Environmentalists and the groundfish bottom trawl industry on Wednesday announced a landmark agreement on ways to limit the impact of trawl nets on sensitive corals, sponges, and deepsea habitats on the B.C. coast. Photograph by: Handout , ...

Environmentalists and the groundfish bottom trawl industry on Wednesday announced a landmark agreement on ways to limit the impact of trawl nets on sensitive corals, sponges, and deepsea habitats on the B.C. coast.

The agreement sets out total annual bycatch objectives for the entire fleet at 562 kilograms for corals and 322 kilograms for sponges, the lowest levels reported in the past 15 years.

A protocol is in place to alert skippers in the fleet when a trawl bycatch exceeds 20 kilograms of corals or sponges.

The total area of coastline trawled will also be reduced by 20.6 per cent to 31,633 square kilometres, the amount of continental slope habitat trawled to a depth of 200 to 800 metres by 18 per cent to 12,413 square kilometres, and the amount of deepwater habitat trawled to 800 to 1,400 metres by 65 per cent to 1,395 square kilometres.

SAN FRANCISCO— The Center for Biological Diversity filed a formal notice of intent to sue the National Marine Fisheries Service Thursday for failing to develop a recovery plan for two species of coral, elkhorn and staghorn, that live off the coast of Florida and in the Caribbean. Although these corals have been protected under the Endangered Species Act since 2006, the Fisheries Service still has not yet developed a crucial, and legally required, recovery plan to avoid extinction and secure their future survival.

“These elegant corals are heading toward an ugly end if we don’t act soon,” said Miyoko Sakashita, oceans director at the Center. “We need to start with halting their decline — only then will corals have a chance.”

Following a petition from the Center, elkhorn and staghorn corals in 2006 became the first species to be protected under the Endangered Species Act due to the threat of global warming and ocean acidification.

Reefs in Florida and the Caribbean were once dominated by the beautiful, branching staghorn and elkhorn corals. In a few short decades, these corals have declined by more than 95 percent. Unusually warm waters have caused bleaching and mass mortality of elkhorn and staghorn; pressures from disease, fishing and pollution also have led to coral decline. And Caribbean waters are rapidly turning more corrosive because of ocean acidification.

“If we want to bring our oceans’ rich coral reefs back to life, we’ll need to take really decisive action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Otherwise that pollution will wipe out the reefs by mid-century,” said Sakashita.

Recovery plans are the main tool for identifying actions necessary to save endangered species from extinction and eventually be able to remove their protection under the Endangered Species Act. Species that have had dedicated recovery plans for two or more years are far more likely to be improving than those without recovery plans. The timely development and implementation of a plan is critical to saving elkhorn and staghorn corals because it will specifically identify what’s necessary to save them, such as research and habitat restoration and protection.

Thursday’s 60-day notice of intent to sue is a prerequisite to filing a lawsuit under the Endangered Species Act.

The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 350,000 members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.

Contact Info: Miyoko Sakashita, (415) 632-5308, miyoko@biologicaldiversity.org

Website : Center for Biological Diversity

We need your help, please forward this action alert

DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN

This years attempt by the Florida legislature to never let a good deed go unpunished is a renewed attack on the 2008 ocean outfall bill that outlaws the archaic practice of dumping 396,000,000 gallons a day of inadequately treated sewage into the coastal waters of southeast Florida.

Last year Tallahassee heard your voices and the attempt to delay the implementation of the outfall law was never brought to a vote in the Senate.

This year more of the same. This 2012 version is seeking to derail the outfall law by extending the compliance deadline by two years.

Delaying reporting and other parts of the bill simply rewards counties who have done nothing since the bills passage, said DeeVon Quirolo founder and retired executive director of Key West based Reef Relief. Adding nothing has changed to justify weakening the original bill whereas the over-riding need for improving water quality for coral reefs has increased with every year.

This bill has just passed the FL House and is headed to the FL Senate.

BUT, THERE IS STILL TIME TO STOP IT!

We are asking for your help:

First:

Email the Florida Senate Committee on Rules and tell Chairman Senator John Thrasher you are opposed to the Miguel Diaz de la Portilla Senate Bill 724 (Domestic Wastewater Discharged Through Ocean Outfalls) and request the Committee on Rules not schedule SB 724 for a vote before the Senate.

Second:

If you live in Florida email your FL Senator and tell them you oppose Senate Bill 724 and if the bill comes before the Senate ask them to vote against it. (Click here to find your Senator).

If you do not live in Florida you can still help, Tell VISIT FLORIDA®, the states official tourism marketing corporation you do not want to visit Florida to swim in the sewage polluted ocean: http://www.visitflorida.com/feedback/

Looking for a Spring Break destination tell VISIT FLORIDA® how you feel about swimming in sewage.

Below is a letter sent to the Florida Senate from environmental and industry organizations.

February 23, 2012

Executive Director Mill McCleary, Reef Relief Director of Marine Projects, Rudy Bonn, Key West's Mayor Craig Cates and Reef Relief Board President, Peter Anderson

Reef Relief and the City of Key West, having both adopted Resolution # 12-025, approved by the City Commission of Key West on January 4, 2012, turns over management and maintenance of Key West Marine Park (KWMP) for a period of three years.

BACKGROUND

Reef Relief founders DeeVon and Craig Quirolo first established the park in cooperation with the City of Key West and Monroe County in 2001. The marine park runs along south side of the island from the White Street Pier to the end of Duval Street, extending seaward 600 feet. The original agreement between Reef Relief and the City of Key West stated that Reef Relief would manage and maintain the park for a period of five years, and upon expiration of the term of that agreement, the management and maintenance of the park would revert back to the City of Key West. The Spottswood Companies, Southernmost Hotel Collection, Wyndham Resorts, and funds provided by Florida’s Coastal Management Program through NOAA helped in the conception of Key West Marine Park in 2001.

In 2010, Reef Relief approached the City staff about resuming management of the Marine Park and to utilize the park and its resources as an educational and outreach tool to visitors and local residents alike focusing on the importance of protecting and conserving the marine environment of the Florida Keys.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection issued a Letter of Consent to the City to turn responsibility for the park over to Reef Relief.

PARK RESOURCES

The living marine environment of the protected ~ 40 acre park include sea grass meadows which serve as nursery habitat to a variety of fishes and invertebrates; they also serve to trap bottom sediments and prevent their re-suspension.

The park’s live bottom habitats provide a firm substrate for the attachment of benthic organisms such as sponges, sea fans, and sea whips; mobile organisms such as sea cucumbers, sea urchins, sea stars, worms, and others are also found here and are specially adapted for survival in this particular environment.

Stony corals are also present within the boundaries of the marine park, especially along the southern edge of the old Higgs Beach Pier where they find suitable substrate for attachment and growth.

Fishes are also plentiful with a variety of different species occupying the various niches found within the marine park. While snorkeling through the marine park, one may encounter nurse sharks, snappers, groupers, grunts, butterfly and angel fishes, and the invasive lion fish. The opportunities for video and still photography of these resources are excellent when you consider that the maximum depth of the park is ~10 feet.

EDUCATION AND OUTREACH

These living marine resources and their associated habitats will be interpreted to the public through educational signage, brochures, and a nature center through a partnership with Monroe County and the Higgs Beach Development Project.

Threats to these resources, along with current mitigation and restoration strategies will also be interpreted to those utilizing this unique educational and outreach tool. Climate change and its possible affects is one example of the treats facing these systems.

Reef Relief’s primary goal is the protection and conservation of coral reef ecosystems. One of our main objectives in accomplishing that goal is to raise awareness of the need to protect and conserve these vital resources among the general public and to those that depend on a healthy marine environment such as the fishermen, the charter boat fleets, the dive shops, and all the other businesses that are dependent upon a sustainable marine environment.

KWMP provides us with the opportunity to accomplish this important goal in a very unique setting—direct observation and interpretation of the living marine resources of the Florida Keys.

DEDICATION

The official dedication of Key West Marine Park will be Saturday March 31, 2012 at Salute’ on the Beach. From 6-10pm Reef Relief will celebrate our 25th Anniversary. With special guest Howard Livingston and Mile Marker 24, Salute’s will provide food and cash bar. Tickets are available now for $15 and $20 at the door. Proceeds will benefit Reef Relief’s the marine park and other Reef Relief programs.

Reef Relief depends upon your support, please visit our web site, www.reefrelief.org, and learn how you can become a part of this vitally important effort to protect and conserve our coral reef ecosystem for both present and future generations.

We at the World Ocean Observatory use the belief “The Sea Connects All Things” as the basis for our work to inform citizens and unite to sustain the ocean through change of human behavior on land and sea. What does this sentence actually mean? In this episode of World Ocean Radio, host Peter Neill will deconstruct the meaning of this declaration and will argue that if we truly understood its meaning our values, actions, and behaviors would reflect a more practical, smart approach to our futures.

Listen to the broadcast at Ocean Radio 156: The Sea Connects All Things II

______________________________________________________________________

Peter Neill, Director of the W2O and host of World Ocean Radio, provides coverage of a broad spectrum of ocean issues from science and education to advocacy and exemplary projects. World Ocean Radio, a project of the World Ocean Observatory, is a weekly series of five-minute audio essays available for syndicated use at no cost by community radio stations worldwide.

By Mark Gold. LA Times

February 7, 2012
When Congress approved the Beach Act in 2000, I was hopeful. The law required the Environmental Protection Agency to develop federal standards for water quality that would protect beach users from pathogen-caused illnesses, and it called for modernizing an outdated approach to measuring beach water quality. I believed it had the potential to make beaches far safer for the nation’s swimmers and surfers.

But since the act was passed, little has changed. Although the EPA did set aside some funding (about $10 million annually) for beach water monitoring programs, the agency dragged its feet on developing standards. It was only after the Natural Resources Defense Council sued the EPA (I served as an unpaid expert witness in that suit) that the agency agreed, in a consent decree, to complete epidemiological studies and to develop and analyze new, rapid methods for detecting fecal bacteria in recreational waters. The agency also agreed to set new beach water quality standards by the end of 2012.

Setting those standards presents a huge opportunity. But I fear it’s about to be wasted. In late December, the EPA released its draft standards, and they were not only a disappointment, they were weaker than the 1986 standards they will replace. Rather than providing strong guidelines that are consistent for all of the nation’s waters, the EPA has decided to allow states to set their own beach-specific criteria. Past experience with this approach suggests it’s highly unlikely that much will improve. Read the full article at http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-gold-beach-water-safety-20120207,0,3130743.story

Wednesday, February 01, 2012 11:08 AM EST

Keys Energy Services is making the most of a state Clean Energy Grant it was awarded last summer. The most recent initiative — a pair of wind turbines — has been getting noticed a lot lately at the Lower Keys utility’s Cudjoe Key substation.

Keys Energy spokesman Julio Barroso said the utility plans to track how much energy the turbines produce and make the information available on its website. Barroso said the plan was to install one on Cudjoe Key and another on Stock Island, but instead both were put in the same location.

The smaller turbine is 35 feet tall, the maximum height allowed under county rules. Keys Energy got a waiver to install the other one at 52 feet.

“It’s always been said the Keys aren’t a good area for wind generation. Our thinking was to gain some information and see if height had something to do with it,” he said. “They’re definitely there for a year and we’ll see if we want to keep them both there or move another to perhaps the Stock Island substation. There’s no plans one way or the other.”

Read the full article at http://www.keysnet.com/2012/02/01/418265/keys-energy-unveils-wind-turbines.html

Posted – Wednesday, February 01, 2012 11:05 AM EST

The superintendent of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary has been named the outstanding manager of his federal agency.

Sean Morton, who has overseen the 2,900-square-mile marine area since February 2009, was picked as manager of the year by the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, an agency within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The Keys sanctuary is one among 15.

Read the full Keynoter story at http://www.keysnet.com/2012/02/01/418264/marine-sanctuary-chief-earns-national.html

By Rob Edwards Environment Editor

Scottish fishing boats are under fire for trawling seas far from home for catches of tuna, shark, swordfish, mackerel and sardines.

The Sunday Herald can reveal that at least five vessels registered in Scotland have been licensed to fish in the Indian Ocean and off the northwest African coast.

Along with boats from elsewhere in Europe, they are facing criticisms that they are plundering foreign seas, damaging local fishing industries and threatening fish stocks.

As fish stocks in European waters have declined, big fishing businesses have increasingly searched further afield for more lucrative and less depleted waters. Scottish fishermen, already in straitened circumstances, are also keen to exploit foreign waters to keep operating.

According to a study for conservation group WWF, one-third of the world’s oceans are heavily fished, 10 times more than in the 1950s.

Read the full artcle

Jeremy Hance. mongabay.com . November 03, 2011

Researchers with the Smithsonian have catalogued almost as many crab species on tropical coral reef bits measuring just 20.6 square feet (6.3 square meters) as in all of Europe’s seas, finds a new paper in PLoS ONE. The team used DNA barcoding to quickly identify a total of 525 crustaceans (including 168 crab species) from dead coral chunks taken from seven sites in the tropics, including the Indian, Pacific and Caribbean oceans.