Australia's Shark Bay: home to sea cows and dolphins

Australia's Shark Bay: home to sea cows and dolphins : Travel General

Monkey Mia, Australia - At 7.35 am sharp, Nicky, Puck and Surprise approach the shoreline from the expanse of Shark Bay and make their way to the knee-deep waters by the beach. The three female dolphins are accompanied by adolescents and already know the "game" that is about to be played in Monkey Mia.

Tourists have gathered to feed them with fish just as they have done in this western part of Australia almost every day since the 1960s.

The name Monkey Mia is synonymous in Australia with dolphin feeding.

It's quite ironic that the dolphins have become such an attraction here as the name Shark Bay is not the most attractive in marketing terms for tourists.

Dolphin Bay would please the local tourist authorities much better but 12 different species of shark also live in these waters.

"Every third dolphin calf has scars and shark bite marks," says ranger Lyn Harding.

People have been feeding dolphins here for the past 44 years. In 1994, a government funded programme was instituted to oversee the feeding.

"You can count on one hand the number of days the dolphins don't appear," says Harding, while explaining how feeding works.

Only the mother dolphins are given fish. They receive a maximum of two kilos per animal per day.

"The calves get nothing. They should learn to look after themselves first."

The male dolphins usually remain further out in the bay with one or two other companions. Yet, dolphin feeding is not the only attraction Shark Bay has to offer visitors.

The area was declared a World Heritage Site in 1991 thanks - in part - to the presence of stromalites at Hamelin Pool.

Stromalites are sedimentary rock-like structures formed by colonies of micro organisms. They are located on the southern edge of the pool in shallow water.

The pool is part of the bay and was named after Emmanuel Hamelin who explored Australia's western coast from 1800 to 1804.

The stromolites' micro organisms resemble some of the earliest life forms on Earth, and because they produce oxygen, they are regarded as having helped in the evolution of higher forms of life.

Stromalites are very rare and exist in the Bahamas and here in Shark Bay.

If you observe one of these stromalites close to the surface of the water, you can see small bubbles emerging from the "living rock" - more oxygen for the atmosphere.

The water in Hamelin Pool is saline and provides ideal conditions for the stromalites to thrive. A species of cockle shell has also adapted to the conditions here.

When the molluscs die, their shells are always washed by the sea in the same direction and over the past 4,000 years a beach midway between the coastal highway and Monkey Mia has formed into a massive bank of cockle shells.

The bank is several metres thick and extends for dozens of kilometres.

Back at the beach on Monkey Mia it's 8.15 am and the show is about to begin.

A few spectators are pulled from the crowd by the rangers and fish held under their noses.

Lyn Harding tells them a little about the dolphins: they are 2.30 metres long and weigh 120 kilos. Some of the animals have been coming to feeding time since the 1970s.

Moored at Monkey Mia's small pier are two catamarans competing for passengers wanting to travel around the bay.

The "Shotover" and "Aristocat 2" specialise in visits to the dugong sea cows.

Shark Bay is home to the world's largest known area of sea grass.

At a depth of nine metres below the surface, 10 of the 60 varieties of sea grass can be found here - sometimes nine at a time in just one square metre.

And it's thanks to this variety that Shark Bay has a population of 12 000 dugongs.

Another very different way of looking at Shark Bay is provided by Wula Guda Nyinda Aboriginal Cultural Tours.

A bare-footed Daren Capewell sets off with his guests and cautions them: "Do not try to walk in the sand but on it."

For Capewell, humans "must respect the land and not just exploit it".

That's the main message of Capewell's trip to the sand dunes.

In the evenings Capewell provides an appropriately atmospheric background to this when he plays a didgeridoo in the light of the camp fire below a starry sky.

By 8.30 am the dolphins have been fed and returned to the open water.

The tourists begin dispersing over the beach while the rangers fill their buckets with fresh fish.

They know the dolphins will probably return two more times today to get their next ration of food.

Algae could one day be major hydrogen fuel source

Algae could one day be major hydrogen fuel source

As gas prices continue to soar to record highs, motorists are crying out for an alternative that won't cramp their pocketbooks.

Scientists at U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory are answering that call by working to chemically manipulate algae for production of the next generation of renewable fuels – hydrogen gas.

"We believe there is a fundamental advantage in looking at the production of hydrogen by photosynthesis as a renewable fuel," senior chemist David Tiede said. "Right now, ethanol is being produced from corn, but generating ethanol from corn is a thermodynamically much more inefficient process."

Some varieties of algae, a kind of unicellular plant, contain an enzyme called hydrogenase that can create small amounts of hydrogen gas. Tiede said many believe this is used by Nature as a way to get rid of excess reducing equivalents that are produced under high light conditions, but there is little benefit to the plant.

Tiede and his group are trying to find a way to take the part of the enzyme that creates the gas and introduce it into the photosynthesis process.

The result would be a large amount of hydrogen gas, possibly on par with the amount of oxygen created.

"Biology can do it, but it's making it do it at 5-10 percent yield that's the problem," Tiede said. "What we would like to do is take that catalyst out of hydrogenase and put into the photosynthetic protein framework. We are fortunate to have Professor Thomas Rauchfuss as a collaborator from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana who is an expert on the synthesis of hydrogenase active site mimics."

Algae has several benefits over corn in fuel production. It can be grown in a closed system almost anywhere including deserts or even rooftops, and there is no competition for food or fertile soil. Algae is also easier to harvest because it has no roots or fruit and grows dispersed in water.

"If you have terrestrial plants like corn, you are restricted to where you could grow them," Tiede said. "There is a problem now with biofuel crops competing with food crops because they are both using the same space. Algae provides an alternative, which can be grown in a closed photobioreactor analogous to a microbial fermentor that you could move any place."

Tiede admitted the research is its beginning phases, but he is confident in his team and their research goals. The next step is to create a way to attach the catalytic enzyme to the molecule.

Emission Reduction Assumptions for Carbon Dioxide Overly Optimistic

Emission Reduction Assumptions for Carbon Dioxide Overly Optimistic

Reducing global emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) over the coming century will be more challenging than society has been led to believe, according to a research commentary appearing this week in the journal Nature.

The authors, from the University of Colorado at Boulder, the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, and McGill University in Montreal, said the technological challenges of reducing CO2 emissions have been significantly underestimated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

The study concludes the IPCC is overly optimistic in assuming that, even without action by policymakers, new technologies that will result in dramatic reductions in the growth of future emissions will be developed and implemented.

Titled "Dangerous Assumptions," the Nature commentary is co-authored by scientists Roger Pielke, Jr., of CU-Boulder, Tom Wigley of NCAR and economist Christopher Green of McGill University.

"This welcome commentary is an indication that the science policy discussions have shifted from 'is there global warming?' to 'how does society respond?'" said Cliff Jacobs of the National Science Foundation (NSF)'s Division of Atmospheric Sciences, which funds NCAR.

"In the end, there is no question whether technological innovation is necessary--it is," write the authors. "The question is, to what degree should policy focus explicitly on motivating such innovation?"

"The IPCC plays a risky game in assuming that business-as-usual advances in technological innovation will carry most of the burden of achieving future emissions reductions, rather than focusing on those conditions that are necessary and sufficient for those innovations to occur."

Recent changes in "carbon intensity"--CO2 emissions per unit of energy consumed--already are higher than those predicted by the IPCC because of rapid economic development, says lead author Pielke. In Asia, for instance, the demands of more energy-intensive economies are being met with conventional fossil-fuel technologies, a process expected to continue there for decades and eventually move into Africa.

Atmospheric CO2 levels are currently about 390 parts per million. A commonly cited goal is to stabilize concentrations at roughly 500 parts per million or less.

Because technical innovation is ongoing, the IPCC authors assume that most of the needed reductions will occur automatically. According to calculations by the Nature authors, the IPCC assumes that 57 to 96 percent of the total carbon removed from the energy supply will occur automatically through such routine technological progress.

The reason for the IPCC's underestimate of carbon intensity changes lies partly in the way the IPCC emissions scenarios partition future emissions changes into those that will occur spontaneously and those that are policy-driven, say the scientists.

This partitioning underestimates the full magnitude of the technology challenge associated with stabilizing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

"According to the IPCC report, the majority of the emission reductions required to stabilize CO2 concentrations are assumed to occur automatically," says Pielke. "Not only is this reduction unlikely to happen under current policies, but we are moving in the opposite direction right now. We believe these kinds of assumptions in the analysis blind us to reality and could potentially distort our ability to develop effective policies."

Stabilization of atmospheric concentrations of CO2 and other greenhouse gases was the primary objective of the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change approved by almost all countries, including the United States, notes Wigley.

"Stabilization is a more daunting challenge than many realize and requires a radical 'decarbonization' of energy systems," says Wigley. "Global energy demand is projected to grow rapidly, and these huge new demands must be met by largely carbon-neutral energy sources--sources that either do not use fossil fuels or that capture and store any emitted CO2."

Unlike the IPCC authors, who built in assumptions about future "spontaneous" technological innovations, the Nature commentary authors began with a set of "frozen technology" scenarios as baselines--scenarios in which energy technologies are assumed to stay at present levels. "With a frozen technology approach, the full scope of the carbon-neutral technology challenge is placed into clear view," says Green.

Money doesn't grow on trees, but gasoline might

Money doesn't grow on trees, but gasoline might

Researchers have made a breakthrough in the development of "green gasoline," a liquid identical to standard gasoline yet created from sustainable biomass sources like switchgrass and poplar trees.

Reporting in the cover article of the April 7, 2008 issue of Chemistry & Sustainability, Energy & Materials (ChemSusChem), chemical engineer and National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER awardee George Huber of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst (UMass) and his graduate students Torren Carlson and Tushar Vispute announced the first direct conversion of plant cellulose into gasoline components.

In the same issue, James Dumesic and colleagues from the University of Wisconsin-Madison announce an integrated process for creating chemical components of jet fuel using a green gasoline approach. While Dumesic's group had previously demonstrated the production of jet-fuel components using separate steps, their current work shows that the steps can be integrated and run sequentially, without complex separation and purification processes between reactors.

While it may be five to 10 years before green gasoline arrives at the pump or finds its way into a fighter jet, these breakthroughs have bypassed significant hurdles to bringing green gasoline biofuels to market.

"It is likely that the future consumer will not even know that they are putting biofuels into their car," said Huber. "Biofuels in the future will most likely be similar in chemical composition to gasoline and diesel fuel used today. The challenge for chemical engineers is to efficiently produce liquid fuels from biomass while fitting into the existing infrastructure today."

For their new approach, the UMass researchers rapidly heated cellulose in the presence of solid catalysts, materials that speed up reactions without sacrificing themselves in the process. They then rapidly cooled the products to create a liquid that contains many of the compounds found in gasoline.

The entire process was completed in under two minutes using relatively moderate amounts of heat. The compounds that formed in that single step, like naphthalene and toluene, make up one fourth of the suite of chemicals found in gasoline. The liquid can be further treated to form the remaining fuel components or can be used "as is" for a high octane gasoline blend.

"Green gasoline is an attractive alternative to bioethanol since it can be used in existing engines and does not incur the 30 percent gas mileage penalty of ethanol-based flex fuel," said John Regalbuto, who directs the Catalysis and Biocatalysis Program at NSF and supported this research.

"In theory it requires much less energy to make than ethanol, giving it a smaller carbon footprint and making it cheaper to produce," Regalbuto said. "Making it from cellulose sources such as switchgrass or poplar trees grown as energy crops, or forest or agricultural residues such as wood chips or corn stover, solves the lifecycle greenhouse gas problem that has recently surfaced with corn ethanol and soy biodiesel."

Beyond academic laboratories, both small businesses and Fortune 500 petroleum refiners are pursuing green gasoline. Companies are designing ways to hybridize their existing refineries to enable petroleum products including fuels, textiles, and plastics to be made from either crude oil or biomass and the military community has shown strong interest in making jet fuel and diesel from the same sources.

"Huber's new process for the direct conversion of cellulose to gasoline aromatics is at the leading edge of the new 'Green Gasoline' alternate energy paradigm that NSF, along with other federal agencies, is helping to promote," states Regalbuto.

Not only is the method a compact way to treat a great deal of biomass in a short time, Regalbuto emphasized that the process, in principle, does not require any external energy. "In fact, from the extra heat that will be released, you can generate electricity in addition to the biofuel," he said. "There will not be just a small carbon footprint for the process; by recovering heat and generating electricity, there won't be any footprint."

The latest pathways to produce green gasoline, green diesel and green jet fuel are found in a report sponsored by NSF, the Department of Energy and the American Chemical Society entitled "Breaking the Chemical and Engineering Barriers to Lignocellulosic Biofuels: Next Generation Hydrocarbon Biorefineries" released April 1 (http://www.ecs.umass.edu/biofuels/). In the report, Huber and a host of leaders from academia, industry and government present a plan for making green gasoline a practical solution for the impending fuel crisis.

"We are currently working on understanding the chemistry of this process and designing new catalysts and reactors for this single step technique. This fundamental chemical understanding will allow us to design more efficient processes that will accelerate the commercialization of green gasoline," Huber said.

Cow stomach holds key to turning corn into biofuel

Cow stomach holds key to turning corn into biofuel

An enzyme from a microbe that lives inside a cow's stomach is the key to turning corn plants into fuel, according to Michigan State University scientists.

The enzyme that allows a cow to digest grasses and other plant fibers can be used to turn other plant fibers into simple sugars. These simple sugars can be used to produce ethanol to power cars and trucks.

MSU scientists have discovered a way to grow corn plants that contain this enzyme. They have inserted a gene from a bacterium that lives in a cow's stomach into a corn plant. Now, the sugars locked up in the plant's leaves and stalk can be converted into usable sugar without expensive synthetic chemicals.

"The fact that we can take a gene that makes an enzyme in the stomach of a cow and put it into a plant cell means that we can convert what was junk before into biofuel," said Mariam Sticklen, MSU professor of crop and soil science. She is presenting at the 235th national American Chemical Society meeting in New Orleans today. The work also is presented in the "Plant Genetic Engineering for Biofuel Production: Towards Affordable Cellulosic Ethanol" in the June edition of Nature Review Genetics.

Cows, with help from bacteria, convert plant fibers, called cellulose, into energy, but this is a big step for biofuel production. Traditionally in the commercial biofuel industry, only the kernels of corn plants could be used to make ethanol, but this new discovery will allow the entire corn plant to be used – so more fuel can be produced with less cost.

Turning plant fibers into sugar requires three enzymes. The new variety of corn created for biofuel production, called Spartan Corn III, builds on Sticklen's earlier corn versions by containing all three necessary enzymes.

The first version, released in 2007, cuts the cellulose into large pieces with an enzyme that came from a microbe that lives in hot spring water.

Spartan Corn II, with a gene from a naturally occurring fungus, takes the large cellulose pieces created by the first enzyme and breaks them into sugar pairs.

Spartan Corn III, with the gene from a microbe in a cow, produces an enzyme that separates pairs of sugar molecules into simple sugars. These single sugars are readily fermentable into ethanol, meaning that when the cellulose is in simple sugars, it can be fermented to make ethanol.

"It will save money in ethanol production," Sticklen said. "Without it they can't convert the waste into ethanol without buying enzymes – which is expensive."

The Spartan Corn line was created by inserting an animal stomach microbe gene into a plant cell. The DNA assembly of the animal stomach microbe required heavy modification in the lab to make it work well in the corn cells. Sticklen compared the process to adding a single Christmas tree light to a tree covered in lights.

"You have a lot of wiring, switches and even zoning," Sticklen said. "There are a lot of changes. We have to increase production levels and even put it in the right place in the cell."

If the cell produced the enzyme in the wrong place, then the plant cell would not be able to function, and, instead, it would digest itself. That is why Sticklen found a specific place to insert the enzyme.

One of the targets for the enzyme produced in Spartan Corn III is a special part of the plant cell, called the vacuole. The vacuole is a safe place to store the enzyme until the plant is harvested. The enzyme will collect in the vacuole with other cellular waste products

Because it is only in the vacuole of the green tissues of plant cells, the enzyme is only produced in the leaves and stalks of the plant, not in the seeds, roots or the pollen. It is only active when it is being used for biofuels because of being stored in the vacuole

"Spartan Corn III is one step ahead for science, technology, and it is even a step politically," Sticklen said. "It is one step closer to producing fuel in our own country."

Share the beach with sea turtles

Share the beach with sea turtles

In a few short weeks, sea turtles will again repeat the cycle of coming ashore and laying their eggs, which will sleep under the sand until time to hatch. Then, the baby turtles will fight to the top of the nest, then make the journey to the Gulf of Mexico.

However, the cycle is interrupted when lights confuse the little hatchlings, and for years, the motto has been, "Lights out for turtles!"

Brightly lit beaches disorient the nesting sea turtles and their hatchlings, but beach residents can't be expected to live in the dark, either. Even the smallest light, such as a porch or deck light, or table lamp visible through a window can distract the mother or hatchling, leading them onto a road to be hit by a vehicle, victimized by fire ants or predators or to suffer from deadly dehydration.

Now, there are ways to coexist with sea turtles, including using turtle friendly light bulbs available to participants in the Turtle Friendly Beach Program (TFBP). Escambia County does not have an ordinance regulating turtle friendly lighting, so at this point all improvements are voluntary.

Here are some ways beach front property owners can modify lighting to be more turtle friendly:

Turn off unnecessary lights. Don't use decorative lighting (such as runner lights or uplighting of vegetation) in areas that are visible from the beach and permanently remove, disable, or turn off fixtures that cannot be modified in any other way.

For lights that can be repositioned, face them away from the beach so that the light source is no longer visible.

Shield the light source. Materials such as aluminum flashing can be used as a shield to direct light and keep it off the beach. When shielding lights, it is important to make sure they are shielded from all areas on the beach (including from either side and on top), and not just from the beach directly in front of the light. Black oven paint may be used as a temporary solution.

Light sockets with an exposed light source (such as plain bulbs) should be replaced with fixtures that are specially made to recess and/or the light source should be shielded.

Replace fixtures that scatter light in all directions (such as globe lights or carriage lights) with directional fixtures that point down and away from the beach.

Turtles begin bubbling out of the sand as the hatching occurs. National park service employees Kirsten Dahlen and Monica Cain scoop up the hatchlings and move them to a cooler for protection from predators until they are released into the Gulf of Mexico later that night.

Replace lights on poles with low profile, low-level lamps so that the light source and reflected light are not visible from the beach.

Replace incandescent, fluorescent, and high intensity lighting with the lowest wattage low-pressure sodium vapor lighting or replace white incandescent bulbs with the yellow "bug" light variety of 25 watts or less for incandescent and 9 watts or less for compact fluorescent.

Plant or improve vegetation buffers (such as sea grapes and other native beach vegetation) between the light source and the beach to screen light from the beach.

Use shielded motion detector lights for lighting, and set them on the shortest time setting.

To reduce spillover from indoor lighting move light fixtures away from windows, apply window tint to your windows that meets the 45% inside to outside transmittance standards for tinted glass (you'll save on air conditioning costs too!), or use window treatments (blinds, curtains) to shield interior lights from the beach.

Although not appropriate for the short-term solutions that are needed immediately, there are several potential sources of state and federal funding for long-term lighting improvements. The grants listed below require an application and are time sensitive with specific deadlines. We encourage you to visit the sites provided to see if they may be applicable to your situation.

Learning to protect shorebirds, sea turtles

Learning to protect shorebirds, sea turtles

Coastal Florida is known for its white sandy beaches where people take their children and dogs to have a lazy day in the sun and water.

They place beach chairs and shade tents and umbrellas on the sand.

Beach renourishment and raking away seaweed debris to keep the beaches clean and full of sand also is prevalent.

However, all of those combined can wreak havoc on nesting shorebirds and sea turtle nests, law enforcement officers and other government workers tasked with keeping the critters safe were told Wednesday during a workshop in Fort Myers.

The workshop's goals were to provide those attending with knowledge they need in the field to protect waterbird and turtle populations, including public education, protection coordination, and increased knowledge of federal, state and local laws.

"It was a good workshop," said Daniel Cantu, a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officer who patrols Lee County. "A lot of the different agencies got involved. We were able to get on the same page and be informed on what other agencies are doing."

Cantu, who has a degree in wildlife management and has been a wildlife officer since September 2006, said he learned the most about federal laws and violations that occur on federally-owned lands.

But the best thing during the workshop, he said, was getting educational brochures from the different biologists and others who gave presentations during the workshop.

"That's a big, helpful tool," he said. "We can educate the public, sometimes say something to them and they may not retain everything. But a brochure they can take home, and read it at their leisure and retain the information."

The information provided Wednesday included a pamphlet on co-existence between humans and beach-nesting birds, which explains what people can do to help protected birds, and Lee County, Fort Myers Beach and Bonita Springs ordinances about sea turtle laws.

Jake Sullivan, who served 25 years in law enforcement in Washington, D.C., has worked as a Collier County park ranger for four seasons, two as a seasonal worker and two years full-time.

"It was a great opportunity to network and learn how we can call upon other law enforcement agencies for guidance on how to protect wildlife," he said. "To see the guys there from the Florida Fish and Wildlife, the state, that was good, as well as my counterparts in Lee County."

Officials from FWC, Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Lee County Sheriff's Office, Sanibel, Cape Coral and Fort Myers police departments, as well as Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, attended the workshop.

One thing Sullivan took away from the workshop was the significant drop in the number of wildlife.

"There's really an interest to go out there to either get compliance through education or enforcement to enhance wildlife," he said. "You listen to Audubon and they are really interested in giving wildlife a chance to succeed. We can assist them in educating the public and, if need be, take enforcement action to help."

Ann Hodgson with Audubon of Florida and Nancy Douglass with FWC presented information about colonial waterbirds, including behavior, identification, locations of the different species and historical population data.

The women explained how the state and federally protected birds use islands and beaches as nesting sites and how people can do their part to keep the disturbance of nesting areas to a minimum.

Hodgson said rookeries are typically a noisy, smelly place.

"If you go up to a bird colony and it's quiet, something is wrong," she said.

Douglass said beach-nesting birds have greatly declined since the early 1900s.

Part of that is because they and their eggs are difficult to see even though they nest in the open on top of the sand because they blend in well. That is why the typical nesting areas are usually staked-off and marked so people will know an endangered or threatened species has a nest on the ground.

Douglass and her staff spent Tuesday posting known Lee County nesting sites by using twine and wooden stakes to "rope-off" known nesting areas. FWC staffers will do the same, weather permitting, April 15-16 in Collier County.

Wild animal predation, such as raccoons, coyotes and other mammals, as well as unleashed dogs, also are problematic, she said. Unrestrained dogs can frighten the birds, causing the adult to fly off, leaving the hatchling on the ground in bright sunlight or rain which can lead to its death.

Another problem with birds nesting on beaches: Those tasked with protecting them may not see the birds and eggs, accidentally smashing the eggs or killing a newly-hatched chick while on patrol.

Vehicles are not allowed on beaches in Southwest Florida, but exceptions are made for law enforcement and people who mark not only nesting areas, but also sea turtle nests.

Bird nesting season officially began Tuesday and lasts through August, but some birds are known to nest as early as February. Sea turtle nesting season begins May 1 through Oct. 31.

Yet another problem facing the birds are — ironically — other birds, Douglass said.

"It's really a bird-eat-bird world out there," she said. "People don't typically think of birds like that."

Because bird nesting season coincides with sea turtle season, people also need to be made aware of issues facing the turtles.

Carol Lis, principal planner with Lee County environmental sciences, gave attendees an overview of what to watch for regarding potential violations and injurious behavior to the turtles.

Those include people leaving furniture, tents or umbrellas on the beach, raking the beach within 10 feet of a nest, and outdoor lighting which causes disorientation to turtles and hatchlings who follow the natural moonlight into the water.

She pointed out that furniture can cause entrapment issues because the turtles cannot move backwards.

But, one thing she wanted law enforcement officials to understand: "Be available if we call, and if you do see a problem, call us," she said.

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What can you do to help nesting birds and turtles?

• Stay away from nesting birds and rookeries.

• If birds appear agitated or take flight, you are too close.

• Never intentionally force birds to fly.

• Humans and dogs should stay out of posted areas.

• Avoid taking watercraft close to shore.

• Keep dogs leashed.

• Do not disturb any nest, egg, bird or turtle.

• Douse outside and indoor lights which can be seen from the beach.

• Remove all outdoor furniture from the beach.

• Remove all items which can entangle sea turtles.

• State and federal laws outlaw the possession of any part of the birds or turtles or their nests.

India eNews - Whale, dolphin watching major income source for Pacific nations

India eNews - Whale, dolphin watching major income source for Pacific nations

Whale and dolphin watching is one of the fastest growing industries in the Pacific region, injecting millions of dollars into the small island nations' economies, Radio New Zealand reported Thursday.

The radio quoted a report released Wednesday by the NGO International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) that whale watching is worth 26.7 million New Zealand dollars ($21 million) a year to Pacific nations.

The number of people in the region watching the marine mammals has jumped an average 45 percent each year. The figures exclude data on New Zealand and Australia.

The report said there were just 10,309 whale and dolphin watchers in Pacific island nations in 1998 but that figure had risen to 110,716 in 2005.

Waking up with whales in South Africa

Waking up with whales in South Africa

These majestic sea creatures may enjoy some protection, but not the food they depend upon

Trevor Lawson

In the dark outside our hotel room, I heard a giant blowing over a milk bottle. The hollow, fluted roar was unmistakable. "I think," I said to my sleepy wife, "that there's a whale in the car park."

Here on the Cape in September it was decidedly chilly in the half-light. The sea, 20 metres from the door of our hotel room, had come straight up from Antarctica, bitterly cold but full of microscopic plankton and tiny prawn-like krill, creating a rich seafood soup.

The rocks dropped straight into forty metres of icy black water and right there by the hotel car park were two colossal Southern right whales wallowing quietly in the small, choppy waves. They were so incredibly close that I wanted to get into the water and touch one. But cold and the risk of a great white shark mistaking me for a fur seal kept my feet on the ground. Instead, we stood in quiet awe at the privilege of being fantastically close to these other-worldly giants.

The whales lay side by side, their finless and broad backs slick and smooth. Their heads were encrusted with callosities of barnacles and these patches of white, deep in the water, hinted at the immense bulk dozing below the surface. They were probably 15 metres long, weighing in at around 50 tonnes and easily – by a long way – the largest living animals I had ever been close to.

This might have been a mother and mature calf, a couple of bulls or, perhaps, a romantic assignation. If it was, it wouldn't be romantic for long. Each year, the whales return from the Antarctic to the shelter of the Cape to calve and breed. Over the last few days, we had seen right whales breaching time and again around the coast, powering their immense, slab-like bodies upwards before slamming down with a shuddering splash.

Because the females only breed every three years, there's a lot of competition amongst the boys. They jostle, barge and shove. When the female selects a partner, he doesn't take any chances. Right whales have the world's biggest balls: 800 kilos that will – he hopes – guarantee that her next calf is his. It puts the whaling phrase "Thar he blows" in a whole new context.

As we stood there, I recalled chatting to an elderly car park attendant in Edinburgh some 20 years ago. As a young man, he said, he was a whaler, butchering Southern right whales by the hundred. And now there I was in a car park in South Africa, dumbstruck by their size and proximity.

A century ago, when Northern right whales had been virtually exterminated, the whalers headed south. International protection was finally conferred on all right whales in 1935 but rogue states, such as the Soviet Union, continued hunting right into the 1960s.

The persecution was intense, with factory ships processing these true monsters of the deep as though they were little more than sardines.

And that analogy with fish is intentional. That afternoon, we headed out on a boat, 35 miles into the south Atlantic. Here, the food-rich Benguela current from the Antarctic mixes with the steamy Alguhas stream coming southwards from the equator and the Indian ocean.

There, we watched a gigantic factory ship reeling in vast nets loaded with tens of thousands of fish. Vast flocks of gannets, petrels and albatrosses wheeled about the ship's waste chute as it pumped out tonne after tonne of fish guts. Hundreds of fur seals pursued the offal. It was a wildlife extravaganza to be sure, but at colossal environmental cost.

As fish stocks collapse, vast blooms of stinging jellyfish are taking over. Out there in the deep, we are still upsetting the balance. An annual catch of around 300,000 tonnes of krill – a Southern right whale food source – is rising to 750,000 tonnes and new factory ships are being built to catch yet more. Each whale needs to eat up to 2,500 kilos of krill each day and krill also feed fish, penguins, seals and other wildlife. For how long will that be possible?