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Human deaths from shark attacks hit 20-year low last year
2008-02-14 10:25:00
Fatal shark attacks worldwide dipped to their lowest levels in two decades in 2007 with the sole casualty involving a swimmer vacationing in the South Pacific, according to the latest statistics from the University of Florida.Except for 1987, when there were no fatalities, the last year a single human death occurred from a shark attack was in 1985, said George Burgess, director of the International Shark Attack File housed at UF's Florida Museum of Natural History. By comparison, there were four deaths each in 2005 and 2006, and seven in 2004."It's quite spectacular that for the hundreds of millions of people worldwide spending hundreds of millions of hours in the water in activities that are often very provocative to sharks, such as surfing, there is only one incident resulting in a fatality," he said. "The danger of a shark attack stays in the forefront of our psyches because of it being drilled into our brain for the last 30 years by the popular media, movies, books and televis...
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Living On 'The Red Edge': Rare Form Of Chlorophyll Discovered
2008-02-14 10:23:00
Researchers at Washington University in St। Louis and Arizona State University have sequenced the genome of a rare bacterium that harvests light energy by making an even rarer form of chlorophyll, chlorophyll d. Chlorophyll d absorbs "red edge," near infrared, long wave length light, invisible to the naked eye.In so doing, the cyanobacterium Acaryochloris marina, competes with virtually no other plant or bacterium in the world for sunlight. As a result, its genome is massive for a cyanobacterium, comprising 8.3 million base pairs, and sophisticated. The genome is among the very largest of 55 cyanobacterial strains in the world sequenced thus far, and it is the first chlorophyll d --containing organism to be sequenced .Robert Blankenship. Ph.D., Lucille P. Markey Distinguished Professor in Arts & Sciences at Washington University, and principal investigator of the project, said with every gene of Acaryochloris marina now sequenced and annotated, the immediate goal is to find th...
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Climate Change Impacting Marine Environment Surrounding UK
2008-02-14 05:17:00
Climate change is having a significant impact on the United Kingdom’s marine environment according to a new report। The Marine Climate Change Impacts Partnership report card 2007-08 highlights just how much climate change has affected the UK’s marine environment and what the future impacts may be.Key findings from the report include:2006 was the second warmest year for UK coastal waters since records began in 1870; seven of the 10 warmest years have been in the last decade.Warmer winters have been strongly linked to reduced breeding success and survival in some seabird populations.Models predict fewer storms in future but there will be increased numbers of severe storms.Coastal erosion and flooding is expected to increase.Marine climate change is having a significant impact on the marine environment and the goods and services it provides.Coastal erosion is occurring along 17 per cent of the UK coastline (30 per cent of England’s coastline; 23 per cent of Wales; 20 per cent o...
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King Penguins could be wiped out by climate change
2008-02-13 05:19:00
One of the emblems of the Antarctic, the king penguin, could be driven to extinction by climate change, a French study published on Monday warned. In a long-term investigation on the penguins' main breeding grounds, investigators found that a tiny warming of the Southern Ocean by the El Nino effect caused a massive fall in the birds' ability to survive.If predictions by UN scientists of ever-higher temperatures in coming decades prove true, the species faces a major risk of being wiped out, they say.Second in size only to the emperor penguin, king penguins (Aptenodytes patagonicus) live on islands on the fringes of Antarctica in the southern Indian Ocean, with an estimated population of two million breeding pairs.The species is unusual in that it takes a whole year for all the birds to complete their breeding cycle -- the ritual of courtship, egg laying, incubating and chick rearing.This extreme length, spanning the Antarctic winter and summer, means the birds are vulnerable to do...
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California Spiny Lobsters To Be Monitored By Fishermen And Scientists
2008-02-11 12:34:00
Unique, collaborative ways to manage fisheries are emerging in Southern California . Currently the California spiny lobster is being scrutinized as Californians evaluate the first five years of marine reserves in the Channel Islands area.An innovative collaboration has developed between local trap fishermen and scientists at the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The partnership, called CALobster, has ambitious long-term and short-term goals.The long-term goals include involving fishermen in fisheries research and management, ensuring the sustainability of lobster populations, and maintaining working harbors. In addition, CALobster is building an education program to train graduate students in community-based fisheries management. The community includes fishermen, scientists, managers, environmental groups, and general public.A series of short-term studies have been conducted to support the longer-term goals. They inclu...
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Turtle swims from Indonesia to Oregon
2008-02-11 12:27:00
A leatherback turtle has been tracked swimming from the coast of the Papua province in Indonesia to Oregon , researchers said, in what may be the longest trip for marine vertebrae between breeding and feeding sites. "This is an animal perfectly suited for doing this kind of journey," said Scott Benson, research fishery biologist for the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service, who helped track the turtle and presented details of the journey at a sea turtle symposium last month.The longest distance of nine turtles tagged in 2003, Benson said, was the leatherback that reached Oregon and then headed to Hawaii before the battery on the satellite transmitter gave out. The 12,774-mile journey took 647 days, he said.
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Dolphin hunt sags amid mercury fears
2008-02-11 12:17:00
Every autumn and winter, hunters from this craggy Japanese fishing village corral thousands of dolphins into a tiny, isolated cove and kill them for meat and fertilizer, turning the water red with their blood. And every year, foreign animal rights protesters converge on the town, interfering with the slaughter, clashing with fishermen and broadcasting grisly photographs of the slayings around the world — all without stopping the hunt.Now, Japan's dolphin hunters face a new, powerful opponent: mercury contamination.A series of scientific studies in recent years in Japan have documented high levels of the toxic heavy metal in dolphin meat, and a group of city councilmen in Taiji launched an unprecedented campaign against the hunt several months ago after doing their own tests.A leading regional supermarket chain has pulled dolphin from its shelves over the health concerns, and hunt critics in the town say villagers are shunning it. Meat from pilot whales — a type of dolphin — w...
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Marine algae get the green light from Shell
2008-02-11 12:15:00
Shell is to become the first major oil company to produce diesel fuelfrom marine algae.Algae are a climate-friendly way to make fuel from carbon dioxide. Theyproduce an oil that can readily be converted to diesel, and can be fedCO2 directly from smokestacks. Unlike biofuels such as corn, they don'tuse up soil or water that could otherwise be used to grow food, whichcan pump up food prices.The US government abandoned research on algal biofuel in the 1990sbecause of the low cost of crude oil. But as oil and food prices beganto rise, small algal fuel producers sprang up.Shell plans to begin construction on a pilot plant in Hawaiiimmediately, which it expects will produce 15 times as much oil for agiven area as other biofuel crops, thanks to the efficiency of algalphotosynthesis.
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Ocean Carbon Fix Using Iron Is Unproven, Marine Scientists Say
2008-02-11 12:10:00
Releasing iron into the ocean to stimulate the capture of carbon dioxide and alleviate global warming is an unproven method, and shouldn't be rewarded with pollution credits, marine scientists from around the world said.The technique, known as ocean iron fertilization, uses the metal to stimulate the growth of microscopic plants that absorb and trap carbon dioxide from the air. Some private groups are planning to use the process to generate so-called carbon credits, tradable pollution permits, the scientists say in tomorrow's edition of the journal Science, without naming the organizations.While trials of the process have increased scientific understanding, there isn't yet enough proof that it can be used as an effective way to trap carbon dioxide, the main gas blamed for global warming, the scientists, led by Ken Buesseler at the Woods Hole Ocean ographic Institution in Massachusetts, say.``As yet, there is no scientific basis for issuing such carbon credits for ocean iron fertil...
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California Salmon population declines
2008-02-11 12:03:00
The number of chinook salmon returning to California 's Central Valley has reached a near-record low, pointing to an "unprecedented collapse" that could lead to severe restrictions on West Coast salmon fishing this year, according to federal fishery regulators. The sharp drop in chinook, or "king," salmon returning from the Pacific Ocean to spawn in the Sacramento River and its tributaries last fall is part of broader decline in wild salmon runs in rivers across the West.The population dropped more than 88 percent from its all-time high five years ago, according to an internal memo sent to members of the Pacific Fishery Management Council and obtained by The Associated Press.Regulators are still trying to understand the reasons for the shrinking number of spawners; some scientists believe it could be related to changes in the ocean linked to global warming.Some fishermen and environmentalists believe the sharp decline is related to increased water exports from the San Joaquin-Sacram...

First Antarctic marine census launched
2008-02-11 12:02:00
New Zealand and Italian marine scientists began a two-month voyage to Antarctica's northern coast Tuesday as part of the first-ever census of Antarctic marine biodiversity, Prime Minister Helen Clark said. The census of Antarctic marine life is a multinational research project "involving 23 countries and 11 coordinated voyages to survey marine ecosystems and habitats in waters surrounding Antarctica," she said.The 26 scientists on the research ship will collect samples of sea life and capture images of the sea floor down to depths of 13,000 feet in previously unexplored areas, Clark said in a statement.The data collected by surveys of areas not previously explored will "assist decision-making on environmental issues such as climate change and its effect on Southern Ocean ecosystems," she said.Foreign Minister Winston Peters said the voyage would provide essential information about the biodiversity and functioning of the Ross Sea ecosystem off the north Antarctic coast that would he...
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More than 50 sea lions massacred in Galapagos
2008-02-11 12:01:00
Ecuadoran authorities are investigating the massacre of 53 sea lions that were found with crushed skulls in the Galapagos Islands, the endangered natural reserve's officials said Monday. The dead animals were in an advanced stage of decomposition when they were discovered on the island of Pinta, scattered in a one-kilometer (half-mile) radius, said Galapagos National Park official Victor Carrion."The sea lions, including 13 pups, died because of a strong blow from someone. It was a massacre whose motives the prosecutor's office must clarify," Carrion told AFP.The animals' remains did not appear to have been mutilated, and no cuts were found on their skins or limbs, he said.The authorities found no other killed animals but they stepped up patrols of the islands, Carrion said.The Galapagos islands are 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) off the coast of Ecuador in the Pacific ocean.The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) placed the islands on its list...
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Coral Reefs May Be Protected By Natural Ocean Thermostat
2008-02-11 11:56:00
Natural processes may prevent oceans from warming beyond a certain point, helping protect some coral reefs from the impacts of climate change, new research finds। The study, by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS), finds evidence that an ocean "thermostat" appears to be helping to regulate sea-surface temperatures in a biologically diverse region of the western Pacific.The research team, led by NCAR scientist Joan Kleypas, looked at the Western Pacific Warm Pool, a region northeast of Australia where naturally warm sea-surface temperatures have risen little in recent decades. As a result, the reefs in that region appear to have suffered relatively few episodes of coral bleaching, a phenomenon that has damaged reefs in other areas where temperature increases have been more pronounced.The study* lends support to a much-debated theory that a natural ocean thermostat prevents sea-surface temperatures from e...
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Oldest Horseshoe Crab Fossil Found, 445 Million Years Old
2008-02-11 11:54:00
Few modern animals are as deserving of the title “living fossilâ€� as the lowly horseshoe crab। Seemingly unchanged since before the Age of Dinosaurs, these venerable sea creatures can now claim a history that reaches back almost half-a billion years.In a collaborative research article published recently in the British journal Palaeontology, a team of Canadian scientists revealed rare new horseshoe crab fossils from 445 million year-old Ordovician age rocks in central and northern Manitoba, which are about 100 million years older than any previously known forms.Palaeontologist Dave Rudkin from the Royal Ontario Museum, with colleagues Dr. Graham Young of The Manitoba Museum (Winnipeg) and Dr. Godfrey Nowlan at the Geological Survey of Canada (Calgary), gave their remarkable new fossils the scientific name Lunataspis aurora, meaning literally “crescent moon shield of the dawnâ€� in reference to their shape, geological age and northerly discovery sites. Although they are more â€...
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Ancient Climate Secrets Raised From Ocean Depths
2008-02-11 11:53:00
Scientists aboard the research vessel, Southern Surveyor, return to Hobart today with a collection of coral samples and photographs taken in the Southern Ocean at greater depths than ever before।Using a remotely operated submersible vehicle the international research team captured images of life found on deep-sea pinnacles and valleys up to three kilometres beneath the Ocean’s surface.During a three-week voyage, scientists from CSIRO’s Wealth from Oceans National Research Flagship and the US, collaborated to retrieve examples of live and fossilised deep-ocean corals from a depth of 1 650 metres near the Tasman Fracture Zone, south-east of Tasmania.“These corals are evidence of an extinct coral reef,� says the voyage’s Chief Scientist, CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research’s Dr Ron Thresher.“Our sampling came up with some very old fossil corals of the type we are now seeing live and forming extensive reefs at depths of 800-1300 metres. This suggests that the reef exte...
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Bad News For Coastal Ocean: Less Fish Out, Means More Nitrogen In
2008-02-11 11:49:00
A Canada-U।S. research team has found that commercial fisheries play an unexpected role in the decline of water quality in coastal waters. In a recent issue of Nature Geoscience, Roxane Maranger and Nina Caraco explain that the collapse of the fisheries from decades of over fishing has played a significant role in disturbing the balance between nitrogen entering and leaving costal water systems. The study, the first to examine the world's 58 coatal regions, shows how failing to maintain ecosystems in a sustainable manner has wide-ranging consequences. Using data provided by the United Nations, Maranger and Caraco found that commercial fishing has played an important, yet declining, role in removing man-made nitrogen from coastal waters."Fish accumulate nitrogen as biomass, and when humans move fish from the ocean to the table through commercial fisheries, they are returning part of this terrestrial nitrogen generated by humans back to the land," said Maranger, a biology professor...
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Big Island Has Most Live Coral Of Main Hawaiian Islands
2008-02-11 11:45:00
New coral reef maps released by NOAA reveal that the Big Island of Hawaii has the highest percentage of live coral of the main Hawaiian islands। The finding supports studies indicating that geologically young islands such as the Big Island generally have more live coral cover than older islands.“Live coral covers 57 percent, or 29 square miles, of the waters surrounding the Big Island of Hawaii,� said Timothy A. Battista, an oceanographer with NOAA’s Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment. “That is the most live coral coverage of any of the main Hawaiian islands.�The maps are the result of the most comprehensive assessment of the extent and types of shallow-water seafloor habitats in Hawaii to date. In all, the NOAA mapping effort covered 506 square miles of ocean habitat on Hawaii, Kahoolawe, Maui, Lanai, Molokai, Oahu, Kauai, Niihau and Kaula. The Hawaii survey was part of a larger effort by NOAA and partners to map all U.S. shallow water coral reef ecosystems an...
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Fishermen Will Use New Ways To Avoid Snaring Endangered Seabirds
2008-02-11 11:44:00
Fishing fleets from more than 30 countries on the high seas of the Atlantic and Pacific will now use new ways to avoid accidentally snaring seabirds going after bait on long lines। The new protections are the focus of strong international measures, promoted by NOAA, that go into effect this year.The measures will protect many albatross and seabird species that fly far from land and whose populations are declining faster than most birds around the world, in part due to their incidental catch in fishing long lines used to catch tuna, swordfish and other tuna-like fish.“Some of the most vulnerable seabird populations travel entire oceans in search of food. Seabird conservation will require nations with longline fishing fleets to work together to adapt their fishing practices to avoid seabirds wherever they fish,� said Navy Vice Adm. Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Ph.D., NOAA administrator and under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere.In November, the International Commission...
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Saving Endangered Sea Turtles
2008-02-11 11:42:00
Two leading environmental organizations, Earthwatch Institute and Ocean Conservancy, have partnered on the SEE Turtles project to promote conservation of the world’s endangered sea turtle populations। As all seven of the planet’s species are under threat, the goal of the project is to demonstrate how public involvement in turtle conservation can have a bigger economic impact on local communities than traditional hunting.SEE Turtles formally launches at the 28th Annual Sea Turtle Biology and Conservation Symposium, held by the International Sea Turtle Society, in Loreto, Baja California Sur, Mexico, from January 19 to 26. Like the SEE Turtles campaign itself, many of this year’s Symposium offerings will demonstrate both the environmental and economic benefits of turtle conservation.Sea turtles—marine reptiles whose forms and lifecycles have been virtually unchanged for millions of years—are under threat from many angles, including increased human development that destroys...
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Flying robot to track whales off Australia
2008-01-29 06:21:00
A flying robot is to join the fight to save the world's whales by taking part in an aerial survey to count humpbacks off Australia , a report said Sunday. The remote-controlled drone will patrol waters off Australia's North Stradbroke Island, taking pictures scientists hope will enable them to count the migrating whales, Sydney's Sun-Herald newspaper said.Scientists hope using the five-metre (16-foot) wingspan drone will result in a more accurate estimate of the animals' numbers and help convince Japan to stop its annual whale hunt."Migrating humpbacks usually travel singly or in pairs, and often you just see their blows before they submerge again," Michael Noad of the University of Queensland told the newspaper."They're spread out on a long migratory path so you have to cover a bit of ocean to find them."The first stage of the experimental project will test how easy it is for researchers to access data and whether images can be viewed in real time.North Stradbroke Island is loc...
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Could Tiny Diatoms Help Offset Global Warming?
2008-01-28 05:05:00
Diatoms -- some of which are so tiny that 30 can fit across the width of a human hair -- are so numerous that they are among the key organisms taking the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide out of the Earth's atmosphere।The shells of diatoms are so heavy that when they die in the oceans they typically sink to watery graves on the seafloor, taking carbon out of the surface waters and locking it into sediments below.Scientists have reported the discovery of whole subsets of genes and proteins that govern how one species of diatom builds its shell. For oceanographers, the work might one day help them understand how thousands of different kinds of diatoms -- and their ability to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere -- might be affected by something like global climate change. Material scientists involved in the work are interested in the possibilities of manipulating the genes responsible for silica production as a way of fabricating more efficient computer chips.Diatoms, most of whic...
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Warmer Ocean Could Reduce Number Of Atlantic Hurricane Landfalls
2008-01-28 05:01:00
A warming global ocean — influencing the winds that shear off the tops of developing storms — could mean fewer Atlantic hurricanes striking the United States according to new findings by NOAA climate scientists। Furthermore, the relative warming role of the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic oceans is important for determining Atlantic hurricane activity.The article, to be published on January 23 in Geophysical Research Letters, uses observations to show that warming of global sea surface temperatures is associated with a secular, or sustained long-term increase, of vertical wind shear in the main development region for Atlantic hurricanes. The increased vertical wind shear coincides with a downward trend in U.S. landfalling hurricanes.“We looked at U.S. landfalling hurricanes because it is the most reliable Atlantic hurricane measurement over the long term,� says Chunzai Wang, a physical oceanographer and climate scientist with NOAA’s Atlantic Ocean ographic and Meteorological...
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Newly Discovered Active Fault Building New Dalmatian Islands Off Croatian C
2008-01-28 04:59:00
A newly identified fault that runs under the Adriatic Sea is actively building more of the famously beautiful Dalmatian Islands and Dinaride Mountains of Croatia, according to a new research report।Geologists had previously believed that the Dalmatian Islands and the Dinaride Mountains had stopped growing 20 to 30 million years ago.From a region northwest of Dubrovnik, the new fault runs northwest at least 200 km (124 miles) under the sea floor. The Croatian coast and the 1,185 Dalmatian Islands are an increasing popular tourist destination. Dubrovnik, known as "the Pearl of the Adriatic," is a UNESCO-designated World Heritage site.At the fault, the leading edge of the Eurasian plate is scraping and sliding its way over a former piece of the African plate called the South Adria microplate, said lead researcher Richard A. Bennett of The University of Arizona in Tucson."It's a collision zone," said Bennett, a UA assistant professor of geosciences. "Two continents are colliding and ...
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Antarctic Ice Loss Speeds Up, Nearly Matches Greenland Loss
2008-01-28 04:57:00
Ice loss in Antarctica increased by 75 percent in the last 10 years due to a speed-up in the flow of its glaciers and is now nearly as great as that observed in Greenland, according to a new, comprehensive study by NASA and university scientists।In a first-of-its-kind study, an international team led by Eric Rignot of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., and the University of California, Irvine, estimated changes in Antarctica's ice mass between 1996 and 2006 and mapped patterns of ice loss on a glacier-by-glacier basis. They detected a sharp jump in Antarctica's ice loss, from enough ice to raise global sea level by 0.3 millimeters (.01 inches) a year in 1996, to 0.5 millimeters (.02 inches) a year in 2006.Rignot said the losses, which were primarily concentrated in West Antarctica's Pine Island Bay sector and the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, are caused by ongoing and past acceleration of glaciers into the sea. This is mostly a result of warmer ocea...
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Arctic ice-cap loss twice the size of France
2008-01-25 10:02:00
The Arctic ice cap has shrunk by an area twice the size of France 's land mass over the last two years, the Paris-based National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) said Wednesday. "The year 2008 promises to be a critical year on every level," said Jean-Claude Gascard, the body's research director and coordinator of European scientific mission Damocles, which is monitoring the effects of climate change across the Arctic.September 2007 measurements show ice covering 4.13 million square kilometres (1.6 million square miles), down from 5.3 million square kilometres in 2005."Melting could result in the loss of another million in one (2008) summer," he added at a press conference."Summer 2007 was marked by a major retreat in the ice-cap, one we were not anticipating," Gascard said. "The rate of decline is also two or three times faster than (observed) beforehand."International models used to predict retreating ice have some "catching-up" to do, he said.Over the last 20 years, 40 perce...
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First car powered by algal biodiesel to demonstrate real-world driving at S
2008-01-24 12:04:00
Solazyme, Inc., a synthetic biology company unleashing the power of aquatic microbes to create clean and scalable solutions for biofuel, industrial chemical, and health and wellness markets, today revealed the first ever algae-derived biodiesel fuel (Soladiesel(TM)) to have undergone road testing by successfully powering a factory-standard automobile for long distances under typical driving conditions. The car and fuel will make their public debuts at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, where they are also featured in Fields of Fuel, Josh Tikell's documentary about renewable fuels. Soladiesel biodiesel is clean, renewable, environmentally sustainable and scalable.The algal biodiesel fueling the car is made through Solazyme's proprietary process for manufacturing high-value, functionally-tailored oils from algae. This process, which uses standard industrial fermentation equipment, yields a biofuel that significantly reduces greenhouse gas emissions and is biodegradable, nontoxic and s...
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Whales beach in NZ
2008-01-24 11:47:00
At least 15 pilot whales died and another 18 were in danger after stranding on an isolated New Zealand beach, authorities said Wednesday.Six whales were initially found stranded Wednesday morning at Farewell Spit on the northwest of the South Island, and three died while the remainder were refloated, said Department of Conservation spokeswoman Trish Grant.A larger pod of up to 30 were found nearby, of which 12 to 15 had died with about as many milling close to shore, Grant said.The surviving whales were being monitored and there was a concern they could also become stuck on the beach."It all depends on which way the whales start to move," Grant said, adding that the whales would be in most danger at low tide.Rough seas and strong winds were hampering attempts to keep a watch on the four to six metre (13 to 19 feet) long whales.Whale strandings have been common in the area and about two years ago 25 pilot whales died after a pod of 129 beached at Farewell Spit.
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Greenhouse Ocean May Downsize Fish, Risking One Of World's Most
2008-01-24 11:46:00
The last fish you ate probably came from the Bering Sea.But during this century, the sea's rich food web--stretching from Alaska to Russia--could fray as algae adapt to greenhouse conditions."All the fish that ends up in McDonald's, fish sandwiches--that's all Bering Sea fish," said USC marine ecologist Dave Hutchins, whose former student at the University of Delaware, Clinton Hare, led research published Dec. 20 in Marine Ecology Progress Series.At present, the Bering Sea provides roughly half the fish caught in U.S. waters each year and nearly a third caught worldwide."The experiments we did up there definitely suggest that the changing ecosystem may support less of what we're harvesting--things like pollock and hake," Hutchins said.While the study must be interpreted cautiously, its implications are harrowing, Hutchins said, especially since the Bering Sea is already warming."It's kind of a canary in a coal mine because it appears to be showing climate change effects before ...
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Scientists sound alarm over starfish threat in Indonesia
2008-01-24 11:43:00
The predatory crown of thorns starfish is threatening Indonesia 's portion of the "coral triangle," the richest area of coral reef biodiversity on the planet, scientists warned Tuesday. The starfish have been discovered in large numbers by researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Australian-based ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, who surveyed reefs around Halmahera in Indonesia's Maluku Islands, a press release said.The triangle lies between Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands and contains more than half the world's reefs, considered building blocks for marine life.More than 600 species of coral -- 76 percent of those known -- and more than 3,000 plant and fish species live in the triangle's waters.Scientists said they feared the growth in numbers of the starfish was caused by poor water quality and could be an early warning of widespread reef decline."We witnessed a number of active outbreaks of this cor...
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Starfish outbreak threatens corals
2008-01-24 11:42:00
Outbreaks of the notorious crown of thorns starfish now threaten the "coral triangle," the richest center of coral reef biodiversity on Earth, according to recent surveys by the Bronx Zoo-based Wildlife Conservation Society and ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies.The starfish - a predator that feeds on corals by spreading its stomach over them and using digestive enzymes to liquefy tissue - were discovered in large numbers by the researchers in reefs in Halmahera, Indonesia, at the heart of the Coral Triangle, which lies between Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. It is considered the genetic fountainhead for coral diversity found on Australia's Great Barrier Reef, Ningaloo and other reefs in the region.Scientists fear the outbreak is caused by poor water quality and could be an early warning of widespread reef decline.Recent surveys of Halmahera by the Wildlife Conservation Society and ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef ...
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