Dear Friends,

This is the 232nd Edition of the Mangrove Action Project News, March 5, 2010.

For the Mangroves,

Alfredo Quarto
Mangrove Action Project

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Partnering with mangrove forest communities, grassroots NGOs, researchers and local governments to conserve and restore mangrove forests and related coastal ecosystems, while promoting community-based, sustainable management of coastal resources.

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ACTION ALERT
Kenya’s Second Port Spells Double Devastation
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MAP ACTIVITIES:
Volunteer with Mangrove Action Project:
Position Title: Asia Office Development & Field Project Assistant
Time Frame: 3-6 months
Closing Date: April 30

View 2 pt. video on shrimp farm issue in Indonesia!

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A fun and exciting Art Contest for children 6 to 14 years old

MAP ANNOUNCEMENTS

MESSAGE FROM THE EXEC DIRECTOR

In December of 2008, the Honorable Dr. Earl Deveaux proclaimed that Bimini's long-awaited Marine Protected Area had been made official. Local Biminites, as well as legions of people around the globe who care about Bimini, were elated with the news. Reports from Bimini also informed us that much stricter regulations were to be placed on the large development on the North island, including the requirement of Environmental Impact Assessments and a definite plan for mangrove restoration along the eastern boundary of the resort.To our knowledge, extensive dredging, mangrove removal, and wetland filling is taking place along the western shore of the North Sound right now. We have also been unable to confirm that any EIA's have been completed for the current work, or that any actual plan for mangrove restoration has been established.

The Mangrove Action Project applauds the Bahamian government for declaring Bimini's MPA, but without definite boundaries, regulations and enforcement the benefits of this MPA will be stunted.We are hereby asking for any current information about the state of Bimini's Marine Protected Area, as well as the confirmation that the extensive mangrove removal taking place on North Bimini has been permitted by the Local and Central Government. The issues surrounding Bimini's mangroves are cared about by far too many people to remain silent for this long. We have respected a request to "quiet down" for many months, but have heard nothing in response for our courtesy. We look forward to any information.

I hope you'll enjoy this 232nd issue highlighting these other newsworthy stories.

Cheers,
Alfredo Quarto, Exec. Dir MAP

FEATURE STORY
March 13th, 2010 (Science News)
LOSING LIFE’S VARIETY
No silly hats or shouted countdowns. But entomologist Scott Miller is hosting a small event to mark the beginning of 2010, which the United Nations has declared the International Year of Biodiversity. Miller’s occasion is low-key, on a weekday, before noon even, and there’s no bubbly in sight. But there are other reasons for not quite calling this a celebration.Edward Barbier of the University of Wyoming in Laramie, who has studied Thailand’s coastal mangroves, is building up some of the information on ecosystem damage and services. Since 1975 an estimated 50 percent or more of the country’s mangroves have been destroyed to make way for shrimp farms along the coast. The tsunami that bashed the coast in December 2004 raised interest in one of the mangroves’ previously underappreciated services — their ability to soften the wallop of incoming waves.
READ MORE

AFRICA

February 27, 2010
Sierra Leone takes steps to save mangroves

FREETOWN (AFP) – Sierra Leone's fragile mangrove ecosystem risks being depleted if steps are not taken, the country's forestry director said Saturday after African countries adopted a plan to save coastal mangrove forests."There is (a) need to formulate and implement a sustainable policy... and a need for an integrated approach for the safeguard of the environmental and economic benefits of mangrove resources," Ahmed Mansaray said in a statement broadcast on national radio.Mansaray spoke a day after Sierra Leone and five other West African countries -- Mauritania, Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Gambia and Guinea -- signed onto an action plan for sustainable mangrove management in Freetown.
READ MORE

LATIN AMERICA

Feb 28, 2010
Update on the Situation in Honduras
At this moment there are 32 policemen in front of 50 fishermen. The shrimp farmer got fraudulent environmental Licence. The Media (complicit with the coup d'état) even now agree with the big entrepreneurs. Curiosity: we look for police chief in its office, but the principal is not there, and the second is with the policemen taking care of the shrimp farmer.
The only way to stop the destruction is with mass mobilization but we don't have money for that... The dry season has begun in Honduras ... the transfer of machinery for construction of shrimp farms has been notorious ... Now some of them have approached one of the "protected areas" in the "Site Ramsar # 1000" and begun their operations with government permission. Several communities are moving toward the location, to deal with the destroyers of wetlands. The police will be vigilant to protect the rich investors and punish the poor "troublemakers". CODDEFFAGOLF is taking action but, we are sharing the poverty also, and there are few things that we can do.
Contact CODDEFFAGOLF for more info

Feb. 24, 2010
Deadly tsunami swarm hit Haiti after quake, say experts
The devastating January 12 earthquake in Haiti also set off a swarm of unusual tsunamis, which killed three and destroyed several homes, experts said today. Though surveying damage and rescuing survivors was of utmost priority for several weeks, scientists are now starting to examine some of the side effects of the temblor, such as the tsunamis. The waves, which averaged about ten feet (three meters) high, slammed shores along the Bay of Port-au-Prince and the southern coast of the island of Hispaniola, which is shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
READ MORE

SE ASIA

MAP Asia Office Gains Momentum With Community-Based Tourism Projects in Lions Village, Phang Nga

Thailand - A new website was recently launched by the North Andaman Community Tourism Network (N-Act) (http://www.andamancommunitytourism.com) in Thailand which features Lion Village on Phra Thong Island in Phang Nga Thailand.
A homestay program was initiated at Ban Lion, a newly established post-tsunami village this season as an alternative supplementary livelihood in this small-scale fishing community as a collaborative support effort between the MAP-Asia, Naucrates, Andaman Discoveries (AD) and N-ACT. Over the last several years joint training efforts and field study trips have been utilized to build community capacity to operate a homestay but also develop awareness on natural resource conservation. The MAP Asia regional office has recently increased its support and involvement in community-based tourism (CBT) projects in Lions Village where a Coastal Community Resource Center (CCRC) is also being established. Responsible CBT is steadily proving to be a valuable tool in raising awareness on the management, restoration and conservation of coastal resources. The community programs provide visitors exciting new ways to discover a relatively unknown and unspoiled region of Southern Thailand.
One page under the “Conservation and Community Development” section has been dedicated to MAP’s activities on the North Andaman coast:
READ MORE

20 February, 2010
Tourism Group Calls for Information on Mangrove Conservation & Tourism.
Ranong Thailand - The mangroves are beautiful, quiet forests. How can tourism contribute to the conservation, rehabilitation and presentation of the mangrove environments?
Throughout Asia Pacific the complex ecosystems of mangrove forests are home to a rich biodiversity and have an important role in coastal waters. In their important role in coastal waters, ‘they are nursery grounds for commercially important fish and prawns that live in surrounding habitats. The forests act as a buffer between the sea and the land mitigating all but the worst effects of storm surges.’
So, how can tourism contribute to the conservation, rehabilitation and presentation of the mangrove environments?
READ MORE

VIET NAM

March, 02 2010
White-leg shrimp favoured for export from Vietnam
(Editor’s Note: “White-legged Shrimp are actually White Shrimp from the Pacific Coast of Latin America, which raises concerns about invasive species entering the wild oceans in the coastal zones of Asia.)
Viet Nam has favourable conditions for farming white-leg shrimp and large export potential, an aquaculture official said. Vu Dung, head of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development's Aquaculture Cultivation Department, said the country is favoured with low production costs and high productivity while global demand for small-white-leg shrimp is high. The cost of breeding the crustacean is currently around VND30,000 a kilogramme, or just half that of black tiger shrimp.
READ MORE

February 25, 2010

Pay Poor Nations to Preserve Marine CO2 
Jakarta, Indonesia - A student plants mangrove trees along the Jakarta bay to fend off rising seas and storms. Mangroves also store carbon and the UN proposes paying countries to preserve them.
Sea grasses, mangroves and salt marshes naturally store huge amounts of carbon but this is released as greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, when wetlands are drained or disturbed.
The head of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Achim Steiner, said a combination of public and private funds could be used to pay poor countries to repair and preserve carbon-rich marine environments.
READ MORE

INDIA

19 February 2010
Scientists scathing on coastal tree planting
NEW DELHI- Natural coastal ecosystems have been widely destroyed by the planting of alien trees in the mistaken belief that they will work as 'bioshields' against storms and tsunamis, says an international group of scientists.
The team, writing in the February issue of Conservation Letters, reviewed more than 30 papers on the planting of belts of trees as bioshields.
The researchers concluded that there is little evidence to show they protect against storm surges — temporary increases in sea level associated with stormy winds — or tsunamis. Additionally, using foreign tree for this purpose is doing extraordinary environmental damage, they said.
READ MORE

SOUTH PACIFIC

Feb 17, 2010
News from Tonga "All is well.......... "
Vanu'u - The Kingdom of Tonga was struck head on by cyclone Rene at the weekend, we are pleased to report that no major damage or destruction occurred. Wind speeds reached approx 90 knots sustained and 110 knots gusting as the eye swooped down on Vava'u. Roofs came off of houses and schools, telephone and power poles are knocked down, but no serious injuries occurred. Our boats and business were untouched by the storm and only damage to 2 vessels in the harbour occurred.
Air services with Chathams Pacific restarted today after checks to runways were made. Tonga Power is working hard to restore power to the island and the Department of Environment as well as many residents are cleaning up the fallen trees. We would like to thank everyone for their kind messages....... the next week now the seas have calmed down we will be checking the reefs and having fun back diving.....
READ MORE

NORTH AMERICA

USA
February 24, 2010

Recirculating aquaculture systems: The future of fish farming?
Shepherdstown, W.Va.Inside what looks like a plastic-roofed greenhouse sitting in an old cow pasture are six round, 1,500-gallon tanks (imagine kiddie pools that are eight feet deep), each holding a few hundred rainbow trout. A tangled network of PVC pipes – some as thick as tree trunks, others as slender as pool cues – traces crooked patterns in the cramped space, which is alive with the sound of whirring motors and lots of water, dripping, bubbling, and gushing steadily through the whole convoluted system. It looks like an ambitious science-fair project. But these are recirculating aquaculture systems at the nonprofit Conservation Fund's Freshwater Institute, which has researched water use and conservation since 1987. And they represent an exciting new development in food sustainability.
READ MORE

HAWAII
Jan. 13, 2010
Public Funds Used To Poison Mangroves
The mangroves at beautiful Pohoiki is now being poisoned. Last year, these very same mangroves were used by a film crew for the movie, The Tempest. I watched them filming this movie at that spot. It was used for its beauty and magical ambiance. Now, the trees have holes in them where poison was injected, and the trees are leafless and dying. The water will get foul. What an unnecessary waste and destruction of a healthy environment, one of the few popular surfing and boating spots on the Big Island, and one of the rare places with the necessary environment where mangroves can grow.
Here are the serious problems that have surfaced regarding this mangrove eradication:
The lead group is the Big Island Invasive Species Committee (BIISC). All these Invasive Species Committees are public-private partnerships, and have inherent conflicts of interest. For example, Malama o Puna, a local private non-profit group, is a partner of BIISC and is doing the poisoning. The County of Hawaii gave the permit, and is a BIISC partner. The US Fish and Wildlife gave a grant for this, and is a BIISC partner. The DLNR did not require an Environmental Assessment (EA), and is a BIISC partner.
Who is objective when these are all partners? Notice, the organizations defining the problem, funding it, permitting it, and receiving the funds to do it are all partners. There should be checks and balances between agencies protecting the environment.
READ MORE


CANADA
February 23, 2010
Sea lice becoming drug-resistant

Biologist Alexandra Morton has found alarming evidence of drug-resistant sea lice on Nootka Island within sight of a local fish farm. And the young farmed salmon are being shipped across Vancouver Island to be processed on Quadra Island, posing a major threat to the Discovery Islands and the whole Georgia Strait.
In a 12-minute video on her blog, Morton and her assistants are seen collecting samples of sea lice just a few meters from a ship where the salmon are being processed -- and where sea lice are even clinging to the ship's hull.
Morton explains in the video that this fish farm used "Slice" (a drug against sea lice) in October. That should have reduced the population near zero for several months. Instead, the population has remained high.
Moreover, the fish are then being trucked across Vancouver Island for further processing on Quadra Island. Morton quotes a DFO message stating that a 500-micron filter is keeping waste from the fish plant from contaminating the water. But her assistants dive 30 meters to film an open discharge pipe gushing "blood water."
READ MORE

EUROPE

SWEDEN
Feb 23, 2010
They are delicious, appetizing but dangerous…

Tiger prawns cause big ecological and financial problems for people and nature around the farms where they are produced. Now, it is also reported that almost all uncooked tiger prawns from Southeast Asia are carrying a virus that threatens the Swedish stocks on shellfish.”
Common for all media coverage including the public TV news channel is the message saying that “almost all uncooked tiger prawns from Southeast Asia are carrying a virus that threatens = Swedish stocks on shellfish.” And that experts on fisheries now say that the import of tiger prawns has to be banned. Because the white spot syndrome, not dangerous to humans, but if the virus would spread in the Swedish waters it can cause serious consequences.
READ MORE


GERMANY
Feb 11, 2010
Salt tolerance mechanisms in mangroves: a review Mangroves are woody plants which form the dominant vegetation in tidal, saline wetlands along tropical and subtropical coasts. The current knowledge concerning the most striking feature of mangroves i.e., their unique ability to tolerate high salinity is summarized in the present review. In this review, we shall discuss recent studies that have focused on morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical, molecular and genetic attributes associated with the response to salinity, some of which presumably function to mediate salt tolerance in the mangroves. Here we shall also review the major advances recently made at both the genetic and the genomic levels in mangroves. Salinity tolerance in mangroves depends on a range of adaptations, including ion compartmentation, osmoregulation, selective transport and uptake of ions, maintenance of a balance between the supply of ions to the shoot, and capacity to accommodate the salt influx. The tolerance of mangroves to a high saline environment is also tightly linked to the regulation of gene expression. By integrating the information from mangroves and performing comparisons among species of mangroves and non-mangroves, we could give a general picture of salt tolerance mechanisms of mangroves, thus providing a new avenue for development of salt tolerance in crop plants through effective breeding strategies and genetic engineering techniques.
READ MORE

NORWAY
February 10, 2010
Environmental collapse in the oceans and rivers
 
It has been some time since the Green Warriors launched our international campaign against industrial salmon farming, and the pressure on the industry is growing. You are an important part of this! The launching of the campaign got a lot of media coverage in Norway, and since then we have worked hard to get the message out to the world. We are happy to see that fishermen, environmentalists and animal activists join the cause, and that thousands of people get to know the negative impact the salmon farming industry has on the environment. At the moment I am in Spain spreading the message. Please check our website with news and info.
READ MORE
 
FRANCE
FEB 4, 2010
Fisheries expansion is a sign of non-sustainability
In his keynote speech at the World Seafood Summit 2010, one of the worlds leading fisheries scientist, Daniel Pauly, put the facts on the table. "There are no such thing as sustainable trawling" Pauly said to the more than 600 attendants, among many from the fishing industry and ecolabelling business. Instead he noted that "small scale fisheries have the characteristics of sustainability", all though he underlined, that if you take more out of the bank than the interest, you will end up loosing your capital.
Pauly focused on industrial fishing as a pyramid scheme, referring to a system where you pay of investments with capital from new investors. In fisheries the new capital is the fish stocks, and in the industrial fisheries the central element of the pyramid has been expansion. In the 20th century, we have seen a massive expansion in three ways. In geography, by fishing in distant waters and getting access to African, Caribian and Pacific waters; in water depth, by fishing deeper and deeper; and in a taxonomic expansion, meaning that industrial fisheries have targeted more and more species. Fish that earlier were considered inedible have been renamed and put on the market, and in that way Slimeheads has become the delicate Orange Roughie to please consumer. The problem is, as Pauly explained, “it is international robbery... You can supply the market this way, but it is not sustainable”, and he concluded that the fisheries expansion is a clear sign of non-sustainability.
READ MORE

FOLLOW UP TO PREVIOUS STORY
Response to Mangrove Eradication in New Zealand This is Prof Gordon Maxwell, now back in NZ again for a spell and I will outline the main aspects of the new anti-mangrove paradigm that is rapidly gaining favour as a fashionable way of approaching our sole species/subspecies of mangrove in New Zealand, Avicennia marina sub sp resinifera. I made a BIG mention of this disturbing paradigm at the Pacific Science/ ISME Conference in Okinawa in June ,2006. Please ask ISME ( isme@mangrove.or.jp) for more
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