walrus

There was a story which was written in the Arizona Daily Star which says “Tens of thousands of walruses have come ashore in northwest Alaska because the sea ice they normally rest on has melted. Federal scientists say this massive move to shore by walruses is unusual in the United States”. The “federal scientists” which the story mentions are supposed to be from the USGS, the U.S. Geological Survey. Since when have they been right about anything?

If you ask the FWS, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, this coming of the walruses is not so far out there, and definitely not unusual.

That walrus of the Pacific makes its home in the shallow waters of the continental shelf of the Chukchi and Bering seas. The actual distribution of the population Pacific walruses actually varies greatly season to season. Almost all of the population makes its home in the pack ice in the Bering sea during the cold winter months. During the winter, they most often stake their claim in two areas, one to the southwest of St. Lawrence Island, and in outer Bristol Bay.

Now, as the Bering Sea pack ice begins to melt down in April, the walruses of course move further north and their population becomes less dense. Some of these walruses inevitably make their way to the shores, perhaps to take in the renowned local hospitality, and this has been the pattern for a long time, and will continue to be in the coming years.

Whole Foods has just launched a special color coded sustainability rating program for all their products. This new program is very revolutionary. What it does, is that all their products will now be color coded based on the danger posed to the sealife that come in that partocular product.

Green means “go ahead and shop till you drop”, yellow means “Caution. some concerns are being raised with the species”, and red means “you really shouldn’t be buying this product at all”.

They are aiming to phase out all products which are classified as “red”, which means that they are highly over fished and at risk, by Earth Day in the year 2013.

They have partnered up with Monterey Bay Aquarium and Blue Ocean Institute to help them categorize their products. Whole Foods is the first such national grocer which will have such a system in place, and it is causing waves throughout the industry.

Both Monterey Bay Aquarium and Blue Ocean Institute are well known and respected for their science-based seafood programs. They painstakingly evaluate species and the fisheries which reel them in, and categorize them based on life history, abundance, habitat impacts, fishery management practices and bycatch.

It’s good to see big business finally taking an interest in keeping the Earth and its oceans in prime condition, and not just worrying about their bottom line.

Bottlenose Dolphin

The WDSF, The Black Fish, and ProWal, which all have been lobbying together to get a dolphinarium in Munster Germany shut down, are clinking their glasses today after an announcement was made that four of the dolphins of said facility are going to be going home by the end of 2012.

While it is not what they had been pushing so hard to get, any victory is a big victory. Considering that this is the first time such activity has actually given rise to action for dolphins, they have been lobbying hard and giving it their all for a few years now, the groups are not going to be looking the gift horse in the mouth.

Arne Feuerhahn, an activist with The Black Fish is hoping for the best: “We will find a respectful and acceptable solution for the future of these four bottlenose dolphins. Transferring them to another concrete prison is not one of them.”

The Munster Zoo, which has been the home of the dolphinarium in question, has given affirmation hat the dolphins will be released by the end of 2012.

This past week a dolphinarium in Hisaronu, Turkey also saw its doors being closed after a long process of lobbying by other animal welfare groups.

It looks to be a bright new world for dolphins, let’s just hope that these claims are true, and that there’s nothing fishy going on here.

Chagos Islands

Well, it’s nice to see there is still some decency in the world today. A Billionaire from Switzerland has used some of their vast resources to help save plans to create the largest marine reserve in the world, and alleviate the pressures placed upon it from public spending cuts.

Government officials are currently engaged in talks over a 3.5 million GBP deal for Ernesto Bertarelli, America’s Cup-winning yachtsman, to help fund the efforts to police the zone around the Chagos Islands.

The area which is due to be protected, dubbed the MPA, is going to cover quite a bit of area. The proposal is to cover somewhere around 250,000 square miles of sea around the archipelago in the Indian Ocean and include a “not take” reserve which is going to ban commercial fishing.

The plan was approved last April by David Miliband, then foreign secretary, even though there were complaints that the government was not taking the territory’s exiled population into consideration.

You see, the Chagos have been in the midst of a heated debate for a long time now, due to the fact that the islanders were exiled to make way for the Diego Garcia US airbase, and are continuing legal proceedings to return to their homes.

There are still other concerns that the project may fail due to the lack of private funding to offset the amount they would lose from tuna fishing licenses.

So, hats off to the billionaire for trying, and hopefully it will be pushed through. It isn’t often a billionaire steps aside and tries to do something good in the world.

Shark fins

Both local and international conservations groups and organizations are banding together to help protect sharks which call the Bahamian waters home, after an article published in Tribune exposed the potential for shark finning practices in Andros.

James Mackey, Chief Executive Officer of Sunco Wholesale Seafood Limited, told the Tribune that the company was thinking of expanding their operation of sea cucumber export in Mastic Point, North Andros, to encompass the exportation of shark fins to eager clients in Hong Kong.

Well, that was obviously a BIG mistake.. The comments he made, and subsequently were published, really created an uproar from different groups and conservationists not only from the Bahamas, but from round the globe. This comes in response to shark populations declining up to 80% around the world, due to the $200 per kilogram delicacy being fished out of our worlds’ oceans.

Interestingly enough, and what caused most of the ruckus, is that the Bahamas is home to the most biologically diverse and pristine shark populations which the Atlantic has to offer. This is due to the fact that the commercial fishers have never really taken an interest in them, that is until now.

However, the outcry comes from the fact that the Bahamas National Trust, in conjunction with the Pew Environment Group which is in the midst of launching a campaign that would hopefully make the fishing and finning of sharks illegal.

Thermal Vent

Well, just when you are comfortable knowing that what you know is accurate, the world comes along and throws you another curve ball. We used to know there were 9 planets, now there are 8, we used to know the earth was the center of the solar system, now we know better.. Now, just when you thought you pretty much knew your basic zoology, an amazing new discovery has been made that is basically going to force some poor guy to rewrite the molluscan, larval ecology and invertebrate text books.

Between the 1850’s and the 1870’s supposedly all known forms of snail were discovered. However, thanks to modern technology, and some persistent researchers, we now know that we were mistaken, and that the forms of snail are really much more diverse than originally thought.

This new snail larval form is really turning heads, and here’s why. This larval form discovered is the first of its kind to be found to be a free-swimming pre-veliger larva. This is rather interesting because normally they don’t swim freely. Not only that but it appears these new little guys can actually turn hydrogen sulfide, and methane as an energy source.. Imagine, a snail which subsists on farts…

Credited with this astounding discovery are Anders Waren, a Swedish Naturalist from the Royal Museum of Natural History in Stockholm, and collegue Philippe Bouchet.

They have been working on this project since the 1980s, and have finally made their marks on history. These are a pair to watch folks, who knows what they might discover next?

UK

Hide the fry, make sure they are tucked away good and tight. The boogie man of shrimp has come to town. This time it has selected Britain.

Britain appears to be under siege from a battalion of what appear to be killer shrimp.

This hungry invader, known as Dikerogammarus villosus, has been found by fishermen at Grafham Water in Cambridgeshire.

These shrimp, which are much larger than the shrimp native to Britain, come from Eastern Europe but have been steadily making their way westward, presumably looking for the buffet, for the past 10 years.

These invaders are aggressive hunters, and are feeding on the native freshwater shrimp, damselflies, small fish and water boatmen, and are poised to turn the local food chain on its head.

Often the shrimp kill just for the sport of it, and can rapidly take over lakes and rvers.

They aren’t a danger to local drinking water supplies, however fishermen have been warned to double check for the sneaky buggers so as to not aid in their spreading.

Researchers are taking the threat very seriously, and are now testing the water to see how widespread the problem is, and how to put a clamp on it.

Seems to me a lot of invasive species are making their ways into places they shouldn’t.. Global Warming? Or something more sinister? Either way, looks like Britain might be poised for a huge shrimp fry.

Turkey

A dolphinarium situated in southwestern Turkey really attracted a lot of attention due to worries about the living conditions the dolphins were subjected to, to such an extent that the venue has been closed and the dolphins released after efforts from civil society organizations.

“This has been an intense but effective campaign but we will only feel truly happy when the [dolphins] are finally back in the wild. This shows how much can be achieved by a collaborative effort and people working together across the world with one collective aim: a real testament to the power of the people. With modern communications and clear aims, we have shown what can be achieved,” a representative of Dolphin Angels, Nichola Chapman commented this past weekend.

Dolphin Angels is just one of the NGOs, nongovernmental organizations, which lobbied to have the dolphins freed. The other NGOs which were involved in the efforts were Born Free, and SAD/DEMAG, and were locked in heated debates for months to have the dolphinarium shut down and release the dolphins.

The project proposing to close down the Dolphinarium and save the dolphins from their cruel captors was initiated by a group of Turks and British expats. By organizing themselves into the Dolphin Angels, and marching against the Dolphin Park, they managed to get many travel companies to stop selling tickets. Then finally the dolphins were freed.. Score one for the dolphins, score zero for the fat cat exploiters of the world.

Dwarf sea horse

There are tens of thousands of dwarf seahorses trying to survive in the oil infested Gulf of Mexico, and a researcher from the University of British Columbia is saying that their difficulties serves as a warning to not let BP to expand its operations to the West Coast.

Now the dwarf seahorse is at great risk of becoming extinct after the BP mess happened this past April, and it isn’t being helped any by the non-friendly methods for clearing up the mess, commented the director of the international project Seahorse conservation group, Amanda Vincent.

“We’re concerned that some lessons be learned for Canada from this fiasco,” Vincent commented during a press conference this past Tuesday.

“If we were to have an oil spill on this coast, either from tanker traffic or from drilling — if the moratorium were lifted — then we would also see them and everything else in their habitats severely affected.”

While a provincial, as well as federal, moratorium is in place against any kind of oil exploration on the north coast of British Columbia is in effect, the First Nations and other environmental organizations have cautioned of the dangers of putting in an oil pipeline.

And with what happened in the Gulf of Mexico who could blame them? We really need to step back, and force the big oil companies to take extra precautionary measures, before allowing to operate anywhere else in the world…

The Cove promo poster

Japanese fishermen led a swarm of dolphins into “the Cove”, a cove which made quite a stir when released in an Oscar-winning documentary, however these Japanese fishermen did not finish the job, and no dolphins were slaughtered.

An inside source in the seaside village of Taiji, which was shown in “The Cove”, has commented that a select few of the dolphins herded were kept to be sold to aquariums, however the majority were set free Friday in the morning. No further details were volunteered.

The decision to let the majority of the dolphin go free is a far cry from the past practice of killing them all.

Sea Shepherd, the conservationist group, has been keeping close tabs on Taiji, with a tiny crew of activists this past week, and has been urging people to aid in the cause of saving the dolphins.

Dolphins swim in large groups, known as pods, in the ocean. The fishermen of Taiji round them up, by making noises which scare them, and lead them to the cove. They then go about selecting the best for sale, and promptly dispense with the rest, stabbing them repeatedly, until the waters run red with blood.

Hopefully this new practice of letting the rest go will catch on, and mother earth will no longer need to shed tears for her lost dolphin children. If the slaughters continue, who knows what will become of the poor dolphins, and the innocents of Taiji.