Written by Darci Palmquist. CoolGreenScience. The Nature Conservancy
Published on March 27th, 2012
The world’s marine habitats are in trouble, and there are only so many dollars we can throw at the problem. But putting just a few toward community education and outreach pays huge dividends, according to a new study by Nature Conservancy scientists and coauthors just published in the journal Marine Policy.
Researchers headed to the remote Indonesian islands of Misool and Kofiau — located in the heart of the Coral Triangle, the richest marine environment in the world — to find out whether a community marine education program would help in the creation and management of local marine protected areas (MPAs).
They found that with a limited budget of just $24 per person per year, positive attitudes towards and local knowledge of marine resources rose in local people by 33% over the course of five years.
Perhaps the biggest change came in people’s understanding that illegal fishing activities — such as dynamite, traditional poison and cyanide fishing — are some of the most destructive ways to catch fish. In 2005, only 34% of local people knew these activities were illegal, while 74% did after the outreach program.
And scientists report that illegal fishing activities have decreased sharply after the outreach program, says Craig Leisher, lead author of the study and Conservancy senior advisor on poverty and conservation.
For more details about the study, download it here (subscription required).
By KEVIN WADLOW. kwadlow@keynoter.com
Wednesday, March 28, 2012 06:00 AM EDT
By KEVIN WADLOW A hogfish swims by a healthy brain coral on a Florida Keys patch reef. A new study says brain, boulder star, massive starlet and mustard corals were decimated by the cold snap of January 2010.
Florida Keys corals that took centuries to grow died within days during the frigid January 2010 cold snap, says a newly published scientific study.
“Some monumental corals that were 200 or 300 years old perished in a span of five days,” said Rob Ruzicka, a co-author with Michael Colella of the patch-reef study published in the February edition of Coral Reefs, the journal of the International Society for Reef Studies.
Colella and Ruzicka work for the Fish and Wildlife Research Institute of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and have been involved with the 17-year history of the institute’s Coral Reef Evaluation and Monitoring Project.
The published cold-water study focuses on patch reefs, generally found in depths of 12 to 20 feet in Hawk Channel, inside the main Florida Keys coral reef, that did not suffer damage as severe. Read the full article at http://www.keysnet.com/2012/03/28/434024/new-study-2010-cold-snap-massacred.html
ScienceDaily (Mar. 28, 2012) — As corals continue to decline in abundance around the world, researchers are turning their attention to a possible cause that’s almost totally unexplored — viral disease.
The white tips on this coral are a reflection of "bleaching" and declining coral health. (Credit: Photo courtesy of Oregon State University)
It appears the corals that form such important parts of marine ecosystems harbor many different viruses — particularly herpes. And although they don’t get runny noses or stomach upset, corals also are home to the adenoviruses and other viral families that can cause human colds and gastrointestinal disease.
In a research review published in the Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, scientists point out that coral declines are reaching crisis proportions but little has been done so far to explore viral disease as one of the mechanisms for this problem. Read the full article at the ScienceDaily
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
Conservationists have issued repeated warnings that the Maui’s dolphins of New Zealand, the planet’s smallest species of dolphin, are in danger of
extinction. This month, they’ve estimated there are only about 55 surviving members left, according to an updated survey of the species’ population.
The last time the Maui’s dolphin population was surveyed in 2005. At that time, there were 111 of the species left, according to the New Zealand Department of Conservation.
Experts say the population decline corresponds to a rise in commercial fishing.
“Every day the animals are exposed to gill and trawl nets carries a risk we can’t afford. If ever there was a time to act, it is now,” Dr. Barbara Maas, international head of the Nature and Biodiversity Union’s International Species Conservation division,” said in a statement. Read the full article at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/22/mauis-dolphins-almost-extinct_n_1373970.html
ENN: Environmental News Network — Know Your Environment
Published March 16, 2012 01:24 AM
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
Tuesday March 12, 2012. Mission Blue
Everything about the goliath grouper is extreme: its size, its personality, and especially its sex life.
Once a year, schools of goliath groupers converge under the full moon and engage in a one-shot mating frenzy. For divers and scientists, this titillating event is the ultimate form of nature voyeurism, and might be key to spreading the word about the critically endangered species.
“They are indeed crazy,” marine biologist Sarah Frias-Torres of the Ocean Research and Conservation Association commented about the grouper’s elaborate mating rituals. “It’s like fish porn.” She added that no one has managed to catch the act on camera yet.
To engage in this courtship extravaganza, the fish return en masse to the reef site where they first copulated. As the courtship begins, males change from their typical blotchy patterns into a deep, provocative black, while females turn a dainty pale grey. To show off their bravado to the ladies, males often spar, ramming their heads into one another and bellowing out deep booming sounds of roughly 160 decibels—the same volume generated by a jet engine. While the macho rumble goes on, females swim by, watching.
Footage of a goliath grouper spawning aggregation at the Zion wrecks off Jupiter, Florida. This spawning aggregation was fished to extinciton in the 1980s, but in 2005 divers reported seeing the giant fish gathering again during the late summer spawning season. Credit: Sarah Frias-Torres
12:01AM GMT 18 Feb 2012. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
Current marine protection areas designed to preserve under-threat species generally cover fixed geographical spots where they feed, mate or rear their young.
But to prevent endangered turtles, sharks and other creatures from dying out the designated no-fishing zones ought to be made mobile to ensure the species are always protected, experts said.
Although the concept has existed for some time, it has only recently become technologically feasible to constantly monitor endangered animals and shift conservation areas accordingly.
Satellite tracking devices are now small and affordable enough that they can monitor the precise location, including the depth, of large numbers of sea creatures. Read the full article at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/9088266/Turtles-face-extinction-without-marine-protection.html
by Underwatertimes.com News Service – February 2, 2012 17:41 EST
NEW YORK, New York — A recently published study by the Wildlife Conservation Society and others reveals that humpback whales on both sides of the southern Indian Ocean are singing different tunes, unusual since humpbacks in the same ocean basin usually all sing very similar songs.
A recent study has found humpback whales on both sides of the southern Indian Ocean are singing different tunes. credit S. Cerchio/WCS
The results of the study—conducted by researchers from WCS, Columbia University, and Australia —contradict previous humpback whale song comparisons. Generally, when song from populations in the same ocean basins are compared, researchers find that the songs contain similar parts or “themes.” The differences in song between the Indian Ocean humpback populations most likely indicate a limited exchange between the two regions and may shed new light on how whale culture spreads.
Read the full article at http://www.underwatertimes.com/news.php?article_id=10356201987
January 31, 2012 by Robert Horton www.endangeredspecieslawandpolicy.com
As previously blogged about here, on December 9, 2011, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service (Services) published a notice of proposed rulemaking (PDF) in the Federal Register that will, if adopted, change the Services’ standards for listing and delisting species as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) by re-interpreting the definitions of “threatened” and “endangered” species in the ESA.
In a letter to the Director of the Fish and Wildlife Service (PDF) dated January 26, 2012, Congressman Markey, the ranking Democrat on the Committee on Natural Resources, expresses his “concerns that this policy has the potential to undermine several key provisions of the ESA by setting the bar for listing declining species at much too high a threshold.” So high, he argues, that “the bald eagle never would have been listed as an endangered species in the lower 48 States” because healthy populations of the bald eagle lived in Alaska “[e]ven during the worst era of DDT pesticide usage . . . .”
Markey also criticized the draft policy for ignoring “Congress’ intent regarding the purpose of the ESA by refusing to consider the historic distribution of a species when making listing decisions about whether a species is in danger of extinction in a significant portion of its range.”
Had such a policy been in place in the 1970s, Markey claims, “Americans would have had to travel to the most remote parts of Alaska to view species like the bald eagle, grizzly bear, or the gray wolf.” According to Markey, in passing the ESA, Congress did not sanction such a “living museum approach” to protect imperiled wildlife, but instead sought to protect ecosystems and restore species to their historic ranges.
The key provisions in the ESA provide that ”‘endangered species’ means any species which is in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range . . . [,]” and “‘threatened species’ means any species which is likely to become an endangered species within the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of its range.”
But the ESA itself does not include a definition of “significant portion” of a plant or animal’s range.
Under the draft policy, when making listing decisions the Services would:
1. Deem a portion of a species’ range to be “significant” if its contribution to the viability of the species is so important that without that portion, the species would be in danger of extinction;
2. Limit consideration of a species’ status to the range used by a species at the time the listing decision is being made; and
3. Extend a listing decision made on the basis of a threat to the species’ viability throughout only a ”significant portion of its range” to the entire species, throughout its entire range.
ScienceDaily (Jan. 30, 2012) — Nova Southeastern University (NSU) and Florida International University (FIU) researchers have drafted a plan to best prepare South Florida for an oil spill off the coast of Cuba.
The proximity of intended Cuban oil drilling and production puts the U.S. coastal zone at risk from Florida to the Carolinas and northward. Oil from a spill would quickly enter the Gulf Stream and reach Florida’s shores in hours or days with potentially devastating effects on the densely populated South Florida coastline and its coastal ecosystems. South Florida’s accounts for 3.4 million jobs and 45 percent of the $587 billion contribution to Florida’s GDP generated by coastal and ocean economic activity.
Read the full article at http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120130093113.htm
