Former SeaWorld Trainers Speak Out

One year after the horrific death of a SeaWorld trainer, the popular Orlando, Fla. theme park is getting set to launch a new killer whale show with revamped safety measures.

But critics say there isn't enough being done to prevent another tragedy.

CBS News correspondent Whit Johnson reports the park announced it plans to allow trainers back in the water - something that hasn't happened since the attack on Dawn Brancheau last year.

Brancheau, a 40-year-old trainer, was attacked and drowned by a 12-ton killer whale named Tillikum. Tillikum is still at SeaWorld, but is kept at a safe distance from the public and the trainers.

Since Brancheau's death, trainers have been subject to a new set of rules. Johnson reported the days are over of high flying "rocket hops," in which trainers are propelled into the sky by the whale. In fact, even though they'll be going back in the water, it will only be during training sessions. Workers will also have access to safety bars, and pony tails must be wrapped into a tight bun.

Chuck Tompkins, corporate curator of SeaWorld, said, "We've always said that we're gonna work to try and get back in the water. We're not there yet."

No date has been set for in-water training, but critics the safety precautions still ignore the heart of the problem.

John Jett, a former SeaWorld trainer, told CBS News, "They're certainly masking the issue that the whales are really bored. You deprive them of all the social stimulation, environmental stimulation and expect him to do well. You know, it seems to me to be a recipe for disaster."

In April, Johnson said, SeaWorld plans to fight a number of safety violations that could keep killer whale trainers out of the water for good.

SeaWorld and Brancheau's family, Johnson reported, are teaming up to create a foundation in her memory.

Dr. Jeffrey Ventre, who spent four years as a trainer with SeaWorld's killer whales and knew Brancheau, said this is a "predictable response" from the company.

"This is a multibillion dollar corporation that makes its money through the exploitation of orcas and trainers," he said on "The Early Show." "Trainers are grossly underpaid. And as Dr. Jett just mentioned in the previous segment, these animals are highly understimulated. Tillikum chose to pull Dawn into the water by her left arm, and it got ugly after that. So this is a predictable response. But I think the key point in history is going to start on April 25, when OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) takes a close look at the safety issues associated with swimming in the water with killer whales, and I think that's going to determine whether this will actually happen or not."

Co-anchor Chris Wragge noted Ventre is a key witness in government hearings about SeaWorld. What does he plan to say about the industry?

Ventre explained, "Well, first of all, Tillikum did a counterclockwise spin move using an arm bar and rolled Dawn into the water and killed her in probably just a couple of minutes. It really became a recovery operation soon after she got into the water. He broke her sternum; he bit off her left arm. She was scalped. She had a lot of internal bleeding. The posterior elements of three ribs were broken, and he simply wouldn't give her up. It took an additional 30 minutes just to pry his jaws open and get her out of him. And I think that these are the reasons why ... SeaWorld doesn't want to open these hearings up. Because the details are horrific."

Ventre added, "I just wrote a paper with Dr. Jett that describes the increased mortality and morbidity associated with the whales themselves. For example, we now know that killer whales in captivity typically don't live to even 10 years once they enter that environment. We also know that they break their teeth on the horizontal steel bars that separate them for training sessions. And if you take a look at their teeth, this might be the reason why they're dying at such an early age."

Source: CBSNews

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Baby dolphin deaths spike on Gulf Coast

Connie Chevis, DVM, left, and Dr. Joey Kaletsch, DVM, take samples while performing a necropsy on a dolphin calf at the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies in Gulfport on Monday, February 21 2011. The calf, who is believed to be about four days old, was killed by trauma. Mobi Salangi, executive director for the institute, says there is an unusually high number of dolphin calf deaths for this time of year. They have recovered 17 calves and are performing necropsies to determine the causes of death.

GULFPORT -- Baby dolphins, some barely three feet in length, are washing up along the Mississippi and Alabama coastlines at 10 times the normal rate of stillborn and infant deaths, researchers are finding.

The Sun Herald has learned that 17 young dolphins, either aborted before they reached maturity or dead soon after birth, have been collected along the shorelines.

The Institute of Marine Mammal Studies is doing necropsies, animal autopsies, on two of the babies now.

Moby Solangi, director of the institute, called the numbers an anomaly and told the Sun Herald that they are significant, especially in light of the BP oil spill throughout the spring and summer last year. Millions of barrels of crude oil containing toxins and carcinogens spewed into the Gulf of Mexico. Oil worked its way into the Mississippi and Chandeleur sounds and other bays and shallow waters where dolphins breed and give birth.

This is the first birthing season for dolphins since the spill.

Dolphins breed in the spring and carry their young for 11 to 12 months, Solangi said.

Typically in January and February, there are one or two babies per month found in Mississippi and Alabama, then the birthing season goes into full swing in March and April.

“For some reason, they’ve started aborting or they were dead before they were born,” Solangi said. “The average is one or two a month. This year we have 17 and February isn’t even over yet.”

Deaths in the adult dolphin population rose in the year of the oil spill from a norm of about 30 to 89, Solangi said.

Solangi is gathering tissue and organs for a thorough forensic study of the infant deaths and is cautious about drawing conclusions until the data is in within a couple of weeks.

“We shouldn’t really jump to any conclusions until we get some results,” Solangi said. “But this is more than just a coincidence.”

The institute told the Sun Herald that it has collected 14 infant dolphins in the last two weeks and three in Mississippi today.

The Sun Herald will update this story with more details as they become available.

Source: http://www.sunherald.com/2011/02/20/2881134/baby-dolphin-deaths-spike-on-gulf.html

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UN agency sounds alarm over impact of fertilizer and plastic pollution on oceans

17 February 2011 – Large amounts of phosphorus, a crucial fertilizer, are discharged into oceans as result of inefficiencies in farming and a failure to recycle wastewater, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) says in its 2011 Year Book released today, which also voices concern over plastics pollution.

Experts cited in the Year Book, released ahead of the annual gathering of the world’s environment ministers that opens on Monday, says that both phosphorus discharge and new concerns over plastics underline the need for better management of the world’s wastes and improved patterns of consumption and production.

“The phosphorus and marine plastics stories bring into sharp focus the urgent need to bridge scientific gaps but also to catalyze a global transition to a resource-efficient Green Economy in order to realize sustainable development and address poverty,” said Achim Steiner, the UNEP Executive Director.

“Whether it is phosphorus, plastics or any one of the myriad of challenges facing the modern world, there are clearly inordinate opportunities to generate new kinds of employment and new kinds of more efficient industries,” he added.

The UNEP Year Book 2011 has highlighted phosphorus, demand for which has rocketed during the 20th century, in part because of the heated debate over whether or not finite reserves of phosphate rock will soon run out.

An estimated 35 countries produce phosphate rock with the top ten countries having the highest reserves being Algeria, China, Israel, Jordan, Russia, South Africa, Syria and the United States.

New phosphate mines have been commissioned in countries such as Australia, Peru and Saudi Arabia and countries and companies are looking further afield, including on the seabed off the coast of Namibia.

The Year Book calls for a global phosphorus assessment to more precisely map phosphorus flows in the environment and predict levels of economically viable reserves.

“While there are commercially exploitable amounts of phosphate rock in several countries, those with no domestic reserves could be particularly vulnerable in the case of global shortfalls,” the Year Book notes.

Further research is also needed on the way phosphorus travels through the environment to maximize its use in agriculture and livestock production and cut waste while reducing environmental impacts including on rivers and oceans, according to the Year Book.

It also points to the enormous opportunity of recycling wastewater. Up to 70 per cent of this water is laden with nutrients and fertilizers such as phosphorus, which is discharged untreated into rivers and coastal areas.

Other measures to reduce discharges include cutting erosion and the loss of topsoil where large quantities of phosphorus are associated with soil particles and excess fertilizers are stored after application.

The Year Book highlights a new and emerging concern termed “persistent, bio-accumulating and toxic substances” associated with plastic marine waste.

Research indicates that small and tiny pieces of plastic are adsorbing and concentrating from the seawater and sediments a wide range of chemicals from polychlorinated biphenols (PCBs) to the pesticide DDT.

“Many of these pollutants including PCBs cause chronic effects such as endocrine disruption, mutagenicity and carcinogenicity,” according to the Year Book.

Source: http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=37555&Cr=UNEP&Cr1

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Men rescue tangled orca

A juvenile orca that got tangled in cray pot ropes was "on its last legs" before being rescued off the coast of Kaikoura yesterday.

One of the rescue team, Ian Croucher, described an "amazing scene" when he and three Department of Conservation staff arrived at the point south of Kaikoura, near a landmark known as Barney's Rock, about 3pm.

"When we got there the whole pod was nursing it [the baby] along. They were cradling it, it was really amazing they were holding it up.

"I've never see them acting like that."

As the rescuers arrived the whole pod disappeared, including the baby, he said.

Mr Croucher, the owner of South Bay Fishing Charters, said the team had to search the area in his boat. When the floats of the cray pots appeared they managed to grab the ropes and pull them, with the juvenile orca, alongside the boat.

"It was pretty distressed, it was hanging upside down when we found it."

As the baby orca came to the surface the rest of the pod lined up.

"The pod was happy to have us. I think they realised we were helping and this big male swam right up to the boat and alongside the little guy."

DOC worker Dave Walford used a hook and knife system he designed and made to cut the ropes that had wound around the tail of the young orca a couple of times.

"When it was released it, it gave a couple of kicks and shot the gap. It went away happily with the rest of the pod and they cruised off," Mr Walford said.

"It was an amazing experience. It was brilliant, absolutely brilliant. It's a real success story."

DOC staff member Ian Surgenor, who was part of the rescue team, said it was straightforward and done very calmly.

"The whole pod was in a line observing and they were very calm.

"They sort of seemed to know," he said.

As they lifted the baby orca towards the surface there was a lack of resistance, Mr Walford said.

"It was on its last legs, it would have definitely drowned but the pod seemed to have been bringing it to the surface," he said.

Keith Dunlop was the fourth member of the rescue team.

DOC South Marlborough area manager Dave Hayes said cray pot tangles were usually more common with humpback whales.

"It's often younger animals that are playing with the floats that get tangled."

The incident highlighted the need for crayfishermen to make sure there was as little slack as possible in the craypot lines at all times of the year, not just during winter when the humpbacks were migrating, Mr Hayes said.

Mr Hayes thanked Mr Croucher for letting them use his boat for the rescue.

Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/4675407/Men-rescue-tangled-orca

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Rising seas threaten 180 U.S. cities by 2100

(Reuters) - Rising seas spurred by climate change could threaten 180 U.S. coastal cities by 2100, a new study says, with Miami, New Orleans and Virginia Beach among those most severely affected.

Previous studies have looked at where rising waters might go by the end of this century, assuming various levels of sea level rise, but this latest research focused on municipalities in the contiguous 48 states with population of 50,000 or more.

Cities along the southern Atlantic coast and the Gulf of Mexico will likely be hardest hit if global sea levels rise, as projected, by about 3 feet (1 meter) by 2100, researchers reported in the journal Climate Change Letters.

Sea level rise is expected to be one result of global warming as ice on land melts and flows toward the world's oceans.

Using data from the U.S. Geological Survey, the scientists were able to calculate in detail how much land could be lost as seas rise, said study author Jeremy Weiss of the University of Arizona.

Rising coastal waters threaten an average of nine percent of the land in the 180 coastal cities in the study.

Miami, New Orleans, Tampa, Florida, and Virginia Beach, Virginia could lose more than 10 percent of their land area by century's end, the study found.

New York City, Washington DC and the San Francisco Bay area could face lesser impacts, according to the study.

CLIMATE CHANGE

The effects of higher seas can range from erosion to permanent inundation, and the severity of the damage depends in great measure on where the cities are, Weiss said by telephone on Wednesday.

"In Miami, it's not just strictly along their coastal edge. They have to worry about the issue in all directions," because much of the area around Miami is relatively flat, making it more vulnerable to encroaching waters, Weiss said.

By contrast, he said, people in the New York metropolitan area can concentrate their efforts along the shorelines because the land rises quickly away from the coast.

Sea level rise is expected as a consequence of continuing climate change, which is spurred by human activities including the burning of fossil fuels.

The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has estimated global average temperature will rise by 3.6 degrees F (2 degrees C) by 2100. However, Weiss and his colleagues put the warming at more like 8 degrees F (4.4 degrees C).

Weiss said the lesser degree of warming projected by the IPCC reflects a moderate scenario. The study's higher temperature estimate is based on the idea that greenhouse emissions will continue along the current trajectory through the century.

Source: http://in.reuters.com/article/2011/02/16/us-climate-usa-cities-idINTRE71F7HQ20110216

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Whale tracked in 5,300-mile ocean voyage

SAN JOSE, Calif., Feb. 14 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists say a 13-year-old gray whale dubbed "Flex" has been tracked by satellite in a migration that's covered more than 5,300 miles.

Tagged in October in Russian waters off Sakhalin Island with a transmitter that reports his location to scientists each day, Flex was tracked past the central California coast on the weekend, the San Jose Mercury News reported Sunday.

Researchers have calculated his average swimming speed at around 4 mph and say he travels about 100 miles each day.

"These whales swim 24 hours a day," Bruce Mate, director of the Marine Mammal Institute at Oregon State University, said. "It's not an 8-hour shift. They don't feed during their migration, and they're really moving along."

Flex is a western gray whale and with only 130 known individuals the species is second only to the North Atlantic right whale in terms of large marine mammals approaching extinction.

Little is known of their behavior except that they summer off the Russian coast to feed.

Flex has so far journeyed more than 5,300 miles, almost directly across deep, open ocean waters from Russia to Alaska before turning south.

Though Flex is providing some first clues to the western gray's habits, researchers say they still don't know where he is going, whether long journeys such as his are normal or if he is traveling with other whales.

"That's the wonderful thing about tagging studies," Mate said. "You put the instruments on the animals and they tell their own stories. They go where they go."

Source: http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2011/02/14/Whale-tracked-in-5300-mile-ocean-voyage/UPI-49621297710449/

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New Way to Estimate Global Rainfall and Track Ocean Pollution

University of Miami (UM) scientists have found a new way to estimate global rainfall and track ocean pollution. A portion of the precipitation sampling for the study was carried out at this site, located on the extreme west end of Bermuda, and at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS). The site was erected in the late 1980s by UM Professor Joe Prospero's aerosol research group as part of the Atmosphere-Ocean Research Program. The station is now operated by BIOS. (Credit: UM/RSMAS)

ScienceDaily — A study by scientists at the University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science suggests a new way to estimate how much of the ocean's pollution is falling from the sky. The new findings can help improve scientific understanding of how toxic airborne chemicals, from the burning of fossil fuels and industrial power plants emissions, are impacting the oceans globally.

By measuring Beryllium-7 (⁷Be) isotope concentrations in the ocean, which is found naturally throughout Earth's atmosphere, Rosenstiel School scientists David Kadko and Joseph Prospero were able to provide a method to accurately estimate rainfall in remote regions of the ocean. The two-year study measured ⁷Be deposited in rain collectors at two sites in Bermuda and compared these estimates to those observed in the nearby Sargasso Sea.

"Over vast areas of the oceans the only rainfall data available are those made by using conventional rain collectors placed on islands," said Prospero, professor of marine and atmospheric chemistry at the UM Rosenstiel School. "However, rainfall on the island is not necessarily representative of that which falls in the surrounding ocean. Our paper shows that properly placed rain collectors on Bermuda do yield rainfall rates that agree with those determined through the ⁷Be measurements."

Rainfall is a major pathway by which man-made airborne pollutants and other naturally occurring chemicals enter the oceans. Berrylium-7, like man-made pollutants and other naturally occurring chemicals, attaches itself to atmospheric dust particles and enters the ocean during rain events. By understanding this process, scientists can establish new ways to quantify airborne pollutants deposited to the ocean.

"The accumulation of ⁷Be in the upper ocean provides a means of assessing ⁷Be deposition to the ocean on regional and global scales," said Kadko, professor marine and atmospheric chemistry of at the Rosenstiel and lead author of the study. "This then can be used to assess the deposition of other chemical species."

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/02/110215111849.htm

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Got Iron? Even the Ocean Recycles!

ScienceDaily — In the vast ocean where an essential nutrient -- iron -- is scarce, a marine bacterium that launches the ocean food web survives by using a remarkable biochemical trick: It recycles iron.

By day, it uses iron in enzymes for photosynthesis to make carbohydrates; then by night, it appears to reuse the same iron in different enzymes to produce organic nitrogen for proteins.

The bacterium, Crocosphaera watsonii, is one of the few marine microbes that can convert nitrogen gas into organic nitrogen, which (just as it does on land) acts as fertilizer to stimulate plant growth in the ocean. So the ocean's productivity is limited by nitrogen, which in turn is limited by scanty supplies of iron for the enzymes needed to make organic nitrogen.

This newfound capacity to conserve precious iron and use it in day-night shifts to satisfy two different metabolic demands reveals a surprising key to life on our planet, say scientists at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). They reported their findings Jan. 10 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The scientists call the strategy "hot bunking," referring to ships that sail with fewer bunks than sailors on board. The bunks are kept continuously hot, as sailors finishing night shifts hop into bunks newly emptied by sailors arising for day shifts.

Crocosphaera uses iron-containing nitrogenase enzymes to convert dissolved nitrogen gas into organic nitrogen (a process called nitrogen "fixing"). As the sun comes up, the bacterium breaks down these enzymes, releasing iron that can be used to make photosynthetic enzymes needed to convert dissolved carbon dioxide into carbohydrates. When the sun goes down, many of the photosynthetic enzymes are broken down, releasing the iron again to be recycled into nitrogenase.

Crocosphaera belongs to a subgroup of bacteria called cyanobacteria. "They have a bit of a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde lifestyle: photosynthetic by day and nitrogen-fixing by night," said Mak Saito, a WHOI biogeochemist and lead author of the PNAS paper. Scientists previously knew cyanobacteria had this unusual dual-metabolic capacity, but they did not know how they could accomplish it with meager iron supplies.

The bacterium pays a price in energy needed to destroy and rebuild enzymes each day, but it's worth it to maximize the use of scarce iron. The scientists estimate that by using the hot bunking strategy, the organism can survive with about 40 percent less iron than it would otherwise need. It allows Crocosphaera to thrive and produce life-sustaining organic nitrogen in iron-poor waters that would otherwise be less productive.

The surprising abundance of cyanobacteria in the ocean was discovered in the 1970s by WHOI microbiologist Stanley Watson and his colleagues Frederica Valois and John Waterbury and, who later continued their pioneering research to elucidate cyanobacteria's critical ecological roles for the ocean and the planet. Crocosphaera watsonii is named after the late Dr. Watson.

Cyanobacteria have been notoriously difficult to culture in the laboratory. At WHOI, Waterbury, Valois and colleagues established methods to culture cyanobacteria routinely and reliably, and they maintain a collection of cyanobacteria cells in a new building called the Stanley W. Watson Laboratory. The collection is a sort of lending library of cells that provide cultures for scientists all over the world to study, including new generations of WHOI scientists working in the Watson Lab: Saito, graduate student Erin Bertrand, and lab associates Vladimir Bulygin and Dawn Moran.

They applied new biomedical research techniques to the study of the ocean: proteomics. As genomics studies the genes in an organism (its genome), proteomics studies the proteins made from instructions encoded in genes (its proteome).

"We wanted to know not only what could potentially be made from Crocosphaera's genome, but also what proteins Crocosphaera actually did make," Saito said.

A key part of the technique involves using mass spectrometers that distinguish and measure the various proteins in an organism by the infinitesimal differences in their masses. The researchers measured the inventory of iron-containing proteins during periods of dark and light. Nitrogen-fixing enzymes were largely absent during the day and present at night; iron-containing photosynthetic enzymes decreased during dark periods and reappeared during light periods. Thus, at any time of day, Crocsophaera required only about half the iron it would need if it maintained both sets of enzymes throughout the day.

To explore the implications of Crocosphaera's hot bunking ability, scientists at MIT -- Stephanie Dutkiewicz, Fanny Monteiro and Mick Follows -- used a numerical model that simulates global ocean circulation, biochemistry, and ecosystem dynamics. The model showed that Crocosphaera's ability to reduce its iron requirements allowed it to inhabit ocean regions with low levels of iron. It also allowed the same iron supply to support more growth of the cyanobacteria and more nitrogen fixation that supports other marine life higher up on the food chain.

Funding for the research came from the National Science Foundation, an Environmental Protection Agency Star Fellowship, the WHOI Ocean Life Institute, the NSF-funded Center for Microbial Research and Education, and the Center for Environmental Bioinorganic Chemistry at Princeton University. The paper was dedicated to co-author Vladimir Bulygin, who passed away in June 2010.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/01/110110154649.htm

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