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Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Calif.'s costly trout recovery effort criticized
Conservation gone wrong?
By NOAKI SCHWARTZ, Associated Press Writer Noaki Schwartz, Associated Press Writer – Sun Apr 25, 1:59 pm ET
MALIBU, Calif. – In hopes of luring the endangered steelhead trout into the Santa Monica Mountains, California's transportation agency is planning to spend $935,000 to pave over part of a popular beach with cement and boulders to build a freeway of sorts for fish.
The project is the latest, yet far from the most unusual, steelhead recovery attempt by government agencies that have spent millions of dollars on concrete fish ladders, cameras, fishways and other contraptions to allow seagoing trout to spawn in Southern California streams.
The problem, even some conservationists say, is that there is little evidence construction efforts since the 1980s have done anything except absorb taxpayer dollars. The work to save the species has led to about a dozen concrete fishways at a cost of more than $16.7 million.
A $1 million fish ladder — a structure designed to allow fish to migrate upstream over a barrier — may cost $7.5 million in stimulus funds to rebuild. Another fish ladder would require fish to leap 8 feet to reach it. Studies alone for replacing a third ladder have cost an estimated $3 million.
"If we do a series of crappy projects like fish ladders to nowhere ... then the public trust for giving money for these types of projects is going to go away," said conservationist Mark Abramson of the Santa Monica Bay Restoration Foundation.
Now the California Department of Transportation wants to build a passage for steelhead here across Dan Blocker State Beach, named for the actor who played Hoss on TV's Bonanaza. The artificial streambed, up to 60 feet wide and extending 102 feet onto the beach, would create pools allowing the fish to swim under the Pacific Coast Highway, then upstream.
The plan makes no sense to restaurant owner Daniel Forge, who decided to sell a patch of property to CalTrans after the agency threatened to use eminent domain.
"They decided we were going to bring back steelhead to the stream but I don't think there were ever any steelhead along there," Forge said.
Steelhead were once teeming in Southern California waters. Over the years, however, development encroached and waterways were channelized, cutting off their pathways to spawning grounds.
When the fish were listed as endangered in 1997, only an estimated 500 adults were left from Santa Barbara to Mexico. Many believe southern steelhead are worth saving because they are more adaptable than steelhead elsewhere and could be key to the survival of the species.
While there are no hard numbers to show steelhead are rebounding from these construction efforts, wildlife officials say anecdotal evidence suggests more adult fish are spawning.
Unconventional methods are necessary sometimes, they say, because ripping out dams and other obstructions to spawning is not realistic.
"Nobody really wants (construction) as a solution," said Mary Larson, who oversees steelhead recovery for Fish and Game in Southern California. But she believes the CalTrans proposal to build a fishway in Malibu could work. "Frogs just need good, quiet waters, birds need good tall trees to nest but my fish need to travel."
Conservationists believe that federal and state agencies should push more for restoring the species' natural environment, such as projects that have successfully cleared waterways of debris and crossings from miles of waterways.
National Marine Fisheries Service has created a recovery plan for the species that is expected to be finalized later this year. That plan would coordinate recovery efforts and would emphasize restoration of historic habitat.
Exasperation over getting the fish where they need to go has led to some imaginative proposals over the years, such as trucking the fish to spawning grounds or building fish elevators to get them over dams.
But government agencies have footed the bill for many projects including the concrete fish ladders and fishways to help the steelhead get around dams and other structures. The ladders are expensive, short-lived, require maintenance and have even been known to harm fish.
"Fish ladders don't work like the engineers have them work on paper," said Matt Stoecker, a biological consultant who has spent years working on steelhead recovery.
Even when ladders are successful, recovery is a slow process and sometimes upgrades are necessary.
For example, the United Conservation District in Ventura needs to replace a 20-year-old $1.5 million ladder at a cost of up to $25 million, according to general manager Michael Solomon.
The agency has already installed lights, sonar equipment, special trash grates and video equipment. The district is looking at hiring a third full-time staffer to do nothing but deal with the fish.
"We're a public agency and we need to keep reminding folks people are not going to spend endless money," said Solomon, adding the district rejected one suggestion to build a rock ramp across a dam for the fish at an estimated cost of $60 million.
Mark Capelli, the steelhead recovery coordinator with the fisheries service, called the recovery one of the more ambitious in the agency's history.
"We have a complicated situation we're dealing with and I don't think we've ever taken a position that there's only one way," he said. "There may be circumstances where artificial methods are appropriate and necessary."
.
By NOAKI SCHWARTZ, Associated Press Writer Noaki Schwartz, Associated Press Writer – Sun Apr 25, 1:59 pm ET
MALIBU, Calif. – In hopes of luring the endangered steelhead trout into the Santa Monica Mountains, California's transportation agency is planning to spend $935,000 to pave over part of a popular beach with cement and boulders to build a freeway of sorts for fish.
The project is the latest, yet far from the most unusual, steelhead recovery attempt by government agencies that have spent millions of dollars on concrete fish ladders, cameras, fishways and other contraptions to allow seagoing trout to spawn in Southern California streams.
The problem, even some conservationists say, is that there is little evidence construction efforts since the 1980s have done anything except absorb taxpayer dollars. The work to save the species has led to about a dozen concrete fishways at a cost of more than $16.7 million.
A $1 million fish ladder — a structure designed to allow fish to migrate upstream over a barrier — may cost $7.5 million in stimulus funds to rebuild. Another fish ladder would require fish to leap 8 feet to reach it. Studies alone for replacing a third ladder have cost an estimated $3 million.
"If we do a series of crappy projects like fish ladders to nowhere ... then the public trust for giving money for these types of projects is going to go away," said conservationist Mark Abramson of the Santa Monica Bay Restoration Foundation.
Now the California Department of Transportation wants to build a passage for steelhead here across Dan Blocker State Beach, named for the actor who played Hoss on TV's Bonanaza. The artificial streambed, up to 60 feet wide and extending 102 feet onto the beach, would create pools allowing the fish to swim under the Pacific Coast Highway, then upstream.
The plan makes no sense to restaurant owner Daniel Forge, who decided to sell a patch of property to CalTrans after the agency threatened to use eminent domain.
"They decided we were going to bring back steelhead to the stream but I don't think there were ever any steelhead along there," Forge said.
Steelhead were once teeming in Southern California waters. Over the years, however, development encroached and waterways were channelized, cutting off their pathways to spawning grounds.
When the fish were listed as endangered in 1997, only an estimated 500 adults were left from Santa Barbara to Mexico. Many believe southern steelhead are worth saving because they are more adaptable than steelhead elsewhere and could be key to the survival of the species.
While there are no hard numbers to show steelhead are rebounding from these construction efforts, wildlife officials say anecdotal evidence suggests more adult fish are spawning.
Unconventional methods are necessary sometimes, they say, because ripping out dams and other obstructions to spawning is not realistic.
"Nobody really wants (construction) as a solution," said Mary Larson, who oversees steelhead recovery for Fish and Game in Southern California. But she believes the CalTrans proposal to build a fishway in Malibu could work. "Frogs just need good, quiet waters, birds need good tall trees to nest but my fish need to travel."
Conservationists believe that federal and state agencies should push more for restoring the species' natural environment, such as projects that have successfully cleared waterways of debris and crossings from miles of waterways.
National Marine Fisheries Service has created a recovery plan for the species that is expected to be finalized later this year. That plan would coordinate recovery efforts and would emphasize restoration of historic habitat.
Exasperation over getting the fish where they need to go has led to some imaginative proposals over the years, such as trucking the fish to spawning grounds or building fish elevators to get them over dams.
But government agencies have footed the bill for many projects including the concrete fish ladders and fishways to help the steelhead get around dams and other structures. The ladders are expensive, short-lived, require maintenance and have even been known to harm fish.
"Fish ladders don't work like the engineers have them work on paper," said Matt Stoecker, a biological consultant who has spent years working on steelhead recovery.
Even when ladders are successful, recovery is a slow process and sometimes upgrades are necessary.
For example, the United Conservation District in Ventura needs to replace a 20-year-old $1.5 million ladder at a cost of up to $25 million, according to general manager Michael Solomon.
The agency has already installed lights, sonar equipment, special trash grates and video equipment. The district is looking at hiring a third full-time staffer to do nothing but deal with the fish.
"We're a public agency and we need to keep reminding folks people are not going to spend endless money," said Solomon, adding the district rejected one suggestion to build a rock ramp across a dam for the fish at an estimated cost of $60 million.
Mark Capelli, the steelhead recovery coordinator with the fisheries service, called the recovery one of the more ambitious in the agency's history.
"We have a complicated situation we're dealing with and I don't think we've ever taken a position that there's only one way," he said. "There may be circumstances where artificial methods are appropriate and necessary."
.
Friday, April 9, 2010
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Experts Fear 'Walking' Fish Migration
March 26, 2010
Release from: ABC News (Australia)
Researchers are concerned an invasive fish species could reach the Australian mainland from the Torres Strait.
The fish can survive for long periods out of water and researchers are concerned it may spread to Cape York rivers in far north Queensland.
Climbing perch, a native of southern Asia, have been found on Saibai Island.
The head of the Australian Centre for Tropical Freshwater Research, Dr Damien Burrows, says the perch were found in a freshwater reservoir on the island after a surprise encounter.
He says it is believed the fish reached the island from southern Papua New Guinea rivers.
"Someone landed at the airstrip on Saibai Island and got out of the plane and there was a fish walking across the tarmac and we took a photograph of it and sent it to the Queensland Museum and they identified it as a climbing perch, so we then did a trip to find the population where it was living on the island which we were successfully able to do," he said.
He says the perch could easily reach Cape York aboard dinghies.
"They're physiologically capable of surviving in the bottom of a boat, so if they were accidentally caught in a net or something, the net was pulled into the boat and they dropped off into the bottom and the boat then drove to another island or the mainland then they should be able to survive that trip," he said.
He says regional surveillance is the best defence against the pest fish.
Dr Burrows says the reservoir cannot be poisoned because it is the main water supply on the island.
"I think it's really important that people who may be working out there around the Torres Strait or northern Cape York Peninsula familiarise themselves with this fish and what to do if they encounter one and we've produced some fact sheets which if you did an internet search should pop up as well," he said.
Release from: ABC News (Australia)
Researchers are concerned an invasive fish species could reach the Australian mainland from the Torres Strait.
The fish can survive for long periods out of water and researchers are concerned it may spread to Cape York rivers in far north Queensland.
Climbing perch, a native of southern Asia, have been found on Saibai Island.
The head of the Australian Centre for Tropical Freshwater Research, Dr Damien Burrows, says the perch were found in a freshwater reservoir on the island after a surprise encounter.
He says it is believed the fish reached the island from southern Papua New Guinea rivers.
"Someone landed at the airstrip on Saibai Island and got out of the plane and there was a fish walking across the tarmac and we took a photograph of it and sent it to the Queensland Museum and they identified it as a climbing perch, so we then did a trip to find the population where it was living on the island which we were successfully able to do," he said.
He says the perch could easily reach Cape York aboard dinghies.
"They're physiologically capable of surviving in the bottom of a boat, so if they were accidentally caught in a net or something, the net was pulled into the boat and they dropped off into the bottom and the boat then drove to another island or the mainland then they should be able to survive that trip," he said.
He says regional surveillance is the best defence against the pest fish.
Dr Burrows says the reservoir cannot be poisoned because it is the main water supply on the island.
"I think it's really important that people who may be working out there around the Torres Strait or northern Cape York Peninsula familiarise themselves with this fish and what to do if they encounter one and we've produced some fact sheets which if you did an internet search should pop up as well," he said.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Sharks Killed for Oil Used in Swine Flu Vaccine
James Owen
for National Geographic News
December 29, 2009
Vaccines being made to protect people from swine flu may not be so healthy for threatened species of sharks.
That's because millions of doses of the pandemic H1N1/09 vaccine contain a substance called squalene, which is extracted from shark livers. (Get more swine flu facts.)
More commonly found in beauty products such as skin creams, squalene can be used to make an adjuvant, a compound that boosts the body's immune response.
The World Health Organization recommends adjuvant-based vaccines, because they allow drug makers to create doses that use less of the active component, increasing available supplies.
Olive oil, wheat germ oil, and rice bran oil also naturally contain squalene, albeit in smaller amounts. But for now squalene is primarily harvested from sharks caught by commercial fishers, especially deepwater species. (Related: "Tomato, Tobacco Plants Produce SARS Vaccine.")
"There are several very disturbing issues associated with use of shark-liver-oil squalene," said Mary O'Malley, co-founder of the volunteer-run advocacy group Shark Safe Network.
"The deepwater sharks targeted have extremely low reproductive rates, and many are threatened species."
For example, one supplier has dubbed the gulper shark the Rolls-Royce of squalene-producing sharks—but the gulper is listed as vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN's) Red List of Threatened Species, meaning the species faces a high risk of extinction.
Shark Oil Demand
Although vaccines containing squalene have not yet been approved for use in the U.S., they are being distributed elsewhere, including Europe and Canada.
Novartis, a drug company that produces swine flu vaccines containing shark squalene, did not answer requests for information about its squalene supply.
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), another major swine-flu vaccine producer, announced in October that it had received orders for 440 million doses of vaccine containing adjuvant.
And the adjuvant in GSK's vaccines—which have been administered in 26 countries so far—contains shark-liver squalene, company spokesperson Clare Eldred confirmed in a statement.
GSK wouldn't reveal the name of its supplier or the annual quantity of shark squalene it buys. But Eldred told National Geographic News that the drug company takes about 10 percent of its supplier's total output.
O'Malley, of the Shark Safe Network, estimates that GSK's 440 million doses would require at least 9,700 pounds (4,400 kilograms) of shark oil, based on the stated squalene content of 10.69 milligrams in a dose.
This estimate, however, assumes zero waste and no refining of the squalene once it's been extracted from the sharks, O'Malley said.
Slow-Growing Sharks
Found at depths of between 984 and 4,921 feet (300 and 1,500 meters), the deep-sea sharks that produce squalene are most frequently caught via bottom trawling, either deliberately or as bycatch.
(Related: "Eight Million Sharks Killed Accidentally off Africa Yearly.")
"Bottom trawling is a horribly destructive fishing method that just bulldozes everything in its path and destroys enormous areas of the ocean floor," O'Malley said.
What's more, the already at-risk sharks are extremely slow growing and reproduce rarely.
A female gulper shark, for example, takes between 12 and 15 years to reach sexual maturity. A pregnant female gives birth to a single pup after a gestation period of about two years.
This means that the loss of a single female has a big impact on the population, said Hans Lassen, fisheries advisor for the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, an intergovernmental organization.
In 2006 the European Union imposed deep-sea shark fishing limits in the Northeast Atlantic, and the amount of shark squalene available on the market has since been reduced.
Still, some squalene suppliers are actively soliciting fishers for these sharks, the Shark Safe Network's O'Malley said.
For instance, France-based suppler Sophim lists the species it seeks on its Web site, along with an offer to evaluate samples from shark livers that "are thrown away because fishermen don't know that the liver has a value."
Shark Liver Alternatives
Some cosmetics firms have stopped using shark squalene or are phasing it out following pressure from conservation groups.
A shark-squalene alternative isn't yet an option for adjuvant vaccine makers, according to GSK's Eldred.
The drug company is currently looking at non-animal squalene sources, including olive oil.
But at the moment, she said, "we are unable to find an alternative of high enough grade."
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Giant predatory shark fossil unearthed in Kansas
By Matt Walker
Editor, Earth News
The fossilised remains of a gigantic 10m-long predatory shark have been unearthed in Kansas, US.
Scientists dug up a gigantic jawbone, teeth and scales belonging to the shark which lived 89 million years ago.
The bottom-dwelling predator had huge tooth plates, which it likely used to crush large shelled animals such as giant clams.
Palaeontologists already knew about the shark, but the new specimen suggests it was far bigger than previously thought.
The scientists who made the discovery, published in the journal Cretaceous Research, last week also released details of other newly discovered giant plankton-eating fish that swam in prehistoric seas for more than 100 million years. But this new fish, called Ptychodus mortoni, is both bigger and more fierce, having a taste for flesh rather than plankton.
It may even have been the largest shellfish-eating animal ever to have roamed the Earth.
Dr Kenshu Shimada of DePaul university in Chicago, Illinois, US found the fossilized remains of the shark in rocks known as the Fort Hays Limestone in Kansas.
"Kansas back then was smack in the middle of an inland sea known as the Western Interior Seaway that extended in a north-south direction across North America," says Dr Shimada.
The jawbone fragment came from a huge fish (diagram courtesy of Dr Shimada)
Along with a piece of jaw, Dr Shimada and colleagues uncovered a piece of jaw, teeth and scales.
"Although it represents a fraction of the entire body of the shark, the jaw fragment is gigantic. The estimated jaw length was almost 1m long, and that would suggest that the shark was likely at least 10m in length," says Dr Shimada.
Due to the lack of a complete skeleton, it is difficult to gauge the physical appearance of the shark.
But Dr Shimada suspects it had a body shaped much like that of a modern nurse shark (Ginglymostoma cirratum), with a broad rounded head and stout body.
Hundreds of robust teeth line the upper and lower parts of the shark's mouth, forming large slab-like plates capable of crushing shellfish.
"This in turn suggests that P. mortoni was probably a sluggish bottom-dwelling shark, rather than an actively fast swimmer," says Dr Shimada.
Fossils of this and other closely-related species have long been known.
"While there have been many teeth and a few incomplete skeletal remains of P. mortoni in museum collections, the significance of this new specimen is that it contains one of the largest teeth of this species that were found with a gigantic jaw fragment.
"The size of the jaw fragment in fact supports the contention that P. mortoni was likely a gigantic animal," says Dr Shimada.
The scientists have dated the fossil at 88.7 million years old.
At that time, a variety of animals, such as giant clams, other sharks, bony fishes, and predatory marine reptiles called mosasaurs and plesiosaurs inhabited the same water.
"The emergence of large ptychodontids roughly coincides with the timing of when many other kinds of organisms, including clams as well as sharks and bony fishes, became bigger," explains Dr Shimada.
"Clearly, the food resources must have been abundant enough in the marine ecosystem to support such large organisms.
"Becoming big does have advantages such as deterring predators and being able to travel faster, but it does come with disadvantages as well, most notably needing more food for energy."
Another specimen of P. mortoni has been found alongside another type of meat-eating shark called Squalicorax, with some scientists suggesting that the meat-eating shark may have been scavenging on the body of its larger relative.
Last week, Dr Shimada and colleagues published details in the journal Science of how a dynasty of large plankton-eating fish roamed the oceans between 66 and 172 million years ago.
These fish died out with the dinosaurs.
Once they had vanished from the ecosystem, mammals and cartilaginous fish such as manta rays, basking sharks and whale sharks began to adapt to fill a similar ecological role.
By Matt Walker
Editor, Earth News
The fossilised remains of a gigantic 10m-long predatory shark have been unearthed in Kansas, US.
Scientists dug up a gigantic jawbone, teeth and scales belonging to the shark which lived 89 million years ago.
The bottom-dwelling predator had huge tooth plates, which it likely used to crush large shelled animals such as giant clams.
Palaeontologists already knew about the shark, but the new specimen suggests it was far bigger than previously thought.
The scientists who made the discovery, published in the journal Cretaceous Research, last week also released details of other newly discovered giant plankton-eating fish that swam in prehistoric seas for more than 100 million years. But this new fish, called Ptychodus mortoni, is both bigger and more fierce, having a taste for flesh rather than plankton.
It may even have been the largest shellfish-eating animal ever to have roamed the Earth.
Dr Kenshu Shimada of DePaul university in Chicago, Illinois, US found the fossilized remains of the shark in rocks known as the Fort Hays Limestone in Kansas.
"Kansas back then was smack in the middle of an inland sea known as the Western Interior Seaway that extended in a north-south direction across North America," says Dr Shimada.
The jawbone fragment came from a huge fish (diagram courtesy of Dr Shimada)
Along with a piece of jaw, Dr Shimada and colleagues uncovered a piece of jaw, teeth and scales.
"Although it represents a fraction of the entire body of the shark, the jaw fragment is gigantic. The estimated jaw length was almost 1m long, and that would suggest that the shark was likely at least 10m in length," says Dr Shimada.
Due to the lack of a complete skeleton, it is difficult to gauge the physical appearance of the shark.
But Dr Shimada suspects it had a body shaped much like that of a modern nurse shark (Ginglymostoma cirratum), with a broad rounded head and stout body.
Hundreds of robust teeth line the upper and lower parts of the shark's mouth, forming large slab-like plates capable of crushing shellfish.
"This in turn suggests that P. mortoni was probably a sluggish bottom-dwelling shark, rather than an actively fast swimmer," says Dr Shimada.
Fossils of this and other closely-related species have long been known.
"While there have been many teeth and a few incomplete skeletal remains of P. mortoni in museum collections, the significance of this new specimen is that it contains one of the largest teeth of this species that were found with a gigantic jaw fragment.
"The size of the jaw fragment in fact supports the contention that P. mortoni was likely a gigantic animal," says Dr Shimada.
The scientists have dated the fossil at 88.7 million years old.
At that time, a variety of animals, such as giant clams, other sharks, bony fishes, and predatory marine reptiles called mosasaurs and plesiosaurs inhabited the same water.
"The emergence of large ptychodontids roughly coincides with the timing of when many other kinds of organisms, including clams as well as sharks and bony fishes, became bigger," explains Dr Shimada.
"Clearly, the food resources must have been abundant enough in the marine ecosystem to support such large organisms.
"Becoming big does have advantages such as deterring predators and being able to travel faster, but it does come with disadvantages as well, most notably needing more food for energy."
Another specimen of P. mortoni has been found alongside another type of meat-eating shark called Squalicorax, with some scientists suggesting that the meat-eating shark may have been scavenging on the body of its larger relative.
Last week, Dr Shimada and colleagues published details in the journal Science of how a dynasty of large plankton-eating fish roamed the oceans between 66 and 172 million years ago.
These fish died out with the dinosaurs.
Once they had vanished from the ecosystem, mammals and cartilaginous fish such as manta rays, basking sharks and whale sharks began to adapt to fill a similar ecological role.
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