experts trying to predict the melting of the sea ice in the future. “You don’t need to have models to show the rate of change in the Arctic, it’s there in terms of the observations,” said Dr Divoky. Some of the starkest evidence Dr Doviky has seen of the changing Arctic is more polar bears foraging for food on his island, where he sleeps in a hut when he is carrying out research.

From 1975 to 2002, he saw just three polar bears. Since then, they have become an annual occurrence, and one year Dr Divoky saw twenty polar bears in three days. “Now polar bears are annual and regular,” he said.

From: Wiley-Blackwell
Published May 6, 2008 09:35 AM

New Reason For Bee Hive Collapse: Ecologists Tease Out Private Lives Of Plants And Their Pollinators

The quality of pollen a plant produces is closely tied to its sexual habits, ecologists have discovered. As well as helping explain the evolution of such intimate relationships between plants and pollinators, the study—one of the first of its kind and published online in the British Ecological Society’s journal Functional Ecology—also helps explain the recent dramatic decline in certain bumblebee species found in the shrinking areas of species-rich chalk grasslands and hay meadows across Northern Europe.

Relationships between plants and pollinators have fascinated ecologists since Darwin’s day. While ecologists have long known that pollinators such as honeybees and bumblebees are often faithful to certain flowers, and have done much work on the role of nectar as a food source, very little is known about how pollen quality affects these relationships.

Working on Salisbury Plain, the largest area of unimproved chalk grassland in north west Europe, ecologists from the universities of Plymouth, Stirling and Poitiers in France collected pollen from 23 different flowering plant species, 13 of which are only pollinated by insects while the other 10 species can either pollinate themselves or be insect pollinated. They analyzed the pollen for protein content and, in the second part of the study, recorded bumblebee foraging behavior.

They found that without exception, plants that rely solely on insects for pollination produce the highest quality pollen, packing 65% more protein into their pollen than plant species that do not have to rely on insect pollinators. They also discovered that bumblebees prefer to visit plants with the most protein-rich pollen. According to the lead author of the study, Dr Mick Hanley of the University of Plymouth: “Bumblebees appear to fine-tune their foraging behavior to select plants offering the most rewarding pollen. Although there is some debate about how they can tell the difference, it is possible they are using volatile compounds.”

By helping understand the advantages and disadvantages of plant-pollinator relationships where particular plants rely on particular insects to reproduce, and those insects rely on the same plants for food, the results could help ecologists conserve certain bumblebee species and the species-rich chalk grassland and hay meadow communities in which they live, all of which are becoming increasingly rare.

“For the plant, relying on a small group of insects such as bumblebees as pollinators is very beneficial because it ensures efficient pollen transfer. Bumblebees quickly learn to visit the most rewarding flowers, so providing protein-rich pollen is one way plants can encourage bumblebees to be faithful. But this close relationship has many potential pitfalls, because if the pollinators are lost, the flowers may not be able to reproduce, and this may be what we are seeing in the hay meadows, chalk grasslands and bumblebees species throughout Northern Europe,” Hanley says.

From: Reuters
Published May 2, 2008 09:15 AM

U.S. Closes Most of West Coast to Salmon Fishing

PORTLAND, Oregon (Reuters) – The U.S. government on Thursday closed almost all the ocean off the West Coast to salmon fishing, clearing the way for governors of states hard hit by years of declining catches to seek federal relief aid for losses estimated at $290 million.
West Coast salmon populations have declined sharply in the last few years, with experts citing a variety of reasons including climate change and hungry sea lions.

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“Today NOAA’s Fisheries Service will close most of the West Coast salmon fisheries based on the recommendations of the Pacific Fisheries Management Council,” James Balsiger, acting assistant administrator of fisheries, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said, citing “low returns of fall Chinook salmon to the Sacramento River system.”

Balsiger said NOAA has not pinpointed the cause of the “sudden” collapse of the Sacramento River run, but “NOAA scientists are suggesting changes in the ocean conditions.”
NOAA estimates fewer than 60,000 salmon will make it back to the Sacramento River this year—about one-third the number needed to sustain a healthy fish population.

Consumers should brace for higher salmon prices. Balsiger said wild salmon “will cost a lot” at the supermarket, even though salmon supplies from Alaska are expected to be “in pretty good shape.”
Governors and congressional delegations of the affected states have been working to get relief for fishermen, charter businesses, suppliers, motel operators and others that will be hit by closure of commercial and recreational fishing.
“Given skyrocketing gas and

From: Worldwatch Institute, More from this Affiliate
Published April 25, 2008 09:59 AM

New Fish Farms Move from Ocean to Warehouse

Earlier this week, on a spring day in April, John Stubblefield walked past the blue tanks of striped bass, Atlantic sea bream, and cobia stored inside a Baltimore, Maryland, laboratory. “In this tank, it’s spring in May. This tank it’s spring in September,” he said.
At the University of Maryland’s Center for Marine Biotechnology, Stubblefield and his fellow researchers are not only altering nature, they are creating what may be the next generation of seafood.
The experiment uses city-supplied water and a complex microbial filtration system to raise a few hundred fish completely indoors. Yonathan Zohar, the center’s director and the study’s leader, said it is the first indoor marine aquaculture system that can re-circulate nearly all of its water and expel zero waste. “I’m a strong believer that in 20 years from now, most seafood will be grown on land,” Zohar said. “It can go to the Midwest, it can go into the inner city, it can go wherever.”

If Zohar’s team proves the system could become economically competitive with current marine fish farming techniques, Zohar says he may have found a sustainable answer to the world’s growing fishery crisis. Some estimates say as much as 90 percent of edible marine fish may disappear by 2048. The most common alternative is through fish farms that raise ocean-captured fish in coastal nets called net pens.

Marine aquaculture expanded about 10 percent each year between 2000 and 2004, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, with recent growth especially in the Mediterranean Sea around Greece and Turkey. However, net pens pollute coastal environments with waste and antibiotics, fish escapees pose a threat to the diversity of wild fish populations, and diseases can spread easily through net-pen fisheries.

Some nations are responding to net-pen pollution by closing troublesome operations. In Israel, for example, the government has called for the removal of 2,700 tons of Red Sea net pens by June due to damage to nearby coral reefs. Zohar spent a decade developing those same net pens when he worked for the Israeli National Center for Mariculture before relocating to Baltimore in 1990. He says his land-based fish farming system is an improved alternative. “They are disease free, pathogen free; they are contaminant free; they are toxin free,” he said. “We tested them. They’re as clean as you can get.”

Zohar’s team is primarily raising cobia, a highly priced fish found off the eastern coast of North America and in the western Pacific Ocean. Cobia do not swim in schools, making them difficult to catch in large amounts, but when raised in an aquaculture operation they become a valuable food product. The lab is growing the cobia faster and more efficiently than if they were in a net pen, researchers say. “They grow like crazy-about one pound per month! That’s double most species,” said Stubblefield, the lab manager.

Most fish do not reproduce in captivity due to the absence of environmental clues, so forcing reproduction was the team’s first hurdle. In addition to altering the water temperature, lighting, and salinity levels, Zohar invented a vaccine pellet that mimics the hormone necessary to spur a fish’s natural reproduction process. The vaccine is now being used in conservation efforts for various global fish species.

From the start, Zohar’s lab committed to creating a sustainable, low-impact aquaculture system. They say that 99 percent of their water is recycled, with the only losses due to evaporation. An open-air system filled with microbe-covered, honeycomb-shaped plastic first detoxifies ammonia from the water. The water then flows into an oxygen-free system where different bacteria absorb the nitrogen. For the solid fish waste, a separate filter uses microbes to convert the sludge into methane, creating a clean-burning biofuel. The goal is for 10 percent of the aquaculture’s energy needs to be offset by the methane byproduct, Zohar said.

Environmental Defense senior scientist Rebecca Goldburg visited Zohar’s lab several years ago while serving on the Pew Oceans Commission. She said that while the system offers potential, it still has trade-offs. “When you grow fish in an indoor tank, it takes a fair amount of infrastructure and it can take a fair amount of energy,” said Goldburg, an ecologist who specializes in aquaculture systems. “I’m hesitant to advocate a one-size-fits-all solution.”

Also, the fish being raised are carnivorous, so feeding them requires the input of other fish that are caught or farmed, likely in a less sustainable manner. Several research efforts around the world, including Zohar’s lab, are studying whether an algae-based food can replace the food pellets currently used, which are about 40 percent fish meat.

So far, investors have been hesitant to replicate Zohar’s aquaculture due to fears that the system cannot compete with net pens. But as seafood demand increases and supply dwindles, Zohar remains confident. “Once the first couple are up and running, this thing is going to spread like fire,” he said.