Boiling lakes and misguided supermodels

This week in ocean news

Posted by Andrew Sharpless (Guest Contributor) at 2:20 PM on 14 Sep 2007

Read more about: oceans | fishing | wildlife | endangered species

• the U.S. Geological Survey announced that the polar bear population could plummet to one-third of its current level by mid-century because Arctic ice is receding faster than predicted ...

• a new 350-foot super-ferry designed to go 40 mph between Hawaiian islands concerned scientists, who thought it would collide with whales and dolphins despite new cetacean-avoiding technology ...

• new DNA studies suggested that the historic population levels of Pacific gray whales far exceeded the 22,000 estimated, with researchers putting the number closer to 100,000 ...

• a six-week survey of the Yangtze River failed to turn up a single baiji, one of few dolphins species to adapt to a freshwater habitat. A survey in the 1990s turned up 13 of the dolphins ...

• an Alaskan man taped himself provoking a monk seal and her pup while vacationing in Hawaii. After he posted the video to MySpace, the man found himself under federal investigation and could receive a $25,000 fine ...

• a lake in Alaska boiled violently with methane ...

• fishermen in Maine reported seeing more herring after a trawler ban went into effect ...

• Arctic ice cover was at an all-time record low, an "exclamation point," said one scientist ...

• elevated levels of PCBs in the blubber of whales and seals led Inuit women to give birth to twice as many girls as boys ...

• five men were arrested for smuggling endangered animal hides across the U.S.-Mexico border. Investigators say the men smuggled about 700 tanned sea turtle, caiman, and python hides ...

• the governor of a Chinese province agreed to remove whale shark from menus at the behest of the Australian government ...

• model Naomi Campbell and her ex-boyfriend planned to open a five-star hotel on an Indian beach, despite its status as a nesting sea turtle sanctuary. "The lights would confuse the turtles and send them heading off in the wrong direction," said a conservationist ...

• members of the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation forum agreed to a non-binding initiative that the world needed to "slow, stop, then reverse" global warming ...

• India sought to become "a world leader" in offshore caged fishing in the next ten years ...

• and Japanese researchers succeeded in getting salmon to give birth to baby trout in a lab. The ultimate goal is get mackerel to birth baby bluefin tuna, a favorite for sushi.

For story: Boiling lakes and misguided supermodels
2 Comments | Post a Comment

You're joking, right?

"The ultimate goal is get mackerel to birth baby bluefin tuna, a favorite for sushi."

In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world

by biodiversivist at 8:33 AM on 15 Sep 2007

idiotic; scary; scary; possible

Unfortunately it is not news, really, that there should be such idiots as the Alaskan who had "fun" with the Hawaiian monk seal mother. And still worse, Naomi Campbell can probably count on there being an army of supporters behind her, loudly complaining that conservationists are obnoxious and unreasonable.
That dramatic release of methane in the lake in Alaska is not a good sign at all.
The Hawaiian ferry story is interesting, for more than one reason. To understand it, really, I would need to know more about the kinds of boating that are already permitted there, and where and when cetaceans are present. But aside from the serious concerns about possible collisions with cetaceans, another environmental issue which is not mentioned in this article is that a ferry would increase the chances of spreading invasive species from one island to another. Hawaii is already the "extinction capital" of the US, and I could understand why the ferry should be prohibited for that reason alone.
The fish story is fascinating. It was very intelligent of the scientists, to have salmon produce trout eggs -- and in Idaho apparently they are going to do it the other way around -- , because trout and salmon are in fact closely related, and have a similar body shape. From that perspective, getting mackerel to produce tuna eggs is just the same thing, in another family, because tuna belong to the mackerel family. The difference in size between adult mackerels and tunas should not matter, one might expect.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

by caniscandida at 10:26 AM on 15 Sep 2007

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