Environmental News: July 7 - July 16 2009

Ozone hole linked to deterioration of Southern Ocean carbon sink
From: Noreen Parks
Publication Date (Web): July 8, 2009
Diminished ozone leads to lower CO2 uptake and increased acidification.
To read this article please visit here.

Treating Ballast Water Could Fight Invasive Species
From: Jon Hamilton, NPR
Published July 15, 2009 10:02 AM
Ships that transport goods around the world are carrying some dangerous stowaways.
To read this article please visit here.

NOAA develops first underwater detection system of harmful algae toxins
From: Editor, ENN
Published July 15, 2009 10:41 AM
Researchers from NOAA's National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) have carried out the first remote detection of a harmful algal species and its toxin.
To read this article please visit here.

Forecasters See Stir in Atlantic Tropical Waves
Date: 15-Jul-09
Country: US
Author: Eileen Moustakis
NEW YORK - Forecasters say Atlantic Basin will soon see large tropical wave of storms for the first of 2009’s hurricane season.
To read this article please visit here.

NOAA Bans Commercial Harvesting Of Krill
by Staff Writers
Washington DC (SPX) Jul 15, 2009
"The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has published a final rule in the Federal Register prohibiting the harvesting of krill in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) off the coasts of California, Oregon, and Washington. The rule goes into effect on August 12, 2009.
To read this article please visit here.

Survivors of Attacks Sink Teeth Into Fight to Save Sharks
By David A. Fahrenthold
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Chuck Anderson of Summerdale, Ala., & Al Brenneka, Spring Hope, N.C., recount being attacked by a shark. They and other survivors are lobbying for legislation that puts new restrictions on fishing for sharks.
To read this article please visit here.

El Nino Pacific Warming Means Mild 2009 Atlantic Hurricane Season
WASHINGTON, DC, July 14, 2009 (ENS) -
This year's Atlantic hurricane season could be less severe than usual due to start of another El Nino period in June. To read this article please visit here.

Watching Whales Watching Us
Charles Siebert reports in the New York Times Magazine July 8, 2009.
Source: NYTimes Mag, 07/13/2009
"The November 2008 Supreme Court debate on whether to protect whales from Navy sonar "can be viewed as a turning point in our fraught relationship with whales -- a moment when new insights into the behavior of our long-inscrutable, seabound mammalian counterparts began forcing us to reconsider and renegotiate what once seemed to be a distinct boundary between our world and theirs.
To read this article please visit here.

Interview: NOAA's Jane Lubchenco
DATE: 07/13/2009
"Last December, when President-elect Obama named Jane Lubchenco to head the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the reaction among climate scientists was an almost audible sigh of relief.
To read this article please visit here.

Declining Aral Sea: Satellite Images Highlight Dramatic Retreat
From: Editor ENN, adapted from materials from the European Space Agency
Published July 12, 2009 07:03 AM
Envisat images highlight the dramatic retreat of the Aral Sea’s shoreline from 2006 to 2009.
To read this article please visit here.

Small Island Nations Demand More Emissions Cuts
Date: 12-Jul-09
Country: INTERNATIONAL
Author: Anupreeta Das
UNITED NATIONS - This week's pledges by G8 leaders to cap increases in the world's temperature are insufficient, a group of small island countries that face potential catastrophe from climate change said on Friday.
To read this article please visit here.

U.S. Coast Guard removes 32 tons of debris from Northwestern Hawaiian Islands
Updated at 7:59 p.m., Sunday, July 12, 2009
The U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Army's dive team cleared 32 tons of debris from the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands over the Fourth of July weekend.
To read this article please visit here.

Fast-growing kelp invades San Francisco Bay
By Jason Dearen, Associated Press Writer
Sat Jul 11, 3:04 am ET
SAN FRANCISCO – A fast-growing kelp from the Far East has spread along the California coast from Los Angeles to San Francisco Bay, worrying marine scientists and outpacing eradication efforts.
To read this article please visit here.

Seals quickly respond to habitat and climate change
Published July 10, 2009 10:15 AM
An international research team found that when the Antarctic ice sheets of the Ross Sea Embayment retreated in the Holocene period 8,000 years ago, elephant seals, Mirounga leonina, adopted the emergent habitat and established a new population which flourished.
To read this article please visit here.

Copenhagen Climate Deal Depends On U.S.: Analyst
Date: 09-Jul-09
Country: UK
Author: Nina Chestney
London - The emergence of a global deal to cut greenhouse gas emissions in Copenhagen in December hinges on the United States passing its own climate bill before then, analysts at Point Carbon said on Wednesday.
To read this article please visit here.

Gore Says Climate Deal Needs More Public Pressure
Date: 08-Jul-09
Country: UK
Author: Peter Griffiths
Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore speaks at the World Business Summit on Climate Change at Bella Center in Copenhagen.
OXFORD - Public awareness about the "catastrophe" of climate change is not high enough to pressure politicians into taking action, former Vice President Al Gore said on Tuesday.
To read this article please visit here.

NASA Satellite Survey Reveals Dramatic Arctic Sea Ice Thinning measurements of winter sea ice thickness over Arctic Ocean, 2004 and 2008
From: Editor, ENN
Published July 8, 2009 06:44 AM
A new research paper published by the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
shows that arctic sea ice thinned dramatically between the winters of 2004 and 2008, with thin seasonal ice replacing thick older ice as the dominant type for the first time on record.
For more information: here.
To read this article please visit here.

Micro plastic, major problem: Hawaii’s plastic beaches aren’t just unsightly, they’re potentially dangerous.
Adrienne LaFrance
Jul 8, 2009
The local nonprofit Beach Environmental Awareness Campaign Hawaii, or B.E.A.C.H. as it’s better known, is collecting data for a landmark study on the extent to which our waters are choked with plastic, and what it means for the overall health of the oceans. To read this article please visit here.

Did EPA's Jackson Try To Suppress NJ PFOA Study?
Source: Charleston Gazette, 07/08/2009
"A couple of months ago, a major article came out in a peer-reviewed journal that indicated the federal government’s health advisory for water contaminated with the toxic chemical PFOA was not nearly stringent enough.
To read this article please visit here.

Great Barrier Reef will be gone in 20 years, says Charlie Veron
From The Times
July 7, 2009
The Great Barrier Reef will be so degraded by warming waters that it will be unrecognisable within 20 years, an eminent marine scientist (Charlie Veron, former chief scientist of the Australian Institute of Marine Science) has said.
To read this article please visit here.

Reefs Could Perish by End of Century, Experts Warn
Date: July 7th 2009
Country: UK
Author: Michael Kahn
LONDON - Increasingly acidic oceans and warming water temperatures due to carbon dioxide emissions could kill off the world's ocean reefs by the end of this century, scientists warned on Monday.
To read this article please visit here.

Caribbean reefs 'flattened' in just 40 years
10 June 2009 by Andy Coghlan
In just 40 years, the Caribbean's spectacular branched corals have been flattened. Research reveals that the corals have been replaced by shorter rival species – and points to climate change as at least partly to blame.
To read this article please visit here.