tagged w/ North Pacific
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With populations continuing to decline, wildlife agencies issue a plan to designate critical habitat zones to protect the species. Such listing could affect offshore drilling and other activities.
By Bettina Boxall
March 10, 2010 | 9:51 p.m.
Federal agencies are proposing to increase protections for loggerhead turtles, the long-lived sea creatures known for their big heads and capacity to swim thousands of miles across the Pacific.
The National Marine Fisheries Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed a rule Wednesday that would list seven distinct loggerhead populations, including two in the Pacific, as endangered.
Since loggerheads were listed as threatened in 1978 under the Endangered Species Act, they have continued to decline. Wildlife agencies say the primary cause is incidental capture in fishing nets and long lines. But the turtles also have lost beach nesting habitat.
"More needed to be done to protect this species," said Andrea Treece, a senior attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, which along with other environmental groups petitioned the government to change the listing for North Pacific and Northwest Atlantic loggerhead populations.
Endangered status would trigger designation of critical habitat zones for the two populations found in the U.S., prompting protections that could affect future offshore oil drilling and other activities.
But marine agencies concede that U.S. regulations alone will not save loggerheads, which live globally in the temperate and tropical zones of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans and Mediterranean Sea.
Loggerhead nests in the U.S. are found along the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts, from southern Virginia through Alabama. The North Pacific population hatches on the Japanese coast and some juveniles migrate to within a couple of hundred miles of California, where they feed in open waters.
Loggerheads are thought to live up to 100 years. They grow to about 3 feet long and can weigh more than 200 pounds. Their big heads give them the strength to crunch through the shells of crabs, snails and "anything they can get their mouth on," said Jeffrey Seminoff, a biologist with the fisheries agency.
U.S. fishermen in the North Pacific have gotten better at avoiding loggerheads with the help of the federal program, Seminoff said. It maps loggerhead locations based on their preferences for certain ocean temperatures.
"The real problem is those countries that are just not playing the conservation game," he added.
http://bajatortuga.com/images/loggerhead-sea-turtle.jpgWith populations continuing to decline, wildlife agencies issue a plan to designate... more
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(CNN) -- Hurricane Rick weakened Sunday as it churned up Pacific waters on its track to strike Mexico later in the week.
Rick remained a Category 5 hurricane with its center about 450 miles (725 km) south of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Hurricane force winds extended up to 60 miles (95 km) from the center. Forecast models show that Rick could make landfall on the tip of Baja California by Wednesday morning.
Forecasters expect Rick to lose some of its punch as it curves northeast toward southern Baja, California, and then toward mainland Mexico later in the week, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. The storm could be downgraded to a Category 4 hurricane later Sunday night, Robbie Berg, a hurricane specialist with the National Weather Service, told CNN Radio.
Earlier Sunday, Rick's winds topped at 180 miles per hour, making it then the second-strongest hurricane in the eastern North Pacific in more than a decade.
The strongest hurricane in the eastern North Pacific was Hurricane Linda that reached winds of 185 miles per hour in 1997.(CNN) -- Hurricane Rick weakened Sunday as it churned up Pacific waters on its track... more
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The Great Pacific Garbage Dump Stretches From California to China
By DARCY BONFILS and IMAEYEN IBANGA
Aug. 6, 2008
The world's largest trash dump doesn't sit on some barren field outside an urban center. It resides thousands of miles from any land — in the Pacific Ocean.
Known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the "dump" is composed mainly of plastic, which isn't biodegradable.
Instead, the plastic breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces in the patch that extends thousands of miles, from California's coast to China.
A series of currents in the Pacific Ocean create a circular effect that pulls debris from North America, Asia and the Hawaiian Islands into a toxic stew. Then it shoots it into a graveyard of 3.5 million tons of trash that's 80 percent plastic.
Moore said he has noticed an alarming trend. The quantities have increased dramatically — more than doubling in five years. And Moore said there is no reason to believe the trend will slow.
And the plastic isn't just floating around in the ocean; new evidence suggests it is making its way into wildlife.
"I found 26 pieces of plastic, all different colors inside one stomach," said marine researcher Christiana Boerger.
Birds also are making a meal of the plastic, and large quantities have been found in their stomachs.
But the biggest debate surrounding the patch isn't its existence or its environmental impact, but rather how to clean it up.
"The experts say there is no silver bullet. We are going to keep looking, but at the moment it is not clear what the best course of action would be to deal with the materials that are already there," said Steve Russell of the American Chemical Council.
Moore, the patch's discoverer, said it's virtually impossible to clean it up. He said that stopping it from growing may be the best approach, which also may prevent other ocean dumps from forming.
Beach cleanups and improved recycling could help.
"The planet is a closed system. So everything that happens on Earth stays on Earth," said Steve Fleischl, president of the Waterkeeper Alliance . "What we need to do is to accept responsibility at the local level and rescue the amount of plastic that comes down our waterways and into our ocean."
Check out the links below for more information on the garbage patch and ocean conservation.
http://www.algalita.org/
http://www.oceanconservancy.org/site/PageServer?pagename=home
http://www.waterkeeper.org/The Great Pacific Garbage Dump Stretches From California to China
By DARCY BONFILS... more
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