Killing Whales for Heritage, Neah Bay, Washington

The Makah Indian nation has inhabited the Olympic Peninsula in the state of Washington for hundreds of years. Subsistence hunting of gray whales as they migrated from Alaska to Mexico has long been a cultural tradition. Tribal whaling was halted in the 1920's when the gray whale was brought to near-extinction by commercial whaling. The Makahs are now planning to revive their dead culture by ceremonial whale hunts. Tribal elders have appealed to the International Whaling Commission (IWC) for permission to resume the hunts. As the gray whales have been removed from the endangered list, the IWC will allow up to four whales to be slaughtered each year.

There is discontent within the tribe over this senseless hunt and many members believe the international controversy will adversely affect the tribe. The whale hunts are to be accomplished according to strict tradition. The whalers must undertake a nine-month process of bathing, fasting and prayer, and the hunt must be done from cedar canoes using ceremonial harpoons. The final kill will be accomplished by a .50 gauge shotgun, suggested to produce a swift and painless death for the whale. Many tribe members are opposed to the planned slaughter and are uncomfortable with the thought of a freshly killed, 25-ton, 45-foot whale being dragged ashore for all to see.

Some tribal elders believe that ecotourism is a better option. After more than 70 years of protection the whales no longer fear man and often loll near boats. Elder Jesse Ides has fished along side the migrating whales, has touched their backs, and believes they tell him when a storm is approaching by rearing up out of the water. Elder Ides believes the tribal council is trying to wake the people up to a culture that no longer exists.

The future of the Makah culture lies in protection of the whales, not in their senseless slaughter.

Italian Driftnet Phase Out

European Union fisheries ministers may have found a way to phase out the Italian driftnet fleet; a compensation package for the Italian fishermen to ease them out of the driftnet business. Current EU standards restrict net length to 2.5 kilometers. The Italian fleet has been using nets up to 12 kilometers long. The resulting bycatch has had a serious effect on a number of species, including sperm whales and striped dolphins. The agreement will be effective starting in May 1998, and may help reduce driftnet impacts throughout the EU.

BBC Wildlife, June 1997

Ocean Protection - 20 by 2020

A group of over 400 marine researchers has undertaken a campaign to have 20 percent of the world's oceans under protection by the year 2020. Many marine species are wide ranging. Planktonic larvae can travel hundreds of kilometers following ocean currents. Magellanic penguins migrate a coastal route from Argentina to Brazil. Reserves in Argentina protect only a part of the bird's life cycle. Studies have shown that fish populations drop dramatically once reduced to 20 percent of their original numbers. The easiest way to keep them above the 20 percent mark is to protect 20 percent of their habitat. Conservationists admit that this concept will be hard to sell. Countries like Australia and New Zealand, which have a good record of conservation, have yet to fully protect 20 percent of their waters. It is suggested that the long-term benefits will more than offset short-term costs. If the world's marine species are to be preserved, the 20 percent goal is a minimum number.

New Scientist, August 30, 1997

Coastal Mangrove Restoration, Philippines

Some 1,027 hectares of mangrove degraded areas have been rehabilitated since 1994 to 1997 under the Coastal Environment Program (CEP) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) while 329 hectares have been planted to mangrove species.

In a report to Secretary Victor O. Ramos, CEP identified Region 9 as the most successful site with 252 hectares rehabilitated, followed by Region 12 with 229; Region 7 with 171 hectares; Region 1 with 130 hectares.

CEP also established several mangrove plantations since its inception in 1993. To date 673 hectares of mangrove plantation have been established and 471,760 hectares have been maintained and protected.

Among the species planted in these plantation areas are pagatpat (Sonneratia caseolaris); api-api (sonneratia officinalis); bakauan lalake (Rhizophora apiculata); bakauan babae (Rhizophora mucronata) and nipa (Nypa fruticans).

Based on the latest statistics report on mangrove, there are 115,000 hectares of mangrove forest cover remaining around the country or 0.38% of the country's total land area. Region 9 had the highest mangrove areas left at 51,000 hectares, followed by Region 4 at 28,000 and Region 10 at 10,000 hectares. The statistics also showed a much slower rate of degradation in the nineties which was 3,000 hectares of mangrove areas yearly compared in the eighties which was 4,572 hectares. The success of the program was due to policy shift of the Ramos administration which focused on priority sectorial thrust which included forest management, land management, mines and geoscience development, environmental management, protected areas and wildlife management, ecosystems research and development and coastal environment programs and cross-sectorial concerns.

Mangroves are marine tidal forests that thrive in calm nutrient-rich locations and are good sources of wood, which is used by the local people for building materials for homes, fence-poles materials for fish traps and so forth. The wood is also harvested on a large scale by international companies particularly for pulp and particle board. Mangroves are also a significant source of fuel, both for firewood and charcoal. The most important species for this purpose are those belonging to the genus Rhizophora, as this wood is heavy and clean burning. Another potential fuel source in the mangrove habitat is the nypa palm (nypa ferutican) which produces sugar that can be converted into alcohol and be used as a transport fuel. Other products from mangrove habitat include shellfish, crustaceans and fish. These are harvested both on a subsistence basis and commercially.

More importantly, mangrove also provides habitat to adult fish, and is an essential area for spawning and nursery for many species of marine fish. Mangrove also stabilize shorelines and decrease coastal erosion by reducing the energy of waves and currents and by holding the bottom sediment in place with plant roots. They also act as windbreaks and protection from coastal storms, forming a cost-free, self-repairing barrier.

Public Affairs Office, DENR, Philippines

Mercury Pollution Conference, Minamata Bay, Japan

Victims of the 1956 Minamata Bay mercury-poisoning in Kumamoto, Japan met in Manila to join the 1st Philippine-Japan Conference on Mercury Pollution.

Highlighting the event were talks given by members of the Minamata Disease Municipal Museum touching on issues such as: problems and counter measures taken in Minamata city and the Kumamoto prefecture; social, medical and domestic needs in treating Minamata-disease patients; roles of government and non-government groups in treating Minamata-disease patients.

At least some 150 participants from the academe, government and non-government groups, including Secretary Victor O. Ramos of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), attended the event to discuss environmental and health issues posed by mercury poisoning using the Minamata Bay incident as the forum's reference case.

Leading the Japanese delegation were director Masatoshi Ishizuka of the Environment Agency of Japan, Director Konosuke Furuyama of the Earth, Water and Green Foundation (EWGF), and National Institute for Minamata Disease director Kenji Tamura. The delegation showed documentary films on the profiles of the disease including the film "Reclaiming Minamata Bay."

For its part, DENR's Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) director Dr. Marlito Cardenas and Dr. Nicomedes Briones of the Philippine Association of Tertiary Level Institutions in Environmental Protection and Management (PATLIEPM) each presented a paper on "Problems and Initiatives on Mercury Pollution in the Philippines." The forum is organized by the DENR-EMB, PATLEPM and EWGF in response to efforts of the Environment Agency of Japan to help newly-industrialized and developing countries strengthen their capabilities to solve mercury-contamination related problems brought about by rapid industrial growth in the region by learning from the Minamata incident.

The Minamata tragedy was a painful episode in Japan's industrial development when, in 1956, thousands of people living around Minamata Bay in Kumamoto and Niigata prefectures suffered severe brain damages and neurological injuries like tremors, numbness, and loss of sight and hearing as a result of eating fish contaminated with mercury compounds discharged by a chemical plant owned by Chisso Corp. Hundreds of fisherfolk died from the contamination and infected mothers later gave birth to babies with severe deformities.

In 1973, Chisso Corp. paid some $60,000 to each of the 3,000 victims seeking compensation after fighting long courtroom battles. Thousands others were not officially recognized by the government as eligible victims because of "less obvious symptoms" and agreed to individually accept a $22,000-out-of-court settlement in 1996.

On June 29, 1997, Kumamoto Prefecture governor Jujo Fukushima declared the fish in the bay safe to eat again and ordered the removal of a 1.3-mile-long net around the bay that was put in place in 1974 to prevent contaminated fish from moving to other areas.

Public Affairs Offic, DENR, Philippines

Ecologically Correct Fish Catch, Thames, UK

Herring from the Thames estuary are expected to become the first fish in the world to be certified as ecologically correct. That's because the men who catch it are, essentially, peasants of the sea.

In an age when oceans and continental shelves are bing pillaged by hi-tech catchers, they fish a couple of miles off Essex on day-long trips, using methods which have changed little on the past 100 years; small boats, large-mesh nets and a lot of manual labor.

It is cold, back-straining, often meagerly rewarded work, especially this winter, when unusually warm water has delayed the shoaling of fish. But the West Mersea fishermen and a couple of other small harbors nearby have rules and methods which safeguard the distinctivr stock of local herring in the long term. These herring are a sub-species with one vertebrae less than those farther out into the North Sea.

That is why the new Marine Stewardship Council, an international organization set up by the World Wildlife Fund for Nature and the fish multinational Unilever, hopes to grant them its first certificate for sustainable fishing.

Whoever sells their herring will be able to label the packaging boasting of this and probably allowing a premium price to be charged. "If someone in Islington wants to pay extra for our herrings, that's just fine," said John Jowers, a West Mersea fish merchant and chairman of the local fishermen's cooperative. "But we're as interested in conserving local jobs and communities as in conserving fish." The boats use a long-line of curtain-shaped driftnets with diagonal mesh at least 54 mm across. They are left hanging in the water for several hours; tiddlers swim through, while big fish find their way barred and bounce off. But mature herring, aged two years or more, are trapped.

Once their heads get through the mesh the rest is too big to pass through, but they cannot swim back because their gill covers snag the filaments. Unlike a lot of North sea fishing, theirs is targeted: nearly everything in the nets is adult herring. They catch none of the juvenile fish so vital to the stocks' future. Next to nothing is wasted as bycatch. There are 14 boats involved and in the summer they catch bass and Dover sole. They only go after herring during the season, from October to March, sticking to rules written and theoretically enforced by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries for the northern side of the Thames estuary. The boats must be under 17 meters long, can use only driftnets and the total quota for all of them is 131 tonnes a year, which one large commercial trawler could catch in less than an hour.

Mr. Jowers says it was the fishermen who demanded the constraints to conserve stocks, who stuck to them for years before the ministry made them law and who enforce them among themselves. He reckons 100 local jobs rely upon the fishery, with their herring trucked to markets around Britain and the Continent. Some families from West Mersea, near Colchester, have been catching herring since the Middle Ages. "It provides a good living for kids who are never going to get lots of exams at school. If a place like this loses its locally working community it just becomes a dormitory suburb. It's no longer a pleasant place to live."

In the harbor, skipper Chrissy Mole and his crewman were shaking about 30 stone of herring out of their nets. That would fetch about 70 pounds Sterling, not much for catching the tide at 3am and not returning until 4pm. "It's not an easy job and a lot of people don't like doing it," he said. He and Matthew Howard, another West Mersea fisherman, are enthused about their methods being certified by the Marine Stewardship Council. "When we tell people how we catch herring, they look at us as if we're mad," said Mr. Howard. Certification, which it is hoped, will be completed by October, will not dramatically hike the price of their fish but could guarantee a decent market throughout the season, avoiding the occasional collapses to 50p a stone, which make it not worth their while to go to sea.

UK News

Sewage Pollution Causing Sex Change in Fish, England

Male roach, one of Britain's most common fish, are undergoing sex changes caused by sewage effluent in rivers throughout Britain. Every male roach which scientists examined in two rivers, the Nene in Norfolk and the Aire in West Yorkshire, showed signs of feminisation. In the worst cases, large parts of the sperm-producing testes had turned into egg-making ovary tissue. In the least affected, oocytes - the small cells at the start of the production line which leads to fish eggs - were thinly scattered through the testes.

It has been known for years that sewage effluent can feminise fish. Male trout kept in cages next to outlet pipes start producing egg yoke protein. Natural oestrogen from women's urine, synthetic oestrogen from the Pill and a variety of industrial chemicals are the culprits. Male flatfish, particularly flounders, also show signs in estuaries polluted by sewage and industrial effluent. Now the team from Brunel University in West London, which did the work on trout, has shown how universal this disquieting change is for roach.

The results of a three-year investigation, covering 2,000 fish at 20 different sites in England and Wales and funded by the Government's Environmental Agency and the Natural Environmental Research Council, were unveiled by Professor John Sumpter, of the University of Middlesex.

On the average, 60 percent of the fish caught in river stretches downstream of sewage works were intersex. Surprisingly, so were 25 percent of those upstream. That is probably caused by sewage effluent from works much further upstream, with the female hormones or their synthetic mimics exerting their effect at an extremely low concentration. Ten percent of male roach from pristine rivers with no sewage works outfalls were also feminised, suggesting the condition may occur naturally at a low level. But the scientists established a link between the quantity of sewage effluent and how sex-changed the fish were.

Professor Sumpter said further research was needed to solve two big unknowns. Were other fish species changed in the same way, and what effect was it having on their breeding? There is also a great deal of research still to be done on exactly what chemicals are to blame. Earlier research by Brunel and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food found that three hormones found in women's urine were present in sewage effluent at levels high enough to feminise fish. The Environmental Agency is concerned about a range of industrial chemicals which can be found, at low concentrations, in effluent. It is to review its regulations of polluting companies, and the limits it puts on their effluents, in the light of growing concern about the effects of sex hormones and their synthetic mimics on wildlife.

UK News

$2.3 Billion US Plan to Clean Oceans, Rivers, Lakes

President Clinton outlined a $2.3 billion five-year plan to aggressively clean up US waterways and coastal areas, saying it was time to finish the job started under the Clean Water Act, now expired. The initiative targets sources of water pollution that are considered more threatening than discharges from specific industrial sites, and more difficult to control. It calls for stricter limits on coastal runoff, new controls on waste production from poultry and livestock operations, and additional protection for endangered wetlands.

Previous efforts to clean up the nation's waters have focused on major industrial polluters. But equally important are toxins washed into water systems from city streets, pollution carried in rainwater, and animal waste generated on poultry, cattle and pig farms. The Clean Water Act is credited with doubling the number of waterways safe for fishing and swimming and reducing industrial discharges by billions of pounds a year. However, 40 percent of the nation's surveyed rivers, streams and lakes remain too polluted for fishing and swimming. US beaches were closed more than 2,500 times in 1996 because of contaminated waters. Excess runoff of nutrient pollutants such as nitrogen and phosphorous cause algae blooms and contribute to outbreaks of Pfiesteria piscicida that have plagued the US Eastern shore. Individuals are encouraged to call or write their representatives in support of a new Clean Water Act.

Coral Disease Increasing in Florida

A new report from the US Environmental Protection Agency shows that cases of coral disease in the Florida Keys went up 276 percent in the past year. Specifically, the incidence of disease nearly quadrupled in frequency from 25 monitoring stations in 1996 to 94 stations in 1997. Of the 44 total species of coral in the Florida Keys Marine Sanctuary, the number of corals affected increased from 9 in 1996 to 28 in 1997. Causes are being studied by the Florida Marine Research Institute, the University of Georgia and the University of Charleston with assistance from the EPA and NOAA.

Scuba Times Magazine, February 1998

Turtle-Safe ^(TM) Shrimp Campaign Growing

The Sea Turtle Restoration Project (Earth Island Institute) successfully expanded the certified Turtle-Safe^(TM) Shrimp program last year by increasing supplies, adding two major retailers, and increasing public support through the media and direct outreach.

The campaign reached new heights when STRP activists secured the commitment of two large natural food store chains to sell Earth Island certified Turtle-Safe^(TM) shrimp. Nature's Fresh Northwest in Oregon, the third largest natural food store in the nation, announced it would sell turtle-safe shrimp exclusively.

After two years, supplies of certified turtle-safe shrimp have reached 3 million pounds annually and shrimper participation has increased to 125 vessels. While meeting with shrimpers this summer, STRP director Todd Steiner was interviewed for an ABC News/Discovery Channel program about Turtle Excluders Devices (TED's) and Turtle-Safe shrimp that was broadcast across the nation.

By asking for Turtle-Safe^(TM) shrimp, consumers are not only buying some of the finest shrimp available, but helping to protect endangered sea turtles. Demand continues to grow as people learn how TED's protect sea turtles.

Turtle-Safe Shrimp Retailers:

Food For Thought, Sonoma County, CA
Monterey Fish Market, Berkeley, CA
Walnut Creek Yacht Club Market, Walnut Creek, CA
Nature's Fresh Northwest, Portland, OR

Turtle-Safe Restaurants:

Aqua, San Francisco, CA	Hayes Street Grill, San Francisco, CA
Bix, San Francisco, CA	Monterey Bay Aquarium, Portola Café
Bucci, Emeryville, CA	Oliveto, Oakland, CA
Campton Place, San Francisco, CA	One Market, San Francisco, CA
Catahoula, Calistoga, CA	Postrio, San Francisco, CA
Chez Panisse, Berkeley, CA	Tra Vigna, St. Helena, CA
Don Giovanni, Napa, CA	Trilogy, St. Helena, CA
Enrico's, San Francisco, CA	Waterfront, San Francisco, CA
Farallon, San Francisco, CA	Wente Vineyard Restaurant, Livermore, CA
Ginger Island, Berkeley, CA	Yabbies, San Francisco, CA
Greystone Restaurant, St. Helena, CA	Zuni Café, San Francisco, CA

Sea Turtle Restoration Project, Earth Island Institute

Alarming Increase of Fibropapilloma Tumors

Fibropapilloma tumors were first described in captured green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) in 1938. It was later identified in mariculture-raised green turtles at the Cayman Turtle Farm in the late 1970's. In the late 1980's the disease started increasing at various sites including Florida and Hawaii. In these areas, more than 50% of some populations were found to be affected. Although usually identified on green turtles, similar tumors have been found on loggerhead (Caretta caretta) and olive ridley (Lepidochelys olivacea) turtles. Electron microscope examination of tumors has revealed a herpes-like virus.

This disease, which often grows as lesions around the eyes, on flippers and internal organs, is now appearing on turtles worldwide. The turtles in Hawaii may be the most severely affected with 92% of some populations showing sings of tumors. In 1996, the first documented case of fibropapilloma was identified on an olive ridley at Playa La Flor, Nicaragua by Randall Arauz with the Sea Turtle Restoration Project. Biologist Pandora Martinez later examined 496 turtles at Playa La Flor and found tumors on 5 turtles.

Although Fibropapilloma has not been directly linked to land-borne pollutants being carried to the ocean, circumstantial evidence points to that conclusion. The prevalence of the disease in nearshore versus offshore populations of sea turtles indicates a strong link. A high incidence of tumors has been identified on populations near the Indian River Lagoon in Florida and Honokawai, West Maui, Hawaii. Both of these areas appear to have significant amounts of nutrient pollution associated with agriculture and other pollutants >from industrial and urban development. On Maui, the Lahaina Wastewater Reclamation Facility pumps sewage effluent into injection wells at the rate of 15-25 million liters per day. Its is possible that this effluent is seeping through the porous volcanic rock to the surrounding ocean waters, causing unusual nearshore seaweed growth. Waste from pineapple and sugar cane fields has also been discharged into the Hawaiian coastal waters adding both nutrient and pesticide pollution.

Observers on Maui speculate that there may be a transmission link through the symbiotic relationship of turtles with cleaner fish. As the nutrients increase the food supply, more turtles are attracted to an area increasing the possibility of an infected turtle in the population. Cleaners have been observed biting edible parasites on eye tumors and then cleaning the eyes of healthy turtles. Dr. Larry Herbst found that the disease can be experimentally transmitted by skin scarification or cutaneous injection. There are no current methods of controlling the disease in wild populations.

Turtle Trax at http://www.turtles.org
Sea Turtle Restoration Project, Viva La Tortuga!

UNESCO International Year of the Ocean-1998

One Earth, One Ocean, One Life

The United Nations, in recognition of the importance of the marine environment, has declared 1998 as the International Year of the Ocean. It is expected that this year of recognition will provide the means to raise awareness of the plight of the oceans. Governments, organizations and individuals need to accept a common responsibility to protect that which sustains us.

The idea for the Year of the Ocean came from the Seventeenth Session of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) held in March 1993. The resoultion was endorsed by the UNESCO General Conference in November 1993 and by ECOSOC in July 1994. The UN General Assembly formally adopted the proposal in December 1994.

Recent research has identified the crucial role of the marine systems as part of the Earth's climate system. The objective of the IYO 1998 is to focus attention on the importance of the oceans. A large number of Member States have committed themselves to this effort through education, awards, research, publications, cruises, workshops, postal stamps, and other initiatives.

Additional information about this year-long celebration may be obtained at the IYO 1998 website at http://www.unesco.org/ioc/iyo/iyohome.htm.

Scientists Warn that Oceans are in Peril

At the start of the United Nations's International Year of the Ocean, more than 1,600 marine scientists and conservation biologists from 65 countries have issued an unprecedented warning to the world's governments and citizens that the sea is in trouble. Troubled Waters: A Call for Action summarizes the urgent threats to marine species and ecosystems and calls for immediate action to prevent further damage.

Troubled Waters paints a dismaying picture of the destruction of marine biological diversity from five causes: 1) overexploitation of species, 2) physical alteration of ecosystems, 3) pollution, 4) alien species from distant waters disrupting local food webs and 5) global atmospheric change. Overfishing has decimated commercial fish populations and caused the collapse of many fisheries worldwide, including the once-bounteous cod fisheries of Georges Bank off New England. Destructive fishing methods such as bottom trawling have crushed and buried bottom-dwelling species by scouring a vast area of seabed. Coastal development has consumed mangrove forests and salt marshes. Reef corals and marine mammals are falling victim to new diseases, perhaps caused by pollution. And global warming has dramatically reduced the sea's productivity off Southern California since 1951 and contributed to the steep decline of salmon in the North Pacific.

The call for action comes from scientific leaders in renowned marine research institutions such as Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the Australian Institute of Marine Sciences and the Russian Academy of Sciences, from scientists in universities, federal agencies, local governments, tribal fisheries commissions, conservation groups and private industry. Endorsers include marine scientists such as Drs. Jane Lubchenco, Past President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; Paul Dayton of Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Sylvia Earle of Deep Ocean Exploration and Research. Leading conservation biologists who are expert on conserving species and ecosystems on land and are all too familiar with threats to biological diversity, including Drs. Edward O. Wilson of Harvard University; Peter Raven of the Missouri Botanical Garden and Michael SoulÇ, the father of the science of conservation biology, have also endorsed Troubled Waters. The signatures were collected in only eight months, starting just before the first Symposium on Marine Conservation Biology in June 1997.

"A recent New York Times poll found that only 1 percent of Americans consider the environment the most important problem facing our country," said Dr. Elliott Norse, marine ecologist and President of Marine Conservation Biology Institute (MCBI), the nonprofit organization that coordinated the statement. "Because few of us spend much time below the surface, it is easy to overlook signs that things are going wrong in the sea." But the signs are increasingly obvious to the experts," according to Norse. "The scientists who study the Earth's living systems are far more worried than the public and our political leaders. That's a wake up call that nobody can afford to ignore."

Dr. JoAnn Burkholder of North Carolina State University, who discovered the linkage between coastal pollution and outbreaks of nightmarish fish-eating Pfiesteria piscicida, said "It's hard to imagine that farming on land and building in cities could harm the marine environment and fishermen, but it does. The tons of sewage produced by millions of people don't just go away when we flush... a lot of it winds up in our coastal waters. And construction, agriculture and logging send clouds of choking sediments and excess nutrients into marine waters, smothering sensitive habitats. What we do on land profoundly affects life in the sea."

"If it's business as usual," said Dr. M. Patricia Morse, a marine biologist from Northeastern University, "we'll see more declines in corals, fishes, marine mammals and seabirds. That spells disaster for industries like fishing and tourism that depend on healthy marine life, and for every human on Earth, because we all use goods and services provided by the sea every day. Oceans regulate our climate, provide a breathable atmosphere and break down wastes. Coastal wetlands protect our shores from flooding and storm damage, improve water quality and provide crucial habitat for fishes and other marine life. When we destroy these ecosystems, we lose both their products and services."

Troubled Waters calls on citizens and governments to act now to reverse current trends and avert even more widespread harm to marine species and ecosystems. It outlines needed changes, including elimination of government subsidies that encourage overfishing, an end to fishing methods that damage fish habitat, reduction of non-point source pollution from activities on land, cuts in emissions that cause global warming and the creation of an effective system of marine protected areas from the shore to the open ocean.

"Getting scientists to agree on anything is like herding cats," said Norse, "so having 1,600 experts voice their concerns publicly highlights how seriously the sea is threatened. Troubled Waters shows that the world's experts want the public and our leaders to know that threats to marine species and ecosystems are urgent, and that we must change what we're doing now to prevent further irreversible decline. A White House Conference on the Marine Environment would help to highlight what's known about marine environmental problems and to address the most pressing ones. The International Year of the Ocean provides the ideal opportunity to move forward in protecting, restoring and sustainably using life in the sea. We need to do it for two reasons: because it's essential to our well-being and survival and because it's the right thing to do."

Press Release, Dr. Elliot A. Norse, January 6, 1998

Construction on Playa La Flor National Wildlife Refuge-Nicaragua

Playa La Flor, located on Nicaragua's Pacific Coast, is one of only two arribada (arrival) sites for the endangered olive ridley sea turtle in Nicaragua, and is one of six sites still remaining in the Eastern Pacific. Approximately 15,000 olive ridley turtles nest at the Playa La Flor each year. Leatherback sea turtles also nest at the site regularly, and green and hawksbill sea turtles have also been reported to nest there occasionally. Playa La Flor has been protected as a National Wildlife Refuge for several years, although its official status as a Wildlife Refuge was only finalized in 1996.

The Nicaraguan Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (MARENA) and the University of Central America (UCA) have been carrying out efforts to develop sea turtle monitoring and research programs, as well as community-based conservation programs.

A landholder with property inside the refuge (and directly behind the nesting beach) has illegally, and without permits, begun construction activities in recent months that threaten the nesting beach including: road building, land clearing and second growth tree cutting, fencing the nesting beach with barbed-wire, planting non-native vegetation (teak, melina, pine) in areas used by nesting turtles, and within the Refuge in general, illegal collection of more than 70 truck loads of river rock and dumping into the Refuge for the future hotel construction site, and allowing cattle and horses to enter the nesting area and trample nests. This work is being done for either a hotel or high-priced residences.

JA! (Environmental Youth!), UCA (University of Central America) and other Nicaraguan biologists and conservationists have requested support to pressure the Nicaraguan government to enforce the General Law of the Environment, in order to protect Playa La Flor and the endangered sea turtles that nest there. During the Regional Workshop for the Conservation of Central American Sea Turtles, held in Tortuguero, Costa Rica, from September 26 through October 1, 1997, the participating group voted unanimously to support a Resolution directed toward the President of Nicaragua to protect Playa La Flor and ensure the General Law of the Environment is fully enforced. Individuals are encouraged to send a letter of support to:

President Arnoldo Aleman
Republic of Nicaragua
Casa Presidencial
Managua, Nicaragua

Further information concerning the efforts to protect sea turtles in Central America may be obtained from Environmental Youth! (JA!) via ja@nicarao.apc.org.ni, the Nicaraguan Sustained Development Network via ayon@ns.sdnnic.org.ni, and:

Randall Arauz
Central American Director
Sea Turtle Restoration Project, EIIApdo 1203-1100
Tibas, San Jose, COSTA RICA
Phone/FAX 506-236-6017
Email: rarauz@caiari.ucr.ac.cr

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