Picnic Pants

Who Needs A Table To Eat? Picnic Pants Mean You Can Have Your Meal Anywhere

This sounds like a case for the fashion police ;-)

Bias Schmias?

Uproar Over Student Newspaper's Politically Incorrect Trayvon Martin Cartoon

It's only free speech when the liberals say it's free speech.

Puget Sound Orca Fatality: Canadian naval exercises may be a root cause

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is conducting an investigation into the death of an Orca, aka Killer Whale, that was found bruised and bleeding on a Washington state shoreline in early February. Test are being conducted to determine the exact cause of death but one likely candidate, according to several whale conservation groups, is Canadian naval war games - including the use of underwater sonar - that took place nearby just a few days prior to the orca washing ashore at Puget Sound.

As reported by the QMI Agency for Canada's IFPress.com, Brian Gorman of NOAA said, "We take really seriously any kind of injury, or certainly death, in the population, as there are so few animals. They don't interbreed to any great degree...so if you lose one or two animals, it's a serious threat to the overall health of the population."

The dead orca was a member of a pod of endangered orcas that ply the waters between Washington state and British Columbia. The pod consists of only 90 whales and are protected by the Endangered Species Act and Marine Mammal Protection Act - at least when they are in US waters.

According to the Center for Whale Research, the pod was spotted soon after the Canadian naval exercise began in waters much further south than normal for these whales. Something was driving them southward.

"HMCS Ottawa [the frigate involved in the exercise] used its sonar system in critical habitat of the endangered southern resident killer whales," the Center for Whale Research said. "The unprecedented appearance of these whales in these waters...suggests that southern residents were present in the area — and may have been significantly affected by the exercise."

Canada has implemented tighter restrictions regarding proximity of whale watching boats and other vessels, limiting them to a distance of 200 meters from any sighted orcas. However, the new regulations do not apply to Canadian military vessels.

Although US naval activities are often a source of controversy, particularly with regards to powerful underwater sonar, Gorman noted that US navy vessels have an established protocol. "There are, however, arrangements we have with our navy about making sure that when they are conducting activities that could cause a problem with marine mammals that they post a lookout and not conduct these activities when marine mammals are present within a certain distance."

Source: ILPress.com

Smartphones and Sharks: video game technology is aiding shark research

There you are, smartphone in hand, ready to engage in supersonic aerial combat. Or for more exercise, you stand in front of your television, clenching your game controller tightly, ready to play world-class tennis - game, set, match.

Many of today's video games are aided by the use of accelerometers - electronic sensors that can recognize motion in a multitude of directions. Accelerometers have worked their way from aerospace and high-tech machinery applications to today's consumer electronics.

And now they are adding another dimension to the study of sharks.

At the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Florida, Dr. Nick Whitney, head of Mote's Behavioral Ecology and Physiology Program, has been utilizing accelerometers in shark tags to advance the study of shark movements.

"These accelerometer tags use the same technology found in iPhone[s] and Wii. It can actually tell us what an animal is physically doing, what their body movements are and what their body posture is," said Whitney.

Correlating the data on shark movements with laboratory studies on oxygen consumption, Whitney is better able to make estimations of shark behavior, such as during mating or, in particular, during catch-and-release situations. Whether when promoting catch-and-release to sportfishermen or when catching sharks for scientific tagging and then releasing the shark, the extant to which a shark may be traumatized during the catch and how quickly it recovers is of great importance.

Whitney questioned, "Do they swim off strongly, doing great? Or does it take them a while to recover?"

There are a wide range of telemetry tags used in shark research. Some are designed for regional behavior, monitoring a shark's depth, speed, and even internal body temperature. With a limited transmitting range, these tags are ideal for monitoring sharks within a shorter range of less than a mile. Dr. Peter Klimley at UC Davis as become one of the acknowledged masters of the art of regional telemetry tags and I have seen them used extensively with the white sharks at Isla Guadalupe, Baja.

However, many sharks species are long-distance travelers and this is where "spot" or satellite tags are preferable. These more sophisticated tags record data for much longer periods of time, periodically downloading their data to satellite networks that surround the planet. Dr. Barbara Block, director of the TOPP Program (Tagging of Pelagic Predators), and Dr. Michael Domeier seen in National Geographic's Expedition: Great White series, often make use of these types of tags, as do many other researchers for a variety of migratory shark species.

With accelerometer tags, scientists like Dr. Whitney can get a glimpse of more than where a shark is, but how it's "feeling" as body movements can be correlated to its respiratory functions and overall metabolism at a given moment.

Whitney will be soon starting a research study on blacktip sharks utilizing the accelerometer tags. I can't wait for the video game version to come out for my iPhone.

Source: Bay News 9
Source: Mote Marine Laboratory

Dolphin Strandings in Peru: up to 600 lost, but some were rescued

On the northern coast of Peru there has recently been a series of dolphin strandings that have left researchers baffled as to the cause. As many as 600 dolphins have been reported as fatally stranded on Peruvian beaches and, to date, the possible cause for these fatalities has ranged from disease or pollution to poisoning from food, spilled oil, or red tide algae to naval sonar interference.

As tragic as it is in its totality, there was one momentary bright spot. A group of dolphins beached themselves but were apparently rescued by people on the beach. My friend Stan McClain of Filmtools in Burbank, CA, sent me a link to the video below that was originally posted by El Comercio, a Peruvian online new website. I could not find any additional information on this incident, but it at least represents a ray of hope when these unfortunate strandings occur.

What I found interesting with this video is that the approach of the dolphins was capture on video. So, often in news clips we simply see the animals already beached, but here you seem them actually beaching themselves. And then the beachgoers got to work on what was, hopefully, a happy ending.



Source: http://elcomercio.pe/player/1384898

Status on U.S. Shark Conservation: Juliet Eilperin identifies some of the heroes and villians

Washington Post environmental writer Juliet Eilperin wrote another great article on Sunday, sizing up the current situation with shark fin ban legislation in the United States.

As I have often mentioned in previous posts, shark conservation is moving beyond as an emotional issue - the moral indignation over shark finning does not play into it now as much as economics and cultural politics does. And Juliet deftly lays out some of the key players, pro and con, regarding growing debate over shark fin ban legislation in several east coast states.

I'll let you read it to get all the details, but I'll throw in two comments that I have - one is a concern and the other is a positive note.

Commercial fishermen are pressuring politicians to interject loopholes into proposed legislation. And one common proposal is allowing the landing of whole sharks. Once thought of as a way to dissuade fishermen from taking sharks because of the value difference per pound between a whole shark and just its fins, I am now concerned that, with several species, even the taking of whole sharks may prove to be one shark too many. The populations of some sharks is that perilous.

However, on a more positive note, while restaurateurs resort to accusations of "Asia-bashing" to drum up opposition to any and all proposed legislation, at least one Asian voice sounded a momentary voice of reason. Says Juliet, "Peter How, president of the Asian American Restaurant Association, estimated shark’s fin soup constitutes between 2 and 3 percent of his members’ sales. 'Nevertheless, the shark’s fin soup can be replaced by dishes with other ingredients or substitutes out of environmental concern,' How wrote in an e-mail. 'It is just a matter of time for a full transition. After all, our culture has been changing along with the history for social needs.'”

Persuasive arguments that address the economic, political, and cultural realities of the commercial shark market, coming from rational but persistent voices in support of shark conservation - that's the ticket. Get a good perspective as to where we're at from Juliet's article in the Washington Post.

Source: The Washington Post

Coral Reefs: struggling with more than just climate change

Marine scientists have been studying the negative impact of rising sea temperatures on coral for some time. Coral reefs have been diminishing, in part due to increases in water temperature which destroys the algae that symbiotically lives inside coral tissues. The loss of algae produces coral bleaching, a weakened coral community; and a totally dead reef is often the final outcome.

However, new research by Scripps Institution of Oceanography shows long term effects on Caribbean coral reefs dating back to the 1800s due to silt runoff and other terrestrial pollutants and overfishing - man-made impacts brought on by development of the islands throughout the Caribbean.

According to Scripps alumna Katie Cramer, now with the IUCN's Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network, “This study is the first to quantitatively show that the cumulative effects of deforestation and possibly overfishing were degrading Caribbean coral and molluscan communities long before climate change impacts began to really devastate reefs."

Working off the coast of Panama, the researchers dug deep into several coral reefs to determine, using radio carbon dating and analysis of coral skeleton remnants, the types of corals that were growing as far back as the turn of the century. With coastal land being cleared for plantations, the resulting silt and other sediments that ran into the sea, combined with the heavy fishing taking place to feed a growing population, took its toll on the surrounding reefs.

One of the significant discoveries was evidence of a shift or transition from branching corals, like staghorn coral, to more non-branching corals in response to changing environmental conditions. Non-branching corals, which are slower growing than branching corals, provide less habitat for many reef creatures and fish. With less algae-eating fish, coral reefs can be locked in a constant struggle for space with fast-growing algae. This can make the reefs more susceptible to the growing effects of climate change.

“Because the governments of the world have yet to undertake any meaningful efforts to mitigate climate change, it is of the utmost importance that locally caused stressors to reefs such as overfishing and deforestation are minimized,” said Cramer. “Advocating for more intelligent use of land as well as implementing sustainable fisheries management, those are things that can be done right now.”

Interestingly, while Scripps' research shows that coral has been impacted by other environmental factors long before climate change became an issue, researchers from the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization (ANSTO) and the University of British Columbia, writing in the PLoS ONE journal, have determined that some coral reefs might be able to better sustain an increase in temperature. Studying reef environments in the central Pacific, in particular the island nation of Kiribati, the researchers examined the coral skeletons and fat issues of corals in various areas and found that coral reefs that experienced greater temperature variance naturally have a greater potential for surviving the possible effects of climate change. The more consistent the temperature for a particular reef environment, the more adversely susceptible it might be to a change in temperature.

"We're starting to identify the types of reef environments where corals are more likely to persist in the future," said Simon Donner of UBC and a co-author of the study. "The new data is critical for predicting the future for coral reefs, and for planning how society will cope in that future."

As an example, Kiribati is located in an area of the Pacific that can be hit with seasonal El Nino-induced heat waves and has a potential for weathering temperature changes, whereas Australia's Great Barrier Reef exists in a more uniform temperature range and therefore could be more negatively impacted.

All this research points to the fact that coral reef environments will change and adjust as conditions change. Some corals will remain pretty much the same, while in other areas there can be transitions from one dominant species to another. Nature will do what it has to to try to survive in an ever-changing future. But what those changes are, what that future might be, as compared to the coral reef environments of years past - with abundant fish and animal life - is anyone's guess. And what it means to mankind in terms of a continuing resource for food, a barrier to stormy weather, or a contributor to healthy ocean water quality is at question.

Source: Summit County Voice
Source: Sify News