* Importance of Chinese ship’s damage to Great Barrier Reef * Animals and Climate Change
Eco-volunteers restore habitat on the last U.S. place to observe Earth Day
by Wayne Sentman
A chain of North Pacific islands positioned about 80 miles from the International Date Line, Midway Atoll is the last place in the United States to observe Earth Day.
Today a group of 16 Oceanic Society eco-volunteers visiting this outpost of American territory are helping the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) outplant 240 native bunch grasses in an effort to restore habitat for the over 423,000 nesting pairs of Laysan albatross and other seabirds calling Midway home.
The Midway Atoll NWR staff has weeded the area and is now ready to transplant the native plants into the ground as a way to prevent the invasive weeds from re-establishing.
Later in the day the volunteers will continue monitoring "Turtle Beach," an area where many green sea turtles have been coming out to bask. Numbers of baskers have increased over the years as stronger protections have been put in place to reduce human activity on the basking beach.
Currently the volunteers are trying to figure out (by hourly counts and individual identification) whether turtle numbers at Midway have actually increased or if simply more turtles that have always been here are now using the beach to bask.
Check this page again for updates on the turtle count and other news from Wayne Sentman and the Oceanic Society volunteers he leads this month on Midway.
All photos courtesy Wayne Sentman
Wayne Sentman, a Master’s candidate in Environmental Management at Harvard, is a field biologist and experienced naturalist leading research and natural history programs for the Oceanic Society. He developed a love of island ecosystems while working for both the National Marine Fisheries Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Hawaii and Alaska. Living at Midway Atoll for four years, he became fascinated with the albatross populations of the Northwest Hawaiian Islands. An avid lover of anything aquatic, Wayne spends his time kayaking, diving, and snorkeling whenever possible.
Volunteers restoring habitat on the Midway Atoll
Importance of Chinese ship’s damage to Great Barrier Reef
by Katerina Lorenzatos Makris
Parked for over a week, spewing an estimated three tons of oil, and
scouring a two-mile long scar into what many consider to be one of
Earth’s most important natural features, a Chinese ship finally
has been hauled off of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.
Associated Press (AP) reports that the crew of the Shen Neng1,
a coal carrier, deliberately dumped much of the fuel in an effort to
lighten the stranded 755-foot vessel so that it could be removed Monday, after having strayed some 17 miles off course to ram into
the Reef last week. Officials said that the oil, dispersed with
chemical sprays, should not cause significant harm.
Tugboat attempted to stabilize ship (Photo - AP)
However the Reef did suffer severe damage under the weight of the
ship, wrenched to and fro by tides and currents, crushing the fragile
living corals underneath and smearing them with the hull’s toxic
paint, according to the AP report.
Graeme Kelleher, former head
of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, provided the following
insights into the significance of the Great Barrier Reef and of coral
reefs in general. Animal Beat contacted Kelleher via email.
GRAEME KELLEHER ON THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE GREAT BARRIER REEF:
"The Great Barrier Reef (GBR) generates more than $5 billion annually, mainly from tourism. The whole nation is proud of it.
"It
is regarded internationally as one of the best protected reefs in the
world, being enclosed in a World Heritage Area and the Great Barrier
Reef Marine Park.
"Ecologically, the GBR protects most of the
Queensland coast (i.e. more than 2,200 kilometers) from erosion and the
destructive effects of storms. The biological diversity of the GBR is
very high—more than 350 species of reef-building corals and more
than 1,500 species of fish.
"The Great Barrier Reef contains many
outstanding examples of important and significant natural habitats for
in situ conservation of species of conservation significance,
particularly resulting from the latitudinal and cross-shelf
completeness of the region.
"It contains more than 2900 individual reefs, covering more than 24,000 square kilometres, as well as about 980 islands."
As
for the value of coral reefs in general, Kelleher said, “They are
important ecologically, economically and socially. In many parts of the
developing tropical world, coastal communities depend primarily on
reefs for food and protection from storm-generated waves.”
Kelleher
has also served as Vice-Chairman, Marine, of the International Union
for the Conservation of Nature's World Commission on Protected Areas,
and as project manager for various Marine Protected Area projects in a
number of countries.
Katerina Lorenzatos Makris is the author of 17 novels for
publishers including Avon, E.P. Dutton, and Simon & Schuster, and
hundreds of articles for publications such as National Geographic
Traveler, San Francisco Chronicle, and Veggie Life. She wrote a
teleplay for CBS and short fiction for The Bark magazine. With coauthor
Shelley Frost, she wrote Your Adopted Dog
(The Lyons Press). Holding a B.A. in Environmental Science Studies and
a lifelong interest in animal issues, she spends a lot of her time
battling a severe addiction to dogs.
Animals and Climate Change by Katerina Lorenzatos Makris
Change for toads
Veiled in mist, the high-altitude Monteverde Cloud Forest of Costa Rica once sheltered residents no bigger than your pinky, with skins an orange Day-Glo hue. Biologist Marty L. Crump described them as “dazzling jewels on the forest floor.”*
Researchers working a 30-kilometer square study area of the Monteverde report that over the past three decades the forest’s moisture levels have dropped, and that the golden toad, or Alajuela, along with at least 20 more of its fellow native amphibian species, has vanished.
Change for bears
Small suction cups on the bottoms of their feet provide traction on slippery ice. Their fur is white, for camouflage. Their skin is black, to absorb warmth.
With weights pushing a ton, they can grow a several-inch thick layer of fat in the winter—dining on everything from berries to walrus—then go all summer without a bite. They love to play together and often form close friendships.
Unseasonable melting and shrinking of ice in the Beaufort Sea off Alaska led the United States Department of the Interior, under the Administration of Pres. George W. Bush, to list the polar bear as a threatened species in 2008.
Officials based the move on evidence that the white giant depends on sea ice for survival, that the ice is likely to continue disappearing, and that if nothing is done to slow the process, in a mere 45 years the world’s largest bear, along with essential features of its habitat, will disappear.
Change for corals
Riots of color and activity unsurpassed by any sight on earth greet the snorkeler or scuba diver. Dubbed the “rainforests of the sea,” coral reefs teem with life in a dazzling variety of forms.
Scientists for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) warn that this year’s climbing water temperatures could spell death to massive amounts of corals in the Caribbean, which, in certain areas, sustained losses as high as 50 percent earlier this decade.
Change for chickens
Their courtships involve singing and dancing. They form complex social bonds, and work together to raise young. They use their beaks the way humans use hands, to manipulate objects and other animals.
Believed to have descended from colorful jungle fowl, today chickens star as the world’s top most populous domesticated animal, numbering more than 24 billion. Their ranks have swelled in recent years to keep pace with the meat and egg demands of a burgeoning human population.
Partly in response to the widespread use of small and crowded battery cages, California passed a law last year requiring that farmed animals be allowed enough space to lie down, stand up, turn around, and stretch their limbs.
Cage size notwithstanding, the United Nations estimates that gases produced by industrial farming of chickens and other livestock account for 18 percent of the emissions that raise global temperatures—surpassing those released by cars, buses, and airplanes combined.
Change for humans
Off the shores of a picturesque archipelago, before an audience of corals and tropical fishes, the leader of a tiny island nation and some dozen of his cabinet members swapped business suits for wetsuits to assemble at tables on the floor of the Indian Ocean last October.
The group breathed through scuba gear, communicated with hand signals, and signed a document calling for the worlds’ nations to reduce the carbon emissions that are believed to be warming the atmosphere to record levels.
President Mohamed Nasheed staged the unique event to spotlight his worry that without significant global policy changes, the Maldives, perched an average of just seven feet above sea level—the planet’s lowest-lying country—runs the risk of being submerged by waters from melting polar ice within a century.
Causes, cures, and Copenhagen
What is creating these effects on animals and habitats, and what can be done about it?
To discuss those questions and devise policy to address them, thousands of delegates and concerned individuals from around the globe gathered at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen last fall.
On this page in the months to come, AnimalBeat will explore the interplay between animals and climate change.
*Quote from biologist Marty L. Crump, adjunct professor of biology, Northern Arizona University, In Search of the Golden Frog.
Katerina Lorenzatos Makris is the author of 17 novels for publishers including Avon, E.P. Dutton, and Simon & Schuster, and hundreds of articles for publications such as National Geographic Traveler, San Francisco Chronicle, and Veggie Life. She wrote a teleplay for CBS and short fiction for The Bark magazine. With coauthor Shelley Frost, she wrote Your Adopted Dog (The Lyons Press). Holding a B.A. in Environmental Science Studies and a lifelong interest in animal issues, she spends a lot of her time battling a severe addiction to dogs.
World chicken population estimated at 42 billion (Photo - BigStock)
