By LARRY KAHN. KEYNOTER
The Natural Resources Defense Council on Wednesday released its annual survey of beach-water quality and public notification of health advisories against swimming or complete closures, and it’s a mixed bag for the Florida Keys for 2010.
Overall, the council ranked Florida as having the sixth-best beach-water quality among the 50 states. States with the beaches with the most contamination, mainly from stormwater and sewage runoff stemming from storms, were Louisiana, Ohio, Indiana and Michigan.
The Natural Resources Defense Council looked at the percent of monitoring samples that exceeded Florida’s daily maximum bacterial standards. Overall, 4 percent of reported beach monitoring samples exceeded the state’s standard. Read the full article
Read the NRDC Report at http://www.nrdc.org/water/oceans/ttw/titinx.asp
Towering furry pillars, glowing tentacles and species that look like human brains are listed among the 10 most important evolutionarily distinct and globally endangered (Edge) tropical coral species that conservationists say are in most urgent need of saving.
See the gallery and learn more
Overfishing and pollution putting fish, sharks and whales in extreme danger – with extinction ‘inevitable’, study finds
Fiona Harvey, environment correspondent. guardian.co.uk,Monday 20 June 2011 19.21 BST
Fish, sharks, whales and other marine species are in imminent danger of an “unprecedented” and catastrophic extinction event at the hands of humankind, and are disappearing at a far faster rate than anyone had predicted, a study of the world’s oceans has found.
Mass extinction of species will be “inevitable” if current trends continue, researchers said.
Record high temperatures during 1998 wiped out 16% of all tropical coral reefs. Photograph: Darryl Leniuk/Radius Images/Corbis
Overfishing, pollution, run-off of fertilisers from farming and the acidification of the seas caused by increasing carbon dioxide emissions are combining to put marine creatures in extreme danger, according to the report from the International Programme on the State of the Ocean (Ipso), prepared at the first international workshop to consider all of the cumulative stresses affecting the oceans at Oxford University. Read the full article
WASHINGTON, DC, June 29, 2011 (ENS) -
One of the nation's cleanest beaches, Rehoboth Beach in Delaware on the Atlantic Ocean (Photo by Heather Dyan)
Polluted stormwater runoff and sewage overflows carrying oil, and human and animal waste fouled beaches around the country in 2010, causing the second-highest number of closing and advisory days in more than two decades, finds the Natural Resources Defense Council in its annual beachwater quality report issued today.
NRDC’s annual report, “Testing the Waters: A Guide to Water Quality at Vacation Beaches,” analyzes government data on beachwater testing results from 2010 at more than 3,000 beach testing locations nationwide. Read the full article
When you thrust a shovel into the soil or tear off a piece of coral, you are, godlike, cutting through an entire world. You have crossed a hidden frontier known to very few. Immediately close at hand, around and beneath our feet, lies the least explored part of the planet’s surface. It is also the most vital place on Earth for human existence. Read the full story and see the pictures
By Richard Gray, Science Correspondent. 6:45AM BST 26 Jun 2011
Warming ocean waters are causing the largest movement of marine species seen on Earth in more than two million years, according to scientists.
In the Arctic, melting sea ice during recent summers has allowed a passage to open up from the Pacific ocean into the North Atlantic, allowing plankton, fish and even whales to into the Atlantic Ocean from the Pacific. Read the full story
by Blythe Copeland, Great Neck, New York
Sometimes it takes the simple clarity of a child to change the world as we know it.
Among all the social change, political maneuvering, and serious issues facing the environment today, there are plenty of savvy kids taking matters into their own hands: Coming up with plans to save countless gallons of water in their cities, tackling Mcdonalds, fighting to stop mountaintop removal mining, raising money for Gulf Coast relief efforts, and more.
1. Caitlyn Larsen
Ten-year-old Caitlyn Larsen of Orogrande, New Mexico, was just one of the locals who got an uneasy feeling when she saw a new hole, filled with mining equipment, in the side of a mountain — but she was also one of the most vocal.
Caitlyn sent out a press release to draw attention to the environmental devastation that the mining effort would leave in its wake. The release caught the attention of the director of the New Mexico mining and Mineral Division, who checked a little further into the operation and found that the company behind the mine was “less than above the board.”
The company was forced to withdraw and the mountain is still standing. Read the full story
by Underwatertimes.com News Service – June 28, 2011 21:59 EST
GAINSVILLE, Florida — University of Florida researchers received a rare 25-foot-long, deep-water giant squid Monday, the only one of its kind in the collections of the Florida Museum of Natural History.
Recovered by recreational fishermen who found the creature floating on the surface about 12 miles offshore from Jensen Beach Sunday, museum scientists collected the specimen from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Tequesta Field Laboratory in Palm Beach County and returned to the Gainesville campus late Monday. Read the full article
California Academy of Sciences biologist Dr. Terry Gosliner discovered this new species of nudibranch during the museum's 2011 Philippine Biodiversity Expedition. This brightly colored mollusk doesn’t need a shell for protection -- instead it produces powerful toxins to keep potential predators at bay. (Credit: Terry Gosliner, California Academy of Sciences)
Science Daily (June 24, 2011) — This spring, scientists from the California Academy of Sciences braved leeches, lionfish, whip-scorpions and a wide variety of other biting and stinging creatures to lead the most comprehensive scientific survey effort ever conducted in the Philippines, documenting both terrestrial and marine life forms from the tops of the highest mountains to the depths of the sea. They were joined on this unprecedented, multi-disciplinary undertaking by more than two dozen colleagues from the Philippines, as well as by a team of Academy educators who worked to share the expedition’s findings with local community and conservation groups. Read the full article
This is a loggerhead turtle. (Credit: Alan Rees)
ScienceDaily (June 23, 2011) — A University of Exeter team has monitored the movements of an entire sub-population of marine turtle for the first time. The study confirms that through satellite tracking we can closely observe the day-to-day lives of marine turtles, accurately predicting their migrations and helping direct conservation efforts. Read the full article
