A thousand words part 2

Some days you eat the bear, some days the bear eats you.
Although if the bear is a grizzly bear and you are a salmon it's really more of the latter.

Posting about the Wildlife Photographer of the Year award below made me think about the power of photographs. Joel Sartore, whose photograph of dead frogs in the Sierras won a highly commended in the One Earth Award, has a great website with thousands of his images - many taken on assignment for National Geographic.

He also has a blog and a FAQ with lots of great information about being a wildlife photographer.

To make this topical check out his gallery on Endangered Species:

Writer Douglas Chadwick has said that there is as much beauty and importance in the beat of a butterfly wing as there is in the howl of a wolf. Such thinking forms the basis for a remarkable law, the Endangered Species Act.

Since its inception in 1973, the ESA has become the most important tool in the fight to save animals from extinction. Though much maligned and woefully underfunded in the past eight years, the law protects all creatures great and small, from ocelots to beach mice. It even protects a single species of fly found on the California coast.

By isolating species on black and white backgrounds, all are given equal consideration (and hopefully equal attention) by readers. Public support of the law is vital to its continuance, saving hundreds of species for future generations.

Photograph shows A St. Andrew beach mouse (Peromyscus polionotus peninsularis), a federally endangered rodent, in Panama City, FL. This and several other beach mice subspecies are imperiled due to beach development.

Color changing whales

Google News lists 418 News articles picking up on this paper published in Proceedings of the royal Society this week:
Acute sun damage and photoprotective responses in whales
We conducted photographic and histological surveys of three seasonally sympatric whale species to investigate sunburn and photoprotection. We find that lesions commonly associated with acute severe sun damage in humans are widespread and that individuals with fewer melanocytes have more lesions and less apoptotic cells.

 Typical news stories by CNN: Whales suffering from dramatic' sunburn and Time: Brave New World: Thinner Ozone Layer Means Whales Are Changing Color?

I think CNN is my favorite since it helpfully offers targeted ads from Google for Skin Rejuvenation, Skin Peels, a Skin Care System and a New Melanin Tanning Pill. No word on whether any of these are available for whales.....

Emu Wars

I use the Wikipedia main page as the homepage on my computer. There's something interesting, something educational and something bizarre to read every day.

This item under 'On this Day' caught my attention today:

1932 – The Australian military authorised the second phase of a "war" against Emus, a flightless native bird blamed for widespread damage to crops.

The Emu War, also known as the Great Emu War, was a nuisance wildlife management operation undertaken in Australia over the latter part of 1932 to address public concern over the number of emus said to be running amok in the Campion district of Western Australia. The attempts to curb the population of emus, a large flightless bird indigenous to Australia, employed soldiers armed with machine guns – leading the media to adopt the name "Emu War" when referring to the incident.

 You can read the complete article, but it is interesting that the emus appeared more than a match for the machine guns sent against them

The machine-gunners' dreams of point blank fire into serried masses of Emus were soon dissipated. The Emu command had evidently ordered guerrilla tactics, and its unwieldy army soon split up into innumerable small units that made use of the military equipment uneconomic. A crestfallen field force therefore withdrew from the combat area after about a month.

 The ability of the emu to face up to machine guns obviously made a deep impression on the officer commanding the force sent against them.

If we had a military division with the bullet-carrying capacity of these birds it would face any army in the world...They can face machine guns with the invulnerability of tanks.
Major G.P.W. Meredith of the Seventh Heavy Battery of the Royal Australian Artillery

There is clearly an important question being left unanswered here - should emus ever choose to 'run amok' again how will we stop them?

A thousand words

Wildlife Photographer of the Year is an annual international wildlife photography competition  It attracts over 30,000 entries from nearly 100 countries and is one of the most prestigious photography competitions in the world.
The One Earth Award highlights conservation issues or actions and the interaction between humans and the natural world. Images must demonstrate the power and resilience of our planet and its impact on us. Whether graphic or symbolic, each picture must be thought provoking, memorable and encourage respect or concern for our natural world. 

Here are this year's winners and one of the runner's up from this category:

Jordi Chias Pujol (Spain)
Turtle in trouble

It's an image that communicates in one emotive hit the damage being done to the world's oceans. Jordi came across this desperate scene when sailing between Barcelona and the Balearic Islands, hoping to photograph dolphins. 'I spotted the abandoned net drifting along the surface,' says Jordi. As he dived down to investigate, he could see the loggerhead turtle tangled up in the netting. 'The poor creature must have been trapped for some days, it was so badly knotted up.' Though it could just reach the surface to breathe by extending its neck, it was still sentenced to a long, cruel death. 'I felt as though it were looking at me for help as it tried to bite through the netting.' Jordi released it, allowing one individual a second chance. Given that all species of sea turtles are endangered, they need all the help they can get.

Brian Skerry (United States of America)
Tears of blood

Each year more than 100 million sharks are killed worldwide, threatening the surival of most species. The slaughter is in part driven by the high price paid for shark fins on the Asian market. Brian went to Baja California, Mexico, specifically to document the killing. There is no restriction on shark-fishing in the Gulf of California, and using gillnets, fishermen will fish out an area and then move on. This female mako shark was pregnant with nearly full-term pups. 'I was concentrating on composing the frame to show the finning of this beautiful fish, with the fisherman sharpening his knife in the background,' says Brian. 'It was only afterwards that I noticed the poignant "tear of blood".'

Discussion Question 10 (Solutions and Review) comments due Nov 23rd

Are poverty and the conservation of biological diversity linked, and if so, how? Should these problems be attacked together or separately?

Discussion Question 11 (Solutions and Review) comments due Nov 23rd

Conservation biologists have been remiss by failing to link human health to healthy ecosystems. Consider an ecosystem of any size in your region and ask how might protecting or restoring that ecosystem benefit human health?

Discussion Question 12 (Solutions and Review) comments due Nov 23rd

Discuss some of the potential opportunities for and problems with possible ecotourism ventures near you. What issues would need to be addressed to ensure that ecotourism would be sustainable and not damaging to natural areas?

Whooping Cranes

Since we mentioned Whooping Cranes in the last class (as one of the drivers of the original Endangered Species Preservation Act) and we will discuss some of the problems of captive breeding in the next class I thought it would be relevant to post a video of the Whooping Crane breeding program, and, particularly, how they teach them the migration route. Although the video is really quite uplifting it does end with a bit of a downer.

Exporting pollution

There are a number of reports about the export of electronic waste from the west to developing countries such as Ghana. The New York Times had a photo-essay recently about Agbogbloshie, a slum in Accra, the 
capital of Ghana, where adults and children burn computers from abroad 
to get at the precious metals inside. Sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words.

Last year the PBS show Frontline had a segment on this same place: Ghana - Digital Dumping Ground. It really makes you think twice about what you do with your old computer.

November 15th Monarch Docent Training

The City of Goleta's monarch docent training has been scheduled for Monday, November 15. Here are the details:

Monarch Butterfly Docent Program

Interested in learning more about butterflies?

Already a fan of monarchs?

Become a Monarch Butterfly Docent!

Since 2007, the City of Goleta has trained volunteer docents to provide information to visitors at the Elwood Main monarch butterfly overwintering site, located along Devereux Creek.

Each fall, monarch butterflies in the western United States migrate to the coast of California from various locations west of the Rocky Mountains. Goleta is home to one of the premiere monarch butterfly overwintering
sites in California.

The butterflies arive in mid-October and remain until mid-to-late February. Each winter, our docents can be found at the Elwood Main site
on Saturdays and Sundays between 10:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m.

Interested in volunteering?

Attend our docent training session!
Monday, November 15
5:30 - 7:30 p.m. at Goleta City Hall
130 Cremona Drive, Suite B
Pizza provided

RSVP with Jessica Haro at 961-7510 or jharo@cityofgoleta.org