SCUBA Diving News

A new scientific study has concluded that sharks in the Mediterranean Sea have declined by more than 97 percent in abundance and “catch weight” over the last 200 years.

The findings of the study published in the journal Conservation Biology, suggest several Mediterranean shark species are at risk of extinction, especially if current levels of fishing pressure continue. Study lead author Francesco Ferretti and his colleagues are concerned that the declines in sharks may have implications for the broader Mediterranean marine ecosystem.

Ferretti said: “The loss of top predators such as sharks in other sectors of the Atlantic has resulted in changes to the ecosystem. These changes are unpredictable and poorly understood but given the decline in Mediterranean shark numbers, there is cause to be seriously concerned about the effects this could have.”

Forty-seven species of sharks live in the Mediterranean Sea, of which 20 are considered top predators.

The study authors only had enough information to assess the status of five of the twenty large predatory shark species in the Mediterranean. Of those analysed, almost all of the large sharks have decreased in abundance because of unintended capture in open ocean fisheries, targeted shark fishing, and human population pressure in coastal areas. Sharks are especially vulnerable to overfishing and slow to recover from depletion because they generally grow slowly, mature late and produce few young.

The mean size of sharks caught in the Mediterranean is among the lowest in the world. The study reveals that size and weight declines over time indicate that more young and immature sharks are being caught.

There are currently no catch limits for commercially-fished shark species in the
Mediterranean Sea. A comprehensive monitoring program for fisheries has been difficult to implement in the Mediterranean because of the artisanal (small and localized) nature of its fisheries and the large number of countries bordering the sea.

Only five species of sharks offered sufficient information for analysis, including the blue shark, one thresher shark species, two mackerel shark species and one hammerhead shark species. The blue, smooth hammerhead and thresher sharks were classified as “Vulnerable” according to the latest IUCN-World conservation Union Red List Criteria for extinction risk. Two mackerel sharks, porbeagle and shortfin mako, were classified as “critically endangered”. Many other large sharks are classified as “Data Deficient”.

To view a summary of the Conservation Biology paper, visit:
http://www.lenfestocean.org/publications/ferretti_med_sharks.html
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Labels: environment, Mediterranean, research, sharks

Scientists at the International Institute for Species Exploration have put together a list of the Top 10 New Species described in 2007.

Number one on the list is a sleeper ray called Electrolux addisoni. It was thus named as the discovery of this brightly patterned electric ray "sheds light (Latin, lux) on the rich and poorly known fish diversity of the Western Indian Ocean. And the vigorous sucking action displayed on the videotape of the feeding ray may rival a well-known electrical device used to suck the detritus from carpets and furniture in modern homes".

Coming in at number 8 is the Box Jellyfish, Malo kingi. This new species is the second known species of the dangerous box jellyfish genus Malo, one of several genera of irukandji jellyfish. It is named after American tourist Robert King, who apparently died after being stung by the species while swimming off northern Queensland, Australia. King’s death was a pivotal point in irukandji management, raising public awareness about safety.

The top ten were selected by an international committee of experts, chaired by Dr. Janine Caira of the University of Connecticut. These species were selected from the thousands of species described in calendar year 2007.

The taxonomists are also issuing a SOS – State of Observed Species report card on human knowledge of Earth’s species. In it, they report that 16,969 species new to science were discovered and described in 2006. The SOS report was compiled by ASU’s International Institute for Species Exploration in partnership with the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature, the International Plant Names Index, and Thompson Scientific, publisher of Zoological Record.

“The international committee of taxon experts who made the selection of the top 10 from the thousands of species described in calendar year 2007 is helping draw attention to biodiversity, the field of taxonomy, and the importance of natural history museums and botanical gardens in a fun-filled way,” says Professor Quentin Wheeler, an entomologist and director of ASU’s International Institute for Species Exploration.

“We live in an exciting time. A new generation of tools are coming online that will vastly accelerate the rate at which we are able to discover and describe species,” says Wheeler. “Most people do not realize just how incomplete our knowledge of Earth’s species is or the steady rate at which taxonomists are exploring that diversity. In 2006, for example, an average of nearly 50 species per day were discovered and named.

“We are surrounded by such an exuberance of species diversity that we too often take it for granted. Charting the species of the world and their unique attributes are essential parts of understanding the history of life and is in our own self-interest as we face the challenges of living on a rapidly changing planet,” Wheeler says.

The announcement fell on the anniversary of the birth of Carolus Linnaeus, who initiated the modern system of plant and animal names and classifications. The 300th anniversary of his birth was celebrated worldwide in 2007 and this year marks the 250th anniversary of the beginning of animal naming.

The majority of the 16,969 species described (named) in 2006 were invertebrate animals and vascular plants, which according to the SOS report is consistent with recent years and reflects, in part, “our profound ignorance of many of the most species-rich taxa inhabiting the planet.”

There are about 1.8 million species that have been described since Linnaeus initiated the modern systems for naming plants and animals in the 18th century. Scientists estimate there are between 2 million and 100 million species on Earth, though most set the number closer to 10 million.

According to the authors of the SOS report: “There are many reasons that scientists explore Earth’s species: to discover and document the results of evolutionary history; to learn the species that comprise the ecosystems upon which life on our planet depends; to establish baseline knowledge of the planet’s species and their distribution so that non-native pests and vectors of disease may be detected; to inform and enable conservation biology and resource management.



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Labels: environment

Is it important that global warming turns fish deaf? Yes. For coral reef fish, sound is vital for them to judge where to settle down and live.

After hatching, reef fish larvae are dispersed by ocean currents for a few weeks. The larval fish must then find their way back to a suitable reef to make their home.

It's thought that the young fish home in on high-frequency noises. Coral reefs are extremely noisy environments, with the crackle of snapping shrimps and the chatter of fish set against a backdrop of wind, rain and surf. Sound carries well underwater, and most fish have great hearing.

Global warming and more acidic oceans, though, can cause fish to be born with deformed earbones. Reasearchers at the Australian Institute of Marine Science in Townsville and the University of Edinburgh, suspected that it might be harder for these fish to pinpoint the origin of a sound, increasing the chance they would get lost in the ocean. And, indeed, their results show that this is so.

Journal References and Further Reading:
Proceedings of the Royal Society, Volume 275, Number 1634 / March 07, 2008
Animal Behaviour, doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2007.11.004
SOUND: The essential navigation cue for young reef fishes to find their way home


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Labels: coral reef, environment, fish, marine biology, research, sealife

More than 40 percent of the world's oceans are heavily affected by human activities, and few if any areas remain untouched, according to the first global-scale study of human influence on marine ecosystems.

By overlaying maps of 17 different activities such as fishing, climate change and pollution, the researchers have produced a composite map of the toll that humans have exacted on the seas.

The work, published in Science, was conducted at the National Science Foundation (NSF)'s National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) at the University of California at Santa Barbara, and involved 19 scientists from a range of universities, NGOs, and government agencies.

The study synthesized global data on human impacts to marine ecosystems such as coral reefs, seagrass beds, continental shelves and the deep ocean.

"This research is a critically needed synthesis of the impact of human activity on ocean ecosystems," said David Garrison, biological oceanography program director at NSF. "The effort is likely to be a model for assessing these effects at local and regional scales."

Past studies have focused largely on single activities or single ecosystems in isolation, and rarely at the global scale. In this study the scientists were able to look at the summed influence of human activities across the entire ocean.

"This project allows us to finally start to see the big picture of how humans are affecting the oceans." said lead scientist Ben Halpern of NCEAS. "Our results show that when these and other individual impacts are summed up, the big picture looks much worse than I imagine most people expected. It was certainly a surprise to me."

The study reports that the most heavily affected waters in the world include large areas of the North Sea, the South and East China Seas, the Caribbean Sea, the east coast of North America, the Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, the Bering Sea and several regions in the western Pacific. The least affected areas are largely near the poles.

Human influence on the ocean varies dramatically across various ecosystems. The most heavily affected areas include coral reefs, rocky reefs and seamounts. The least impacted ecosystems are soft-bottom areas and open-ocean surface waters.

"My hope is that these results serve as a wake-up call to better manage and protect our oceans, rather than a reason to give up," added Halpern.
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Labels: environment, marine biology, research

As the number of marine species assessments increases, so does the number of species in danger. The 2007 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species shows that excessive and destructive fishing activities play a primary role in oceans biodiversity loss.

Out of the 41,415 species on the IUCN Red List, 1,530 use the marine environment. Out of these, about 30% are at risk and 80 are threatened with extinction. While some 240 have been newly added to or reassessed for the 2007 Red List, 71% are in jeopardy, with 31 species facing high risks of extinction.

Carl Gustaf Lundin, Head of IUCN’s Global Marine Programme, said: "The rate of species loss in the world's oceans will continue, and at an accelerated pace, if serious actions aren’t undertaken to overcome what we can call the oceans crisis."

"Habitat destruction, pollution, climate change and other human-induced disturbances explain why biodiversity is disappearing" he continued. "However, over-fishing and destructive fishing practices represent by far for the most important threat to the marine environment. Fishing operations, from local, often illegal, dynamite fishing to large-scale industrial fishing, have devastating effects and will lead to further extinctions."

Corals have been assessed and added to the IUCN Red List for the very first time. Ten Galápagos species have entered the list, with two in the Critically Endangered category and one in the Vulnerable category. Wellington’s Solitary Coral (Rhizopsammia wellingtoni) has been listed as Critically Endangered (Possibly Extinct). The main threats to these species are the effects of El Niño and climate change.

In just a year, both Spingy Angelsharks and Smoothback Angelsharks have moved from the Endangered to the Critically Endangered category. The two species used to be a common and important deep-water predator over large areas in the Mediterranean Sea and the Eastern Atlantic. Highly vulnerable to by-catch in bottom fishing operations, angelsharks’ abundance has declined dramatically during the past 50 years to the point that they have been extirpated from large areas of the northern Mediterranean and parts of the West African coasts.

Source: 2007 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

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Labels: environment, marine biology, research

WWF-Canada have released a new study that identifies three coldwater coral "hotspots" off Newfoundland and Labrador and assesses the impact of fishing on these fragile organisms. The study provides the scientific basis for Canadian and European governments to protect sensitive coral habitat in the Northwest Atlantic.

Coldwater corals are long-lived animals that live along continental slopes, seamounts, and mid-ocean ridges. These corals are important parts of deep-sea ecosystems and provide habitat for other invertebrates and fishes. Coldwater corals can be damaged by fishing or other seafloor directed activities and may take centuries to grow back, if at all.

"Canada, Spain, Portugal and Russia are the countries that have the greatest potential to damage these globally important concentrations of corals," said Dr. Robert Rangeley, Vice President, Atlantic, WWF-Canada. "Their fleets are among the largest operating off Newfoundland and fish in and around the areas identified as hotspots. This also means they have the greatest opportunity to protect them."

"Our study mapped where corals are found, and identified areas where coral bycatch is highest for a variety of fisheries and gear types," said lead author of the study Dr. Evan Edinger. "Our research demonstrates that no matter what type of fishing gear is used, bottom-contact fishing in coral habitat damages corals. Therefore, it is very important that any areas established to protect corals exclude all bottom directed fishing activities." This research builds on a growing global movement to protect coldwater corals and seamounts. In 2006, the United Nations General Assembly called on fisheries management agencies like the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) to implement vulnerable habitat protection measures by December 2008. In response, last year NAFO signalled their intent to protect seamount habitats.

The Report, Coldwater Corals off Newfoundland and Labrador: Distribution and Fisheries Impacts may be downloaded at: http://wwf.ca/coral

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Labels: coral, environment, marine biology, research

Pinna nobilis, the giant bivalve, is endangered. Although in some places it has historically been abundant, there has been a lack of up-to-date information about its exact distribution. SCUBA divers therefore went looking for the giant mussel in the Ionian Sea, Italy.

The results of the study indicate a tentative of recovery of P. nobilis population there, in spite of all the difficulties of a degraded and heavily polluted environment and the damages of illegal fishing methods.

The divers found the pinnids at depths from 3 to 16 m. Their numbers ranged from one individual in 10 hectares, to one every 1.4 hectares. (A hectare is around 2.5 acres or 0.01 square km.)

The survey method employed in this study was non-destructive and relatively simple to perform.

Pinna nobilis lives only in the Mediterranean Sea (which encompasses the Ionian Sea). It likes seagrass meadows and grows up to 120 cm. It sticks up out of the sea bed so is easily seen by divers, once you know what to look for. Although in the Ionian Sea the mussels were found between 3 and 16 m, in other areas of the Med, such as the Adriatic Sea, they live down to 30 m.

In another study, published last month in the Marine Biology journal, Stelios Katsanevakis of the University of Athens investigated the growth and mortality rates of Pinna nobilis in Greece. He found 160 of the mussels and monitored them for 17 months. He discovered that growth rates had a seasonal pattern. The mussels grew slowly during the cold months, and also during August when water temperatures exceeded 29 oC. They grew quickest during late spring and early summer, probably due to an optimum combination of temperature and food availability. Younger individuals grew faster than older ones.

P. nobilis is a protected species in the EU and its fishing is strictly prohibited. However, in the Greek study many deaths were caused by fishing. The mussels were poached exclusively by free-diving and fishing mortality was practically zero at depths below 9 m. Because of this large individuals were restricted to deeper areas.

Journal References:
Environ Monit Assess 2007; 131:339-47.
Marine Biology 2007; DOI: 10.1007/s00227-007-0781-2

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Labels: environment, Greece, Italy, marine biology, Mediterranean, research

The rate and extent of coral loss are greater than expected, American researchers have found. And the reduction of coral rapidly causes a decline in the abundance and diversity of reef fish.

The estimated annual rate of coral cover loss in the Caribbean between 1977 and 2001 was approximately 1.5%, with the greatest decline occurring during the 1980s. In contrast, the estimated net annual loss of global humid tropical rainforest was only 0.4% from 1990–1997. Additionally, the patterns of coral reef degradation are very different from rainforest loss in that nearly all reefs have been affected; there are virtually no remaining pristine reefs and very few with coral cover close to the historical average.

Remarkably, in 2003, only 4% of the 390 surveyed Indo-Pacific reefs had coral cover greater than 50% and only 2% had cover greater than 60%. In contrast, cover was over 50% on nearly a third of the reefs surveyed between 1980 and 1983.

Despite the well-documented effects of several causes of mass coral mortality, there is substantial evidence that coral communities remain resilient, often recovering in ten to thirty years after major disturbances. However, such “recovery,” loosely defined as a return to pre-disturbance coral cover, often does not mean a return to original coral species composition because the recovery of slow-growing species can take centuries.

The general absence of quantitative data on reef health has led to several misconceptions about the causes, patterns, and best remedies for global coral decline. For example, in 2003, coral cover on the Great Barrier Reef (GBR), considered the “best-managed” and “one of the most ‘pristine’ coral reefs in the world”, was not significantly greater than on reefs in the Philippines and other subregions that are often thought to be highly threatened and poorly managed.

Additionally, based on the impression that Hawaiian reefs were “far further down the trajectory of decline” [than reefs in the Caribbean and Australia] a recent essay argued for a total overhaul of U.S. coral reef management policy. But Bruno and Sellig's analysis suggests that coral cover in the main Hawaiian islands, including frequently visited reefs close to urban and tourism centers, appears to have been as high as GBR cover over the last two decades.

The study highlights the urgent need for conservation policies to restore coral reefs and the ecosystem services they provide, estimated to be worth $23,100–$270,000 km−2 year−1. The researchers say halting and reversing coral loss will require actions across a range of scales including local restoration and conservation of herbivores that facilitate coral recruitment, and the reduction of fishing practices that directly kill corals, the implementation of regional land use practices that reduce sedimentation and nutrient pollution, and the institution of global policies to reduce anthropogenic ocean warming and acidification.

Source: Bruno JF, Selig ER (2007) Regional Decline of Coral Cover in the Indo-Pacific: Timing, Extent, and Subregional Comparisons. PLoS ONE 2(8): e711. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0000711

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Labels: coral, environment

Human activity in the deep sea is extending ever deeper, with recent research showing that this environment is more sensitive to human and natural impacts than previously thought.

Some deep-water fish stocks have collapsed and fishing methods such as bottom trawling have raised international concern over the habitat damage they cause. It is likely that in its current form, deep-sea fishing is unsustainable.

Diminishing reserves of hydrocarbons in shallow water are pushing exploration and production into deeper waters, which may cause damage to little known deep-sea habitats.

The deep sea is also proposed as an environment where carbon dioxide could be stored to minimise the effect of its release into the atmosphere. At the same time, rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels may be altering the chemical equilibrium of the global ocean by lowering pH.

Many countries are now beginning to designate some deep-sea habitats as marine protected areas in measures to reduce the damage caused by fishing and other human activities.

A new review examines these issues in deep-sea conservation and discusses the conservation status and the designation of protected areas. The enforcement of protected areas using satellite tracking of vessels is discussed and applied to an internationally agreed deep-water conservation area, which aims to protect cold-water coral habitats on the Darwin Mounds in the north east Atlantic Ocean.

Journal Reference: Biological Conservation (2007), doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2007.05.011

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Labels: environment, marine biology

Fish use the threat of punishment to keep would-be jumpers in the mating queue firmly in line and the social order stable, a new study led has found.

Studying small goby fish at Lizard Island on Australia's Great Barrier Reef, Dr Marian Wong and colleagues have shown the threat of expulsion from the group acts as a powerful deterrent to keep subordinate fish from challenging those more dominant than themselves.

In fact the subordinate fish deliberately diet - or starve themselves - in order to remain smaller than their superiors and so present no threat that might lead to their being cast out, and perishing as a result.

"Many animals have social queues in which the smaller members wait their turn before they can mate. We wanted to find out how they maintain stability in a situation where you'd expect there would be a lot of competition," says Dr Wong.

In the case of the gobies, only the top male and top female mate, and all the other females have to wait their turn in a queue based on their size - the fishy equivalent of the barnyard pecking order.

Dr Wong found that each fish has a size difference of about 5 per cent from the one above and the one below it in the queue. If the difference in size decreases below this threshold, a challenge is on as the junior fish tries to jump the mating queue - and the superior one responds by trying to drive it out of the group.

Her fascinating discovery is that, in order to avoid constant fights and keep the social order stable, the fish seem to accept the threat of punishment - and adjust their own size in order to avoid presenting a challenge to the one above them.

"Social hierarchies are very stable in these fish and in practice challenges and expulsions are extremely rare - probably because expulsion from the group and the coral reef it occupies means almost certain death to the loser.

"It is clear the fish accept the threat of punishment and co-operate as a way of maintaining their social order - and that's not so very different to how humans and other animals behave."

Dr Wong said that experimentally it has always proved extremely difficult to demonstrate how higher animals, such as apes, use punishment to control subordinates and discourage anti-social activity because of the difficulty in observing and interpreting their behaviour.

In the case of the gobies the effect is much more apparent because they seek to maintain a particular size ratio relative to the fish above them in the queue, in order not to provoke a conflict.

"The gobies have shed new light on our understanding of how social stability is maintained in animals," she says.

The paper entitled "The threat of punishment enforces peaceful cooperation and stabilizes queues in a coral-reef fish" was co-authored with Dr Philip Munday and Professor Geoff Jones of CoECRS and Dr Peter Buston of the Biological Station of Doñana, Spain. It appears in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 274.

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Labels: environment, fish, marine biology, research, sealife

Caribbean coral species are dying off, indicating dramatic shifts in the ecological balance under the sea, a new scientific study of Caribbean marine life shows.

The study found that 10 percent of the Caribbean’s 62 reef-building corals were under threat, including staghorn and elkhorn corals. These used to be the most prominent species but are now candidates to be listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

A gathering of 23 scientists in Dominica analysed data on Western Tropical Atlantic corals, seagrasses, mangroves and algae, which are fundamental components of marine ecosystems providing food and shelter for numerous other organisms and local communities.

The threats to corals and other marine species include coastal pollution and human development; increased sedimentation in run-off water; thermal stress and heightened severity of hurricanes from climate change; and shifts in species dynamics due to over-fishing, according to the study. Scientists explained that the Caribbean has undergone the longest and most sustained impacts from human development since the colonization of the Americas.

Next to corals, mangroves appear to be the hardest hit. Mangrove cover in the region has declined by 42% over the past 25 years, with two of the eight mangrove species now considered Vulnerable to extinction and two more in Near Threatened status.

“Mangroves protect shorelines, shelter fish, and filter pollution,” said Aaron Ellison of Harvard University. “The Caribbean was blessed with an abundance of these useful plants, but the consensus of this workshop is that mangroves are in trouble everywhere and need to be protected and restored,” he added. Mangrove forests are being cut down to make way for coastal housing, tourism, and aquaculture development.

The scientists noted that some healthy Caribbean coral reefs still exist in well-managed marine protected areas such as Bonaire Marine Park in the Netherlands Antilles. Direct human impacts are reduced in these areas allowing most corals to thrive; however, thermal stress from global warming affects all corals in the Caribbean and must be reversed if these refuges of Caribbean beauty are to survive, they added.

Further Reading: Conservation International

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Labels: Caribbean, coral, environment

Greenpeace are launching a 7 Step Climate Campaign, starting with what they consider the most outrageously wasteful of electrical household items: the incandescent light bulb. They say that a simple switch to energy saving bulbs in the European Union alone would save 20 million tonnes of CO2, equal to shutting down 25 medium-size dirty power plants; and this is before considering the efficiency of other household products, or even cars!

If you join Greenpeace's campaign means you will get an email every week for seven weeks. Steps one, two and three are about changing your own lightbulbs and raising awareness about the campaign. Steps four, five and six are about demanding change from retailers, manufacturers and governments. Step seven they are keeping secret.

To join the campaign go to the Greenpeace website.

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Labels: environment

The first buoy to monitor ocean acidification has been launched in the Gulf of Alaska. Attached to the 3-metre-diameter buoy are sensors to measure climate indicators. These transmit their readings via satellite.

Acidification is a result of carbon dioxide absorbed by the seas.

"The instruments will measure the air-sea exchange of carbon dioxide, oxygen and nitrogen gas in addition to the pH, a measure of ocean acidity, of the surface waters," said Steven Emerson of the University of Washington, the project's lead scientist. "This is the first system specifically designed to monitor ocean acidification."

The buoy is anchored in water nearly 5,000 meters deep.

The goal of the research is to examine how ocean circulation and ecosystems interact to determine how much carbon dioxide the north Pacific Ocean absorbs each year.

"The Gulf of Alaska region is particularly important because it is likely to be one of the first regions to feel the impacts of ocean acidification," said Christopher Sabine, a PMEL oceanographer.

"This a significant step in furthering our understanding of how the ocean is reacting to carbon dioxide, as well as an important addition to the growing Global Ocean Observing System of Systems, which incorporates the best technology to provide the best science to help decision makers and the general public," said Richard Spinrad, assistant administrator of NOAA's Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research.

Further Reading:
National Science Foundation

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Labels: environment

Short-sighted plans to allow European companies to buy their way out of making reductions in their greenhouse gas emissions are undermining efforts to prevent climate change, a new WWF report shows.

The EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) is among the planet’s biggest and most ambitious projects designed to tackle climate change. While the mechanism of carbon trading is sound in principle, the first phase of the EU scheme (2005 to 2007) has been seriously undermined by weak political decisions. Bigger emitters are able to buy carbon allowances — which effectively allow them to pollute — from companies that have reduced their emissions. However, EU governments handed out far too many allowances to their industries.

For Phase II the European Commission has sought to clamp down on the caps proposed by many Member States. However, this is being weakened by a decision to allow industries to buy massive amounts of credits from projects outside the EU (under the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism). This reliance on cheap imported credits means that European industry may not have to reduce its own emissions at all.

"There is a real danger that this will lock the EU in to high carbon investments and soaring emissions for many years to come, wrecking the EU’s emission reduction targets for 2020 and 2030 and making a mockery of Europe’s standing as a world leader in tackling climate change.”

WWF also has serious concerns about the validity of many of these overseas projects. In order to qualify as CDM projects, they have to show that they are “additional”, which means that they would not happen without funding from carbon trading. However there are significant questions about whether this critical principle is being adhered to effectively. If the projects are not additional, then the sale of credits from them leads to an actual increase in carbon emissions.


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Labels: environment

Beautiful Oceans
Coral Reef Ecosystem & Food Web Course
$59.55
http://www.beautifuloceans.com/

This new course for divers discusses the coral reef ecosystem and food web. It illustrates its points using animals and plants found in and around coral reefs. For instance, the Caribbean Reef Shark is discussed as a top-level, active, predator. The authors manage to pack loads of information on their example species into a small space, without the prose becoming uninteresting. And even when I thought I knew lots about a subject they managed to surprise me. For instance, did you know that sponges may be able to live to over 1000 years old?

Although much of the information applies to coral reefs throughout the world, the example species are found in the Caribbean.

By the end of the course its authors hope that you will have learnt to appreciate all life on coral reefs from the tiniest phytoplankton to the shark. You will also have learnt how each creature is interconnected with the others.

The course is available on-line, where you work through at your own pace at your computer. It includes videos of animal behaviour and interactive quizzes. You can also take the course at selected dive schools in the Caribbean.

The course materials are well written, with many interesting asides. The Manual, in pdf format, is 119 pages long. It has a comprehensive index and is lavishly illustrated with a high-quality photograph or diagram on nearly every page.

We are delighted to be able to offer our newsletter subscribers the chance to win the course. Subscribe at http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/news.html then send us an e-mail with "Beautiful Oceans" as the subject line. Closing date is 11 June. Your e-mail entries will not be passed to any other company unless you win, in which case Beautiful Oceans will be in touch with you.

For more information visit http://www.beautifuloceans.com/

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Labels: Caribbean, coral, environment, marine biology, sealife

Coral disease outbreaks have struck the healthiest sections of Australia's Great Barrier Reef, where for the first time researchers have conclusively linked disease severity and ocean temperature. Close living quarters among coral may make it easy for infection to spread, researchers have found.

"With this study, speculation about the impacts of global warming on the spread of infectious diseases among susceptible marine species has been brought to an end," said Don Rice, director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Chemical Oceanography Program, which funded the research through the joint NSF-National Institutes of Health Ecology of Infectious Diseases Program.

For 6 years, the international research team, led by University of North Carolina (UNC)-Chapel Hill, tracked an infection called white syndrome in 48 reefs along more than 900 miles (1,500 kilometers) of Australia's coastline.

The colorful coral colonies that attract visitors to the Great Barrier Reef live atop a limestone scaffolding built from the calcium carbonate secretions of each tiny coral, or polyp. While polyps provide the framework, coral's vivid hues come from symbiotic single-celled algae that live in the polyps. The algae supply much of the food coral need to survive.

When disease or stressful environmental conditions strike a coral colony, the polyps expel their algae. This algae loss makes the coral appear pale.

"We're left with a big question. Can corals and other marine species successfully adapt or evolve, when faced with such change?" Rice said.

Understanding the causes of disease outbreaks will help ecologists protect reef-building corals, which support commercial marine species and buffer low-lying coastal areas.

"More diseases are infecting more coral species every year, leading to the global loss of reef-building corals and the decline of other important species dependent on reefs," said lead study author John Bruno at UNC. "We've long suspected climate change is driving disease outbreaks. Our results suggest that warmer temperatures are increasing the severity of disease in the ocean."

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Labels: Australia, coral, environment, marine biology

There are currently 279 highly imperiled US species that are designated as candidates for listing as threatened or endangered and that face potential extinction. But the Bush administration has failed to protect any one of them in the last year.

The last species protected by the administration were 12 Hawaiian picture-wing flies listed in a single rule on May 9, 2006. Overall, according to a report released by the Center for Biological Diversity, the Bush administration has listed fewer species under the Endangered Species Act than any other administration since the law was enacted in 1973, to date only listing 57 species compared to 512 under the Clinton administration and 234 under the first Bush administration.

“The Bush administration has killed the program for protecting new species as endangered,” says Noah Greenwald, conservation biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity. “and in the process has contributed to the extinction of at least two species. This government’s war on science is also a war against wildlife.”

In October of last year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that the Hawaiian plant Haha (Cyanea eleeleensis) is likely extinct and thus is being considered for removal from the candidate list. The summer run of Lake Sammamish Kokonee salmon in Washington state are also believed extinct.

A copy of the Center’s report can be found at:
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/

Further reading: Center for Biological Diversity

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Labels: environment

Egypt have cancelled a decree which allowed companies to collect reef fish and export them to Europe and other markets .

According to the Hurghada Environmental Protection and Conservation Association (HEPCA), the previous decision had a devastating effect on nature and on the coral reef condition in the whole area. HEPCA launched a huge campaign against this decision and lobbied with other agencies, enthusiastic individuals, and major media representatives.

As a result of the decision HEPCA have ceased legal actions against the Minister's old decree.

Further Reading: http://www.hepca.com/

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Labels: environment, fish, Red Sea, sealife