Hawaiian monk seal in its native habitat. Photo: NOAA

Pup Births Fall to Record Lows

The monk seal successfully survived in the Hawaiian Islands for millions of years until it was hunted to near extinction in the 1800s. Today, monk seals are at risk from entanglement in fishing gear and other marine debris, overfishing, invasive species, sea level rise and ocean acidification. But recovery efforts face strong opposition from fishermen who fear the seals’ competition for fish, and others who see any federal protections as intrusion. Adding to these threats, vocal resistance to critical habitat and recovery actions for the seal has taken an increasingly ominous turn. In late 2011 and earlier this year, four monk seals died of suspicious head injuries and a fifth is being investigated. More are suspected of having been killed offshore. New reports from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) provide further concern. According to Charles Littnan, lead scientist for the Hawaiian Monk Seal Research Program at NOAA, monk seal births in the remote Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI) are at an all-time low. Just 105 pups were born in the NWHI this year; the lowest number since records began to be kept 30 years ago.

Recovery Funding Key to Preventing Extinction

The Hawaiian Monk Seal Recovery Plan, released in 2007, identified funding needs totaling $36 million over 5 years, or approximately $7 million per year in order to successfully recover and protect the seal. Though essential to the survival of the seal, these figures have never been fully realized. The Recovery Program has lost 36% of its funding from 2010 ($5.5 million to $3.5 million) and proposed cuts for 2013 threaten to further eliminate key parts of research and recovery efforts that could literally mean life or death to the endangered monk seal.

Data from NOAA show that less than 200 seals live near the main Hawaiian Islands of O‘ahu, Maui Hawai‘i, Kaua‘i, Moloka‘i, Lana‘i, Kaho‘olawe, and Ni‘ihau. Here, the majority of pups born annually survive just fine.  But out in the remote Northwestern Hawaiian Islands where the vast majority of monk seals reside, fewer than one in five pups ever reach adulthood. Starvation and Galapagos sharks, which come into the shallow waters to prey on seal pups, take a huge annual toll.

Raising the survival rates of female pups to breeding age is key to the species’ survival. But doing so depends entirely on securing critical funding. Part of the recovery plan calls for temporarily moving small numbers of female pups from the NWHI to the main islands for up to three years to support greater survivability. Funding cuts threaten these translocation efforts as well as other important components of the recovery plan. According to the NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service, the survival of the Hawaiian monk seal will depend largely on the stability of this recovery funding over the next several years, making the next 5 to 10 years crucial to the survival of the seal.

Donate now to help prevent monk seal killings and preserve vital seal habitat.

Make your voice heard: Speak Up for the Hawaiian Monk Seal

Right now, Congress is hearing mainly from those who oppose the actions that are needed to save our Hawaiian monk seals. Please take a moment to add your voice to those of us across the nation calling for protection of the Hawaiian monk seal by contacting your members of congress. Take action here to urge your members of Congress to support and fully fund recovery actions that will prevent Hawaiian monks seal from going extinct.

NWF Program Coordinator, Chris Hilke, inspects fish canal at Red Brook-Century Bog complex, MA

NWF’s Northeast Regional Center is working with a broad coalition of partners to help sea run brook trout or “salters” at Massachusetts Red Brook-Century Bog complex adapt to the impacts of climate change. Red Brook is a unique spring-fed, cold water, coastal stream that flows roughly 4.5 miles through several former cranberry bogs from its headwaters in Plymouth, MA to the ocean.

“Red Brook is one of the few coastal streams in Massachusetts that supports anadromous fish (migratory fish which hatch in freshwater, make their way to sea to grow, and return as adults to spawn), and is home to one of the last remaining native sea-run brook trout fisheries in the eastern United States”. (Trustees of Reservations)

This one-of-a-kind fishery is under serious threat from climate change. Warming water temperatures and a degraded habitat threaten the long-term survival of these salters. Without a concerted conservation effort it is likely that this unique coastal plain fishery would disappear like so many others along the Massachusetts coastline and beyond.

Fortunately, fifteen state, federal and non-governmental organizations are working together to implement strategies that will help these salters adapt to a changing climate. The efforts include restoring old cranberry bogs to wetlands, stabilizing water flow to prevent thermal “hot spots”, improving water quality, removing several levees, berms, small dams, and dikes, and planting native riparian species along the restored stream channel.

The coalition of partners includes; DFG’s Division of Ecological Restoration (DER) and Trout Unlimited, MassWildlife, A.D. Makepeace, The Trustees of Reservations, the National Wildlife Federation, Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the USGS, American Rivers, the Corporate Wetlands Restoration Partnership, University of Massachusetts Boston, Massachusetts Maritime Academy, the towns of Wareham, Plymouth, and Bourne, and DFG’s Division of Marine Fisheries.

The Red Brook-Century Bog initiative has moved beyond partner outreach and into an intensive monitoring phase that will inform which suite of future adaptation strategies will be most effective. The Northeast Regional Center is involved in this process of helping to identify which restoration strategies would be most appropriate.

The exercise of identifying a suite of “climate-smart” strategies is extremely useful at Red Brook and elsewhere as resource managers struggle to implement their projects under the threat of climate change. In many ways, determining these climate-smart recommendations serves to elevate Red Brook as a “showcase” demonstration site for on-the-ground climate adaptation in riverine systems.

To learn more about the development of climate-smart adaptation strategies in the northeast contact me at hilkec@nwf.org.

Chesapeake Bay photo by Scott Bauer

The government shutdown clock is ticking away furiously in Washington, D.C. as Congress wrestles with a budget agreement.

While many Americans have no choice but to ride out the storm, bad water riders in the house-passed Continuing Resolution, or H.R.1, continue to cloud the budget battle.

These harmful and unnecessary pieces of legislation have little to do with the budget bill or spending cuts and more to do with handcuffing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and creating giant loopholes for big polluters.

Bad water riders will:

• Ban EPA from closing recent Clean Water Act loopholes that remove protections for many waters,  jeopardizing the drinking water for 117 million Americans, threatening over half the nation’s stream miles, and opening 20 million acres of wetlands and prime wildlife habitat to polluters and developers. The Clean Water Act gives the EPA the authority to hold polluters accountable for oil spills, sewage and animal waste dumps, and other pollutants that go into rivers, lakes streams, estuaries, and wetlands.
• Ban EPA from protecting municipal water supplies, fisheries, and other critical water resources from being destroyed by large-scale mining, public works, and development projects that dredge, fill, and pollute productive waters.  EPA’s use of its Clean Water Act “404(c)” authority, a deliberative and open process rarely used, has saved taxpayers millions of dollars on wasteful and destructive public works projects, and saved Americans some of their most precious bays, rivers, and streams. This authority has only been used 13 times, and most recently to block the Yazoo Pumps project in Mississippi, which would have destroyed valuable wetlands and wasted billions of taxpayer dollars.
• Endanger the Chesapeake Bay by blocking efforts to clean up the Chesapeake Bay just as progress is finally being made to limit allowable pollution in the waters that feed the Bay through fair and effective measures. The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States, covering 6 states and Washington, D.C. The watershed supports rural economies and the $730 billion-a-year outdoor recreation industry.
• Endanger Florida Waters by blocking recently issued water quality standards for Florida’s lakes and flowing waters that are necessary to protect Florida’s waters from excess pollution from sewage, manure and fertilizer.  Excessive nutrient pollution from these chemicals and waste has created toxic algae blooms in Florida waters that can spread for over a 100 miles. The blooms undermine water quality in Florida, which lowers properties values, hurts waterfront businesses, and serves a major health risk to people, pets, and wildlife.
• Endanger the San Francisco Bay Delta by blocking key measures to protect imperiled salmon, Delta smelt, and the health of the entire Bay-Delta ecosystem, which is reliant on its life-giving water supply.
• Endanger Klamath salmon restoration by blocking a study critical to rebuilding what was once the Nation’s third largest salmon-producing river systems, while also accommodating fisheries, landowner, and electric utility stakeholders.
  
• Allow more stream dumping of coal mining waste by blocking EPA from restricting water pollution from proposed mountain top removal and other coal-mining projects, and from the toxic coal ash waste that is contaminating our streams and water supplies.

Speak Up for Wildlife

You can help stop the attacks on water and wildlife in the Continuing Resolution by speaking up for wildlife at NWF’s Action Center. Don’t let these bad water riders wash away America’s bedrock environmental safeguards.

Last week BP decided to stop playing nice.  Ken Feinberg, who the oil giant chose to run its compensation fund for spill victims, recently released a report estimating fishermen’s losses.  The report predicted that Gulf wildlife would mostly be back to normal within a year or two, and it was widely criticized for ignoring the spill’s long-term effects (not to mention that it was based on some pretty shady research).  So BP crunched the numbers again and concluded that there would be even fewer long-term problems than Mr. Feinberg thought, meaning they shouldn’t have to pay as much to fix things.

Then, to add insult to injury, BP backed out of its promise to help Louisiana restore wetlands, oyster beds, and fish hatcheries.  In a report in yesterday’s New Orleans Times-Picayune, officials say that BP “has clearly changed their approach” to the restoration efforts.

Oiled wetlands in Louisiana's Bay Baptiste (photo: Rainforest Action Network)

Robert Barham, the state’s Wildlife & Fisheries Director, said, “All we’ve asked is for them to do what they said they would do in their commercials: be here for the long haul and make it right.”  But now the oil giant has decided to fight it out in court, forcing Louisiana to scramble to find money for these vital projects.

Call me a cynic but is anyone surprised at this turn of events?  BP said all the right things when the cameras were rolling and now we’re seeing their true colors.

Nobody would be happier than fishermen and wildlife lovers if BP turned out to be right—but the sad fact is that we have very little idea of what to expect in the Gulf, and the evidence we do  have points to a difficult recovery ahead for oysters, dolphins, fish and other wildlife.

Consider this—Dr. Samantha Joye of the University of Georgia has spent the last 8 months examining the sea bed around the blown-out well.  The samples and photographs her team collected painted a depressing picture: dead sea creatures, suffocated and poisoned by the oil that has accumulated on the ocean floor.

“I’ve been to the bottom.  I’ve seen what it looks like with my own eyes.  It’s not going to be fine by 2012,” Joye told The Associated Press. “You see what the bottom looks like, you have a different opinion.”

Dolphins playing off the coast of Gulf Shores, AL (photo: Christy Sheffield)

And another tragedy is being linked to the spill: dead infant and stillborn dolphins are washing up on shore at an alarming rate.

Adult dolphin deaths tripled during the spill, but this is the first calving season since then and our first look at the long-term impact on marine mammals.  Scientists in Mississippi and Alabama have seen a spike in mortality since and, according to Moby Solangi, director of the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies, it’s “more than just a coincidence.”

We’ve known all along that it would be a struggle to recover from this catastrophe and now more than ever we need to keep the spotlight on what’s happening in the Gulf.  You can find out more about NWF’s efforts to protect wildlife habitat (including volunteer opportunities) at www.nwf.org/Oil-Spill.

I had been reading for months how lake levels in Lakes Michigan and Huron were declining due to a “hole” in the St. Clair River, an artery of the Great Lakes system carrying water from Lakes Michigan and Huron into Lake Erie and onward. This “hole” was created from years of pulling gravel from the stream bed in order to make space for big ships. Even worse, more water level declines are likely expected due to climate change. And as these water levels decline shoreline habitats in Lakes Michigan and Huron have the potential to dry out and cause impacts to the wildlife such as turtles, frogs and birds that depend on them. “Plugging the hole” or restoring the stream bed to natural levels could help keep lake levels where they need to be for wildlife.

Considering these facts a resounding “yes, that’s the plan” came from this bright-eyed planet saver.

But it’s not that simple.

Meet my new fish friend, the northern madtom – a globally rare endangered species in the St. Clair River. To the knowledge of wildlife managers madtoms are not found in any other part of the Great Lakes.

Photo Credit Ken-ichi Ueda

This little fish enjoys deep swift riffles of large rivers. The St. Clair River is quite habitable for them.

Options proposed at a meeting today by the International Upper Great Lakes Study Board, as a potential way to “plug the hole” would require movement of or blocks placed on the river bottom. Options which might be good for wildlife upstream in Lakes Michigan and Huron. Options that might disrupt or even change northern madtom habitat in the St. Clair River.

The long-term impacts to the madtom are unclear.

So what to do? This is a good example of environmental trade-offs. Saving some species has the potential to make it more difficult for others.

As people who care about wildlife it is important to stay informed on these issues and attend public meetings whenever possible. I urge you to follow the International Upper Great Lakes Study. These bi-national studies do not happen often and have the potential to lead to major changes. Learn for yourself about Great Lakes water loss issues and voice your opinion.

Many of my friends’ lives were dramatically impacted by the Exxon Valdez oil spill more than 20 years ago. They went from fishermen to conservationists who happened to fish.

Why?

They saw the devastation the Exxon Valdez oil spill caused to the environment, and ultimately to their community. And they realized that in a world where enormous companies have a profit motive and the means to spend a great deal of money lobbying our government, someone needs to pay attention, to be the squeaky wheel that ensures our coastlines are not oiled.
Mostly what I hear from these folks is sorrow and anger. They remember the oiled coastline of Prince William Sound, and the wildlife that died. And they remember the cost to the fishing town when the herring didn’t come back. Twenty years later, the herring still haven’t come back.

And you know, they also remember being told that nothing could go wrong with the oil tankers, and that the Sound was safe. And they feel sorry and angry for the folks on the Gulf Coast who heard the same thing about the oil rigs.

From Anger to Action

After the Exxon Valdez oil spill, my friends and people around the country used their anger to change things to make oil shipping safer. They changed the rules to require double hulled tankers. Even more importantly, they changed the rules so that in Prince William Sound, a citizen oversight committee was created to watch over oil tankers, to do their own studies of tanker safety, to do their own inspections of oil facilities to make sure the rules were being followed.

We need to take that concept and make it happen all across this country for all oil and gas development. But first, we need to pass an energy bill that moves us into a prosperous future and out of a past where we convince ourselves over and over again that we have to accept the enormous price oil and gas development can exact on wildlife, people and our communities.

Tell your Senators we need to stop pursuing unsafe energy options and pass clean energy legislation now.

“The Day the Water Died”

In fall of the year after the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill, the National Wildlife Federation sponsored a series of hearings where more than 120 Alaskans impacted by the oil spill testified before a commission about their views and concerns, illustrating the grave impacts of the spill on Alaska’s wildlife and citizens.

Their stories, thoughts and emotions were then brought together by the National Wildlife Federation in a publication titled, The Day the Water Died.

For more personal stories behind the tragedy of Exxon Valdez, read these excerpts from the testimonies.

By Jim Adams, NWF Regional Executive Director, Alaska Regional Center and Western Regional Center

Help ensure NWF has the funding needed to be on the front lines helping wildlife >>
 

For all the latest news on how the oil spill is impacting the Gulf Coast’s wildlife & to learn how you can help, visit www.nwf.org/OilSpill.

Physorg.com reports:

Scientists have joined forces in a groundbreaking assessment on the status of marine fisheries and ecosystems. The two-year study, led by Boris Worm of Dalhousie University and Ray Hilborn of the University of Washington and including an international team of 19 co-authors, shows that steps taken to curb overfishing are beginning to succeed in five of the ten large marine ecosystems that they examined. The paper, which appears in the July 31 issue of the journal Science, provides new hope for rebuilding troubled fisheries.

See full article >>