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United Kingdom Designates World’s Largest Marine Reserve
4/2/10 The British government on Thursday announced the creation of the world's largest marine reserve, designating a group of 55 islands in the middle of the Indian Ocean off-limits to industrial fishing and other extractive activities.
The Chagos Islands are home to roughly half of the Indian Ocean's healthy coral reefs, along with several imperiled sea turtle species and 175,000 pairs of breeding seabirds. The new preserve covers 210,000 square miles -- an area larger than California and more than twice the size of Britain -- and will shelter at least 76 species classified as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Rivaling the Galapagos Islands and the Great Barrier Reef in ecological diversity, the Chagos Islands and their surrounding waters can serve as a global reference site for scientific research in crucial areas such as ocean acidification, coral reef resilience, sea level rise, fish stock decline, and climate change.
Just two-tenths of 1 percent of the world's oceans are protected, compared with 6 to 11 percent of the world's land mass; the Chagos Islands addition will increase it to roughly three-tenths of 1 percent. The new protected area will surpass the Papahânaumokuâkea Marine National Monument in the waters of the northwestern Hawaiian Islands, set aside by President George W. Bush in 2006, as the biggest marine reserve.
UN tightens ship fuel rules along North American coast
3/26/10 A United Nations body overseeing international shipping adopted rules Friday requiring freight ships to burn low-sulfur fuels within 200 nautical miles of much of North America's coastline beginning in 2015.
The International Maritime Organization adopted the rules Friday in London, nearly three years after California implemented a similar plan extending 24 miles from the state's coast. That effort is now considered instrumental in helping develop technology and test the impact of low-sulfur fuels in ships.
State Assemblywoman Bonnie Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, who rallied 55 state lawmakers to formally support the IMO effort, said the initiative will save hundreds of billions in health care costs in coming years by reducing hospital visits from people suffering from respiratory and heart ailments exacerbated by air pollution.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates the rule will cut deadly particulate exhaust 85 percent while also slashing nitrogen oxides 80 percent. Read Full Article
Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge gets $1 million to control invasive cordgrass
3/29/10 Several hundred acres of local salt marsh will be cleared of an invasive plant in a $1 million effort by the Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge to revive the native species that have lost ground over the past 120 years. The project would target Spartina densiflora, a cordgrass that dominates large areas of Humboldt Bay and the Eel and Mad river estuaries. The refuge has already treated 35 acres of salt marsh, and says it has successfully restored native plants there.
Humboldt State University zoology professor and department chair Milt Boyd said that while knocking back the plant may be of benefit to native salt marsh plants, there are concerns that losing the organic material from dying cordgrass could affect the food chain in the bay...Studies are planned or under way to determine the cordgrass removal's effects on invertebrates, and the refuge is hoping to settle the question before there is any attempt at regional eradication. Read Full Article
Biomonitoring Studies Indicate Widespread Exposure to Bisphenol A
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