Scubaism

A Chinese poaching vessel has been apprehended by units of the Philippine Navy, Marines and Coast Guard in the Sulu Archipelago. A routine inspection by the boarding crew revealed rows of sea turtles – dead, gutted and left to dry on deck. The official count was 50 dried, 58 freshly-gutted and 18 still-living turtles, mostly green sea turtles – classified internationally as endangered by the IUCN and one of the flagship species that WWF-Philippines. 19 Chinese fishermen were arrested onboard the craft.

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Plans by supermodel Naomi Campbell to build a high-end casino near turtle sanctuaries in Kenya’s Indian Ocean resort of Malindi have sparked a firestorm from conservationists and residents.

Apart from hosting a bevy of beauties and moneyed men, the six-star casino complex — to be called Billionaires Resort — could disrupt the hatching process of several rare species of turtles, they say. Conservationists are worried that noise and lights from the casino envisioned by the British catwalk legend and her former boyfriend, Formula One boss Flavio Briatore — who already owns one hotel in Malindi, will scare the turtles away.

Female turtles hatch ashore and the baby turtles usually find their way back to the sea by looking for the brightest natural horizon. A glittering construction in the heart of Malindi’s marine park could lure the hatchlings in the wrong direction and away from the beach, leading them to die of dehydration, the conservationists say.”We are not against development, but all we are calling for is sustainable, low-environmental-impact and high quality tourism development,” said Stephen Trott, who heads Local Ocean Trust, a Malindi-based turtle conservation group.

A Kenya Wildlife Service official who did not want to be named said the agency was keeping a close eye on the project.

According to Malindi residents, Briatore has another hotel in the resort called While Elephant. “Let them go improve the quality of White Elephant,” said one resident.”We are totally against the casino. This is a small town, we have one casino and we don’t want another one,” said Terry Hill of the Malindi South Residents Association. “Furthermore, we are told that they want to build near a marine park. Be sure we won’t allow that because we are conservationists. Let them go and build it elsewhere,” Hill said.

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Ninety per cent of fish in the waters around Britain will have disappeared within 20 years unless they are given protection, a leading marine researcher told scientists yesterday.

He told the British Association for the Advancement of Science conference in York that fishing quotas needed to be scrapped and extensive no-fishing zones put in place. He also said that fishing should be halted or strictly limited in a third of Britain’s seas to give stocks time to recover. Fishing ministers, who are said to have disregarded scientific advice on sustainable fishing levels over the past two decades, should be stripped of their powers to rule on how many tonnes can be safely caught, he continued. They would be replaced by a science-led body that is independent of electoral pressures.

The decline in fish stocks around the world, with all species predicted by some experts to collapse by 2048, comes at a time when their nutritional value is recognised more than ever. World Health Organisation officials recommend a weekly intake of 200 to 300 grams of fish each week but today’s catches can only just meet this target.

He told the conference: “On average, over the last 18 years fisheries ministers have set quotas 20 to 30 per cent higher than recommended as safe. If we continue to do that a majority of fish stocks will collapse.”

Since the 1950s an estimated 60 per cent of stocks in British waters have collapsed and he said that more than half of those remaining are already being dangerously overfished.

According to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) only 25 to 30 per cent of fish stocks around Britain have been fished sustainably since 2001. “This means that around 70 per cent of UK fish stocks have suffered reduced reproductive capacity and have been harvested unsustainably since 2001,” a Defra report stated, accepting that the scientific advice “is that the fishing rate should be reduced substantially in order to permit the stocks to recover”.

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For the first time in history, the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species includes ocean corals in its annual report of wildlife going extinct.

A comprehensive study of marine life sponsored by Conservation International (CI) and implemented jointly with the IUCN (World Conservation Union) used data from the Galapagos-based Charles Darwin Research Station and other regional institutions to conclude that three species of corals unique to the Galapagos Islands could soon disappear forever.

The 2007 IUCN Red List designates two of the corals — Floreana coral (Tubastraea floreana) and Wellington’s solitary coral (Rhizopsammia wellingtoni) — as Critically Endangered, while a third — Polycyathus isabela — is listed as Vulnerable. The Red List also includes 74 Galapagos seaweeds, or macro-algae, with 10 of them receiving the most threatened status of Critically Endangered. Prior to 2007, only one algae species had been included on the Red List.

The Galapagos marine research was conducted by the Global Marine Species Assessment (GMSA), a joint initiative of IUCN and CI launched in 2005 with the support of dozens of experts and research institutions. The GMSA is studying a large portion of Earth’s marine species to determine the threat of extinction.

“These Galapagos corals and algae are the first of many marine species that will be added to the Red List due to our findings,” said GMSA Director Kent Carpenter of Old Dominion University in Virginia. “What is significant is that climate change and over-fishing — two of the biggest threats to marine life — are the likely causes in these cases.”

Other coral and algae species lacked sufficient information to determine their IUCN Red List status, so they received the designation of Data Deficient. Researchers believe many of these species are likely to be listed as threatened with extinction when more detailed information becomes available.

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Five men were arrested Thursday for illegal international trade of exotic skins and parts manufactured from sea turtles and other protected species of wildlife.

The two indictments detail 54 conspiracy, smuggling and money-laundering charges. The defendants are accused of smuggling 25 separate shipments of wildlife skins and products between Mexico and the United States between early 2005 and today. The shipments contained more than 700 tanned skins of sea turtle, caiman, python and other protected species, and well over 100 items, such as boots, belts and wallets, manufactured from the skins of those species.

The indictments allege that nearly $60,000 was paid to the Mexican suppliers and of the illegal skins and products, in addition to “crossing fees” paid to the alleged smugglers.

Arrested in Denver were Carlos Leal Barragan, of Guzman, Jalisco, Mexico; and Esteban Lopez Estrada and Martin Villegas Terrones, both of Leon, Guanajuato, Mexico. The other two men are Texas residents. Jorge Caraveo, of El Paso, Texas, was arrested in that city, and Oscar Cueva, of McAllen, Texas, was arrested there.

Each conspiracy count in the indictments carries a maximum penalty of five years incarceration and $250,000 in fines. Each smuggling and money laundering count carries a maximum penalty of 20 years incarceration and $500,000 in fines.

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In a settlement with environmentalists, US National Marine Fisheries Service has agreed to protect the “critical habitat” of elkhorn and staghorn coral in Florida. But they may end up doing more than that.

By protecting habitat, not just species, the federal government could be in a position to fight any threats to that habitat, including possibly, global warming, some environmentalists say. While no one expects the U.S. to stop, say, a coal-fired power plant in the Midwest to save Florida coral, the settlement does expand the leverage of the 1973 law that protects species from extinction.

“We think this victory on coral critical habitat actually moves the entire Endangered Species Act [ESA] onto a firm legal foundation for challenging global-warming pollution,” says Kieran Suckling, policy director of the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group based in Tucson, Ariz., that filed both coral suits.

Indeed, the coral-protection victory may be just the beginning of a push to use the ESA to fight global warming, he and other environmentalists suggest.

The pair of coral species are struggling to survive because Florida’s and the Caribbean’s waters have become warmer and more acidic. Many scientists attribute the change to global warming.

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Drastic changes to land and water wrought by climate change are forcing cartographers to redraw their maps of the world.

Evidence of the effects of human activities on the Earth’s features–through climate change and construction efforts, such as irrigation projects—can clearly be seen in the new edition of The Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World, its editors say.

Many of the changes the map-makers have had to make involve the shrinking of lakes and seas and changes to coastlines:

• The Aral Sea in Central Asia has shrunk by 75 percent since 1967 (before/after).
• Lake Chad in Africa has shrunk by 95 percent since 1963 (before/after).
• The Dead Sea is 82 feet (25 meters) lower than it was 50 years ago.
• Sections of the Rio Grande and Colorado rivers in North America, the Yellow River in Asia and the Tigris River in the Middle East now dry out in the summer and at some times of the year the rivers don’t even reach the sea.
• The coastline of Bangladesh had to be redrawn because heavier monsoons and rising sea levels are causing more land to be lost to the ocean.
• Some Pacific Islands are also under threat from rising sea levels, including Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Tokelau, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

Future editions of the atlas, which typically is researched by a team of more than 50 cartographers, will take into account changes in Arctic sea ice cover and other changes to lake, river, ocean and forest boundaries, as they are affected by the changing climate.

The new edition of the atlas also notes that 40 percent of the world’s coral reefs have been destroyed or degraded in recent decades, and that more than 1 percent of tropical forest is cleared every year to make way for farmland.

On a more positive note, the atlas shows that 13 percent of the world’s land surface is now within designated protected areas worldwide.

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The Environmental Protection Agency is warning bush fishermen in the Channel Country in Western Queensland to stop using illegal drum nets that kill native turtles, as well as catch fish.

Scientists carrying out research along the Coopers Creek near Windorah have found large numbers of dead short-necked turtles inside the drums being used by anglers. The turtles swim into the drums for the bait and drown when they cannot escape.

Biodiversity officer Darren Fielding recommends people fish with rod and reels - not drums. “At a local waterhole one drum net could kill off 100 turtles at once, because they’re quite big drums and the turtles could fit in there,” he said. “So with one drum net you could really make an impact on the turtle population.”

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The world’s first walking shark could be named after a global corporation, in an attempt to raise cash for wildlife conservation.

The right to name the shark and nine other newly discovered creatures is being opened up to businesses at auction this month. It is the first big sell-off of the right to create a name for creatures new to science, and will be hosted by Prince Albert II of Monaco. Businesses and individuals will be allowed to name the creatures after anyone or anything, even a product.

The names of new species are traditionally chosen by the people who discover them and usually highlight a physical feature of the specimen. An estimated 10 to 15 per cent are named in honour of a family member, a friend or someone whose work deserves recognition, such as Sir David Attenborough who has had an echidna named after him.

The ten species at the auction were discovered by the US-based Conservation International during a survey of Indonesian wildlife. Among them are the first walking shark — which has uniquely arranged pectoral fins for moving on coral reefs — a pipefish and a lionfish. If the suggested starting bids are achieved, the sale will raise more than $1.85 million (£900,000).

In 2004 a monkey discovered in Bolivia became known as the GoldenPalace.com monkey after the equivalent of £400,000 was bid by an internet gaming business. The monkey’s official name is Callicebus aureipalatii, the genus followed by a rough translation into Latin of “Golden Palace”.

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LITTLE penguins are drowning in large numbers around Tasmania in gill nets, the International Penguin Conference in Hobart heard yesterday. Unseen by fish and penguins, the fine mesh nets — dubbed the “phantom menace” — were deadly to the diving birds, said scientist Eric Woehler.

“Recreational gill netting is banned in other states with little penguins. We don’t know how many penguins are dying this way because the research hasn’t been done but we hear of 20 in a net,” Dr Woehler said. “These nets are invisible. The penguins get caught in the spaces as they dive but because they come up for air, they’re trapped and they drown. They should at least be banned near colonies.” Tasmanian Conservation Trust chief executive officer Christian Bell said fishers had admitted to rangers they had caught 30 penguins in a net.

Only about 5 per cent of the state’s little penguins exist on the Tasmanian mainland. Mr Bell said regulations had increased but there were no penguin colonies on mainland Tasmania where gill netting was banned. “The birds are fully protected. But it’s difficult to enforce,” he said.

Department of Primary Industries and Water primary industries general manager Wes Ford said regulations over the past 15 years aimed to minimise the impact of nets on seabirds.

“Prohibitions on gill netting apply to most sheltered waters and gill nets cannot be set overnight. There is a very active education campaign aimed at raising awareness and improving fishing practices,” Mr Ford said. “We will also continue to review our regulations to ensure that any impact is reduced while providing opportunities for Tasmanians to be involved in fishing.”

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