Visions of Green and Blue

Seafood Ecolabels: For Whom and to What Purpose?

2011-12-28T16:17:00.001-08:00

Below please find a link which contains my final MREM project report, which is titled Seafood Ecolabels: For Whom and to What Purpose.

https://sites.google.com/site/mremprojectreportkaitlanlay/

If there are any comments please send them my way!

Luna the Whale

2011-11-16T16:21:00.000-08:00

Although Ryan Reynolds does not have the best voice for narration, it should still be an interesting watch.

Sad News: Death of a Great White Shark

2011-11-04T08:53:00.000-07:00

Taken from: http://montereybayaquarium.typepad.com/sea_notes/2011/11/sad-news-death-of-a-great-white-shark.html

We're saddened to announce that the young great white shark we released on October 25 off the coast of southern California has died. This is a very difficult day for all of us at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and for everyone who saw and cared about this animal.

Based on the shark’s behavior and overall condition prior to release, our white shark team had every confidence that he would do well back in the wild -- as was the case with five other young great whites released from the aquarium.

Unfortunately, according to data from the tracking tag he carried, the shark died shortly after he was released.

"Our Husbandry team is unrivaled in its knowledge of young great white sharks, and I’m so proud of the passion and dedication they demonstrate each day," said aquarium Managing Director Jim Hekkers. "This is a difficult time for all of us –- and especially for the team members who devoted so much attention and care to an animal that had such a powerful impact on the attitudes of our visitors toward conservation of ocean wildlife."

While this is a setback, in the weeks to come, our white shark team will review its procedures and protocols to see if there are any changes we should consider so we can continue to do what we do best: give our animals exceptional care and, through our living exhibits, inspire visitors from around the world to care about –- and care for -– ocean wildlife.

Right now, while we are shocked and saddened by this loss of this shark, we remain fully committed to our white shark work.

Five other great white sharks have been successfully returned to the wild after spending periods between 11 days and six-and-a-half months at the aquarium. One other animal –- a small shark that fed only once during its 11 days on exhibit –- was also transported south to Goleta for release. Four other sharks were released in Monterey Bay.

Tracking data from all five sharks confirmed they survived their release, though one of the sharks died four months later in a fisherman’s net in Baja California.

Exhibit of young great white sharks is one element of Project White Shark, our work with research colleagues to learn more about white sharks in the wild as well as to inspire visitors to become advocates for shark conservation by bringing them face to face with sharks on exhibit.

Since 2002, we've tagged and tracked 47 juvenile great white sharks off southern California. Earlier this year, we were the lead sponsor of legislation enacted in California that outlaws the shark fin trade –- a major factor in the global decline of shark populations.

In the past decade, we've allocated nearly $2 million toward studies of adult and juvenile great white sharks in the wild –- research aimed at better understanding and protecting white shark populations.

18 million tonnes of tsunami debris drifting to B.C.

2011-10-26T07:31:00.001-07:00

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/10/25/japan-tsunami-debris.html

Genetically Modified Salmon in the News

2011-07-31T11:53:00.000-07:00

This media analysis was written for my Sociopolitical Dimensions of Resource and Environmental Management class last semester.

Genetically Modified Salmon in the News

Introduction:

Genetically modified foods (GM foods) first appeared on the market in the early 1990’s. As stated by the World Health Organization: “genetically modified organisms (GMOs) can be defined as organisms in which the genetic material (DNA) has been altered in a way that does not occur naturally… It allows selected individual genes to be transferred from one organism into another, also between non-related species” (2011). The first commercially grown GM food released for public consumption was the FlavrSavr tomato, which “tests showed… picked ripe from the vine, had an unusually long shelf life. After three or four weeks at room temperature they essentially looked and felt as if they had just been picked, whereas ordinary vine-ripened tomatoes were noticeably shrivelled and rotting” (Martineau, 2001). Since the introduction of GM crops many farmers have come to rely on biotech crops in place of conventional crops (ISAAA, 2009). According to the ISAAA, in 2009 “a record 14 million farmers, in 25 countries, planted 134 million hectars of biotech crops”(Slide 9). Developed countries have become heavily dependent on GM foods, with “more than half the crops grown in the U.S., including nearly all the soybeans and 70% of the corn, being genetically modified” (Hindo & Schneyer, 2007). It was not until recently that the issue of commercially grown GM animals began to appear in the news. The production of ‘Enviropigs’, ‘AquAdvantage’ salmon, GM goats that produce human breast milk and chickens who’s eggs contain proteins for cancer-fighting drugs (Belluz, 2010) has created a greater divide between critics and supporters of GM foods. Supporters suggest that GM animals will help alleviate the pressures of global food demand for our worlds’ ever growing population. While critics claim that the GM animals pose risks not only to the natural environment but also to human health. AquaBounty’s genetically modified Atlantic salmon has added DNA from Chinook salmon and ocean pout, which causes the fish to grow twice as fast as regular Atlantic salmon. The company claims that the GM salmon will be grown at inland facilities and that they are reproductively sterile (AquaBounty, 2011). The discussion surrounding AquaBounty’s AquAdvantage salmon is critical in the discussion of GM animals, as it has already gone through hearings regarding its approval for sale from the FDA and would have been the first GM animal to be approved for human consumption. This paper will explore the information that was provided to the public through newspapers and news clips, before, during, and after the hearings regarding the approval of GM Atlantic salmon.

Purpose:

The purpose of this media analysis is to explore the information that was provided to the general public through newspapers and news clips, surrounding the hearings regarding the approval of GM Atlantic salmon. The analysis was also used to identify the themes that appeared in the articles as well as the timing of those articles. The final objective of the analysis was to uncover any underlying messages that the media was inadvertently sending the public regarding the issue.

Major Findings:

Some of the major findings that were uncovered during the media analysis were that journalists writing stories on the issue of GM salmon heavily relied upon key informants to construct the articles. Many of these informants had very opposing view points, which in most cases required the journalists to include both sides of the story to create a ‘neutral’ viewpoint. Coverage of the issue was heightened during the two days of hearings, which included the FDA, AquaBounty, and critics. It was also found that there were a number of themes that were used consistently throughout the reporting, which assisted with the development of the stories as well as creating interest in the issue.

Methodology:

For the media analysis of Aquabounty’s GM salmon a list of search terms was first developed. As there are a variety of terms used in relation to the GM fish and its surrounding issues, a list of the five most common labels was created (Genetically Modified Salmon, GM Salmon, AquaBounty, AquaAdvantage, Frankenfish). These search terms were used to obtain appropriate articles from both national and international news sources. The articles were found through the use of search engines of electronic databases such as Lexis Nexis, Google News and Google. The search provided ten articles and two television news clips from news outlets such as CBC News, CTV, ABC News, The Ecologist, The Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star, Huffington Post, The Observer, Aljazeera, PBS and The Independent.

Topic Analysis

When the stories ran:
Hearings regarding the approval of sale of genetically modified salmon began on September 19th 2010 and concluded on September 20th 2010. AquaBounty, the FDA and critics presented their findings to an advisory committee on September 20th. The committee then advised the FDA on whether to approve the sale of the GM fish. There was some coverage of the GM salmon issue prior to the hearing, with most of these articles providing the general public with a broad overview of the issue as well as opinions from opposing parties. However, most coverage of the GM salmon issue occurred on the same day as the final day of hearings, September 20th, 2010. These articles focus on the inability of the panel to come to a final conclusion regarding the sale of GM salmon. The articles also attempt to portray the frustrations of both the advocates and critics of the GM salmon surrounding the decision. The articles that were released after the hearing focused more on the issue of the labelling of GM animals as well as the uncertainty of future decisions regarding the approval of the salmon.

Where the stories ran:
Most of the GM salmon articles that appeared in the papers would be classified as news pieces, as they were generally straightforward stories that reported on the latest events surrounding the issue. The collection of articles that was assembled for the media analysis represent a national and international interest in the issue as the selected media came from Canada, the U.S., and Europe. The stories that ran regarding GM salmon appeared in a variety of sections in the papers. Depending on the angle the journalist approached the story from, the articles were in sections such as: Health, Food, Green, Canada, PEI, News in Brief, and In Focus. The array of sections that the articles appeared in shows the complexity of the issue as it affects numerous aspects of the public’s everyday life. The Toronto Star article “Genetically modified salmon is ready for dinner” appeared in the ‘Food’ section. This article may cause the reader to focus on the issues regarding the consumption of the GM salmon and its possible effects on the human body. The Huffington Post article “Genetically modified salmon hearing begins” appeared in the ‘Green’ section, which could cause the reader to focus on issues surrounding the environmental implications that may occur if the GM salmon was approved for commercial sale.

Categories:
The categories that appeared in the GM salmon articles included: the global food crisis, human health risks, environmental risks, labelling of GM foods, and GM salmon opening the door for other commercial GM animals. The issue of the global food crisis frequently appeared in the articles with AquaBounty arguing that the GM salmon will help feed more people as the salmon could be farmed closer to population centers. This topic was usually followed with the argument that the GM salmon would also help alleviate pressures on wild salmon population. The topic of human health risks was argued from both sides, with critics claiming that there are too many health risks that could possibly be associated with GM salmon and supporters claiming that no health risks exist because the GM salmon is no different from regular salmon. Environmental risks was another topic that was argued from both sides, with the supporters claiming that the environmental risks would be minimal because AquaBounty has put safeguards in place (sterile fish and land base farming), while those who oppose GM salmon state that the possibility exists for some of the fish to be able to reproduce and escape into the wild. The issue of labelling was a large topic in many of the articles that appeared after the hearings. AquaBounty claims that it is unnecessary to label the GM salmon due to the fact that they are the ‘same’ as regular salmon; whereas critics claim that the public has a right to know if they are purchasing GM animals. The final category of GM salmon opening the door for other GM animals was a topic that was discussed consistently through the articles, as it is seen as a positive step for AquaBounty and similar companies, while for critics it is seen as a threat to consumer rights. Through the diversity of these topics reporters were able to focus on a variety of issues that surround GM salmon. However, many of these categories required the reporters to rely on specific sources, such as scientists, environmentalists, and the company itself, which can cause biased information to appear in the article that needs to be countered with information from alternative sources. This is why in many of the articles regarding GM salmon journalists include quotes and information from all sides: critics, advocates and government.

Framing Analysis:

Some of the frames that were used during the reporting of GM salmon were:
The big bad company: Many of the stories were framed with the idea that AquaBounty, the company responsible for the creation of GM salmon and who was pressing for FDA approval, was the big bad company who had come to change the way we produce our meat. In many of the articles critics accuse AquaBounty of withholding proprietary information concerning the GM salmon. The company also takes the fall for trying to open the doors for approval of other GM animals, such as pigs and goats. This frame is an easy one to apply to the issue of GM animals, as a large portion of the public have already formed opinions on GMOs in the wake of companies such as Monsanto. In using this frame, reporters create an image of the large corporation who is only concerned with money, power, and having no regard for the environment or human health.
Eco-warriors: The inclusion of the environmental activist was an important frame for many of the articles. In the stories that used this frame, there was a sense that the small consumer and environmental groups were battling against the company and the government to assert the rights of the general public. This frame carries positive associations of a fighter, the search for truth, and looking out for one another.
GM foods are evil: Negative connotations have surrounded GM foods since they were first discussed. The unnaturalness of GM foods in some cases is presented as evil and that they do more harm than good. This frame is used in the articles in which the critics of GM salmon are a main focus, as it pushes the idea that these altered animals are not fit for human consumption.
Government/ FDA decision making: Many of these stories were framed with the idea that both the American and Canadian Governments were inadequately addressing the issues and concerns of the critics and general public concerning GM salmon. Before the hearings had begun and without all of the information and evidence the FDA made the statement that ‘GM salmon are safe to eat’, which indicates that the FDA was trying to assure Americans that it was unnecessary to be concerned about eating GM salmon. However, the statement may have done the exact opposite, causing more people to question how the FDA could make such a statement without the proper information. In using this frame reporters present the idea that the government is on the side of the company and that it is an uphill battle for those concerned with the approval of GM animals.

Spokesperson Analysis:
In many of the articles covering GM salmon, quotes were used to argue both sides of the issue, critics and supporters of the approval. In the analysis of the articles it was found that critics of the approval were quoted most often and that there was a larger pool of spokespeople discussing the possible negative impacts the GM salmon may introduce. The critic’s quotes were taken from an array of nonprofit organizations, each of which have varying missions but take the same position when discussing GM animals. Wenonah Hauter, the Executive Director of Food and Water Watch, was quoted in a number of articles in which she focused on consumer rights and the food supply. Most of the quotes from GM salmon critics focused on the uncertainty that surrounds GM salmon in terms of human health, environmental risks, as well as the lack of data. The critics have also come up with the catchy name ‘Frankenfish’ to refer to GM salmon, which has become a favourite reference to GM salmon for journalists.
Ron Stotish, the Chief Executive Officer at AquaBounty was quoted in almost all of the articles. Stotish’s quotes have a very convincing tone, but in the end many of the comments come off as unbelievable, for example: “This fish is identical to the traditional food”. He consistently used the terms ‘conventional’ and ‘traditional’, to refer to regular Atlantic salmon, which creates the divide between GM salmon and regular salmon, which AquaBounty was trying so hard to eliminate.
The quotes from both critics and the advocates of GM salmon contained charged language that was sure to grab the attention of the readers and made it easy for the journalists to set the tone for the article. Quotes from the critics often contained negative fearful language such as: dangerous, uncertain, unpredictable, irreversible consequences, outrageous, slippery slope and flimsy science. Whereas the quotes from the advocates contained positive, enthusiastic language such as: sky’s the limit, solution, identical, reducing environmental footprint and mitigating the impending global food shortage.
The FDA’s statement of GM salmon being “as safe to eat as food as other Atlantic salmon” was one of the most frequently referred to statements throughout the articles. This statement influenced headlines: “Engineered-in-Canada salmon declared fit for the dinner plate” (The Globe and Mail) and was used alongside many supporting arguments of the GM salmon advocates. The FDA, being the final decision maker on GM salmon made this untimely comment that was used by journalists as a way of showing the FDA supporting the GM salmon a head of the legal hearings.
Members of the public and academics were quoted least often. The limited inclusion of academic quotations was odd, since some of the experimental GM animals are products of university research, for example the ‘Enviropig’ at the University of Guelph. The minimal inclusion of quotations from the general public on the other hand seemed appropriate, as these news articles were some of the first bits of information disseminated to the public and therefore it would have been ill advised to include uninformed quotations from the public in an informative article.

Conclusion and Recommendations:
The GM salmon media analysis shows that story coverage increased at the time of heightened controversy, which was in response to the two day hearing that took place on September 19th and 20th 2010. This suggests that the majority of journalists assumed the story to be of low interest until the salmon were very close to the public’s dinner plate. It also indicates that many journalists write stories that they view as newsworthy, and not as a way of informing the public. If stories regarding the GM salmon had been written earlier, perhaps there would have been the same level of public outcry and the issue may have seen a different outcome.
The analysis also suggests that many of the journalists relied heavily on key informants and that they were quite selective with the quotations that they included in the articles. The bulk of the quotations came from AquaBounty’s Ron Stotish and to counter these ideas, quotes from environmental groups were included. It would have been interesting had the journalists included some neutral information from scientists regarding the possible positive or negative outcomes of the GM salmon. It is hard for the public to accept information from an article that offers two very conflicting ideas without any neutral ground.

References
AquaBounty Technologies. (2011). AquaAdvantage Fish. Retrieved from http://www.aquabounty.com/products/products-295.aspx
Bellus, J. (2010, October 25). Green eggs and ham: Are genetically modified animals the solution to the environmental problem of a growing market for meat? Maclean’s, 123(41), 72.
Carollo, K. (2010, September 20). Surprise: FDA panel unable to reach conclusion on genetically modified salmon. ABC News. Retrieved from http://abcnews.go.com/Health /WellnessNews/fda-unable-reach-conclusion-genetically-modified-salmon/story?id=11682586
CBC News. (2010, September 21). Labels for GM salmon debated in U.S. CBC News. Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/canada/prince-edward-island/story/2010/09/21/con-salmon-hearing.html
CBC News. (2010, November 22). GM salmon analysis a secret, groups complain. CBC News. Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/canada/prince-edward-island/story/2010/11/22/pei-aquabounty-environment-assessment-584.html
Connor, S. (2010, September 22). Coming to the human food chain: GM salmon that grows and grows; A landmark in genetic modification is provoking fierce reactions. The Independent. Retrieved from https://www.lexisnexis.com/hottopics/lnacademic/
CTV News Staff. (2010, September 16). P.E.I. groups oppose genetically modified salmon. CTV News. Retrieved from http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Canada/20100916/genetically-modified-salmon-100916/
Doward, J. (2010, September 26). The food debate: Will this GM salmon herald a revolution that changes what we eat forever? Observer. Retrieved from https://www.lexisnexis.com /hottopics/lnacademic/
Martineau, M. (2001). Food Fight. Sciences, 41(2), 24-29.
Hindo, B. & Schneyer, J. (2007, December 17). Monsanto winning the ground war. Business week, 4063, 34-38.
Huffington Post. (2010, September 20). Genetically modified salmon hearings begin. Huffington Post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/20/gm-salmon-fda-hears-argum_n_731224.html
International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA). (2009). Global Status of Commercialized Biotech/GM Crops: 2009. Retrieved from http://www.isaaa.org/ resources/publications/briefs/41/pptslides/default.asp
Jordan, R. (2010, September 21). US debates genetically modified salmon. Al Jazeera. Retrieved from http://english.aljazeera.net/video/americas/2010/09/2010921251677603.html
Kopun, F. (2010, September 8). Genetically modified salmon is ready for dinner. Toronto Star. Retrieved from http://www.thestar.com/living/food/article/857935--genetically-modified-salmon-is-ready-for-dinner
Leeder, J. (2010, September 4). Engineered-in-Canada salmon declared fit for the dinner plate. Globe and Mail. Retrieved from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/ engineered-in-canada-salmon-declared-fit-for-the-dinner-plate/article1696212/
MacNeil/Lehrer. (Producer). (2010, September 20). How safe would genetically modified salmon be to eat? (PBS News Hour). Arlington, VA: PBS.
Scott-Thomas, C. (2010, September 21). No recommendation on GM salmon after hearings. Food Quality News. Retrieved from http://www.foodqualitynews.com/Public-Concerns/No-recommendation-on-GM-salmon-after-hearings
The Ecologist. (2010, September 22). US delays approval for fast-growing GM salmon. The Ecologist. Retrieved from http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_round_ up/605861/us_delays_approval_for_fastgrowing_gm_salmon.html
World Health Organization. (2011). Food Safety: 20 questions on genetically modified foods. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/foodsafety/publications/biotech/20questions/en/

How Legal Pluralism has Affected the Torres Strait Islanders and their Offshore Rights as Indigenous Peoples.

2011-07-26T19:34:00.000-07:00

I wrote this paper for my Indigenous Nations and Marine/Coastal Resource Management class last semester but due to a busy summer I have not had time for any new posts! Sorry!

How Legal Pluralism has Affected the Torres Strait Islanders and their Offshore Rights as Indigenous Peoples.

Abstract

The current plurality of existing legal systems in Australia has made it difficult for Torres Strait Islanders to assert their rights in the control and management of their traditional ocean territories. This report examines how traditional law, state law and international law have developed the existing legislation in Australia with regards to Torres Strait Islander rights to their fisheries and marine space. These pieces of legislation play an important role in how the Torres Strait Islanders interact with their marine space as the legislation represents a combination of pre-European contact traditional law, evolving post-contact state law, as well as the ever evolving body of international human rights doctrine. Through the examination of these interconnected forms of law, legal pluralism was found to have played an integral part in hindering the advancement of Torres Strait Islanders ownership and control over their traditional ocean territory. However, this report also looks at how legal pluralism could provide positive outcomes to the sea claim issues through equal partnership between traditional law and state law.

Keywords: Torres Strait Islanders, Legal pluralism, Territory, Fisheries

1.0 Introduction

On February 7th, 1778 the British claimed sovereignty and ownership over Australia, a land on which as many as half a million Aborigines had lived for more than forty thousand years (Australian Government, 2008a). At the time of colonization Aborigines lived in hundreds of tribal groupings across the country with complex social systems (Cunneen & Libesman, 1995). However, when Europeans arrived they believed that the Aborigines were nomads, living without systems of law, social organization, or property rights, which the British used as their right to claim the continent under Terra Nullius – land belonging to no one (Australian Government, 2008a). According to Cunneen and Libesman (1995), “Terra nullius had two meanings: first, that a country was without a sovereign recognized by European authorities; and secondly, that the people inhabiting the land did not actually own the land – that is, there was no system of tenure”(p.9). Through the application of Terra Nullius the indigenous peoples of Australia were denied the fact that they were the original owners of the land and were formally considered to be subject to British law (Hocking & Hocking, 1999; Cunneen & Libesman, 1995). The application of British common law to the indigenous peoples of Australia presented many problems, especially in terms of property rights. As stated by Shug (1996), for indigenous peoples “State boundaries represent foreign impositions that have disrupted long-standing social relations among communities and obstructed access to traditional territories and economically important natural resources” (p. 209). For the Torres Strait Islanders, the main focus group of this paper, these State imposed boundaries created greater confusion and uncertainty due to the plurality of state authorities and levels of government involved with the coastal region (Mulrennan & Scott, 2000).
The Torres Strait Islands are located in the Torres Strait, which lies between the north-eastern tip of the state of Queensland, Australia and the southern Papua New Guinea coast. The area is productive in marine resources and fisheries, upon which the Torres Strait Islanders have depended for centuries for subsistence and economic prosperity. In the Torres Strait the indigenous concept of the sea as part of a defined, inherited country for which they have inalienable rights and responsibilities to use and manage was overridden by the colonizers concept of the sea as an open common to be managed by governments (Smyth, 1997). This British common law concept of the sea forced the Torres Strait Islanders to become recipients of externally prescribed policies, under which their values, perceptions and aspirations were seldom taken into consideration by colonial or post-colonial governments (Schug, 1996). The plurality of legal systems that were imposed upon the Torres Strait Islanders has made it difficult for the population to continue their traditional ways of life where “land and sea space were integrated within systems of customary tenure, local knowledge, and resource use and management” (Mulrennan & Scott, 2000, p.702). This paper will look at how legal pluralism in Australia has effected the Torres Strait Islanders in their fight for native title offshore by assessing how folk law and how it functioned before colonization; state law and the construction of native title and rights; and International law regarding rights issues, and how they have helped or hindered the Torres Strait communities.

2.0 Torres Strait Islander Traditional Law

The Torres Strait Islands (Fig. 1) were formed around 9000 years ago, following the post glacial sea-level rise, which flooded the land bridge between Australia and Papua New Guinea (Harris, Butler & Coles, 2008). The Strait is comprised of numerous continental and volcanic islands, coral cays, mangroves, complex coral reef systems as well as extensive seagrass beds (Harris et al, 2008). A variety of fish, mollusks, crustaceans, dugons and turtles exist within the inter-tidal and reef zones as well as seagrass meadows of the Strait (Schug, 1996). There are 247 islands in the Torres Strait, eighteen of which are inhabited and it is believed that the “Indigenous peoples of Torres Strait have occupied the islands for at least several thousand years” (Smyth, 1997, p.6). These eighteen inhabited islands are divided into four distinct regional groups: small volcanic eastern islands, the low-lying coral cays in the centre of the Strait, the small alluvial northern islands near the Papuan coast and the larger continental islands off the tip of Cape York Peninsula (Harris et al, 2008; Smyth, 1997).

Figure 1. Map of the Torres Strait Islands, including the Seabed Jurisdiction line, Fisheries Jurisdiction Line and the Torres Strait Protected Zone. (Gilpin,C., Simpson, G., Vincent, S., O’Brien, T., Knight, T., Globan, M., Coulter, C., & Konstantinos, A., 2008)

Customary or traditional law in Australia has existed for centuries and is generally passed on through stories, songs and dance, with certain rituals maintaining the clan’s connection with the land (State of New South Whales, 2010). Traditional Aboriginal law encompasses standards for social behavior, sacred matters and binding rules (Law Reform Commission of Western Australia, 2005). Under traditional law a distinction is made between public and private wrongs, as stated by the Law Reform Commission of Western Australia (2005):

Public wrongs include breaches of sacred law, incest, sacrilege or murder by magic; while private wrongs include homicide, wounding and adultery. The essential difference lies in the manner by which the dispute is resolved. For public wrongs, Elders are actively involved; whereas for private wrongs, the person who has been harmed (and their relevant kin) generally determines the appropriate response. (p. 84)

It has been stated that order under traditional law was maintained through self-regulation and consensus between family heads (Law Reform Commission of Western Australia, 2005). Traditional dispute resolution could involve a council calling public meetings to deal with grievances or the head of the family negotiating the outcome and deciding who would inflict the punishment (Law Reform Commission of Western Australia, 2005). There was and continues to be great diversity between indigenous Torres Strait Island groups in regards to the social, economic, religious and political aspects. As stated by Schug (1996), “[p]rior to European contact, the inhabitants of the region were organized in small communities which were politically and socially autonomous although alliances may have been forged based primarily on intermarriage, raiding and the reciprocal exchange of food and other resources” (p. 211). The existence of socially autonomous groups presents difficulties for Australian jurisprudence and legislation when attempting to tie state law with traditional law, which “can often encourage atomistic claims by lineages, clans and island communities, since these are or were pertinent corporate identities in the customary system” (Mulrennan & Scott, 2000). This complex aspect of legal pluralism in Australia will be discussed further in section 3.0, Australian state law as it applies to Torres Strait Islanders.
For centuries, before the British claimed Australia under Terra Nullius, the indigenous populations of the Torres Strait Islands developed elaborate social and economic arrangements regarding their ‘country’, which were guided by traditional law. According to Nettheim, Meyers and Craig (2002), “‘Country’ is a term often used when referring to a physical or metaphysical place of origin for members of an Indigenous clan, kin-based group or looser community. It includes the values, places, resources, stories, myths and cultural obligations associated with a geographical area, including land and sea” (p. 377). All Torres Strait Islanders made extensive use of the sea; with marine resources playing an important role culturally as well as in the domestic economy and as stated by Mulrennan and Scott (2000), “reefs, lagoons and seas are fundamental to [Torres Strait Islanders] livelihood, economic prospects and identity” (p. 688). Under customary law, the adjoining estuaries, beaches, coastal waters and ocean were inseparable from clan land estates, and “radiating out from each island were large areas of ocean regarded as belonging to particular groups within each island” (Smyth, 1997, p.7). For the coastal populations of the Torres Strait Islands this was an important aspect of island life as it allowed for clan space to fish and travel and as stated by Smyth (1997), “in pre-colonial times, neighboring clans respected each other’s exclusive rights to use and manage marine resources, and to negotiate access to those resources by others” (p. 7). It is important to note that this aspect of traditional law functioned in the complete opposite manner compared to how state law interacts with traditional law in current practice.

2.1 Traditional Fisheries Management in the Torres Strait

Traditionally there were two types of marine resource management used in the Torres Strait: selective exploitation and customary marine tenure (CMT)(Mulrennan & Scott, 2000). Selective exploitation is regulated by local cultural and social controls. CMT on the other hand is a system of “community ownership of sea and reef space…which established territorial rights over resources and served to control access and exploitation by others” (Mulrennan & Scott, 2000, p.688). There are various recognized functions of the CMT system: control invasion of local marine space, regulate use by groups, or act to control exploitation of specific resources and the use of particular fishing gears (Mees & Anderson, 1999). Through the use of CMT communities were able to maintain livelihood security and ensure conservation utilization of resources (Mees & Anderson, 1999). With colonization and the commercialization of the Torres Strait fisheries, which has been occurring for the past centuries, the Islanders have faced difficulties trying to continue their application of traditional fisheries management as well as developing their economies.

2.2 European contact with the Torres Strait Islanders and the Fishery

During the era of European contact and settlement the indigenous populations of Australia suffered greatly from death, illness, displacement and dispossession, which disrupted traditional lifestyles and practices (Australian Government, 2008b). It is believed that between 1788 and 1900, the combination of disease, loss of land and direct violence reduced the Aboriginal population by 90 percent (Total Human Resources, n.d.). Europeans did not begin to explore the Torres Strait until the mid-19th century and these surveying voyages represented the beginning of great social and economic change for the inhabitants of the Strait (Lawrence & Lawrence, 2004). Contact between the Torres Strait Islanders and the Europeans became more common during the 1860’s due to the commercialization of the pearl and bêche-de-mer fisheries of the Strait (Mulrennan, 2001). This commercialization led the Islanders to witness first-hand, the exhaustibility of their marine resources, with the depletion of the pearl shell and trochus shell; however, the over-exploitation and poor management policies were controlled by the Europeans, with the Islanders working as seamen and divers (Mulrennan, 2001). Due to the region’s economic productivity the Queensland government began to seek control over the Torres Strait and the islands under its jurisdiction. In 1879, “[e]fforts towards annexation of all Torres Strait islands by Queensland were eventually achieved with the passing of the Queensland Coast Islands Act, which recognized Queensland control over the eastern and northern islands (Lawrence & Lawrence, 2004, p. 23). This act was one of the first of many that would affect the Torres Strait Islanders and their traditional way of life, placing them under direct rule of the Crown and Queensland. As stated in the long title of the act it was meant “to Provide that Certain Islands in Torres Strait and Lying Between the Continent of Australia and the Island of New Guinea shall become Part of the Colony of Queensland and Subject to the Laws in Force therein” (Queensland Act No. 1, 1879). After the Queensland Coast Islands Act was passed statutes were enacted to prevent foreigners from appropriating land belonging to local inhabitants, however, the government declared the area from high-water mark seaward to a distance of three miles as Crown lands, which impeded upon the indigenous communities claims of ownership of the sea (Schug, 1996). Schug comments, that “[n]either the British nor Australian colonial administrations formally recognized clan or village claims to ownership of reefs and inshore waters.” (1996, p.214).

3.0 Australian State Law and its application to Torres Strait Islanders

During the nineteenth century the indigenous populations of Australia were in a conflicting position in regards to the law, as they had their own system of law but were also held subject to the newly introduced British law (Cunneen & Libesman, 1995), which resulted in “a hodgepodge of coexisting legal institutions and norms operating side by side”(Tamanaha, 2008, p.382). The application of British law on the Aboriginal peoples of Australia was done through violence or the threat of violence; they did not have the same or equal legal status as non-aboriginals and were subject to various special laws that affected their treatment (Cunneen & Libesman, 1995). In the past Australian State law has included or purposely excluded Aboriginal and Torres Strait peoples, which mainly produced negative effects on the indigenous populations. Currently however, state law is taking steps to create more positive outcomes in legislation through amendments, recognition of native title and the development of new legislation with the intention of improving the situation for the indigenous populations.

3.1 1967 Referendum

In 1967 a national referendum was held in Australia. The referendum was introduced to remove two references in the Australian Constitution, which discriminated against Aboriginal and Torres Straight peoples. The two clauses under discussion were:
51. The Parliament shall, subject to this Constitution, have power to make laws for the peace, order, and good government of the Commonwealth with respect to:-
...(xxvi) The people of any race, other than the aboriginal people in any State, for whom it is necessary to make special laws.
127. In reckoning the numbers of the people of the Commonwealth, or of a State or other part of the Commonwealth, aboriginal natives should not be counted.

There was very little opposition to the proposal of the removal of the clauses, seeing the highest YES vote ever recorded in a federal referendum, with 90.77 percent voting in favor of change (Hughes, 2007). The referendum also required that Aboriginal peoples be counted in the national census. Prior to this referendum, legislation concerning Aboriginal peoples was mainly a state rather than Commonwealth matter. The referendum brought about change, with the Commonwealth assuming the responsibility of making laws relating to Aboriginal peoples.

3.2 Mabo and the Establishment of Native Title

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have fought for the recognition of their land rights since European settlement began. In 1982 it was Eddie Mabo and his supporters who decided to abandon past methods of resistance and instead by-passed state and federal governments and took their case directly to the High Court of Australia (Northern Land Council [NLC], 2003). The Mabo case was concerning the Murray Islanders right to the use and enjoyment of their traditional lands and surrounding islands, seas, seabeds and reefs, which the Meriam people had used and occupied before and since the annexation by the Australian government (NLC, 2003). Up until the Mabo decision the “legal system in Australia refused to accord the status of property rights to indigenous land tenures” (Fingleton, 1999, p.19). In 1992, the High Court of Australia delivered its landmark decision regarding Mabo v Queensland [No. 2] and rejected the “terra nullius” doctrine that had existed since 1788, which changed Australia’s land laws forever. The High Court held that “the Torres Strait Islanders of Mer, Dauar and Waier owned their islands and that their ownership survived colonization” (Cunneen & Libesman, 1995, p. 109). The Court also held that “the common law of Australia recognizes a form of native title, to be determined in accordance with Indigenous traditional law and custom” (Australian Government, 2008c). Common law native title was described by Justices Deane and Gaudron as “a title derived from and conforming to traditional custom but recognized and protected by common law” (Strelein, 2009, p. 10). Once the judgment was passed the court had to assess whether the two parallel systems of land tenure could coexist. These existing systems were the Indigenous system, which had operated for many thousands of years; and the colonial system, with the present freehold and leasehold title regimes (Robinson & Mercer, 2000). In this respect, it was noted by Judge Brennan that “preexisting title had been recognized in conquered and ceded countries where the English system of land law had been instituted…[and] that native title could also be recognized in a settled colony once the distinction between land ownership and political sovereignty was acknowledged” (Cunneen & Libesman, 1995. p. 113). An important aspect to note in regards to native title is the Crown’s right of extinguishment. As stated by Strelein (2008):

The power of the Crown to extinguish is central to native title, making it vulnerable to acts of the new sovereign. This power is inconsistent with Indigenous peoples’ relationship to land. Native title rights and interests, which emerge from the law and customs of Indigenous peoples, may lose recognition under the common law despite continuing to exist, and to be exercised, under Aboriginal law. (n.p.)

It is important to note that the Mabo High Court decision did not take into account the Meriam sea claims. As stated by Mulrennan and Scott (2000), “‘Mabo’ was a landmark decision, but it brought no sea-change; recognition of Meriam native title is limited to land above the high water mark” (p. 687). The purposeful neglect of the sea claim had a negative effect on the Torres Strait Islanders as the seabed, reef and ocean are considered to be part of the Islanders territory and are inseparable from land-space.

3.3 Native Title Act, 1993

The Federal Government of Australia responded to the High Court’s decision of Mabo by enacting the Native Title Act (NTA). In the preamble of the NTA it is stated that one of its aims is to “rectify the consequences of past injustices…for securing the adequate advancement and protection of Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islanders”. This Act “provided legal and administrative mechanisms for the recognition and protection of native title wherever it could be demonstrated to still exist in Australia in the 1990s” (Robinson & Mercer, 2000, p. 1). For an Aboriginal claimant to obtain native title they must first prove that traditional association with the land or sea that they are claiming has been maintained and must also prove that no conflicting property claims extinguish their title (Strelein, 2009). The four main objects of the NTA were:

(a) To provide for the recognition and protection of native title; and
(b) To establish ways in which future dealing affecting native title may proceed and to set standards for those dealings; and
(c) To establish a mechanism for determining claims to native title; and
(d) To provide for, or permit, the validation of past acts invalidated because of the existence of native title (Strelein, 2009, p.4)

Under the Act, there is no aboriginal right or veto over development projects within native title areas, Aboriginal peoples also do not have the right to control or participate in environmental management (Mulrennan & Scott, 2000).
In terms of Native title in regards to sea claims, the act “recognizes that native title may exist in respect of waters, but reinforces a strong division between land and sea” (Mulrennan & Scott, 2000, p. 692). Under section 6 of the act, ‘Application to external Territories, coastal sea and other waters’, it is stated that: “This Act extends to each external Territory, to the coastal sea of Australia and of each external Territory, and to any waters over which Australia asserts sovereign rights under the Seas and Submerged Lands Act 1973”. Under the definitions section of the act water is defined as:

(a) sea, a river, a lake, a tidal inlet, a bay, an estuary, a harbour or subterranean waters; or
(b) the bed or subsoil under, or airspace over, any waters (including waters mentioned in paragraph (a)); or
(c) the shore, or subsoil under or airspace over the shore, between high water and low water.

The Act does not treat land and sea claims differently, it does however protect existing Crown ownership of natural resources as well as the control and regulation of water flow, and most importantly the existing public access to and enjoyment of offshore waters (UN, 2010). As stated by Mulrennan and Scott (2000), the Act “appeared to limit sea rights to elements of traditional usage, and not to extend rights analogous to full ownership as was possible in regards to land”. This lies in direct contradiction of Torres Strait Islander traditional law, where the land and sea were considered one in regards to ownership. Under the Act the Australian government retains the power to override native title that may interfere with public access or industry. The UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues claims that “[o]verwhelmingly, the native title jurisprudence reveals a trend of recognizing indigenous fishing rights offshore as non-exclusive, non-commercial interests’ subject also to the common law public right to fish and the international right of innocent passage” (p. 10).
In 1998 the Native Title Amendment Act was passed. This Act “represented a watering-down of some of the significant gains made by Aborigines in the previous four years” (Robinson & Mercer, 2000). The 88 amendments that were made to the act, which added over 300 pages to the original act, were done so without consultation or consent from the indigenous populations of Australia, to whom the Act applies (Burke, 1998; Robinson & Mercer, 2000). As stated by Robinson and Mercer (2000), the “amendments involved a major shift in the power balance, carefully worked out in the 1993 Act, away from Aboriginal interests and towards those of resource developers and the State and Territory governments” (p. 354). On March 18, 1999 the United Nations committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) charged the Native Title Amendment Act of discriminating against indigenous title holders by “validating past acts, extinguishing native title, upgrading primary production and restricting the right to negotiate” (Triggs, 1999, n.p.). The CERD called on Australia to address the concerns stated by the committee and to consult with the indigenous populations in order to come to an acceptable solution for all parties involved (Triggs, 1999). The Australian Government rejected the decision from CERD; however, it is encouraging to note that the Australian Government passed a second Native Title Amendment Act in 2009, which “reforms to improve operation and outcomes in the native title system” (Australian Government, 2009).

3.3.1 Croker Island Seas Claim

“The history of native title and its steady erosion from a mechanism for recognizing aboriginal ownership to a mechanism for further dispossession” is visible in jurisprudence that has taken place in regards to sea claims (Wilson, 2009, p.268). The Croker Island Seas Claim was the first native title claim to the seas to reach the High Court under the Native Title Act. The case was brought to the Court by traditional owners of Croker Island, who sought exclusive possession, and “the claim did not separate out “ceremonial”, “economic” or “social” values inherent in the sea, but presented a “holistic argument for long-standing and distinctive native title rights” (Robinson & Mercer, 2000). The case was decided in 1998 and ruled that native title exists over the entire area of the sea and sea-bed that was claimed, which totaled approximately 2,000 square kilometers (NLC, 2003). Although it was considered a landmark case, being the first time that Australian Courts recognized native title existing over the sea, the decision was considered limited, as it gave little to no power to the traditional owners in regards to the development of their sea country (NLC, 2003). In the decision native title was defined as ‘non-exclusive’ and ‘non-commercial’(NLC, 2003), which ultimately extinguishes offshore native title rights.

3.4 Torres Strait Treaty, 1985

The 1985 Torres Strait Treaty is an agreement between Australia and Papua New Guinea regarding sovereignty and maritime boundaries and also recognizes indigenous offshore rights to fish. There were two important boundaries demarcated under the Treaty: the Seabed Jurisdiction Line and the Fisheries Jurisdiction Line. The Seabed Jurisdiction Line ensures that Australia has rights to all things on or below the seabed south of the line and Papua New Guinea has the same rights north of the line (Schug, 1996). The Fisheries Jurisdiction Line ensures that Australia has rights over swimming fish south of the line and Papua New Guinea has the same rights north of the line (Australian Government, n.d.). According to Smyth (1997), “the treaty requires that the resources and environments of Torres Strait be managed in such a way as to protect the lifestyles of the traditional inhabitants on both sides of the border” (p.12). Under the Treaty the Torres Strait Protected Zone (TSPZ), which includes most of the islands and reefs in the region, was established to provide a space where Torres Strait Islanders and the coastal people of Papua New Guinea could continue their traditional way of life and livelihoods. Under the Treaty ‘traditional activities’ are interpreted liberally considering the variety of groups and cultures existing within the Protected Zone; however, the Treaty specifically eliminates any possibility of commercial activities (Schug, 1996). As stated by Mulrennan and Scott (2000),

The result [of the Torres Strait Treaty] is the creation of a highly complex regime, which attempts to accommodate, or at least not to further prejudice, unresolved Islander rights and claims, while satisfying a wide range of competing interests in traditional fisheries, commercial fisheries, recreational fisheries, international shipping, etc. through abstract political boundaries. (p. 689)

Under the Treaty the Indigenous peoples authority and ownership within their customary marine estates are not acknowledged, and although the Treaty does provide for periodic consultation, it does not provide for any formal involvement of the indigenous populations at the decision making level in the control or management of the marine environment and resources (Mulrennan & Scott, 2000; Schug, 1996). The Torres Strait Treaty falls under the jurisdiction of the Australian Commonwealth and the Papua New Guinea government placing Islander input at the consultative or advisory level and it has been stated that the indigenous inhabitants “have a subordinate if not marginal position within the Treaty regime” (Mfodwo & Tsamenyi, 1993, n.p.).

4.0 International Law

In recent decades there has been strong development in international law regarding indigenous peoples. According to Smith (2008), treaties between states and indigenous peoples are products of unequal relationships, with negotiations taking place during unfair circumstances which causes “indigenous nations [requiring] another source of rights, freedoms, and protections beyond the states that they exist within as internal colonies. They need rights granted by human rights treaties that allow for the maintenance of cultural integrity” (p. 1821). For indigenous populations who live along the coast, such as the Torres Strait Islanders, ocean use has been central to their livelihood and is a major component of their culture (UN, 2010). Australia has signed several conventions and other legally binding international agreements, which directly relate to the recognition of Indigenous rights and interests in the management of Australia’s oceans (Smyth, 1997). Some of the major developments in human rights doctrine which will be discussed in this section are: United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; International Labour Organization Convention No. 169; and Agenda 21.

4.1 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was adopted on September 13, 2007, by a majority of 143 States in favour, 4 against and 11 abstentions (Smith, 2008). The purpose of the Declaration is to provide an international standard through which State behavior towards indigenous peoples can be judged, as well as to integrate “the voice of indigenous peoples into the United Nations body and its human rights regime” (Smith, 2008, p. 1821). Some of the central principles of the Declaration include: non-discrimination and fundamental rights, self determination, cultural integrity, rights to lands, territories and natural resources, and other rights relating to socio-economic welfare (Davis, 2007). The Declaration also includes a number of articles that deal specifically with the rights of indigenous peoples in regards to natural resources. According to article 8(2b), “States shall provide effective mechanisms for prevention of and redress for any action which has the aim or effect of dispossessing them of their lands, territories or resources”. Article 20(1) states that “Indigenous peoples have the right to maintain and develop their political, economic and social systems or institutions, to be secure in the enjoyment of their own means of subsistence and development, and to engage freely in all their traditional and other economic activities”. And finally article 26(2) states that “Indigenous peoples have the right to own, use develop and control the lands, territories and resources that they possess by reason used or acquired”, which implies that Torres Strait Islanders have the right to control and manage their traditional marine space.
It is important to note that this is a declaration not a treaty, and therefore does not hold the weight or binding force of a treaty. It does however; present a standard for State interaction and recognition of the indigenous populations residing within that state and could be used by the Torres Strait Islanders in their attempts to regain access and control of their traditional marine resources and ocean territory.

4.2 International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries (No. 169).

The International Labour Organization Convention No. 169 “recognizes the aspirations of [indigenous peoples] to exercise control over their own institutions, ways of life and economic development and to maintain and develop their identities, languages and religions, within the framework of the States in which they live” (ILO, 1989, n.p.). The Convention is strongly based on the ideas of consultation and participation and includes several relevant provisions regarding indigenous rights to sea fisheries. Article 13 articulates that under article 15 and 16 the term lands refers to the total environment of the areas “which the peoples concerned occupy or otherwise use”, which infers the inclusion of offshore sea areas. This is an important aspect to note, as article 15(1) states, “the rights of the peoples concerned to the natural resources pertaining to their lands shall be specially safeguarded. These rights include the right of these peoples to participate in the use, management and conservation of these resources”. Applying article 15 in the battles over their coastal fisheries, the Torres Strait Islanders could become successful participants in the management decisions.

4.3 Agenda 21

Agenda 21 was adopted by the Plenary Session at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in June 1992. Chapter 26 of the Agenda focuses on recognizing and strengthening the role of indigenous people and their communities. The agenda includes the provision that the role of indigenous peoples and their communities should be recognized in the national and international efforts to implement environmentally sound and sustainable development (Smyth, 1997). Chapter 17 of the agenda refers to the protection of the oceans and sections 17.6, 17.75, and 17.80 state that coastal States should consult with indigenous peoples during the process of developing ocean management plans; that traditional knowledge should be taken into account when developing management programs; and that the protection of indigenous peoples access to traditional marine food needs to be taken into account. Many sections of the agenda, such as those mentioned above, could be used to strengthen the Torres Strait Islanders cases in the recognition of their right of ownership and management of their ocean territory.

5.0 Legal Pluralism

This paper has attempted to present the various legal orders that are imposed upon the Torres Strait Islanders – customary laws, state laws and international laws- and how these laws interact in regards to the ownership of the sea. The Torres Strait Islanders, in their battle for sea claims, have “participated in creating legal pluralism by adopting state regulations to gain access to [the] resources and, not uncommonly, by invoking customary law to justify their right to do so” (Prill-Brett, 1994, p.688). Legal pluralism has been defined by Prill-Brett (1994), as “the existence of different bodies of law within the same sociopolitical space, which compete for the loyalty of a group of people subject to them” (p. 687). The jurisdictional redundancy that exists in the Torres Strait undermines the rights and authority of the indigenous residents and is problematic due to the fact that environmental processes, such as pollution and degradation, do not respect provincial, national or international boundaries (Mulrennan & Scott, 2000). As stated by the UN (2010), in Australia “jurisdiction over fisheries is now shared through a network of Commonwealth legislation and corresponding State and territory legislation” (p. 14). There have been various issues which have presented themselves in terms of State law, such as the Torres Strait Treaty, which have had a direct effect on Torres Strait Islanders and their relationship to the sea. The “inadequate involvement of Islanders in management decisions means that little has been achieved at the level of actual resource use” (Mulrennan & Scott, 2000). This inadequate involvement results in “conflict, non-compliance and obstruction [which] are the frequent results of the disconnection between those making resource management decisions and those most affected by these management decisions” (Wiber & Milley, 2007, p.4).
International law caters to the idea of legal pluralism by looking at customary law and elevating its status in legal discourse so that it gains equal standing as state law. To ensure equal partnership in the management of resources it is important for customary law, local knowledge, and indigenous tenure to not be held subordinate to Crown property conceptions or state management approaches (Mulrennan & Scott, 2000). However, creating an equal partnership in the management of a fishing resource can be problematic, especially if there has been a history of discrimination, as in the case of Australia, as “local users justify their principles on the basis of dependency on the resources and long-standing involvement in the management of such resource. State managers often justify their decisions by reference to a larger ‘public good’” (Wiber & Milley, p.5).
It has been stated that the “the legal recognition of indigenous groups has inescapably meant the subordination of indigenous legal systems, in the process of “recognizing” clans and other customary groups through outsider’s eyes” (Fingleton, 1998, p.7). However, it is important to note that it is not the intent of legal pluralism to assimilate indigenous cultures by imposing Western values but in many cases the imposition of one system onto another can have unexpected effects. It has been recognized, however, that “to improve the legal situation of the [indigenous populations] recognition by the state authorities both of cultural difference and of their customs and legal perceptions is required” (Svensson, 2005, p.74). As stated by Svensson (2005), “interlegality can function as an efficient means of resisting fragmentation and the powerlessness severely experienced by indigenous peoples” (p.76).

6.0 Conclusion

Legal pluralism exists in every social arena, from the lowest local level to the most expansive level (Tamanaha, 2008). These overlapping bodies of law may create conflict and complexity; however, as stated by Svensson (2005), “it is the continual flow of legal perceptions, the dynamic force of pluralistic arrangement, that reshape state law to better accommodate the cultural distinctiveness of indigenous peoples….without necessarily having to establish a legal system…in its own right” (p.74). To increase the chances of legal pluralism working to benefit everyone involved it is important that both parties are aware of some of the key features of a functioning multi-legal system: incorporation, recognition and respect.
For centuries Torres Strait Islanders have fought against the neglect and marginalization of their sea rights. The issue of legal pluralism in Australia in regards to indigenous peoples has played an important role in this marginalization. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait populations of Australia were not presented with treaty agreements under Terra Nullius but were instead “subjected to elaborate administrative and legislative regimes imposed by external governments” (Mulrennan & Scott, 2005, p. 685). As stated by Robinson and Mercer (2000), “what aboriginal people are seeking is a property rights’ regime which enables the sea and sea-bed to be shared with other users so long as access permission is requested, and so long as certain resource management safeguards relating to pollution, over-fishing and access to sacred sites, are respected.” (p.355). For the Islanders to become more involved in the management practices of the sea on which they have lived and used since time immemorial, respect between both parties is fundamental. As stated by Wiber and Milley (2007), “[w]ithout open and respectful dialogue between advocates of the government and the community there can be no effective and long-term resolution of the inconsistencies between the two approaches to management” (p.7). In this age of globalization Torres Strait Islanders and the Australian Government need to look to examples from other countries and to make use of international law to work together on equal ground to develop a positive outcome for the traditional fisheries and marine space in the contemporary legally pluralistic environment of Australia.

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United Nations (UN) Division for Sustainable Development. (2009). Agenda 21. Retrieved from http://www.un.org/esa/dsd/agenda21/res_agenda21_26.shtml

UN Economic and Social Council. (2010). Report on indigenous fishing rights in the seas with case studies from Australia and Norway. Retrieved from http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/documents/E.C.19.2010.2EN.pdf

Wiber, M & Milley, C. (2007). Seeking clarity, legitimacy and respect: The struggle to implement special rights. Journal of Legal Pluralism, 55, 1-9

Williams, A., Ballagh, A., Begg, G., Murchie, C. & Currey, L. (2008). Harvest patterns and effort dynamics of indigenous and non-indigenous commercial sectors of the eastern Torres Strait reef line fishery. Continental Shelf Research, 28, 2117-2128.

Wilson, S. (2009). Entitled as against none: How the wrongly decided Croker Island case perpetuates aboriginal dispossession. Retrieved from http://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/pacrimlp18&div=11&g_sent=1&collection=journals#

Published!

2011-04-01T07:10:00.000-07:00

I can now say that I am a published author :) My research paper on Subsidies and their Implications on Fisheries Management in St. Lucia was selected to be published in the Dalhousie Journal of Interdisciplinary Management.
Follow the link below to read the article:
http://ocs.library.dal.ca/ojs/index.php/djim/article/view/2011vol7Lay

Coastal Vulnerability Assessment

2011-03-07T13:09:00.000-08:00

Coastal zones are extremely vulnerable to the effects of global climate change and accelerated sea-level rise. Coastal areas that are exposed to human impacts and natural changes are at increased risk of shoreline retreat and land loss, which can lead to increased hazard potential for coastal populations, infrastructure, and investment (Klein & Nicholls, 1998). Over the past 100 years, global sea-level has risen by 1.0-2.5 mm yr-1 (Klein & Nicholls, 1999) and it has been estimated that by 2100 there will be an increase in sea-level of between 15 and 95 centimetres (USGS, 2000), with a best estimate of 50cm (IPCC, 2005). Predicting future impacts to coastal zones is a difficult task, as there are a number of variables that influence coastal evolution, such as socio-economic impacts and natural changes. Over the past twenty years there has been an increased effort in developing guidelines and methodologies to assess coastal vulnerability (Klein & Nicholls, 1999). In 1992, the former Coastal Zone Management Subgroup of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published its Common Methodology for Assessing the Vulnerability of Coastal Areas to Sea-Level Rise (IPCC CZMS, 1992). In 1994 the IPCC developed Technical Guidelines for Assessing Climate Change Impacts and Adaptations (Carter et al., 1994) and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) used the IPCC Technical Guidelines to develop the Handbook on Methods for Climate Change Impact Assessment and Adaptation Strategies (Klein et al., 1998), which contains an entire chapter on coastal zones. A fourth methodology, Coastal Vulnerability Index (CVI) was developed by Gornitz et al. (1994) and was later modified by Hammar-Klose & Thieler (2001). Each of these publications provide generic frameworks, which were designed to assess the potential consequences of climate change in any natural or socio-economic system and to identify options to respond to the effects (Klein & Nicholls, 1999). This report will focus on the IPCC Technical Guidelines, CVI, and the IPCC Common Methodology, which has been the most widely used methodology to assess coastal vulnerability, and their application to the assessment of Nova Scotia’s coastal zones, specifically the issue of sea-level rise and its effects on coastal development.

According to Klein and Nicholls (1999) “vulnerability of coastal zones has been defined as the degree of incapability to cope with the consequences of climate change and accelerated sea-level rise” (p. 183). Based on this definition coastal vulnerability assessments must include the assessment of anticipated impacts, as well as the assessment of available adaptation options (Klein & Nicholls, 1999). Vulnerability assessment processes can be structured into three levels of increasingly complex assessment: screening assessment (SA); vulnerability assessment (VA); and planning assessment (PA) (CPACC, 1999). SA is a screening process, which uses existing data and the judgement of local experts and focuses on susceptibility (CPACC, 1999 and Klein & Nicholls, 1999). VA is a more comprehensive analysis and includes socio-economic changes and other climate change, and requires a previous SA or VA (CPACC, 1999 and Klein & Nicholls, 1999). PA requires a high level of detail, includes socio-economic, climatic changes, as well as non-climate changes, and would take place in the wider context of coastal management (CPACC, 1999 and Klein & Nicholls, 1999). The IPCC Common Methodology consists of seven main steps of analysis, which take into account the assessment of both the impacts as well as the possible responses to the impacts. The Common Methodology framework “incorporates expert judgement and data analysis of socio-economic and physical characteristics to assist the user in estimating a broad spectrum of impacts from sea-level rise, including the value of lost land and wetlands” (IPCC Common Methodology, 1991). The seven steps of the frame work include: (1) delineate the case-study area; (2) inventory study area characteristics; (3) identify the relevant socio-economic development factors; (4) asses the physical changes; (5) formulate response strategies; (6) assess the Vulnerability Profile; and (7) identify future needs. These steps are suggestions of analysis that should be done; however, with the Common Methodology there are no specific instructions on how the analysis should be performed, which is meant to encourage users to apply the framework appropriately to their specific situation. The key output of the Common Methodology includes the vulnerability profile for the specified case-study area and a list of future policy needs to adapt both physically and economically (IPCC Common Methodology, 1991). The IPCC’s Technical Guidelines were developed to serve as a more generic framework for any natural or socio-economic system, unlike the Common Methodology, which was developed specifically for coastal zones (Klein & Nicholls, 1999). The Technical Guidelines consist of seven steps, which are very similar to the Common Methodology: (1) define the problem; (2) select method; (3) test method/sensitivity; (4) select scenarios; (5) assess impacts; (6) assess autonomous adjustments; and (7) evaluate adaptation strategies. As stated in the objectives of the Technical Guidelines “the ultimate purpose of the Guidelines is to enable estimations of impacts and adaptations which will allow comparable assessments to be made for different regions/geographical areas, sectors and countries” (pg. v). Three coastal adaptation strategies have been identified when discussing sea-level rise: protect (defend vulnerable areas, especially population centres, economic activities, and natural resources), accommodate (strike a balance between preservation and development), and retreat (abandon structures in developed areas and ensure that new developments are set back from the shore) (Shaw et al., 1998).

Shaw et al. (1998) published a report titled Potential Impacts of Global Sea-Level Rise on Canadian Coasts, which concluded that 3% of the total Canadian coastline was at high sensitivity to sea-level rise, with sensitivity being defined as the likelihood that physical changes due to sea-level change will occur at the coast. To assess the sensitivity of the Canadian coastline Shaw et al. used a method that combined data on seven variables: relief, rock type, coastal landform, sea-level tendency, shoreline displacement rate, mean tidal range, and mean annual maximum significant wave height, and assigned each variable a risk value in the range of 1 to 5. Through the use of the methodology it was discovered that the Maritime region makes up a large portion of the high sensitivity coastal area. These areas of high sensitivity will likely be subjected to a series of opposed effects with sea-level rise, including: more frequent overwashing of beaches and higher rates of beach retreat and in other areas the formation of new beaches will take place (Shaw et al., 1998). Rates of unconsolidated cliff erosion could increase, but erosion would be interspersed with intervals of stability and small parts of the Atlantic coast of Canada would be permanently submerged (Shaw et al., 1998).

To deal with the impending sea-level rise in Nova Scotia, in 2009 the provincial government developed The State of Nova Scotia’s Coast Report, which provides an overview of the condition of the coastal areas and resources and has the ultimate goal of ensuring the sustainable development and conservation of the coastal areas and resources of Nova Scotia. The report identifies six priority coastal issues in the province: coastal development, working waterfronts, public coastal access, sea-level rise and storm events, coastal water quality, and sensitive coastal ecosystems and habitats.

In Atlantic Canada sea-level rise is occurring due to a number of factors, including: general rise in average sea-level, regional subsidence, and global warming associated with climate change (Nova Scotia’s Coast Report, 2009). Some of the greatest areas at risk of sea-level rise in Nova Scotia are low lying areas, areas with frequent storm conditions and high storm-surge potential, areas with coastal infrastructure and property, areas of sensitive ecology, and areas of rapid coastal erosion (Nova Scotia’s Coast Report, 2009). Sea-level rise occurring on the coast of Nova Scotia will have large effects on human development taking place along the coastlines. According to Nova Scotia’s Coast Report “coastal development is defined as the human-induced alteration of the landscape, including the erection of structures, within sight of the coastline” (p. 91). High sensitivity exists around residential development along the coast of Nova Scotia, with 11 percent of the coastline being intensely developed urban and industrial areas (Nova Scotia’s Coast Report, 2009). According to the Nova Scotia’s Coast Report “the most densely developed coastal areas are associated with ports and harbours”, which exist in areas such as Halifax, Antigonish, and Yarmouth. The assessment of sea-level rise and its effects on coastal development in the province could be done through the use of the Coastal Vulnerability Index (CVI) in combination with the Common Methodology. Using the Coastal Vulnerability Index (CVI) methodology allows for the assessment of various factors and their relative contributions and interactions. Hammar-Klose and Thierler’s (2001) CVI looks at six variables: tidal range, wave height, coastal slope, shoreline erosion rates, geomorphology and historical rates of relative sea-level rise. Scientists using CVI apply a mathematical formula (CVI = ((a*b*c*d*e*f)/6)1/2 ) to relate the different types of data to each other to calculate an index value. “The index allows the six physical variables to be related in a quantifiable manner that expresses the relative vulnerability of the coast to physical changes due to sea-level rise. This method yields numerical data that cannot be equated directly with particular physical effects. It does, however, highlight those regions where the various effects of sea-level rise may be the greatest” (Hammar-Klose & Thierler, 2001). Each physical variable evaluates specific physical effects that occur on the coast in response to sea-level rise and each variable is calculated in a unique way. The geomorphology variable indicates the relative erodibility of different sections of shoreline and is ranked qualitatively according to the relative resistance of the coastal landforms and rocks to marine erosion. Data concerning geomophology is collected through detailed maps (geological, topographic, and geomorphological) and is used in combination with descriptive information (Hammar-Klose & Thieler, 2000). The regional coastal slope (steepness or flatness of the coastal region) evaluates both the relative risk of inundation and the potential rapidity of shoreline retreat and can be calculated through the use of a Digital Elevation Model that is created from topographic diagrams (Hammar-Klose & Thieler, 2000 & Gaki-Papanastassiou et al., n.d.). The relative sea-level change variable corresponds to the increase or decrease in mean water elevation over time as measured at tide gauge stations and the data is usually collected from historical records, and therefore only show change for recent time scales (Hammar-Klose & Thieler, 2000 & Gaki-Papanastassiou et al., n.d.). Shoreline erosion rates evaluate how fast a section of shoreline has been eroding, the data can be collected from a variety of sources including published reports, historical shoreline change maps, field surveys and aerial and satellite photo analyses (Hammar-Klose & Thieler, 2000 & Gaki-Papanastassiou et al., n.d.). Mean tide is linked with inundation hazards and the data is usually collected from published information (Hammar-Klose & Thieler, 2000 & Gaki-Papanastassiou et al., n.d.). The final variable is wave height, which is also linked to inundation and the data can be collected from published information in addition to the use of a sea-level tidal gauge (Hammar-Klose & Thieler, 2000 & Gaki-Papanastassiou et al., n.d.). Using the collected information and data, maps could be created and used to provide insight into the relative potential of coastal change due to future sea-level rise.

The information concerning Nova Scotia’s coasts provided through the CVI could be used in conjunction with the Common Methodology to reveal the physical and socio-economic impacts of sea-level rise and to assist with furthering physical and economic modeling. As previously mentioned 11 percent of Nova Scotia’s coast line is intensely developed with urban and industrial areas and roughly 70 per cent of the province’s population lives in coastal communities (Nova Scotia’s Coast Report, 2009). Applying the Common Methodology will “allow for the identification of populations and resources at risk, and the costs and feasibility of possible responses to adverse impacts” (Klein & Nicholls, 1999). It will also provide information regarding elements of the natural coastal system, such as beaches cliffs, estuaries and tidal rivers, freshwater marshes, salt marshes, small islands, aquifers and species and ecosystems. It will also highlight the socio-economic impacts of sea-level rise such as direct loss of economic, ecological, cultural and subsistence values through loss of land, infrastructure and coastal habitats; increased flood risk of people, land and infrastructure; and impacts related to changes in water management, salinity and biological activity (Klein & Nicholls, 1999). These findings will assist in the development and application of long term coastal management plans.

Climate change and rising sea-levels will have a large effect on many coastal zones in the near future. Coastal Vulnerability Assessments can assist with predicting future coastal evolution and the impacts that may occur due to sea-level rise. Coastal Vulnerability Assessments also allow scientists and researchers to examine a number of coastal variables that are affected by climate change and relate them to one another to provide the most effective adaptation strategies. The information that is provided through the assessments can be used to help identify the risks for natural systems, government systems, as well as socio-economic and cultural systems as well as in the development of national, provincial, or municipal coastal management plans.

References

Caribbean Planning for Adaptation to Global Climate Change (CPACC) Project (1999). Coastal Vulnerability Assessment for Sea-Level Rise: Evaluation and Selection Methodologies for Implementation. Retrieved from http://fama2.us.es:8080/turismo/turismonet1/economia %20del%20turismo/turismo%20de%20costas/COASTAL%20VULNERABILITY%20LEVEL%20SEA.PDF

Carter, T., Parry, M., Nishioka, S., & Harasawa, H. (1994). IPCC Technical guidelines
for assessing climate change impacts and adaptations. Retrieved from http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/special-reports/ipcc-technical-guidelines-1994n.pdf

Gaki-Papanastassiou, K., Karymbalis, E., Poulos, S., Seni, A. & Zouva, C. (n.d.). Coastal vulnerability assessment to sea-level rise bαsed on geomorphological and oceanographical parameters: the case ofArgolikos Gulf, Peloponnese, Greece. Retrieved from http://hua.academia.edu/EfthimiosKarymbalis/Papers/398105/Coastal_ vulnerability_assessment_to_sea-level_rise_based_on_geomorphological _and_oceanographical_parameters_the_case_of_Argolikos_Gulf_Peloponnese_Greece

Gornitz, V., Daniels, R., White, R. & Birdwell, K. (1994). The development of a coastal vulnerability assessment database: Vulnerability to sea-level rise in the U.S. southeast. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 12, 327-338.

Government of Nova Scotia. (2009). The 2009 state of Nova Scotia’s coast technical report. Retrieved from http://www.gov.ns.ca/coast/state-of-the-coast.htm

Gutierrez, B., Williams, S. & Thieler, R. (2009). Appendix 2. Basic approaches for shoreline change. Retrieved from http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/effects/coastal/app2.pdf

Hammar-Klose, E. & Thieler, E. (2001). Coastal Vulnerability to Sea-Level Rise, A Preliminary Database for the U.S. Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf of Mexico Coasts. Retrieved from http://geology.uprm.edu/MorelockSite/morelockonline/3_image/cstvulnGoM.htm

IPCC. (2005). IPCC second assessment – Climate change 1995; A report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Retrieved from http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/climate-changes-1995/ipcc-2nd-assessment/2nd-assessment-en.pdf

IPCC CZMS. (1992). A common methodology for assessing vulnerability to sea level rise. Global climate change and the rising challenge of the sea. Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management, The Hague, The Netherlands, Appendix C.

Klein, R. & Nicholls, R. (1998). Coastal Zones. In: Handbook on methods for climate change impact assessment and adaptation strategies. Retrieved from http://research.fit.edu/sealevelriselibrary/documents/doc_mgr/465/Global_Methods_for_CC_Assessment_Adaptation_-_UNEP_1998.pdf

Klein, R. & Nicholls, R. (1999). Assessment of coastal vulnerability to climate change. Ambio, 28(2), 182-187.

Shaw, J., Taylor, R., Solomon, S., Christian, H. & Forbes, D. (1998). Potential impacts of global sea-level rise on Canadian coasts. The Canadian Geographer, 42(4), 365-79.

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). (2000). National assessment of coastal vulnerability to future sea-level rise. Retrieved from http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/fs76-00/fs076-00

This was written for my Biophysical Dimensions of Resource and Environmental Management class.

Ironwood Farm – Visiting an Organic Mixed Farm

2011-01-26T08:37:00.000-08:00

Ironwood farm sits at the mouth of the Avon River in Hants County, Nova Scotia. The 200 acre farm was purchased by Rupert Jannasch in 2004 from an elderly friend named Stanton Sandford, whose family had been farming the land for three generations. Rupert and his partner Heather Johnson have converted the farm into a certified organic mixed farm where they grow fruit, vegetables and also raise cattle and sheep. The visit to Ironwood farm was a welcomed break from classes. Rupert was a very interesting and informative speaker, who was willing to give honest answers regarding the farming practices used at Ironwood, as well as issues concerning organic certification. He mentioned a number of ideas that I thought were especially interesting, in particular the issues surrounding the disappearance of services on which small scale farms are dependent, the monoculture of tomatoes, and the use of plastic.
The idea of small-scale farms being regulated out of business is a very scary thought. I personally believe that our society is more concerned with buying the cheapest food, no matter where it came from or what it came into contact with while it was growing, being processed and packaged. If we want to keep farmers like Rupert in business there needs to be a big shift in society, where people begin to make connections between what they eat and where it comes from. However, even if the public is able to make the connection, Rupert mentioned that many of the services that small farmers need to remain afloat are disappearing, for example the abattoirs. There are only 28 provincially inspected and 3 federally inspected abattoirs in Nova Scotia (Competitive Transition Analysis Group, 2010), and there are currently no certified organic abattoirs in Atlantic Canada (McMahon, 2010) (lucky for Rupert his beef is not certified organic!). In Ontario, farmers started running into the same problems when the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs began standardizing safety regulations for abattoirs in 2005. Many of the small Ontario abattoirs who service small farms have not been able to comply with regulations or pay for the renovations that are being required for certification
(Meat Trade Daily, n.d.). This will present Rupert with a difficult situation, as he has clients willing to pay extra for the beef he produces; however, if there are no abattoirs around his farm the prices will continue to climb if he has to ship the cattle further away to be processed. Rupert implied that small-scale farming is built on a house of cards, and as soon as one section related to the farming process becomes unstable the whole system seems as though it could collapse.
The greenhouse at Ironwood farms was my favorite part of the tour; I would love to build a greenhouse of my own one day. The technique used of tying the tomato vines to the top bar to allow the plant to grow across the ground and upwards was something that I found very interesting. I was very surprised to see only two variations of tomatoes and a few green peppers growing in the greenhouse. After listening to Rupert speak about the greenhouse I understood that the monoculture tomato crop was his ‘money maker’; however, I couldn’t help but feel as though he was taking a risk of depleting the soil of certain nutrients by planting the same crop of plant year after year. I also found it quite interesting that he was very unhappy about the farmer who was planning on planting his tomato plants in bags full of soil instead of directly into the ground. Personally, I thought that sounded like a very inventive solution, and if it passed all of the organic certification standards, then he’s made one more option available to struggling farmers.
The one aspect of Rupert’s farm that made me a little unsure was his use of plastic. To me, plastic and organic farming seem to be two very clashing ideas. I never would have expected that so much plastic waste would be produced from an organic farm. Seeing it made me wonder; if people who make such a large effort to shop organically knew how much waste was produced to grow their grape tomatoes would they still purchase them? I realize that this may seem like a stretch, but I believe that most people who make the effort to shop organic are also concerned about waste production as well as contaminants. Plastic contaminants is another related area that I think would be interesting to research to see if any studies have been done linking contamination of crops from plastic mulch. I have never worked on a farm so it is hard to judge and perhaps if a better solution was available to organic farmers they might use it, but for now many famers profitability relies on the use of plastics (Ecological Agriculture Program, n.d.).
Overall, as someone who has always lived in the city, I thought that visiting Ironwood farms was a very eye opening experience. Being able to talk to the farmer about some of the pros and cons of farming organically really helped me gain a better appreciation for the practice. It was nice to see how much love and time Rupert had invested into his farm and I think that it would be a great shame if he, or any other dedicated organic farmer, was put out of business due to over regulation or because they were not able to make enough money. As a society we should be supporting these organic farmers, who are trying to make the world a healthier place for us.

References

Competitive Transition Analysis Group Committee (2010). Final report. Retrieved from ww.gov.ns.ca/agri/elibrary/CTAG-rpt-final.pdf
Ecological Agriculture Program (n.d.) Our love-hate affair with plastics. Retrieved from http://eap.mcgill.ca/PCMPC_3.htm
Johnson, H. (2010). Ironwood Farm, musings from the barnyard and beyond. Retrieved from http://ironwoodfarm.wordpress.com/
McMahon, B. (2010). Value added, resources for organic farms and business in the Maritimes. Atlantic Canadian Organic Regional Network Co-op LTD. Retrieved from www.acornorganic.org/pdf/valueadded.pdf
Meat Trade Daily News (2010). Canada - putting the small abattoir out of business. Retrieved from http://www.meattradenewsdaily.co.uk/news/040210/canada___putting_the_small_abattoir_out_of_business_.aspx
Sooksom, R. (2010). A guide for beginning farmers in Nova Scotia. Nova Scotia: Department of Agriculture. Retrieved from http://www.gov.ns.ca/agri/thinkfarm/

Hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico and the Iceberg Model

2011-01-24T05:44:00.000-08:00

Hypoxia is a term used to describe an environmental phenomenon where very low levels of oxygen become present in a water column. These areas are known as ‘hypoxic zones’ or ‘dead zones’ (LUMCON, 2010). Hypoxia is primarily a problem for estuaries and coastal waters and are indicated by the areas having dissolved oxygen concentrations of less than 2-3 ppm (Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico Watershed Nutrient Task Force, 2010). Hypoxic areas have naturally occurred throughout history; however, it was not until recently that dead zones began appearing in shallow coastal and estuarine areas (NOAA, 2009). One of the causes of hypoxia in these areas today is nutrient over-enrichment (nitrogen and phosphorus) from anthropogenic sources (National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia Assessment, 2003). The nutrients are used to encourage plant growth on the farm, once in the Gulf these nutrients fertilize the growth of algae, which soon die, settle to the seafloor, and decay. Bacteria feeding on the algal corpses consume such a large amount of oxygen that the water becomes unsuitable for most forms of life (Raloff, 2004). Some of the major effects of hypoxia include: long term weakening of species also stressed by overfishing, habitat loss, long-term changes in ecology, and economic loss (ESA, n.d.). Hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico has emerged as a major area of environmental concern for the U.S. The size of the dead zone fluctuates throughout any given year, with the largest dead zones appearing in the warm summer months (NOAA, 2009). The largest dead zone in the world is found in the Baltic Sea (Larsen, 2004), while the annual hypoxic area in the Gulf is the second biggest in the world and is believed to be caused primarily by excess nutrients delivered from the Mississippi River in combination with seasonal stratification of Gulf waters (USGS, 2010). Approximately forty one percent of the land area of the continental US (1.2 million square miles) drains into the Mississippi River basin (NOAA, 2009). The average size the Gulf of Mexico dead zone is approximately 17,000 square km, roughly the size of Lake Ontario, but has reached sizes of approximately 22,000 square km (LUMCON, 2010). It has been estimated that together, the cities, suburbs, and farms along the Mississippi River watershed contribute 90% of the nutrient flow into the Gulf of Mexico (ESA, n.d.). There has been a great deal of scientific research concerning the causes of hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico; however, there is a lack of information regarding the underlying issues that affect hypoxia, such as American policy which allows large amounts of nitrogen to be used on crops, increased agricultural demands from farmers due to issues relating to cheap food and food security, the correlation between social dependence on corn and the corn growing areas being located along the Mississippi River watershed, farmers having to try to make farming a feasible career option, global warming, fishers being effected by low catch levels, etc. All of these issues play a role in the larger system of the Gulf and need to be accounted for to develop and implement a successful management plan.
The Iceberg model takes a close look at the various parts of a system and how they come together to work as a whole. The model states that similar to an iceberg, 90% of the issues surrounding a problem remain unseen. The major event represents the 10% that
we see above water, whereas below the water there are issues such as trends and
patterns, structure and mental models all of which need to be taken into account (Yates, n.d.). The objective of the model is to understand that things within a system influence one another within a whole, and that it is easier to understand a system by looking at the relationships between the parts rather than looking at them in isolation (Ambler, 2006). Using the Iceberg model to examine the issue of hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico will allow managers to take a closer look at the social, political, and economic issues that are embedded in the American system, which affect the Gulf of Mexico as a whole. In the past, these underlying issues have prevented managers from developing successful plans to control this environmental issue. The Iceberg model will help to uncover the interrelationships between outside factors that contribute to the overall system of the Gulf of Mexico, which will bring these factors to light and uncover the patterns of change within the system and help us work towards a positive management solution.
Over the years the size of the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico has varied, which is a result of a variety of reasons, including amount of rainfall, temperature and the amount of sunshine, and most importantly the amount of nutrients that have been applied to crops along the Mississippi river. Each of these issues on their own present difficulties for the Gulf. Higher rainfall results in increased runoff from farm fields, large amounts of sunlight warms the water and provides energy for algae growth, and excess nutrients applied to crops wash into rivers and streams and end up in the Gulf. When these issues are looked at together as part of the overall system, it becomes clear that in combination these three elements present a large hurdle that the Gulf must overcome to return to a healthy normoxic state. The pattern of these three elements contributing to the growth of the dead zone is apparent when we start to look at how things have been changing as gulf pollution increases. Global warming is an important issue that is causing worldwide change and playing a part in the growth of the Gulf dead zone. As the world’s climate continues to rise in temperature, the sun becomes stronger which increases the stratification of the water column and as a result the algae are provided with more energy to thrive on (Diaz, 2008). As the temperature continues to increase globally we will see more instances of algae blooms, which is a rapid increase in the population of algae in an aquatic system (Science Daily, 2010), resulting in larger dead zones. It is also believed that global warming will affect rainfall. Increased rainfall will result in more flooding and higher volumes of runoff (Water Encyclopedia, 2010). It has been noted that in years of drought the hypoxic area decreases and increases during years of flood (Rabalais, 2001). More rain will also present negative effects to agricultural production as it will cause more soil erosion, which implies relatively less soil infiltration (Water Encyclopedia, 2010). A slight possibility does exist of climate change helping to ease hypoxia. If the weather becomes stormier it could mix the fresh and salt water decreasing stratification, which would help to limit the risk of oxygen depletion. The mixing that would occur through storms would not be enough to eliminate hypoxic zones, only dissipate them for a short time (Diaz, 2008). Aside from increased temperatures and higher rainfalls, the Gulf has also had to deal with the large amounts of nitrogen that runs off of the agricultural crops, estimated at approximately 1.5 million metric tons annually (Greenhalgh, 2001). Over the years farmers have been applying more nitrogen rich fertilizer than their crops need to avoid the possibility of any decreased productivity (Raloff, 2004). Nutrient influxes in estuaries have increased up to tenfold since the beginning of this century, with the greatest increase occurring after 1950 (Greenhalgh, 2001). It has been estimated that nitrate releases throughout the Mississippi River watershed would have to be cut in half from current amounts to significantly minimize the annual Gulf dead zone (Raloff, 2004). According to the NOAA (2009) “Recent research suggests that more hypoxia is resulting from the same level of nutrients going in to the water” (p. 2), which suggests that there has been such a large shift in the system which will make it harder to shrink the size of the dead zone (NOAA, 2009). The large amounts of excess nutrients entering into the Gulf is linked not only to hypoxia but also habitat loss, fish kills, and blooms of toxic algae (NOAA, 2008). Aside from issues related to climate change and excess nutrients, hypoxia has also created a pattern of change within the fishery of the Gulf of Mexico. The Gulf of Mexico is the source of 72 percent of the total U.S. harvested shrimp, 66 percent of the harvested oysters, and 16 percent of the U.S. commercial fish harvest (News & Views, 1999). The hypoxic area in the Gulf of Mexico appears in the same place as shrimp habitat and shrimp fishing grounds. Studies have found that the hypoxic areas are having a negative effect on the shrimp fishery (Zimmerman, 2001 & O’Connor, 2007) and that the catch per unit of effort for brown shrimp in the Gulf has trended down since the late 1970’s (Zimmerman, 2001). This is unfortunate news not only for the species itself, but also for the fishermen and the economy, to which the fishery generates $2.8 billion annually (NCDDC, 2010). Effects of hypoxia on fishery resources include direct mortality, altered migration, reduction in suitable habitat, increased susceptibility to predation (including by humans), changes in food resources, and disruption of life cycles (Rabalais, 2001).
There are many variables within the structure of the American political, economic, and social systems that have played a role in the continued destruction of the Gulf of Mexico. The U.S. government has created limits for major releases of nitrate into the environment because high concentrations can be toxic to wildlife and humans; however, low, diffuse nitrate emissions, from such sources as farm runoff are largely unregulated (Raloff, 2004). Aside from limited federal regulation there are also issues with localized legislation and few agricultural subsidy incentives for land stewardship, which are preventing action being taken to resolve the issue of the dead zone (Mississippi 1, 2010). This lack of regulation results in nutrient concentration in waterways where they damage ecosystem and increase the risk of hypoxia (Raloff, 2004). In 1994 the U.S. government recognized that a problem existed in the Gulf of Mexico and passed the Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research and Control Act (NOAA. 2004). In 1997 the Mississippi River Gulf of Mexico Watershed Nutrient Task Force (a branch of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) was established to study the causes and effects of
eutrophication in the Gulf of Mexico; coordinate activities to reduce the size, severity, and duration of the dead zone; and to improve the effects of hypoxia (Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico Watershed Nutrient Task Force, 2010). In 2001 The Task Force released the Action Plan for Reducing, Mitigating and Controlling Hypoxia in the Northern Gulf of Mexico to assist with the management of the problem, which was updated in 2008 (Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico Watershed Nutrient Task Force, 2010). However, despite the recognition of the problem, according to the NOAA (2007) “management of the dead zone is hampered by poor understanding of the quantitative relationship between hypoxia and populations of commercially and recreationally important living resources”. Agricultural runoff into the Gulf of Mexico is difficult to regulate and manage because there is such a large number of sources and it has been found that individual producers do not always recognize their own contribution to the larger problem (Hudson et al. 2005). It is also difficult to create new policies that reduce the amount of fertilizer used as it is a key input that has enabled U.S. agriculture to achieve its present capability for producing vast quantities of inexpensive food, such as corn, wheat, and sorghum (Papendick, 1987). Corn is a high nitrogen-demanding crop and has become a key element of the American food supply, which has increased the number of problems for the Gulf as the Corn Belt states in the upper Mississippi are the largest contributors of nitrate and phosphate pollution in the river (1 Mississippi, 2010). Using the example of corn production, it is easy to see how the dead zone of the Gulf of Mexico is closely related to the social, economic, and political structures of America; consumers demand vast amounts of low-cost food; the government continues to subsidize corn to keep prices low and to keep other products such as beef or high-fructose corn syrup cheap (MacLean, 2002); and the farmers are forced to grow large crops that can materialize quickly, which increases the amount of fertilizer used. Due to the fact that the application of nutrients on crops for food production has become such an large factor for food production for the U.S. it is important to realize that the complete elimination of fertilizers is unrealistic and that policy makers and managers need to look at ways to improve nitrogen efficiency to minimize environmental damage and costs to farmers (Papendick, 1987). The fact that the U.S. ranks among the richest and most powerful nations in the world has created a disconnect between the American lifestyle and the effects that this lifestyle has on the environment. When an entire nation’s society depends on cheap and abundant food, stress is placed on all of the systems that are connected to food production, and one of those systems happens to be the Gulf of Mexico. To effectively combat the dead zone in the Gulf the general public needs to become aware and educated on the topic of hypoxia. In a recent study, when asked the question “Have you heard of hypoxia or the hypoxic zone” only 12.4% of respondents reported awareness, showing that in fact, many Americans are unaware that their current lifestyle is having a major effect on the global environment (Hudson et al, 2005). These negative patterns of lack of government and public involvement have increased the size of the dead zone over the years, but could be resolved with the implementation of stronger policy and increased public education.
These political, economic, and social structures have remained in place, causing the dead zone to grow, due to the fact the majority of American citizens have given up their voice and allowed industry and government to make decisions for the individual. Industry has accepted this offering of power and now makes the bulk of decisions that affect communities and individuals alike. North Americans live in a consumer driven society which can be manipulated by mass media (Brooks, 2007), and in many cases to go against the grain results in a negative image. This results in the creation of a passive society, where having a 61.6% voter turnout is considered to be a good year (US Elections Project, 2010). We live in an age where life is fast paced and to keep up we have made certain sacrifices: overpopulated cities, fast food, excessive amounts of waste and pollution, etc. With all of these sacrifices public stakeholders should be taking greater responsibility and getting more involved and taking greater action. When industry bombards consumers with ads and images of cheap corn based products instead of rushing out to buy a big mac, American citizens need to take a step back and be able to make the association between the products and the effects that they are having on their personal and environmental health. Stakeholders need to assume their rights and demand improved environmental conditions concerning food production. Stakeholders need to demand increased government policy surrounding land use and water quality. Finally, stakeholders need to demand improved management plans of the Mississippi River basin. The cycle of applying excessive nutrients to crops, causing runoff into the river, which ends up in the Gulf, where hypoxia forms, needs to become a household issue if it is to be resolved. By applying pressure on fellow stakeholders, government, and industry it will become evident that land use and water quality are issues that citizens must be involved in during the discussion and decision-making process. Stewardship, the efforts to create, nurture, and enable responsibility in landowners and resource users to manage and protect land and its natural and cultural heritage (Brown, 2000), is an important approach that can help minimize issues in the Gulf. To be effective environmental stewardship must become closely intertwined with American culture. Environmental stewardship can help rekindle the feeling of community and encourage others to take action and responsibility for the health of their water. In the end it is up to the average citizen to transform the existing social beliefs by becoming more aware of the issues and areas of concern that industry and government make decisions on without consulting the general public. Without the acceptance of responsibility for the current environmental situation of the planet, stakeholders need to realize that in the end they are the people that must deal with the outcome of the final decisions that are made.
Hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico has grown at an alarming rate over the past 50 years
and will continue to do so if the political, social, and economic systems involved in the Gulf of Mexico do not change. The Iceberg model has allowed for a closer look at the topic of hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico and has revealed that this environmental concern goes beyond the scientific issues consistently mentioned in research, but also includes a deeply rooted interrelationship with the social system involving the citizens and their lack of acceptance of environmental stewardship. In the past, management of the Gulf was focused on the scientific aspects that affect the dead zone, such as weather, rainfall, and nutrient runoff. The social, political, and economic structures within the American system also play a large role in the management, or lack of management of the Gulf and must be addressed to develop a suitable management plan. These structures have remained in place due to the beliefs held by the American citizens, in terms of their ability to take action in regards to decisions that are being made by industry and government, which affect the environmental system of America. In the end, the issue of hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico exists because of the dependence on cheap food and America’s push to produce crops as quickly as possible with reliance on fertilizer and limited policy protecting the environment from these issues. In order to ensure proper management of hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico it is up to the citizens of the U.S. to take the initiative and become educated on the subject and involved in the decision-making process.

References

Ambler, G. (2006). Systems thinking as a leadership practice. Retrieved from http://www.thepracticeofleadership.net/2006/01/14/systems-thinking-as-a-leadership-practice/
Brooks, K. (2007). The modern consumer: Overtaxed, overwhelmed, and overdrawn. Retrieved from http://www.yorku.ca/robarts/projects/gradpapers/pdf/ Brooks_Modern _Consumer.pdf
Brown, J. & Brent, M. (2000). The stewardship approach and its relevance for protected landscapes. The George Wright Forum, 17(1), 70-79
Diaz, R. & Rosenberg, R. (2008). Spreading dead zones and consequences for marine ecosystems. Science, 321(1), 926-929.
Ecological Society of America (ESA). (n.d.). Hypoxia. Retrieved from http://www.esa.org/ education_diversity/pdfDocs/hypoxia.pdf
Greenhalgh, S., & Faeth, P. (2001). A potential integrated water quality strategy for the Mississippi River Basin and the Gulf of Mexico. The Scientific World Journal, 1, 976-983.
Hudson, D., Hite, D., & Haab, T. (2005). Public perception of agricultural pollution and Gulf of Mexico hypoxia. Coastal Management, 33(1), 25-36.
Larsen, J. (2004). Dead zones in the world’s ocean. Retrieved from http://www.theglobalist. com/StoryId.aspx?StoryId=3993
Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON). (2010). Hypoxia in the northern Gulf of Mexico. Retrieved from, http://www.gulfhypoxia.net/News/
MacLean, M. (2002). When corn is king. Retrieved from, http://www.csmonitor.com/ 2002/1031/p17s01-lihc.html
Mississippi 1. (2010). Corn Belt Governor plants seed for change, opens discussion on fertilizer pollution in the River. Retrieved from, http://www.1mississippi.net/river-citizen-forums/mississippi-river-news/corn-belt-governor-plants-seed-change-opens-discussion-f
Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico Watershed Nutrient Task Force. (2010). Hypoxia 101. Retrieved from http://www.epa.gov/owow_keep/msbasin/
National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia Assessment. (2003). Hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico. Progress towards the completion of an Integrated Assessment. Retrieved from http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/products/pubs_hypox.html
National Coastal Data Development Center (NCDDC). (2010). The Problem of Hypoxia in the Northern Gulf of Mexico. Retrieved from http://ecowatch.ncddc.noaa.gov/hypoxia/moreinfo
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). (2004). Harmful algal bloom and hypoxia research and control act. Retrieved from http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/redtide/pdfs/habhrca_fact_sheet.pdf
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). (2007). Ecological Impacts of Hypoxia on Living Resources Workshop. Retrieved from http://www.ngi.msstate.edu/ hypoxia/
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). (2008). Oxygen depletion in Coastal waters. Retrieved from http://state_of_coast.noaa.gov/bulletins/html/hyp_09/hyp .html
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). (2009). Dead Zones, Hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico. Retrieved from www.noaa.gov/factsheets/new%20version/dead_ zones.pdf
News and Views. (1999). Hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico and fertilization facts. Retrieved from http://www.back-to-basics.net/fertilityfacts/pdf_files/99176-Hypoxia.pdf
O’Connor, T. & Whitall D. (2007). Linking hypoxia to shrimp catch in the northern Gulf of Mexico. Retrieved from, linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S002532 6X07000434
Papendick R., Lloyd F. & Power J. (1987). Alternative production systems to reduce nitrates in ground water. American Journal of Alternative Agriculture, 2(1), 19-24.
Rabalais, N., Turner, R., & Wiseman, W. (2001). Hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico. Journal of Environmental Quality, 30(2), 320-329.
Rabalais, N. & Turner, E. (2007). Causes of Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia. Retrieved from http://www.ngi.msstate.edu/hypoxia/marchPresentations/RabalaisCauses.pdf
Raloff, J. (2004). Limiting dead zones - How to curb river pollution and save the Gulf of Mexico. Science News, 165(24), 378-380.
Science Daily. (2010). Algal Blooms. Retreieved from http://www.sciencedaily.com/ articles /a/algal_bloom.htm
Steele, G., Johnsonb, H., Sandstrome, M., Capeld, P. & Barbashe, J. (2007). Occurrence and fate of pesticides in four contrasting agricultural settings in the United States. Journal of Environmental Quality. 37(3), 1116-1132.
United States Elections Project. (2010). 2008 General Election Turnout rates. Retrieved from http://elections.gmu.edu/Turnout_2008G.html
United States Geological Survey. (2010). The Gulf of Mexico Hypoxic Zone. Retrieved from http://toxics.usgs.gov/hypoxia/hypoxic_zone.html
Water Encyclopedia Science and Issues. (2010). Global warming and the hydrologic cycle. Retrieved from, http://www.waterencyclopedia.com/Ge-Hy/Global-Warming-and-the-Hydrologic-Cycle.html
Yates, J. & Davidson, A. (n.d.). Seeing below the surface: Systems thinking. Retrieved from http://www.watersfoundation.org/webed/library/articles/STarticle-07.pdf
Zimmerman, R., Nance, J. (2001). Coastal hypoxia: Consequences for living resources and ecosystems. Coastal Estuarine Studies, 53, 293-310.

(This paper was written for my Management Without Borders class.)

Canada's Oceans Action Plan

2011-01-13T18:40:00.001-08:00

Below is a Plan Evaluation which I had to do for one of my classes. I chose to evaluate Canada's Oceans Action Plan:

Canada’s Oceans Action Plan

1. Introduction

In the management world, plans are necessary to help develop new ideas and to enact change. They allow us to look at current situations, try to assess the challenges that managers face and what is needed to resolve current issues, as well as to determine what is working within a system. For this project we have been asked to review and evaluate a management plan to try to determine what is and is not working the chosen plan. I have chosen to look at Canada’s Oceans Action Plan (OAP), which focuses on coordinating and implementing ocean activities, including related legislation and policy. The OAP also acts as the framework to sustainably develop and manage Canada’s oceans. Within this report I plan on determining what aspects of the plan work in its favour as well as uncover any issues that may present themselves. I will also assess whether these issues may hinder the performance of the plan or if they could be resolved to allow managers to use the plan successfully.

2. The Oceans Action Plan

The OAP was developed in 2005 in response to the challenges that current managers were facing under the Oceans Act. The Oceans Act was passed in 1996 and the Oceans Strategy was passed in 2002. The Oceans Act deals with issues of conservation and development and is founded on three principles: 1) Sustainable Development 2) Integrated Management, and 3) Precautionary Approach (DFO, 2005). However, even after the implementation of the Oceans Act, we continued to see poor governance of Canadian oceans; for example declining fish stocks (the continued misinterpretation of the cod stock after the collapse), ocean user conflicts (the dispute over the ‘Grey Zone’ lobster fishery between Canada and the U.S.) and a weakening oceans industry sector (the government had to provide a $65 million investment to the Atlantic lobster fishery in 2009). With all of these negative issues surrounding the management of the oceans, the Government realized that action needed to be taken and so the OAP was developed. The Plan is applied to all three oceans that border the Canadian coastline (Pacific, Atlantic, and Arctic), which measures approximately 244,000km. Canada’s total ocean estate covers approximately 7.1 million square kilometers, which is equivalent to approximately 70% of Canada’s landmass (DFO, 2010). In the first section of the Oceans Action Plan, there is a brief overview of Canada’s oceans and their important role to the country, as well as some of the legislation that is directly involved with the governance of the oceans. The plan states that it has committed to managing our oceans wisely, as they play such an important role in the environmental, social, cultural, and economic aspects of Canadian’s lives. The plan will be implemented in phases, with the first phase taking 24 months to build the foundation for future success, beginning with integrated management under the Oceans Act, as well as focusing on ecosystem science to improve marine environment management. The second section of the OAP talks about how it is based on four pillars: 1) International Leadership, Sovereignty and Security; 2) Integrated Oceans Management for Sustainable Development; 3) Health of Oceans and; 4) Ocean Science and Technology, all of which are discussed in detail in terms of how they are applied to each of Canada’s three oceans. The third section of the plan talks about the four pillars discussed in the second phase and the 18 initiatives that are being implemented under the pillars during Phase I of the Oceans Action Plan.

3. Evaluation

3.1 Vision and general goals of ocean management

The goal of the OAP is to develop and implement an integrated management system that can be applied to all Canadian oceans. By using an integrated management system based on both ecosystem and precautionary approaches, the government wants to achieve a healthy, productive ocean system for the future, and to continue developing the ocean economy. This plan is a step in the right direction for Canada in terms of taking action and trying to develop a management plan that will help us to sustain and protect one of our most integral resources, our oceans. However, this plan is too broad and all encompassing. There are too many departments, communities and individuals involved in the implementation of the plan; I feel as though any data that will come out of the plan will become lost in a sea of information. The plan is too large and requires such a large sum of money that to fund Phase II (which requested hundreds of millions of dollars) seems like a long shot. It would have been more realistic to develop individual plans for each maritime region, or each initiative to ensure smaller amounts of funding required for each individual section instead of one large sum.

3.2 Description of ocean management under OAP and current state of knowledge

The ecosystems that are being managed under the OAP are Canada’s oceans (Atlantic, Pacific, and Arctic). The Oceans Act was passed in 1996 and the Oceans Strategy in 2002. Even with these policies in place, Canada has fallen far behind other developed nations when it comes to meeting its ocean strategy commitments. Throughout the plan it is stated that “Canada will continue to play a leadership role in international oceans management”(p. 11); however, when it comes to issues such as Marine Protected Areas (MAPs), Canada lacks initiative. Canada has legally protected less than 1% of its marine environment, while Australia and the U.S. federally designated MPAs are 32 and 16 times larger than Canada’s, respectively (Living Oceans Society, 2008). The Canadian government is required under national and international law to establish a network of MAPs by 2012 (CPAWS, 2008), and even with the OAP in place, that goal is looking unattainable. This is only one example of how the Canadian government has not played a leadership role in ocean conservation and management, as it claims it does.

3.3 Details of and commitment to monitoring, evaluation and research activities

Under the OAP there are 18 interrelated initiatives under four pillars. Each of these 18 initiatives focuses on a specific area or issue in Canadian oceans and was allocated a portion of the $28.4 million that was used to fund the project. Each initiative will be monitored for 24 months and the collected data will be used to assess current management practices, as well as to help work towards the long-term objectives of the Oceans Act. Seven governmental departments and agencies were involved with the funding and monitoring of the initiatives. There is no discussion in the plan of how the monitoring and data collection was going to be standardized across the seven departments and 18 initiatives. There was also no mention of the inclusion of some sort of progress report from each initiative, which would have been helpful to determine whether the initiatives were on track over the course of the 24 months. The plan also fails to mention whether during the research if it included Aboriginal Traditional Knowledge (ATK), or local fishermen knowledge, which is an important issue in terms of the collection of important applicable knowledge as well as the inclusion of the local community in the project.

4. Conclusion

Overall the Oceans Action Plan shows that the Canadian government realizes the importance and the necessity of developing a successful management plan that will accomplish the goals set out in the Oceans Act. The government has taken the initiative to try to develop a plan that takes each of the three oceans into account, as well as some of the important and sensitive areas in those oceans (the 18 initiatives). Phase I of the plan was completed in just over the 24 months; however, Phase II has not received the funding to continue on with the project. With the completion of Phase I, some critical data were collected and important lessons learned, yet no solidified management plan for the oceans was developed. In the end I believe that the Oceans Action Plan has greatly helped Canadian ocean research, and that a lot of the studies that were made possible due to the funding from the OAC would have never taken place under any other circumstances. However, I believe that it would have been easier to determine a successful management approach if the $28.4 million had been allocated to individual plans developed by regions, and that those plans would have had a better chance at receiving funding for ‘Phase II’. If the plans had been developed in this manner, there could have been a possibility of using the information and data collected to develop a final plan to determine the proper management approach for Canadian oceans.

References

Department of Fisheries and Oceans. (2005). Canada’s Ocean Action Plan. Retrieved from http://www.omrnrrgo.ca/docs/main/Oceans%20Action%20Plan% 20for%20Present%20&%20Future%20Generations%20-%20English.pdf

CPAWS. (2008). Challenges and opportunities in progress towards Canada’s commitment to a national network of MPAs by 2012. Retrieved from http://www.cpaws.org/files/report_mythandmadness.PDF

Department of Fisheries and Oceans. (2010). Canada’s ocean estate
a description of Canada’s maritime zones. Retrieved from http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/oceans/canadasoceans-oceansducanada/marinezones-zonesmarines-eng.htm

Department of Fisheries and Oceans. (2010). Formative evaluation of the oceans action plan – Phase 1. Retrieved from http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/ae-ve/evaluations/07-08/6B048-eng.htm

Department of Fisheries and Oceans. (2010). St. John’s 2005 conference – another step in stopping global overfishing. Retrieved from http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/fgc-cgp/index_e.htm

Living Oceans Society. (2008). New marine protected areas report card gives Canada a failing grade. Retrieved from http://www.livingocea ns.org/media/news06060801.aspx

Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat. (2010). RPP 2006-2007
fisheries and oceans Canada. Retrieved from http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/rpp/2006-2007/fo-po/fo-po01-eng.asp

New Posts!

2011-01-13T18:37:00.000-08:00

So the next few things that I will be posting over the next few days are a few things that I have written for school so far...
Some are personal opinion pieces, others are research papers. Sorry about the length of some of them, but don't worry, I won't be posting any of the 50 pagers that were written!
Hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoyed writing (some) of them ;)

Christmas Break!

2010-12-14T07:58:00.000-08:00

One semester down, two more to go!
I apologize for the lack of posts in the past few months. Things have been really busy with school, learning lots and writing tons (some of which I will be posting here later).

I wanted to share this interesting TED talk about the MPAs in Kiribati. Very cool.

Video: Watershed Watch - Sea Lice

2010-09-12T10:56:00.000-07:00

An interesting video about pink salmon and sea lice. Click on the link below to watch the video and visit the website at: http://www.watershed-watch.org/sealice.html

Watershed Watch - Sea Lice

Off the Hook ~ Community Supported Fishery

2010-07-25T13:41:00.000-07:00

Today I found a really interesting website called 'Off the Hook'. It is a group of people based in Nova Scotia who have taken initiative to create a Community Supported Fishery. If you live in Halifax you can invest in a share of the 'Off the Hook' catch to help support to local fishers, coastal communities, and a low-impact fishing method. The money that you pay goes directly to the fishing co-op, which pays the fishers a fair price for their catch. And in exchange you receive fresh sustainably caught fish each week for 8 weeks!

To learn more about Off the Hook, or to sign up to get your share for the fall season check out their website at: http://www.offthehookcsf.ca

Don't worry about overfishing....

2010-07-22T11:59:00.000-07:00

I saw this sign in my local grocery store and it cracked me up. Don't worry about overfishing because we have seafood in abundance!

SaveOurGulf.org

2010-07-11T15:48:00.000-07:00

As oil continues to pump out into the Gulf of Mexico, I feel as though the news casters are becoming tired of reporting on the disaster. Today I found a great site Save our Gulf. It provides up to date information about the spill and what is happening in and around the Gulf.

Green Film Festival in Seoul: 'Greenlit' and 'Sweet Crude'

2010-05-25T15:21:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I watched a few movies that were part of the Green Film Festival in Seoul (GFFIS). I was thrilled when I heard about the festival and was even more excited when I saw the list of some of the films that would be featured. It was a pretty rainy weekend here in Seoul so it made for a perfect day (and night) sitting inside a cozy theatre watching some green movies.
During the afternoon we saw 'Greenlit' and a collection of shorts: Ice Blossoms, Let`s Pollute, How to Destroy the World - Rubbish -Transport, Skylight, and The Bill. All in all I really enjoyed all of the shorts, especially the 'How to Destroy the World' clips; however, I cannot say the same for 'Greenlit'. This movie solidified my belief that Hollywood is run by a bunch of nitwits, whose only concern is the almighty dollar as well as creating a false sense of security and pacifism within its target audience, which in most cases I believe to be ALL of North America. At some points during the film I got so angry at the frustratingly oblivious narrator, Miranda Bailey (executive producer of The SQUID AND THE WHALE) that I found myself talking to the screen in the crowded theatre.
Here is the synopsis of the movie that is offered on the GIFFS website: Movie people are legendarily liberal and left leaning, particularly when it comes to the environment. GREENLIT puts their commitment to the test as filmmaker Miranda Bailey (executive producer of The SQUID AND THE WHALE) follows the production of THE RIVER WHY, starring Zach Gilford (FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS) as it attempts to keep an environmentally friendly set thanks to the supervision of a "green" consultant. What starts off with great enthusiasm quickly devolves in this insightful and hilarious film.
I would like to know who wrote this synopsis and at what point did they think this movie was hilarious. And the only insightful part of this film is that it shows us how arrogant and ignorant these movie companies (and the people that work for them) really are.
At the end this movie I felt the defeat and frustration of the 'environmental consultant', who's love for the environment had her knee deep in a compost dumpster after a crew member mixed in packing peanuts with the bag of compost... not quite hilarious.

The second movie that we saw was 'Sweet Crude', which was a really powerful and insightful film. The focus of the film is the Niger Delta and the environmental and economic destruction of its surroundings due to the oil extraction that has been taking place over the past 50 years. This film feels very intimate because it is made up of the personal stories of struggle of the villagers from Oporoza and their determination to have their voices heard. We are presented with the greed and corruption of the government that has tried to silence the voice of its people, which has only made them fight back with more force. This is an important film, especially in the wake of the BP disaster that has taken place in the Gulf of Mexico. As North Americans we could not believe that the BP disaster was allowed to take place and that the company should be responsible for the cleaning - now think about living alongside a waterway that has had the same amount of oil pollution, but for 50 consecutive years with no one taking responsibility and the government allowing it to continue. Scary.

Has it been a year already!?

2010-05-12T04:12:00.000-07:00

Visions of Green and Blue has made it to its one year anniversary!

Just wanted to say a big THANK YOU to all those people out there who continue to visit and read!
I will soon begin a new adventure, leaving Korea and moving back to Canada to start a graduate program in Environment and Resource Management. So I am sure that the program will fuel me with lots of interesting things to share here!

Thanks again for reading :)

-Kait

BP Deepwater Horizon rig disaster continues to spill oil

2010-05-01T20:58:00.000-07:00

On April 20th a massive blast on the BP Deepwater Horizon rig began a raging fire and caused 11 workers to go missing. On April 22nd the rig sunk and has since caused a major oil spill that continues to grow and spread with each passing day. It is estimated that the ruptured well is spewing 200,000 gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico each day. On Friday oil began washing up on Louisiana shores threatening pristine habitats, fisheries, and the livelihoods of the local residents. Louisiana, Florida, Alabama and Mississippi have declared a State of Emergency and have dispatched clean-up crews. Strong winds and waves are making the 'cleanup' difficult with some environmental groups claiming that if BP manages to cleanup 20% of the leaked oil it would be miracle. What is truly frightening is that because the US does not require the oil companies to install pricey fail safe systems, their blowout preventer failed and now they do not know how to stop the spill of oil. BP sent robotic submarines 1,5000 meters down to try to cap the leaks; however, it did not work and now they have warned that it may take several months to stop the flow of oil. At this rate BP could overtake Exxon Valdez which is the worst recorded oil spill in US history.
Perhaps this is the environmental disaster that the US needs to help it steer away from fossil fuels and begin focusing on environmentally safe forms of energy.

Click here to view a collection of news reports about the BP oil spill.

Brazil dam tender triggers protest

2010-04-22T18:19:00.000-07:00

The Amazon rainforest faces yet another challenge...

Al Jazeera English - Americas - Brazil dam tender triggers protest

(The following article was taken from Al Jazeera English)

Brazil dam tender triggers protest

The Belo Monte threatens livelihoods of tens of thousands of Brazilian Indians [AFP]

Environmentalists in Brazil are protesting against the awarding of a tender for a controversial hydroelectric project.

Around 500 activists of Greenpeace, the environment group, dumped three tonnes of manure in front of the National Electric Energy Agency's offices in Brasilia, where the tender was speedily awarded on Tuesday.

The government launched the bidding process to begin construction of the Belo Monte dam after successfully appealing against a suspension order.

The tender was awarded to Norte Energia, a consortium led by a subsidiary of Electrobras, the state electricity company, after a series of court injunctions that had blocked and unblocked the auction process.

Opponents of the dam construction said they would not be deterred by the awarding of the tender.

Renata Pinheiro, of the Xingu Vivo movement, said: "We will not be discouraged, we will continue to demonstrate."

The protesters said said they plan to occupy some of the 500sq km of the Amazon rainforest land that Greenpeace estimates would be flooded by the Belo Monte dam.

Livelihoods threatened

Indigenous groups and environmental activists have staged several demonstrations in recent weeks, saying the dam is ecologically irresponsible.

They also say it will threaten the livelihood of 12,000 families, most of them Brazilian Indians living on the banks of the Xingu river that would feed the facility.

IN DEPTH

"We, the indigenous, demand justice and respect," read one placard carried by protesters in front of the National Electric Energy Agency's offices.

The regional justice ministry in the state of Para tried to stall tenders for the project in a ruling, calling the dam "an affront to environmental laws".

It said too many questions remained over how the dam would affect flora and fauna in the region, and what would become of the families who would have to be relocated.

But the project has been defended by the local population who hope to benefit from the estimated 18,000 and 80,000 direct and indirect jobs the government says the project will create.

Energy boost

The government has insisted the dam is essential to its plan to boost energy production in Brazil, Latin America's biggest economy.

For a construction cost of $11.2bn, Belo Monte is expected to be able to produce 11,000 megawatts, which could supply 20 million homes with power.

The dam would be the third-biggest in the world, after China's Three Gorges facility, and Brazil's Itaipu dam in the south.

A Greenpeace spokesman said the government should have used other possible energy sources such as wind power, biomass or solar.

Hydroelectric energy accounts for 73 per cent of the energy produced in Brazil.

The end is near for Bluefin Tuna...

2010-03-30T18:43:00.000-07:00

I am sure that most of you have already heard the disappointing news regarding the rejection of the proposal to ban the export of Atlantic Bluefin Tuna, but I thought I should write a quick post about it for anyone who is still in the dark.

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES)is an international agreement between governments. Its aim is to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival (http://www.cites.org/eng/disc/what.shtml).
On March 18th 2010, CITES rejected the proposal to protect Bluefin tuna. Japan, who imports 80% of the tuna played a big part in the rejection of the proposal. Many of the poorer fishing nations followed in Japan's shadow claiming that the ban would devastate their economies.

Japan and some of the other fishing nations also claim that CITES should not play a role in regulating marine species. This notion entrenches the idea that marine species are not animals and that they do not deserve the same protection as land animals. However, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICATT) who is supposed to be in charge of regulating tuna has let the tuna down time and time again. The most recent let down came in November when ICCAT reduced quotas from 19,500 to 13,500when the ICCAT scientist recommended placing a ban on Bluefin Tuna fisheries. (see previous post regarding ICCAT November decision).

This seems like the last nail in the coffin for Bluefin Tuna. Certain governments have been blinded by short term profit and have failed to take into account the science that has been provided or the long term effects of such aggressive fishing practices. All of this has put Bluefin Tuna on the path to extinction, and it seems as though it will come much sooner than we thought.

Click here for a GreenPeace article regarding CITES decision.

Chef Dan Barber talks about fish

2010-03-16T00:23:00.000-07:00

I found this talk really interesting. Dan Barber, a chef from New York state discusses the sustainability of two different types of farmed fish.

Fish 2 Fork

2010-02-22T23:23:00.000-08:00

If you live in the US or the UK eating sustainably caught seafood in restaurants just for a lot easier. Charles Clover the author of The End of the Line has created a new rating system based on the effects the restauarants are having on the ocean: " The fish2fork rating system is designed to inform customers whether a restaurant is doing all it can to serve sustainable seafood and reduce its impact on our oceans at a time when overfishing is perhaps the greatest threat to marine life on 70 per cent of the planet’s surface."

Restaurants are rated based on the amount of information they provide to the customers regarding seafood, as well as wether any of the fish they serve is on the IUCN Red List.

The most sustainable restaurants are awarded with 5 Blue Fish, while the worst restaurants are given 5 Red Fish. The website also allows readers to write reviews and share their experiences.
Fish2Fork also provides up to date information regarding the lastest headlines concerning fisheries and the ocean.

I hope that Fish2Fork starts rating restaurants in Canada, especially in Vancouver where there are so many seafood restaurants that offer so little information.

When it comes to books: Borrow don't Buy...

2010-02-05T16:52:00.001-08:00

When I was a child my mother managed a bookstore, needless to say our house was (and continues to be) full of books. As I grew up I felt the need to build my own personal library with books that I love; however, now when I look at the piles of books that I have purchased over the years I can't help but feel guilty. All of my books (which cost a fortune to move everytime I relocate myself) now represent the millions of trees that are cut down to make books, magazines, and newspapers.

Most books are made from virgin (non-recycled) paper and most magazines are made from coated virgin magazine paper. When you think about the numbers things begin to seem a little bit clearer:
- 1 ton of uncoated virgin (non-recycled) printing and office paper uses 24 trees
- 1 ton of 100% virgin (non-recycled) newsprint uses 12 trees
- 1 ton of coated, higher-end virgin magazine paper (used for magazines like National Geographic and many others) uses a little more than 15 trees (15.36)
- 1 tree makes 16.67 reams of copy paper or 8,333.3 sheets. (info from conserveatree)

With these numbers I began thinking about the school that I currently work at and how on average we go through about 2 reams of paper per day. Two reams of paper per day means 10 reams of paper per week, which means 520 reams of paper per year. 520 reams of paper is roughly 31 trees per year! 31 trees and that is only for copy paper, the number would continue to climb if I added in tissue, paper towel, toilet paper, and all of the arts and craft supplies. 31 trees, and this only a small school of around 70 children, I can only imagine what a large school would go through!

So with all of this in mind I have decided to limit my purchases of new books and try to borrow as many as possible from friends and my local library (which is a little difficuly as I live in Korea and the English section is quite small). If I cannot borrow a specific book that I am looking for I then make my way to a used bookstore, where I don't feel quite as guilty making a purchase. And I have been thinking more and more about buying an e-reader something like the 'nook' which can store up to 1,500 books. There are also options that you can look at to help reduce your impact on the earth when it comes to purchasing books. Companies like Eco-Libris are trying to balance out books by planting trees and supporting green books. All you have to do is visit the website buy some stickers to put on your books and for each sticker you purchase they will plant a tree.

All in all I just thought that I should share my new mantra when it comes to books: Borrow don't Buy.

Korean Investment in Ontario's Green Energy.

2010-01-25T17:59:00.000-08:00

I read a really interesting article today on 'Futurism Now' . It's particularly interesting to me because it involves a Green Energy deal between the country that I have been living in for the past year and a half and the Canadian province that I grew up in.

Taken from 'Futurism Now':

25 January 2010 – The Ontario government has just signed an agreement that will (reportedly) bring more green energy and new jobs to Ontario, Canada.

A consortium led by Samsung C&T Corporation and the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) will invest CAD$7 billion (£4.12 Billion) to generate 2,500 megawatts of wind and solar power. These projects will triple Ontario’s output from renewable wind and solar sources and provide clean electricity to more than 580,000 households. The investment will also lead to more than 16,000 new green energy jobs to build, install and operate the renewable generation projects.

QUICK FACTS

More than 1,200 megawatts of new renewable projects, representing CAD$2.8 billion (£1.65 billion) of investment, have started up in Ontario since 2003.
$7-Billion (£4.12 Billion) Investment Means Green Energy and 16,000 New Jobs For Ontario, Canada
Ontario is Canada’s leading province in wind and solar power.
The Green Energy Act will create 50,000 new jobs in the green energy sector.
CO2 emissions from coal-fired power generation are 73 per cent lower than 2003 levels, with four more units coming offline in fall, 2010.

Why aren’t more deals like this being made in the U.S.?

The Korean consortium will also work with major partners to attract four manufacturing plants. This will lead to the creation of 1,440 manufacturing and related jobs building wind and solar technology for use in Ontario and export across North America.

The consortium fully intends to use Ontario-made steel in its renewable energy projects, such as constructing its wind turbine towers.

This is the single-largest investment in renewable energy in provincial history. The consortium chose Ontario because the province’s Green Energy Act guarantees stable rates for renewable energy.

“Thanks to today’s announcement, we will be delivering more green energy for Ontarians to use — and more green energy products for North America to buy. With this step, Ontario is becoming the place to be for green energy manufacturing in North America,” said Dalton McGuinty, Premier of Ontario.

“We commend Ontario for creating a welcoming climate for green energy investment. Samsung takes pride in its global efforts to support a more sustainable future and looks forward to working with Ontario residents and businesses to create clean, green power,” said Sung-Ha Chi, President and CEO, Samsung C&T Corporation.

“This is an exciting opportunity to help create new manufacturing facilities and be on the cutting edge of an emerging renewable energy supply sector in Ontario,” said Chan-Ki Jung, Executive Vice-President, Korea Electric Power Corporation.

Recycling~ war into love

2010-01-06T23:04:00.000-08:00

Lovetta Conto is a sixteen year old who fled her home country of Liberia to Ghana to escape civil war. While growing up in a refugee camp Lovetta met Cori Stern, the founder of Strongheart Fellowship, which is a "social-entrepreneurship program designed to help bright, resilient young people from extremely challenging circumstances around the globe develop into compassionate, innovative problem-solvers and leaders that can affect significant social change".

Photo: strongheartfellowship

With the help of Strongheart Lovetta was able to follow her dream of escaping the refugee camp and become a jewelry designer for Akawelle. Using shell casings from the thousands of bullets that were fired in Liberia, Lovetta creates necklaces. She melts the bullet shells down and pours them into a mold shaped like a leaf pendant with the word 'life' inscribe on it to remind that 'that new life can begin after hardship'. The bottom of the bullet shell is also used as a pendent and is left in its original state 'to remember what is was like before'.

Photo: strongheartfellowship

100% of the profits go to the Strongheart House which is located in Liberia and is 'a home and center of healing, learning, and excellence for gifted and talented young people from the developing world either displaced or orphaned by war or other circumstance'. It will open in 2010.

Photo: Carolyn Cole, LA Times, 2003

Happy New Year!

2010-01-03T22:52:00.000-08:00

Hi!

Just wanted to write a quick note and apologize for being so slack with my postings! Things were a little hectic over the past few weeks with finishing up and sending in a grad application (!), getting ready for Christmas, and packing up for a week on the beach in Boracay...

Now I am back to my sort of reality in snowy Seoul and I have so many things that I need to get blogging about!

I hope that everyone had a fantastic Christmas and New Years!!!

~kait

Have a Green Holiday!

2009-12-14T04:35:00.000-08:00

It's that time of year again... Excessive shopping and excessive waste, these are two Christmas traditions that I could never understand. Using rolls upon rolls of wrapping paper, plastic bows and tissue paper which end up in the recycling minutes after they are torn from their packages. There has to be a better system than this. This year try something different... use recycled newspaper or decorate recycled paper to wrap your gifts. There are so many different ways to wrap presents in a green way, click here for some more ideas!

This year instead of using gas to drive to the mall and fight your way through the masses of Christmas shoppers try looking for green gifts online. On my quest for presents for my family I stumbled upon the Grass Roots website. They have some wonderful ideas and the best part is, is that you don't have to feel guilty about the packaging or emissions emitted from shipping. The company has made the effort to offset carbon for all of their deliveries and use reused packing materials from its suppliers or recycled materials.
They offer a wide range of products, from vegan lip balm to biodegradable golf tees. You are bound to find something for someone on your list, or if you are like me you might end up making a new list of stuff you want!

Grassroots website: www.grassrootsstore.com

Ocean Acidification - The effects of global warming.

2009-12-01T03:28:00.001-08:00

'Acid Test: The Global Challenge of Ocean Acidification' is an interesting video from the Natural Resource Defense Council. The documentary was made to help raise awareness about ocean acidification and its effects on all living organisms within the ocean and the dangers that it poses for the future.
The video serves as a good starting off point for anyone who is interested in the effects that the increasing amount of carbon dioxide has on our oceans.

"Earthlings"

2009-11-25T01:52:00.000-08:00

If you are a current meat eater, use animal tested products, or wear leather or fur, this video will change the way you look at the world. It is a documentary looking at the harm humans bring to animals due to our complete dependence on them for food, clothing, pets, entertainment, and research. The horrifying images that are captured at animal shelters, pet stores, puppy mills, factory farms, slaughterhouses, the leather and fur trades, sporting events, circuses and research labs are things that everyone should see. Witnessing the atrocious acts that we inflict on animals allows us to make the connection between our food, clothes, pets, etc, and where they come from. Too many of us are ignorant to the fact that the plastic wrapped pork chops that we purchase in the grocery store are a part of an animal that was once living, breathing and felt pain.
After watching this movie I have been unable to get the images of the research centers out of my mind. As soon as I managed to finish the movie (which took three sittings, due to the fact that I was crying so hard) I checked all of my 'beauty' supplies and was ashamed when I realized that about 80% of my purchases were animal tested. I will never again be able to justify the purchase of a product knowing that it was tested on animals after seeing what these living creatures endure.
If you are interested in checking your products to see if they are animal friendly click here for PETA's Caring Consumer Guide.
There is also lots of great information on how to help bring an end to animal cruelty as well as becoming a vegetarian/vegan on the PETA website.

Follow this link to go to the official 'Earthlings' website.

Bluefin tuna - greed trumps science.

2009-11-19T18:40:00.000-08:00

Photo: Seaway

Bluefin tuna is one of the most over exploited fisheries in the world. Its current biomass is estimated to be less than 15% of its original stock, before industrial fishing. In October, scientists working for the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) recommended a ban on fishing to give the stocks a chance of recovering.
On November 15th ICCAT dismissed the information provided by their own scientists and agreed to set the new quota at 13,500 tons of fish, down from 19,950 tons last year. This does not come as a complete surprise as ICCAT has a history of setting their quotas far beyond what their researchers recommend. This quota not only creates risk of commercial extinction to the critically endangered fish from 'legal' fishing, it does not account for the overfishing and illegal fishing that takes place.
The continued failure of ICCAT to manage the bluefin stock has forced the Principality of Monaco into action. Last month Monaco submitted a proposal to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species(CITES) to list bluefin tuna under Appendix I, which would make fishing it illegal. CITES will meet in March 2010, which is when the fate of bluefin tuna will be decided.

Resources:
Greenpeace
Mongabay
EUobserver
Treehugger
Pew Charitable Trust

Pneumonic Plague in the Ukraine

2009-11-13T21:30:00.000-08:00

While the world continues on with its paranoia parade concerning swine flu, the media is ignoring (or covering up) a real health issue that is developing in the Ukraine. The Pneumonic Plague has been spreading, and quickly with cases now popping up in neighboring countries. As of November 13th in the Ukraine there were 1,308,911 sick, 69,691 hospitalized, and 265 dead, with autopsies revealing black lungs filled with blood.
The real issue with this spreading virus is the politics that are involved. There are some bloggers out there who believe that this is the beginning of the end, and I must admit that when all of the 'facts' are laid out, things do seem to be fishy.
The most interesting story relating to the virus is that of Joseph Moshe. Joseph Moshe works for Mossad as a biological warfare expert. In mid-August 2009 Moshe called into Dr. A. True Ott's national radio talk show and reported that Baxter International Pharmaceuticals was going to release a deadly plague from its Ukrainian lab. Soon after the phone call Moshe was detained by the FBI (after a long standoff involving pepper spray and tasering) and was sent to Israel where he has not been heard from since. (The Strange Case of Joseph Moshe.)

Photo: The Strange Case of Joseph Moshe

There are other strange reports such as: "light aircrafts were seen flying over the forest market area that sprayed an aerosol substance to fight h1n1 or swine flu, just before the outbreak started.", "connections between the trial vaccines and the current outbreak of Influenza", among others. It is hard to know whether this is a true 'epidemic' when the only information that you can find is on blogs and unofficial websites. Is it all just a conspiracy or do we actually need to be aware of the virus. The World Health Organization will report on the Ukrainian 'epidemic' next week, so hopefully they will provide some solid numbers and facts.
What do you think?

WHO report, November 17: Pandemic (H1N1) 2009, Ukraine - update 2

Related Links:
Mutant H1N1 Swine Flu Or Pneumonic Plague?
The Strange Case of Joseph Moshe
Sheep Society
Endgame
Has Baxter International released a biological weapon?

Dr. Daniel Pauly- Toward a Conservation Ethic for the Sea: Steps in a Personal and Intellectual Odyssey

2009-11-11T04:25:00.000-08:00

My interests in fisheries were first sparked while reading Daniel Pauly's book "In a Perfect Ocean. The State of Fisheries and Ecosystems in the North Atlantic Ocean". One of his most famous terms is the "shifting baseline", which is the notion that each generation believes that the ecosystem from their childhood was more or less pristine, so it serves as a reference. This belief causes ecosystems to be continuously degraded and allows for lower and lower baselines to be created and considered natural.

Pauly is the founder and the Principal Investigator of the "Sea Around Us Project", who's aims 'are to provide an integrated analysis of the impacts of fisheries on marine ecosystems, and to devise policies that can mitigate and reverse harmful trends whilst ensuring the social and economic benefits of sustainable fisheries.'

This is a talk that Daniel Pauly gave at the International Marine Conservation Congress on May 20th, 2009. He briefly talks about his academic history and how he became a fisheries scientist and then discusses the current state of our fisheries.

"The Age of Stupid" - First Korean Screening

2009-11-08T08:00:00.000-08:00

The first and only Korean screening of the movie "The Age of Stupid" will be held this coming Saturday (November 14th) in Seoul at the Dukwon Gallery in Insadong.

"The Age of Stupid" is the new four-year epic from McLibel director Franny Armstrong. Oscar-nominated Pete Postlesthwaite stars as a man living alone in the devestated world of 2055, looking at old footage from 2008 and asking: why didn't we stop climate change when we had the chance?

The screening starts at 7:00pm and costs 3,000won. If you bring your own mug you get a free cup of Fair trade Organic coffee (with no mug the coffee is 3,000won). The event is being put on by Green Drinks Seoul and Eco Party Mearry.

Click here to visit "The Age of Stupid" website.

Mucilages, also known as Sea Blobs.

2009-11-06T22:36:00.000-08:00

As global temperatures continue to rise, the temperature of our oceans steadily increases. The warmer than average sea-surface temperatures provide ideal conditions for the development of sea blobs. Mucilages begin as 'marine snow', which are clusters of minuscule pieces living and dead organic matter. They have mainly appeared in the Mediterranean, where the sea is relatively still and shallow, and were first identified in 1729. The sea blobs have been appearing more often and have been lasting longer, as the weather remains warmer into the winter months.

Photo: news.nationalgeographic.com

New studies have shown that the mucilages harbor bacteria and viruses, including E.coli. The issue that I find the most alarming regarding the 'sea blobs' is the threat that they pose for marine animals. The blobs can suffocate animals by coating their gills and the biggest blobs can sink to the sea floor, where it acts like a blanket smothering everything that it covers.

Click here to watch a video about the blobs.

Sources:
http://www.civilianism.com/futurism/?p=3273
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/10/091008-giant-sea-mucus-blobs.html

A quick note...

2009-11-04T10:30:00.000-08:00

Hi!
I just wanted to write a quick note to apologize for being so slack with my postings for the past couple of weeks! I am just getting over an eight day cold, and for the past month most of my free time has been going towards grad school applications. Being out of school for the past three and a half years has made me forget how much time is required to try to write thesis proposals, email professors, and complete application forms...
Hopefully by the end of the month I will have sent off all the documents and can direct my focus back on blogging!

Thanks for reading :)

Kait

Dear Korea: Plastic Umbrella Bags

2009-10-28T11:50:00.000-07:00

I dread rainy days in Korea, not because of the danger of getting jabbed in the eye by one of the million umbrellas wielded by aggressive ahjumas, not because there is a very high chance that I am going to get soaked by a bus driving past me at a million miles a minute, and not because the sidewalks in Korea are dangerously slippery when wet. So why do I dislike rainy days in Korea so much??? One simple reason: plastic umbrella bags.

On a rainy day most stores, restaurants, and offices put an umbrella bag dispenser at their front door. Before a customer enters the store they slip their wet umbrella into the dispenser and their umbrella is shroud in a thin plastic bag with handles. Now, this may seem like a good idea, but what do you think happens to these plastic bags when the customer leaves to brave the rain again? In many cases the bags are discarded onto the ground, which can cause drainage blockage and also can add to the plastic particle issue if the bag is carried into the river system. Some businesses place a garbage can close to the door so that the bags can be disposed of properly, but then again this is only adding to the massive plastic problem that the world is now facing.

These umbrella bags do not fit into the environmental picture that South Korea is trying to portray. By law you have to pay for plastic shopping bags at the mart, but you can use as many plastic umbrella bags as you please on a rainy day - and you do not have to recycle them... something does not add up here.

Are these bags really necessary? Shaking an umbrella out before entering a store has always done the trick, or better yet having an umbrella holder at an entrance eliminates the use of plastic and prevents dripping umbrellas from coming inside. While I am living in Korea I will continue to discourage people from using these bags, and I hope that these dispensers do not find their way to other parts of the world.

My dream home is made from a shipping container....

2009-10-19T18:33:00.000-07:00

... okay, maybe not one container but several, intricately stacked together to build a house.

Shipping containers have become the new material of choice for many architects and builders around the world. There is an estimated 18 million TUE (Twenty foot Equivalent Unit which is the measurements of a container) around the world, and each year many of these are deemed unusable for shipping. The out of service containers have started to pile up in port storage areas and people are now taking advantage of these useful steel boxes. Constructed to endure incredible weight and pressure, as well as withstanding mold, fire, and harsh weather, the containers make for excellent building material.

Image: maisonidekithome

In many cases it is almost impossible to tell that the house has been made from containers. The builders of this home, Bernard Morin and Joyce Labelle, from Quebec used 7 containers and opted to cover the exterior with foam spray insulation and regular siding. The home is 3,000 square feet. While a traditional home of this size would cost approximately $400,000, the container version cost $175,000 and only took 10months to build. Not only did this house save the family a lot of money, but it also saved a lot of trees.

Images: maisonidekithome

Morin and Labelle chose to leave the interior of their home raw, so that the viewer is able to see the marks and serial numbers on each container.
Keith Dewey, of Victoria, B.C. has done the opposite with his container home, leaving the outside raw and creating a modern look on the interior.

Image: Zigloo

Dewey chose to paint the shipping containers mint green, as that is the colour that many containers are today and he wanted to create a link to the containers original use in the shipping business. The interior of the house is quite a contrast to the exterior, being open concept, very modern, and bright.

Images: Ziglo

As the world's population continues to grow, ideas like these will become more important to take note of and to put into practice. Not only do shipping container homes reduce the number of trees being chopped down to build homes, they are also reusing material that is piling up as 'trash' in ports around the world. Reusing these materials uses less energy than if we were to make new materials for homes, reduces the amount of Co2 which would be emitted, and eliminates the wasted space that is used to store the unwanted containers.

Some interesting links:
http://www.zigloo.ca/index/projects/zigloo_domestique_gallery
http://www.lowimpactliving.com/blog/2009/07/07/affordable-shipping-container-house-in-quebec/
http://weburbanist.com/2008/05/26/cargo-container-homes-and-offices/
http://www.greenhomebuilding.com/articles/containers.htm

Blog Action Day: Ocean Acidification

2009-10-14T04:15:00.000-07:00

With each passing year humans are emitting more and more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. We do this through burning coal, driving cars, deforestation, and the list goes on. We have been told repeatedly through the news that emitting C02 into the atmosphere is bad for the environment, but did you know that it is having a serious effect on the oceans and all of the animals that live in it?
The level of carbon Dioxide in the environment is measured in parts per million (PPM), in the pre-industrial age the level was around 280ppm, we are now hovering around 380ppm, and it is said that by 2065 levels will reach 560ppm.
Oceans absorb a large portion of the CO2 that humans put into the atmosphere; however, this absorption of CO2 is now altering the pH level of the oceans around the world. We are literally changing the chemistry of the oceans. Scientists and researchers have just begun tackling this subject and are finding horrifying results. Ocean creatures are very sensitive to pH levels and any small change can have catastrophic effects. An example is that some plankton (which produce half of the oxygen in the atmosphere) are having trouble creating their calcium based shells, if they do not create shells, they cannot survive, and if they do not survive they will not create oxygen...
The chemistry of the ocean will continue to change as the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere continues to rise. It is easy for humans to ignore the issues surrounding the oceans because they are not visible to us in our daily lives; however, it is important for us to remember that the oceans are the key to life, without them we will not survive.

Image from: http://maps.grida.no/go/graphic/top-20-greenhouse-gas-emitter
s-including-land-use-change-and-forestry

Aquacalypse Now

2009-10-10T05:01:00.001-07:00

'Aquacalypse Now' is yet, another important article written by Daniel Pauly, which everyone should read. The piece focuses on the overfishing and careless destruction of the worlds oceans, on behalf of our governments* irresponsible decision making.
For Daniel Pauly eating a tuna roll is the equivalent of harpooning a manatee; and to be honest, after reading more on the topic of overfishing, I couldn't agree with him more.

Click on the link below to read the article:

Aquacalypse Now | The New Republic

Shared via AddThis

* our governments: governments around the world.

Be Green Forever and Recycle Yourself. Guest post by Elizabeth Fournier.

2009-10-07T17:07:00.000-07:00

As the green movement reveals its reach, proponents prove that no aspect of life is without an outlet for applied sustainability. Take green burial, in which a casket is replaced with a biodegradable box or shroud that allows a body to decompose freely.

So what does a green burial look like? Picture the following setting: A body completely wrapped in quite a few yards of cloth, with four friends and family members on hand to cautiously lower it into the ground. There is no vault, no liner, and no embalming chemicals. Embalming fluid contains toxic chemicals -- including up to three gallons of formaldehyde -- that can seep into soil and ground water. What few people may know is that embalming is unnecessary, and it’s rarely required by law.

Soon the plain grave is covered with Earth, with a knoll of dirt on top to compensate for settling that will happen over time. There is no marker here, just native foliage. The backdrop doesn’t look so much like a cemetery, but more like a nature conservancy.

A similar wood casket is buried in a traditional cemetery. Instead of a cement vault that surrounds it, a liner goes on top. Similar to an upside-down shoebox, there is no bottom, and the casket, sitting directly on the dirt, decomposes in time, along with the body inside.

As a society, we should look for a means of closure that is more natural. There is no disgrace in surrendering our loved ones, and eventually ourselves, to the embrace of the earth. It is a ritual of reunion between body and soil, not to be restrained by artificial preservation. This is, perhaps, the ultimate gesture of reuse and renewal.

Sustainability, it seems, can be practiced in all aspects of one’s life, including death.

Review: Hot, Flat, and Crowded. By, Thomas Friedman

2009-10-05T19:23:00.000-07:00

I cannot claim this to be a true 'Review' due to the fact that I have only struggled my way nearly 200 pages into this book, with no end in sight. Most reviews that I have found online for this book are positive, some claiming that it is 'profound', 'amazing', and 'ground breaking'.
Am I the only person who had a lot of trouble getting through it?? I felt as though within the first 100 pages Friedman said 'hot, flat, and crowded' about 50 times. I understand that he is trying to make a brand, but such repetition is unnecessary, we get it, it's not that difficult of a concept to grasp! Friedman also has a tendency to make the reader feel unintelligent, repeating the same statement several times, dumbing it down a little more each time he time he says it. We are not elementary school children, and that fact of the matter is, if we picked up your book, we are probably interested in the environment and have a little background knowledge on the subject.
What really gets me is the way that Friedman talks about North Americans and how we have the largest carbon footprint and that we all need to cut back, (which I completely agree with)- and then you see a picture of his house! By the way he talks in his book you'd expect to see windmills, well at least some solar panels - you couldn't be more wrong...

Photo: Planet Gore

There are a lot of interesting ideas and quotes that Friedman uses from outside sources for his book and because of this I do plan on finishing it, but when I will get around to finishing...? I can safely say it's going to take me a long while.

Did you know that Thomas Friedman is a billionaire??? Follow this link to find out more: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/7/31/121447/985

William Kamkwamba and the wind

2009-10-02T13:00:00.000-07:00

William Kamkwamba is an inspiration for the rest of the world. Growing up in Masitala Village, Wimbe, Malawi he worked on the family farm and attended school. However in 2001 famine struck the country and William was forced to quit school as his family was struggling to buy enough to eat. William was determined to continue his education and began visiting and borrowing books from the library. At the age of 14 he borrowed a book called 'Using Energy', which guided him in building his first windmill using scraps found at the junkyard. The windmill produced energy for his families home for lights, radio, and to pump water to irrigate their maize crops.
Now 22, Kamkwamba has since expanded his windmills to clean water, malaria prevention, solar power and more lighting. He has returned to school at the African Leadership Academy.

Watch William Kamkwamba's TED Talk below:

On October 1st 2009, Kamkwamba's autobiography 'The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind' was released.

Related links:
Moving Windmills

What do you know about the fish you are eating?

2009-09-26T12:50:00.000-07:00

When making a big purchase we usually take some time to consider our options, and we always ask lots of questions about the product: what company made it? (ie. what kind is it), where did it come from? how was it made? (what materials were used), what's inside?, etc.
These are all important questions that we need to ask before purchasing, say,a computer.
So, why don't we ask these same questions when purchasing our food. Buying food may not cost as much as a computer, but we are putting it inside of our bodies.
When I say food, I am thinking mainly of meats; cow, pig, and specifically fish. In a world where the fish populations are rapidly decreasing, it amazes me that local supermarkets and restaurants still stock their shelves with 'Fresh Fish' on a daily basis - and customers continue to buy it with no questions asked. The list of questions above can easily be applied when purchasing fish, and your local market or restaurant should be able to provide you with some answers.

Let's quickly go through some of these questions regarding fish and the reasons why they are important to ask.
1. What kind is it? This is the first question that you should ask, especially when it comes to fish like tuna: is it bluefin, yellow tail, big eye... Asking this question allows you to make an ethical choice; was that Atlantic halibut really worth eating if you know that it is a long lived species that matures slowly and abundance has been extremely low. This is an important question as it allows the customer to make a healthy decision and also informs the restaurants and markets that people are looking for answers and sustainable products.

2.Where did it come from? This is an important question because you will be told whether the fish is farmed or wild caught and what body of water it was taken from. Some people believe that eating farmed salmon is a sustainable alternative to wild caught salmon; however, it is important to remember that farmed fish are usually fed with feed made from wild fish, they are usually given antibiotics and vaccines to fight the infections that occur in farmed fish, and the large pens also create water pollution. When ordering salmon the best option is Alaskan Salmon, which is managed well and has a fairly healthy habitat.

3.How was it caught? The answer to this question will provide you with information regarding how much damage was done to ocean life in order to catch your fish. Bottom trawls, longlines, dredges, midwater gillnets, and pelagic longline are the ones to stay away from. These methods of capture have a negative impact on habitat, both physically and biologically, and they also produce high bycatch volumes. The methods of capture with the lowest impact on the ocean are hook and line, purse seines, and midwater trawls.

4. What's inside? With this question you are not literally asking about what is inside the fish, but about what kind of pollutants are in the fish. If the fish was farmed, was it pumped full of antibiotics? If it was wild caught what are the common mercury levels in the species.

Here is a list of websites that are very helpful when trying to find information about edible fish:
www.seachoice.org (Canadian)
www.blueocean.org
www.fishbase.org
www.fao.org
www.mbayaq.org
www.redlist.org

An Interesting listen: Oceans of Trouble

2009-09-25T17:02:00.000-07:00

CBC radio one's 'Quirks and Quarks' had an excellent show on September 12th 2009: 'Oceans of Trouble'. The host Bob McDonald talked with Alanna Mitchell, author of 'Sea Sick, the global ocean in crisis', about the impact of climate change on our oceans. They discussed the five main areas that Mitchell sees as the biggest problems for our oceans: dead zones, acidification, coral reef decline, overfishing and marine debris. McDonald also talks with a number of specialized scientists regarding these five problem areas.
It's a great listen for anyone who is interested in the state of our oceans.

http://www.cbc.ca/quirks/archives/09-10/qq-2009-09-12.html

Green Living: Avoiding Asbestos. Guest post by James O'Shea.

2009-09-24T17:43:00.000-07:00

Going green used to be considered expensive and a luxury for those who could afford the trend. Now it appears that we are learning that not only is adopting more environmentally conscious attitudes good for our economic situation, but also our….health? Yes, if we dig a bit deeper we can see that dirty industries and backwards policy is actually harming the health of the earth for our children and the health of her inhabitants today.

There are two levels of health consequences associated with dirty industry, both direct and indirect. The direct consequences are examples like increased asthma rates in areas with high smog indices. Chlorofluorocarbon release into the atmosphere has shown to decrease the filter of direct sunlight on the planet, resulting in more concentrated ultraviolet light reaching the surface of the earth. Perhaps it is no surprise then that in countries with depleted atmospheric gas, skin cancer rates are among the highest in the world.

The indirect health consequences are harder to see immediately, but closer examination reveals that these are, in fact, perhaps the most hazardous. Bi-products of dirty and backwards industries, such as coal and oil processing, include cancer causing substances like asbestos and benzene. A U.K. study conducted in 2002 indicated that coal and oil industry workers are at a much higher risk of developing mesothelioma and leukemia.

Can we really afford to continue on the path we were on before? Investment in clean industry means not a healthier planet for our children and grandchildren, but also a healthier place for us to live today.

--September 23, 2009 Written by James O’ Shea with the maacenter

USBcell

2009-09-17T19:17:00.000-07:00

Purchasing regular alkaline batteries can be expensive and they also pose a great risk to the environment. Batteries can be recycled; however, most people dispose of them in their everyday trash. At the landfill site the battery casing corrodes and the toxic chemicals such as mercury, cadmium, and lead leak into the ground polluting the soil and ground water. These chemicals are known to be harmful to human health and in some cases are known carcinogens. It is also important to remember the carbon expenditure factor that occurs during the acquisition of resources to make the battery and its packaging.

An innovative new product has arrived on the market that will hopefully help cut down on our battery waste; the USBcell. It is a rechargeable AA battery that can be used up to 500 times and can be recharged using any USB port. Moixa Energy states that each USBcell saves 3kg of toxic waste. Once your USBcell is exhausted you can send your battery back to the company, Moixa Energy, (free of charge within the UK) and they will recycle the product for you.

A two cell pack ordered online costs approximately $21.50 Canadian (including delivery).

http://www.usbcell.com/

Finding Green Products

2009-09-14T19:11:00.000-07:00

I am always trying to find out how green the products I use at home actually are, and yesterday while searching for information about my shampoo I stumbled upon a wonderful website. Good Guide allows you to search by category (ie. food, personal care, household chemicals, and toys) or you can simply use the 'search' button to look for a specific product.

How it works:

The Good Guide provides you with an overall rating out of 10, which is based on a number of factors concerning Health, Environment, and Society. They also provide you with Ingredient ratings and a list of the products certification and listings. When it comes to foods, Good Guide also provides you with a Nutirtion summary (saturated fats, cholestoral, sodium, and sugars), as well as the Nutrition facts.

On top of all of the product information, the website also provides readers with news and recall updates as well as a list of helpful 'GoodGuide Issues'.

If you are interested in finding out a little more information about the safety of the products you use and their impact on the environment, the Good Guide is an excellent place to start.

http://www.goodguide.com/

A picture is worth a thousand words...

2009-09-11T05:13:00.000-07:00

Photo by: Alice Smeets

This beautiful, yet terrifying image was awarded 'Unicef's Photo of the Year Award, 2008'. The image titled "Surviving Haiti" was taken by 21 year old, Belgian photographer Alice Smeets. The picture presents us with a young girl in Port-au-Prince, wearing a clean white dress with matching ribbons in her hair, wadding barefoot through filthy water and trash.

This photo not only gives us a glimpse into the horrid conditions in which Port-au-Prince residents live, but is also a visual warning for those lucky enough not living in a slum of what could happen. Landfills and 'developing nations' can only hold so much trash, what will happen when we have filled them?

Alice Smeet's blog: http://blog.alicesmeets.com/2008/12/19/the-unicef-photo-of-the-year/

There are some other fantastic Unicef contest images worth checking out: http://www.unicef.de/foto/2008/english/index_engl_2008.htm

What's in your Exfoliant?

2009-09-05T22:52:00.000-07:00

Using an exfoliant can leave your skin feeling great; however, have you ever taken a moment to think about what those tiny 'bits' in exfoliant actually are?

Unless the product is marked 100% natural (even then you have to read the lable), those tiny 'bits' are most likely pieces of plastic. Yes, you are washing your face and body with little balls of plastic that will rinse down your drain, into the sewer system, then into a river, and ultimately into the ocean. Once these pieces of your exfoliant reach the ocean they become bitesize meals for small sea creatures which mistake them for plankton. These plastic particle eventually build up and get lodged in the animals intestines, which most often results in terminal constipation.

The main problem with plastic is that it has not been around long enough to know what the long term issues surrounding it are. As the plastic works itself up the food chain do the chemical properties change or increase enough so, that we are ultimately poisoning ourselves? There have been studies surrounding PCB's (which were banned in the 1970's but continues to leak out of pre-1970's platics) sticking to floating plastic in the ocean. When these platic particles are ingested the poison levels become much higher then when they were floating in the water.

So, if you are an avid user of exfoliants, before you purchase your next bottle read the label. If it contains any of the following ingredients: micro-fine polyethylene granules, polyethylene micro-spheres, polyethylene beads, or polyethylene, return it to its place on the shelf and look for a bottle that is marked 100% natural exfoliant. The natural exfoliants contain granules of walnut shell, jojoba seeds, grape seeds, apricot hulls, sea salt, or coarse sugar. The natural options may cost a little more, but they are easier on the environment and most likely on your face as well. Do you really want to be scrubbing your face with plastic?

How to comment...

2009-09-01T05:17:00.000-07:00

A big thanks to all those who have been checking up on my blog lately!

I received a note from a reader regarding posting comments on my blog ~ I am so sorry, I am still trying to sort out a few of the bugs for this template. I know it is very frustrating when things do not work on a blog and I apologize if anyone else has had a hard time with commenting! I will try to get this fixed as soon as I can.

If you are interested in leaving a comment, click on the greenish brown number in brackets beside "Comments" for the specific post and comment away!

Looking forward to hearing from you!
Thanks for reading!

The Story of Stuff

2009-08-29T20:10:00.000-07:00

Follow this link to watch an entertaining and informational 20 minute video on 'The Story of Stuff'. Here Annie Leonard discusses materials economy: extraction, production, distribution, consumption, and disposal. It's a great illustrated introduction to sustainability.

http://www.storyofstuff.org/

Dear Korea...

2009-08-26T23:23:00.000-07:00

"Dear Korea" is a new label that I will be using on my blog for posts that refer to the strange, sometimes unexplainable things that I witness daily in Korea. Most of these posts will have to do with the seemingly complete unawareness of the Korean public to their environmental destruction. I do not believe that Koreans conscientiously harm the environment, I believe that the government has not had a chance to promote the urgency of environmental concern and awareness. I am confident that if the Korean public was educated about the importance of environmental sustainability that things in this country would quickly be set in motion.

Having lived in South Korea for the past 15 months (with another 9 to go) I have been able to immerse myself in the culture and have found that at times it is easy to forget that South Korea only recently became a developed nation. All of the major cities are saturated with in-your-face North American brands and mass consumerism runs rampant. However, if you are here long enough you begin to see past the shiny exterior; the not so pleasant smell of open sewage and burning garbage, the visible air pollution, and undrinkable tap-water. Korea is one of the fastest developing countries and has the fourteenth biggest economy in the world. Everywhere you turn enormous stretches of land are being bulldozed to put up yet another mass apartment complex. With all of the hasty developement there is bound to be environmental consequences; here I will do my best to research the topics that I think are the most problematic.

What is in our water?

2009-08-22T05:35:00.000-07:00

Image: www.metaefficient.com

In recent years there have been numerous studies regarding drinking water around the world. In most cases these studies have revealed that there are a large number of pharmaceutical ingredients present.
In 2004 the Canadian Government released its findings from its first study of pharmaceuticals in Canadian drinking water. The test samples were taken near 20 water treatment plants in Southern Ontario. Nine different drugs were found in the samples, ranging from painkillers to Prozac. Testing of drinking water in Philadelphia revealed that 56 pharmaceuticals or byproducts were present in treated drinking water. And the New York State health department tested the source of the city's water and found heart medicine, infection fighters, estrogen, anti-convulsants, a mood-stabilizer, and a tranquilizer.

So how is all of this getting into our drinking water?
Living in a society where it is possible to pop a pill for any pain or ailment is the primary pollution problem. IMS health global services records show that in 1999 the world drug consumption amounted to $342 billion and in 2006 the number almost doubled to $643 billion. A significant proportion of the drugs that we consume are designed to breakdown slowly and are excreted through urine without being fully metabolized by our bodies, and end up in municipal waste water. The human body is able to metabolize 80% of drugs such as the pain-reliever acetaminophem and the antidepressant fluoxetine; however, chemotherapy (methotrexate), diabetes (metformin), and high blood-pressure (atenol) products are excreted practically unchanged, with the body only absorbing 10-20% of the drug.

What are the effects?
The effects on the human body are still widely unknown; however, environmental effects are already visible. Pharmaceuticals seeping into the waterways are disrupting wildlife. The most visible and documented effect is the feminization of male fish. It has also been noted that fish that are exposed to an anti-depressent drug startle less quickly and impairs its ability to eat. There is growing scientific concern that the ingestion of certain drugs, or combination of drugs, may harm humans over decades of consumption through water. There has been speculation over the possible long term effects from the various drugs: chemotherapy medication could act as a powerful poison, hormones could hamper reproduction and development, depression and epilepsy medication could damage the brain or change behavior, and antibiotics could allow human germs to mutate into more dangerous forms.

What can we do?
Some companies, mainly in Europe, are beginning to use 'Ecolabeling'. This labling can be used on a range of products from over the counter medication to shampoo and house cleaners. The lables provide consumers with trustworthy information regarding the ecological soundness of the product.
If you live in Canada look for Product take-back programs ( www.medicationsreturn.ca)in your area. These programs accept expired or unused medications for environmentally safe disposal.
The two most important steps that we need to take is to educate ourselves and share our knowledge with others. And most importantly reduce your own personal medical consumption. Next time you are about to pop a pill think about this: "Studies show that half the antibiotics prescribed by General Practitioners surgeries are unnecesary. Likewise more than 30 percent of pills work because of a placebo effect: the actual chemicals do nothing" (ECOLOGIST May 2009).

Sources:
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/mostread/s_556442.html
http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/emma_holister/2004/11/16/prozac_painkillers_hormones_found.htm
http://watertreatment.ca/2009/medication-present-in-st-lawrence-river/
www.medicationsreturn.ca
http://www.ec.gc.ca/INRE-NWRI/default.asp?lang=En&n=C00A589F-1&offset=22&toc=show
http://www.imshealth.com/portal/site/imshealth/

The Mannahatta Project

2009-08-19T05:10:00.000-07:00

Photo: Mannahatta Project/Wildlife Conservation Society

http://themannahattaproject.org/home/

The Mannahatta Project at the Wildlife Conservation Society in New York city has made it possible for you to imagine what Manhattan looked like circa 1609. In a time before the steel high rises and never ending concrete, the inhabitants were mainly wildlife and the landscape consisted of forests, valleys, hills, and streams.

The website allows you to search by address or by simply clicking on the map. You can explore the wildlife, landscape, and about how the Lenape people possibly used the land before 1609. You can also compare the 1609 map with the map from today.

“The goal of the Mannahatta Project has never been to return Manhattan to its primeval state. The goal of the project is discover something new about a place we all know so well, whether we live in New York or see it on television, and, through that discovery, to alter our way of life. New York does not lack for dystopian visions of the future…. But what is the vision of the future that works? Might it lie in Mannahatta, the green heart of New York, and with a new start to history, a few hours before Hudson arrived that sunny afternoon four hundred years ago?”

- from Mannahatta: A Natural History of New York City

Whales being attacked by seagulls.

2009-08-05T02:58:00.000-07:00

Photo: Mariano Sironi, Instituto de Conservacion de Ballenas, Argentina.

Another threat to the survival of southern right whales off the coast of Argentina has been added to the list; seagull attacks.
As the whales surfaces the gulls land and peck through the skin in search of blubber, which is an important source of calories. The bites leave big open wounds, which can reach a half a meter across and have a possibility of transmitting germs. This is not the first time that these attacks have been witnessed. "The attacks around Peninsula Valdes were first noted about 35 years ago but systematic studies have only recently begun. The proportion of whales attacked annually has soared from 1% in 1974 to 78% today"1.
The attacks focus on mothers and calves, as they spend more time at the surface and the calves have softer skin. "The gulls attack force whales to dive and flee, interrupting resting and feeding periods. The animals lose energy normally used to fatten for long migrations or milk production"2. "The mothers spend less time nursing, and we're seeing thinner calves"3.
The gull populations increased with the supply of food from landfills and development of fish processing plants in the areas. Researches fear that if the problem of the gulls is not solved the whales will attempt to travel elsewhere where they could be placing themselves in greater danger.

Photo: Mariano Sironi, Instituto de Conservacion de Ballenas, Argentina.

1. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8116551.stm
2. Marcelo Bertellotti of Argentina's Patagonia University. http://news.softpedia.com
3. Roxana Schteinbarg Director of the Instituto de Conservacion de Ballenas. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8116551.stm

Edible and not-so-edible fish

2009-07-21T19:40:00.001-07:00

There is an incredible amount of information available on the subject of the declining fish populations of our planet; yet many people continue to consume vast amounts of seafood, ignoring the inherent danger of destroying our oceans as we know them.
Below are two quick lists of the seafood we should and should not consume.

Fish we should not consume:
Atlantic cod
Atlantic halibut
Atlantic haddock
Atlantic salmon (farmed)
Bluefin tuna
Caviar
Chilean sea bass (Patagonian toothfish)
Grouper
Orange roughy
Sharks, skates, and rays
Snapper
Swordfish

Fish that is okay to consume (occasionally):
Blue whiting
Herring
Hoki
Horse mackerel
Lobster
Mussles and Oysters
Pacific halibut
Pacific salmon
Pollock
San eel/sand lance
Sardine
Striped bass
Tilapia

There are also many sites that offer endless amounts of information on the ethical consumption of seafood as well as printable seafood and sushi guides.
http://www.blueocean.org/sushi
http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/cr_seafoodwatch/sfw_whatsnew.aspx

Earth Alert, A Photographic Response to Climate Change- Seoul, S. Korea

2009-07-05T00:44:00.000-07:00

India Ghoramara Island, Sunderbans 2007. Image by: Robin Hammond/Panos

The British Embassy Seoul and the Embassy of the Republic of Korea UK have come together to put on a fantastic exhibition of 90 photographs commenting on the effects of global warming around the world. The images of destruction and devastation which were taken by 13 British and Korean artists, are beautiful and depressing. Images likes these make it impossible for us to ignore the ruin that we have and continue to bring to our planet and makes it clear that we can no longer continue to live the way that we do today.

Curated by Colins Jacobson, Stephanie SeungMin Kim:

Many people are confused by the concepts of climate change and global warming. They understand there is a problem but cannot quite get to grips with the implications. Millions of words have been written on the subject but photographers have found it challenging to find an effective way to tell human stories that involve the audience. In this exhibition, we offer different photographic perspectives from Korean and international practitioners who have tried in their own ways to relate to the magnitude of the problem. In some cases, this involves the perceived causes of climate change such as industrial pollution and deforestation but in others, photographers have tried to engage with those directly affected by climate change in their everyday lives. By incorporating both the physical evidence of climate change and the human cost, this exhibition seeks to encourage a broader audience to participate in the debate about global warming; to gain a wider understanding of the issues at stake; to take personal responsibility for their contribution to the problem and to demand concerted action from their leaders. Moreover, by providing this platform for those photographers who have already sought to confront environmental issues head on, we hope to encourage other photographers to seek new and thought provoking ways of influencing public opinion.

The exhibit is showing at the Daelim Contemporary Art Gallery in Seoul. It will run until August 23 and will then move to the Korean Cultural Center in London, England from October 13 - November 28.

To get to Daelim Gallery take line Number 3 to Kyongbokgung station and take exit number 4. Walk towards the Palace and turn left at the intersection. Walk approximately 10 minutes and the gallery is on the left.
It is open 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m (Closed on Mondays) and admission is W4,000.00.
Daelim Contemporary Art Gallery website: http://www.daelimmuseum.org/e_index.jsp

The unnecessary paper trail.

2009-07-03T00:08:00.000-07:00

My generation seems to be transfixed by the internet. Truthfully I cannot imagine living without it. I do everything from check the weather to watch my favorite tv shows online. One of the most important uses of the internet for me is checking my financial balances. For each bank account, credit card, or loan I have an online account so that I am able to check my status from anywhere in the world. As I moved away from home after high school this became a necessity, as I was no longer living at the address where my statements were going, and I did not always want my parents to witness the balance in my accounts.
When I went home to visit I would always find that my mother had stacked my mail in a pile on my desk. The majority of the envelopes always came from banks or my credit card company. Most of the envelopes contained statements but others were cheques that my credit card company was trying to get me to sign up for and other various 'junk mail'. I always followed the same routine of disposing of the paper with personal information by shredding each piece. And then I began to wonder; "Why is it that I receive 2-3 pieces of mail per month from the credit card companies when I already get all the information that I need online?". The answer was staring me in the face the entire time - all I had to do was click one button while I was on the companies website to stop the endless flow of unwanted paper: "Stop receiving paper statements".
If you have not yet created an online account for your banking, I suggest trying it out. It makes it much easier to keep up with your finances, as you can check it anywhere, and anytime. Once you have gotten online find the 'Stop receiving paper statements' button and help minimize your contribution to the destruction of our worlds forests. And if at anytime you require a paper statement it is just as easy to find the 'Start receiving paper statements' button.

Contact

2009-06-30T04:53:00.000-07:00

If you have any questions regarding anything on my blog please feel free to contact me and I will get back to you as soon as I can! Likewise, if you have any suggestions for future posts regarding the environment, sustainability, or pollution that you would like to see on Visions of Green and Blue please let me know!

Thanks so much for reading!

Just incase you haven't heard about Garbage Island

2009-05-19T18:41:00.000-07:00

1 mile trawl sample of plastic debris of the North Pacific Gyre in 2005.
Image from: www.algalita.org

Garbage Island - these words conjure up an instant mental image of a vast area of ocean covered in a mass of floating trash- plastic bags, beer cans, water bottles, bike parts, toys, shoes... The truth is, garbage island is a much more terrifying issue. It is not composed of solid waste floating in the water but the tiny fragments of plastic that will never biodegrade, which are ingested by marine animals and travels through the food-chain. Each year more than one million birds and marine animals die from consuming or becoming caught in plastic and debris.

Albatros carcass with ingested plastics.
Image from: www.algalita.org

Lying in the central North Pacific ocean, garbage island is estimated to be twice the size of Texas and may contain over 100 million tons of debris. The floating debris is accumulated in the slow moving clockwise currents of the North Pacific Gyre. It is believed that 80% of the garbage is land-based and the remaining 20% come from ships at sea. The land-based trash traveling from the west coast of North America arrives at the center of garbage island in about 5 years and trash from the East coast of Asia arrives in a year or less.

One of the first people to discover and take action in regards to garbage island was Charles Moore, a California based sea-captain and ocean researcher. On his return from a yachting competition he traveled through the North Pacific Gyre where he stumbled upon the worlds largest landfill. Since his discovery he has developed the Algalita Marine Research Foundation and has researched and studied the development of the trash and its effects on marine life.

Most scientist have deemed it impossible to thoroughly clean up the floating waste, as it spans such a great distance and extends 100 feet below the oceans surface. What we can do is make the effort to use alternative materials to plastic. Purchase an aluminum reusable water bottle in place of plastic bottles, bring cloth bags to the grocery store, if you see a plastic bag or bottle pick it up instead of letting it get carried to the closest body of water. It is up to us to make a difference; Garbage Island will not go away, but we can change the amount of trash that we produce and improve our methods of recycling so that we can eliminate its growth.

Captain Charles Moore at TED:
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/capt_charles_moore_on_the_seas_of_plastic.html

VBS Toxic Garbage Island: an excellent 12 part documentary that everyone should watch.
http://www.vbs.tv/shows/toxic/garbage-island/index.php

The UN Environment Program: Plastic Ocean Report
www.unep.org/regionalseas/marinelitter/publications/docs/plastic_ocean_report.pdf

Sources:
www.algalita.org
www.science.howstuffworks.com/great-pacific-garbage-patch
www.unep.org
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_Garbage_Patch

Shark!

2009-05-15T08:06:00.000-07:00

Photo by: Rob Stewart (sharkwater.com)

Sharks have been around for 400 million years and in the past few decades humans have managed to decimate shark populations by 90%. The fishing practices that are used to catch these beautiful animals is horrifying. They are caught on longlines then hauled onto the fishing vessel, (many still living and breathing) where their fins are hacked off. The helpless shark is then tossed back into the sea and sinks where it either suffocates or gets eaten alive. It is estimated that 100 million sharks are killed this way each year. There is little monitoring of shark fishing and too few regulations are in place.
We know so little about the 375 types of sharks, yet their population numbers continue to fall as wealth and greed drive the hunt for fins which are used for sharkfin soup and traditional cures.

Image from: Bimini Biological Field Station

Please visit the following sites to find more information on finning and to sign some petitions to stop it:

http://www.sharkwater.com/
http://www.savingsharks.com/
http://www.sharks.org/
http://www.sharktrust.org/content.asp?did=32610
http://www.theunderwaterchannel.tv/editorial/not-on-our-menu

Reduce, reuse, recycle - new terms for Calgary, Alberta.

2009-05-12T20:28:00.000-07:00

In April 2009 Calgary, Alberta residents received their first blue-bins as part of the city wide curbside recycling program, "Too Good To Waste". As one Canada's richest and biggest cities, why has it taken so long for Calgary to join the world of recycling?

Growing up in Ontario it was ingrained into our minds that throwing recyclable materials in the trash was wrong. We were taught 'reduce, reuse, recycle' songs at school and watched "Captain Planet" cartoons at home. For Calgarians things were (are) different. With no Blue-box recycling program, residents who wanted to recycle were forced to either drive to a depot or pay for private home pickup. The most common method of dealing with recycling was to not recycle at all, everything went in the garbage with the rest of the waste. On average Calgary recycles only 20%(residential) of their waste, while Toronto recycles 42%(2006, residential), and Vancouver 55% (latest released numbers for all sectors).

There has been a lot of grumbling in Calgary regarding the new program. Some complaints are understandable - not being able to recycle plastic milk jugs, when the previous private companies picked them up, however; some are not so understandable, such as complaints about monthly fees. Every city that has a recycling program has a fee, whether it be included in your taxes or added onto your monthly utility bill (Calgary). It is time that people realize that you are not simply paying for your recycling to be taken away, you are paying for cleaner spaces for Canada's future generations.

Calgary, welcome to blue-bin recycling. You are only about 20 years behind schedule, but I guess you could say 'Better late than never' (?).