Anguilla Anguilla a.k.a. European eel faces extinction threat

The Anguilla Anguilla or European eel is amongst one of the highly endangered marine species today. According to an article from the Guardian, the population of the eels has declined by 95% over the last 25 years. And people, especially the fishermen, fisheries officials and conservationists are baffled over this mystery of the vanishing eels which is occurring in the Al. They simply cannot pinpoint the main cause of this.

On one hand, environment changes could have played a role in causing this. Kevin Friedland, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (N.O.A.A.) biologist and his colleagues’ research has found a significant correlation between the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO - a type of ocean-atmospheric pattern) , and the variation in the number of glass eels (juvenile stage) caught. He said that, “Changing ocean conditions in the Sargasso Sea (the hatching area) caused by the NAO could be affecting the recruitment and survival of European eels.” Similarly, other natural-occurring variations, for instance, the North Atlantic Drift and the Gulf Stream might also have contributed to this phenomenon. This is because the eels are hatched in freshwater lakes in America first, and they travel to their respective oceans upon reaching the juvenile stage.

Furthermore, the decline could have also occurred due to over-fishing, given the large demand for the fishes in the far-east. At one time, a kilo of glass eels itself was worth 500 pounds, tempting fishermen to use illegal nets to scoop “as many up as possible”. Adult eels are also caught for the same purpose. Therefore, with the eels being caught continuously without any restrictions, there is no doubt that the population of eels would decline so drastically to the verge of extinction.

Besides this, the construction of man-made structures has contributed to this emergency too. By building structures that obstruct the paths of the young eels, we are basically preventing the European eels from reaching the Atlantic Ocean, their spawning ground, trapping them hence, causing the premature deaths of the eels.

Lastly, the population of European eels could have declined because of the introduction of parasites to their habitats, for example, Anguillicola Crassus, a parasitic nematode worm that lives in the swim bladders of the eels. These parasites are a threat to the eels because they can spread easily among the eel populations upon being introduced to water. Using the preys of the eels as hosts, these parasites enter the eels’ body when it gets consumed along with its hosts by them. Soon, the infected eels’ swim bladder will collapse causing its death due to its inability to stay afloat. The deaths of these eels along and those caused by the other factors eventually caused its population to decline rapidly

Just like other endangered animals, the problem that the European eel is facing should not be left unsolved. Unless any actions is taken by the relevant authorities, nothing can help the eels to save themselves from extinction.

Bottom Trawling In Europe

For the past few decades, mankind has probably brought about more damage to Mother Nature compared to benefits. The negative impacts of our actions/practices are even affecting the biodiversity at sea as proven by several re-known marine biologists and wildlife organizations.

One of such destructive practices is bottom trawling. Bottom trawling is a method of commercial fishing that is primarily practiced in Europe since the 18th Century, where a huge net is dragged along the seabed behind fishing boats to catch a larger number of fishes. Initially, commercial fishing boats had to avoid trawling at areas that contain coral reefs and rocky terrains unless they wanted to risk damaging the nets. However, after fitting the enormous nets with huge rubber tires or rollers, they could trawl through rough surfaces easily and catch a larger variety of fishes in any particular area. Bottom trawling has since destroyed countless reefs and other marine habitats in Europe, affecting its fellow inhabitants too. In Norwegian waters, for instance, an estimated one third to one half of the deepwater reefs have been destroyed or damaged as a result of bottom trawling. Furthermore, the damages inflicted on these reefs are often difficult to heal. Trawling an area once is enough to render it lifeless for a few decades. Thus, it is all the more necessary for us to advocate organizations that oppose bottom trawling. (E.g. Greenpeace, Oceana)

In addition to this, bottom trawling is also seen as a threat to marine diversity because it has led to the current problem of over-fishing in Europe. Population of fishes such as Orange roughy, blue ing, black scabbards and parrot fish, are decreasing at a fast rate since the population of the fishes are unable to recover as quickly as they are trawled, given that their habitats are destroyed. Moreover, with the trawlers capable of reaching the depths of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, bottom trawling could very well be the main reason that prevents biologists from discovering new species of marine life (approximately 500,000 to 5, 000,000) in the sea, by firstly killing the unknown species beforehand.

Despite this, international organizations have not remained oblivious to the plight of the marine life. The United Nations and the European Union, for example, have since implemented tough measures to stop bottom trawling near coral reefs and regulate trawling activities to prevent the situation from worsening.


Websites to go:
http://new.patagoniatimes.cl/index.php/20081114686/News/Business-News/SOUTHERN-FISHERMEN-URGE-DEEP-SEA-TRAWLING-MORATORIUM.html
http://www.grantontrawlers.com/Trawling%20from%20Granton.htm
http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?isbn=0309083400
http://archives.starbulletin.com/2008/02/25/news/story01.html
http://oceana.org/europe/what-we-do/stop-destructive-trawling/

Yangtze River 'giant toilet bowl' of Asia

With a record-high dumped wastes of 30.5 billion tons, the Yangtze River in China can be considered as a ‘giant toilet bowl’ of Asia as waste production and illegal dumping in the area continue to worsen.

Xinhua news agency reported the recent case of industrial, farming and human waste production in China has doubled compared a couple of decades ago with a 3.1 percent increase or 900 million tons of added trash being thrown in the river.

Experts are predicting the situation of Yangtze getting polluted will be more alarming in the coming days with the presence of Three Gorges dam trapping a bulk sewage that makes the river unsafe and may cause all possible threats to human health, particularly those living near the vicinity.

Even the Asian Development Bank was anxious about the fate of the Yangtze River and pointed fingers at the industrialization and urbanization activities as culprits to its pollution. It said the river has reached its alarming levels calling the proper authorities to do something about it.

Based on the study of the Yangtze River Water Resources Commission, 2006 posted a seemingly high sewage dumping after its alert waste levels were raised by less than five percent.

Earlier this month, a Swiss-China report said the enormous pollution brought about by too much dumping in the Yangtze can be resolved if the Chinese government will be aggressive enough to take initiatives in restoring the river.

Fishing activities and survival of the unique species living in bodies of water were greatly affected by the waste dumping in Yangtze. In time, it is feared that the other sea creatures like the white-fin dolphin and sturgeon will totally be extinct.

Done By Gabriel Wan 09s27

Hainan Island, China, Shifts to Green Path

China may be debating how fast to march toward more market reforms, but the island province of Hainan has already decided that a slowdown in development is much more welcome than full-speed ecological decline.

At the National People's Congress (NPC) sessions that just finished, 14 delegates from Hainan put forward a motion to turn their lush tropical home into an ecological province.

Special Economic Zone (SEZ)

The move comes a little more than a decade after Hainan, which is off the Leizhou Peninsula in the South China Sea, was declared a Special Economic Zone (SEZ). Under the proposal, the island's transformation into an ecological haven will take place within 10 years.

Hainan officials say it signals a major policy shift from a focus on real estate and finance to the environment. They say they have now realised that the real wealth of Hainan lies in its natural beauty—which, unfortunately, has been ravaged by development in the past several years.

Since we have abundant natural resources, we'll stimulate our local economy by developing environmentally-sound agriculture and fisheries, says Yu Xun, a deputy governor of the province. Paying attention to nature should also ensure that we become a beautiful place that tourists will want to visit.

This switch toward ecological preservation is a reversal of our (previous) efforts, after noticing problems in our local economy from the early 1990s, he adds.

When Hainan became an SEZ in the late 1980s, real estate developers made a beeline for it, The sector spun out of control from island authorities in just a few years, and soon, buildings were being built haphazardly on once virgin land.

Effects of Land Reclamation

Meanwhile, land reclamation to farm fish and crabs was doing serious damage to the island's famous red forest cover. Once hugging Hainan's entire coastline, the red forest helped maintain the ecological balance between land and sea, protecting the shore from erosion. Today, however, the leaves of the trees there have turned yellow. In some areas, the red forest has died out.

Excessive coral gathering by fisherfolk since the 1960s has also destroyed more than 80 percent of the region's fragile reefs. To date, more than 20,000 hectares of the island's 400 varieties of coral have disappeared.

Apart from acting as underwater barriers that weaken the massive breakers as they crash up the beach, coral reefs provide homes to fish and shrimps, and act as a filter to clean the water. They are a vital part of the shallow water ecology off the coast.

Conservation Efforts

Hainan officials say the plan they submitted to the NPC aims to coordinate economic development with environmental protection. They say the speed with which the Chinese parliament approved their motion—in a record 10 days—indicates recognition of the urgency of their petition.

So far we've finished drafting the 'Programme of Building Hainan Into an Ecological Province with Sustainable Development', says Yu Xun. We'll submit it to the Provincial People's Congress for examination after the National People's Congress.

The programme's short-term targets include the expansion of Hainan's forest cover from the present 51 to 55 percent— the biggest in China—as well as curbing desertification.

It also aims to ensure that all industrial pollutants are within state limits, eradicate 'white pollution' or trash consisting of plastic bags, mineral water bottles and polystyrene trays, and ban the use of fluorine as refrigerant.

The programme is a crystallisation of what we call our cross- century 'green project,' which aims to curb the deterioration of the environment, says Yu.

Since last year, logging in Hainan's natural forests has been banned.

At Haikou, the provincial capital, city authorities say they will pour some 75 million yuan (9 million dollars) into the clean-up of the severely polluted Meishe River. But Hainan officials themselves admit that balancing tourism development with ecological preservation will not be easy. Hainan has become particularly attractive to domestic tourists in the last few years. Despite the current economic crunch, the island played host to some 8.4 million visitors last year, up 8.2 percent from the 1997 figure.

Recovering Its Lost Beauty

Observers say the hordes of careless pleasure seekers have distributed to the decline of Hainan's ecology. With officials counting on attracting even more tourists once Hainan recovers its lost beauty, there is a need to come up with a plan that will be both tourist- and environment-friendly.

Done By Gabriel Wan 09s27

Extinction of the Baiji Dolphin in China

The Baiji population declined drastically in recent decades as China industrialized and made heavy use of the river for fishing, transportation, and hydroelectricity. Efforts were made to conserve the species, but a late 2006 expedition failed to find any Baiji in the river. Organizers declared the Baiji "functionally extinct", which would make it the first aquatic mammal species to become extinct since the demise of theJapanese Sea Lion and the Caribbean Monk Seal in the 1950s. It would also be the first recorded extinction of a well-studied cetacean species (it is unclear if some previously extinct varieties were species or subspecies) to be directly attributable to human influence.

Causes of Decline

The World Conservation Union (IUCN) has noted the following as threats to the species: a period of hunting by humans during the Great Leap Forward, entanglement in fishing gear, the illegal practice of electric fishing, collisions with boats and ships, habitat loss, and pollution. During the Great Leap Forward, when traditional veneration of the Baiji was denounced, it was hunted for its flesh and skin, and quickly became scarce.[2]

As China developed economically, pressure on the river dolphin grew significantly. Industrial and residential waste flowed into the Yangtze. The riverbed was dredged and reinforced with concrete in many locations. Ship traffic multiplied, boats grew in size, and fishermen employed wider and more lethal nets. Noise pollution caused the nearly blind animal to collide with propellers. Stocks of the dolphin's prey declined drastically in recent decades as well, with some fish populations declining to one thousandth of their pre-industrial levels.[14]

In the 1970s and 1980s, an estimated half of Baiji deaths were attributed to entanglement in fishing gear. By the early 2000s, electric fishing was considered "the most important and immediate direct threat to the Baiji's survival."[2] Though outlawed, this fishing technique is widely practiced throughout China. The building of the Three Gorges Dam further reduced the dolphin's habitat and facilitated an increase in ship traffic.

Conservation Efforts

Soon after it decided to modernize, China recognized the precarious state of the river dolphin. The government outlawed deliberate killing, restricted fishing, and established nature reserves.

In 1978, the Chinese Academy of Sciences established the Freshwater Dolphin Research Centre (淡水海豚研究中心) as a branch of the Wuhan Institute of Hydrobiology. In the 1980s and 1990s, several attempts were made to capture dolphins and relocate them to a reserve. A breeding program would then allow the species to recover and be reintroduced to the Yangtze after conditions improve. However, capturing the rare, quick dolphins proved to be difficult, and few captives survived more than a few months.

The first Chinese aquatic species protection organisation, the Baiji Dolphin Conservation Foundation of Wuhan (武汉白鱀豚保护基金), was founded in December 1996. It has raised 1,383,924.35 CNY (about 100,000 USD) and used the funds for in vitro cell preservation and to maintain the Baiji facilities, including the Shishou Sanctuary that was flooded in 1998.

Conservation efforts of the Baiji along the Yangtze River

Since 1992 five protected areas of the Yangtze have been designated as Baiji reserves. Four were built in the main Yangtze channel where Baiji are actively protected and fishing is banned: two national reserves and two provincial. A fifth protected area is the Tian-e-Zhou Oxbow Semi-natural Reserve. Combined, these five reserves cover just over 350 kilometres (220 miles), about 1/3 of the Baijis range, leaving two-thirds of the species' habitat unprotected.

As well as these five protected areas there are also five "Protection Stations" in Jianli, Chenglingji, Hukou, Wuhu and Zhengjiang. These stations consist of two observers and a motorised fishing boat with the aim of conducting daily patrols, making observations and investigating reports of illegal fishing.

In 2001 the Chinese government approved a Conservation Action Plan for Cetaceans of the Yangtze River. This plan re-emphasised the three measures identified at the 1986 workshop and was adopted as the national policy for the conservation of the Baiji. Despite all of these workshops and conventions little money was available in China to aid the conservation efforts. It has been estimated that US$1 million was needed to begin the project and maintain it for a further 3 years.

Efforts to save the mammals proved to be too little and too late.

In-situ Conservation

Most scientists agreed that the best course of action was an ex-situ effort working in parallel with an in-situ effort. The deterioration of the Yangtze River had to be reversed to preserve the habitat. The ex-situ projects aimed to raise a large enough population over time so that some, if not all, of the dolphins could be returned to the Yangtze, so the habitat within the river had to be maintained anyway.

Ex-situ Conservation

In 1990 the first Finless Porpoises were relocated to the reserve and since then have been surviving and reproducing well. As of April 2005 26 Finless Porpoises were known to live in the reserve. A Baiji was introduced in December 1995, but died during the summer flood of 1996. To deal with these annual floods a dyke was constructed between the Yangtze and Shishou. Now water is controlled from a sluice gate located at the downstream mouth of the oxbow lake. It has been reported that since the installation of this sluice gate, water quality has declined since no annual transfer of nutrients can occur. Roughly 6,700 people live on the ‘island’ within the oxbow lake and so some limited fishing is permitted.

Success of Shishou with the porpoises and with migratory birds and other wetland fauna has encouraged the local Wetlands Management Team to put forward an application to award the site Ramsar status. It has also been noted that the site has incredible potential for ecotourism, which could be used to generate much needed revenue to improve the quality of the reserve. The necessary infrastructure does not currently exist to realize these opportunities.

Done by Gabriel Wan 09s27

Chinese Support Shark Conservation, But Still Demand Shark Fin

There is growing public support in China for shark conservation measures, but little understanding of the role of shark finning in declining shark populations, reveals a survey by WildAid, an environmental group.

Delicacy

Shark fin soup, a delicacy served at Chinese weddings and high profile banquets, is believed by many Chinese to bring good health. WildAid found that few Chinese know the low nutritional value of the product or understand how shark fin is produced. The group faulted Chinese media for doing little to publicize shark conservation or the negative impacts resulting from eating shark's fins.

Close to Extinction

Demand for shark fin is presently at an all time high, thanks largely to a rapidly expanding middle class in China. A study published last year estimated that 26 to 73 million sharks are killed each year for the global shark fin trade, while reported world trade in fins has surged from 4,900 metric tons in 1987 to 13,600 metric tons in 2004.

"Recent research has proven that many shark species and populations have experienced precipitous declines over the past 20 years, some by as much as 99%," said Steve Trent, President of WildAid. "Science also tells us that shark species are highly vulnerable to over-exploitation. Now we are witness to an explosion in the consumption of shark fin soup in China and as demand for the soup has risen so has the targeting of sharks just for their fins, wasting up to 99% of the animal. "

WildAid's research, based on surveys carried out in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou between November 2005 to February 2006, suggests that public awareness campaigns could help stem the shark fin trade in China, since there appears to be positive public attitude towards shark conservation activities.

"This survey shows two key things: first that consumers are largely unaware of where shark fin comes from, of over-fishing, illegal shark fishing or finning and secondly, that there is strong support for much better shark conservation and management," said Trent. "WildAid believes that action is needed now to ensure better management and conservation if shark populations and species are not to be made extinct. China, we believe can take a highly responsible, global lead in this."

Done by Gabriel Wan 09s27

Outbreak of mucus-like blobs threatens marine life

Mucilage (mucus-like blob) forms naturally in the summer as a result of bonding between organic marine matters. It is usually found along the Mediterranean coast and was regarded as a natural phenomenon since the 1880s. However, recent study has found that these enormous sheets of mucus-like material are appearing more frequently and in larger quantities, as a result of rising sea temperatures. This situation will bring about negative consequences to mankind and marine life if not tackled properly.

From the start, the presence of these “mucus-blobs” was regarded by fishermen and swimmers as a nuisance because it was too thick to swim through and difficult to remove once attached to clothes. It can even be seen from the surface of the seas itself, giving it a dirty look. Would you even want to swim in the sea, knowing that such grotesque, stringy masses containing microscopic dead and living matter are nearby?

From a biologist’s perspective, the marine mucilages pose a threat to marine diversity. Fishes have no choice but to swim through it and risk getting trapped by these blobs. The mucus obstructs their gills too, potentially suffocating them. Furthermore, muscilages attract bacteria and viruses, especially E-coli, a type of bacteria known to cause illnesses (E.g. diarrhea, pneumonia), that is harmful to both man and fishes. Moreover, the mucilages, which are approximately 200km long, can sink to the seabed once it is too dense to float, smothering the marine life underneath. Paramuricea clavata is among the types of underwater plants that have been affected as a result of the mucilage outbreak.

According to one of the chief researchers, Roberto Danovaro, the number of mucilage outbreaks has increased almost exponentially over the last 2 decades in the Mediterranean Sea. The researchers also found that warmer seawaters facilitate the bonding between dead organic marine organisms which make up the mucus. It is unknown why these dead matters are unable to decompose. With the current climate, the mucilages have now extended their spread to the Adriatic Sea and is even occurring during winter. Imagine what would happen should the blobs managed to conquer the oceans all year round?


Resources:
1. http://sciencestage.com/resources/climate-change-and-potential-spreading-marine-mucilage-and-microbial-pathogens-mediterranean-sea
2. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/10/091008-giant-sea-mucus-blobs.html
3. http://www.takepart.com/blog/2009/10/16/warmer-sea-temps-create-mucus-blobs-in-oceans/