My yacht is bigger than your yacht

Oh Internet, is there any question you can't answer? The ludicrously large yacht that was seen in Santa Barbara this summer was the 'A' - a mere 390' super yacht owned by the Russian Andrey Melnichenko.

This doesn't even crack the top ten of super yachts, by size at least, with the Eclipse owned by Roman Arkadyevich Abramovich currently topping the chart at 557'.

Neither of these yachts is thought to be James Bond proof.

Harry Potter killed my owl

Owls with "ears" are thought to possess greatest magical powers, so birds like this owlet are given false decorations

A former student in this class passed on this news report to me from the Time newsfeed:
Are Harry Potter Fans Killing India's Owls?
India has a problem, an owl problem, and the government is blaming Harry Potter.
Following a report released by conservation group Traffic this week, Indian Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh blamed fans of the Harry Potter series for the dwindling number of wild owls.

Check out the linked report, Black magic behind illegal owl trade in India, it's interesting and eye opening (albeit less Harry Potter related).

Shri Jairam Ramesh, Hon. Minister of Environment and Forest said at the launch, “Diwali should be a time for celebration across our nation, not one when our wildlife is plundered to feed ignorant superstition. India's wildlife already faces many pressures; the additional burden of being killed out of ignorance and fear is not one that has any place in our modern society.”

“Owls are as important to our ecosystem as the Tigers or any other better known charismatic species. It is important that the threat to owls is brought to light during the festival of Diwali and concrete ground action is undertaken to curb such trade” he further added.

The TRAFFIC investigation also finds that besides black magic, owls are trapped and traded for use in street performances; killed for taxidermy and for their meat; their parts are used in folk medicines; even their claws and feathers are sometimes used in headgear. Live owls are also used as decoys to catch other bird species. 

Just as an aside if any of you would like to see an owl in action then take a walk up the road that goes from the bridge between Devereaux Slough and the Ocean Meadows golf course towards the Venoco Oil storage containers at dusk. You access this road from Storke Road opposite the Santa Catalina Dorm. There are at least two large owls that hang out there that will silently swoop down at your head. I'd always heard this about owls but it is worth experiencing to find out just how silent they really are when they fly.  If you continue on into the Eucalyptus you'll then encounter a lot of bats at dusk which seem tiny after you've just been mugged by an owl. The bats tend to fly right at you and swerve at the last minute.

Great undergraduate research opportunities: Presentation Nov 4th

Interested in Field Research Experience?

Track lions and elephants in South Africa, dive with Whale Sharks in Mozambique or study the behavior of Howler Monkeys in the Amazon Rain Forest. Take your pick!

Operation Wallacea runs biodiversity monitoring and conservation management research in various remote forests (eg Honduras, Peruvian Amazon, Guyana, Indonesia, Madagascar) deserts (Egypt), savannah (South Africa) and marine sites (Indo-Pacific, Indian Ocean, Caribbean).

Students can join these projects either for experience/course credit or to gather data for a senior thesis over their summer vacations.

Learn more
Thursday November 4th at 3pm
Marine Science Research Building Auditorium
Room 1302
and visit www.opwall.com for more info

Turtle Excluder Device or Trawler Eliminator Devices

Turtle excluder devices turn out to be fairly cheap -you can buy one here for $240. The main problem is that fishermen, who believe that the device causes their nets to dump 20 percent or more of the shrimp as well, call them "trawler eliminator devices" and have a variety of ways to avoid using them even if they are installed.

During this years Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill the New York Times had an article claiming that most of the dead turtles found in the Gulf of Mexico were a result of shrimp boats taking advantage of more lax marine enforcement during the Gulf oil spill:
Turtle Deaths Called Result of Shrimping, Not Oil Spill.

Dr. Brian Stacy, a veterinary pathologist who specializes in reptiles, said that more than half the turtles dissected so far, most of which were found shortly after the spill, had sediment in their lungs or airways, which indicated they might have been caught in nets and drowned. 

“The only plausible scenario where you would have high numbers of animals forcibly submerged would be fishery interaction,” he said. “That is the primary consideration for this event.” 

Many times the usual number of turtles have been found stranded this year, but NOAA has cautioned from the beginning that the oil spill is not necessarily to blame. 

Shrimp boats are the chief commercial fishing danger for turtles because they tow their nets underwater for long distances, and turtles trapped in them are unable to come up for air. Shrimpers are supposed to equip their nets with turtle excluder devices, which help turtles escape. But environmentalists have complained that some shrimpers disregard the law or do not install the devices properly.

Proposition 21

California Proposition 21 on the ballot tomorrow is likely to have some fairly direct consequences for conservation in the state. The measure is a proposal to increase vehicle license fees in the state by $18 a year in order to raise about $500 million a year in a dedicated fund for the state's 278 parks. The new fee would apply to about 28 million vehicles.

It's a relatively easy proposition to sell - who doesn't like the State Parks?

So why have numerous papers in the state recommended a No vote on this proposition?

San Francisco Chronicle: "With Proposition 21, California is taking the wrong path for a good cause. The measure carves out a hands-off budget for state parks, which badly need financial support. But this piecemeal approach to budgeting via the ballot box is not the way to set priorities in a state with myriad pressing needs, especially in these lean years."

LA Times "California's sprawling network of state parks, covering 1.5 million acres and one-third of its coastline, preserves natural space and historical sites and provides a democratic, low-cost form of recreation. But as proud as we are of our parks, are we willing to increase their funding at the expense of, say, medical treatment for children whose parents have no insurance? Are they a higher priority than home health aides for elderly people who otherwise would have to go to a nursing home? Or the public college and university systems that no longer can afford to offer needed courses? These are difficult questions, and the problem with Proposition 21, the car tax for state parks, is that it pretends to make the answer simple. It is another well-intentioned effort at ballot-box budgeting that limits the Legislature's ability to set spending priorities."

So it seems like a worthy cause but the wrong way to go about things. Or is the system so broken that the only way to get funding is to bypass the budget process?

Santa Rosa Press Democrat: "Let's be straight. There are some good reasons to oppose Proposition 21 on the Nov. 2 ballot. Chief among them is a reluctance to contribute to the delinquency of California's absurd system for funding public programs, resources and everything else. Why add another bell and whistle to this Rube Goldberg-like piecemeal system? Here's why: Because the alternatives are worse. And we saw hints of what could be worse last year when the governor proposed shutting down 212 of the state's 278 park." 

Newspaper endorsements were all found at Ballotpedia a very useful website. Check out their Prop 21 page.


Comments?

Man and Nature

This video from VBS TV was linked to on BoingBoing last week and I thought I'd save it for Halloween. The video is more sad than creepy but it does make you think about man's relationship with nature.

The Aokigahara Forest is the most popular site for suicides in Japan. After the novel Kuroi Jukai was published, in which a young lover commits suicide in the forest, people started taking their own lives there at a rate of 50 to 100 deaths a year. The site holds so many bodies that the Yakuza pays homeless people to sneak into the forest and rob the corpses. The authorities sweep for bodies only on an annual basis, as the forest sits at the base of Mt. Fuji and is too dense to patrol more frequently.

Apart from hundreds of corpses what is it that makes a place creepy? I think there is something about a relatively dense forest of similar trees with little in the way of topography that ties into some primitive fear of getting lost in the woods. Like in the Blair Witch Project or that great episode of the Sopranos where Paulie and Christopher get lost in the New Jersey Pine Barrens.
Happy Halloween.

Discussion Question 7 (Tools) comments due Nov 2nd

Choose a recent large development project, such as a dam, sewage treatment plant, shopping mall, highway, or housing development, and examine some of the costs and benefits of the project in terms of biological diversity, economic prosperity, or human health. Who pays the cost and who receives the benefits?

Discussion Question 8 (Tools) comments due Nov 2nd

How do traditional (or rural) societies use and value biological diversity? What is the relative importance of biological diversity in both traditional and modern societies? How do these societies value biodiversity knowledge?

Discussion Question 9 (Tools) comments due Nov 2nd

Traditional economists have argued that the marketplace will determine species protection. By this they mean that exploited species will be reduced only to the point where extraction costs equal revenue. It also implies that by giving economic value to species it is more likely that people and governments will protect them. Government regulation is seen as an unnecessary intrusion. Think of positive and negative aspects of this free market approach to conservation.

More frogs than you can shake a stick at

A good piece of advice I heard once was that a scientific paper is not, and should not be written as, a murder mystery. ie. don't wait until the last page to reveal your conclusions.  I remembered that when I saw the title of this 2009 PNAS paper on Madagascar's amphibian biodiversity: Vast underestimation of Madagascar's biodiversity evidenced by an integrative amphibian inventory.
Amphibians are in decline worldwide. However, their patterns of diversity, especially in the tropics, are not well understood, mainly because of incomplete information on taxonomy and distribution. We assess morphological, bioacoustic, and genetic variation of Madagascar's amphibians, one of the first near-complete taxon samplings from a biodiversity hotspot. Based on DNA sequences of 2,850 specimens sampled from over 170 localities, our analyses reveal an extreme proportion of amphibian diversity, projecting an almost 2-fold increase in species numbers from the currently described 244 species to a minimum of 373 and up to 465.
....
Our results suggest that in Madagascar the spatial pattern of amphibian richness and endemism must be revisited, and current habitat destruction may be affecting more species than previously thought, in amphibians as well as in other animal groups. This case study suggests that worldwide tropical amphibian diversity is probably underestimated at an unprecedented level and stresses the need for integrated taxonomic surveys as a basis for prioritizing conservation efforts within biodiversity hotspots.