Last week, 1.3 billion fish were released into the Yangtze River by the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture (MOA). The release took place in the provinces of Jiangxi, Hubei, Hunan, Anhui and Jiangsu in the middle and lower reaches of the river.

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Yet another Chinese event is by many considered to be tainted with animal cruelty, and just as with the olympics, the unlucky animals are goldfish. at the opening gala of China’s lunar new year festival earlier this month they shower goldfish swimming in perfect military formations. The show put on by magician Fu Yandong was well received by the audience but have sparked outcry in animal activist circles as the only explanation to the trick according to them is magnets in the stomachs of the goldfish. The goldfish in in another word not so much swimming as being dragged. There are many factors supporting this hypothesis including the very shallow water the goldfish is swimming in. The shallow water would allow magnets to work which wouldn´t be possible in deeper water. Experts in the field agrees and think the fish might have been fed food with metal shavings on it.

Fu has denied the accusation of animal cruelty, telling one news programme: “If I used magnets, the fish would stick together.”  This is not necessarily true and a magician never reveal his trick even if discovered right?

Another theory that has been put forward is that it is fake fish but experts reject this idea in unison as the replicas would not meet the scrutiny of 100s of million of viewers.

A coalition of 53 groups sent a letter to Chinese broadcaster CCTV asking them to prevent magician Fu Yandong performing it again at the closing ceremony.

The two branches of the central government for China, who are responsible for the well being of underwater cultural heritage, have just signed an agreement this past Monday to cooperate more fully with one another.

Under this new agreement, the State Oceanic Administration (SOA) and the State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH) will cooperate more fully in fields of underwater archeology and the management of relics recovered from beneath the sea.

The two agencies will also help each other out in performing regular surveys of underwater relics, to help ensure that they do not become damaged in some way.

Shan Jixiang, the director of the SACH, commented during the signing ceremony that the agreement was a move at the state-level to help keep the underwater cultural heritage of China safe in the midst of the worldwide boom in ocean development.

The director of the SOA, Sun Zhihui, has commented that the SOA would be actively providing support and assistance in protecting underwater relics by cooperating more fully with the SACH in areas such as the enforcement of the maritime laws and in the forecasting of marine disasters such as hurricanes, oil spills and the like.

The two agencies will look to establish a long term cooperation by devoting time to the creation and upkeep of their pilot cooperation programs.

It’s good to see that China has taken an interest in protecting their underwater cultural heritage, as so much has been lost, it would really be a shame if more of it were lost.

Somewhere in the neighborhood of twenty-five percent of the surface water in China is so contaminated that it can’t even be used for industrial purposes. The sad thing about that figure is, while twenty-five percent is that contaminated, less than half of the total supply available is fit for human consumption. This data came from an environment watchdog this past Monday.

Inspectors in China have been painstakingly testing water samples from the major rivers and lakes for the first half of this year, and have proclaimed that just 49.3 percent of the water would be safe for human consumption. This number is actually up from the 48 percent of last year, the Ministry of Environmental Protection declared in a public notice from their website.

China has six grades they use for classifying their water supplies, with the first three grades being considered safe for human use, such as drinking and bathing.

Another 24.6 percent of the water supply was said to have fallen in categories four and five, which is only good for industrial or agricultural use. This leaves a total of 24.3 percent in category six, which is not suitable for any use at all.

This is an absolute appalling state of affairs, and despite tougher regulations being implemented over the past 10 years, the ministry is still struggling to keep tabs on thousands of paper mills, cement factories, and chemical plants which are pumping their industrial waste right into the water supplies of the country.

This is a serious problem, but it seems like it will be quite some time before they get a handle on it.

oil spill

It comes as no surprise that the oil spill, which was labelled, “minor” has now been elevated to “worse than thought”. These oil companies like to think they have things under control, but nine times out of ten, they don’t.

Some reports on the incident are suggesting that the prevailing winds have started to blow the oil from the spill back towards the shore.

China is frantically ramping up their efforts to clean up a severe oil spill of the north east coast.

There are now murmurings and increasing fears that some rather strong winds might be blowing the oil farther than what was originally expected.

Greenpeace, a large environmental group, has said that the oil was as much as 20cm thick in some areas of the coast dangerously near the city of Dalian.

Shipments of oil from the north to the industrial belt in the south have been put on immediate hold, while they try to work this mess out.

At least one worker has died during this clean up process, they were thrown from their vessel by a wave and then drowned in the oil…

The oil spill was caused by two pipelines exploding on Friday night, and caused quite a ruckus.

Officials have stated that 430 square kilometers of the ocean in the vicinity is now polluted, however help is on the way. Oil eating bacteria and oil skimming boats are being sent to the area, and should be there soon.

Greenpeace has said that this might just be the worst oil spill in China’s history.

The efforts to clean up continue after two pipelines ruptured in Dalian, sending forth in the neighborhood of 11,000 barrels of oil into the Yellow Sea. The environmentalists are still trying to figure out just exactly how this happened, and what damage the fisheries and beaches have sustained in the incident.

If it wasn’t enough that BP had a spill in the Gulf of Mexico, now a few more pipes from the big oil conglomerates have ruptured!

The ground heaved as the first of the two pipelines ruptured, which led the residents and dock workers near Dalian’s Xingang Harbor to fall to their knees, thinking an earthquake was occurring.

What they didn’t know, was that the shuddering of the ground was being caused by yet another environmental mishap by the major oil companies.

These two pipelines located near the port, ripped apart at the seams this past Friday, spewing a substantial amount oil into the Yellow Sea, and shooting flames more than 60 feet into the air!

Thankfully, there were no serious injuries reported and they managed to keep the fire in check, and have it completely under control as of last Saturday. However, by Monday hundreds of ships were attempting to clean up the mess, which extended an astonishing distance. The port operations in the area were expected to be ground to a halt for at least a week!

Meanwhile, Environmentalists are still trying to figure out exactly how big a catastrophe this actually is. They are trying to estimate the actual damage done to the beaches and fisheries at one of China’s most important ports. Smoke from the raging inferno has plagued downtown Dalian over the weekend.

The actual amount of damage done will depend on quite a few variables, such as containment of the oil, so says a professor at the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Fu Guo. There is a large shellfish farm, which is operated by the Zhangzidao Fishery Group, only a stone throw’s away from the spill.

“There have been accidents in the past, but this one was more serious,” granted Fu, “The spill happened close to the city, so the impact on residents may be more severe.”

The China National Petroleum Corporation, which happens to be the biggest oil company in the nation, and also the owner of the pipelines which ruptured in Dalia, Have not come forward with the cause of the disaster, but the authorities are looking into a Liberian-flagged oil tanker, which is a suspect as it was unloading at the time the pipelines ruptured.

Analysts have said that the mishap may have been caused by improper loading procedures of the oil from ships to the storage tanks in the harbor.

You would think that the giant oil conglomerates would take a look at the recent “mishaps” around the globe and step up safety procedures.. However there seems to be a general nonchalance about the whole affair, and these oil companies continue to have mishaps… It seems for the oil companies to take these “mishaps” seriously, there needs to be significant human loss or suffering, and by then it will be too late…

The invasive kelp Undaria pinnatifida is has now spread from Los Angeles to San Francisco Bay, despite eradication efforts.

Earlier, the northward spread of this sea weed – which can grow an inch a day and forms dense underwater forests – was believed to have been stopped at Monterey Bay, but this assumption turned out to be wrong when a biologist at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center happened to notice a six-foot long piece of kelp attached to a boat in a yacht harbor in San Francisco Bay.

“I was walking in San Francisco Marina, and that’s when I saw the kelp attached to a boat,” said Chela Zabin, biologist at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Tiburon, California. “It was six-foot long, and there is nothing here in the bay that gets to that size. I didn’t want to believe what it was, it’s depressing.”

Further investigation showed U. pinnatifida clinging not only to boat hulls in the marina but to docks and pier pilings as well.

U. pinnatifida was discovered in Los Angeles Harbour in 2000 and within a year reports of its presence had arrived from Catalina Island and Monterey Bay. A federal eradication program was put in place, but the funding dried up last year. Since then, volunteer divers have been the only ones combating the kelp.

Five quick facts about Undaria pinnatifida

• Undaria pinnatifida is a fast growing kelp native to the waters of Japan, China and South and North Korea.

• Within its native range it is an appreciate source of food and if you’ve ever tasted miso soup, this is what you were eating. The Japanese name for this species is wakame.

• U. pinnatifida has managed to establish itself in many different regions outside its native range, such as the Atlantic coast of Europe, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Argentinean coast. By attaching itself to vessel hulls it can hitchhike across the globe in search of new suitable habitats. This kelp can also enter ecosystems via imported oysters, and some people deliberately or accidently introduce U. pinnatifida to local ecosystems by cultivating it for cooking purposes.

• When U. pinnatifida spread to ecosystems not used to its presence, it can grow uncontrolled and prevent native kelp species from getting any sunlight. This can disturb the entire ecosystem.

• U. pinnatifida has been nominated to the list “100 worst invasive species in the world”.

According to China Daily, a male visitor to a hot spring club has had his external reproductive organs nibbled on by fish.

The man, who visited a Dalian spa in China’s Liaoning province, received a treatment where fish is used to clean the skin of spa visitors. These fish normally eat dead tissue only, but for reasons that remain unknown they started to nibble on the man’s private parts.

The damage wasn’t discovered until the injured spa guest exited the bath and the manager of the club noticed that the man was bleeding. The guest was promptly rushed to a nearby hospital to receive treatment for his unusual wound.

The nibbled on spa guest will not be compensated since he violated the club rule about always wearing swimming trunks during spa treatments.

We have not been able to confirm this story so it might be an Urban legend that made it into the China daily.

The Top 10 list of new species from 2008 has now been compiled by the ASU institute and an international committee of taxonomists. Last year, thousands of new species were described by science, many of them native to hard-to-access regions of our planet, such as remote tropical areas or deep sea habitats, but two of the species on the list actually hail from much less exotic locations: Cardiff and a bottle of hairspray.

“Most people do not realize just how incomplete our knowledge of Earth’s species is,” said Quentin Wheeler, director of the International Institute for Species Exploration at Arizona State University, which announced the top 10 new species list. “We are surrounded by such an exuberance of species diversity that we too often take it for granted“.

These are the selected few that made it all the way to the ASU Top 10:

1.) A palm with no close relatives in the neighbourhood

Name: Tahina spectabilis
Common Name: Tahina Palm

This plant produces truly spectacular inflorescence with numerous flowers. After fruiting, the palm dies and collapses. Strangely enough, the genus Tahina is not closely related to any of the other 170+ palm species found on Madagascar. Its closest relatives are instead found in Afghanistan, Thailand, Vietnam and China.

Soon after the publication of the species, seeds were disseminated throughout the palm grower community, raising money for its conservation by the local villagers.

2.) The world’s longest known living insect

Name: Phobaeticus chani
Common Name: This insect has no common name in English. Perhaps Chani’s stick insect would be a suitable English common name? Do any of the readers of this blog know if this species has a common name in Malaysia?

With a body length of 35.6 cm (14 inches) and an overall length of 56.7 cm (22.3 inches), Phobaeticus chani is the world’s longest known now living insect. Once upon a time, insects grew much larger than this, but none of those gigantic insects have survived into our time.

3.) The world’s smallest seahorse

Name: Hippocampus satomiae
Common Name: Satomi’s Pygmy Seahorse

This is the smallest known seahorse in the world. It has a standard length of no more than 13.8mm (0.54 inches) and an approximate height of 11.5mm (0.45 inches).

4.) The world’s smallest snake

Name: Leptotyphlops carlae
Common Name: Barbados Threadsnake

This is the world’s smallest snake with a total length of 104 mm (4.1 inches).

5.) A Welsh ghost slug

Name: Selenochlamys ysbryda
Common Name: Ghost Slug

The word ysbryda is a Latinized version of the Welsh word ysbryd which means ghost or spirit. The name alludes to the species’ ghostly appearance, nocturnal, predatory behaviour and the element of mystery surrounding its origin. Strangely enough, this new species was discovered in Cardiff, UK, a well-collected and densely populated part of the world. (For all the Torchwood fans out there, this mesmerizing find naturally comes as no surprise.)

6.) A snail with a surprising twist

Name: Opisthostoma vermiculum
Common Name: This species has no common name in English. Do any of the readers of this blog know it has a common name in Malaysia?

Most gastropod shells tightly coil according to a logarithmic spiral and have an upper limit of three coiling axes, but the shell of Opisthostoma vermiculum consists of four different coiling axes which is the highest number ever seen in gastropods. As if this wasn’t enough, the shell whorls detach three times and reattach twice to preceding whorls in a fairly consistent manner, which suggests that the coiling strategy is under some form of strict developmental-gene control.

7.) Deep-blue deep-dweller

Name: Chromis abyssus
Common Name: Deep Blue Chromis

Compared to other members of its genus, the deep blue Chromis abyssus lives pretty far from the surface but it is certainly not found at abyssal depths. The name is instead a reference to the BBC documentary Pacific Abyss, since the type specimen was collected during the making of this show. This species was also the first one to have its description registered in the newly launched taxonomic database Zoobank.

8.) A 380 million year old delivery

Name: Materpiscis attenboroughi
Common Name: Mother Fish

This is the oldest known live bearing (viviparous) vertebrate and we know of it from fossil record only. Amazingly, the fossil shows a female fish in the process of giving birth some 380 million years ago. It was found at Gogo Station in Western Australia. The name of the genus, Materpiscis, means “mother fish” in Latin, while the species itself is named in honour of Sir David Attenborough who first drew attention to the Gogo fish sites in his 1979 series Life on Earth.

9.) African decaf

Name: Coffea charrieriana
Common Name: Charrier Coffee

This is a true member of the genus Coffea, but it is completely void of caffeine. Coffea charrieriana is the first known caffeine-free Coffea species from Central Africa and coffee makers are now pondering the idea of using it to make natural decaf coffee.

10.) Hair spray bacteria

Name: Microbacterium hatanonis
Common Name: None

This new species wasn’t found in some remote rainforest or deep down in blue; it was isolated as contaminant of hairspray.

The Top 10 New Species were selected from the thousands of species fully described and published in 2008. The public could nominate species through the IISE Web site and nominations were also generated by IISE staff and committee members themselves. The Committee had complete freedom in making its choices and developing its own criteria to provide a breadth of species attributes and importance.

I am sorry that we don’t have pictures of all species. To see pictures of all species you can here.

If you would like to nominate a species for the 2010 Top 10 New Species please click here.

Shark fin soup has traditionally been a must-have among well-to-do Asians and an essential part of the menu at commemorative dinners, such as wedding banquets and New Years celebrations in countries like China, Thailand, Taiwan, Malaysia and Indonesia.

However, as awareness grows about the precarious situation many species of shark are facing in the wild due to over-harvesting; many Asians – especially young ones –are substituting the shark fin soup with alternative dishes at their celebratory events.

Singaporean groom Han Songguang and his scuba diving bride are just one example of this trend; when they tied the knot in December last year they served their guests lobster soup and placed explanatory postcards depicting a dead shark on each seat.

“If we can do our part to save ‘X’ number of sharks … why not?” said Han, a geography teacher.

A symbol of wealth and status in several Asian cultures, shark fin soup consumption has traditionally been a delight available for a comparatively low number of Asian upper-class families only. Hand-in-hand with rising affluence in East Asia and the development of a prosperous middle class segment of society, demand has however soared rapidly in the late 20^th and early 21^st century and about 20 percent of all shark species are now endangered, partly due to them being over-fished to satisfy the Asian markets.

“They live a long time. They have a low reproductive rate. In other words they produce just a few young every year or every few years. So you just can’t take a lot,” says Yvonne Sadovy, a biology professor at the University of Hong Kong.

As more and more young Asians opt for lobsters and other alternatives to shark fins, market demands have dropped noticeably in recent years. After peaking at 897,000 metric tonnes in 2003, the world wide shark consumption has sunk to 758,000 in 2006, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation. British wildlife group TRAFFIC says shark fins now make up an increasingly small percentage of the total consumption.

“Students and people in their 20s wouldn’t go to a shark eatery, and $15 for a dish is no cheap price,” says Joyce Wu, programme officer with TRAFFIC.

Shang-kuan Liang-chi, a National Taiwan University student agrees. “University students never go in there,” he says, referring to a shark fin restaurant near campus.

The decline is not only due to shark fins becoming increasingly out of vogue among environmentally concerned youngsters; the global financial crisis and its effects in Asia has caused many Asian to cut down on restaurant visits or order less expensive dishes.

Another sure sign of the declining popularity of shark fin soup in Asian is the menu for Singapore’s Annual Chefs’ Association dinner – it is now completely void of shark fin dishes.

“It is much harder to stop serving shark’s fin in our restaurants as the consumers still demand it. However, in our personal capacity, we can make a stand,” said Otto Weibel, a food manager at one of Singapore’s top hotels.