Conservation – Page 40 – Southern Fried Science

Biodiversity Wednesday – Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge

January 19, 2011January 19, 2011 David Shiffman

Conservation

Carr — These beaches are narrow, beautiful, and largely undeveloped

On the east coast of Florida lies a thin, 20 mile long stretch of beach. It looks a great deal like the many other beaches in Florida, but one important difference is immediately clear. It is some of the least developed beachfront real estate in the United States, which is particularly jarring considering that it is close to the city of Melbourne and right off of the major A-1-A highway. Why isn’t this beautiful and accessible stretch of beach covered in hotels and luxury apartments?

An enormous number of signs listing the things you can’t do on this beach also grabs your attention. No ATV’s, horses, dogs, or beach chairs are allowed. Feeding wildlife, including seagulls, is strictly prohibited. Under no circumstances can you build a campfire- not that you’d need to, since the public isn’t allowed on the beach at all after dark.

What is this place?

Shark Science Monday: Geremy Cliff discusses South Africa’s “shark control” program

January 10, 2011January 12, 2011 David Shiffman 2 Comments

Conservation, Science

In this week’s edition of Shark Science Monday, Geremy Cliff of the Kwazulu Natal Sharks Board discusses South Africa’s “shark control” program. If you have a question for Geremy, please leave it as a comment below and I’ll make sure that he receives it.

Turtle excluder devices: analysis of resistance to a successful conservation policy

January 7, 2011December 31, 2011 David Shiffman 9 Comments

Conservation

Conservation efforts often have an associated tradeoff, and many proposed solutions are shot down because the costs are perceived to be too high. A conservation policy that benefited a charismatic endangered species with very little cost should be popular and enthusiastically adopted. However, even though turtle excluder devices greatly reduce sea turtle mortality and have very low costs, they were vigorously opposed by shrimpers. Though many factors contributed to this opposition to turtle excluder devices, analysis of quotes from newspaper articles reveals that one of the major issues was a failure of the conservation community to educate and communicate with shrimpers.

The problem

Most species of sea turtles are either threatened or endangered. Although they face many threats, a 1990 National Academy of Sciences study reached the conclusion that “drowning in shrimp trawls kills more sea turtles than all other human activities combined”. Trawling consists of dragging a large net behind a boat to catch shrimp. This fishing method has one of the highest bycatch rates of any used today, resulting in over 11 million metric tons of bycatch a year. Sea turtles breathe at the surface, and being trapped underwater in a net can be fatal if they aren’t freed in time. Adult loggerhead turtles can hold their breath for up to 45 minutes, but trawlers often wait up to four hours before hauling in their nets. This resulted in an estimated 48,000 sea turtles caught in trawl nets each year from 1973-1984 in U.S. waters, of which 11,000 died . Gulf of Mexico shrimping was particularly hard on loggerhead and kemp’s ridley sea turtles.

Weekly dose of TED – Stephen Palumbi: Following the mercury trail

January 7, 2011January 7, 2011 Andrew Thaler

Conservation, Science

For 2011 we’re going to do a bit more with our Weekly dose of TED series. Instead of just posting a video each week, we’re going to include a short discussion of either the entire talk or a point that could be expanded. The idea that, when it comes to seafood, we may not know … Read More “Weekly dose of TED – Stephen Palumbi: Following the mercury trail” »

Biodiversity Wednesday – The Western Ghats

January 5, 2011December 31, 2010 Andrew Thaler

Conservation, Science

This year, we’re going to change around our Biodiversity Wednesday series. Instead of posting a YouTube clip of some various organism or region, we’re going to highlight a lesser known region of biodiversity importance and discuss related conservation and management issues.

Located along the west coast of India, the Western Ghats are a 1600-km mountain range formed when the Indian sub-continent split from Gondwana approximately 150 million years ago. These basalt mountains are rich in iron ore and, to a lesser extent, bauxite, making them prime candidates for mineral extraction. Due to the position of the mountains, the Western Ghats interact with the annual monsoon season to generate high amounts of rainfall. Nearly 40% of all Indian river systems drain through the Western Ghats.

Thoughts on the shark attacks in Egypt

January 4, 2011January 5, 2011 David Shiffman 9 Comments

Conservation, Science

While we were away on our December blog-cation, sharks were all over the news. Specifically, a series of shark attacks in the resort town of Sharm-el-Sheik, Egypt, captured the attention of the media and of beachgoing news watchers worldwide. I normally don’t talk about shark attacks on the blog, but lots of readers have been asking me for my opinion on this incident. Fortunately, even though I was on blog-cation, the rest of the shark blog-o-sphere was hard at work covering this issue.

While it’s difficult to integrate a month’s worth of news stories after the fact, I’ll do my best to provide you with a complete picture of what happened. Please feel free to point out inaccuracies in the comments section.

Why conserve deep-sea hydrothermal vents?

January 3, 2011January 3, 2011 Andrew Thaler 16 Comments

Conservation

Of all the questions I am asked as a deep-sea biologist, the hardest to answer is “why conserve deep-sea hydrothermal vents?” Sure there are the classic canards of economics (vents produce valuable minerals) and biotechnology (vents house unique organisms that may produce useful pharmaceutical or technological products) but these are hollow, belie a conservation ethic driven by human selfishness, and pander to an exploitative system. Beyond those lie a series of high minded, though vague, ethics about preserving biodiversity, protecting unique habitats, and understanding an ecosystem more alien than any science fiction story before destroying it.

Our global society is coming around to the idea that biodiversity is valuable in its own right, that species are precious, and that we have a duty to minimize the damage we inflict upon the world. We still have a long way to go, but the wind is in the sails and the ship is coming about. Despite this growing environmental ethic, the tragic reality is that before 1977 we didn’t even know hydrothermal vents existed and if every vent community was wiped from the face of the seafloor, few outside of a handful of fortunate scientists and deep-sea enthusiasts would notice.

So why conserve deep-sea hydrothermal vents?

Southern Fried Scientist’s Predictions for 2011

January 1, 2011December 29, 2010 Andrew Thaler 4 Comments

Conservation, Science

Happy New Year to all our readers! 2010 was a big year for Southern Fried Science. We added a new blogger, moved to our own server, and launched The Gam. Along the way we’ve won a few awards, hosted the first Ocean of Pseudoscience week, cooked a whole pig, exposed some blatant greenwashing, challenged conventional … Read More “Southern Fried Scientist’s Predictions for 2011” »

U.S. Senate passes Shark Conservation Act, but at what cost?

December 20, 2010December 22, 2010 David Shiffman 28 Comments

Conservation, Science

We interrupt your regularly scheduled blog-cation to bring you some exciting news- today, the U.S. Senate passed the Shark Conservation Act!

The act, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives last year, closes important loopholes in current U.S. shark management policy by banning the practice of removing fins * at sea (for almost all species, more on this later). It also provides a framework for Federal officials to work with our trading partners that don’t similarly protect sharks.

It was expect to easily pass the Senate, but as we reported earlier this fall, Republican firebrand Tom Coburn blocked it and related conservation legislation. Senator Coburn’s stated objection to the bill was that it would cost too much, but the estimated cost according to GovTrack is less than $1 per American taxpayer.

Sharks get new protections at ICCAT

November 29, 2010 David Shiffman

Conservation, Science

Last week, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas met in Paris. Among other responsibilities (such as the conservation of Atlantic tunas), ICCAT sets guidelines for several shark fisheries. My friend Sonja Fordham, President of Shark Advocates International, was there representing SAI. She is optimistic about a series of new shark conservation measures that the Commission adopted.