With the recent earthquake/tsunami in the American Samoa and Tonga region, nature has once again reminded us all of who is the boss. I'm sure that all our thoughts go out to the people impacted by this natural calamity.
Climate Change: a topic I have brought up often within this blog and one which continues to gain importance as more and more research produces findings that indicate serious changes taking place on a global scale.
disease due to malnutrition or changing ecosystems and climate? Don't tell me there's nothing we can do. Whether you feel it can be moderated or that it's inevitable, at the very least we must take action regarding the consequences. But what I often hear is, "It's just part of a cycle" and then they want to drop the subject.
Healthy coral reefs include a multitude of nooks and crannies that provide a base and secure haven for a variety of organisms - from algae and plants to mollusks, lobster and fish. But according to Seaweb.org, a new study released by the University of Anglia in England shows strong evidence that Caribbean reefs are "flattening" and providing a less than favorable architectural structure that threatens the reefs' survival.
What is causing this? The report lists several potential causes - all naturally induced calamities.
As a member of the Explorers Club, I have had the pleasure and honor of meeting many accomplished scientists and explorers covering a range of scientific disciplines, from oceanography to astrophysics. This past Friday, I attended the West Coast Annual Explorers Club Dinner and had the chance to meet Dr. Anatoly Sagalevich, the chief pilot and head of the Russian Deep Manned Submersible Laboratory, home of the Mir ("Peace") submersibles. He was being honored by the Explorers Club with their annual Ralph B. White Award for Oceanographic Exploration and Conservation of the Seas.
Now the exploits of these famous submersibles and their captain are available in print. The Deep: Voyages to Titanic and Beyond, written by Anatoly Sagalevich and Paul Isley III and available through Amazon.com, is a fascinating accounting of the Russian submersible program, beautifully illustrated and translated from Anatoly's original Russian edition.
Let's end the week on some great news! This just in from the United Nations: before the General Assembly today, the President of Palau declared its 230,000 sq.mile Exclusive Economic Zone a shark sanctuary. This is the first shark sanctuary recognized by any country and it will hopefully send a message to other countries, regardless of their economic standing, that in the end it is better business to save and protect sharks than to slaughter them. Bravo, to Palau's President Toribiong for taking this step!
The good news: The European Union countries have agreed on a German proposal to submit two species of shark to CITES for consideration as an Appendix II listed endangered species. 
The two species are Porbeagle sharks, a deep water species in the North Atlantic that reaches a length of 10 feet; and the Spurdog, or Spiny Dogfish, a small 3-foot variety. Both have been heavily fished for their meat to satisfy European market demand and their populations have declined worldwide. An Appendix II listing would require close fishery management of their catches by all CITES member nations.
The bad news: The EU countries also rejected support of a Monaco proposal to place the Bluefin Tuna in an Appendix I status. This would ban all international trade in this species. The proposal was strongly opposed by Mediterranean countries, who have substantial tuna fleets and would, it seems, prefer to continue supporting those fleets with fishery management policies that have, to date, failed to produce a sustainable population. In fact, at today's catch rate, the species is bound for extinction in the eyes of many scientific and research experts.
A Sea Change is a very important film about ocean acidification and will be airing this Saturday, September 26th on Discovery's Planet Green channel at 8pm EST. The first feature-length film to cover this relatively new but critically important topic, A Sea Change documents the growing worldwide impact on our oceans from CO2 emissions which alters the ocean's delicate balance of acidity - its pH level.
It's been a while since I have mentioned ScienceDebate.org. This is an organization dedicated to revitalizing the position of science within public awareness and the policy-making decision process. This is something I feel strongly about: the role of science is critical with regards to many of the worldwide issues facing us today. Whether it is climate change, alternative energy, conservation, or medicine - the information that we will need to make decisions and set policy will come from the research and data that science produces.
There has been a lot of politics flying around the U.S. of late with considerable attention being placed on the healthcare reform debate. While complicated, it is an issue that the current administration would like to see resolved soon, as there is another strategic issue looming on the horizon that President Obama would like to address: climate change and the related issue of a national energy policy.
The administration is also having to tackle a related issue having to do with whether to allow oil drilling in the Arctic, which was first proposed by the Bush administration near the close of its term (300,000 signatures opposing the drilling along with support of over 400 scientists were delivered to the Department of the Interior today as part of a public comment period).
It is a global issue and a complicated one in finding the necessary common ground or solutions to move forward effectively, to really make a difference. But it is one that can't be ignored, whether you believe that climate change is solely mankind's fault, part of a cyclical natural change, or a little of both.
This past week, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service put the Great Lakes wolf back on the endangered species list. This action bodes well for the pending court action to place the nearby Northern Rocky Mountain wolves residing in Idaho and Montana, which are currently subject to state-sanctioned hunting, back on the list also.
An Appeals Court voided a land trade between the Bureau of Land Management and the Asarco Corporation which would have traded 7,300 acres of private land for 11,000 acres of public land destined to allow the expansion of the Asarco copper mine. The court ruled that the trade was "arbitrary and capricious" and did not consider the environmental impact. Verizon Wireless gave a tepid response to 81k email protests regarding their support of a pro-mountaintop-removal mining rally held this past Labor Day, claiming the sponsorship was not an expression of mountaintop removal coal mining.
Due in large part to public protest, the Bureau of Land Management halted the controversial relocation of over 1,000 desert tortoises, originally as part of an expansion of the Fort Irwin Army base. Relocation efforts in the past have proven fatal for many of the tortoises, but Fort Irwin is hoping to get approval from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to move 90 tortoises, thereby defying the Bureau's action.
Member scientists of the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change again emphasized the need to establish a level of 350 parts per million for carbon dioxide emissions as the base level if we are to make any real progress. They warned that any legislation, like the current U.S. global warming legislation being considered, that sets CO2 limits above 350 ppm will lead to catastrophic effects on coral reefs and other ecosystems. The U.S. bill, passed by the House, sets the limit at 450 to 550 ppm. Over 350 organizations have urged a level of 350 ppm to be the goal in the U.S. Senate's version of the bill.
And, as a final aside, according to the Center for Biological Diversity, there is a waiting list for species in need of Endangered Species List protection. Held back because of bureaucratic inefficiency or "higher priority" federal programs, the list includes 100 species that have been waiting for more than a decade and 73 have been waiting for more than a quarter-century. And apparently this bureaucratic quagmire has contributed to the extinction of 83 plants and animals between 1974 and 1994. The new Obama administration has said it will address a current backlog of over 250 species, but the proof will lie in the results.
Over the past few years, I have been fortunate to conduct speaking engagements with many ocean-conservation minded institutions regarding great white sharks, shark conservation, and shark ecotourism. Sometimes it entails a screening of my white shark documentary, Island of the Great White Shark, other times it's sharks in general and their related issues. Whether speaking to adults or children, there is always a fascination with sharks but also some progress is made in making people aware of what is threatening these important predators.
Being an adventurer today has certainly changed from the "climb it because it's there" mentality of the past. It's an evolution taking place, and the idea of breaking records or simply challenging yourself in some extreme fashion without deriving some environmental or ecological benefit is slowly vanishing. Today, if we travel deep into the ocean or high into the atmosphere, it should be done to learn more about this amazing planet we live on. The devil-may-care adventurer has given way to the wide-eyed explorer who is searching for knowledge to benefit the planet and, in so doing, ourselves.
Did you know that June was National Oceans Month? Neither did I but a proclamation was made by the Obama administration to that effect - one of many proclamations that are made, distributed, and then (if not picked up by the media) sink into oblivion.
"We have a stewardship responsibility to maintain healthy, resilient, and sustainable oceans, coasts and Great Lakes resources for the benefit of this and future generations." 
For several months there has been quite a controversy brewing about shark diving operations on the north shore of Oahu, Hawaii. (See prior post.) Because of a badly bungled attempt by a neophyte to launch a new operation in the southern shore, a grass roots movement grew to have all shark diving outlawed at the island. The two existing operations have been there for many years and have provided safe, responsible shark diving activities several miles offshore for thousands of diving tourists each year.
Sadly, the proposed ordinance is one based on fear, misinformation or a lack of understanding or accepting the facts, and a manipulation of Hawaii's culture regarding sharks. With a ban in place, will the sharks at the north shore be threatened in any way? Perhaps not, although foreign commercial shark boats operate close by. But definitely thousands of divers will be deprived of seeing and appreciating these animals first hand, becoming ambassadors to the cause of conservation; and Oahu stands to lose important tourist dollars.
It's several months off, March 2010 to be exact, but you want to keep an eye on the upcoming meeting of the Parties of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna - better known as CITES.
I was watching a political commentary/political satire television program the other night. A range of the hottest U.S. news issues were being discussed, from healthcare to Afghanistan to partisan politics. There was humor but there was plenty of solid, serious discussion taking place, too.
On the panel of guest commentators was Richard Clarke, a gentleman with an accomplished history of involvement in international and homeland security affairs for many years, working with the Reagan, Bush, and Clinton administrations and currently a lecturer, author, and faculty member for the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard.
It was about a week ago that several shark blog sites, like SharkDiver's, started to post news about a congregation of white sharks appearing off Cape Cod in the northeastern U.S. While white sharks are not unheard of in this area, the higher than usual numbers were of interest - a statistical anomaly or evidence of a population increase (wouldn't that be nice, given their decline in numbers over the years)?“They definitely knew they were out there,” Breen [the pilot] said of sharks sensing the swimmers. “Whether they’d bite them, I don’t know.”
Breen was hired to help the research team, which tagged three great whites on Tuesday, bringing to five the number of sharks tagged with tracking devices over the last week. The discovery of sharks off Chatham forced the indefinite closing of the town’s beaches, but some ignored warnings not to swim in the area.
In one near-miss, Breen said he watched as a shark approached a diver from a documentary crew making a film about the researchers. He said he was circling above the filmmakers’ boat when the diver jumped into the water to retrieve a piece of equipment.
“I saw a shark going real slow about a quarter-mile away, and then when the diver jumped in, all of a sudden I saw the shark head right for the boat, going from about 2 knots to 10 to 15 knots, in an instant,” Breen said.
He radioed the crew on the boat and told them to get the diver out -- right away. The diver was attached to a tether and he was pulled out.
“The shark definitely smelled something,” Breen said. “Their sensory perception is unbelievable. The shark was only about 100 feet when they pulled the diver out.”
I know, for those of you who know anything about sharks, you're doing a slow burn right now. Sharks don't "smell" people in the water, particularly at a quarter-mile away! A white shark has pretty good eyesight, but not that good. No, it's the shark's ability to "hear" or sense vibrations in 
the water (a trait shared by nearly all fish) that caught its attention as the diver jumped into the water. And these animals are naturally curious. I have been fortunate to have several close encounters with white sharks and these events came about not because I was the meal d'jour but because my presence peaked its curiosity; I was something out of the norm.
Sharks like the great white have a battery of sensory capabilities that, based on distance (far away to close) typically react in this order: vibrations/sound (lateral line and inner ear); smell; eyesight; electrical impulses (Ampullae de Lorenzini); and finally, taste.
If Breen had spoken with the research team who hired him before speaking with the press, he would have been set right and his sensationalistic story could have been diffused. But if you're looking for a hot story or a little attention, what good is that, eh?
Some of the beaches in the area have been closed which, dramatic as that may seem, might be prudent for a short while. The sharks are in an area with a seasonal breeding population of seals, which is probably what has attracted them. That there might be a slight uptick in the highly remote possibility wherein a swimmer could accidentally be mistaken for a seal - particularly if the swimmer is wearing a black wetsuit - may be sufficient reason to close a beach temporarily.
But let's hope that it doesn't inspire sportfishermen or even government officials to go on some wild hunting safari to clear the area of an animal who has more right to be there than we certainly do.
When I first started scuba diving over 25 years ago, I became fascinated with all kinds of underwater life - but often for all the wrong reasons. I tried spearfishing, game collecting, shell collecting - a variety of activities that I no longer engage in as I now view sealife as an important but threatened resource.
But the shell collecting/gift shop and exhibition trades are apparently taking their toll on this incredible, ancient mollusk. Dead or alive, a combined 579,000 were imported to the U.S. alone between 2005 and 2008. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service is considering proposing that the Nautilus receive an Appendix II classification with CITES. CITES defines the Appendix II rating this way:
On a similar note to Monday's post, there is a push to revise the European Union's overall fisheries management and an important conference coming up this month regarding aquaculture.
Kind of an industry convention for aquaculture, the event will include speakers, panels, and symposiums along with displays from various suppliers in the industry.
Some time ago, I posted information about actions taken by the ICCAT (International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna) regarding acceptable levels of commercially-caught Bluefin Tuna. The organization, which is supposed to be in charge of managing the fishery for much of the EU and the Mediteranean, settled on catch levels far above the recommendations of their scientific advisors. The Bluefin Tuna's future did not look good.
Wolves are under the gun again, literally."It's only a matter of time," warned Stone, "before Idaho's state legislature enforces their demand that all wolves be removed 'by whatever means necessary,' which is still the state's official policy on wolves."
Read story in Environmental News Service.
Over the years, WildAid has focused much of its efforts on raising public awareness to the plight of endangered animals, whether it's tigers, sharks, or elephants. This effort often requires taking the issue directly to the people with advertising, public relations, and celebrity endorsements that often engender the wrath of governments or other official agencies that care not for the bad press and the intrusion of foreigners. Not an easy task.
Eating the fins may also be dangerous, said Trend, who also heads the Wild Aid's London Office. Research shows they contain heavy metals such as mercury, which can cause damage to the nervous system and male infertility."
GotMercury.org lists an 8 oz. portion of shark for person weighing 175 pounds, as having 4 times the weekly allowed amount of mercury, as defined by the EPA. That's 4 weeks worth of mercury in one sitting!
For those who don't care about the fate of sharks or that of other pelagic predators, perhaps knowing that they are also harming themselves might make them think twice. The same self-centeredness that propels them to consume these animals might make them think twice when they are aware of the personal harm to which they are exposed.
