WiLD Blog

On Thursday and Friday Wildcoast was in full force for the annual SIMA Waterman's Ball that benefits Wildcoast coastal protection programs. The event was capped by the Friday evening ball after a Thursday golf tournament. As described in the Orange County Register:

Friday night’s Waterman’s Ball featured the most star-studded lineup of honorees in the event’s 18-year history.

The annual surf industry fundraiser for the environment in Laguna Niguel raised an estimated $500,000 for 16 different local, regional and national environmental groups, but even the rock-star status of honorees Lisa Andersen and Kelly Slater were upstaged by real rock star Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam.

Four-time world champ Andersen received the Waterman of the Year award; Shaper and long-time director of the Hawaiian Triple Crown Randy Rarick was honored with the Lifetime Achievement award and Vedder, who much of the sold out crowd came to see, was named Environmentalist of the Year.

Vedder proclaiming the Bush administration’s environmental policies “criminal,” but also asking “Why this tolerance for deception? At some point we are responsible.” He also said environmentalism has changed. “I don’t think it’s about chaining yourself to trees anymore, it’s about doing business right. It’s about finding a better business model.”

And Vedder said the idea of being given an award for environmentalism was “like being given an award for breathing. It’s what you have to do to stay alive.”

Andersen joked that her achievements paled in comparison to the evening’s special achievement honorees Slater and Layne Beachley. “Four’s not even a number,” she said. “You gotta have eight to be cool now.”

Rarick described the joy of shaping over 12,000 surfboards: For every person I made a board for, the thought that I improved their surfing is thrilling to me.”

Slater, who’s acceptance speech started the evening, corrected Quiksilver CEO Bob McKnight.

“Bob said I came to Quiksilver when I was 18, which was untrue. I came to them when I was 10 and they didn’t respond.”
He said of his friend Vedder, “Eddie called me one time and said, ‘I want to take this surf trip to Florida.’ I said ‘That’s no surf trip. What’s her name?’”

He also joked about leaving a surf trip to accept the award. “I was in Fiji yesterday and didn’t want to leave, but I knew this would be a good night,” he said. “But I’m afraid to get a call from Shane Dorian that it was 10 feet and I missed it.”

The love song of a humpback whale sounds magnificently free-flowing and improvised to the casual human listener.

But fresh mathematical analysis of shows there are complex grammatical rules. Using syntax, the whales combine sounds into phrases, which they further weave into hours-long melodies packed with information.

Although the researchers say these songs don't meet the linguistic rigor necessary for a true language, this is the first evidence that animals other than humans use a hierarchical structure of communication. Whales have also been found to sing in dialects.

The study is detailed online in the March issue of the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

Whales rely on sound, which travels four times faster in water than in air.During mating season, which lasts six months, all humpback males sing the same song to woo the ladies. Over time, the group's song becomes progressively more complex, although researchers don't know quite why.

Presumably, as one whale finds mating success by tinkering with the song style, the rest of the guys imitate it to better their chances, said study co-author Ryuji Suzuki, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute predoctoral fellow.

The researchers used information theory-the mathematical study of data encoding and transmission-to pick apart the whales' songs. It turns out all those moans, cries, and chirps convey significant amounts of information.

Suzuki and his colleagues designed a computer program to break down each element of the songs, collected from humpbacks in Hawaii, and assign a symbol to each. Analyzing the complexity, redundancy, and predictability of a string of signals produces an unbiased assessment of the information they might contain.

"It's a good way to study humpback whale songs, because we don't know what they mean and we want to quantify their complexity and the information content across the seasons," Suzuki told LiveScience.

He then asked human test subjects, with no prior knowledge of whale songs or particular expertise in grammar, to classify each song according to the same criteria the computer used to break them up. Both the human characterizations and computer analyses indicate that whales communicate following rules for grammatical arrangement.

Information content

Humpbacks repeat short and long phrases multiple times to sing long songs-the longest known lasts 20 hours. They also sing in multiple layers, or scales, of repetition called periodicities. A short scale consists of six units, whereas a longer one contains 180 to 400.

Despite these differences, the average amount of information carried by each song was about constant regardless of length, Suzuki said.

The amount of information expressed, however, can't compare to human speech. Whale songs generate less than one bit of information per second, while people convey about 10 bits of information per word spoken.

"Although whale song is nothing like human language, I wouldn't be surprised if some marine mammals have the ability to communicate in a complex way," Suzuki said. "Given that the underwater environment is very different from our world, it is not surprising that they would communicate in rather a different way from land mammals."

 http://www.livescience.com/

posted by: jose Lopez

photo source: http://www.shellbackdon.com/whale-watch.htm 

A new study conducted by the Mexico City-based Mexican Institute for Competitiveness, concludes that the massive tourist developments springing up and down along the coast of Baja California will threaten the region’s scarce water supply and could possibly harm the region’s long-term economic growth.

A hobby with a heavy toll for the environment: an average golf course uses as much water as 6000 people.

In particular the study singles out large-scale resorts and golf course. Golf course in particular, can become a heavy burden on the regions water resources. An average golf course uses as much water as 6000 people. One particular development in the works would add 6000 residences, 7000 hotel rooms and 4 golf courses. As more and more of these mega-developments emerge, the strain on aquifers in the area becomes more and more intense.

That’s not to say that a lack of water will be the only problems created by the rise of these mega-developments. Local wages will decrease as competition for tourist dollars force these mega-hotels to offer cheaper room rates. In addition the increased human impact would cause more pollution, less biological diversity and eventually “ecosystems will be broken … the bubble will burst.” One reason why people flock to Baja is to enjoy the natural wonders and beauty of the region, yet as more and more people discover its natural wonders the peninsula becomes threatened by them.

Mega-developments like this destroy the local economy and the environment.

In today’s society as people become richer and richer, they are able to afford luxuries in life. People are willing and able to pay for a vacation in Baja California at one of the exotic resorts with five star amenities. Yet when you look at the sheer size and scale of these developments you get a sense of how excessive they are. Many of these developments advertise their stunning hotels in a beautiful and pristine land overlooking clean, pristine, deserted beaches with gentle waves lapping at the white sand.

Yet at this rate, many of these beaches will become crowded and polluted as more and more people come to vacation. The coastline will be radically changed into another resort-lined tourist trap. People living in the area will have to deal with water shortages.

Support efforts to keep the natural environment the way it is and the way it was meant to be. Instead of staying at a mega-resort, try to look at eco-friendly options and look into eco-tourism. Ultimately these developers are responding to consumer needs, and consumers don’t need to see another natural environment destroyed by mega-developments.

Calvin Lee

Ocean water quality off Imperial Beach and Coronado is notoriously bad due to sewage-contaminated runoff from the Tijuana River.  However, Mexico is not the only source of water pollution here. A sewage treatment plant on the U.S. side of the border in San Ysidro has been continuously discharging off Imperial Beach in violation of clean water laws since its first day of operation in 1999.  U.S. government agencies have documented this as a significant environmental health threat and possibly the worst discharge into coastal waters in the entire state. 

Ten years ago a group of investors created Bajagua LLC, a private company looking to capitalize on the need for clean water in south San Diego County. They claimed their project would once and for all “comprehensively” address all sewage flows crossing the border from Mexico by constructing a mega treatment plant funded by U.S. taxpayers in Tijuana. They spread their money around in campaign contributions, lawyer fees, and high-powered lobbyists to the tune of $30 million.  While Bajagua attempted to advance their project, they used their new connections to block all other plans to bring the treatment plant in San Ysidro up to clean water standards.  Ten years later, the San Ysidro plant continues to discharge in violation of both state and federal regulations and the coastal communities of Imperial Beach and Coronado continue to be held hostage by Bajagua LLC.   

The Bajagua project is floundering. With a suspended development agreement and lacking political support in both the U.S. and Mexico, the only individuals, elected officials, and organizations that continue to support Bajagua have direct financial ties to the company. Bajagua lobbyists claim the project will benefit taxpayers since the project’s investors will front the money to build the plant. However, in the end U.S. taxpayers will pay for the entire project, a sum total estimated to be between $600 million-$1billion.  This includes the $30-$40 million in “development costs” they have spent so far in lobbyist and lawyer fees, campaign contributions, and a 10-15% additional profit that comes to at least $60 million. This “profit” is taxpayer money that should fund clean water solutions, not enrich investors.   Bajagua is not even a viable project since there is no guarantee that Bajagua will satisfy water regulations due to the EPA and water board’s inability to enforce regulations in Mexico.  Finally, as mentioned above, Mexico has already paid for secondary treatment at the IWTP more than 10 years ago and they haven’t received anything in return.

There is no proposed solution to collect or treat the wet weather flows from Mexico that produce beach closures and represent a serious environmental health threat to south San Diego County communities. However, providing secondary treatment at the IWTP is the first step to comprehensively deal with the cross-border sewage threat. To stop beach closures we desperately need increased collection of Tijuana’s sewage. With funding from Congress, the US EPA can continue to work directly with Tijuana’s water authority, CESPT, on infrastructure projects to collect sewage from the city’s rapidly growing areas. CESPT has a solid track record working with the U.S. EPA on collaborative projects. Once the sewage is collected, we can treat it at the San Ysidro plant, which can be expanded to 4 times the current capacity on the existing federal government site. Pumps can also be accommodated on the site to send the treated sewage back to Tijuana for reuse. 

We can and must increase treatment of the sewage effluent that is discharged daily off our beaches in violation of State and Federal Law. It is time for our elected officials in Washington to step up and represent our San Diego community’s need for clean water and support the IBWC construction funds necessary to bring the IWTP into discharge compliance as soon as possible.  

Mexico has never supported the Bajagua project. All Mexico wants is for the U.S., after eight years of delay, to fulfill its treaty obligations to provide secondary treatment at the San Ysidro plant. Mexico’s show of no confidence in Bajagua is demonstrated by the fact that they are currently building 4 treatment plants in Tijuana that will begin to go online in early 2008 to meet the current and estimated needs of the city through 2020.  Every letter of support Bajagua claims it has received from Mexico is nothing more than a written courtesy acknowledging the company’s existence. An article in the San Diego Union-Tribune on August 10 claimed Bajagua had received a letter of support from Mexico in which CESPT granted a land concession to the company. This "concession" letter in fact means very little. Anybody in Mexico, with or without a project, can get what Bajagua is calling a “concession”. In agreement with Chapter II of the Mexican National Water Law, Bajagua needs a “titulo de concesion” to develop its project. To get this they need to complete and submit engineering plans, obtain treatment and discharge permits, and complete an environmental impact report- all of which they have yet to do. In no way is this letter a milestone for Bajagua or even a sign of Mexican support for the project. The facts are that Mexico has never supported the Bajagua project. All Mexico wants is for the U.S., after eight years of delay, to fulfill its treaty obligations to provide secondary treatment at the San Ysidro plant. Every letter of support Bajagua claims it has received from Mexico is nothing more than a written courtesy acknowledging the company’s existence.

WiLDCOAST supports the expansion of the San Ysidro treatment plant to guarantee that the sewage dumped daily off Imperial Beach meets clean water standards and fulfill our treaty agreement with Mexico. To complete this all we need is funding from Congress. Thanks to Sen. Feinstein there is now $66 million in the budget for the expanded treatment of the San Ysidro plant.  Additional supporters of this option include the Cities of Imperial Beach and Coronado, Congresswoman Susan Davis, and all of the U.S. government agencies charged with enforcing water quality regulations at the border. These include the US EPA, the IBWC and the State Water Board. 

There is no need for Bajagua and it is shameful that project proponents continue to actively block the clean water solutions our border communities desperately need.

-Ben McCue

 

 

August 2007
By: http://www.avaaz.org/en/
Fishers in developing countries can't find fish--all because of subsidies in rich countries that drive overfishing; often, the issues that affect the most lives don't make the headlines. This month, we have an opportunity to do something big about one of them: the global fishing crisis.

Fishers in developing countries are catching fewer and fewer fish--because of massive overfishing by industrialized fishing fleets from rich countries, fleets subsidized with tens of billions of Euros every year. As a result, fish populations are now collapsing around the globe, and could soon be pushed beyond recovery.

A recent study found that 90% of the ocean's big fish--tuna, swordfish, and marlin--are already gone. But it's not the countries with the greatest need that are catching too many of these fish--it's the subsidized fishing fleets from the rich countries. These fleets don't just trawl the open ocean--they fish off the coasts of developing countries, robbing local fishers and their communities of desperately needed food supplies. And as technology has developed, the crisis has accelerated.

Last week, Dr. Francis K. E. Nunoo, a Ghanaian scientist who studies fisheries ecology, interviewed a local fisherman for this campaign. the fisherman told him:

"Ten years ago, during the peak fishing season of the year, my boat is filled with a single throw of the net. In recent times, we throw the gear about 7 times before filling the same boat. And the situation is even worse this year."

Here's what Sall Samba, an octopus fisherman in Mauritania and father of six, told a reporter: "You used to be able to fish right in the port. Now, the only thing you can catch here is water."


This month, the WTO (World Trade Organization) which is governed by its 151 member countries is writing new global fishing rules; and these rules could have an impact in a much more damaging way to the fishing industry of third world countries. Avaaz members live in every one of those countries http://www.avaaz.org/en/ and, if we act together, we have a tremendous opportunity to push for action. The next few weeks are critical as the WTO works on its new plan. The plan is to send messages--thousands of them--to our countries' trade ministers, urging a strong decision by the WTO to change the rules that underly the unfair and unsustainable fishing trade.
http://www.avaaz.org/en/make_fishing_fair/c.php/?cl=16123489

Experts say that 29% of commercial fisheries might already be beyond repair. But most of the world's marine ecosystems can recover, if we get our policies right. The very fact that so few people are paying attention to this issue means that our actions will have more power.
Raise your voice and spread the word.


You can read more about the fishing crisis at:
http://www.cutthebait.org
http://www.defiendeelmar.com

posted by: Jose Lopez

Good news and bad news. Lets get the bad news out of the way first:

Satellite images showed that the amount of Artic sea ice was at it’s lowest ever on record and the melting is still continuing. The measurements showed that the ice dropped from 2.05 to 2.02 million miles. This melting is further evidence of the global warming trend. Polar regions are more of a concern because they are more sensitive to global climate change than more temperate areas. This trend of rapid melting is exceeding what computer models predicted. At the current rate a complete summer melt could happen by 2030.

 

The World Bank has been involved in efforts to stop the deforestation of Congo’s tropical forests. Deforestation is the second leading human contributor to global warming. Congo issued a moratorium on new logging contracts in 2002 and in support the World Bank says on its website that its private credit organization, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), “has no client in the field of forests in the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo).”

The Congo Basin has the second largest contiguous area of humid tropical forests after the Amazon, or about 20% of the world’s remaining tropical forest. If the current rate of deforestation continues, 70% of the region’s forests could be lost by 2040.

However on the financial end, the World Bank actually has investments in Olam International. Olam International was one of three owners of two cargo ships that were discovered to have underreported the amount of timber from the rain forests. Since then, the IFC has reduced its investment in Olam International. Groups such as Greenpeace have been calling on the IFC to divest its interest in Olam.

Now for some good news:

Democrats in the House are moving to spend as much as $6.7 million dollars to combat global warming, a 33% increase from previous fiscal years. This increase will most likely lead to a showdown between Congress and the White House, whose proposal calls for a meager 3% increase in spending.

Support of the increased spending isn’t limited to Democrats, as Republicans are also on board to spend more money to fund research and projects that will reduce air pollution and carbon emissions. Environmentalists are welcoming the increased funding but are also calling for more pollution regulation.

The House passed an energy bill that will require most utilities to produce 15 percent of electricity from renewable sources, such as solar and wind power. The House also passed a bill to repeal around $16 billion in tax breaks for the oil industry. Some of the money would go towards research grants and renewable fuel projects in the energy bill.

So there’s a bit of good news and a bit of bad news.

Unfortunately it seems like the good news is a little too late. We’re beginning to see more and more extreme weather events (flooding in various parts of the world, etc.). Yet at the same time we cannot stop or control the activities that we know are contributing to global warming. We know the problem, we know the consequences and we know the solutions. It’s a matter of putting them into action and action is needed now.

 Calvin Lee

Back in the early spring of 2006 when Kem Nunn first called me to let me know that there was a good chance that David Milch and HBO might film a new series about Imperial Beach, I was pretty excited. At the time Kem was a writer on "Deadwood," a brilliant deconstruction of the west and the evolution of American civic culture.

What was not to like about a possible HBO show about IB by Nunn and Milch. Kem is the author of the riveting "Tijuana Straits," and other novels about life on the edge in California. Milch is the creative genius behind "Deadwood," and arguably one of the most fascinating and loquacious personalities in Hollywood.

A month of so after my conversation with Kem, I found myself acting as the tour guide for David and Kem and a rental van full of production staff who would turn out to the be the eventual producers, directors and writers for John from Cincinnati. We toured Imperial Beach and the Tijuana River Valley.

Back then the show sounded cool�a dysfunctional Imperial Beach surfing family, an alien, a weird motel, and lots of strange characters against the backdrop of the “polluted U.S.-Mexico border.” Just like IB.

Milch and company filmed the pilot last September and the residents of IB got comfortable with Austin Nichols, Luke Perry, Ed O’Neill, Brian Van Holt and the rest of the cast wandering the beachfront and the alleys of IB’s infamous north side over the next ten months. I identified the El Camino Hotel as the perfect place for the Snug Harbor Motel, as the centerpiece location for the show. El Camino was and still is a run-down hovel filled with ex-offenders just off IB’s Palm Avenue that was once home to the famed Vienna Lounge and still retained an assortment of plastic life-sized forest animals around its decrepit swimming pool.

Overall, JFC was a boon for Imperial Beach. The production team set a gold standard for how film crews should treat a community (although some locals hated everything about the show). Milch and his crew hired locals as production staff and extras (including my two sons and dad), worked with local businesses and gave grants to local non-profits (including Wildcoast -- the organization I run).

Milch treated his own team and local residents with an amazing amount of respect and interest. He is a warm, generous, funny and amazingly talented person who established an atmosphere of risk and creativity that seems to be pretty rare in Hollywood.

One of the most interesting components of JFC was the way it used the web to further interest in the characters and setting. According to Jackson West at Newteevee.com

The Web played a role in the plot early on, such as with the fan site maintained by the character Dwayne (Matthew Maher) for the fictional family of surfing legends the Yosts. The young prodigy, Shaun Yost (played by Greyson Fletcher, real-life surf prodigy and son of surfing legend Christian Fletcher), is signed to a sponsorship deal by beachwear retailer Stinkweed on the strength of his lineage and amateur highlight reel. Levitating patriarch Mitch Yost (Bruce Greenwood) even lent his celebrity to real-life conservation charity WiLDCOAST.

I attended the premiere of JFC at Paramount Studios and found the first two episodes to be quirky, funny, interesting and off-the-wall. I hoped the rest of the series would go somewhere interesting. Unfortunately, as many of the production team complained to me while filming, the story wasn’t going anywhere they or the audience could understand. After the third episode, I found the story almost impossible to follow and wasn’t sure what was happening at all.

Milch, however, made it clear that the story really wasn’t the point,

"My understanding of the way the mechanism of storytelling works is ...whether or not the audience is conscious of the process, apart from the audience awareness that there is a process, any story is constantly appending specific values to the meanings of words, and of the actions of characters. And the fact that story uses as its building blocks words or characters that the audience believes it has some prior recognition or understanding of, is really simply the beginning of the story, but not its end.”

Okay -- I get it. I guess. After all "La Dolce Vita" is one of my absolute favorite films and there is no story there.

So I can deal with a lack of formal narrative structure. But after a while, it became hard to even understand most of the characters with some exceptions. Brian Van Holt was brilliant and true-to-life as Butchie. He nailed the mannerisms, the speech, and the (former) lifestyle of a junkie-surfer-hoodlum in the midst of redemption.

Ed O’Neill was funny as the ex-IB cop caught in confusion. Luke Perry proved that he is a good actor and was totally believable as a surf industry CEO. And Bruce Greenwood provided a quiet dignity to the role of Mitch Yost, the levitating former surf star turned Yost patriarch with a screaming spouse from hell (Rebecca DeMornay).

On the upside, the show made Imperial Beach look absolutely stunning. There just wasn’t enough surfing, border, beach time or Nummian noir present in the series to sustain the characters. What could have been a riveting look at the upside world of the U.S.-Mexico border (as indicated in the cool opening credits -- in which many of the images from Tijuana were shot from the WiLDCOAST Suburban) turned into an inward look at less-than-clear meaning of something.

Overall the show was a gamble from the very beginning. Chris Albrecht, the HBO chief fired in May for assaulting his girlfriend had given the green light to Milch to film JFC. I met with Milch, Nunn and their production team just before Milch’s green-light lunch meeting with Albrecht at his office in Santa Monica --tense can’t come close to describing the atmosphere.

Unfortunately, Albrecht was replaced by execs at HBO who might not have had the same faith in show especially when the ratings just didn’t add up. About 1.6 million people watched JFC a week -- which doesn’t compare to the 10 million or so who used to catch "The Sopranos."

So now things are back to normal in IB. No more afternoon surf sessions with Van Holt (who is a very good surfer), Austin Nichols, Brock Little, and Steve Hawk. No more listening to the philosophy of Milch and the riveting stories of his larger-than-life business partner Bill Clark (who Milch is now doing a new show with about cops in NYC based on Clark’s life). Imperial Beach feels a little emptier without the JFC crew in town.

But if you want to still capture some JFC magic, head down the Imperial Beach Pier Plaza, step into the Cowabunga ice-cream shop and order a scoop of John from Cincinnati ice cream. Its smooth mint flavor sprinkled hint of mocha chips is a good way to cool down on a hot summer afternoon as you traipse past the Yost Boards surf shop and catch the sunset from the IB pier.

--SERGE DEDINA

WiLDCOAST knows firsthand how important volunteers are. From conducting and compiling research data, to writing press releases and updating the website, the volunteers at WiLDCOAST are indispensable. They show up each day ready to work, and ready to make a difference in the world.

As a non-profit organization, WiLDCOAST relies on the help of philanthropic people. Like all non-profits, donations and volunteers play a major role in the success of the company, and consequently, in the amount of good the organization can do for the community. A 2006 Deloitte / Points of Light Volunteer IMPACT Study showed that volunteers, especially those with applicable skills sets, significantly improve their organization's business practices. One problem that the study highlighted however was the fact that many non-profit organizations neglect to utilize the workplace skills of their volunteers, and use them for general uses rather than set them to task on specific projects. According to the study, only 12 percent of non-profits report that they typically align tasks with the specific workplace skills of volunteers.

WiLDCOAST is one of the few organizations that fully benefit from the time and effort the volunteers and interns put in, as well as the abilities and knowledge that they offer to the organization. However, volunteering is not just beneficial for the organization:

·      High school students who need to fulfill community service hours should turn to non-profit organizations such as WiLDCOAST. It is in the non-profit environment that students can see just how they can make a difference as well as learn valuable skill sets as well.

 ·      High school and middle school volunteers can volunteer in areas that they have a strong interest or inherent talent in.

 ·      Volunteering is also a great way to fill out college applications. Most colleges pay attention to the extracurricular activities that students are involved with. Any amount of time volunteering with WiLDCOAST is time well spent.

 ·      Through the internship program, college students can apply classroom experience to web design, communications, wildlife conservation, and ecotourism fields. Volunteers also get to help out during special events organizing booths, passing out fliers, and educating others on the great things that WiLDCOAST is accomplishing.

WiLDCOAST volunteers are an integral part of the organization. Without the help of the volunteers and interns that fill the office on a daily basis, WiLDCOAST would not be able to make such an impact on the environment and the Imperial Beach community.

To the high school, middle school, and college students who are looking for ways to help - Join the WiLDCOAST team and make a difference:

http://www.wildcoast.net/site/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=48&Itemid=

Your time and help is greatly needed and appreciated, and as is evidenced by the numbers of volunteers and interns who return to WiLDCOAST season after season, you won't soon forget the people you meet, things you learn, and changes you effect while with WiLDCOAST.

 

-- Submitted by Carlee Cameron

Something taste funny in your drinking water? It could be the larvae of quagga mussels. The thumb-sized mussels have been discovered in lakes Mead, Havasu, and Mojave as well as two major aqueducts that supply water to Arizona and Southern California. The small mussels are almost impossible to completely eliminate and can cause damage to local marine life, marinas, boat motors and water facilities. In March about 800 mussels were found in the 242-mile Colorado aqueduct, which supplies water to 18 million people in Southern California. Officials are working on plans to prevent the spread of these mussels and the damage they can cause.

Kind of gross and scary isn’t it? Unfortunately invasive species have been causing problems ever since man began to travel. Rats carried from Asia into Europe most likely caused the bubonic plague. Insects from other countries have caused major headaches, economically and health wise (e.g. “killer” bees and fire ants). West Nile Virus was introduced into the United States through a traveler who was infected before he came back into the US.

Countries such as Australia and states such as Hawaii have extremely strict policies when it comes to travelers from other countries. These places have been heavily affected by invasive species. Unwanted pets quickly become unwanted pests, such as Burmese pythons that have invaded the Everglades (one snake was found burst open when it tried to swallow an alligator that was too big for it.)

Burmese pythons dumped by irresponsible pet owners in the Everglades have become a threat to native wildlife. Before acquiring a pet, think what could be the consequences of having exotic animals not suited to be pets.

Invasive species have become more and more common as the world becomes more connected. There are many was you can prevent a species from going nuts on the environment. Prevent buying and growing plants that are known to be invasive, and even packets of seeds that are labeled as “wildflowers”, since many of those seeds might not be native. Never dump plants and animals into public parks or aquatic animals and plants into waterways. Don’t smuggle fruits, seeds, live plants, berries, soil, insects and animals into and out of the United States. Join a local invasive plant eradication effort. Some of those plants you’re used to seeing on our freeways are actually invasive species! For a full list of things you can do or even just be aware of, check out the Union of Concerned Scientists’ invasive species website.

Calvin Lee

A study released says that coral reefs in the Pacific Ocean are dying faster than previously though. In the past two decades 20 percent of coral has disappeared from the Pacific Ocean. More than 600 square miles of coral reefs has disappeared since the 60’s. Losses in well-protected areas such as the Great Barrier Reef were just as bad as losses in poorly managed areas like the Philippines. The United Nations estimates that nearly a third of all coral has been lost and by 2030 an estimated 60 percent of coral cover will be gone.

There are many reasons behind the decline of coral reefs. Global climate change, storm damage, agricultural runoff, predators and diseases are the main factors influencing this rapid decline. Warming waters cause coral to “bleach” and lose their color, often resulting in death or reduced reproduction. In addition the ocean absorbs carbon from the atmosphere, which causes the ocean to become more acidic and thus dissolving the coral’s calcium skeleton. Agricultural runoff dumps massive amounts of nutrients into the ocean, fueling massive algae blooms that block out light for coral. Overfishing has exacerbated this problem, since no predators are left to feed on algal blooms.

Coral reefs are dying at an unprecedented rate around the world.

It’s so hard to describe how disheartening this news is to me.

Coral reefs are a source of life for people. Ecotourism and fishing provide money for families to make a living. Coral reef islands are homes for people as they have been for hundred of years. They’re homes to an amazingly diverse group of animals and plants. They’re also a source of amazement and joy to the people that visit them.

I stayed on a coral reef island for a few days when I studied abroad, and I will never forget the amazing things I saw. I was gathering algae for a research project during high tide on the reef and when I looked up I saw a sea turtle hovering in front of me, quietly contemplating me as I slowly reached out and scratched it shell (I’ve been told that sea turtles enjoy having the algae scratched off their shells by divers). I’ve seen eagle rays jump six feet out of the water and silently watched female sea turtles digging nests on the beach. I’ve seen a 600-pound grouper hunting at night and swam beside a five-foot shark. I’ve seen a giant clam the size of a small child and dove through a school of simmering fish. Just floating above the reef and watching the sheer abundance of life weave their way around you as they go about living is indescribable.

I’m unable to do justice to all the crazy things I saw. I’m just telling stories. There are so many things I can’t convey in words. It’s the difference between seeing it on the TV screen and actually experiencing the realness of it. I think there was a point where I just stopped and thought, “This is real”. Before, all I’ve ever seen of the reef was in National Geographic and nature shows I watched as a kid. It’s unbelievable to think that someday, the only things left of coral reefs will be stories, pictures, movies and memories. One day, people won’t be able to go out and see all these things anymore, simply because the reefs will one day cease to exist. They’re already on their way there.

I’ve read too many reports and seen too many news stories on disappearing reefs. Whenever I see another one, all I can think to myself is, “This is unreal.”

Calvin Lee