Environmental News: February 2nd- February 17th 2010

113 Governments Agree to Conserve Endangered Sharks
February 17, 2010 (ENS)
MANILA, Philippines A landmark agreement to protect shark species threatened with extinction was reached Friday as 113 countries signed up to a United Nations-backed wildlife treaty to conserve migratory sharks.
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Despite Rain, California Still Fighting Over Water
15-Feb-10
Dan Whitcomb
LOS ANGELES - California has been deluged with rain and snow this winter, but its epic tug-of-war over water rages on, this time in the form of a plan by U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein to divert more water to the state's farmers.
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Warming Water Spurs U.S. to Consider ESA Protection for 82 Coral Species
By ALLISON WINTER of Greenwire
Published: February 11, 2010
The Obama administration will consider federal protection for 82 coral species threatened by warming water temperatures.
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Arctic Could be Ice-Free in future Summers
February 11, 2010
Roger Greenway, ENN
Are warming conditions in the Arctic unprecedented in Earth’s history? It turns out that they are not. The Earth’s climate has gone through warming and cooling times in the past as can be seen in the fossil record that shows tropical species in regions now too cool to support them.
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Judge gives NOAA Fisheries last chance on salmon
February 10, 2010
By JEFF BARNARD
AP Environmental Writer
The federal judge overseeing efforts to make the Columbia Basin's federal hydroelectric dams safer for salmon is giving the Obama administration one last chance to come up with something better that won't violate the Endangered Species Act.
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Endangered African penguins rebound in no-fishing zone
February 10, 2010
Conservationists believe closing off or relocating fisheries could help to save top marine predators around the world.
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Mackenzie River's fish contaminated with dangerous toxins: scientists
Mackenzie River's fish contaminated with dangerous toxins: scientists
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Ocean Pollutants May Be Cause of Increasing Cancers of Ocean Mammals
February 8, 2010
By KATIE KELLEY
At a recent sea life gala in Anchorage, Alaska, Jean Michel-Cousteau, the ocean conservationist and son of well-known ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau, reignited the issue of ocean pollutants causing cancer among beluga whales. The problem was first reported on in the 1980s when scientists discovered that the beluga whale population in the St. Lawrence rivers and runoffs in Canada were declining at an alarming rate due to what scientists speculated to be caused by pollution.
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Blue Whales Croon A New Tune
February 6, 2010
Blue whales are updating their playlist, according to new research on the huge mammals.
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NOAA Grant Proposal Could Launch Marine Zoning
By ALLISON WINTER of Greenwire
Published: February 5, 2010
The Obama administration is proposing a grant program that could start zoning marine areas for offshore projects.
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Dust harbors new fire retardants associated with hormone, sperm changes
February 5, 2010
As one class of flame retardants is phased out due to health concerns, new types – sometimes with widespread exposure and unknown effects – may be phased in. A new study examining one type of potential replacement chemicals called organophosphorous flame retardants finds that men exposed through house dust had lower thyroid hormone levels and reduced sperm concentration. This is one of the first human studies to look at potential health effects of exposure to these types of flame retardants.
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Biodiversity loss matters, and communication is crucial
5 February 2010 | EN
Communicating why biodiversity loss matters for people is essential for reversing it. The failed UN climate talks in Copenhagen in December could hardly have been a less promising prelude to the International Year of Biodiversity, which opened last month (January). 

As with climate change, the threat of large-scale biodiversity loss — and the need for global political action to stop it — is growing every day.
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Brown pelicans struggling to survive
February 5, 2010
Shelters in Oregon and California are filling up as the formerly endangered seabirds starve and die at a high rate. The cause is unclear.
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Fish farm critics applaud court rulings
Thursday, February 04, 2010
Robert Barron, The Daily News
Critics of fish farms in B.C. are hailing rulings by the B.C. Supreme Court that they hope will finally see fundamental changes in the way the controversial industry is monitored and regulated.
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Scant Arctic ice could mean summer "double whammy"
February 4, 2010
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Scant ice over the Arctic Sea this winter could mean a "double whammy" of powerful ice-melt next summer, a top U.S. climate scientist said on Thursday.
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Behind The Weather: Strongest El Nino In A Decade
by CHRISTOPHER JOYCE
February 4, 2010
Major snowstorms are set to bury the mid-Atlantic states this weekend after record snowfalls in December. Last month California was awash in rain. The Gulf states have seen heavy weather lately as well.
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World Wetlands Day is Feb 2
It's World Wetland's Day!
For more than 25 years, February 2nd has been designated as World Wetlands Day. Wetlands are under-appreciated in many areas. First we have to drain the swamps, is still a common approach to development in many areas. This approach, of course, is actually a bad idea, a very bad idea, since wetlands, besides being important to the species that live there, are important groundwater recharge areas.
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Jumbo squid ink-jet their way to Newport Beach
February 2, 2010
The invasion of the oversized creatures in Orange Country has prompted fishing-boat operators to add nighttime voyages.
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Huge Hydroelectric Dam Approved In Brazil's Amazon
02-Feb-10
Reporting by Rodrigo Viga Gaier; Writing by Peter Murphy
RIO DE JANEIRO - Brazil's government has granted an environmental license for the construction of a controversial hydroelectric dam in the heart of the Amazon rainforest, the Environment Minister said on Monday.
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Half of Indonesia's species remain unknown
February 2, 2010
More than half of the biodiversity across the archipelago remains unrecorded due to lack of knowledge coupled with poor awareness by local authorities to halt unprecedented destruction of biodiversity.
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Sea Level in Israel Has Been Rising and Falling Over the Last 2,500 Years
Feb. 1, 2010
The sea level in Israel has been rising and falling over the past 2,500 years, with a one-meter difference between the highest and lowest levels, most of the time below the present-day level.
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