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February 2005
 The CSI Report, February 2005The monthly newsletter of the Conservation Science Institute
editor: Brian Petersen
Inside CSI
 Conservation Science Institute has selected global warming and global climate change as a primary focus topic and highlights some of what is understood about the topic on the CSI web page at http://www.conservationinstitute.org/globalclimatechange.htm. The CSI climate change web page also provides links to other information sources. CSI fellow, Meghna Tare writes a monthly article about global warming and climate change in this newsletter. Her topic for this month addresses the changes seen in California's Sierra Nevada Mountains. This winter's record-breaking snowfall in the Sierra Nevada Mountains may also be influenced by global warming and the El Nino currently affecting the Pacific Ocean.
Most scientists agree global warming is being enhanced by humans and especially the release of greenhouse gasses such as carbon dioxide. Some others, especially those associated with greenhouse producing industries, disagree. Before you decide, you should research the topic and consider the motivations of those taking positions. We recommend you also visit RealClimate (http://www.realclimate.org/), which is a commentary site on climate science by working climate scientists for the interested public and journalists. The discussion at RealClimate is restricted to scientific topics and will not get involved in any political or economic implications of the science.
Another important issue for CSI is the effects of pollutants. Several CSI members have worked on oil pollution and other related topics, and this month you can learn about CSI fellow Gershon Cohen's work to control pollution discharge from cruise ships in U.S. waters. Dr. Cohen writes in this issue of the CSI Report about his efforts in Alaska and Hawaii.
Bruce Wright
Executive Director
Featured CSI Fellow Report
Gershon Cohen, PhD
Alaska Cruise Ship Initiative Launched
 Alaska Lt. Governor Loren Leman has certified that the Cruise Ship Ballot Initiative petition sponsored by Alaska-based Responsible Cruising in Alaska (RCA), the Campaign to Safeguard America's Waters (C-SAW) of the Earth Island Institute, and Bluewater Network was signed by enough registered Alaskan voters to be placed on the November 2006 Alaska ballot. The initiative was designed to level the economic and environmental playing fields between the cruise ship industry and other major dischargers of polluted wastes into Alaska waters.
CSI fellow Dr. Gershon Cohen, a founding member of RCA, the Project Director of C-SAW, and a long time advisor to Bluewater Network, co-drafted the initiative. Dr. Cohen has been working to protect public waters from cruise ship-generated pollution since 1999, when he first became aware of the industry's repeated episodes of dumping. Dr. Cohen was appointed by Governor Knowles to the Alaska Cruise Ship Initiative (ACSI) Wastewater Subcommittee and after 2 years on the ACSI, he was appointed as the public's representative on an advisory board that assisted in the drafting of State discharge regulations under the Commercial Passenger Vessel Environmental Compliance Act of 2001. Dr. Cohen also assisted former Senator Murkowski's staff on the drafting of the federal cruise ship law passed in 2000.
Although a major step forward at the time, the current Alaska cruise ship law harbors several significant loopholes thanks to a well-funded industry lobby, according to Dr. Cohen. To plug those statutory leaks a statewide initiative drive was begun to address a number of cruise industry related issues. The signature gathering effort, assisted greatly by the State's Native community, was successfully completed in October 2004.
 The initiative will set a national precedent by requiring cruise ships with greater than 250 berths to have wastewater discharge permits for all waste streams and meet all Alaska Water Quality Standards at the point of discharge. The Clean Water Act generally requires every major discharger of polluted wastewater to be permitted. Although foreign flagged cruise ships transport thousands of passengers and crew and generate millions of gallons of contaminated wastewater, the industry has hidden for over 20 years behind a federal permit exemption intended for vessels with a handful of crewmen aboard. Cruise ship lobbyists successfully extended that exemption to Alaska's permitting regime despite the fact that virtually every major cruise line has been convicted of multiple felony charges for dumping in the last decade.
In addition to the wastewater permit requirements, a fee of $4 per passenger will support placing an independent licensed marine engineer on every ship to observe wastewater treatment practices, inspect pollution control equipment, sample ship discharges, and monitor shipboard health and sanitation practices. A citizen's suit provision in the initiative will give Alaskans the power to sue the industry for failure to meet State standards, as well as sue the State for failure to enforce pollution rules.
The initiative will establish a statewide excise tax of $46 per passenger that will be split between ports of call, cruise industry-impacted communities that are not ports of call, and the State. The initiative will also reinstate the industry's corporate income tax, repealed by the State Legislature in 1998, and require cruise ships to give 33% of their gambling profits to Alaska (the same percentage of gambling profits paid by other gaming operators for taxes and charitable purposes.)
 The industry has threatened a pullout and declining passenger numbers. But Dr. Cohen believes such threats are baseless: Alaska represents nearly 10% of the industry's world-wide revenue and with the political trouble in the Middle East, and SARS and avian flu outbreaks in S.E. Asia, more and more cruise passengers (75% are Americans) want “safe” vacations. In response, the market has shifted heavily to the Alaska and Hawaii sectors in recent years, a trend that will persist for the foreseeable future. According to CSI fellow Dr. Cohen, “The industry can easily afford to stop polluting and their performance must be independently verified. When the initiative passes Alaskans will get a fair monetary return from this industry's activities, and be able to keep Alaska's waters clean to support the State's fisheries resources as well as its independent travel industry.”
California's Sierra Nevada Mountains and global warming
  John Muir arrived in San Francisco in March, 1868. From that moment on, though he traveled around the world, California became his home. It was California's Sierra Nevada and Yosemite that truly moved him. Later he would write: "It seemed to me that the Sierra should be called not the Nevada, or Snowy Range, but the Range of Light...the most divinely beautiful of all the mountain chains I have ever seen.”
Located in these Sierra Nevada Mountains, Lake Tahoe's beautiful, sapphire-blue waters straddle the California-Nevada state line. The lake's elevation averages 1900 meters, and surrounding peaks reach heights of up to 3316 meters. But global warming seems to have reached the lowest depths of this lake. A new study by researchers reveal the lake has heated by nearly 0.5 degree C since the early 1970s, when readings began. The average water temperature from all recorded depths got as high as about 6 degrees C and generally stayed above 5.5 degrees C throughout the 1990s. It was as cold as 5 degrees C in the mid- 1970s. As temperatures in the northern Sierra Nevada increased over the last 30 years and reduced the Sierra Nevada snow pack by 30-70%, so did the temperature of Lake Tahoe. According to the study led by Robert Coats, a scientist affiliated with the University of California's Davis Tahoe Research Group, this warming trend in the lake is on average .015 degree C a year, about 0.45 degree C overall. The lake periodically mixes vertically which helps in the distribution of nutrients from the deep to the shallow waters and replacing the dirtier near-surface waters with its deeper, cleaner waters, lending to  its clarity. An increase in temperature will disrupt this mixing, as warmer waters tend to not cycle as much as cold waters. The reduced mixing could mean less dilution, as the fine sediment that contributes to clarity loss is more liable to remain near the surface for longer periods of time. According to scientists, the clarity declined last year about 9 percent from the previous year's average. Visible at depths of 31.09 meters as recently as 1968, a white plate called a "Secchi disk" could be seen at an average depth of 21.65 meters last year compared to 23.77 meters in 2002, the clearest in 10 years. Alternatively, if global warming continues at the current rate, a warmer lake would accelerate the release of phosphorous trapped at the bottom of the lake. This will stimulate algal growth and cause further loss of clarity. During the winter of 2004/2005 the Sierra Nevada Mountains have received abundant snowfall, and we look forward to learning how that will effect Lake Tahoe.
Sierra Nevada was John Muir's beautiful dream and so is ours. Although the state of California has taken stronger action than other states to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, it needs to take much more drastic steps to slow, if not stop, this progress towards an unsustainable ecosystem. To learn more about global climate change visit CSI's web page: http://www.conservationinstitute.org/globalclimatechange.htm.
Longline fishing impacts on albatross
by Brian Petersen
 Longline fishing, which uses a fishing line up to 60 miles long with thousands of hooks at regular intervals, has had devastating impacts. The lines often end up catching or injuring non-targeted species, including marine mammals, sharks, and sea turtles. Unfortunately, this type of fishing hurts not only marine organisms but birds as well.
Scientists estimate that 300,000 seabirds perish as a result of longlines each year (Science, April 2, 2004). Of particular concern, albatrosses account for about one third of that number. Albatross populations continue to decline and 19 of 21 species are now globally threatened or endangered. The Amsterdam Albatross has a population of fewer than 100 birds.
Among the largest flying birds, albatrosses spend most of their time living at sea. They find food on the open ocean and come to shore only to raise their offspring. Obtaining food supplies often requires albatrosses to fly long distances. As a result, they do not catch food and return it in their bill to their young. Instead, they swallow their catch and then regurgitate it in the nest.
Harnessing energy from the wind, albatrosses can fly for hours without flapping their wings, using very little energy and making it possible to search for food for themselves and their offspring. Because the ocean moves slower than the wind above it the higher above the ocean surface you go, the higher the wind energy. Albatrosses use this to their advantage. If the direction they want to go happens to be into the wind they simply fly higher above the water level with the wind at their back. When they have gained sufficient speed they change course and fly down close to the water surface where the resistance is less. When they slow down they change course, rise above the water, and repeat the process, allowing them to fly for long distances without flapping their wings.
 Scientists believe that the long trips albatrosses take to find food for their young has led to small clutch sizes. Most predatory birds have small clutch sizes but those of albatrosses are unusually small, generally only one egg, exacerbating the longline mortality problem.
Over 600 scientists from around the globe have signed a petition calling on the UN to immediately place a ban on longline fishing. Many thought longline fishing would pose fewer risks to marine species than the traditional fishing methods of dragging enormous nets through the water. But longline fishing has had similar consequences and has pushed a number of species towards extinction.
Recent research by the British Antarctic Survey indicates that non-foraging albatrosses have consistent travel patterns, including timing, routes, and patterns (Science, January 14, 2005). These consistencies could potentially help to implement new fishing guidelines designed to limit the interaction between longline fishing and albatrosses.
What to do about locusts
by Brian Petersen
 For millennia locusts have been devouring vegetation from Africa to India. Moses foreshadowed locusts creating a treeless landscape. African countries receive the brunt of their impact and have spent decades desperately trying to find a means to halt their devastation.
Unlike other pests that persist from year to year, locust swarms come in torrents on an irregular schedule. No one can predict when the next plague will occur. Potentially occurring many years apart, managers and scientists can only prepare and hope to contain an outbreak before it becomes and epidemic.
 Locusts do not always exist in large swarms. In normal years, the insects typically live in isolation from other insects, subsisting on native vegetation. Abundant vegetation from high levels of precipitation cause the locusts to begin to swarm. Small swarms combine with other small swarms again and again causing the massive swarms that lead to plague events.
Researchers, hindered by the sporadic intervals, have had difficulties studying plague events. As a result, debate exists on what approach to take to minimize the impact of locust infestations. One camp supports early intervention, trying to diffuse the infestation before it becomes a plague. The other camp supports intervention after an infestation has morphed into a centralized large swarm, making it much easier to attack.
In an effort to curb outbreak, countries have attempted to implement strategies to control swarms before they turn into full-blown plagues. Search teams venture out into remote areas looking for early outbreaks to eliminate. The fact that supplies remain in short supply in many African countries, coupled with the irregularity of locust plagues, make this prevention method less than full proof.
Spraying pesticides on the large swarms of locusts usually controls them. The toxic pesticides sprayed pose human health concerns, as do the large amounts of left over chemicals scattered throughout Africa not used in previous locust campaigns. Although alternatives to these dangerous chemicals are in test phase, controls with less harmful effects have yet to come into use.
 It is easy to see why host countries would go to almost any measure to control locust infestations. They devour native vegetation and can have adverse impacts to agricultural crops. Of particular concern, they can have a devastating impact on local farmers and to export crops. Still, many people wonder whether or not human intervention has as much impact on controlling the outbreaks as do natural events and whether or not the impacts warrant the intervention in the first place.
A report looking into the impact of outbreaks in the 1980's found that overall damage was minimal and that the locusts, even in large swarms, primarily feed on native vegetation. Although some attributed human intervention to finally squelching the plague, others give credit to high winds that blew the locusts out to sea. Whatever the ultimate cause, much research and is needed to help identify when plagues will materialize, how best to fight them, and what ecological and social damage they ultimately incur. (Science, December 10, 2004)
Ocean hot spots
by Brian Petersen
The term biological hot spot usually conjures up images of a tropical rainforest or some other terrestrial ecosystem teeming with life. But scientists, using technological devices from satellite images to radar tracking, have begun to use the term for marine areas as well.
New research has indicated that these hot spots often exist where cold water systems abut warm water systems in the ocean. These fronts seem to attract an array of marine organisms and may provide new insight into identifying the most important marine habitats (Science, May 21, 2004).
 Many marine animals prove difficult to protect due to their long migratory routes. These new studies show evidence that certain species follow ocean fronts, which often produce biologically rich areas full of easily available food sources. Sea surface temperature (SST) maps can often identify such areas and have been used with great efficiency by commercial fishing interests. Scientists have begun using these maps to identify hot spots.
Researchers found that many of these hot spots represent ephemeral phenomenon. Changing ocean currents and conditions, including El Niño and La Niña events, produce dynamic, ever changing conditions. However, the research did identify one particular hot spot that seems to exhibit relatively high stability. The Baja California Frontal System (BCFS), a large concentration of circling eddies 150 Kilometers off the coast of Baja, may have a level of permanence unlike other fronts.
This hot spot has a historical catch record of impressive landings of prized fish. In addition, tracking devices have shown that whales follow fronts to the BCFS, where they tend to spend a good deal of time.
 This research, coupled with other findings that indicate that some species of tuna prefer to stay close to these fronts, has the potential of identifying key ocean habitats for conservation. Management plans that include no fishing zones or Marine Protect Areas (MPA) could help to effectively manage take, while at the same time affording needed protection to at risk species.
However, these may prove difficult to implement and oversee. No fishing zones could potentially move fishing to other sensitive areas, while MPA may prove too small and too few to effectively protect threatened species. In addition, climate change and changing ocean currents may eventually diminish the benefits of the initial protective boundaries.
Protecting marine species will likely take a plethora of conservation methods to ensure the vitality of the entire system. No fishing zones and MPA, accompanied by catch restrictions, improved enforcement of regulations, and the utilization of fishing methods that limit bycatch, may prove to be the most effective means by which to protect marine species and systems.
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