Aquaculture accounts for 50 percent of fish consumed globally

Washington, September 8 (ANI): A new report by an international team of researchers has determined that aquaculture, once a fledgling industry, now accounts for 50 percent of the fish consumed globally.

The findings are published in the Sept. 7 online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

“Aquaculture is set to reach a landmark in 2009, supplying half of the total fish and shellfish for human consumption,” according to the authors.

Between 1995 and 2007, global production of farmed fish nearly tripled in volume, in part because of rising consumer demand for long-chain omega-3 fatty acids.

Oily fish, such as salmon, are a major source of these omega-3s, which are effective in reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease, according to the National Institutes of Health.

“The huge expansion is being driven by demand,” said lead author Rosamond L. Naylor, a professor of environmental Earth system science at Stanford University and director of the Stanford Program on Food Security and the Environment.

“As long as we are a health-conscious population trying to get our most healthy oils from fish, we are going to be demanding more of aquaculture and putting a lot of pressure on marine fisheries to meet that need,” Naylor added.

To maximize growth and enhance flavor, aquaculture farms use large quantities of fishmeal and fish oil made from less valuable wild-caught species, including anchoveta and sardine.

“With the production of farmed fish eclipsing that of wild fish, another major transition is also underway: Aquaculture’s share of global fishmeal and fish oil consumption more than doubled over the past decade to 68 percent and 88 percent, respectively,” said the authors.

In 2006, aquaculture production was 51.7 million metric tons, and about 20 million metric tons of wild fish were harvested for the production of fishmeal.

“It can take up to 5 pounds of wild fish to produce 1 pound of salmon, and we eat a lot of salmon,” said Naylor, the William Wrigley Senior Fellow at Stanford’s Woods Institute for the Environment and Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies.

One way to make salmon farming more environmentally sustainable is to simply lower the amount of fish oil in the salmon’s diet.

According to the authors, a mere 4 percent reduction in fish oil would significantly reduce the amount of wild fish needed to produce 1 pound of salmon from 5 pounds to just 3.9 pounds. (ANI)

Human impacts and environmental factors changing northwest Atlantic ecosystem

Washington, Sept 2 (ANI): A new report by researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has determined that human impacts and environmental factors are changing the northwest Atlantic ecosystem.

According to the report, fish in US waters from Cape Hatteras to the Canadian border have moved away from their traditional, long-time habitats over the past four decades because of fundamental changes in the regional ecosystem.

The 2009 Ecosystem Status Report also points out the need to manage the waters off the northeastern coast of the United States as a whole rather than as a series of separate and unrelated components.

Known as the Northeast US Continental Shelf Large Marine Ecosystem (NES LME), the ecosystem spans approximately 100,000 square miles and supports some of the highest revenue-generating fisheries in the nation.

During the past 40 years, the ecosystem has experienced extensive fishing by domestic and foreign fleets, changes in ocean water temperatures due to climate change, and pressures from increasing human populations along the coast.

According to Michael Fogarty, who heads the Ecosystem Assessment Program at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) of NOAA’s Fisheries Service in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, his team’s report highlights the need to understand natural and human-related changes in this region and to develop effective management and mitigation strategies.

“There are many pressures on the ecosystem including fishing, pollution, habitat loss from coastal development, and impacts on marine life from shipping and other uses of the ocean,” Fogarty said.

“In addition, changing climate conditions are warming ocean waters, changing ocean chemistry and circulation patterns, and altering atmospheric systems. These changes have, in turn, been linked to changes in the distribution and abundance of fish species in the region and their major sources of food,” he added.

The report is the first in a planned series of ecosystem status reports by Fogarty and his colleagues in the NEFSC’s Ecosystem Assessment Program to document changes in the NES LME, one of 64 regions in the world’s ocean designated as a large marine ecosystem.

Fogarty said that sustained long-term monitoring by many agencies and institutions in the Northeast region has enabled scientists and others to trace changes in the ecosystem.

“In the future, we need to continue to monitor the oceanographic, ecological, and human indicators analyzed in this report to detect any additional changes in the system. These indicators also provide important inputs to models that can be used to help guide management decisions and to forecast future changes,” he said. (ANI)

Prince Charles likens himself to ‘tree hugging’ ancestor Henry VIII

London, July 9 (ANI): Prince Charles has likened himself to Henry VIII, saying his ancestor was a tree hugger, just like him.

The Royal made the reference while urging action to stop climate change during the 2009 Richard Dimbleby Lecture in London.

“Henry instigated the very first piece of green legislation in this country. In ordering the building of a great many ships, he effectively founded the Royal Navy,” The Sun quoted him as saying.

“But there came a moment when Henry realised that creating his fleet was putting too much strain on the natural supply of wood, particularly oak,” he added.

Charles further hailed the then king’s introduction of the Preservation of Woods law in 1543, to ensure that the country did not run out of timber.

He said: “It was a simple and rather elegant piece of long-term thinking.”

He added: “What was instinctively understood by many in King Henry’s time was the importance of working with the grain of Nature to maintain a balance.” (ANI)

Global warming still looms large as threat to Polar Bears

Washington, May 26 (ANI): In a new research, scientists have strengthened the forecasts of polar bear populations and their likely responses to climate change, by refuting criticisms of the scientific basis for listing the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act.

The research, by a team of scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), University of Alaska, University of Maryland, Canadian Wildlife Service and the US Forest Service, refutes point-by-point a widely publicized critique of polar bear population predictions.

The new rebuttal reinforces the reports written by the scientists and accepted by the Department of Interior in its May 2008 decision to list polar bears as a threatened species on the U.S. Endangered Species Act.

“The decision to list the polar bear as threatened was politically charged, and the scientific research on which it was based attracted some criticisms,” said WHOI biologist Hal Caswell, an author on two of the USGS reports and of the rebuttal.

“Our new study shows that the critique is incorrect and based on misconceptions about climate models, the Arctic environment, polar bear biology, and statistical and mathematical methods,” he added.

The rebuttal was published in the journal Interfaces online on April 22, 2009, and will be published in the July-August print edition.

In 2007, when the Department of the Interior was considering listing the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act, it asked the USGS to assemble an international team to analyze information on polar bear populations.

The team estimated the probabilities of future polar bear population growth or decline.

The USGS-led group presented its reports in fall 2007, and in May 2008, the Department of Interior listed the polar bear as a threatened species under the US Endangered Species Act.

Following that listing, a critique of the USGS reports was published in the Sept.-Oct. 2008 issue of the journal Interfaces.

“After going through their report, however, we decided we needed to do a rebuttal of this, and in the end, we went point by point to refute their criticism,” said Caswell.

According to Caswell, “We began by explaining why the sea ice habitat of polar bears is declining and showing how climate models, outputs from which we used as inputs to our analyses, are reliable for forecasting the future climate.”

“Finally, we took a look at their principles of forecasting, and found they are too ambiguous and subjective to be used as a reliable basis for auditing scientific investigations,” he said. (ANI)

Heat-tolerant coral reefs may survive global warming

Washington, May 21 (ANI): Stanford University scientists have found evidence that some coral reefs are adapting to the climate change and may actually survive global warming.

“Corals are certainly threatened by environmental change, but this research has really sparked the notion that corals may be tougher than we thought,” said Stephen Palumbi, a professor of biology and a senior fellow at Stanford’s Woods Institute for the Environment.

Palumbi and his Stanford colleagues began studying the resiliency of coral reefs in the Pacific Ocean in 2006 with the support of a Woods Institute Environmental Venture Project grant.

“The most exciting thing was discovering live, healthy corals on reefs already as hot as the ocean is likely to get 100 years from now,” said Palumbi.

Coral reefs form the basis for thriving, healthy ecosystems throughout the tropics.

They provide homes and nourishment for thousands of species, including massive schools of fish, which in turn feed millions of people across the globe.

Corals rely on partnerships with tiny, single-celled algae called zooxanthellae. The corals provide the algae a home, and, in turn, the algae provide nourishment, forming a symbiotic relationship.

But when rising temperatures stress the algae, they stop producing food, and the corals spit them out.

Without their algae symbionts, the reefs die and turn stark white, an event referred to as “coral bleaching.”

During particularly warm years, bleaching has accounted for the deaths of large numbers of corals.

In recent years, scientists discovered that some corals resist bleaching by hosting types of algae that can handle the heat, while others swap out the heat-stressed algae for tougher, heat-resistant strains.

Palumbi’s team set out to investigate how widely dispersed these heat-tolerant coral reefs are across the globe and to learn more about the biological processes that allow them to adapt to higher temperatures.

In 2006, Palumbi and graduate student Tom Oliver traveled to Ofu Island in American Samoa. Ofu, a tropical coral reef marine reserve, has remained healthy despite gradually warming waters.

The island offered the perfect laboratory setting, with numerous corals hosting the most common heat-sensitive and heat-resistant algae symbionts.

In cooler lagoons, Oliver found only a handful of corals that host heat-resistant algae exclusively.

But, in hotter pools, he observed a direct increase in the proportion of heat-resistant symbionts, suggesting that some corals had swapped out the heat-sensitive algae for more robust types.

According to Oliver, “These findings show that, given enough time, many corals can match hotter environments by hosting heat-resistant symbionts.” (ANI)

Phelps makes splashing comeback after suspension

Washington, May 16 (ANI): Olympic golden boy Michael Phelps has returned with a bang after three-month suspension following the pot scandal.

The 23-year-old swimmer easily qualified for the finals of two events at the Charlotte Ultraswim with a record time.

Phelps was second in the last heat of the 200-meter freestyle at 1 minute, 50.46 seconds, and came back to win the final heat of the 100 butterfly in 53.41 seconds.

In both events, he had the third-fastest time overall.

Phelps says that he is eager to start working toward some new goals.

“It’s kind of like Tiger (Woods) working on his putting game or his pitching game,” CBS News quoted Phelps as saying,

“It’s sort of completing the whole package,” he added. (ANI)

Natural petroleum seeps release equivalent of 8 – 80 Exxon Valdez oil spills

Washington, May 14 (ANI): A new study has shown that the amount of oil residue in seafloor sediments that result from natural petroleum seeps off Santa Barbara, California, is the equivalent of approximately 8-80 Exxon Valdez oil spills.

Researchers at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), did the study.

It shows the oil content of sediments is highest closest to the seeps and tails off with distance, creating an oil fallout shadow.

It estimates the amount of oil in the sediments down current from the seeps to be the equivalent of approximately 8-80 Exxon Valdez oil spills.

“Farwell developed and mapped out our plan for collecting sediment samples from the ocean floor,” said WHOI marine chemist Chris Reddy, referring to lead author Chris Farwell, at the time an undergraduate working with UCSB’s Dave Valentine.

“After conducting the analysis of the samples, we were able to make some spectacular findings,” he added.

There is an oil spill everyday at Coal Oil Point (COP), the natural seeps off Santa Barbara, California, where 20-25 tons of oil have leaked from the seafloor each day for the last several hundred thousand years.

Based on their previous research, Valentine and Reddy surmised that the oil was sinking “because this oil is heavy to begin with.”

“It’s a good bet that it ends up in the sediments because it’s not ending up on land. It’s not dissolving in ocean water, so it’s almost certain that it is ending up in the sediments,” said Valentine.

To conduct their sampling, the team used the research vessel Atlantis, the 274-foot ship that serves as the support vessel for the Alvin submersible.

The research team sampled 16 locations in a 90 km2 (35 square mile) grid starting 4 km west of the active seeps.

Sample stations were arranged in five longitudinal transects with three water depths (40, 60, and 80 m) for each transect, with one additional comparison sample obtained from within the seep field.

“The instrument reveals distinct biomarkers or chemical fossils – like bones for an archeologist – present in the oil. These fossils were a perfect match for the oil from the reservoir, the oil collected leaking into the ocean bottom, oil on the sea surface, and oil back in the sediment,” said Reddy.

“We could say with confidence that the oil we found in the sediments was genetically connected to the oil reservoir and not from an accidental spill or runoff from land,” he added. (ANI)

Robo submarine all set to dive deep into Pacific Ocean

London, May 7 (ANI): A robotic submarine is undergoing final preparations to dive to the deepest-known part of the oceans.

According to a report by BBC News, if successful, Nereus, the robotic submarine, will be the first autonomous vehicle to visit the 11,000m (36,089 ft) Challenger Deep in the Pacific Ocean.

Only two other vehicles have ever visited the spot before, both of them human operated.

The 5 million dollars submarine will make the attempt in late May or early June after a series of increasingly deep dives.

“Instead of jumping directly into the deep end of the swimming pool with the vehicle, we’ll probably dip our toe in first,” said Andy Bowen of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and one of the designers of Nereus.

“We’ll work at 1,000m, 4,000m, 8,000m and then take a deep breath and see if we can get to 11,000m,” he added.

Ian Rouse, head of the deep platforms group at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, described the project as a “great technical challenge”.

“Below 6,500m deep (21,325ft), there are vehicles that can do a better job than Nereus due to its compromises in design,” he told BBC News. “However, from 6,500m to 11,000m, Nereus has the field pretty much to itself,” he added.

Other teams, notably the British, French, Russian and Japanese will be watching the mission “with interest”.

“The Nereus team is very experienced in designing and building other underwater vehicles, so I have no doubt they will succeed,” said Rouse.

The tests will take place on a research cruise between the 23 May and 6 June.

The Challenger Deep is the deepest-known part of the ocean, located in the Marianas Trench near the island of Guam in the west Pacific.

It is the deepest abyss on Earth at 11,000m-deep, more than 2km (1.2 miles) deeper than Mount Everest is high. At that depth, pressures reach 1,100 times the pressure at the surface.

Nereus aims to give researchers access to 100 percent of the seafloor. In its intelligent, autonomous mode, Nereus can map large areas of the ocean floor.

“The autonomous vehicle, as the name sounds, has autonomy from the human operators onboard the ship,” explained Bowen.

In this configuration, Nereus is able to fly pre-programmed missions, mapping vast swathes of the seafloor.

“It has sufficient onboard intelligence and batteries to find areas of particular interest through the use of chemical sensors, sonar and digital photography,” said Bowen. (ANI)

BB and T shares could come under pressure -Barron’s

NEW YORK, April 12 (Reuters) – Shares of regional bank BB and T Corp (BBT.N) could come under pressure because economic weakness in its mid-Atlantic and southeast strongholds could require the bank to set aside more capital to cover rising losses in its residential and consumer portfolios, Barron’s said.

If that scenario occurs, analysts’ average forecast for earnings of $1.46 a share for 2009 could be too optimistic, Barron’s said in its April 13 edition.

Keefe Bruyette and Woods last week cut its share price target to $13 from $20, Barron’s said.

Shares of BB and T closed on Thursday at $20.31. (Reporting by Ilaina Jonas; Editing by Leslie Adler)

Bill Clinton to deliver keynote speech at Holocaust museum opening

Washington, Mar 25 (ANI): Former US President Bill Clinton will deliver the keynote speech on April 19 when the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center opens for the first time in Skokie.

Clinton will join Governor Pat Quinn, foreign dignitaries and Holocaust survivors at a ceremony that will mark the much-anticipated opening of the museum.

The ceremony will begin at noon April 19 under a large tent outside the museum, 9603 Woods Drive, The Sun Times Group reported.

The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center will likely be the last museum about the Holocaust to be built with the active participation of survivors. It is expected to draw visitors from well beyond Skokie since it is the largest institution in the Midwest dedicated to preserving the memories of those lost in the Holocaust.

The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center will also teach current generations to fight hatred, indifference and genocide in today’s world, Museum Executive Director Richard S. Hirschhaut said.

“President Clinton’s participation in the dedication of this world-class institution truly sets the tone for what we want the museum to be,” he said.

In 1993, then President Clinton spoke at the dedication ceremony for the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. (ANI)

Scientists describe novel strategy for phytoplankton growth in nutrient-poor areas of sea

Washington, March 11 (ANI): An international team of scientists has described a novel strategy for phytoplankton growth in the vast nutrient-poor habitats of tropical and subtropical seas.

Until now, it was thought that all cells are surrounded by membranes containing molecules called phospholipids – oily compounds that contain phosphorus, as well as other basic elements including carbon and nitrogen.

These phospholipids are fundamental to the structure and function of the cell and for this reason had been thought to be an indispensable component of life.
hospholipids are one of several classes of molecules that contain the element phosphorus, which has been shown to be in very short supply in many marine ecosystems.

The deep sea contains ample phosphorus, but delivery to the surface waters where photosynthesis occurs is limited by temperature-induced stratification and the inability to mix the ocean to depths where phosphorus is available.

Research conducted at Station ALOHA near Hawaii during the past two decades has shown that phosphorus is rapidly becoming less abundant in the stratified regions of the North Pacific Ocean, possibly a result of changes in the marine habitat due to greenhouse gas warming.

Benjamin Van Mooy of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and colleagues discovered that phytoplankton in the open ocean may be adapting to the low levels of phosphorus by making a fundamental change to their cell structure.

Rather than synthesizing the phosphorus-requiring phospholipids for use in their membranes, the plants appear to be using non-phosphorus containing “substitute lipids” that use the nearly unlimited element sulfur also found in seawater instead of phosphorus.

These substitute sulfolipids apparently allow the plants to continue to grow and survive under conditions of phosphorus stress, a unique strategy for life in the sea.

To test the generality of this biochemical strategy, the researchers compared the response of the phytoplankton communities in different ocean basins that experience varying levels of phosphorus stress.

In regions where phosphorus stress is extreme, such as the area dubbed the Sargasso Sea in the central North Atlantic Ocean, phospholipids were nearly nonexistent.

By comparison, in the South Pacific Ocean, where sufficient phosphorus exists, there were large amounts of phospholipids.

The region around Hawaii was intermediate, which is consistent with the long-term data sets from the Hawaii Ocean Time-series program showing that phosphorus is still measurable but is disappearing from the surface waters at an alarming rate.

One prediction from this initial study is that the phytoplankton in Hawaiian waters are likely to become more like those in the Sargasso Sea over time as phosphorus supplies dwindle further. (ANI)

Stanford research claims bio-fuels boom could fuel rainforest destruction

Washington, Feb.15 (ANI): A post-doctoral researcher at Stanford’s Woods Institute for the Environment has warned that excessive use of bio-fuels can destroy earth’s rainforests.

“If we run our cars on bio-fuels produced in the tropics, chances will be good that we are effectively burning rainforests in our gas tanks,” Holly Gibbs warns.

Policies favoring biofuel crop production may inadvertently contribute to, not slow, the process of climate change, Gibbs said.

Such an environmental disaster could be “just around the corner without more thoughtful energy policies that consider potential ripple effects on tropical forests,” she added.

Gibbs’ predictions are based on her new study, in which she analyzed detailed satellite images collected between 1980 and 2000.

The study is the first to do such a detailed characterization of the pathways of agricultural expansion throughout the entire tropical region.

Gibbs hopes that this new knowledge will contribute to making prudent decisions about future biofuel policies and subsidies.

Gibbs presented her findings in Chicago at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

The symposium is titled “Bio-fuels, Tropical Deforestation, and Climate Policy: Key Challenges and Opportunities.”

Before Gibbs’ study, few had focused on the question of the origin of new croplands-a question that has been a source of heated debate among scientists and policymakers alike over the past few years.

Gibbs was one of the first to approach the question by quantifying the types of land-pristine forest, disturbed forest, woody savannas, grasslands, plantations or agricultural land-that are being cleared to make space for the new cropland.

Tropical forests are the world’s most efficient storehouses for carbon, harboring more than 340 billion tons, according to Gibbs’ research. This is equivalent to more than 40 years worth of global carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels. (ANI)

Climate researcher accuses mass media of failing to cover global warming properly

Washington, Feb 14 (ANI): A climate researcher has accused the mass media in failing to cover the sensitive issue of global warming in the right manner.

“Business managers of media organizations, you are screwing up your responsibility by firing science and environment reporters who are frankly the only ones competent to do this,” said climate researcher and policy analyst Stephen Schneider, in assessing the current state of media coverage of global warming and related issues.

Schneider is calling for the news media to employ trained reporters in covering global warming.

“Science is not politics. You can’t just get two opposing viewpoints and think you’ve done due diligence. You’ve got to cover the multiple views and the relative credibility of each view,” said Schneider, a senior fellow at Stanford’s Woods Institute for the Environment.

“But that is not usually the problem of the well-trained reporters, who understand what is credible,” he added.

Researchers have to do their part, too, he said, by clearly explaining issues to reporters in succinct terms.

According to Schneider, “I have arguments with some of my scientific colleagues, who think it is irresponsible to go out and talk when you can only get 5 seconds on the evening news, a couple of quotes in the New York Times, or five minutes in front of Congress.”

“Well, you know what guys, that’s just how it is. And if you think that you have a higher calling and you’re not going to play the game because they don’t give you the time to tell the whole story, then all it means is that you’ve passed the buck to others who know the topic less well,” he added.

“You have to have your elevator statement or people won’t listen to you,” he said.

“What I always suggest is that scientists find metaphors that convey both urgency and uncertainty, so that you can get people’s attention while at the same time not overstating the case,” said Schneider.

“Then, you have websites and backup articles and books where you can give the full story, but you have to have your sound bite and your op ed piece,” he added. (ANI)

Craig, Schreiber downed hardcore vodka to beat cold on ‘Defiance’ sets!

Washington, Jan 9 (ANI): James Bond star Daniel Craig and actor Live Schreiber had a rather ‘tipsy’ formula to beat the shivers while shooting new war movie ‘Defiance’ in Lithuania— hardcore vodka.

In a bid to stay warm in the chilling weather, the two actors heavily drank Lithuanian vodka to keep the cold at bay.

“Our secret for staying warm was vodka. We had lots of good Lithuanian vodka,” Contactmusic quoted Schreiber as telling Parade.com.

He added: “It was very good, so good that we drank a lot of it. I mean we were in the woods and it was freezing.

“You didn”t have to pretend you were cold because we were all shivering.” (ANI)

New range of games for the Nokia N-Gage announced by EA

An extensive global release of key titles for the Nokia N-Gage has been announced by EA that includes EA SPORTS FIFA 09, Spore Origins and MONOPOLY Here & Now. During these winter holiday season, these games would be made available.

For Speed Undercover, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR and The Sims3, are the names of the other games, which the company is planning to launch in 2009.

EA SPORTS FIFA 09, MONOPOLY Here & Now: The World Edition, Spore Origins, Boom Blox TM, Need For Speed Undercover, Tomb Raider Underworld, Pandemonium, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR and The Sims 3, are the names of the many EA games that will be installed in Nokia N-Gage in the coming 12 months.