Bighead carp

The latest plan of action for getting rid of the Asian Carp (a very invasive species that could potentially throw the entire Great Lakes Ecosystem out of whack), comes from Governor Pat Quinn.

Illinois is going to be entering into a special deal with a Chinese meat processing company, known as Beijing Zhuochen Animal Husbandry Company and also with Big River Fisheries located in Pearl, Illinois, to remove 30 million pounds of this horrendous fish from Illinois rivers. Big River is in charge of processing, packaging and shipping the carp to Zhuochen, who will then resell it in international markets, where Asian Carp are considered quite a tasty dish. It is hoped that the company will be able to reel in at least 30 million pounds by the end of 2011.

“We believe the people of China who like to eat Asian carp will find this is the best anywhere on Earth,” Quinn boldly told the press earlier.

The environmentalists, who have been pulling their hair out since June when a Bighead Asian Carp was reeled in in Lake Calumet, were not at all impressed by the idea. They say that it is at best a way to buy time, and at worst a tactic which will kill the fishing industry.

“Many communities have been robbed of their ability to use and fish on the Illinois River by the slow response to limit the Asian carp’s infestation,” explains Henry Henderson, the Natural Resources Defense Council Midwest Director, “Governor Quinn’s announcement will be welcome news for people in places like Peoria, where it might help them get their river back. But our goal for the Illinois River should be to eradicate this dangerous invasive species, not manage a fishery.”

BP

BP has put a hold on testing its most recent plan to plug up the largest oil spill in the history of the United States. This comes after the Obama administration has ordered a halt until more facts are verified.

Government and industry researchers will be putting their heads together to review the plans for a pressure test which will be carried out once they manage to stop the oil from spewing out using their “Top Hat 10”.

This test is to ensure that the cap they are putting into place will not only stop the leak, but also not cause the well to split open and start leaking somewhere else.

The delay in the testing process came about after Steven Chu, Energy Secretary, and a team of local experts cautioned that more data was needed before the test could be safely carried out. This test will finally answer the question as to whether BP can safely plug up the well with cement.

BP has commented that the delay has set them behind schedule in drilling the relief wells by a good day or two. “What we don’t want to do is move forward with a test that ends up with inconclusive results,” Wells, one of the Senior Vice Presidents’ of BP, explained. “We just need to make sure there’s absolute clarity that this is the right test, that this will give us the most information, that this will minimize the risk.”

BP has reported that it is quite happy with the early progress it has made to install a brand spanking new containment cap on the faulty well in the Gulf Of Mexico on Sunday, as the oil flow seems to have temporarily let up.

They have stated that they will continue to increase the amount of oil they can collect on a daily basis, and are eagerly awaiting the Helix Producer skimmer to join in the cleanup sometime soon. This comes straight from Kent Wells, one of the senior vice presidents of BP, during their technical briefing on Sunday.

The cap, which was placed in early June, was removed from the leaky well this past Saturday by robotic submarines. BP is hopeful that the entire process of recapping the well will be done in the next four to seven days.

Wells expounded, “We tried to work out as many of the bugs as we can. I think the challenge will come with something unexpected. We are pleased with our process.” Quite a bold statement since from the very beginning they were not living up to their promises.

Near the source of the spill, 46 skimmers managed to collect more than 20,000 barrels of oily water on Saturday. However, BP also has conducted 15 controlled burns, but is hopeful to have two more skimmers at its disposal soon.

The oil is only being cleaned up by the Q4000 at the moment, and it only has a capacity of 378,000 gallons. It is hoped that it will be joined by the Helix Producer by Sunday, which has more than double that capacity.

This means that BP is finally making some headway on this horrific disaster, but they are not out of the woods yet. They still need to fix up the well, so that they may put on “Top Hat 10” the new cap for the well. Once they have “Top Hat 10” mounted into place, they will use special equipment to finally seal off the well.

According to the AP, this special equipment weighs in at around 150,000 pounds, and not only will it seal off the leak for good, but it is supposed to also provide connections for new skimmers on the surface to help clean up the remaining oil spill.

The best hope for finally being done with the whole mess comes from two relief wells. These wells are supposed to be fully operational by the middle of August. These relief wells are being put in so that they can inject cement and mud into the leaking well to stop the flow of oil.

Current estimates are that somewhere between 1.5 million and 2.5 million gallons of oil a day are gushing from the leaking well. The existing cap is only collecting about 1 million gallons a day. The new cap and skimmer are supposedly going to be able to mop up between 2.5 million and 3.4 million gallons a day, which would certainly come as a welcome reprieve from this horrific spill.

Lionfish

Key Biscayne, Florida – It appears that Lionfish are soon going to be a very common thing in the shallower waters off the coast of Miami. A young Lionfish was captured just off of the Key Biscayne beach this past Saturday, it is only one of five of this invasive species spotted within the last few weeks.

The Lionfish generally makes its home in the Pacific Ocean, and they are known to breed quickly, and often have voracious appetites. This means that these invading Lionfish could possibly throw the whole marine ecosystem of South Florida out of whack by them eating up baby lobsters, groupers and other species native to the reef.

The mere fact that they are present could spell trouble for this years’ lobster season, as Lionfish and lobsters have the same tastes in habitats, which include underwater crevices and holes, and they are known to be highly toxic. They are equipped with a multitude of tiny poison tipped spines, and can give you quite a nasty sting.

Steven Lutz, a local snorkeling enthusiast, managed to catch himself a baby Lionfish on Saturday while in the company of Dr. Michael Schmale, from the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School for Marine and Atmospheric Science. Scientists are able to pinpoint where these Lionfish come from by running genetic tests. “I have been swimming these waters for the past twenty years and this is the first time we have seen them here,” Lutz informed, “Divers should use extra caution when grabbing for a lobster this season, or they might be in for a nasty and painful surprise.”

RIO De JANEIRO – The bright pink dolphins of the Amazon River as very docile, and gentle creatures. This unfortunately makes them easy pickings for the people who trap them using harpoons and nets, as they will simply nose up beside the fishing boats to say hello.

The sad fact is that their dead, dismembered bodies are now making appearances on riverbanks in numbers that are mind boggling. Their flesh has been used as bait, and the remains have been chucked away carelessly, with no concern for how this is going to affect the species. Researchers are warning that if something is not done soon, these dolphins may suffer the same fate as those in other parts of the world; extinction. “The population of the river dolphins will collapse if these fishermen are not stopped from killing them,” explained the top aquatic mammals expert at the government’s Institute of Amazonian Research, Vera de Silva, “We’ve been studying an area of 11,000 hectares (27,000 acres) for 17 years, and of late the population is dropping 7 percent each year.”

In plain English this means that somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,500 dolphins are hunted down and killed every year in Mamiraua Reserve of the Western Amazon, where da Silva studies these remarkable creatures.

Da Silva went on to explain that researchers first began to discover the discarded remains of these pink dolphins along the banks cerca the year 2000. They had obviously been struck down by human means, as they had been hacked and quartered, their flesh stripped away like so many a fish fillet.

The appearance of these dolphin carcasses are indicative that the killing of these dolphins is on the rise, the environmental agents and researchers say. The problem is so large in scope that the government has even admitted that there is a problem and something needs to be done about it. It is already illegal to kill these dolphins without explicit permission from the government – as is the case with all the other animals of the amazon. However, nothing is really being done in terms of enforcing those laws.

There are less than five full time environmental agents on site, which are supposed to be in charge of protecting the wildlife in the jungle region which spans across two-thirds of the Amazon. This area is two times the size of Texas, so it is no wonder that nothing gets enforced. The Brazillian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama), had this to comment on the situation, “It’s a matter of priority, and right now the government is focusing on deforestation, the killings of these dolphins exists – it’s a fact.” Although nothing has been said on what exactly is being done to rectify the matter.

The pink dolphin’s flesh is a popular commodity amongst anglers, as it is a rather effective bait for catching a breed of catfish in the area, known as piracatinga.

TERC Clam Barrier Installation.

A call to arms was issued Friday, and was answered by scientists as well as federal, state and regional volunteers to help stamp out an invasive species of clams which are threatening to slime one of the most pristine lakes in the world.

A $1.4 Million experiment was cooked up by top researchers from the University of Nevada, Davis and the University of California, to help eradicate hundreds of thousands of these invading clams in Lake Tahoe. These are non-Native Asian clams (Corbicula Fluminea) which excrete concentrates into the water which promote algal growth.

The plan is to basically to smother them, they will be utilizing giant rubber mats, to try and ensure that these little invaders don’t have a chance to upset the delicate balance of the lake. These rubber mats are going to cover an astonishing acre of lake bottom, an operation of this scale has never been attempted before, but the situation calls for drastic action. The first half acre of mat was splashed down into the Marla Bay near Zephyr Cove, and the other half acre will be plunked down at Tahoe’s Lakeside Marina. It is hoped that the mats will deprive much needed oxygen from the clams, and they will die off quickly. “You have to think of these clams as sucking factories,” explained the director of the UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center, Geoffrey Scladow, “They suck in the water and they filter out the algae. Their excretions are highly concentrated packages of nutrients.”

This invasive species of clam was first discovered in 2002, however it is only recently that they have been taken seriously as a threat to the ecology of the lake, as well as it’s world renowned clarity.

Tallahassee, Florida – Scientists are sitting on the edge of their seats, and they have their fingers crossed that the natural oil-eating bacteria being used off the Gulf of Mexico’s Coast have voracious appetites.

One scientist from the Florida State University, Markus Huettel, is studying the natural oil-eating bacteria, trying to determine just how long it will take them to eat up the oil which has penetrated deep into the sediment.

Huettel is a biological oceanographer, and has collected many samples from the beaches in and around the Pensacola area, and is rather astonished by the findings. It appears that oil has penetrated as deep as eight inches into the sand.

The oil is quite an eyesore, and sticks out like a sore thumb on the normally pristine white sandy beaches of the Florida Panhandle.
What is not known at this time, and what Huettel is devoting his time to, is just exactly how long the oil will remain there. He explained that these natural oil-eating bacteria rely upon the proper mixture of oxygen and nutrients to eat up the oil. What is unclear is if the mixture is right deep in the sand.

Under appropriate conditions, Huettel has said that the oil-eating bacteria should be able to complete the task of cleaning up the oil from the BP spill in a relatively short timeframe. “We are talking days, weeks, sometimes a month, you see a substantial degradation of this oil. The situation changes dramatically if you isolate the oil from oxygen and nutrients and that can happen deep in the sediment.”

Lionfish photo by Jens Petersen

Steps are finally being taken to help get rid of the invasive lionfish, but not the steps that you would think. TCI restaurants are going to be putting lionfish on their menus, to help cull them from the TCI waters. It actually wasn’t the restaurants’ idea, the staff at the department of Environment and Coastal Resources proposed the delicious scheme.

The first restaurant to put the lionfish on the grill was Mother’s Pizza in Downtown Providenciales, whipping up a unique lionfish pizza.

Justin Bates, of Mother’s Pizza, has said that he was behind the effort 100%, and that it’s about time something was done about the invasive species.

He stated that seafood is very affordable, tastes good, and there is no limit to the number of ways you can prepare it. He hopes that by having the unique lionfish pizza on the menu it will encourage other restaurants to start serving up the fish.

On Monday, the director of the Department for Environment and Coastal Resources, Wesley Clerveaux, spoke out about their “Wanted Dead or Alive” lionfish campaign. Wesley has said that he was ecstatic to see the fish on the menus of the local restaurant, and is encouraging people to try the different dishes they come up with.

He went on to say that it is a common mistake people make to think that the lionfish is poisonous. It is actually only the fins which are hazardous to the health, the rest of the meat is perfectly safe to eat.

BOSTON – The fishery police underwent an audit recently to see how they were using the federal fines they collected. It has been discovered that the fines collected from fisherman were spent on things such as cars for managers, and a week long training seminars in Norway.

The audit were released to the public on Thursday, and was commissioned by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s inspector general, when it discovered incongruities in the management of fines by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s law enforcement office.

Inspector General Todd Zinser started the audio after the slew of complaints fisherman were filing every year about the arbitrary enforcement of the fishery laws, they claimed that the fines were being collected solely for the personal use of the NOAA.

Richard Burgess, a fisherman from Gloucester who is fighting $85,000 in fines, has said that the NOAA should cough up the money, and return it to its rightful owners.
“We’ve all known that they’re criminals,” Burgess stated in front of the law enforcement office. “Every one of them has got to go.”

Some surprising things were found out about the fund where the fines and penalties collected were deposited. The funds went to the Asset Forfeiture fund, and is managed by the accounting firm KPMG. Zinser has stated that the fund is so poorly managed, that it isn’t even listed in the NOAA’s annual budget documents. It is not known if this oversight was an accident or perfectly planned.

In a memo Zinser wrote to the NOAA chief Jane Lubchenco he stated “NOAA has administered the [fund] in a manner that is neither transparent nor conducive to accountability, thus rendering it susceptible to both error and abuse,”

The audit also revealed the fact that between January 2005 and June 2009, $96 Million was deposited into the fund, expenditure for the same time is supposed to be $49 Million. This is suggesting that the balance of the fund should contain a lot more than the NOAA’s estimate of $8.4 Million.

Scott Smullen, NOAA spokesman, has said that the fund had an $8.8 Million balance as of June 14th. He stated “There may have been a misinterpretation by KPMG when it estimated how much money came into the fund in recent years.” Smullen divulged that the NOAA gave KPMG in the neighborhood of 5 million electronic records, at its request, including receipts for the entire agency, of which only a small amount actually involved the fund.

The above fact is what may have led to the confusion of the fund balance. Smullen added that the agency is hoping to clear up any misunderstandings and discrepancies by making sure that both KPMG and the Commerce Department receive the correct information.

The NOAA has released a statement saying that it has already taken steps to make sure something like that does not happen again in the future, including shifting the management of the fund to NOAA’s conptroller and requiring the conptroller to give authorization of any spending which is over $1,000.

BP Really Laid it On Thick:
You know, this is really interesting.. It makes one wonder if the people in Washington are being sold a load of bull, and not really caring that they are or aren’t.

On March 24th 2010, BP went in front of congress and made the promise to federal regulators that it had the ability to clean up its mess. One of the promises made was that they were able to clean up and collect “491,721 barrels of oil each day in the event of major spill.” That number really is impressive as it rolls off the tongue, however, the reality of what BP is doing is quite different.
As of Monday, there have been just shy of 2 million barrels of oil which have been spewed into the Gulf of Mexico. The skimmers are coming in way under that number of 491,721 barrels a day.. In fact, the skimming operations have only managed to average about 900 barrels a day in the cleanup process. The total collected oil has only been about 67,143 barrels, and BP resorted to massive burning campaigns to get rid of over 238,000 barrels. Most of the oil which has been collected, somewhere in the neighborhood of 632,410 barrels, was collected smack dab on top of the source of the leak.

The conclusion? It seems as if the representatives over at BP took a page out of the politicians handbook, tell them what they want to hear! What they didn’t take into consideration however, is that unlike the 2% tax reduction on imported goods really doesn’t have a profound impact on anything if it doesn’t happen.. By BP not being able to do what they claimed, millions of dollars are being lost daily, not just for oil and cleanup, but also severe damage is being done to the ecosystem as well.

What About Other Oil Companies?

This begs the question… Is this sort of thing normal? BP is taking a lot of heat, however it has been said that all oil companies face the same problems which BP is currently facing. Do other companies make such large claims as BP though? I mean come on… only being able to deliver below 1% of what you have promised to deliver is NOT good. If this were any other company they would have been jailed for false advertising, however the only real repercussions that they seem to be facing is a little bit of bad publicity.

What can we do about it?

You may be sitting there thinking to yourself, “well what am I supposed to do about it?”. Well for starters you can start asking the important questions, and bring more attention to the matter.. For too long have we sat on our duffs and taken in the BP excuses.. Someone needs to be held accountable. So start by looking in your area for a group looking to help with the spill, and let’s get it cleaned up already!