John's Marine and Environmental Blog

2009-10-17T14:08:00.000-04:00

Coral Gardening from Jonathan Clay on Vimeo.

pretty cool video about coral gardening in fiji

Up, up and away...

2009-10-01T20:29:00.007-04:00

On the swift Gulf Stream... Ok, not the words, I know, but this time of the year, we tend to see tropical fish in Long Island south shore waters. How is this possible? Well, many fish species produce large amounts of eggs and larvae, some of which disperse extraordinary distances. Sometimes, these larvae, also known as ichtyoplankton, get caught up in large oceanic currents, such as the Gulf Stream, and get transported hundreds to thousands of miles. As the Gulf Stream turns toward Europe of the East Coast, sometimes its path meanders, and sometimes those meanders break off and form eddies - circular currents of water that actually bring warm Gulf Stream water (and everything thats in it, including larval and small juvenile fish) toward the East Coast. Then, these fish make their ways into our south shore estuaries, and grow into the late summer and early fall. Unfortunately, the water temperatures become too cold and these fish don't survive the winter, but they are a lot of fun to watch and collect this time of year!

Grouper

Crevalle Jack

Butterfly

Grouper

Snapper

Burr Fish

Boxfish

Lookdown

Filefish

This could get interesting...

2009-10-01T19:58:00.002-04:00

This article is from the bbc

Vertical crop system is piloted

The system can be powered by wind or solar energy, as well as electricity

A new vertical method for growing crops which claims to use less land and only 5% of the water usually needed is being piloted at a Devon zoo.

The system grows plants in trays of water moving on a conveyor belt.

The company behind it, Valcent, based in Launceston, Cornwall, said it was a sustainable solution to the world's "rapidly-diminishing resources."

Paignton Zoo is planning to use it to grow herbs, leaf vegetables and fruit as food for its animals.

Read the rest here.

Scallops make comeback

2009-05-20T00:26:00.000-04:00

"RANDEE DADDONA PHOTO These well-fed Peconic Bay scallops were raised in a hatchery on Cedar Beach in Southold. The work of local biologists to boost populations of the delectable shellfish, devastated by brown tide in the mid-1990s, is paying off. "

this article was just highlighted in the Suffolk Times. Yes it is a local paper, but this is pretty big news - the best scallop year in the Peconics since 1995. That's nothing to laugh at. We are keeping our fingers crossed, but so far, the results are looking good!
The highlights:
-The largest bay scallop sanctuary in the world
- 500.000 scallops
- Commercial landings from last November and December in the Peconics were the highest they have been since 1995
- Scallop stocks in some local waters are 13 times higher than they were 5 years ago

Green Driveways

2009-05-06T00:39:00.002-04:00

Making green driveways better for the environment? According to this blog, Franke James claims grass driveways are the new green feature for your home that prevents stormwater run-off from your typical paved or interlocked driveways. The image above comes from his blog. Check it out for yourself.

Toxic algae found in local bays in '08

2009-04-30T20:37:00.002-04:00

Researchers from Stony Brook Southampton’s Marine Science Center say they have detected a previously unidentified species of toxic algae in East End bays that could be harmful to humans.

Details about the discovery of the toxic Alexandrium algae will be presented by Stony Brook University professor Dr. Christopher Gobler and his research students who identified the algae as part of a symposium at the Stony Brook Southampton campus this Friday night.

The algae, the same species that has forced the annual halt of valuable shellfish harvests in Massachusetts and Maine in recent years, was found in relatively small quantities locally, but traces of a neurotoxin that the algae produces were also detected for the first time in local waters, according to Dr. Gobler. The neurotoxin the algae produces can accumulate in the meat of shellfish that are exposed to prolonged blooms of the algae and could be dangerous to humans who eat the shellfish.

The reddish hue that the blooms of Alexandrium algae add to the water they live in has earned it the nickname “red tide”—recalling the infamous “brown tide” blooms of another algae species that have plagued East End bays for more than two decades.

Read the rest here.

Harmful algal blooms are becoming more of a problem on Long Island. Last year, we observed the largest and longest brown tide bloom every recorded, the appearance of another type of red tide which is toxic to many larvae, and this Alexandrium, a red tide which produces a toxin that is harmful to humans. There are many reasons for the increasing numbers of these bloom events, such as nutrient loading, land use change, climate change, and overfishing of filter feeders. This is also becoming a national problem, and much of the new environmental legislation is geared toward prevention, mitigation and control of these bloom species. This is the focus of much current research within the Gobler lab at the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences of Stony Brook University.

Strange underwater creatures

2009-01-15T20:10:00.002-05:00

Stumbled across this website recently, and thought it had come very cool pictures, one of which is displayed below. You should check out the site here.

BOOOOOO!!!!! Boo Sarah Palin!!!

2008-10-23T09:50:00.004-04:00

A moose-hunting, pro-big oil, anti-global climate change, evangelical "hockey mom" is going to potentially be a heart beat away from being the next leader of the free world. This is ridiculous. Drill baby drill is one of her mottos. Open ANWR to drilling is her rally cry. Man has had no effect on the current global climate change is her honest opinion. She thinks wolves should be hunted. This article was just posted yesterday on gristmill:

'We have seen this before'

Palin can't name a single man-made cause of climate change

Posted by Kate Sheppard at 3:37 PM on 22 Oct 2008
Read more about: Muckraker | news | politics | elections | presidential race 08 | Sarah Palin | climate | video
Tools: print | email | + digg | + del.icio.us | + reddit | + stumbleupon

Sarah Palin has now offered a variety of views on climate change. When asked about her changing rhetoric on the issue at the VP debate, Palin said, "There is something to be said also for man's activities, but also for the cyclical temperature changes on our planet." She added, "I don't want to argue about the causes."

In an interview yesterday with a local NBC affiliate in Las Vegas, she was asked to elaborate about what some of those man-made causes might be, but she couldn't name a single one. Instead, she again claimed that is shouldn't matter what's causing climate change.

"Right, well what I have said about this is really the debate at some point, had better shift to, no matter the cause, whether it all be attributed to man's activities or just the natural cycle of climate changes in our earth's history," she said. "We have seen this before."

That is not the scariest part. As a VP candidate, she has been embroiled in scandals and conflicts of interest since day 1 - Her abuse of power (Troopergate and firing the town librarian while she was mayor bc the librarian refused to censor books), using tax payer funds on unneccessary expenditures (her kids travel, new hockey rink for wasilla that raised taxes and sunk the town in debt), flip-flopping (pro bridge-to-nowhere before she was against it, has the highest per capita pork funds requests and grants despite running on an anti-pork legislation platform), her husband works for BP (she vetoed legislation supporting wind and solar power in Alaska) and, for someone who is so "pro-America" and a "real American" her husband was an active member in Alaska Independence Party (and she has even attended and spoken at AIP conventions) - who want Alaska to secede from the union and have repeatedly tried to get it onto the ballot. For someone who is so pro-America, that kind of link doesn't make much sense, does it?

The most shocking thing to me is that this is all off limits. The media eats up the nonsense spewed out by the GOP and their dirty politicing, yet they dont bring up any of this. It blows my mind.

I am not telling you who to vote for, I am telling you to vote smart.

Endangered Species Act ENDANGERED!!!

2008-09-09T17:37:00.002-04:00

Image from open photo

First, apologies to anyone who has came across my blog recently and has seen no updates since March. I have been very busy with writing manuscripts, attending national meetings, conducting research and working on my other blog, which focuses on that research.
Unfortunately there has been so much environmental news lately, it is hard to keep up. But one thing that really "grinds my gears" is the lame duck administration and its blatant attempt to decimate the Endangered Species Act, by making proposing major rule changes in which aimed at bypassing "the review process for construction projects, such as highways, dams, and mines. Currently, under section 7 of the Endangered Species Act, federal agencies must consult with scientists at the Fish and Wildlife Service or the National Marine Fisheries Service to determine whether a project is likely to affect any of the 1,353 animal and plant species listed as endangered or threatened.

The draft rules, which do not need to be approved by Congress but are subject to a 30-day public-comment period, would let each agency decide for itself whether a project would harm listed species." See the CSMonitor for the full article by following this link.

Well you can imagine I was none to happy to hear about this and immediately sent emails to both of my US Senators, Chuck Schumer and Hillary Clinton, and got responses back from each, agreeing that the administration is wrong in this new ESA draft and that they will do everything in their power to make sure this does not happen.
This is Senator Schumer's response:
Dear Mr. Carroll:

Thank you for contacting me to express your concern over recent proposals to change the regulations for the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The ESA is an invaluable tool for protecting endangered animals, habitats, and the overall health of our environment. I am committed to protecting this vital law and will work with my colleagues in the Senate to ensure that these potentially disastrous proposals are not enacted.

Since it was enacted in 1973, the Endangered Species Act has protected hundreds of species from extinction. Scientists and conservationists have credited the ESA with restoring the populations of species as diverse as the bald eagle, the gray whale, the Hawaiian goose, and the San Clemente Indian paintbrush. Perhaps the most striking example of the ESA’s success is the story of the Big Bend gambusia, a two-inch fresh-water fish that lives only in Texas. At its lowest point, there were only a few dozen individuals surviving. Today, Big Bend National Park has more than 50,000 of these fish living in the wild.

Conservationists point out that the Endangered Species Act protects not just the endangered species it covers, but many other species, too. The ESA requires the government to protect species’ habitats, which means that when a single species is listed as endangered, its whole ecosystem is protected.

One of the most important provisions in the ESA is the requirement that federal agencies consult with the wildlife experts at the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) before undertaking major actions which might affect endangered wildlife. Under regulations that have been in place since 1986, FWS and NMFS have the discretion to determine when and if another agency needs to consult them.

Despite nearly four decades of success protecting wildlife, the Administration has proposed changing the ESA regulations on consultation. The changes allow other agencies to decide when to consult the wildlife experts, instead of leaving the decision up to the FWS or NMFS. As many experts have warned, this leaves the fox to guard the henhouse. Conservation experts have said that this will lead to more environmentally damaging activities. Lawyers have also pointed out that making these changes will probably lead to more lawsuits, as courts are asked to enforce the protections that used to be left to the FWS and NMFS. As a result of these changes, projects will become more expensive, take longer to complete, and prove more damaging to wildlife.

I will work with my colleagues in the Senate to ensure that ESA remains a powerful tool for protecting wildlife, wild places, and the environment as a whole. To date, there have not been any legislative proposals to block these regulatory changes, but I am closely watching this situation to find ways to protect ESA.

I am deeply committed to protecting the environment and endangered species. In the 110th Congress, I am a sponsor of the Climate Security Act and the Global Warming Wildlife Survival Act, the Clean Water Restoration Act, and the Beach Protection Act, and a bill which would permanently ban drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. I have also pushed to increase funding for important domestic and international conservation programs, including the Wildlife Refuge system; the Land and Water Conservation Fund; and international conservation funds, such as the Great Apes Conservation Fund, the Rhinoceros Conservation Fund, the Tiger Conservation Fund, and the Wildlife Without Borders regional program.

Protecting the environment is an important responsibility, one which I take very seriously and I will continue to make this, and other, environmental issues a top priority in the Senate.

Again, thank you for contacting me about this important issue. Please do not hesitate to contact me in the future if I can ever be of assistance to you on this or any other matter.

Sincerely,

Charles E. Schumer
United States Senator

Please do not respond to this email. To send another message please visit my website at http://schumer.senate.gov/SchumerWebsite/contact/webform.cfm . Thank you.

Now, normally, this would be enough for me, but the real troubling thing is this election season, especially with the newfound infatuation with Gov Palin's nomination to the GOP ticket. The real puzzling thing is how much her nomination has bumped up McCain in the polls. I mean I know the environment is not the number 1 issue with anyone in either party, but her environmental track record is atrocious, and at least should be aired to a more broad audience than it already is. This article illustrates her opposition to any scientifically based arguments for environmental policy, her pro-aerial wolf hunting policies, among other things. In the coming weeks, I will try to illustrate the environmental track records of all parties involved.

Only 8 years in the waiting...

2008-03-23T23:01:00.002-04:00

"For the first time since President Bush took office in 2001, his proposed budget for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration exceeds what was approved the previous year. "

-the San Diego Union Tribune

Wow!!!! This is amazing... An actual boost in a budget for the sciences... By this President? All I can say is WOW!!!

Read the article here.

YOU STAY CLASSY SAN DIEGO

Lost City Pumps Life-essential Chemicals At Rates Unseen At Typical Deep Ocean Hydrothermal Vents

2008-02-01T00:43:00.000-05:00

The Lost City is a deep sea hydrothermal vent - pretty fascinating geological formations...

ScienceDaily (Jan. 31, 2008) — Hydrocarbons -- molecules critical to life -- are being generated by the simple interaction of seawater with the rocks under the Lost City hydrothermal vent field in the mid-Atlantic Ocean.

Being able to produce building blocks of life makes Lost City-like vents even stronger contenders as places where life might have originated on Earth, according to Giora Proskurowski and Deborah Kelley, two authors of a paper in the Feb. 1 Science. Researchers have ruled out carbon from the biosphere as a component of the hydrocarbons in Lost City vent fluids.

Hydrocarbons, molecules with various combinations of hydrogen and carbon atoms, are key to cellular life. For instance, cell walls can be built from simple hydrocarbon chains and amino acids are short hydrocarbon chains hooked up with nitrogen, oxygen or sulfur atoms.

"The generation of hydrocarbons was the very first step, otherwise Earth would have remained lifeless," says lead author Proskurowski, who conducted the research while earning his doctorate from the University of Washington and during post-doctoral work at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Read the whole thing here.

The carbonate structures at the Lost City Field include these spires stretching 90 feet tall. The white, sinuous spine is freshly deposited carbonate material. Added digitally to this image are the remotely operated vehicles Hercules and Argus that were used to explore the hydrothermal vent field during an expedition in 2005 funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. (Credit: Kelley, U of Washington, IFE, URI-IAO, NOAA)

Scots scientist discovers six new species of fish in Indian Ocean

2008-02-01T00:40:00.000-05:00

It seems like every few months, a ton of new marine species are being discovered, which is great. It is also unfortunate, considering the state of peril our oceans are in and will continue to be in this period of global climate change. This is from the news.scotsman.com

By MARTYN McLAUGHLIN

IT IS the fishiest of gifts to bestow on that special someone ahead of Valentine's Day. Slippery and squat, it is hardly beautiful in the conventional sense. But when Dr Nikki King discovered a new species of fish she did not think twice before naming it after her fiancé.

Dr King first set eyes on the unlikely token of her love during a deep-sea research expedition in the darkest depths of Southern Indian Ocean.

Working aboard the Royal Research Ship Discovery, she was part of a team on the Benthic Crozet project, a research initiative investigating biodiversity off the Crozet Islands, a small sub-Antarctic archipelago.

When a trawl landed a bounty of fish, Dr King, from the University of Aberdeen, singled out six species she thought unusual. In the middle of an ocean with limited facilities, she decided to store them and take them back to base.

"I could only identify the six so far – not down to species level. So we packed them into preservative and took them home," she said. There, the research fellow asked the assistance of an expert team of taxonomy experts, Dr Peter Møller and Professor Jørgen Nielsen of the Zoological Museum, University of Copenhagen, and Professor Guy Duhamel of the Paris Natural History Museum.

After some painstaking work, her instincts were proved right – until now the species were completely unknown to science, a discovery that fulfils a professional ambition of Dr King's.

"Ever since I set my heart on becoming a marine biologist I hoped I would discover one new species, so to have discovered six is tremendously exciting," she said.

In line with scientific custom, Dr King was given the honour of naming the new species, and the name of her fiancé, Michael Cousins, a geophysicist, immediately sprang to mind.

Now, somewhere in the depths of the ocean, there swims a 42cm long brown eelpout, Pachycara cousini, that is testimony to their love.

Of the other six fish, Dr King saw fit to name one after her boss at Aberdeen, Professor Monty Priede. For the director of the Oceanlab centre, it marked the second such time his name has been given to a new species, having already had a two-headed parasitic worm given his surname.

He was, though, delighted that his staff member saw fit to pay tribute with Pachycara priedei.

"We are used to discovering new species as we explore the deep sea but usually they are small worms and shrimps," Prof Priede said. "Finding six new fishes in one expedition is remarkable.

"Dr King did very well spotting the significance of these fishes among the catches.

"For a zoologist having a species of animal named after one is the ultimate professional accolade. I am delighted that a little pink fish now carries my name."

The research expedition's exploration area and the cruise vessel it

self gave rise to Careproctus crozentensis, Apagesoma (new species) and Careproctus discoveryae.

FISHING FOR SUCCESS

THE new species found in waters surrounding the Crozet Island is just the latest discovery by staff at the University of Aberdeen's Oceanlab marine science facility.

Last year, Professor Monty Priede, the director of the unit, and his team carried out the first comprehensive study of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, an underwater region between Iceland and the Azores, comparable in size with the Alps. They found a new species of sea shrimp, the ostracod, and a rare amphipod called Phronima sedentaria.

Among the 2,000ft underwater cliff faces the team also found unknown corals and rare viper fish.

The purpose-built Oceanlab facility was the first oceanography research centre of its kind. It opened in 2001 and is planning a £3 million expansion.

Project to Capture CO2 With Plankton Puts to Sea

2007-11-08T13:56:00.000-05:00

Dot Earth

By Andrew C. Revkin

The WeatherBird II is part of a project aimed at encouraging plankton growth. (Credit: Jay Paul for The New York Times)

The WeatherBird II, a 115-foot private research vessel, has put to sea from Florida as part of a novel and contentious effort to commercialize the removal of heat-trapping carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by triggering blooms of plankton.

The ship is operated by Planktos, one of a host of companies involved with the fast-growing global market in “carbon offsets,” credits bought by individuals or companies seeking to compensate for carbon dioxide emissions from flying, electricity use or other energy-intensive activities.

The WeatherBird II entered international waters on Sunday, said Russ George, the chief executive of Planktos, based in Foster City, Calif.

Plankton blooms happen naturally when dust containing iron settles on ocean waters where a lack of iron otherwise prevents plankton from thriving. But efforts to replicate the process artificially have met with strong opposition from some environmental groups.

These include the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which for years has confronted, and sometimes rammed, whaling and fishing vessels. It had also planned to try to block a fertilization effort by Planktos this summer near the Galapagos Islands, but the company delayed that project for a variety of reasons, officials said.

Ocean fertilization is one strategy scientists are mulling to blunt the unrelenting growth in carbon dioxide emissions from smokestacks, tailpipes and deforestation.

A natural phytoplankton bloom in the Bering Sea. (Credit: NASA)

Some scientists have estimated that hundreds of millions of tons of carbon dioxide might be absorbed by fertilized seas, particularly in regions low in iron.

But others say much more research should be conducted before commercial-scale operations begin. Among various questions, scientists have yet to determine how much of the carbon captured by plankton blooms through photosynthesis sinks to the seabed and how much is re-emitted to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases.

This year, the president of Friends of the Earth, Brent Blackwelder, issued a statement saying, “Planktos is selling the equivalent of global warming snake oil.”

In an e-mail exchange Tuesday night, Mr. George declined to discuss the route of the WeatherBird II or whether a second ship will join it to distribute tons of iron-containing dust, because of what he said were continuing threats.

Concerns about environmental impacts have no merit, he said, adding that the project was precisely the kind of work that could help answer lingering questions about the method.

“We have requests and offers from governments and scientists all over the world to send teams aboard to actively participate,” Mr. George said. “However, all those working with us who have been revealed in public have been ruthlessly attacked and threatened for helping Planktos do credible, transparent, verifiable science.”

[UPDATE: An Australian company with a different technique for boosting plankton growth — adding urea to the sea — has evidently gained permission from the Philippines to do a field test in the Sulu Sea, raising objections from some private groups and bloggers.]

What kinds of private-sector experiments to limit the buildup of greenhouse gases do you feel are justified, given the limits of government-supported research?

There certainly exists the possibility of fertilizing the sea to promote phytoplankton growth... The problem with these companies is there is not enough direct evidence to show a net carbon transport to depth... Certain studies have shown through iron fertilization that a bloom can be encouraged, a few demonstrated the ability of the blooms to actually lead to a carbon flux from the surface to depth... However, the bloom dynamics depend on a variety of factors, including water currents, mixing, grazer community, etc... Another important point is the carbon is not sequestered forever, and will eventually be upwelled to the surface in another location... Global ocean transport lasts between 500 and 1000 years, so even if we sequestered as much carbon as possible now at the ocean depths, it will become a problem again in the future... The best way to off-set carbon emissions is to cut emissions altogether...

A Mighty Wind

2007-11-07T23:33:00.000-05:00

Rooftop wind turbines are an increasingly popular way to generate electricity in cities

By Susan Cosier

Aerotecture International’s turbines twirl on a rooftop in Chicago. Credit: Kurt Holtz at Lucid Dream Productions

The wind turbines that engineer Bil Becker installed on top of a Chicago apartment building last year probably don’t resemble the structures that pop into your head when you think “windmill.” Instead of propellers mounted on soaring poles, these turbines are made primarily with curved, galvanized steel shaped like the double helix of DNA. This special design means that they can generate renewable electricity in the densely-built urban environment, unlike their counterparts found twirling in the boonies.

Becker’s Chicago company, Aerotecture International, is just one of a growing number that is developing rooftop wind turbine technology. Unlike the towering, free-standing commercial variety, these vertical-axis wind turbines extend from buildings, capturing winds blowing from any direction. Some can generate electricity in conditions running the gamut from 8-mile-per-hour breezes to 100-mile-per-hour gusts—a range nearly three times that of conventional, horizontal-axis turbines. New rooftop wind turbines don’t have the same problems as their predecessors: They’re safer for wildlife, quieter, and don’t vibrate violently in howling winds. And, at as little as $3,000, they’re increasingly affordable. Obstacles to widespread implementation remain, but the number of buildings crowned with spinning turbines climbs every year.

“People love the way they seem to dance,” says Becker, a professor emeritus of engineering at the University of Illinois, Chicago who founded Aerotecture International two years ago. The structures aren’t just aesthetically appealing, he adds. “We learned to make them safe, lightweight, and quiet.”

Rooftop systems aren’t entirely new. In 1976, owners of a co-op in New York City installed the first urban rooftop windmill that contributed energy to the northeastern power grid. The turbine generated 200 kilowatt-hours of electricity each month, meeting 110 percent of their common-use energy needs, such as lighting hallways and heating water.

Underwater Classroom Set To Kick Off; Webcast Live From Seafloor Lab Off Florida

2007-11-06T17:59:00.000-05:00

From the underwatertimes, pretty interesting read:

Key Largo, Florida (Nov 5, 2007 09:38 EST) Imagine yourself in class on the ocean floor at the world’s only underwater laboratory. A robotic fish named "Fetch" swims by collecting data, while a team of "aquanauts" amazes you with high-tech experiments in coral reef ecology.

The Khaled bin Sultan LIVING OCEANS Foundation is set to kick off a schedule of live broadcasts and webcasts for Project SeaCAMEL (Classroom Aquarius Marine Education Live) from November 12-14. Thousands of students and ocean enthusiasts worldwide will participate in six coral reef classroom sessions transmitted live from the seafloor at the Aquarius Undersea Laboratory, America's "Inner Space Station."

The Aquarius lab is located in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, is owned by NOAA, and operated by the University of North Carolina, Wilmington.

"As the world's only undersea research station, the Aquarius Reef Base program offers scientists state-of-the-art technology to conduct underwater research and the unique ability to study coral reefs 24/7," explained Dr. Ellen Prager, Aquarius' Chief Scientist. "Project SeaCAMEL offers a tremendous opportunity to bring the excitement, science and marine technology of Aquarius to students and the public through web technology."

During the mission, four aquanauts led by Dr. Mark Patterson of the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences will descend to the Aquarius habitat to live and conduct experiments. Joining Dr. Patterson will be: Captain Phil Renaud, USN (ret), Executive Director of the LIVING OCEANS Foundation; Dr. Annelise Hagan, LIVING OCEANS' Chief Project Scientist, and D.J. Roller, cinematographer.

"One of the things I like doing as a marine scientist is to invent new tools to measure things in the ocean," Dr. Patterson explained. "Our free-swimming robot "Fetch" will document the corals' ecosphere, and we'll use handheld instruments to measure the health of the reef. Learning more about the reef's problems will hopefully point us toward some solutions."

The Science Modules:

Monday, November 12 (Live Broadcast 2:00 - 3:00 p.m. EST) Living and Working Underwater Program overview; Aquarius Undersea Laboratory and tour of the Habitat.

Monday, November 12 (Live Broadcast 7:00 - 8:00 p.m. EST) The Reef at Night Behavioral changes of reef organisms: corals feeding; large predators; fish sleeping, and fluorescence of corals and other invertebrates under ultraviolet light.

Tuesday, Nov. 13 (Live Broadcast 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. EST) Reefs Under Siege Coral biology and threats to reefs, including photosynthetic health of corals and the effects of hydrodynamic stress.

Tuesday, 13 Nov. (Live Broadcast 2:00 - 3:00 p.m. EST) Sponges - The Reef's Filters Inject harmless dye into sponges to show and calculate rates of pumping; measure oxygen levels around sponges to calculate metabolic rates.

Wednesday, Nov. 14 (Live Broadcast 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. EST) Physical Oceanography Conduct boundary layer measurements and oxygen profiles. Does Aquarius induce a local "island mass effect," thereby altering the physical environment of the reef?

Wednesday, Nov. 14, (Live Broadcast 2:00 - 3:00 p.m. EST) Aquarius as an Artificial Reef Surveys of fish populations around the habitat - do fish have a preference for where they shelter? Can Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) technology be used to quantify fish populations?

For more information on the science modules, visit Project SeaCAMEL's just-launched website: www.seacamel.livingoceansfoundation.org

Soap could affect fish behaviour: study

2007-10-29T22:33:00.000-04:00

A new study says a chemical commonly found in soap products may be affecting the ability of fish to protect themselves from predators.

The study by Dr Ashley Ward, from the University of Sydney, has been published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

It examined how fish are effected by the chemical nonylphenol, a soap ingredient which is commonly found in rivers and marine estuaries.

Dr Ward says the chemical could be preventing fish from forming shoals with other fish.

"It seems to be blocking their ability to communicate chemically, so this prevents them from recognising potential shoalmates and recognising other fish, potentially also other fish to avoid," he said.

"Obviously this could have serious impacts on their ability to survive and thrive in their environment."

This is not the only thing nonylphenols are doing to fish. They are also endocrine disrupters, and can inhibit a fishes ability to sexually develop properly. These nonylphenols act as estrogens and prevent the successful development of male fish, essentially having the potential to make a local population "female."

Oldest animal in the world!

2007-10-29T22:16:00.000-04:00

This article was sent to me courtesy of another grad student at Stony Brook, Jeronimo, who doesn't think that the stuff I put in my blog is "cool." Hopefully this BBC article is!

Ming the clam is 'oldest animal'

Shakespeare was writing plays when the clam was a juvenile

A clam dredged up off the coast of Iceland is thought to have been the longest-lived animal discovered.

Scientists said the mollusc, an ocean quahog clam, was aged between 405 and 410 years and could offer insights into the secrets of longevity.

Researchers from Bangor University in north Wales said they calculated its age by counting rings on its shell.

According to the Guinness Book of Records, the longest-lived animal was a clam found in 1982 aged 220.

They are like tiny tape-recorders... sitting on the sea-bed and integrating signals about water temperature and food over time

Professor Chris Richardson
Bangor University

Unofficially, another clam - found in an Icelandic museum - was discovered to be 374-years-old, Bangor University said, making their clam at least 31 years older.

The clam, nicknamed Ming after the Chinese dynasty in power when it was born, was in its infancy when Queen Elizabeth I was on the throne and Shakespeare was writing plays such as Othello and Hamlet.

Professor Chris Richardson, from Bangor University's School of Ocean Sciences, told the BBC: "The growth-increments themselves provide a record of how the animal has varied in its growth-rate from year to year, and that varies according to climate, sea-water temperature and food supply.

"And so by looking at these molluscs we can reconstruct the environment the animals grew in. They are like tiny tape-recorders, in effect, sitting on the sea-bed and integrating signals about water temperature and food over time."

'Escaping' old age

Prof Richardson said the clam's discovery could help shed light on how some animals can live to extraordinary ages.

"What's intriguing the Bangor group is how these animals have actually managed, in effect, to escape senescence [growing old]," he said.

"One of the reasons we think is that the animals have got some difference in cell turnover rates that we would associate with much shorter-lived animals."

He said the university had received money from the UK charity Help The Aged to help fund its research.

Parasite Tongue

2007-10-27T17:44:00.000-04:00

Icthyoid Alien

Posted by Ross Rosenberg

Cymothoa exigua is a parasitic crustacean like no other, as it does not just live in its host but actually replaces part of the it. First it attaches itself at the base of the tongue of the chosen fish, with the claws on its front three pairs of legs, and begins to extract blood. As the parasite grows, less and less blood is able to reach the tongue, and eventually the organ atrophies and dies, at which time the parasite attaches to the muscles of the tongue stub replacing the tongue with its own body. The fish is able to use the parasite as a fully functional tongue and the parasite survives on food particles, relieving the stress on the host’s appropriated circulatory system.

This is cool... courtesy of ectomo.com

UH-OH!

2007-10-23T23:31:00.000-04:00

Scientists: North Atlantic Slows On The Uptake Of CO2; 'A Tremendous Surprise'

Underwatertimes.com News Service

East Anglia, U.K. (Oct 23, 2007 14:41 EST) Further evidence for the decline of the oceans’ historical role as an important sink for atmospheric carbon dioxide is supplied by new research by environmental scientists from the University of East Anglia.

Since the industrial revolution, much of the CO2 we have released into the atmosphere has been taken up by the world’s oceans which act as a strong ‘sink’ for the emissions.

This has slowed climate change. Without this uptake, CO2 levels would have risen much faster and the climate would be warming more rapidly.

A paper in the Journal of Geophysical Research by Dr Ute Schuster and Professor Andrew Watson of UEA’s School of Environmental Sciences again raises concerns that the oceans might be slowing their uptake of CO2.

Results of their decade-long study in the North Atlantic show that the uptake in this ocean, which is the most intense sink for atmospheric CO2, slowed down dramatically between the mid-nineties and the early 2000s.

A slowdown in the sink in the Southern Ocean had already been inferred, but the change in the North Atlantic is greater and more sudden, and could be responsible for a substantial proportion of the observed weakening.

The observations were made from merchant ships equipped with automatic instruments for measuring carbon dioxide in the water. Much of the data has come from a container ship carrying bananas from the West Indies to the UK, making a round-trip of the Atlantic every month. The MV Santa Maria, chartered by Geest, has generated more than 90,000 measurements of CO2 in the past few years.

The results show that the uptake by the North Atlantic halved between the mid-90s, when data was first gathered, and 2002-05.

“Such large changes are a tremendous surprise. We expected that the uptake would change only slowly because of the ocean’s great mass,” said Dr Schuster.

“We are cautious about attributing this exclusively to human-caused climate change because this uptake has never been measured before, so we have no baseline to compare our results to. Perhaps the ocean uptake is subject to natural ups and downs and it will recover again.”

But the direction of the change was worrying, she added, and there were some grounds for believing that a ‘saturation’ of the ocean sink would start to occur.

“The speed and size of the change show that we cannot take for granted the ocean sink for the carbon dioxide. Perhaps this is partly a natural oscillation or perhaps it is a response to the recent rapid climate warming. In either case we now know that the sink can change quickly and we need to continue to monitor the ocean uptake,” said Prof Watson.

New scallop fishing gear designed to protect ocean bottom

2007-10-22T20:10:00.000-04:00

By Jay Lindsay, Associated Press Writer | October 21, 2007

BOSTON --If Cliff Goudey's new scallop dredge catches on, the future of the Northeast fishery won't look very futuristic, but there could be less debate about whether scallopers are ripping up the ocean floor.

Forget high-tech gadgetry. A simple angled line of large, inverted cups is the key feature of the dredge designed by Goudey, a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sea Grant program.

On a traditional dredge, the scallops are knocked free of the ocean's bottom and into a trailing chain bag by a metal cutting bar. Environmentalists say that bar is the most damaging feature of the dredge, destroying the ocean floor habitat that marine life depend on for survival.

"It's been likened to a bulldozer going along the bottom," said Gib Brogan of the environmental group Oceana.

But Goudey's dredge replaces the cutting bar with the line of cups, which redirect the water flow created when the dredge moves, shooting it at the scallops and popping them off the sea floor.

Scientists differ about the effects of the fishing gear on the ocean floor. Ironically, Goudey believes the problem is hugely exaggerated. He said the traditional dredge moves so quickly it barely hits the bottom, and can't do the damage environmentalists claim.

His work, he hopes, can eventually help make the issue irrelevant.

"Right or wrong, the disturbance being caused is unnecessary," Goudey said. "If you can catch scallops without doing that, why not?"

The scallop is a shellfish about the size of an adult hand. Most people eat only the abductor muscle, which opens and shuts the animal's shell. Scallops are found worldwide, including off China and Japan, but the Atlantic scallop is larger than other species.

The Atlantic scallop fleet consists of 350 boats in ports from New England to Virginia, and another 400 or so smaller boats that fish scallops less frequently.

New Bedford's scallop fishery is hugely profitable and the reason the city has been the highest revenue fishing port in the country for seven straight years. Last year, the port's catch was worth $281 million.

Read the rest of the here. This could be good news, although there is debate as to the efficiency of the new dredge, and I find it hard to believe fisherman will embrace it unless forced. That being said, I do like hearing about this and would be interested to see if they could come up with a less destructive dredge for bay scallops, once that wouldn't destroy eelgrass beds, that would be great.

Invasive Lionfish Found off Georgia Coast

2007-10-20T18:27:00.000-04:00

Venemous Fish Found on the First Coast

GRAYS REEF, GA -- A deadly fish has been discovered for the first time in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Grays Reef National Marine Sanctuary, located in the Atlantic Ocean, twenty miles off the Georgia coast.

The lionfish were spotted between 60 and 70 feet below the surface, making it one of the shallowest confirmed adult lionfish sightings.

Red lionfish have maroon and white zebra stripes and a plume of feathery spines.

Lionfish stings can be excruciatingly painful.
A person punctured by the sharp spines will immediately feel a strong pain. Rapid swelling of the affected body area develops along with the possibility of making movement of limbs very difficult. Lion-fish stings can cause nausea, breathing difficulties, paralysis, convulsions and collapse. Even death may occur in some instances.

Lionfish stings are also a new marine-related injury not previously encountered by area physicians, hospitals, or first responders.

Divers visiting the Gray’s Reef sanctuary are urged to exercise caution around lionfish. Sanctuary officials are asking divers to report sightings of lionfish to Gray’s Reef sanctuary staff at 912-598-2345.

This is certainly odd to me, mostly because lionfish have been found in Florida reefs and for the past few years in Shinnecock Bay of Long Island, where I work, around rockpiles holding up the old bridge and near the jetties at the inlet. I find it hard to believe that they surpassed Georgia and were found in NY first, although maybe they haven't received enough attention up in NY. I have touched upon this last year. Its crazy. Also, the lionfish here in NY are found in shallow water, 30 feet or less.

Acid Oceans From Carbon Dioxide Will Endanger One Third Of Marine Life, Scientists Predict

2007-10-20T18:12:00.000-04:00

ScienceDaily (Oct. 19, 2007) — The world’s oceans are becoming more acid, with potentially devastating consequences for corals and the marine organisms that build reefs and provide much of the Earth’s breathable oxygen.

The acidity is caused by the gradual buildup of carbon dioxide (CO₂) in the atmosphere, dissolving into the oceans. Scientists fear it could be lethal for animals with chalky skeletons which make up more than a third of the planet’s marine life.

“Recent research into corals using boron isotopes indicates the ocean has become about one third of a pH unit more acid over the past fifty years. This is still early days for the research, and the trend is not uniform, but it certainly looks as if marine acidity is building up,” says Professor Malcolm McCulloch of CoECRS and the Australian National University.

“It appears this acidification is now taking place over decades, rather than centuries as originally predicted. It is happening even faster in the cooler waters of the Southern Ocean than in the tropics. It is starting to look like a very serious issue.”

Corals and plankton with chalky skeletons are at the base of the marine food web. They rely on sea water saturated with calcium carbonate to form their skeletons. However, as acidity intensifies, the saturation declines, making it harder for the animals to form their skeletal structures (calcify).

Read the rest here.

Of course this is a very serious problem. The reason the ocean is becoming more acid is simple, the partial pressures of gases try to be at equilibrium between the ocean and the atmosphere, so as atmospheric CO2 goes up, much of it is getting dissolved into the oceans. In fact if the oceans were not so efficient as a carbon sink, the CO2 in the atmosphere might be twice as high! This poses a threat to calcareous animals including coral reefs which everyone loves. But another devastating impact is on a phytoplankton group known as coccolithophores, which secrete a calcium carbonate test, or shell. In this way they act as a double whammy for the carbon pump. Not only do they use CO2 to make cellular material, they also uses it for an outer coat. They are very important for the sequestration of carbon, and the loss of these phytoplankton could be devastating as well. Look them up for more info.

NEW SPECIES DISCOVERED!

2007-10-17T18:29:00.000-04:00

Exotic creatures found in ‘coral triangle’

Expedition to diverse sea may have turned up new species, scientists say

Slide show

Celebrities of the Celebes Sea
See the strange creatures found during a scientific expedition to the Celebes Sea in the southern Philippines.

By Oliver Teves

Updated: 12:51 p.m. ET Oct 16, 2007

MANILA, Philippines - U.S. and Philippine scientists may have discovered new marine species in the world's most biologically diverse region, their expedition leader said Tuesday.

Larry Madin, who led the Inner Space Speciation Project in the Celebes Sea south of the Philippines, said scientists had been to one of the world's deep-ocean basins in search of organisms that may have been isolated there for millions of years.

Madin, of the Massachusetts-based Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, or WHOI, said the Celebes Sea is at the heart of the "coral triangle" bordered by the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia — a region recognized by scientists as having the greatest degree of biological diversity of the coral reef community of fish and other marine life.

In the last year numerous new species have been discovered at the previously unexplored depths of the oceans. It is kind of amazing when you think about it, 70% of the earth is covered with water, and only now are we starting to really explore the depths, whereas we have been involved in space exploration for over 50 years. Read the rest of the article above here.

Plan to Fix Jamaica Bay

2007-10-15T19:48:00.001-04:00

Jamaica Bay Plan Would Cleanse New York's Estuary

NEW YORK, New York, October 15, 2007 (ENS) - Many New Yorkers are not aware that within the confines of the five boroughs are open water, salt marshes, grasslands, coastal woodlands, maritime shrublands and freshwater wetlands. At least 90 fish species, 325 species of birds and many reptiles, amphibians and small mammals share portions of Brooklyn and Queens with human residents.

The 39 square-mile body of water that supports these ecosystems is Jamaica Bay, located on the southwestern tip of Long Island in the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, New York City and the town of Hempstead, Nassau County.

Surrounded by intensive residential, commercial, and industrial development, Jamaica Bay receives pollution from both municipal waste water discharge from three plants, combined sewer overflows, and untreated stormwater runoff from area roads and from the runways at John F. Kennedy Airport which is contaminated with de-icing chemicals.

Contaminants leach from three large closed landfills, airborne soot and toxic chemicals from transportation are deposited, there is windblown trash, and the potential risk of spills due to water transportation of oil and chemical products in the bay.

Nutrient and organic matter inputs result in phytoplankton blooms, low levels of light transmission, and low bottom dissolved oxygen concentrations. Present and historic inputs of toxics, such as hydrocarbons and heavy metals, have contaminated sediments in parts of the bay and may bioaccumulate in fish and birds.

To address these issues, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, DEP, has just released a set of strategies to restore and maintain the water quality and ecological integrity of Jamaica Bay.

The Jamaica Bay Watershed Protection Plan, which took 18 months to produce, recommends a series of Best Management Practices, BMPs, for stormwater management.

"Jamaica Bay is a crucial environmental resource for New York City that must be preserved and conserved," said DEP Commissioner Emily Lloyd. "The Jamaica Bay Watershed Protection Plan not only provides a tool to achieve that goal, but it also provides the basis for testing promising sustainable stormwater management techniques that may be beneficial beyond the boundaries of the Jamaica Bay Watershed."

The plan includes the proposal by DEP of nitrogen control methods at two wastewater treatment plants to reduce nutrient loading into the Bay.

Water quality improvements will be enhanced by reintroduction of oyster reefs and eel grass beds.

The Jamaica Bay effort anticipates the participation of other city agencies, and will be coordinated with PlaNYC's efforts to address citywide stormwater management issues through the Interagency BMP Taskforce. This body includes 14 city agencies and is coordinated by the Mayor's Office of Long Term Planning and Sustainability as part of PlaNYC.

"Enhancing our water quality citywide is an important part of PlaNYC. To do it, we have to find ways to preserve natural areas and better manage stormwater, and the Jamaica Bay Watershed Protection Plan will help do both," said Rohit Aggarwala, director of the Mayor's Office of Long Term Planning and Sustainability.

Delivered to Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn on October 2, the plan is the result of research and dialogue with city stakeholders and regular consultation with the seven member Jamaica Bay Watershed Protection Plan Advisory Committee.

The plan is structured around six major categories - water quality, restoration of the ecology, stormwater management, public education and outreach, public use, and implementation and coordination.

The plan calls for ensuring that the entire New York City sewer system can be cleaned every seven to 10 years, and creating a sewer system inspection.

It also looks at separating storm sewers from sanitary sewers and reducing wastewater discharges from recreational boats directly into Jamaica Bay.

The plan offers several ideas for moderating the surge of runoff after precipitation events, such as monitoring the effectiveness of blue roof versus green roof control methodologies; distributing 1,000 rain barrels to homeowners; promoting rooftop detention in new construction; utilizing porous pavement on DEP property; and adding landscape and bioretention components to commercial and community facility parking lots that are greater than 6,000 square feet or 18 spaces.

Looking at open space, the Jamaica Bay Plan recommends installing tree swales on six sites to capture runoff from roadways, implementing stormwater parks on additional publicly owned vacant parcels to capture stormwater runoff, planting street trees throughout the Jamaica Bay watershed; and increasing tree stocking level in East New York.

The plan calls for a 20-mile continuous greenway loop around the Bay and a greenway to connect Brooklyn/Queens Greenway system to Jamaica Bay waterfront. The plan's greenway improvements include landscaping, a multi-use path, a bike rack, pedestrian ramps, and traffic signals, among other things.

The plan envisions an education campaign for developers, residents and business owners; a State of the Bay symposium and enhancement of the Jamaica Bay Educational Curriculum, a resource directory.

Tale of 2 lakes

2007-10-15T19:34:00.000-04:00

A tale of two big lakes plagued with pollution by -- For 73-year-old fisherman Ni Tingrong, who lives in a village on the northwestern shore of Taihu Lake, China's third largest freshwater lake, the idyllic scenes portrayed in the folk song "Beauty of Taihu Lake" are...

This is just the beginning of an article about these massive polluted lakes in China that are now receiving attention... They are threatened by cyanobacteria blooms that are devastating fish populations, and possibly threatening the human population, with millions of citizens relying on these lakes for drinking water...

a letter from al gore

2007-10-12T11:26:00.000-04:00

Dear john,

I am deeply honored to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. This award is even more meaningful because I have the honor of sharing it with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change--the world's pre-eminent scientific body devoted to improving our understanding of the climate crisis--a group whose members have worked tirelessly and selflessly for many years. We face a true planetary emergency. The climate crisis is not a political issue, it is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity. It is also our greatest opportunity to lift global consciousness to a higher level.

My wife, Tipper, and I will donate 100 percent of the proceeds of the award to the Alliance for Climate Protection, a bipartisan non-profit organization that is devoted to changing public opinion in the U.S. and around the world about the urgency of solving the climate crisis.

Thank you,

Al Gore

A letter to National Marine Fisheries service

2007-10-10T14:57:00.000-04:00

Thanks to an email I received from Robert Klavins at Environment Massachusetts, I wanted to post the text of the letter a coalition of religious leaders, scientists, divers, fishermen, and many more, sent to the Director of the National Marine Fisheries Service...

Re: Comments on Proposed National Standard 1 Regulations and Guidance

Dear Dr. Hogarth:

Our organizations represent over nine million Americans who are concerned about the health of our ocean, its fish, marine mammals like whales, dolphins and porpoises, and sea turtles. We are scientists, religious leaders and congregations, scuba divers, business leaders, recreational fishermen, fishing related businesses, environmental organizations, students, ecotourism providers, beach goers, and tourism organizations, united in our concern for healthy oceans and fish populations. We were pleased at the passage of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 2006 (MSA) because it gave us hope that the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and the Regional Fishery Management Councils would manage the public’s fishery resources in much better ways.

It is now incumbent on all of us --citizens, fishermen, scientists, and business people-- who want healthier oceans and fish to put that good law to work on the water, in fishing boats and at regional fishery management council meetings. First, we are pleased by the conservation oriented tone of your public statements and those of others in the Bush administration about the issue of ending overfishing. This indicates a true appreciation of the tough problems that our fisheries face today and a willingness to challenge ‘business as usual’ in the management of fisheries.

We believe that National Standard 1 guidance should make the following changes in the way that your agency and regional councils conduct business. Specifically:

· The independent science committees on each council should set science based annual catch limits that incorporate a precautionary approach or buffers to keep actual catch below the level of overfishing with a high percentage of certainty. NMFS and the regional councils cannot continue the practice of managing up to the edge of what’s theoretically sustainable without breaking the law that bans overfishing. There is too much uncertainty in the ocean about how many fish are really out there and how well they are reproducing and growing to allow for that approach.

· Fishery managers should create clear, equitable, and consistent accountability measures that keep fish stocks out of trouble if annual catch limits are exceeded. Penalties or compensatory action for going over the annual catch limit should be done immediately (ie., in season’) or no later than the next year. Accurate, timely reporting and aggregation of total catch from all sectors (commercial, charter, and recreational) is a key building block of any successful accountability system. To that end, data from each fishery should be collected as soon as possible after landing the fish. This will mean less overshooting and undershooting of annual catch limits.

· You must preserve full environmental reviews and opportunity for public comments on fishery management plans. Preparing environmental reviews and fishery plans can and should be done in a smooth, useful, coordinated fashion.

In sum, we are very pleased with the proposals that NMFS has considered so far in revising the NS1. We hope to see as many of these good ideas embedded in the final regulations and guidance as possible. We have a unique opportunity to make a quantum advance in the way we manage our fisheries. As you know, that opportunity only comes along once every decade. Let’s make that quantum advance and guarantee healthier oceans for all.

Thank you,

Religious Organizations

Rev. Roger Burkhart, Reverand

Spirituality and Earth Stewardship Committee of the New Hampshire Conference of the United Church of Christ

Gareth Evans, Rector

St. John's Episcopalian Church, Charlestown, MA

Stephen T. Ayres, Vicar

Old North Episcopalian Church

Boston, MA

Environment Group of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Medford

Medford, MA

Jenny Fleming –Ives

Environmental Task Force of the Hampshire Interfaith Council

Northampton, MA

Religious Leaders (as individuals)

Pastor Sarah J. Anderson, Pastor

Christ the King Lutheran Church, Springfield, MA

Rev. Stephen Cook, Reverand

Unitarian Society of Northampton & Florence

Ellen Bernstein, Founder

Hebrew College

Rev. Georganne Greene, Reverand

Unitarian Universalist Society of Greater Springfield, Springfield, MA

Recreational Groups

David Prescott, Chairman

Surfrider Foundation, Rhode Island Chapter

Andrew Krupa, Chairman

Surfrider Foundation, Connecticut Chaper

Jenny Miller Garmendia, Director

Project AWARE Foundation

Heather L. Knowles, Captain

North Atlantic Dive Expeditions, Inc., Beverly, MA

Jason Schrwratwiesler, Conservation Director

International Game Fish Association, Dania Beach, FL

Roy Chamberlain, Vice President

South Shore Neptunes Dive Club, Marshfield, MA

Scientists

Dr. Manuel A. Morales

Williams College

Dr. Joan Edwards

Williams College

Dr. Timothy Downs

Clark University

Dr. Halina Brown

Clark University

Dr. Mark McMenamin

Mt. Holyoke

Dr. Jody Emel

Clark University

Dr. Jennie C. Stephens

Clark University

Dr. Curtice R. Griffin

UMASS Amherst

Dr. Guy Lanza

UMASS Amherst

Dr. Maria Rodrigues

Holy Cross

Dr. Boyd Kynard

UMASS Amherst

Dr. Buzz Hoagland

Westfield State College

Dr. Theresa McBride

Holy Cross

Dr. John T. Finn

UMASS Amherst

Dr. Paulette M. Peckol

Smith College

Dr. Robert Bertin

Holy Cross

Dr. Rob Goble

Clark University

Environmental Groups:

Frank Gorke, Director,

Environment Massachusetts

Boston, MA

Matt Rand, Director,

Conserve Our Ocean Legacy Campaign, Washington, DC

Gerry Leape, Vice president,

Marine Conservation, National Environmental Trust, Washington, DC

Peg Harrington, New England Representative,

Conserve Our Ocean Legacy Campaign, Salem, MA

Norris McDonald, President,

African American Environmentalist Association

Erika Staaf, Advocate

Environment New Hampshire

Matt Auten, Advocate

Environment Rhode Island

Renata von Tscharner, President & Founder

The Charles River Conservancy

Cambridge, MA

Michelle Hohensee, Administrative Coordinator

Save Our Shores

Charlie Lord, Executive Director

Urban Ecology Institute, Chestnut Hill, MA

Julie Crockford, President

Emerald Necklace Conservancy, Brookline, MA

Paul G. Johnson, President and Chairman of the Board

Reef Relief,

Mike Hanauer

Massachusetts Environmentalists for Sustainable Population

Lauren Finan

REEF Environmental Education Foundation

Pine DuBois, Executive Director

Jones River Watershed Association, Kingston, MA

Bill Mott, Director

The Ocean Project

Jim Bourque, Regional Campaign Director

Earthshare

Community Leaders (as individuals)

Sue Sutter, Boston, MA

Lonna Maratty, Cape Neddick, ME

Lori Tsuruda, Founder

People Making a Difference, Boston, MA

Student Groups

Amanda O’Brien, President

Husky Environmental Action Team, Boston, MA

Lani Gedeon

Sierra Club, Hampshire College Chapter, Amherst, MA

Emily Lewis, Co-President

Students for Environmental Action, Northeastern University

Boston, MA

BU Organic Gardening Club, Boston, MA

Business Leaders (as individuals)

Gib Chase,

Eco Consultants, International

Tedi Dickinson

Earth Economics

Elena Saporta

American Society of Landscape Architects, Cambridge, MA

Other Organizations

Mike Gravitz, Oceans Advocate

USPIRG, Washington, DC

Sharon B. Young, Marine Issues Field Director
The Humane Society of the U.S.

Diane Buccheri, Publisher

OCEAN Magazine

Walrus threat as ice melts

2007-10-10T14:48:00.000-04:00

October 08, 2007 12:00am

THOUSANDS of walruses have appeared on Alaska's northwest coast in what conservationists are calling a dramatic consequence of global warming melting the Arctic sea ice.

Alaska's walrus, especially breeding females, in summer and autumn are usually found on the Arctic ice pack.

But the lowest summer ice cap on record put sea ice far north of the outer continental shelf, the shallow, life-rich shelf of ocean bottom in the Bering and Chukchi seas.

Walrus feed on clams, snails and other bottom dwellers. Given the choice between an ice platform over water beyond their 192-metre diving range or gathering spots on shore, thousands of walruses chose Alaska's rocky beaches.

"It looks to me like animals are shifting their distribution to find prey," said Tim Ragen, the executive director of the federal Marine Mammal Commission.

"The big question is whether they will be able to find sufficient prey in areas where they are looking."

According to the National Snow and Ice Data Centre at the University of Colorado at Boulder, September sea ice was 39 per cent below the long-term average from 1979 to 2000.

Sea ice cover was in a downward spiral and might have passed the point of no return, with a possible ice-free Arctic Ocean by northern summer 2030, senior scientist Mark Serreze said.

Starting in July, several thousand walruses abandoned the ice pack.

The immediate concern of new, massive walrus groups for the US Fish and Wildlife Service is danger to the animals from stampedes.

Longer term, biologists fear walrus will suffer nutritional stress if they are concentrated on shoreline rather than spread over thousands of kilometres of sea ice.

- AP

This has been the case for some time and the alarming trend appears as if it will continue. There have been numerous science articles on this subject. A more recent text is from Science entitled: A major ecosystem shift in the North Bering Sea.

Whaling made penguins switch to krill

2007-07-11T18:45:00.000-04:00

This article from Nature is pretty interesting... check out the whole thing here.

Ancient eggshell fragments show that Adélie penguins living in Antarctica switched from eating fish to krill around the time that humans began hunting seals and whales. The finding suggests that when humans removed krill-eating predators the penguins exploited the resulting shrimp surplus. Steven Emslie of the University of North Carolina in Wilmington, and William Patterson of the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, analysed more than 220 fossil eggshell pieces ranging from 100 to 38,000 years old, and compared them with samples from modern nests. By comparing the proportion of certain forms of carbon and nitrogen in the shells with the proportions found in fish and krill, the researchers could tell what the birds had been eating. Emslie expected to find changes in diet matching climate change. Instead, the penguin menu remained biased towards fish until about 200 years ago, when the birds switched to krill. Recent global warming and the rise in krill fisheries has reduced krill stocks and could be contributing to the decline in Adélie penguin populations on the Antarctic Peninsula, says Emslie. The study is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences¹. Dietary switch From 1793 to 1807, an estimated 3.2 million seals were taken from the Southern Ocean. The resulting crash in the seal population — including the Antarctic fur seal Arctocephalus gazella, which fed primarily on krill — caused the industry to collapse.

This implies a huge dietary response.

Keith Hobson, Canadian Wildlife Service, Saskatchewan.

Whaling took off in the 1800s and continued until the mid-twentieth century, eventually depleting baleen whale populations by more than 90%. It's estimated that the combined harvest of seals and whales resulted in more than 150 million tonnes of extra krill each year. Krill is an attractive food for penguins because it is high in protein and tends to travel in swarms. "The birds can capture lots of high-energy prey in a short time," says Emslie. "This implies a huge ecological dietary response by the penguins in relation to some change in their environment," says Keith Hobson of the Canadian Wildlife Service in Saskatchewan. But the reasons behind this switch are less obvious, he says. "Abundance of a secondary food item does not necessarily explain this unless it was accompanied by a reduction in fish," says Hobson. "Why does it matter that krill became more abundant to a predator that previously happily made eggs from fish?"

Tiger Sharks Keep Seagrass Tidy

2007-07-11T18:25:00.000-04:00

So I have heard of this before, and haven't actually seen the scientific article, but this is pretty cool none-the-less, from Discovery news. I thought when I had heard about this through the grapevine, it was sea turtle grazing that tiger sharks were controlling, but dugongs also makes sense, plus they can have a higher grazing impact. This article is a couple months after an article in nature about shark fishing leading to higher skate and ray populations that could be devastating to benthic shellfish populations. You can read about that article here, although it isn't the actual Nature article. Both show the importance of large apex predators on coastal ecosystems and gives credence to those who want to try and shut down shark fishing tournaments.

July 11, 2007 — Australian tiger sharks keep a tidy lawn for their marine neighbors by controlling where local herbivores can nibble, according to a study published in the current issue of Animal Behavior.

The discovery adds to the growing list of ways in which sharks benefit ecosystems worldwide. In seagrass communities in particular, countless other creatures depend on the presence of sharks.

"Seagrasses form the foundation for many near-shore marine ecosystems," lead author Aaron Wirsing told Discovery News. This is the case in Western Australia's Shark Bay, where seagrass is "nourishing and sheltering a host of invertebrates and fishes that, in turn, support top predators like sharks."

Wirsing, a researcher in the Department of Biological Sciences at Simon Fraser University, and his colleagues studied how the presence of tiger sharks specifically affected the feedings of dugongs — large aquatic mammals that somewhat resemble their manatee relatives.

Dugongs spend much of their day chewing on seagrass.

Through catch, tag and release methods, the scientists calculated tiger shark predation rates on dugongs.

Working under the auspices of the Shark Bay Ecosystem Research Project with funding from the National Geographic's Expeditions Council, the researchers focused their efforts on tiger sharks at least 10 feet long. Only adults that size are large enough to take on a chunky dugong.

The gentle herbivores prefer to eat segrass in the middle of patches. Growth is lush there and packs more of a nutritional punch due to the presence of extra organic carbon. Escaping from hungry sharks is difficult from these interior areas, however.

Wirsing and his team found that when large tiger sharks were around, dugongs instead chose to feed around seagrass meadow edges. The grass is not as tasty or nutritious at the edges, but the location allows escape to deeper water if predators are near.

By indirectly controlling where dugongs feed, tiger sharks keep the seagrass mowed down at all areas.

"Dugong grazing can certainly hold seagrass growth in check," Wirsing explained.

If left unchecked, however, the herbivores would simply eat all of the seagrass.

"That's where tiger sharks come in," Wirsing explained.

Both tiger shark and dugong populations are at dangerous lows in many places, because of human influence.

People often fear tiger sharks, since they have attacked people in the past, but George Burgess, director of the University of Florida's International Shark Attack File, attributes the attacks to tourist recklessness. He said tourists may often "bring their aquatic recreation to places known to be sharky without asking natives about good and bad places."

World Conservation Society biologist Tim Davenport said the dugong situation is just as bad. He explained that "dugongs are now critically endangered" in certain regions, such as in Tanzanian waters, primarily due to a combination of fishing net entanglement and habitat destruction.

Thousands of rubber ducks to land on British shores after 15 year journey

2007-07-05T22:06:00.000-04:00

This article is out of the Daily Mail, a British newspaper. This is pretty cool, knowing where this cargo of rubber duckies was lost, knowing how long each one took to reach their destinations, allows oceanographers to cheaply learn alot about ocean currents. Nice!

They were toys destined only to bob up and down in nothing bigger than a child's bath - but so far they have floated halfway around the world.

The armada of 29,000 plastic yellow ducks, blue turtles and green frogs broke free from a cargo ship 15 years ago.

Since then they have travelled 17,000 miles, floating over the site where the Titanic sank, landing in Hawaii and even spending years frozen in an Arctic ice pack.

And now they are heading straight for Britain. At some point this summer they are expected to be spotted on beaches in South-West England.

While the ducks are undoubtedly a loss to the bath-time fun of thousands of children, their adventures at sea have proved an innvaluable aid to science.

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The toys have helped researchers to chart the great ocean currents because when they are spotted bobbing on the waves they are much more likely to be reported to the authorities than the floats which scientists normally use.

And because the toys are made of durable plastic and are sealed watertight, they have been able to survive years adrift at the mercy of the elements.

Boxes of the bathtime toys - made in China for the U.S. firm The First Years Inc - were washed overboard in the eastern Pacific Ocean one stormy January night in 1992 and broke open.

In the intervening time an oceanographer, Curtis Ebbesmeyer, has devoted his retirement to tracking the little yellow ducks and their friends over 17,000 miles, and it is he who has predicted that this summer they will land in the

West of England. Mr Ebbesmeyer said: 'We're getting reports of ducks being washed up on America's eastern seaboard.

"It is now inevitable that they will get caught up in the Atlantic currents and will turn up on English beaches.

"Cornwall and the South-West will probably get the first wave of them."

Curtis Ebbesmeyer has been tracking the floating plastic ducks around the world's oceans

Mr Ebbesmeyer said the toys will be easy for British beachboardcombers to spot because they have largely faded to white and have the words "The First Years" stamped upon them.

George Bush Snr was still US President when the toys from The First Years Inc. were made in China, packed into a container and put on a ship for the US.

But after falling overboard, the sea water corroded the card-packaging and the toys floated free. They circled the northern Pacific once before being washed up on the Alaskan shore, then all down the West coast of Canada and the US.

Mr Ebbesmeyer saw immediately how valuable the little toys would be to scientific research of the great ocean currents, the engine of the planet's entire climate.

He correctly predicted what many thought was impossible - that thousands of them would end up washed into the Arctic ice near Alaska, and then move at a mile a day, frozen in the pack ice, around their very own North-West Passage to the Atlantic.

It proved true years later and in 2003, the first "Friendly Floatees" were found, frozen and then thawed out, on the eastern seaboard of the U.S. and Canada.

So precious to science are they that the US firm that made them is offering a £50 bounty for finding one.

THE JOURNEY SO FAR:

10 JANUARY 1992: Somewhere in the middle of the Pacific Ocean nearly 29,000 First Years bath toys, including bright yellow rubber ducks, are spilled from a cargo ship in the Pacific Ocean.

16 NOVEMBER 1992: Caught in the Subpolar Gyre (counter-clockwise ocean current in the Bering Sea, between Alaska and Siberia), the ducks take 10 months to begin landing on the shores of Alaska.

EARLY 1995: The ducks take three years to circle around. East from the drop site to Alaska, then west and south to Japan before turning back north and east passing the original drop site and again landing in North America. Some ducks are even found In Hawaii. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) worked out that the ducks travel approximately 50 per pent faster than the water in the current.

1995 - 2000: Some intrepid ducks escape the Subpolar Gyre and head North, through the Bering Straight and into the frozen waters of the Arctic. Frozen into the ice the ducks travel slowly across the pole, moving ever eastward.

2000: Ducks begin reaching the North Atlantic where they begin to thaw and move Southward. Soon ducks are sighted bobbing in the waves from Maine to Massachusetts.

2001: Ducks are tracked in the area where the Titanic sank.

JULY TO DECEMBER 2003: The First Years company offers a $100 savings bond reward for the recovery of wayward ducks from the 1992 spill. To be valid ducks must be sent to the company and must be found in New England, Canada or Iceland. Britain is told to prepare for an invasion of the wayward ducks as well.

2003: A lawyer called Sonali Naik was on holiday in the Hebrides in north-west Scotland when she found a faded green frog on the beach marked with the magic words 'The First Years'. Unaware of the significance of her find she left it on the beach. It was only when she was chatting to other guests at her hotel that she realised what she had seen.

Shark Bite Leads to Reproduction Mystery

2007-07-05T22:01:00.000-04:00

Parthenogenesis, the ability of females of some species able to reproduce without the help of male sperm. This feat which is seen in insects, some reptiles and fish may now have been documented twice in shark species. This is amazing. All because a female shark bit an aquarium curator, reacted badly to sedatives and was dissected to find a nearly ready to be born pup in the uterus in a tank without any males of the species. Imagine how many sharks in the wild might have been born to only one mother?
Read the article here.

Algae Biodiesel May Soon Be Reality

2007-06-02T17:44:00.000-04:00

By Green Options Blogger Clayton Bodie Cornell. Originally published May 24, 2007.

The biodiesel community has always been marked by spirited enthusiasm, a clear sense of mission, and the dream that biodiesel could one day play a significant role in our energy future. That dream may soon be a reality. Researchers at Utah State University say that farming algae, with reported oil yields of 10,000 gallons per acre, could become an economically feasible biodiesel feedstock by the end of the decade.

This is the Holy Grail of biodiesel: an oil source that could make a serious dent in our fossil fuel consumption. Our most productive feedstock today, the oil palm, doesn’t even come close with yields of 635 gallons/acre, and is followed distantly by the U.S. standard, soy, at 48 gallons of oil/acre.

Producing biodiesel from algae isn’t a new concept, and it’s easy to see why: algae grow voraciously (measured by the day), algae can proliferate in heinous growing conditions (saltwater or extreme temperatures), and certain species contain up to 60% oil (by weight).

Put quite simply, microalgae are remarkable and efficient biological factories capable of taking a waste (zero-energy) form of carbon (CO2) and converting it into a high density liquid form of energy (natural oil). This ability has been the foundation of the research program funded by the Office Fuels Development.”

Between 1978 and 1996, the Department of Energy (DOE) funded research into technologies that could have significant impacts on the consumption of fossil fuels. The focus of this research became the Aquatic Species Program (ASP), which investigated renewable fuel production (biodiesel) from high-oil algae species, fed by the waste CO2 from coal-fired plants. Researchers whittled down over 3,000 strains of microorganisms into the most productive 300, and constructed 1000 sq. meter test ponds outside of Roswell, NM. The ponds were set up as sort of algae ‘race-tracks’, where algae were circulated around shallow, oval-shaped ponds as carbon dioxide bubbled through the mixture. Results were successful and encouraging, but the program fizzled out after almost 2 decades (a lot of which had to do with a budget crunch and allocating more resources to researching ethanol). Researchers noted that one obstacle to large-scale algae production may be the high cost, which was estimated to be double the price of diesel at the time. (I wonder what they would say now.)

Utah State may finally take this research to the next level. Scientists there plan to produce algae in a grid of indoor bioreactors, with light captured by parabolic dishes on the roof and fed inside via fiber-optic cables. Put several thousand of these bioreactors together and you have an algae farm:

The solar bioreactor utilizes single cell algae, nature’s most efficient means to convert sunshine to biomass, which contain up to 60% oil by weight.[4] To minimize land and water resources, an enclosed bioreactor is used to grow algae on proprietary vertical membranes that resemble library newspaper racks. Harvesting of algae is achieved by periodically flushing water down the membrane from holes in the top ‘rack’. Mature algae are dislodged and collected in a bottom trough while immature algae cling to the membrane and continue to grow. Sunlight is collected and distributed to vertical panels that are sandwiched in close proximity between the growth membranes, much like alternating plates in a car battery. Oil extracted from mature algae can be converted to biodiesel using well established technologies.”

The program has been funded by $6 million in seed money from the Utah Science and Technology Research Initiative, and plans on building the first commercial plant in Utah. USU researchers say algae-biodiesel could become economically feasible by 2009.

Needless to say, this is an exciting project that I will be watching closely.

WHAT!!!! They have to be joking...

2007-05-26T13:32:00.000-04:00

I agree with the airplane banner, THOU SHALT NOT LIE

By Andrea Hopkins

PETERSBURG, Ky (Reuters) - Like many modern museums, the newest U.S. tourist attraction includes some awesome exhibits -- roaring dinosaurs and a life-sized ship.

But only at the Creation Museum in Kentucky do the dinosaurs sail on the ship -- Noah's Ark, to be precise.

The Christian creators of the sprawling museum, unveiled on Saturday, hope to draw as many as half a million people each year to their state-of-the-art project, which depicts the Bible's first book, Genesis, as literal truth.

While the $27 million museum near Cincinnati has drawn snickers from media and condemnation from U.S. scientists, those who believe God created the heavens and the Earth in six days about 6,000 years ago say their views are finally being represented.

"What we've done here is to give people an opportunity to hear information that is not readily available ... to challenge them that really you can believe the Bible's history," said Ken Ham, president of the group Answers in Genesis that founded the museum.

Here exhibits show the Grand Canyon took just days to form during Noah's flood, dinosaurs coexisted with humans and had a place on Noah's Ark, and Cain married his sister to people the earth, among other Biblical wonders.

Scientists, secularists and moderate Christians have pledged to protest the museum's public opening on Monday. An airplane trailing a "Thou Shalt Not Lie" banner buzzed overhead during the museum's opening news conference.

Opponents argue that children who see the exhibits will be confused when they learn in school that the universe is 14 billion years old rather than 6,000.

"Teachers don't deserve a student coming into class saying 'Gee Mrs. Brown, I went to this fancy museum and it said you're teaching me a lie,"' Dr. Eugenie Scott, executive director of the National Center for Science Education, told reporters before the museum opened.

A Gallup poll last year showed almost half of Americans believe that humans did not evolve but were created by God in their present form within the last 10,000 years.

Three of 10 Republican presidential candidates said in a recent debate that they did not believe in evolution.

My reseach

2007-03-29T10:37:00.000-04:00

Just wanted give a little background information on my proposed research

Estuaries in Long Island, New York, have been documented as some of the most productive in terms of both primary production and shellfish harvest (COSMA 1985). Bay scallops, Argopecten irradians, once supported a vibrant fishery that contributed to high productivity in Long Island waters. Scallop populations crashed in 1985 after the occurrence of the first brown tide, Aureococcus anophagefferens, in the Peconic Bays, and subsequent blooms pushed scallops to the brink of extinction (Tettelbach and Wenczel 1993). Reseeding efforts commenced after the blooms with relatively little success (Tettelbach and Wenczel 1993). One potential reason for the lack of recovery was the low densities of spawning adults, as numbers of adult scallops in the Peconics has rarely been over 0.5 animals/m² over the last 10 years (Lewis and Rivara 1998). Competition and intense predation may be contributing recovery failure, but I hypothesize that the major contributing factor is loss of habitat. Low survival leads to low densities of adults, and scallop survival has been most often linked with predation (Tettelbach 1986; Prescott 1990; Tettelbach, Smith et al. 1997). Also, predation rates are much lower in vegetated habitats when compared to bare sand (Prescott 1990; Tettelbach, Smith et al. 1997). Locally, bay scallops preferred habitat is eelgrass, Zostera marina, an association that has long been recognized (Belding 1910; Gustell 1930),and examined in multiple studies (Pohle, Bricelj et al. 1991; Garcia-Esquivel and Bricelj 1993). The same brown tide blooms that caused the scallop population to crash also shaded out eelgrass (Dennison 1987). High nutrient loads from increasing development of the East End of Long Island can also lead to eutrophication, which has devastating impacts on eelgrass (Dennison, Orth et al. 1993) and leads to dense macroalgal blooms (Valiela, Foreman et al. 1992). Fishing gear directly removes eelgrass biomass (Boese 2002). The aforementioned factors have led to current Zostera beds in eastern Long Island to exist as a mosaic of patches that vary in shape, size, and degree of isolation from other patches. Habitat patch size can significantly affect recruitment (Bologna and Heck 2000) and survival (Irlandi, Ambrose et al. 1995) of marine bivalves. Furthermore, a regime shift from an eelgrass dominated system to a macroalgal dominated system can potentially be detrimental to bay scallops (Valiela et al 1992). The relative value of different juvenile scallop habitats has received little attention, and few studies have examined the role that changing eelgrass patch architecture (ie, size, shape) has in scallop recruitment, growth and survival. Understanding how changes in Peconic basin habitats may affect bay scallops is paramount for their successful restoration and recovery efforts.

I plan to build artificial seagrass units (ASU) of two different shapes and sizes, replicated in triplicate, using Vexar mesh and polypropylene ribbon. I am using ASUs to correct for confounding variables like shoot density, canopy height, etc. ASUs have been used in previous studies (Bologna and Heck 2000). I will be able to test recruitment, growth and survival of scallops within these patches. Also, in field experiments I will test survival in different habitat types, eelgrass, codium, mixed macroalgal communities, crepidula, and bare sand. Eventually I also plan to conduct a diver benthic survey throughout the Peconics for submerged aquatic vegetation using the Braun-Blanquet method to determine whether or not there are suitable habitats for restoration, and present the results to Suffolk County, Easthampton Township and Southold Township.

Belding, D. (1910). A report upon the scallop fishery of Massachusettes. Boston, The Commonwealth of Massachusettes.

Boese, B. (2002). "Effects of recreational clam harvesting on eelgrass (Zostera marina) and associated infaunal invertebrates: in situ manipulative experiments." Aquatic Botany 73: 63-74.

Bologna, P. and K. Heck (2000). "Impacts of seagrass habitat architecture on bivalve settlement." Estuaries 23: 449-457.

COSMA (1985). Suffolk County's hard clam industry: an overview and an analysis of management alternatives, MSRC SUNY Stony Brook.

Dennison, W. (1987). "Brown tide" algal blooms shade out eelgrass. National Shellfish Association, Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Dennison, W., R. Orth, et al. (1993). "Assessing water quality with submerged aquatic vegetation-Habitat requirements as barometers of Chesapeake Bay health." Bioscience 43: 86-94.

Garcia-Esquivel, Z. and V. Bricelj (1993). "Ontogenetic changes in microhabitat distribution of juvenile bay scallops, Argopecten irradians irradians (L.), in eelgrass beds, and their potential significance to early recruitment." Biological Bulletin 185: 42-55.

Gustell, J. (1930). "Natural history of the bay scallop." US Bureau of Fisheries Bulletin 46: 569-632.

Irlandi, E., W. Ambrose, et al. (1995). "Landscape ecology and the marine environment: how spatial conifguration of seagrass habitat influences growth and survival of the bay scallop." Oikos 72: 307-313.

Lewis, D. and G. Rivara (1998). An assessment of shellfish resources in the tributatires and embayments of the Peconic Estuary, Cornell Cooperative Extension. Peconic Estuary Program.

Pohle, D., V. Bricelj, et al. (1991). "The eelgrass canopy: an above-bottom refuge from benthic predators for juveinle bay scallops Argopecten irradians." Marine Ecology Progress Series 74: 47-59.

Prescott, R. (1990). "Sources of predatory mortality in the bay scallop Argopecten irradians (Lamark): Interactions with seagrass and epibiotic coverage." Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 144: 63-83.

Tettelbach, S. (1986). Dynamics of crustacean predation on the northern bay scallop, Argopecten irradians, University of Connecticut.

Tettelbach, S., C. Smith, et al. (1997). "Bay scallop stock restoration efforts in Long Island, New York: approaches and recommendations." Journal of Shellfish Research 16: 276.

Tettelbach, S. and P. Wenczel (1993). "Reseeding efforts and the status of the bay scallop Argopecten irradians (Lamark 1819) populations in New York following the occurence of "brown tide" algal blooms." Journal of Shellfish Research 18: 423-431.

Valiela, I., K. Foreman, et al. (1992). "Couplings of watersheds and coastal waters: Sources and consequences of nutirent enrichment in Waquoit Bay, Massachusettes." Estuaries 15(4): 443-457.

Shellfisherman to search new spot for oysters, clams

2007-03-29T10:32:00.000-04:00

Some local Long Island issues, courtest the Greenwich Time

By Michael Dinan
Staff Writer

Published March 27 2007

After more than 200 years of sifting Long Island Sound's sandy floor from canoes, skipjacks, steam engines and trawlers, shellfishermen say they've figured out which areas yield the meatiest, most abundant oyster and clam crops.

The prized underwater beds are privately owned or leased from the state Department of Agriculture, and are sold from generation to generation of shellfisherman.

So its rare for a shellfisherman to do what Greenwich's Jardar Nygaard is proposing--seek to farm unclaimed and unproven acreage.

"There's a risk. There is absolutely a risk involved, but you're making an informed decision when you do this," said Nygaard, owner of Fjord Fisheries seafood shop in Cos Cob. "You're going to be right to some extent and you really just risk what you feel it's worth."

Nygaard is seeking to lease two plots in the Sound, totaling about 183 acres and located a few thousand feet southeast of Greenwich Point. To farm the plots, Nygaard checked with the agriculture department's Milford-based Aquaculture Bureau to make sure the sites are available. The bureau then advertised Nygaard's intentions and called for bids to lease the property.

Bids must be at least $4 per acre per year and are due Monday. If he wins the leases, Nygaard said, he intends to start farming the plots right away, with a goal of selling clams.

What he's doing is highly unusual in the world of shellfishing, said David Carey, the bureau's director.

"The leases are automatically renewed at the choice of the lessee, if he meets the terms and conditions. That's why we only get about 10 new applications a year," Carey said."You'd think that shellfishermen, between (the year) 1800 and last year, have pretty much picked out the best areas."

But the Sound has a way of surprising shellfishermen who think they've mastered the practice, said Ed Stilwagen, who works about 3,000 acres in the Sound as owner of Byram River-based Atlantic Clam Farms.

"If you're around a while you find out where the good spots are, but it changes based on the current and other conditions. It's not a totally consistent thing at all," Stilwagen said. "There's a lot of luck involved. Sometimes it's better to be in some areas than others, for reasons we don't even know about."

Even so, state officials give potential shellfishermen some time to survey the shellfishing beds they intend to lease. Under a one-day permit issued by the state Department of Environmental Protection, Ny gaard spent several hours on his hydraulic dredge last week, surveying about four of the acres he's interested in.

Nygaard, who already leases 50 acres in Greenwich and 220 in Westport, believes that eddying at high and low tides could help seeds take hold in the beds and yield shellfish in the proposed sites.

"Also, during storms, it could create large amounts of shell deposit, which is also a good environment," Nygaard said.

Still, the proposed beds --–one of which lies entirely in Greenwich, while the other straddles the Greenwich-Stamford line --–could be difficult to manage, Nygaard said. Depths vary widely from place to place and waters can be choppy most days, which makes it difficult to do the sensitive work of trawling the bottom of the Sound for clams, Nygaard said.

For Leslie Miklovich, co-owner of Hillard Bloom Shellfish in Norwalk, the only true gauge for how fertile an area is for shellfishing is history itself.

"Historically we know which grounds are the best," said Miklovich, whose business farms about 10,000 acres in the Sound and whose family has been in shellfishing since 1875. "Just history from the old-timers, that's what it's about. Over the years, everything has been tried. All these grounds have been tried before."

For Nygaard, who has long been interested in aquaculture and whose family went into salmon farming years ago, trying to find a good shellfishing crop where no one has before may offer its own rewards.

"I just think that cultivation of shellfish is a good business to be in," Nygaard said. "For one thing, it's sustainable, and basically eco-friendly."

McCain Signs On to Schwarzenegger Global Warming Agenda

2007-02-22T17:18:00.000-05:00

"Republican presidential candidate John McCain, applauding Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for taking on the 'compelling issue of global climate challenge,' pledged Wednesday to make California's global warming fight the model for a national effort to curb greenhouse gases. Appearing with the governor at the Port of Long Beach, McCain said he will fight in the Senate - and if elected president - to adopt low carbon standards for vehicle fuels to cut pollution blamed for climate change. McCain also sharply criticized the Bush administration for only belatedly acknowledging the global warming threat and failing to come up with solutions."

Don't be surprised by his flip-flopping ways. In the last two weeks, he has publicly defended the war and the decision to send more troops, and at the same time lambasted the vice president and Donald Rumsfeld for their poor preparation and even labeled Rumsfeld as "one of the worst defense secretaries in histroy." After kissing the administrations ass, yesterday, he criticized the Bush administration for not recognizing global warming as a threat sooner. Granted, McCain has always had strong environmental values, but he also supports phony science organizations like the Discovery Institute and believes that creation and theology have a place in the classroom under the guise of intelligent design. WHERE EXACTLY DO YOU STAND SENATOR? In 2000 you claimed to be a moderate, and recently you are siding with the conservatives and the Christian right on every issue. Which side is it? SCIENCE or RELIGION Mr Senator? And furthermore, what is your stance on anything? Whatever the receiving audience would like to hear? Grow some balls, stop kissing everyone's ass. Be you, be a leader!

More Anti-Incandescent Legislations!!!

2007-02-20T18:00:00.000-05:00

Australia pulls plug on old bulbs

Ban the bulb? Australia plans to switch to fluorescent light by 2010

Australia has announced plans to ban incandescent light bulbs and replace them with more energy efficient fluorescent bulbs.

The environment minister said the move could cut the country's greenhouse gas emissions by 4 million tonnes by 2012.

"It's a little thing but it's a massive change," Malcolm Turnbull said.

The decision will make Australia the first country to ban the light bulbs, although the idea has also been proposed in the US state of California.

Fluorescent first

Mr Turnbull said that he hoped the rest of the world would follow Australia's lead in banning the traditional bulbs.

"If the whole world switches to these bulbs today, we would reduce our consumption of electricity by an amount equal to five times Australia's annual consumption of electricity," he said.

The incandescent light bulb, which wastes energy in heat dispersed while the light is switched on, is based on a design invented in the 19th century by engineers including Thomas Edison and Joseph Swan.

The bulbs will be completely phased out by 2010 and replaced with the more fuel efficient compact fluorescent models which use around 20% of the electricity to produce the same amount of light.

Not such a bright idea?

Matt Prescott of the UK-based Ban the Bulb campaign said he was delighted that Australia and California are moving forward on this issue, which he highlighted in an article for the BBC News website a year ago.

"I'm now hoping that Arnold Schwarzenegger and John Howard make firm commitments to support these proposals, explore other energy saving technologies which are already available and enable their economies to reduce their carbon emissions, save money and benefit from rapid innovation," he said.

Green campaigners and the opposition party in Australia picked up the same theme, suggesting that ratifying the Kyoto Protocol would be a more powerful way for the country to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.

"The major producers of emissions in this country are not individuals, they're governments and business," Peter Garrett, the opposition's environment spokesman, said.

Orkney to get 'biggest' wave farm

2007-02-20T17:48:00.000-05:00

from BBC

Scottish ministers have announced funding for what has been described as the world's biggest wave energy farm.

The Pelamis device has been tested at the European Marine Energy Centre (Emec) on Orkney by Leith-based company Ocean Power Delivery.

Scottish Power wants to commission four more at the same site.

Deputy First Minister Nicol Stephen announced a £13m funding package that will also allow a number of other marine energy devices to be tested.

Ocean Power Delivery has already exported the Pelamis for use in a commercial wave farm.

Click here to see how the wave power system works

The large, tubular segments were taken to a site off the northern coast of Portugal last year for a project which aimed to generate enough power for 1,500 households.

At that stage the company warned that the industry could be forced to quit Scotland if there were no opportunities to use the technology closer to home.

Scotland has the potential to generate a quarter of Europe's marine energy

Nicol Stephen
Deputy first minister

Now Scottish Power is planning a venture which it believes could create enough power for 2,000 homes.

The biggest single handout of more than £4m will go to a Scottish Power subsidiary, CRE Energy, which will build the wave farm.

Mr Stephen said: "Today marks a vital milestone in Scotland's drive to be the world leader in the development of marine renewables."

Create jobs

Of the Pelamis scheme, he said: "This will be the world's biggest commercial wave project - significantly bigger than the major Portuguese scheme.

"Scotland has the potential to generate a quarter of Europe's marine energy and kick-starting the sector is vital if we are to create a significant industry based in Scotland and meet our long-term renewables targets."

Mr Stephen said the industry had the potential to create thousands of jobs and attract millions of pounds of investment.

Scottish Power's director of renewables, Keith Anderson, said: "This is a massive step forward.

"It will be a test of the actual devices that will be used commercially and, if successful, should help propel Scotland into the forefront of marine energy throughout the world."

'Emerging economies'

Emec managing director Neil Kermode said: "We are delighted to see this level of support from the Scottish Executive.

"It sends a clear signal that the executive is determined to push forward the development of tidal and wave technologies - technologies that will unlock the enormous renewable energy potential of our coastal waters.

Mr Stephen said it was an exciting development for Scotland

"The technology is moving forward, but we must never underestimate just how difficult - and expensive - an environment this is to work in."

Friends of the Earth Scotland's chief executive, Duncan McLaren, said: "Wave and tidal power could supply a fifth of UK's electricity needs and Scotland is ideally placed to generate significant amounts of this pollution-free energy.

"It is critical that we see full-scale devices in our waters soon, otherwise the world-leading expertise Scotland has built up will rapidly depart these shores."

Green speaker on energy, Shiona Baird MSP, said: "Any investment is to be welcomed - but it pales into insignificance with the Portuguese project.

"Despite the gusto with which this announcement is being made, ministers remain determined to build more roads and expand airports, so it's going to take a lot more than this to reduce climate pollution."

Time for Europe to tackle looming water crisis: environment agency

2007-02-15T13:29:00.000-05:00

Wed Feb 14, 2:19 PM ET

PARIS (AFP) - European countries must start planning now to cope with climate change, as shifting rain- and snowfall patterns will inflict water stress whose effects will ripple across the social and economic spectrum, the European Environment Agency (EEA) warned.

"Changes in precipitation, combined with rising temperatures and reduced snow cover, will have impacts on water quality and quantity, requiring water managers to incorporate climate change in their planning and investment decisions," the EEA said.

"While uncertainties remain about the level and extent of changes in precipitation in specific locations, enough is known for action."

The new EEA report, Climate Change and Water Adaptation Issues, draws on the latest research on global warming, including the just-published first volume of a global assessment by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

The IPCC said that by 2100 global average surface temperatures could rise by between 1.1 and 6.4 C (1.98 and 11.52 F) depending on how much carbon dioxide (CO2), the principal greenhouse gas, is in the air.

Within this range, the "best estimate" is Earth's surface temperatures will rise between 1.8 and 4.0 C (3.2 and 7.2 F), the IPCC said. Sea levels would increase by 18 to 59 centimetres (7.1 to 23.2 inches) by 2100.

The EEA said that in Europe, the temperature would rise by between 2.0 (3.6 F) and 6.2 C (11.16 F), with a mean increase of 2.1-4.4 C (3.8-7.9 F). Larger increases could be expected in eastern and southern Europe.

This would affect every country, it said.

"We in Europe need to get our act together on adaptation (to climate change) in the same way that we are leading on mitigation," said EAA Executive Director Jacqueline McGlade. Mitigation is the term for tackling the man-made greenhouse gases that drive global warming.

These are among the potential impacts, according to the EAA report:

-- Annual precipitation in northern Europe is likely to rise by as much as two percent per decade, although summers will be drier. But in southern Europe, there will be a fall in annual precipitation, especially in summer when rainfall will decrease by around five percent.

-- Flooding will become a more frequent risk over all of Europe. Northern Europe will run a higher risk of drought in the summer; southern Europe faces the risk of more droughts in all seasons.

-- Climate change will strongly affect natural habitat and biodiversity.

For example, loss of groundwater may badly affect dunes and wetlands in the Netherlands; streams and lakes in Austria that are fed by glacial meltwater could dry up; and new diseases, pests and species that thrive in an altered climate could threaten native species in Britain.

-- Water supplies for human consumption will also come under severe challenge, because at present, reservoirs and use of groundwater stocks are designed for a long recharge season.

If the recharge season is short, or it provides so much rain in one go that the ground surface saturates and the water cannot infiltrate, this will badly add to stress. Southern Spain, southern Italy, Greece and Turkey are singled out.

The report adds that the cost of these impacts could be very high.

Less rainfall will affect which crops can be grown and the availability of water for coastland tourist resorts and golf courses. It could also lead to worse quality of drinking water. And lower water levels in rivers and waterways will also affect electricity generation by hydropower and impede navigation.

Droughts alone have cost 85 billion euros (110 billion dollars) over the past 30 years in the
European Union (EU), led by 2003, a year that cost 7.5 billion euros (9.75 billion dollars) alone.

This is a big deal, and its an issue that will face humanity in the very near future. In the next 20 years, wars will no longer be fought for oil, or "for freedom and democracy around the world" as our conservative screwheads would have you think, they will be fought for drinking water. Already a large portion of the world's population lives without safe drinking water, and with privatization by big corporations like Pepsi, Coca Cola, and others, much of the water in third world countries like India, is "owned" and the people are unable to access it without paying an arm and a leg for it. Imagine if tap water in America cost the same as a bottle of Evian spring water? Bottled water already costs more than milk or gasoline, and in the future it will not get better. Check out this documentary called Thirst. It is scary.

Al Franken for Senate

2007-02-15T11:37:00.000-05:00

This isn't entirely related to my blog, but he is very intelligent and articulate, and I think he would do a great job. Plus he is very environmentally conscious so it sort of relates to my blog here.

STEP IT UP 2007!

2007-02-14T15:31:00.000-05:00

This April 14th, tens of thousands of Americans will gather all across the country at meaningful, iconic places to call for action on climate change. We will hike, bike, climb, walk, swim, kayak, canoe, or simply sit or stand with banners of our call to action:
Find an action near you and participate. Send letters to your state and federal representatives. Send photos. Let them know you are serious about fixing the problem.

There are already 642 events planned in 47 states across the country!

Find an Action Near You

But we still need hundreds and hundreds more in every city, state, and county.

Check out the website for more details.

New Packaging from HP to Cause Big Drop in Emissions

2007-02-14T15:28:00.000-05:00

Source: GreenBiz.com

PALO ALTO, Calif., Feb. 13, 2007 -- HP has announced that its redesigned print cartridge packaging for North America will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 37 million pounds in 2007 -- the equivalent of taking 3,600 cars off the road for one year.

The emissions savings are the result of smaller, lighter packages that both reduce the total carbon footprint of each cartridge and the truck and freighter transportation traffic required to ship them. Newer packaging also contains more recyclable and recycled content.

"What I see here is smart design," said Greg Norris, Ph.D., environmental life cycle assessment instructor at Harvard University and creator of the Earthster project, an open source software platform designed to make opportunities for sustainable production and purchasing globally accessible. "The changes all go in the right direction environmentally and all in ways that make economic sense to HP and its customers. More power to these designers."

For retailers, the new packaging is also expected to save significant transportation and storage costs while freeing up valuable display space.

Read the rest here.

This is big news, and I wish more corporations would follow suit. Have you seen all the useless packaging used? Have you bought a flash drive whose package was the size of a book? Thats oil used to make the plastic, space taken up so less can be moved, more packages lead to more shipping and more wasted oil... This is a big step...

NJ Steps It Up!

2007-02-14T15:03:00.000-05:00

Corzine's order puts New Jersey in forefront of global warming fight

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

BY DEBORAH HOWLETT

Star-Ledger Staff

As expected, Gov. Jon Corzine yesterday signed an executive order that sets aggressive new tar gets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in New Jersey, saying he was taking action "to preserve our planet for our children and grandchildren."

The order commits the state to cutting emissions 20 percent from current levels by 2020 and 80 percent from current levels by 2050. Corzine characterized the goals as "pro-active and ambitious," noting that California is the only other state that has been as aggressive in curbing emissions.

The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change earlier this month cited emissions from cars, electric power plants and other sources as being "very likely" the major culprit in global warming. Scientists and environmental advocates have said an 80 percent reduction in emissions by 2050 is a critical step in preventing the most devastating effects of global warming. The federal government has yet to take action on reducing emissions nationwide.

"In the absence of leadership on the federal level," Corzine said, "the burden has now fallen upon state executives and legislatures to lead the way on this issue and I'm proud that New Jersey is helping to blaze that trail."

The state is already a member of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a cooperative effort by Northeast and mid-Atlantic states to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. The Corzine administration is also working to establish a cap on carbon dioxide emissions from electric power plants.

Corzine directed the Department of Environmental Protection to work with the Department of Transportation, Board of Public Utilities, the Department of Community Affairs and interest groups to develop a plan over the next six months to meet those goals for reducing emissions. The ideas will be incorporated as part of a state master plan on energy that is cur rently being developed and is due to be presented to Corzine in October.

While acknowledging the Legislature will need to enact into law some of those ideas, Corzine stopped short of endorsing any specific bills that have been introduced by legislators.

Assemblyman John F. McKeon (D-Essex), chairman of the Assembly environment committee, will hold the first public hearings next week on a bill sponsored by Assemblywoman Linda Stender (D- Union) that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Corzine announced his order at an event in West Orange, in McKeon's district, to tout an energy conservation program target ing youth.

"Global warming is not a trend issue; this is a real threat to our future," McKeon said. "The governor has set a standard that should be codified into law. The Assembly environment committee is preparing to take this issue up in earnest so we can begin to reverse the suicidal course we are now following through the uncontrolled release of greenhouse gases."

I am proud there is some common sense somewhere. The important thing to note, that through careful planning this is actually a goal that can be easily accomplished. Granted, people will have to make some sacrifices, like getting rid of SUVs and paying a little extra for LED lights, but it will benefit the country and the world. A report released by a group of scientists from the Sierra Club and energy experts from the American Solar Energy Society unveiled a report last week detailing how the U.S. could cut global warming emissions 60-80% by 2050 -- using only efficiency and renewables. The report provides a roadmap not only for where we want to be in terms of emission levels, but also how we can get there using solutions that are available today. This report lays out how we can build a new energy economy based on clean energy, and new, good-paying manufacturing jobs.
The big deal is energy efficiency is the bulk of the reductions. Check the report. Download the report here.

DO NOT VOTE FOR THIS MAN!

2007-02-13T15:19:00.000-05:00

I know the election is still a year and a half away, but this is not a man who should be voted for. The problem is this, most people remember that he was the more moderate Republic who lost the primaries to George Bush. However, since then he has drastically changed his ways and I don't think the public is kept well enough aware. Since he lost his primary, he has become a war monger in the worst kind (and you would expect someone who went through the rigors of turmoil in vietnam would never want that to happen to anyone again, and would quickly realize a mistaken and lost war like vietnam was), he went against his word to speak at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University, three years after calling falwell "a preacher of intolerance" and now is a keynote speaker at the Discovery Institute, whose sole purpose is to fund bad science and initiatives to put the biblical teachings into public schools. That is against the Constitution of the United States. I cannot stand by and let this fucking asshole hypocrite be thought of as some moderate republican. He is a conservative in the worst ways. He is for the war, for tax cuts to the rich, for temporary worker status (so big corporations can keep treating immigrants like shit), against a woman's right to choose and now he is for intelligent design. This guy is worse than George "What the fuck" Bush himself. Please please please, if you never come back to my blog again, please spread the word that John McCain is a scumbag conservative and we don't need another one in the White House.

McCain To Deliver Keynote Speech For Creationists

Today is Darwin Day, commemorating the anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth and of the publishing of On the Origin of Species. The National Academy of Sciences, “the nation’s most prestigious scientific organization,” declares evolution “one of the strongest and most useful scientific theories we have.” President Bush’s science adviser John Marburger calls it “the cornerstone of modern biology.”

Yet, on February 23, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) will be the keynote speaker for the most prominent creationism advocacy group in the country. The Discovery Institute, a religious right think-tank, is well-known for its strong opposition to evolutionary biology and its advocacy for “intelligent design.” The institute’s main financial backer, savings and loan heir Howard Ahmanson, spent 20 years on the board of the Chalcedon Foundation, “a theocratic outfit that advocates the replacement of American civil law with biblical law.”

McCain has an ambiguous record on whether he supports intelligent design in the science curriculum. In 2005, he said it should be taught:

Daily Star: Should intelligent design be taught in schools?

McCain: I think that there has to be all points of view presented. But they’ve got to be thoroughly presented. So to say that you can only teach one line of thinking I don’t think is - or one belief on how people and the world was created - I think there’s nothing wrong with teaching different schools of thought.

Daily Star: Does it belong in science?

McCain: There’s enough scientists that believe it does. I’m not a scientist. This is something that I think all points of view should be presented.

But last year, he said the intelligent design theory should not be taught in the science classroom:

“I think Americans should be exposed to every point of view,” he said. “I happen to believe in evolution…I respect those who think the world was created in seven days. Should it be taught as a science class? Probably not.“

As McCain continues his lurch to the right, where will he come down on intelligent design in the science classroom? We’ll be watching.

Cool!

2007-02-01T21:27:00.000-05:00

The Underwater Channel.tv Launches First Broadband Site Dedicated to the Underwater World

by Underwatertimes.com News Service

London, England (Jan 30, 2007 17:50 EST) January 29th, 2007 sees the launch of the world’s first broadband TV channel dedicated to the mysteries and marvels of the underwater world: www.theunderwaterchannel.tv.

The Underwater Channel.tv is fuelled by the passion of divers, oceanographers, surfers, snorkellers, scientists, students or the simply curious who cannot get enough of the underwater world. The Underwater Channel.tv will entertain, educate and interact with a global audience over the world-wide-web. The soft launch of the channel will be free to air.

Programs will showcase unique and unusual marine encounters alongside underwater expeditions, scientific developments, YouDive video blogs, scuba adventures and in-depth features on scuba destinations. “Viewers can now go underwater without leaving their desks by logging onto www.theunderwaterchannel.tv All aspects of this magical realm will be up for exploration” says Emmy award-winning founder and MD, Nicholas Claxton.

UWC Presenters include prominent diving figures from UK:

Miranda Krestovnikoff (presenter of the BBC’s Coast and C4’s Wreck Detectives)
Monty Halls (presenter & film-maker - Full Circle Expeditions)
Tim Ecott (author of Neutral Buoyancy: Adventures in a Liquid World)
Anne-Marie Kitchen-Wheeler (UK free-diving team)
Peter Scoones (revered underwater cameraman: BBC TV Blue Planet and Planet Earth)
Amanda Ursell (author of Going Down, TV presenter and columnist for The Times)
Andrew Pugsley (diver & adventurer)

Join them for exclusive footage of manta rays, world free-diving records, scientific expeditions to the abyss and in-depth profiles of underwater adventurers and photographers.

“I’m thrilled that the concept of www.underwaterchannel.tv has been met with such enthusiasm from so many key figures within the dive community, not just in the UK but in the USA and Asia-Pacific too" says Claxton. "The estimated 20 million divers worldwide are young and internet-savvy. This is the birth of a pioneering venture which will cater for their passion online.”

A pilot edition of the UWC’s output will run for ten weeks and will be free to air for everyone with access to broadband around the globe.

France Tells U.S. to Sign Climate Pacts or Face Tax

2007-02-01T21:18:00.000-05:00

By KATRIN BENNHOLD

Published: February 1, 2007

PARIS, Jan. 31 — President Jacques Chirac has demanded that the United States sign both the Kyoto climate protocol and a future agreement that will take effect when the Kyoto accord runs out in 2012.

He said that he welcomed last week’s State of the Union address in which President Bush described climate change as a “serious challenge” and acknowledged that a growing number of American politicians now favor emissions cuts.

But he warned that if the United States did not sign the agreements, a carbon tax across Europe on imports from nations that have not signed the Kyoto treaty could be imposed to try to force compliance. The European Union is the largest export market for American goods.

“A carbon tax is inevitable,” Mr. Chirac said. “If it is European, and I believe it will be European, then it will all the same have a certain influence because it means that all the countries that do not accept the minimum obligations will be obliged to pay.”

Trade lawyers have been divided over the legality of a carbon tax, with some saying it would run counter to international trade rules. But Mr. Chirac said other European countries would back it. “I believe we will have all of the European Union,” he said.

Mr. Chirac spoke as scientists from around the world gathered in Paris to discuss an authoritative international report on climate change, portions of which will be released on Friday.

Mr. Chirac’s critics say that despite his comments in support of environmental measures, his record as president is far from green. He angered environmentalists across the globe when he conducted nuclear tests in a Pacific atoll within months of coming into office in 1995. He has been a loyal ally of French farmers and their pollution-causing practices, blocking some proposed Europe-wide reforms.

Most recently, France’s national plan for allocating carbon emission credits to businesses had to be revised after the European Union rejected it as too generous.

Good, maybe this will get into our government's thick skulls... Dollars are the only things that seem to matter to the administration...

Once a Dream Fuel, Palm Oil May Be an Eco-Nightmare

2007-01-31T13:28:00.000-05:00

I have read this in other places before, but it recently made it into the New York Times, that the actual cost of these biofuels, in terms of carbon production to grow the plants and convert the energy is not efficient or "green" in any way... Its a real knock on the whole sustainable energy/biofuel environmental movement, but I always thought that solar cells should be made more efficient, wind and tide generators should be developed better, and more money should be put into nuclear fusion. Thinking that we could grow our own fuel, in the costs of land and water and labor and gear never really made that much sense now that I think about it... anyway, here is the article:
Bazuki Muhammad/Reuters

By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL

Published: January 31, 2007

AMSTERDAM, Jan. 25 — Just a few years ago, politicians and environmental groups in the Netherlands were thrilled by the early and rapid adoption of “sustainable energy,” achieved in part by coaxing electrical plants to use biofuel — in particular, palm oil from Southeast Asia.

A palm oil estate on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Exports hit a record $9 billion last year because of strong European demand.

Spurred by government subsidies, energy companies became so enthusiastic that they designed generators that ran exclusively on the oil, which in theory would be cleaner than fossil fuels like coal because it is derived from plants.

But last year, when scientists studied practices at palm plantations in Indonesia and Malaysia, this green fairy tale began to look more like an environmental nightmare.

Rising demand for palm oil in Europe brought about the clearing of huge tracts of Southeast Asian rainforest and the overuse of chemical fertilizer there.

Worse still, the scientists said, space for the expanding palm plantations was often created by draining and burning peatland, which sent huge amounts of carbon emissions into the atmosphere.

Considering these emissions, Indonesia had quickly become the world’s third-leading producer of carbon emissions that scientists believe are responsible for global warming, ranked after the United States and China, according to a study released in December by researchers from Wetlands International and Delft Hydraulics, both in the Netherlands.

“It was shocking and totally smashed all the good reasons we initially went into palm oil,” said Alex Kaat, a spokesman for Wetlands, a conservation group.

The production of biofuels, long a cornerstone of the quest for greener energy, may sometimes create more harmful emissions than fossil fuels, scientific studies are finding.

As a result, politicians in many countries are rethinking the billions of dollars in subsidies that have indiscriminately supported the spread of all of these supposedly eco-friendly fuels for vehicles and factories. The 2003 European Union Biofuels Directive, which demands that all member states aim to have 5.75 percent of transportation run by biofuel in 2010, is now under review.

“If you make biofuels properly, you will reduce greenhouse emissions,” said Peder Jensen, of the European Environment Agency in Copenhagen. “But that depends very much on the types of plants and how they’re grown and processed. You can end up with a 90 percent reduction compared to fossil fuels — or a 20 percent increase.”

He added, “It’s important to take a life-cycle view,” and not to “just see what the effects are here in Europe.”

In the Netherlands, the data from Indonesia has provoked soul-searching, and helped prompt the government to suspend palm oil subsidies. The Netherlands, a leader in green energy, is now leading the effort to distinguish which biofuels are truly environmentally sound.

The government, environmental groups and some of the Netherlands’ “green energy” companies are trying to develop programs to trace the origins of imported palm oil, to certify which operations produce the oil in a responsible manner.

Krista van Velzen, a member of Parliament, said the Netherlands should pay compensation to Indonesia for the damage that palm oil has caused. “We can’t only think: does it pollute the Netherlands?”

In the United States and Brazil most biofuel is ethanol (made from corn in the United States and sugar in Brazil), used to power vehicles made to run on gasoline. In Europe it is mostly local rapeseed and sunflower oil, used to make diesel fuel.

In a small number of instances, plant oil is used in place of diesel fuel, without further refinement. But as many European countries push for more green energy, they are increasingly importing plant oils from the tropics, since there is simply not enough plant matter for fuel production at home.

On the surface, the environmental equation that supports biofuels is simple: Since they are derived from plants, biofuels absorb carbon while they are grown and release it when they are burned. In theory that neutralizes their emissions.

But the industry was promoted long before there was adequate research, said Reanne Creyghton, who runs Friends of the Earth’s campaign against palm oil here.

Biofuelswatch, an environment group in Britain, now says that “biofuels should not automatically be classed as renewable energy.” It supports a moratorium on subsidies until more research can determine whether various biofuels in different regions are produced in a nonpolluting manner.

Read the next page here.

Awesome photo from NASA's Earth Observatory...

2007-01-30T15:21:00.000-05:00

The Mariana Islands are part a volcanic island arc—surface volcanoes formed from magma generated as one tectonic plate overrides another. In the case of the Mariana Islands, the Pacific Plate is being pulled, or subducted, beneath the Philippine Plate along the famously deep Mariana Trench, which is more than 11 kilometers (nearly 7 miles) below sea level. Pagan Island (image right) is made up of two volcanoes connected by a narrow isthmus of land. The volcanoes are stratovolcanoes, which are tall, typically cone-shaped structures formed by layers of dense, crystallized lava and less-dense ash and pumice. Mount Pagan, the larger of the two volcanoes, forms the northeastern portion of the island and has been the most active historically.

The most recent major eruption took place in 1981, but since then numerous steam- and ash-producing events have been observed at the volcano—the latest reported one occurring between December 5–8, 2006. This astronaut photograph records volcanic activity on January 11, 2007, that produced a thin plume that extended westwards away from Mount Pagan. The plume was most probably steam, possibly with minor ash content. The island is sparsely populated, and it is monitored for volcanic activity by the United States Geological Survey and the Commonwealth of the Mariana Islands.

Astronaut photograph ISS014-E-11872 was acquired January 11, 2007, with a Kodak 760C digital camera using a 180 mm lens, and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations experiment and the Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, Johnson Space Center. The image in this article has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth.

Aussies may soon be drinking recycled water

2007-01-30T15:07:00.000-05:00

An interesting convorsation from an Australian television (?) program about the safety of recycled sewage water and the need for it in water-starved Australia. Pretty interesting stuff. Read the script here.

A battle won for environmentalists

2007-01-30T14:50:00.000-05:00

Court: EPA must protect aquatic life near power plants

LARRY NEUMEISTER

Associated Press

NEW YORK - The Environmental Protection Agency must force power plants to protect fish and other aquatic life even if it's expensive, a federal appeals court said in a ruling favoring states and environmental groups.

The decision late Thursday by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that it was improper for the EPA to let power plants circumvent environmental laws - for instance, restocking polluted water with new fish instead of paying to upgrade their technology.

It said the EPA's decisions must "be driven by technology, not cost," unless two technologies produce essentially the same benefits but have much different costs.

"EPA's goal is to protect fish and the ecosystem while meeting the nation's need for reliable energy sources," said Benjamin H. Grumbles, the agency's assistant administrator for water. The agency was reviewing the decision, he said.

The ruling drew praise from environmental groups and six states that had sued.

"This decision is a strong and stinging rebuke of the Bush administration's underhanded practice of issuing rule changes to undercut environmental laws," Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said in a statement Friday.

The other states involved are Rhode Island, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York.

They sued after the EPA published regulations in July 2004 describing how power plants must protect aquatic life when they use water from bays, rivers, lakes, oceans and other waterways for cooling.

Scientists say fish, larvae and eggs are killed in the water-cooling process, which is used heavily in states with many older, mostly fossil-fuel plants.

The appeals court previously rejected arguments that some species are nuisances and require eradication. The court had also dismissed the claim that other species respond to population losses by increasing their reproduction.

Maine Land Use Commission Rejects Wind Power Proposal

2007-01-30T14:45:00.000-05:00

Despite LURC ruling, governor upbeat on wind power

By Glenn Adams, Associated Press Writer | January 28, 2007

AUGUSTA, Maine --Despite last week's ruling by state officials that could lead to final rejection of the proposed Redington wind power project in western Maine, Gov. John Baldacci said he remains committed to that form of renewable energy.

The governor did not question last Wednesday's 6-1 vote by the Land Use Regulation Commission, saying that LURC "is an independent, citizen board" that must scrutinize each project in a balanced and measured way.

"They are responsible for evaluating projects like this one. Just because I support an expansion of wind energy does not exempt the project from the review process. These things have to be done in a reasonable way," the governor told The Associated Press.

Maine Mountain Power, meanwhile, remained undecided Sunday on what its next step will be following the wilderness zoning board's ruling against its $130 million project, which called for 30 wind turbines on Redington and Black Nubble mountains, spokesman Dennis Bailey said.

Of course, this seems entirely ridiculous to me, although its impossible for me to give a real opinion without reading the exact details of the proposal submitted and the reasons for rejection. I am just confused as to what the Land Use Regulation Commission is holding out for? I mean we need to start really focusing on renewable energy and Maine can take the pioneering first step into developing multiple wind farms... This is a shot in the foot to all proponents of sustainable energy. Read the rest here.

Alaska fights for their right to fish for halibut

2007-01-22T23:06:00.000-05:00

Bend Weekly News Sources

The Recreational Fishing Alliance (RFA) is issuing a call to action from saltwater fishermen throughout the country in an effort to make their collective voice heard by the International Pacific Halibut Commission (IPHC); an organization forged under a U.S./Canadian treaty to manage the halibut biomass in Pacific waters.

Next week, the IPHC is scheduled to hold closed meetings for discussions on the recreational harvesting of halibut off the coast of Alaska. Currently, Alaska's commercial fleets take over 90% of the halibut resource and kill over 12 million pounds, annually, just in wasted bycatch. This, alone, is close to double the amount that sport anglers catch. However, the commercially dominated IPHC is proposing to cut the charter fleet bag limit to one fish per person, crippling Alaska's charter and tourism industry.

"The IPHC's main job is to continually monitor the health of the halibut biomass and then determine how many pounds of halibut can be harvested by the U.S. and Canada in a given year", explained RFA executive director Jim Donofrio. "In the past, the allowable catch for halibut is then managed federally by the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council (NPFMC) under the control of the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) as mandated by the Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries Conservation and Management Act."

The RFA aims to protect Alaska's recreational halibut fishing industry and uphold legislation in the Magnuson Steven Act (MSA) that dictates fisheries management be a transparent process with public input, by urging individuals to voice their concern to Dr. William Hogarth, assistant administrator of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries, Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens, as well as their local senators.

"This proposed action sets a terrible precedent for U.S. fisheries policy", states Greg Sutter of the Alaska Charter Association. "We are currently looking into the legality of this action to insure that no jurisdictional bounds have been overstepped."

Now I can't pretend to know the whole situation with the halibut. I do know that in my fisheries course, we looked at the stocks and they were being overfished. However, I love how its always the recreational fisherman that get blamed. Instead of closing the commercial catch (which worked so well for stripers on the Atlantic coast), they will punish the recreational guys who want to keep fish stocks healthy and dont stand to make any profit from the fish... GOOD IDEA IPHC!

Baby fish smell their way home

2007-01-22T22:31:00.000-05:00

I know about fish and homing abilities, but I never heard of it for reef fish...
Cosmos Online

Baby reef fish like this damselfish can use smell to find their way back to their own home reef across kilometres of ocean, researchers say.

Image: iStockphoto

SYDNEY: Some baby fish manage to find their way to their home coral reef across kilometres of open ocean by using their sense of smell, researchers say.

The discovery, made on Australia's Great Barrier Reef by a team of U.S. and Australian scientists, shines a new light on how the breathtaking diversity of fish on coral reefs has arisen, and has major implications for the management of reefs.

"The babies of many coral fish species are swept off their home reef by ocean currents within days of hatching," said Mike Kingsford of James Cook University in Townsville, Queensland, a member of the research team. "Ordinarily you'd expect them to be thoroughly mixed up and this would mean the population of one reef would be pretty much the same, genetically, as another."

"But that is not the case," he said. "There are major genetic differences between fish of the same species on reefs only a few kilometres or even just hundreds of metres apart.

"This genetic separation between reefs may be what gives rise to so many different species in coral reef systems," said Kingsford, who believes that the lack of interbreeding between groups of fish from the same species on different reefs may, over time, have caused them to evolve into separate species.

The impetus for the research came from the researchers' interest in how tiny damsel and cardinal fish, swept off of their home reef, manage to find their way back - braving strong currents and ferocious predators during 20 days at sea - all when only a centimetre or so in size.

"We tested several ideas, but the most attractive seemed to be that they could smell the unique trace of their home reef - rather like salmon can smell the home river," said Kingsford. "We know these late stage fish larvae … already have developed noses - but the question was whether they could use them to recognise what the home reef smelt like, when they left it only a day or so after hatching."

The team exposed tiny fish larvae in a tank to pure streams of water from four different reefs. To their amazement, within minutes a surprisingly high percentage of baby fish had congregated in the water flow from their home reef.

"It was a lot more than you'd expect to happen by pure chance - and it applied, in differing degrees, across several species of fish," said Kingsford.

The fish could also be responding to other stimuli, including distant noise off a reef and the behaviour of other fish, but the team concluded that smell was probably the dominant factor leading the babies home.

"Every reef gives off its own unique chemical signature, a rich mixture of the proteins and amino acids emitted by corals, all the plankton and mucus from its life," said Kingsford. "We think baby fish can pick this up and distinguish it from other reefs.

"We think some fishes then choose currents that smell like 'home' and swim up them. The ones that cannot do this perish. The ones that get home preserve the unique 'ethnic' make-up of their tribe - and so continue the process of evolving into separate new species."

How the fish learn the unique smell of home remains a mystery. In their paper, published last week in the U.S. journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers theorise that the smell is imprinted on a baby fish either when it is an unfertilised egg inside its mother, a fertilised egg on the bottom, or a newly-hatched fry.

"An egg, even a fry, hasn't a fully developed sense of smell, but it may have a way of absorbing the local molecules and then recognising their signature as 'home' when it grows up a bit and is ready to settle," said Kingsford. "This evidence that individual coral reefs play such a key role in the emergence of new species is a fresh reason to take even greater care in how we look after them."

with James Cook University

NOAA: Nutrient Pollution Increasing Along the New England, Mid-Atlantic Coasts

2007-01-06T14:18:00.000-05:00

Not that this isn't already pretty common knowledge to researchers in the area, but now that a government agency is actually admitting it, thats a big step in the right direction!

Underwatertimes.com News Service

Washington, D.C. (Jan 5, 2007 16:25 EST) A NOAA research project shows nutrient pollution in estuaries, bays and harbors from the mid-Atlantic to New England is on the rise, showing excess nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus are a threat to coastal water quality nationwide. The study's findings are compiled in a report, "Improving Methods and Indicators for Evaluating Coastal Water Eutrophication: A Pilot Study in the Gulf of Maine."

"Nutrient pollution is a pervasive problem that impacts ecosystems and human activities, particularly in highly developed areas," says co-author Suzanne Bricker, physical scientist at the NOAA Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment. "Our study found that the problem is greater in the mid-Atlantic region, which has a higher population density and more intensive watershed development than coastal New England."

New England, however, has similar problems that are likely to get worse. The study's results indicated that nutrient pollution in the Gulf of Maine is higher than it was early 1990s, and conditions are expected to worsen as the coastal population in that region is expected to increase in the future.

"By including the socioeconomic impacts of pollution in coastal watersheds, we not only prove the value of applying integrated coastal and ocean observing technology in coastal management issues, but also in promoting a coastal stewardship that more fully evaluates the environmental impacts of development and other human activity," said John H. Dunnigan, director of the NOAA Ocean Service.

In many coastal ecosystems, future nutrient load increases of 10 percent to 25 percent are expected. These increases, in addition to the natural processing of nutrients once the loads reach estuarine waters, are important factors related to "eutrophication," the process by which excess nutrients—whether from storm water runoff, sewage treatment plants, septic systems, airborne dust or agriculture—fuel excessive algal blooms that lead to low oxygen conditions. Severe eutrophication causes a number of impacts to ecosystems, ultimately leading to the death of marine organisms, including important commercial fish species.

"Evaluating the extent of eutrophication, and how it affects different parts of the ecosystem, is the first, critical step toward developing strategies to address it," said Dwight Trueblood, NOAA co-director for the Cooperative Institute for Coastal and Estuarine Environmental Technology, which co-sponsored the study. CICEET is a partnership between NOAA and the University of New Hampshire.

NOAA scientists developed a "human use indicator" that examined the impact of nutrient pollution on recreational fish catches, making the study distinctive by including human activity as part of the ecosystem, improving traditional methods to assess eutrophication.

"Coastal managers and the public need a way to understand how low oxygen conditions impact the fisheries that are major economic drivers for their regions," said Bricker. "We've developed an indicator that, once tested and expanded, can be used to predict the loss of fish that will potentially occur when dissolved oxygen concentrations drop to a specific, low level."

The assessment methods were originally developed in the 1990s and were modified through this study. They will serve as the basis for an update of the NOAA National Estuarine Eutrophication Assessment that will be released in 2007.

Keys fear disaster if Cuba taps nearby oil

2007-01-05T14:47:00.000-05:00

Does anyone else find it convenient that for years the United States has wanted nothing to do with Cuba except impose strict embargos? There was no cry from the public or the government to extend helping hands to Cuba, no talks of opening trade or free travel without having to visit other foreign countries first, except for a few of us who would then be labeled liberals or communists? Even when Hurrican Katrina hit and Castro offered to send aid the United States turned it down. Early in 2006 large stores of oil were discovered in Cuban waters. All of a sudden, the United States wants to open the door to Cuba, sending delegations to try to usher a new era between the two nations. If this does not show you that the US is controlled by money hungry big oil and military industrial complexes, then you need to wake up... Its not about Cuba being communist, China, our largest trade partner is communist... It was always about Cuba having nothing to offer... Now, Cuba's pristine waters will be destroyed by big oil which may also create major environmental problems for the United States, and we will all just sit here and do nothing.

By Mike Williams

Palm Beach Post-Cox News Service

Monday, January 01, 2007

KEY LARGO — The pelicans gather each afternoon, cute, gawky and hungry. They flap and flop awkwardly among the mangrove roots as Juan Leon, a worker at the Florida Keys Wild Bird Center, tosses them fish to supplement their natural diet.

"We feed them because the natural fish population isn't what it should be," said Bruce Horn, who heads the center, which helps rescue injured and sick birds. "Our environment here is very fragile."

That's why Horn and other residents of this vacation paradise are worried about news that the Cuban government has struck oil just a few dozen miles from this environmentally sensitive string of islands.

"That's absolutely scary," Horn says. "The Keys don't have sandy beaches, and you couldn't just scoop up oil if there was a spill. If it got into the mangrove roots, it would be disastrous."

Experts say the size of Cuba's offshore oil deposits is still in question, but the potential is impressive. A U.S. Geological Survey study estimates that a curving belt of ocean floor north of Cuba may contain at least 4.5 billion barrels of oil and nearly 10 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

In contrast, an area in U.S. waters about 200 miles west of Tampa that Congress just approved for drilling is believed to hold about 1.3 billion barrels of oil and 6 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The United States uses about 21 million barrels of oil a day.

For impoverished Cuba, the oil prospects are dazzling, and Fidel Castro's government has wasted no time in pushing to develop the fields. The region has been divided into 59 exploration blocks, and Cuba has signed deals with foreign oil firms to begin drilling in earnest.

One well that the Spanish oil company Repsol-YPF sank already has found oil, but not in commercially viable quantities.

"But it was enough that Norway's Norsk Hydro acquired a 30 percent stake," said Jorge Pinon, a former oil company executive who is now a research associate at the University of Miami's Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies.

"Norsk Hydro wouldn't go to Cuba for political purposes," Pinon said. "They are one of the best deepwater drilling companies in the world, and if they are going in, it is likely this will be viable."

Cuba has signed other oil deals with firms from Venezuela, India, China and Canada, a clear sign that a Cuban oil boom is brewing. But Pinon says it will be several years before the offshore Cuban operations crank into high gear because of soaring demand around the world for the limited number of deepwater rigs.

The activity has piqued the interest of U.S. lawmakers. Competing bills were introduced in Congress this year, with supporters of the U.S. embargo against Cuba proposing to deny visas to foreign oil workers headed to Cuba. Their opponents introduced a bill that would exempt U.S. firms from the embargo and allow them to participate in the Cuban oil rush.

"At risk are the Florida Keys and the state's tourism economy, not to mention the $8 billion that Congress is investing to restore the Everglades," said Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., one of the sponsors of the bill aiming to limit the Cuban drilling.

Neither bill passed, but the issue seems certain to come up again.

Embargo opponents hope that the new Congress, which Democrats will run for the first time in more than a decade, will ease the trade and travel restrictions and allow U.S. participation. The Cuban government has sought bids from American oil firms.

"This is a product the U.S. needs," said Kirby Jones, president of the U.S.-Cuba Trade Association, a group seeking to break the embargo. "If we maintain the embargo, it says we don't need that oil and it's OK for India, Canada, Spain and these other countries to take it."

With some of the Cuban exploration blocks just 50 miles from Key West, many Keys residents would prefer no drilling at all. Short of that, they would rather have American companies involved.

"My concern is that these other companies may not have the safety precautions that U.S. companies follow," said Joe Angelo, manager of Ocean Divers, a scuba diving outfit in Key Largo. "A spill would wipe us out."

The Cuban exploration is tied to a 1977 treaty that the United States and Cuba signed setting the offshore boundary between the countries. The line runs roughly down the center of the Florida Straits, a channel that is about 100 miles wide and separates Cuba from the Florida Keys.

The Keys are home to a huge coral reef, an underwater formation rich in marine life. State and federal parks and reserves already protect much of the reef, and it has spawned a thriving tourism industry catering to scuba divers, fishermen and offshore sightseers.

But the Keys are not the only Florida area at risk.

Ocean currents that run like rivers in the sea carry water from the Gulf of Mexico through the Florida Straits and up Florida's east coast.

"Any spill in the eastern gulf can wind up putting materials into the current and then onto the east coast of Florida," said Robert Weisberg, an oceanographer and ocean current expert at the University of South Florida. "The current is always there, and the risk is real."

But even without a major spill, Keys environmentalists say, oil drilling and fragile reefs shouldn't mix.

"Routine operations can be devastating because of the chronic daily discharge of drilling mud that carries heavy metals and other toxic materials," said DeeVon Quirolo, founder of Reef Relief, one of the Keys' oldest environmental groups. "It poses a grave threat not only to Florida's reefs but also to the reefs along the Cuban coast."

Although Cuba has benefited lately from a deal in which Venezuela is providing oil and gas at a discounted price, it seems clear that the communist island will continue the drive to secure its own offshore oil supplies.

Keys residents, already threatened by hurricanes and rapid development that is degrading water quality, figure the Cuban oil rush will be one more risk they must face.

"The reefs are the only way people have to make money here," said Jessica Dombrowski, who works at Key Largo Watersports, where tourists rent boats and water scooters. "This is the scuba diving capital of the U.S. If they kill the reef, they kill the Keys."

January Blooms!

2007-01-05T14:31:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone... this was an email I received from from a colleague from the MSRC at Stony Brook, its some pretty interesting info, but also scary info...

Perhaps you have noticed trees and flowers blossoming around your
neighborhood. Attached are some images from New York City central
Park from a colleague there. Daffodils and irises are sprouting
everywhere. Forsythias bushes are erupting in yellow flowers,
something
normally seen there during the last week of March. Below is some more
climate info. Long-Range models are suggesting perhaps at least a brief
return to some more normal temps early next week, but we'll see....
Brian

PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE UPTON NY
THE MONTH OF DECEMBER IN CENTRAL PARK NEW YORK WAS VERY MILD AND
QUITE DRY. THE AVERAGE TEMPERATURE FOR THE MONTH CAME IN AT 43.6
DEGREES WHICH IS 6.3 DEGREES ABOVE NORMAL AND THE THIRD WARMEST
DECEMBER ON RECORD IN NEW YORK CITY. THE WARMEST DECEMBER ON
RECORD WAS BACK IN 2001 WHEN THE AVERAGE TEMPERATURE WAS 44.1
DEGREES. THE SECOND WARMEST WAS IN 1984 WITH AN AVERAGE OF 43.8
DEGREES.

THE LAST TIME THAT WE HAD A DECEMBER WITHOUT MEASURABLE SNOW IN
CENTRAL PARK WAS IN 2001. WHAT MAKES THIS DECEMBER RARE IS THAT NOT
EVEN A FLURRY HAS BEEN OBSERVED. WE HAVE TO GO BACK INTO THE 1800`S
TO FIND A DECEMBER WITHOUT A FLURRY (TRACE OF SNOW). WHILE RECORDS
FROM THE 1800`S MAY NOT BE TOTALLY ACCURATE IN TERMS OF TRACE
AMOUNTS OF SNOW...AS BEST WE CAN TELL THE LAST TIME WE HAD A
DECEMBER WITHOUT EVEN A TRACE OF SNOW(FLURRIES) WAS BACK IN DECEMBER
1877.

LOCATION AVG DEC TEMP DEPARTURE PRECIP DEPARTURE

CENTRAL PARK 43.6 +6.3 2.15 -1.80
NEWARK 43.0 +6.6 2.19 -1.38
BRIDGEPORT CT 41.0 +5.9 2.66 -0.81
JF KENNEDY AP 42.9 +5.7 1.91 -1.40
LA GUARDIA AP 45.4 +7.5 2.21 -1.30
ISLIP 41.1 +5.4 2.15 -1.98

ON AVERAGE...2006 WAS WARM AND WET IN NEW YORK CITY. THE AVERAGE
TEMPERATURE CAME IN AT 56.8 DEGREES...WHICH IS 2.1 DEGREES ABOVE
NORMAL AND GETS PLACED IN THE TOP TEN WARMEST LIST AT SIXTH PLACE.
THE FIVE WARMER YEARS WERE 1998...1991...1990...1953 AND 1949. THE
WARMEST YEARS ON RECORD ARE 1998...1991 AND 1990 WITH AN AVERAGE
TEMPERATURE OF 57.2 DEGREES.

2006 WAS THE SIXTH WETTEST YEAR ON RECORD WITH 59.90 INCHES FALLING.
THAT DOESN'T COME CLOSE TO THE WETTEST YEAR WHICH WAS 1983 WITH A
WHOPPING 80.56 INCHES OF PRECIPITATION.

HERE'S SOME CLIMATE INFORMATION FOR OTHER CLIMATE SITES AROUND THE
REGION FOR 2006.

LOCATION AVG DEC TEMP DEPARTURE PRECIP DEPARTURE

CENTRAL PARK 56.8 +2.1 59.90 +12.65
NEWARK 57.0 +2.3 50.16 +3.91
BRIDGEPORT CT 53.9 +2.2 58.90 +17.32
JF KENNEDY AP 55.7 +2.1 44.80 +2.34
LA GUARDIA AP 58.4 +3.2 53.95 +9.59
ISLIP 53.9 +1.4 54.10 +7.50

2006 was the Earth's sixth warmest year on record, averaging 0.4C above
the 1961 to 1990 average, according to the World Meteorological
Organization. The records extend back to 1861. And the UK charted its
warmest year ever; its records go back to 1659.

Huge Ice Shelf Breaks Free in Canada's Far North

2007-01-05T14:30:00.000-05:00

Reuters

Dec 29, 2006

(RNZAF/Getty Images)

CALGARY, Alberta—A chunk of ice bigger than the area of Manhattan broke from an ice shelf in Canada's far north and could wreak havoc if it starts to float westward toward oil-drilling regions and shipping lanes next summer, a researcher said Friday.

Global warming could be one cause of the break of the Ayles Ice Shelf at Ellesmere Island, which occurred in the summer of 2005 but was only detected recently by satellite photos, said Luke Copland, assistant professor at the University of Ottawa's geography department.

It was the largest such break in nearly three decades, casting an ice floe with an area of 66 square km (25 square miles) adrift in the Arctic Ocean, said Copland, who specializes in the study of glaciers and ice masses. Manhattan has an area of 61 square km (24 square miles).

The mass is now 50 square km (19 square miles) in size.

"The Arctic is all frozen up for the winter and it's stuck in the sea ice about 50 km (30 miles) off the coast," he said.

"The risk is that next summer, as that sea ice melts, this large ice island can then move itself around off the coast and one potential path for it is to make its way westward toward the Beaufort Sea, and the Beaufort Sea is where there is lots of oil and gas exploration, oil rigs and shipping."

The break went undetected when it happened due primarily to the remoteness of the northern coast of Ellesmere island, which is only about 800 km (500 miles) from the North Pole.

The speed of the crack and drift-off shocked scientists.

Satellite images showed the 15-km long (9-mile long) crack, then the ice floating about 1 km (0.6 miles) from the coast within about an hour, Copland said.

"You could stand at one edge and not see the other side, and for something that large to move that quickly is quite amazing," he said.

Copland said the break was likely due to a combination of low accumulations of sea ice around the mass's edges as high winds blew it away, as well as one of the ocean's warmest water temperatures on record. The Arctic Ocean was 3 degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees F) above average in the summer of 2005, he said.

Ice shelves in Canada's far north have decreased in size by as much as 90 percent since 1906, and global warming likely played a role in the Ayles break, Copland said.

"It's hard to tie one event to climate change, but when you look at the longer-term trend, the bigger picture, we've lost a lot of ice shelves on northern Ellesmere in the past century and this is that continuing," he said. "And this is the biggest one in the last 25 years."

Fish dance on sulphur cauldrons

2006-12-16T18:04:00.001-05:00

By Jonathan Amos
Science reporter, BBC News, San Francisco

These fish thrive in conditions that would kill most other fish

More details

Scientists have witnessed the extreme lifestyle of tonguefish that like to skip across pools of molten sulphur.

The animals - a type of flatfish - were filmed on three expeditions to undersea volcanoes in the western Pacific.

Huge numbers were seen to congregate around the sulphur ponds which well up from beneath the seafloor.

Researchers from the University of Victoria, Canada, are trying to work out how the creatures survive in such a hostile environment.

"There are a lot of toxic heavy metals coming out of these active volcanoes," explained Dr John Dower, a fisheries oceanographer.

As a visual spectacle, it's like something from another planet

Dr Alex Rogers, ZSL

"The water is very warm, and it can be very acidic, the pH can be as low as two like sulphuric acid," he told BBC News.

"And yet here we've got a group that has not previously been seen in this type of environment and they're doing very well - they're actually thriving."

The fish have been studied with remotely operated submersibles, including the Jason II vehicle this year.

Noaa's arc

The area of interest is the Mariana Arc, a 1,200km chain of volcanic seamounts and islands between Guam and Japan.

It hosts a number of hydrothermal vents - rock systems that draw water through cracks in the seafloor, heat it to temperatures which can be well above 100C, load it with dissolved metals and other chemicals, and then eject the hot fluid back into the ocean.

This type of habitat will support a range of specialised animals such as crabs, shrimp, mussels, and worms - but very few fish. And the flatfish seen on the Mariana Arc seamounts are a first.

"The density of these things is remarkable; we've determined that the abundances are actually about two orders of magnitude (100x) higher than what one typically finds on the continental shelf," said Dr Dower.

"So, these may be the highest flatfish densities seen anywhere, and it raises the puzzling question: what's supporting all that biomass?"

The team thinks the flatfish may be living on resources in the sediments, possibly worms or even bacteria. On one voyage to the vents, the tonguefish were seen to rip apart a dead fish that had fallen out of the water column above - so they may not be too choosy about where their meals come from.

Sulphur skippers

The Jason vehicle returns after a dive covered in sulphur deposits

What is certainly astonishing is their behaviour around the sulphur pools. The molten material that wells up from beneath the seafloor is denser than the surrounding water and simply lies in ponds in the depressions through which it emerges.

The measured temperature is more than 180C (355F).

"These flatfish live right up against the edge of the pools, and in a couple of cases we saw them out on the surface of a pool," said Dr Dower.

"We have video of a fish sitting on the molten sulphur and then moving off after a couple of minutes, apparently unharmed. They seem to be able to tolerate an environment that no other flatfish, and very few fish in general, are found in."

The deep-sea submersibles captured some of the fish and they are now being analysed.

They have been assigned to the taxonomic genus of Symphurus but they are a species new to science. The team intends to describe their behaviour and ecology in detail in a forthcoming journal paper.

MARIANA ARC TONGUEFISH

The largest specimens are less than 11cm (five inches)

They probably feed on worms and vent bacteria

Species is new to science; currently under description

Analysis of their tiny head bones will reveal growth rates

Isotopic (types of atom) tests will determine food sources

Independent scientists who have seen the video of the tonguefish confess to being amazed.

Dr Alex Rogers is a senior research fellow at the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), and recently co-authored a report on the state of seamounts for the United Nations.

"This is stunning," he told BBC News. "The temperatures which these fish are experiencing means they must have remarkable stress defence mechanisms to be able to survive in that environment.

"So physiologically it's remarkable; but as a visual spectacle, it's like something from another planet."

Dr Dower has been talking about the fish here at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting.

You can see video of the flatfish by clicking on the Noaa web link.

Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk

18 manatees found dead, linked to eating laced seagrass

2006-12-16T17:54:00.000-05:00

Given the declining seagrass in Florida, the recurrent red tides, the already heavy threats to manatees, isn't it just great Florida removed them from their endangered species list??? Well the red tide threatens many species, and recently this happened... Its a shame

Eighteen manatee carcasses have been recovered in the Ten Thousand Islands area of Everglades National Park since Nov. 9, and scientists think the animals died from eating red tide-laced seagrass.

Most of the dead manatees were recovered around Chevelier and Huston bays, but some were found as far south as Lostman's River.

"That area averages two manatee deaths a year, so 18 is unusual," said Sara McDonald, a marine research associate at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute.

National Parks Service officials conducted an aerial survey of the Ten Thousand Islands last Thursday to search for more dead manatees. None were found.

Since July, 24 manatees from Pinellas County to Lee County are suspected to have died from red tide poisoning.

Manatee carcasses are often taken to the state's Marine Mammal Pathobiology Laboratory in St. Petersburg, where scientists perform necropsies - post-mortem examinations.

But transporting the Ten Thousand Island manatees would have taken eight hours, so researchers performed field necropsies.

Because the manatees were badly decomposed, they didn't show the usual red tide symptoms, which include bloody froth from the nose, swollen and bloody kidneys and wet, bloody lungs.

So scientists used a different technique to test stomach, kidney, liver, feces and lung samples of four manatees.

All samples except lung tissues showed toxin in high levels.

"To me, this indicates that these animals were not exposed by inhaling," McDonald said. "The evidence indicates they were likely exposed while feeding in seagrass beds."

Researchers recently discovered that manatees can die from eating seagrass laced with red tide toxin weeks or months after a red tide bloom. Before that, red tide had been thought to kill manatees only when they inhale the toxin at the water's surface.

"We don't know the lethal dose of red tide for manatees," McDonald said. "There are a lot of unanswered questions. We don't know whether a lethal dose comes from chronic exposure or acute exposure or a range from chronic to acute. It's difficult: We can't do controlled experiments where we give doses of red tide to manatees."

Global Warming Trend Continues in 2006, Climate Agencies Say

2006-12-16T17:42:00.000-05:00

hey all, sorry I haven't posted in a while... end of semester, busy doing last minute papers and studying for my exams... But considering how warm it still is in NY in december, and the fact that Moscow has not recorded a temperature below freezing yet this season and international ski competitions have been cancelled bc of no snow in Europe, I thought this article would be appropriate...Its from the NY Times...

A decades-long global warming trend that most climate experts say is linked to rising levels of heat-trapping smokestack and tailpipe gases continued apace this year, according to summaries issued yesterday by several national and international climate agencies.

Figures differed slightly, with British weather officials and the World Meteorological Organization, based in Geneva, estimating that 2006 would end up the sixth warmest year since modern records began and NASA scientists putting it fifth.

But all of the reports noted that temperatures greatly above normal were recorded in places as varied as Australia and Scandinavia’s Arctic islands, shattering a variety of longstanding records.

The global climate has warmed and cooled naturally throughout Earth’s history, including a protracted warm spell a millennium ago and a “little ice age” from the 1400s through the 1700s.

But the last 50 years of warming, many climate scientists say, is pressing beyond natural peaks of the last 11,000 years. They say the changes cannot be explained without including a substantial, and growing, push from billions of tons of annual emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases known to trap heat in the air.

The records set this year support various studies that “showed links between human behavior and the warming trend,” said David Parker, a climate scientist at Britain’s Met Office.

England recorded its warmest average annual temperature, 51.5 degrees Fahrenheit, since the Central England Temperature series began in 1659, British officials said.

The contiguous United States had its third warmest year since records began in 1880, according to the analyses. Blistering summer heat contributed to the worst fire season on record, with more than 9.5 million acres burned through early December.

Scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies said that the Earth’s five warmest years since the late 1880s were, in decreasing order, 2005, 1998, 2002, 2003 and — if no unexpected fluctuations occur the rest of this month — 2006.

James E. Hansen, the director of the Goddard center, said that 2007 was likely to be warmer than this year because one of the periodic hot spells in the tropical Pacific Ocean, called El Niño, has begun and should persist into next spring.

In February, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will release the main findings of its first update since 2001 on causes of global warming. The previous report concluded that most of the warming since 1950 was probably caused by human activities.

Research and fresh computer simulations considered under the new review have greatly strengthened that link, while also closing in on a possible warming of 5 degrees above the 1990 average, more or less, should the concentration of carbon dioxide double from the longstanding peak measured before the industrial era.

For at least 600,000 years before the Industrial Revolution, the concentration of carbon dioxide rarely nudged beyond 280 parts per million. It is now 382 parts per million and rising steadily.

Without a worldwide shift to nonpolluting energy technologies, such a doubling is considered almost unavoidable given the growth in such emissions in both wealthy and developing countries, but particularly in China and India.

Scientists: Seagrass Ecosystems at a 'Global Crisis'; Elevating Public Awareness 'Critical'

2006-12-02T16:12:00.000-05:00

Underwatertimes.com News Service

Washington, D.C. (Dec 1, 2006 14:41 EST) An international team of scientists is calling for a targeted global conservation effort to preserve seagrasses and their ecological services for the world’s coastal ecosystems, according to an article published in the December issue of Bioscience, the journal of the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS).

The article "A Global Crisis for Seagrass Ecosystems" cites the critical role seagrasses play in coastal systems and how costal development, population growth and the resulting increase of nutrient and sediment pollution have contributed to large-scale losses worldwide.

"Seagrasses are the coal mine canaries of coastal ecosystems," said co-author Dr. William Dennison of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. "The fate of seagrasses can provide resource managers advance signs of deteriorating ecological conditions caused by poor water quality and pollution."

Among its findings, the study analyzed an apparent disconnect between the scientific community’s concerns over seagrass habitat and its coverage in the popular media. While recent studies rank seagrass as one of the most valuable habitat in coastal systems, media coverage of other habitats – including salt marshes, mangroves and coral reefs – receive 3 to 100-fold more media attention than seagrass systems.

"Translating scientific understanding of the value of seagrass ecosystems into public awareness, and thus effective seagrass management and restoration, has not been as effective as for other coastal ecosystems, such as salt marshes, mangroves, or coral reefs," said co-author Dr. Robert Orth of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. "Elevating public awareness about this impending crisis is critical to averting it."

"This report is a call to the world’s coastal managers that we need to do more to protect seagrass habitat," said co-author Dr. Tim Carruthers of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. "Seagrasses are just one of the many keys to maintaining healthy coastal ecosystems and their biodiversity."

Seagrasses – a unique group of flowering plants that have adapted to exist fully submersed in the sea – profoundly influence the physical, chemical and biological environments of coastal waters. They provide critical habitat for aquatic life, alter water flow and can help mitigate the impact of nutrient and sediment pollution.

Seagrasses, thats my thing! It is troubling that these vital coastal ecosystems are disappearing all over the world. And given the state of fisheries, one would expect that critical habitats like seagrass beds would be protected. Unfortunately that is not the case in many places, and even where they are protected, little resources are allotted for restoration and monitoring. This has to change for seagrasses to recover. Check out Seagrass.li, its a cool site describing the grasses as well as monitoring and restoration efforts of Long Island seagrass beds.

Roxbury ice maker will use sun to make cubes

2006-11-28T13:06:00.000-05:00

A New Jersey Ice maker is converting. He is going to harness the sunse energy to create ice...

New Jersey Ice Maker Will Use Sun Power to Make Cubes. By Michael Daigle, Morris County Daily Record, November 28, 2006. "In the very near future, Fred Schuld will be making ice from sunlight. Schuld, owner of The Ice Factory in Landing, has installed 85 solar panels on the roof of his home/business, which will run the ice makers that provided his livelihood for the past 19 years... He is installing a 15,000-kilowatt system that will power his ice-making operation and supply the home's electric power needs... He said the solar system helps the environment and his bottom line. Schuld said his average electric bill is $13,000. The new system will drop his annual electric cost by $8,000 to $9,000, including an annual $4,320 Solar Renewable Energy Certificate, generated by the sale of excess electricity to the power system. He also is qualified for a 30 percent federal tax rebate related to his business, and he received a $72,000 rebate from the state Clean Energy Program to cover a significant portion of the $122,000 installation costs. His final cost for the solar system was $49,330. Schuld said. He will be able to break even on the installation in five years."

Turkey fryer oil for biodiesel?

2006-11-28T12:59:00.000-05:00

PLANO - It can't be good for your arteries but it is good for the environment.

In the US South, folks like their Thanksgiving Day turkey deep fried -- and the city of Plano north of Dallas collects the bird fat from residents for use in the biofuels industry.

"This is our busiest time, the week after Thanksgiving. We collect about 500 gallons of turkey fat during that time," said Lois Woolf, a Plano City worker, as she hoisted a plastic container of oil left outside someone's home for collection.

In 2005, Plano collected 1,200 gallons of cooking oil, the vast majority turkey fryer fat. The bulk of it is picked up during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.

The turkey fat is donated to Biodiesel Industries, the first renewable energy-powered plant producing biodiesel fuel in the state of Texas.

Biofuels are gaining favor as an alternative "clean" fuel amid growing concerns about carbon emissions linked to climate change, high oil prices and instability in crude producing regions like the Middle East.

This is even the case in pockets of Texas, the heart of the massive US oil industry.

"The City of Plano has a rolling stock of 700-800 vehicles and 59 of these are using hybrid or alternative fuels," said Melinda Sweney, the Sustainability Communications Coordinator for Plano.

Plano collects the oil from residents who call in and ask for pick-ups -- and there is plenty of demand in a region where people like their food fried and crispy.

"The first time I heard about fried turkey was years ago in Louisiana and I thought 'who eats fried turkey,' said Plano resident Rita Keys.

"But it's good," she added as Marty Huffman, a Plano City worker, poured fat from a deep fryer into plastic containers via a funnel. The scent in the air was distinctly turkey.

The favored method is to use a deep fryer outside which is filled with peanut oil and heated with propane.

Forty-quart deep fryers typically are used -- "super-sized" like everything else in Texas.

This is a sharp contrast from American homes to the north where the big bird is usually stuffed and baked in the oven and the fat is consumed as gravy, not fuel.

Story by Ed Stoddard

REUTERS NEWS SERVICE

I especially like that last line - "sharp contrast from American homes to the north where the big bird is usually stuffed and baked in the oven and the fat is consumed as gravy, not fuel." Good one! Anyway, I always liked fried foods, and although they are not good for you, being able to reuse fryer oil for biodiesel can help, and every little bit counts toward a better future.

As globe warms, can states force the EPA to act?

2006-11-28T12:58:00.000-05:00

The agency argues that climate change requires a global solution, not federal regulations. The Supreme Court weighs in this week.

By Warren Richey | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

WASHINGTON – Arctic sea ice is melting. Glaciers are in retreat. Sea levels are rising. So what is the Environmental Protection Agency doing about it?

That's what a group of state officials and environmentalists want to know.

Seven years ago, they asked the EPA to get involved - to take an initial step in response to scientific evidence that suggests greenhouse gases are causing global warming.

The agency refused, saying there were too many unresolved questions about the causes and effects of global warming. The state officials took their case to court, charging that the Clean Air Act requires the EPA to take immediate action.

On Wednesday, the dispute arrives at the US Supreme Court, where the justices must decide whether the EPA is required to take action or whether the agency retains the discretion to decide for itself how best to respond to world-wide environmental threats.

The case will test the authority of special interest groups and state governments to sue federal agencies and force them to adopt certain regulatory policies that they favor. The case could also establish important legal precedents that might help or hinder state efforts to regulate greenhouses gases on their own in the absence of federal action.

On a broader level, the case raises questions about the role of the judiciary in resolving litigation over regulatory policy arguments. Should judges defer to controversial decisions made by administrative agencies on whether or when to pass regu-lations? Or should judges aggressively enforce what they see as the underlying purpose of statutes that govern agencies?

At issue in Massachusetts v. US Environmental Protection Agency is whether EPA officials acted properly when they declined to issue national regulations limiting the release of four greenhouse gases from new automobile models. The gases are carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and hydrofluorocarbons.

EPA officials say the agency lacks the power to regulate greenhouse gases. The Clean Air Act authorizes the EPA to take action to reduce and control agents that cause "air pollution." But agency officials have concluded that greenhouse gases are not agents of air pollution. They say the Clean Air Act does not address global climate change.

As a fallback position, EPA officials say that even if they do have authority to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act they also have discretion under the act to decide when to initiate such measures. The officials have said there was scientific uncertainty about global warming and that they wanted to wait for more research and additional action by Congress before crafting an appropriate response.

Massachusetts along with 11 other states, three cities, a US territory, and numerous environmental groups are urging the Supreme Court to order the EPA to faithfully enforce the law as passed by Congress.

"A straightforward reading of the language of the Clean Air Act shows that carbon dioxide and other air pollutants associated with climate change are 'air pollutants' potentially subject to regulation [under the Clean Air Act]," writes Massachusetts Assistant Attorney General James Milkey, in his brief. "When Congress has spoken as plainly as it has here, an administrative agency is bound to obey that legislative command."

In his brief, US Solicitor General Paul Clement defends the EPA's earlier legal positions. He also argues that Massachusetts lacks the legal standing to bring the lawsuit in the first place. Mr. Clement says Massachusetts officials are unable to draw a direct link between harm to the state and the EPA's decision not to pass the requested regulations.

Massachusetts and other petitioners in the case complain of "profound harms" caused by climate change including the inundation of coastal property, damage to seaside facilities, and additional emergency response costs from more frequent and intense storms. Clement argues that the state's generalized concerns are not enough to demonstrate that such cataclysmic harms are a direct result of the EPA's decision not to regulate.

The specific request was for the EPA to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions from new cars. Such emissions make up only a fraction of greenhouse gases released worldwide.

Clement says that 80 percent of all greenhouse gases are from countries other than the US and that, of US emissions, 70 percent are from nontransportation sources. The solicitor general adds that of the remaining 30 percent, the requested regulation would only affect new vehicles models - leaving the vast majority of emissions in the US and throughout the world not covered by the new regulations.

In effect, Clement says, the threat of global warming is an international threat that requires an international solution. Since the EPA acting alone cannot solve the problem, lawyers from Massachusetts don't have legal standing to try to hold the EPA responsible for a problem it can't solve without international cooperation.

Mr. Milkey says the primary concern of Congress in the Clean Air Act was for the agency to determine whether certain pollutants can reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health or welfare. Where they pose such a threat, Milkey says, the agency must act to protect the public.

Sharks and seaweed inspire green energy

2006-11-22T14:21:00.000-05:00

Researchers in Australia are looking to sea plants and shark tails as inspiration for ways of extracting energy from ocean waves and tides. Dr Tim Finnigan at the University of Sydney has formed a company, BioPower Systems, to commercialise the technologies. The wave energy system is called “bioWave” and has long, vertical blades that sway back and forth. Dr Finnigan says that it, “Is the only wave energy system that captures a wide swath of incident wave energy without using a large rigid structure. It is also the only such device that absorbs energy over the full water depth and continually self-orients with the wave direction”. The blades are attached to an “O-Drive” generator, which uses a single stage reciprocating gear mechanism with a direct-drive synchronous permanent magnet generator and a high-inertia flywheel. In extreme wave conditions, the generator is back driven to ensure that the blades assume a safe position lying flat against the sea bed. Systems are being developed for 500kW, 1000kW and 2000kW capacities. The shark tail machine is called, “bioStream” and mimics the shape and motion characteristics of shark, tuna and mackerel tails, but is a fixed device, designed to be used in a moving stream or tidal flow. In this configuration the propulsion mechanism is reversed and the energy in the passing flow is used to drive the device motion against the resisting torque of the generator. More information from BioPower Systems

The pictures from the website can't be copied to the blog... check out the website...

China boasts plan for world's largest solar plant

2006-11-22T14:09:00.000-05:00

BEIJING (Reuters) - China, seeking to ease its dependence on coal to fuel its booming economy, said on Tuesday it will build the world's largest solar power station in the poor but sunny northwestern province of Gansu.
The 100 megawatt (mw) project would cost approximately 6.03 billion yuan ($766 million) and construction would take five years, Xinhua news agency said.
China's economy is racing along at more than 10 percent a year and miners are struggling to meet booming demand for coal, which fuels about 70 percent of the nation's energy consumption.
China has also stepped up investment in energy projects abroad and nuclear power, keen to cut down on pollution which hit the maximum "hazardous" level in the capital on Tuesday.

Planners chose the "oasis town" of Dunhuang for the solar plant.
"Covering a total area of 31,200 square metres, Dunhuang boasts 3,362 hours of sunshine every year and is hailed as a prime area for solar energy development, with its easy access to electricity transmission and communications," Xinhua said.
Xinhua claimed the world's current largest solar power station was a 5mw project in Leipzig, Germany, with 33,500 solar panels.
But a solar plant in Arnstein near Wuerzburg in southern Germany has a 12mw capacity, according to its operator S.A.G. Solarstrom.

Now this is just crazy. Why is China stepping up before the United States? I know one large solar power plant is not the end all but it is at least a start. I don't understand why we don't put solar panels on buildings in southern cities. You don't even need to be in a southern state to use solar power, houses in Maine are set up with solar power and run efficiently. We could at least start to curb our dependence on oil. Solar panels are becoming cheaper and more efficient as technology progresses. We need to step up!

UK's first vegetable oil trawler

2006-11-20T13:37:00.000-05:00

The UK's first vegetable oil powered trawler is undergoing trials in the North Sea.

The Jubilee Quest trawler has had its diesel engine converted to run on the more environmentally friendly vegetable oil.

The conversion is not a cheap one but the project had financial backing from the government agency The Sea Fish Industry Authority (Seafish).

The UK's fishing fleet is currently powered by diesel but it is hoped that by using biofuel, far less of the harmful carbon dioxide (CO2) will end up in the atmosphere.

Vegetable oil does emit CO2 if it is used as a fuel, but the plants used to make the oil absorb the gas while growing, so the hope is that far less CO2 is pumped into in the atmosphere.

The environmental benefits of using biofuel on vessels would be vast, as a typical diesel-powered trawler on a 10-day trip emits 37 tonnes of the greenhouse gas.

In contrast, running a family car for a year would result in a comparably small emission of two tonnes of CO2.

The boat runs on a dual fuel system. It starts on diesel, switches over to vegetable oil when the engine has warmed up, then flushes itself out with diesel again before switching off.

The owners of the Jubilee Quest cannot afford to have it out of work during trials, so the trawler is now fishing as normal out of Grimsby in the North Sea.

"The performance as far as we can tell has been the same as a diesel... we've got to be confident because we work up to 300 miles away from home," skipper Graham Hall told BBC Working Lunch.

The engineer behind the Jubilee Quest's conversion says that he has carried it out for environmental and economic reasons, even though the current tax system does not work in his favour.

"It's quite tough to compete on price with fresh oils at the moment, because there's no road fuel duty to pay on marine fuel," Mike Lawton told the programme.

"Where we want to get to is run vessels on tallow oil... the thick oil left at the bottom of your frying pan after you've cooked some sausages," he said.

The waste cooking oils would be a cheaper fuel to get hold of in comparison to other biofuels currently in use.

As for drivers using biofuels, they benefit from a 20-pence-a-litre discount on the fuel duty they have to pay to the Exchequer.

But other European countries such as Germany and Ireland have gone further, experimenting with a complete duty exemption on some biofuels for road use.

Even so, a growing number of cars, buses and trucks in the UK are using the fuel.

Now fishing boats can be added to the list.

Scientists not done with whale carcass yet

2006-11-20T13:17:00.000-05:00

Just because I think this is cool and I can't wait to see the results:

By Sandi Doughton

Seattle Times staff reporter

CASCADIA RESEARCH

A dead fin whale discovered floating near Everett on Nov. 8 will be weighed down and sunk off Friday Harbor later this month.

Confronted with a rotting whale carcass on the beach in 1970, officials in Florence, Ore., hauled in 20 cases of dynamite and lit the fuse.

The resulting rain of blubber chunks smashed a car a quarter-mile away, sent onlookers fleeing for cover and yielded one of the Internet's most side-splitting video clips.

Biologists at the University of Washington's Friday Harbor Laboratories have a better idea for disposing of a 54-foot fin whale that turned up dead in the Port of Everett earlier this month.

They plan to attach 3 tons of metal railroad wheels to the corpse and sink it off the coast of San Juan Island.

But because these are scientists, that's just the beginning of the story.

The real goal is to study the whale's decomposition at a level of detail that would make most people gag.

Using an underwater drone equipped with a video camera, the researchers will document the types of fish, crabs and other creatures that feed on the carcass, and the role it plays as a food bonanza in the marine ecosystem. Divers will also visit the site for an up-close view of the putrefaction.

Information

Video of the exploding Oregon whale: www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtVSzU20ZGk

In about two years, when the bones are picked clean, the skeleton will be retrieved for display as part of a marine mammal exhibit at the UW's Burke Museum of Natural History.

"What we're re-creating in a somewhat artificial manner is something that happens occasionally in nature and may turn out to be a very interesting ecological phenomenon," said UW marine ecologist David Duggins.

Not to mention very cool to those who like such things.

"I'm anxious to see it firsthand," said Duggins, who plans to dive to the carcass as soon as possible.

This isn't the first time researchers have tracked whale decomposition.

A University of Hawaii biologist who will collaborate on the project specializes in what he calls "whale falls." When a dead behemoth falls to the sea floor, it can radically alter a world where light doesn't penetrate and food is normally in short supply. In some cases, carcasses can seed living communities that persist for up to 80 years and include worms that feed only on whale bones.

A whale carcass that Duggins and his colleagues sank in 300 feet of water off San Juan Island several years ago attracted a massive aggregation of sea life.

"I saw densities of fish higher than I've ever seen in the San Juans — just huge clouds," Duggins said.

He's been waiting for another candidate carcass ever since.

This time, the experiment will be conducted in water only about 100 feet deep, making it easier for divers to reach it. The scientists hope the shallower depth will also make it possible to collect the bones and bring them to the surface when all the flesh has been stripped away.

"This is really a new method for preparing a skeleton for exhibit," said Jim Kenagy, curator of mammals for the Burke Museum.

Normally, marine-mammal carcasses destined for display are buried in sand to decompose, a process that can take five years or longer. Digging up and transporting tons of bones, including skulls up to 10 feet long, requires backhoes, cranes and trucks. Then comes the painstaking job of scraping away remaining bits of muscle and sinew.

"It's a very costly procedure," Kenagy said.

The male fin whale that could wind up at the Burke had a short life and brutal ending. The juvenile had been entangled in rope that cut into its jaw and kept it from opening its mouth to feed. It was emaciated when it was apparently struck and killed by a ship and dragged into the harbor at Everett. It was partially decomposed by the time it surfaced.

Duggins is waiting for calm weather to sink the carcass.

He and his crew towed the animal from Everett to San Juan Island on Tuesday — almost 36 years to the day after the infamous Oregon whale explosion.

Futurama explains Global Warming - as used in "An Inconvenient Truth"

2006-11-15T23:52:00.001-05:00


An easy to understand explanation of Global Warming from the TV series Futurama as used by Al Gore in his documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" Check it out on Tuesday when it comes out on DVD

Bush, Cabinet OK Tortugas fishing ban, Crist dissents

2006-11-15T13:58:00.000-05:00

Lame-duck governor Jeb Bush of Florida that is. In one of his last actions as governor, he and his cabinet approved a management plan banning 61 square miles of ocean in the Dry Tortugas National Park from fishing in addition to the near-by already 200 square miles closed to fishing in 2001, known as the Tortugas Ecological Reserve. The lone dissenter on the vote, Attorney General Crist, happens to be the governor elect and is "reluctant to restrict a freedom from individual recreational fishermen and fisherwomen," despite marine biologists in the area general consensus that it will actually help fisheries. Of course, whether or not the ban will last the five years before it is lifted or re-voted remains to be seen given the new governors position on the matter. Read the article here.

MPAs (marine protected areas) are a hot topic recently as more and more are popping up across the country and around the world. The basic idea is that by closing a certain size area to all fishing pressure, you can maintain and perhaps even increase marine biodiversity, protect important ecosystems and essential fish habitats, enhance fish stocks and generate dollars in terms of Eco tourism and education. Of course the big argument is whether or not these help the overall community or ecosystem. A lot of complaints are generated toward closed areas as refuges for fish and eliminating the fish from other non closed areas. The whole idea, however, is that these areas are a refuge, and fish can grow bigger and healthier, living longer lives and becoming more fecund, which in turn, generates more eggs and juvenile fish, the spill out will be toward the open areas. And while these MPAs will see increases in fish diversity and abundance first, competition for space and resources is often limiting, and even adult fish will move away from these areas. In general, long term monitoring needs to be conducted before the success of an MPA can be observed, but their impact in quite obvious. I believe these area good idea, they have been shown to work in George's Bank and Australia, and I think given the state of fisheries on the world scale, the more we can do to help the better.

If only the world would follow Zanzibar

2006-11-14T17:58:00.000-05:00

There are many ways that pollution can damage reefs. Debris like this plastic bag can quickly become entangled on a coral and smother it. (NOAA)

Powered by CDNN - CYBER DIVER News Network
by JONATHAN CLAYTON

ZANZIBAR, Tanzania (11 Nov 2006) -- Zanzibar, the spice island that has become a tropical tourist paradise, has banned plastic bags in an attempt to save its threatened ecology.

Anyone found producing, importing, using or selling plastic bags could face a fine of $2,000 (£1,120) and a jail sentence of up to 12 months, said Ali Juma, the government's director of environmental protection. "We have to put the environment above everything . . . Besides being an eyesore, plastic bags are very damaging to land and marine life and we are already threatened by the rapid pace of development," he said.

Thousands of tourists, most of them European, flock to Zanzibar's palm-fringed beaches and historic Stone Town, the headquarters of the East African slave trade.

Their arrival has brought with it an avalanche of plastic, much of it in the form of thin, blue bags. Experts say that the flimsy plastic bags can provide micro-habitats for malaria-carrying mosquitos, block drains, choke animals and marine life and take up to 1,000 years to decompose.

The ban, introduced by President Karume, who was reelected a year ago in the semi-autonomous archipelago that is part of Tanzania, has been widely welcomed. Tour operator John Glen said: "I think it is wonderful . . . those bags are everywhere and are revolting, they clog up drains and are a dreadful eyesore."

His comments were echoed by residents and environmentalists who have long complained about the impact of the bags on the island's fragile ecosystem.

Juma Hassan, a schoolteacher, said: "We have had environment laws since 1992 but the government was not serious and the environment is being destroyed."

Zanzibar has changed much since it sought to erase all signs of Westernisation in the heady days following its 1964 "Socialist and Islamic" Revolution.

Abeid Karume, father of the present ruler, took power after the island's black Africans rose up against centuries of brutal rule by despotic Sultans and slaughtered 17,000 Arabs.

His son's ban, which applies mainly to transparent PVC bags favoured by roadside traders, has drawn plaudits from all around the world. Officials warned last month that the tropical paradise was in danger of becoming one of the world's most environmentally damaged island chains.

Zanzibar's decision to ban the bags came as a new report warned that old toothbrushes, beach toys and used condoms had formed a vast vortex of plastic rubbish in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

Greenpeace International found that, because plastic does not break down, ocean currents and tides had carried it thousands of miles to an area between Hawaii and the US West Coast.

Zanzibar and its neighbouring island Pemba possess long unspoiled sandy white beaches, surrounded by miles of pristine coral reef.

The azure waters are popular with scuba divers who come to see rare marine life, including some of Africa's last turtles.

However, each evening, smoke from hundreds of small fires drifts across the island as locals prepare evening meals.

Most of the island's one million inhabitants have no access to electricity or clean drinking water. Many people use the bags as toilets and then throw them in the sea.

Sweden tops climate change efforts, U.S. near bottom, environmentalists say

2006-11-14T14:16:00.000-05:00

The Associated Press

Published: November 13, 2006

NAIROBI, Kenya: Sweden, Britain and Denmark are doing the most to protect against climate change, but their efforts are not nearly enough, according to a report released Monday by environmental groups.

"We don't have any winners, we only have countries that are better compared to others," said Matthias Duwe of the Climate Action Network-Europe, which released the data during the second week of the U.N. climate conference. "We don't have big shining stars."

The United States — the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases — ranked at 53, with only China, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia doing worse. U.S. emissions grew by 16 percent between 1990 and 2004, according to a recent U.N. report.

The index ranks 56 countries that were part of a 1992 climate treaty or that contribute at least 1 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions in the world. The countries make up 90 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions.

The calculations, performed by the environmental group Germanwatch, took into account emissions levels, emissions trends and climate policy.

About one-quarter of the energy consumed in Sweden in 2003 came from renewable sources — more than four times as much as the European Union average of 6 percent, according to EU statistics. In Stockholm, one-quarter of city buses run on ethanol or biogas.

The country with the worst ranking was Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter. Duwe said the country's policies generally block attempts to reduce greenhouse gases.

"If you try to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, you will also reduce oil consumption," Duwe said. "So Saudi oil will be in less demand."

Christoph Bals, political director of Germanwatch, said policy had an enormous effect on the rankings. The U.S. could move up 30 spots if its policies were akin to the U.K.'s, he said.

The United States and Australia are the only major industrialized countries to reject the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which calls for mandatory cuts in greenhouse gases.

The policy of the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush on climate change focuses on voluntary emissions cuts by industry and long-term development of clean-energy technology. In rejecting the Kyoto Protocol's mandatory caps on greenhouse gas emissions, Bush said they would hamstring the U.S. economy and complained that poorer countries also should have been covered.

White House spokesman Tony Snow said Monday that, "the president has made dealing with climate change a priority for this administration (and) will continue to." He was not asked about the ranking, but other White House officials had no immediate comment.

Scientists blame the past century's 0.6-degree-Celsius (1-degree-Fahrenheit) rise in average global temperatures at least in part on the accumulation of carbon dioxide, methane and other heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere — byproducts of power plants, automobiles and other fossil fuel-burning sources.

Some climate conference participants said the results of last week's midterm elections in the United States were a good sign for environmental issues. Americans swept Democrats into power in the House of Representatives for the first time in a dozen years and largely dismantled the Republican Senate majority.

"The U.S. elections are clearly good news for strong U.S. action on global warming," said Jeremy Symons, director of National Wildlife Federation's climate change program. He added that new leadership will "break the conspiracy of silence and denial" on environmental issues.

Not that this should come as a surprise to anyone... I mean Washington is in bed with lobyists, and big business makes all the legislation in this country through one way or another... And given the current administrations view that global warming is "fake science" and their ability to keep top NOAA officials quiet, its not that surprising that it has taken this long for the public to even care... Hopefully things will start to change...

Global Climate Refugees?

2006-11-10T16:09:00.000-05:00

Above are models from NOAA

Scientists Say Millions Could Flee Rising Seas
November 10, 2006 — By Daniel Wallis, Reuters

NAIROBI — Nations must make plans to help tens of millions of "sea level refugees" if climate change continues to ravage the world's oceans, German researchers said on Thursday.

Waters are rising and warming, increasing the destructive power of storms, they said, and seas are becoming more acidic, threatening to throw entire food chains into chaos.

"In the long run, sea level rises are going to be the most severe impact of global warming on human society," said Professor Stefan Rahmstorf, presenting a report by German scientists at a major United Nations climate change meeting.

Warming could melt ice sheets and raise water levels, and the report said nations should already be considering making a "managed retreat" from the most endangered areas, including low-lying island states, parts of Bangladesh or even the U.S. state of Florida.

A report by international scientists who advise the U.N. has predicted a sea level rise of up to 88 cm between 1990 and 2100.

The situation was worsened, the German team said on Thursday, by the increasing frequency of extreme storms whipped up by warming sea surface temperatures -- meaning many would flee coastal areas hit by hurricanes.

Many of the world's biggest cities, from Tokyo to Buenos Aires, are by the coast. Some rich nations might be able to build ever higher dikes, such as in the Netherlands, but poor nations were destined to be swamped.

The low-lying Pacific island nation of Tuvalu has already agreed a deal for New Zealand to take about half its 10,000 people to work in agriculture if it becomes swamped by rising sea levels.

HURRICANE ENERGY

Rahmstorf said their data did not conclusively prove warmer seas created more storms, but that there was a clear link between rising temperatures and hurricanes' power.

"Since 1980 we've seen a strong rise up to unprecedented levels of hurricane energy now in the Atlantic," he said.

Some 189 nations are meeting in Kenya to explore options for a global deal to combat climate change, with most focusing on cutting the amount of carbon dioxide pumped into the air by industry and modern lifestyles.

The report's authors, the German Advisory Council on Global Change, said about a third of that CO2 was being absorbed by the world's oceans, making them more acidic.

If not checked, it said, that would have profound effects on marine organisms -- hindering everything from tiny shrimps to lobsters from forming their calcite shells -- with disastrous results for ocean food chains, and on human communities depending on sea life to survive.

Coral reefs that attract fish and protect coasts from storms and erosion are also threatened by acidity, and CO2 emissions meant they could all be dead by 2065, Rahmstorf said.

"Acidity is causing a major threat to coral reefs, on top of the bleaching effect that comes with warming," he said.

Reefs get bleached when warm water forces out tiny algae living in them, giving reefs nutrients and their vivid colours. Without algae, corals whiten and eventually die.

Expert: Oceans Turning More Acidic; 'A Major Threat to Marine Organisms'

2006-11-10T15:58:00.000-05:00

Photo from earthguide.ucsd.edu

This is not new news of course. The ocean has long been viewed as a carbon sink. For all the years of the indutrial revolution, the CO2 in the atmosphere would need to be so great if there was no carbon sink. However, the oceans are very effective at taking atmospheric carbon and sending it to depth. As productivity increases, there is a large flux of carbon towards the bottom. Simple diffusive properties allow that the higher concentration of carbon in the atmosphere will then transfer to the surface water where the concentration is lower, and be used up by primary producers and be sunk and so on and so on. Increasing CO2 in the water decreases the pH, essentially as the oceans absorb more CO2 they are becoming more acid. This will be detrimental to marine organisms that produce calcium carbonate shells and strucutres, such as reef builders like coral and oysters, other bivalves and even phytoplankton like coccolithophores. This will have a dramatic impact on a global scale in terms of food web dynamics, fisheries, and the ecosystem in general... Here is the article from Underwatertimes:

Nairobi, Kenya (Nov 9, 2006 18:30 EST) The world‘s oceans are becoming more acidic, which poses a threat to sea life and Earth‘s fragile food chain, a climate expert said Thursday.
"The oceans are rapidly changing," said professor Stefan Rahmstorf on the sidelines of a U.N. conference on climate change that has drawn delegates from more than 100 countries to Kenya. "Ocean acidification is a major threat to marine organisms."
In a study titled "The Future Oceans — Warming Up, Rising High, Turning Sour," Rahmstorf and eight other scientists warned that the world is witnessing, on a global scale, problems similar to the acid rain phenomenon of the 1970s and 1980s.

David Santillo, a senior scientist at Greenpeace‘s Research Laboratories in Exeter, Britain, said it had come as a shock to scientists that the oceans are turning acidic because of carbon dioxide emissions.
Rahmstorf also reiterated warnings of rising sea levels caused by global warming, saying that in 70 years, temperature increases will lead more frequent storms with 200 million people threatened by floods.
The 1997 Kyoto accord requires 35 industrialized countries to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. The Kyoto countries meeting in Nairobi are continuing talks on what kind of emissions targets and timetables should follow 2012.

New Congress, New Chairs of the Science Committees, Will this equal change?

2006-11-09T15:54:00.000-05:00

Democrats won, and most often, democrats are for the environment... let's see who the new chairs are for science committees and then we will know if changes will be made...

Committee: Science
New chairman: Bart Gordon, Tennesse
He has publicly spoken about the failings of NASA and is very strongly against political meddling in the sciences and research. This is great news, as many top NOAA officials have been told to keep quiet about global warming for long enough, many fisheries scientists have anonomously spoken out about administration pressuring them to report data that supports Bush administration policies, etc. Hopefully this will all come to an end now.

Committee: Energy and Commerce
New chairman: John Dingell, Michigan
This committee covers many issues of scientific interest, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), energy policy and air pollution. This is the committee that said there is no global warming. Unfortunately, Dingell, despite being a democrat, is in bed with the auto industry from his home district of Detroit. He is against enforcing stricter fuel economy standards and usually sides with Republicans in his position on global warming.

Committee: Resources
New chairman: Nick Rahall, West Virginia
This committee is where a lot of environmental battles shape up, as it regulates extracting anything from the Earth that is worth money, including fish, trees, minerals, oil and gas. He is sympathetic to the coal mining industry, but he is favored over his Republican predecessor by many environmental groups. We shall see on this one.

Committee: Government Reform
New chairman: Henry Waxman, California
This committee is meant to keep an eye on the federal government. He wants to investigate the Bush administration record on science. "In 2003, he put out a 33-page report charging the administration with manipulating science. More recently he has alleged that the government has muzzled scientists on climate change, interfered at the FDA over the Plan B emergency contraceptive and deleted a government grant for evolutionary biology from a federal education program. Expect hearings aplenty on the politicization of science." This is perhaps the biggest position, because he can expose the administration and its lies and general anti-science policy.

Committee: Agriculture
New chairman: Collin Peterson, Minnesota
This committee oversees funding for agricultural science. He comes from the cornbelt, and is extremely interested in ethanol as an alternative fuel source. This could be huge in our step to break our dependence on foreign oil.

Committee: Appropriations
New chairman: David Obey, Wisconsin
" This committee may be the most powerful in the House, since it apportions out the money every year. Obey, a senior representative, is keeping mum about his priorities, but education and the environment are among his pet issues." This is huge, because much of scientific research is funded through state and federal grants. Researchers and families depend upon getting funding for research, and numerous budgets have been increasingly cut during the past 6 years.
All information is from nature.com