"Walking" shark discovered in Indonesia

A new species of shark that "walks" along the seabed using its fins as tiny legs has been discovered in eastern Indonesia, an environmental group said on Friday.

Channel News Asia - AFP, 30 Aug 2013

Screen grab from a Conservation International video showing the new species
 of "walking" brown and white bamboo shark found in Indonesia.
(Photo: Conservation International's Youtube account)

JAKARTA: A new species of shark that "walks" along the seabed using its fins as tiny legs has been discovered in eastern Indonesia, an environmental group said on Friday.

The brown and white bamboo shark pushes itself along the ocean floor as it forages for small fish and crustaceans at night, said Conservation International, whose scientists were involved in its discovery.

The shark, which grows to a maximum length of just 80 centimetres (30 inches) and is harmless to humans, was discovered off Halmahera, one of the Maluku Islands that lie west of New Guinea.

Bamboo sharks, also known as longtail carpet sharks, are relatively small compared to their larger cousins, with the largest adult reaching only about 120 centimetres (47 inches) in length.

They have unusually long tails that are bigger than the rest of their bodies and are found in tropical waters around Indonesia, Australia and Papua New Guinea.

Conservation International said the discovery of the shark, which was first disclosed in the International Journal of Ichthyology, "should help draw diver interest to this mega-diverse but largely undiscovered region".

Ketut Sarjana Putra, Indonesia country director for the group, said the Hemiscyllium halmahera shark could "serve as an excellent ambassador to call public attention to the fact that most sharks are harmless to humans and are worthy of our conservation attention".

Conservation International, whose scientists discovered the shark along with colleagues from the Western Australian Museum, added it came at a time when Indonesia was increasing its efforts to protect shark and ray species.

- AFP/gn

Shanghai 'roasts' the giant Rubber Duck

Google – AFP, 27 August 2013

A boat made to look like a roasted duck on the Huangpu River

in Shanghai on August 27, 2013 (AFP, Peter Parks)

SHANGHAI — Shanghai has served up a "roasted" version of a Dutch artist's giant yellow duck, complete with drumsticks and crispy brown skin.

Florentijn Hofman's Rubber Duck installation gained rave reviews when a 16.5 metre-tall (54-feet) version arrived in Hong Kong this summer.

Hundreds of thousands of people viewed it against the backdrop of the skyscrapers that line the city's Victoria Harbour.

Not to be outdone, Shanghai -- which is vying with Hong Kong to be China's financial capital -- has unveiled its own version on the Huangpu River, which forms its waterfront Bund district.

"The design process took place during Shanghai's scorching hot summer days, so we just thought: 'Let's roast it'," designer Han Beishi told AFP.

The 16.5-metre-tall inflatable Rubber Duck

 art installation at Hong Kong's Victoria 

Harbour on May 2, 2013 (AFP, Philippe

Lopez)

"Other inspiration came from an ancient Chinese poem: 'The duck knows first when the river becomes warm in spring'," he added.

Shanghai's duck is actually a working ferry boat which state media reported Tuesday will carry passengers and host cultural performances including poetry reading.

The duck's head, at the bow, is yellow, but reversed and looking back towards its body which is made of papier mache, with jutting drumsticks and cooked wings.

Several Chinese cities rushed to display versions of Hofman's Rubber Duck -- which has been making appearances around the world since 2007 -- leading the official People's Daily newspaper to criticise the flock of copycats.

But the Huangpu river has made more headlines this year for a pollution scandal which saw more than 10,000 dead pigs drift down it in March, discarded by farmers upstream.

Han said he floated the idea of making a pig but city fathers were not amused.

"It was my first choice, but the organisers had some concerns and the idea was dropped," he said.

Edible algae -- coming to a rooftop near you?

Google – AFP, William Davies (AFP), 27 August 2013

A woman prepares a spirulina shake in Bangkok on June 24, 2013

(AFP/File, Nicolas Asfouri)

BANGKOK — On a hotel rooftop in Bangkok, dozens of barrels of green liquid bubble under the sun -- the latest innovation in urban farming.

Proponents of the edible algae known as spirulina say it could help provide a sustainable source of protein as an alternative to meat.

Three times a week, Patsakorn Thaveeuchukorn harvests the green algae in the barrels.

"The algae is growing so fast, normally the doubling time is around 24 hours," said Patsakorn, whose employer EnerGaia uses Bangkok's rooftops to grow spirulina.

With its high levels of protein and nutrients, "it is beneficial to food security," he told AFP.

A worker checks a spirulina farm on the

 top of a hotel in Bangkok on June 24, 

2013 (AFP/File, Nicolas Asfouri)

"If you compare it to meat it will take six months to grow a kilogram of beef, but this we can grow in a week," said Patsakorn.

Spirulina has been described by health food experts as a super-food, and it is becoming more popular worldwide.

Rosa Rolle from the UN's food and agriculture organisation (FAO) says it has been an important food source for centuries.

"It grows naturally in Lake Texcoco in Mexico. It was eaten by the Incas," she told AFP. "It's in many countries that border Lake Chad in West Africa and is a protein source for a lot of people."

However she warns that it can lead to health problems for people suffering from gout, as it produces a lot of uric acid, and says people need to be educated about spirulina's positive and negative effects before they consume it.

"You need some nutritional information, but for people without medical conditions it would be fine," she said.

The empty space on top of Bangkok's many skyscrapers provide suitable growing conditions for spirulina as the constant high temperatures and sunlight are ideal breeding conditions.

Fresh spirulina is pictured at a spirulina

 farm on the top of a hotel in Bangkok on

June 24, 2013 (AFP/File, Nicolas Asfouri)

The algae also helps combat carbon dioxide levels through photosynthesis, its champions say, and growing it in cities means it can reach consumers the same day it is harvested.

Once the spirulina algae has been collected, it is hand rinsed and spun dry in a modified washing machine.

It then has to be hand pressed into jars, as there is no machine yet available that can work with the thick, jelly like substance it produces.

"There has been a lot of trial and error," Derek Blitz, technology director at EnerGaia, told AFP.

"It is great for vegetarians and vegans. It's also packed with anti-oxidants. It is really good for cleansing your body."

In their laboratory, lines of different sized test tubes all connected to one another act as the breeding ground for the algae. On the rooftop, barrels of different shapes are in testing, to see which will produce the highest yield.

The company says it is the only producer of fresh spirulina in the world; other companies only sell dried and processed varieties.

Jars of the algae have a shelf life of around three weeks from harvest, though Blitz plans to increase that so it can be exported abroad.

A spirulina laboratory is pictured in

Bangkok on June 24, 2013 (AFP/File,

Nicolas Asfouri)

"The advantages of having it fresh are that it has virtually no taste, so you can mix it with anything," he told AFP.

"Eating dried spirulina is like eating a cooked vegetable as opposed to a raw one, so you are getting a little bit more nutrition out of it (when fresh). The other reason to eat fresh produce is because there's a lot less energy involved in producing it."

And chefs across Bangkok are starting to experiment with the algae. Bill Marinelli, the owner of the Oyster Bar, is a convert.

"It is really good for you," he told AFP, in between mouthfuls of green pasta made with the algae. "We add it to dishes to increase the nutritional value."

The colour of the algae is so strong that anything it is mixed with instantly turns green. But despite that, and the fact it has no flavour, Bill is still keen to use it in his dishes.

"I'm looking at it as an alternative to animal protein. We can cut back on the amount of protein we serve as fish or meat, and incorporate spirulina for the additional protein source," he said.

Spirulina has been used as a food supplement for decades, and is popular among body builders. The question now is whether consumers will see it as a possible alternative to meat and fish.

Fukushima water handling 'like whack-a-mole': minister

Google – AFP, Shingo Ito (AFP), 26 August 2013

A Tepco picture from March 15, 2011 shows smoke rising from unit 3

reactor building at the Fukushima nuclear plant (TEPCO/AFP/File, TEPCO)

TOKYO — TEPCO's handling of radioactive water at Fukushima has been like "whack-a-mole", a minister said Monday after visiting the battered plant, pledging Japan's government would step up its involvement at the site.

The colourful comments come after 300 tonnes of toxic liquid was found to have leaked from one of the hundreds of tanks storing heavily polluted water used to cool broken reactors at the plant.

"With regard to TEPCO's handling of contaminated water, it has been just like whack-a-mole," said industry minister Toshimitsu Motegi, in reference to the anarchic fairground game in which players bash creatures that pop up from random holes.

"From now on, the government will play a greater role," he said.

Nuclear watchdog members inspect 

contaminated water tanks at Fukushima

 nuclear power plant on August 23, 2013

 (Nuclear Regulation Authority/AFP/File,

Nuclear Regulation Authority)

The trip by Motegi, who was apparently referring to TEPCO's hurried response to events rather than planning ahead, comes amid growing calls for the government to take charge of the clean-up at the plant.

Critics accuse TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Co) of being incapable of dealing with the vast -- and growing -- volumes of radioactive water at the site.

Last week's leak was dubbed the most serious single incident since the plant went into meltdown in March 2011 after being hit by a quake and tsunami.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in early August described as "urgent" the battle to stop contaminated water escaping into the ocean.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said in Tokyo that Abe had ordered his industry minister to take "every possible measure", including the use of reserve funds from the national budget.

"The leak of contaminated water from the tank was extremely regrettable," Suga told a news conference. "Failing to manage tanks properly is a big problem."

"As a government, we will do whatever we can do to resolve the problem."

Inspectors from Japan's nuclear watchdog who toured the plant Friday declared water storage at the site was "sloppy".

TEPCO said Saturday the tank that sprang a leak was one of three to have been relocated from its original spot because of subsidence.

The utility has not yet pinpointed the reason for the problem with the first tank, but at the weekend began emptying the other tanks that were moved with it in 2011.

A Tokyo Electric Power worker walks next

 to waste water tanks at Japan's Fukushima

 nuclear plant on June 12, 2013 (Pool/AFP/

 File, Noboru Hashimoto)

On Sunday Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida visited Chernobyl in Ukraine, the site of a 1986 nuclear disaster, and was due to hold talks with his Ukrainian counterpart on Monday.

Kishida hopes to share experience in overcoming the consequences of nuclear disasters, a spokesperson said.

More than two years after the disaster at Fukushima, TEPCO continues to struggle with the clean-up, a project expected to take around four decades.

A catalogue of mishaps, often accompanied by a perceived unwillingness publicly to reveal the extent of problems, is leading to a growing chorus warning of the need for outside experts to step in and take control of the operation.

While no one is officially recorded as having died as a direct result of the radiation released by the meltdowns, large areas around the plant had to be evacuated.

Tens of thousands of people are still unable to return to their homes, with scientists warning some areas may have to be abandoned for human habitation.

Fukushima nuclear disaster (AFP Graphic)

China graft crackdown hits Hong Kong's 'Dried Seafood Street'

Google – AFP, Celine Ge (AFP), 25 August 2013

A customer talks to a shopkeeper at a store selling shark fin in

Hong Kong, September 5, 2012 (AFP/File, Philippe Lopez)

HONG KONG — In a narrow Hong Kong street filled with the tang of dried sea creatures, shopkeepers are blaming China's recent corruption crackdown for falling sales of expensive banquet foods such as shark fin and abalone.

Such items have fallen off the menu since China's new leadership came to power demanding austerity from Communist Party and military officials as a means of reigning in graft and dampening public anger over corruption.

Suppliers, restaurants, and hotels in the trading hub of Hong Kong all say the loss of appetite from the mainland has thinned out sales in a market looking for a portion of China's estimated annual 300 billion yuan (US$49 billion) expenditure on state-funded banquets.

On Hong Kong's "Dried Seafood Street", the centre of trade in dried delicacies, shopkeeper Leung Wing-chiu told AFP sales were down 20 percent at a time when increased ethical awareness over shark fin and rising rents are pressuring business.

"Beijing's frugality campaign has driven money out of my pocket," said the 94-year-old, who is also the Dried Sea Food & Grocery Merchants Association president.

A man works in a shop selling shark fin and

 dried seafood in Hong Kong, September 5,

2012 (AFP/File, Philippe Lopez)

"Demand from mainland buyers, especially hotels and restaurants, has shrunk a lot. This is particularly true for high-end goods such as dried abalone, shark fins and bird's nest."

Two catering companies listed on the southern Chinese city's stock exchange even cited the government's emphasis on frugality as they issued profit warnings to shareholders last month.

Leung said China's state-funded banquet culture was a key source of revenue, and while the economic slowdown had affected business over the past few years, "the situation has got a lot worse since the new leadership ascended to power".

Chinese officials have long held lavish liquor-drenched receptions as a way of building business relationships, greasing the wheels of power, and showing off wealth and status.

The Jiu San Society, one of China's eight legally-recognised non-Communist political parties, last year called for a curb on government spending on such banquets, which it estimated at $300 billion a year. Other scholars put the figure even higher.

And in June, President Xi Jinping launched a "thorough cleanup" of the ruling Communist Party, vowing to target extravagance and waste.

The Central Military Commission had already banned lavish banquets for high-ranking officers at the end of last year, while party officials were handed similar new rules.

Former high-flying Chinese politician Bo Xilai is currently on trial for corruption and revelations about private jet flights and rare animal meats have held Chinese readers spellbound.

Zhu Jiangnan, China Studies coordinator at the University of Hong Kong, said banquets were in a "grey area" of corruption.

"Actually, in China, the word 'corruption' (fubai) is linked not only with... graft, bribery, and embezzlement, but also unhealthy tendencies... such as extravagance and waste," she told AFP in an email.

Wong Hiu-wan, a shopkeeper selling bird's nests, which have been used in Chinese cooking for centuries, blamed the directives from Beijing for a slowdown in business.

"Now, we have to count more on local consumers, because orders from mainland hotels and restaurants have gone down dramatically," he said.

And Yeung Wai-sing, the chairman of the Association of Hong Kong Catering Services Management Ltd, also had reason to regret China's newfound abstemiousness.

"For years, this traditional business has been fuelled by orders from mainlanders, who consider dried seafood from Hong Kong to be premium in quality," said Yeung.

"But things didn't turn out well this year."

Two Hong Kong-listed catering giants, Tang Palace (China) Holdings and Xiao Nan Guo Restaurants Holdings Ltd, both issued profit warnings in July linked to the crackdown.

A waiter walks past a display of dried

abalone available on the menu of a

restaurant in Hong Kong, August 23,

2013 (AFP, Philippe Lopez)

Tang Palace largely blamed "the issuance of a set of regulations and restrictions to promote frugality and curb waste by the Chinese government, casting an impact on certain customer groups' expenditure".

Xiao Nan Guo said its first-half profit was hit by "the prolonged austerity campaign launched by the Chinese government to curb lavish spending and entertainment".

Others say traditional foods were already losing their attraction.

"The Chinese are turning their eyes towards Western and environmentally-friendly food rather than traditional banquet favourites like abalone and shark fin," said Ren Guoqiang of consultancy Roland Berger & Partner.

Bruce Shou, a student and food enthusiast who routinely visits Hong Kong from Hangzhou to dine at high-end restaurants, agreed.

"Sashimi, beefsteaks and foie gras look fancier to me, whereas abalones remind me of something old-fashioned and bureaucratic," he said.

On top of environmental campaigning against products such as shark fin and Hong Kong's eye-watering rents, the graft crackdown is adding to the pressure on businesses along "Dried Seafood Street".

"2013 is a tough year for us," Leung said.

Nemo found: Rare clownfish species bred in Taiwan

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2013-08-17

A group of three-month-old McCulloch's clownfish in the tank.
(File photo/Chuang Cher-chuan)

Taiwan's Fishery Research Institute's Eastern Oceanic Biology Research Center took advantage of of special deep-water conditions to breed Amphiprion mccullochi or McCulloch's clownfish, originally from Australia, which will become an asset for Taiwan because they are a rare species, reports our sister paper China Times.

"The deep-level sea water has rare bacteria and lots of nutrition for these fish, which is an important factor in helping them survive," said Ho Yuan-hsing, a researcher at the center.

An adult fish costs approximately NT$50,000 (US$1,600) while an infant costs NT$20,000 (US$660). Ho said that the center spent NT$180,000 (US$6,000) on two adult fish two years ago. The pair laid eggs for the first time last May but none of them produced viable offspring. They laid another 300 eggs again on April 20 and this time the hatching was successful after the researchers decided to try the deep-level breeding tactic.

"These fishes are described as the Rolls-Royce of the fish industry and prices for them will become higher and higher as they grow up," Ho said. The fish grow up to 12cm long in their natural habitat.

The species has been designated as protected by the Australian government due to their dwindling numbers, and they are now banned from being exported from the country. As a result, the recently hatched eggs in Taiwan have acquired an even greater value.　

References:

Ho Yuan-hsing　　何源興

200 Missing in Philippine Ferry Disaster

Jakarta Globe – AFP, August 17, 2013

Filipino fishermen in front of a damaged Sulpicio Express Siete cargo ship
 after colliding with a passenger ship in the waters off Talisay City, Cebu.
The coast guard said 870 people were on board the ferry. (EPA Photo)

Philippine rescuers searched Saturday for more than 200 people missing after a crowded ferry collided with a cargo ship and sank almost instantly in thick darkness, with 26 already confirmed dead.

The St Thomas Aquinas ferry was carrying 870 passengers and crew when the accident occurred late on Friday night in a dangerous choke point near the port of Cebu, the Philippines’ second biggest city, authorities said.

Coastguard and military vessels, as well as local fishermen in their own small boats hauled more than 600 people out of the water alive.

But by early Saturday afternoon, 215 people were still unaccounted for and 26 bodies had been retrieved, according to the coastguard, which warned the death toll would inevitably rise.

“It did not take long, about 10 minutes, before the ferry sank,” Rear Admiral Luis Tuason, vice commandant of the coastguard, said on DZBB radio.

“The captain managed to declare abandon ship and they distributed life jackets but, because of the speed by which it went down, there is a big chance that there are people trapped inside.”

One survivor, Maribel Manalo, 23, recounted to her brother the horror of suddenly being plunged into the cold water in darkness, and emerging from the chaos without her mother.

“She said there was a banging noise then the boat suddenly started sinking,” the brother, Arvin Manalo, told AFP.

“They quickly strapped on life jackets and then jumped into the dark sea. She said they felt like they were pulled under. My sister said she pushed our mother up, but they got separated.

“My sister was rescued. My sister knows how to swim, but my mother does not.”

He said their mother, 56, remained missing.

Fifty-eight babies were among the passengers on board the ferry, according to the coastguard, and it was unclear how many of them survived.

The accident occurred at 9 pm local time in calm waters neat the mouth of the port between two and three kilometres (around one to two miles) from shore, authorities said.

Navy divers on a speed boat scoured the sea on Saturday amid orange life rafts that had already been mostly emptied, according to an AFP photographer on the scene.

However two lifeless bodies were seen on one raft.

Tuason said helicopters had also been deployed and specialist divers sent to search through the sunken vessel.

Local fisherman Mario Chavez told AFP he was one of the first people to reach passengers after the ferry sank in the 82-metre-deep (270-feet) channel.

“I plucked out 10 people from the sea last night. It was pitch black and I only had a small flashlight. They were bobbing in the water and screaming for help,” he said.

“They told me there were many people still aboard when the ferry sank… there were screams, but I could not get to all of them.”

The cargo ship, Sulpicio Express 7, which had 36 crew members on board, did not sink. Television footage showed its steel bow had caved in on impact but it sailed safely to dock.

Tuason said it appeared one of the vessels had violated rules on which lanes they should use when traveling in and out of the port.

The enforcement office chief of the government’s Maritime Industry Authority, Arnie Santiago, said the strait leading into the Cebu port was a well-known danger zone.

“It is a narrow passage, many ships have had minor accidents there in the past. But nothing this major,” Santiago told AFP.

“There is a blind spot there and each ship passing through needs to give way in a portion of that narrow strip.”

The Thomas Aquinas was a “roll-on, roll-off” ferry, which allows vehicles to be driven aboard and is commonly used in the Philippines.

Ferries are one of the main modes of transport across the archipelago of more than 7,100 islands, particularly for the millions of people too poor to fly.

But sea accidents are common, with poor safety standards and lax enforcement typically to blame.

The world’s deadliest peacetime maritime disaster occurred near the capital, Manila, in 1987 when a ferry laden with Christmas holidaymakers collided with a small oil tanker, killing more than 4,300 people.

In 2008, a huge ferry capsized during a typhoon off the central island of Sibuyan, leaving almost 800 dead.

Agence France-Presse

Bone-munching worms found on sea floor

Google – AFP, 14 august 2013

An undated photo shows the sea floor in Antarctic waters. (Antarctic

Ocean Alliance/AFP/File)

PARIS, France — Scientists said Wednesday they had discovered two new species of a strange bone-devouring worm thriving in the mysterious waters that surround the Antarctic continent.

The Osedax worms feed on the bones of dead whales that settle on the sea floor, fulfilling an important recycling role, said a study published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

The worms, named Osedax antarcticus and Osedax deceptionensis, were discovered by an international team of scientists probing the fate of whale bones and shipwrecks on the Southern Ocean floor.

The worms are a few millimetres long, each with four finger-like appendages attached to a central trunk.

Five other Osedax species had been known before the two Antarctic types were found.

While the team revelled in their discovery, they were struck by a distinct absence of wood-eating molluscs known as Xylophagainae commonly found on deep-sea sunken wood.

"Over the course of a year, we deployed and recovered a piece of underwater equipment called a deep-sea lander, laden with the most unusual cargo -- large whale bones and planks of wood," said study co-author Adrian Glover of London's Natural History Museum.

"When we recovered the bones and wood we'd put on the sea floor, the results were obvious immediately: the bones were infested by a carpet of red-plumed Osedax worms... but the wood planks were untouched, with not a trace of the wood-eating worms.

"The wood was hardly degraded... after 14 months on the sea floor" -- one of the least explored ecosystems on Earth.

The apparent absence of wood-munchers may be good news for marine archaeologists.

The Southern Ocean is home to many a shipwreck -- including British explorer Ernest Shackleton's pine and oak-built vessel Endurance, which was crushed by ice and sank in the cold waters on a 1914 expedition.

Sperm whale causes a splash in Norway (Video)

A sperm whale has been causing a splash in the Norwegian town of Oygarden, just outside Bergen. The creatures rarely comes so close to shore, but the 15-metre long whale spent much of Thursday swimming around in a bay, to the delight of spectators.

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"Update on Current Events" – Jul 23, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: The Humanization of God, Gaia, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Benevolent Design, Financial Institutes (Recession, System to Change ...), Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Nuclear Power Revealed, Geothermal Power, Hydro Power, Drinking Water from Seawater, No need for Oil as Much, Middle East in Peace, Persia/Iran Uprising, Muhammad, Israel, DNA, Two Dictators to fall soon, Africa, China, (Old) Souls, Species to go, Whales to Humans, Global Unity,..... etc.) 

Green sea turtles eating more plastic than ever

Google – AFP, 9 August 2013

A Green sea turtle at the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center, Florida, on

January 8, 2010 (Getty Images/AFP, Joe Raedle)

SYDNEY — Endangered green turtles are ingesting more man-made debris, including potentially lethal plastic products, than ever before, a new Australian study has shown.

The majestic turtles are significantly more likely to swallow plastic than they were in the 1980s, the study, published in the journal Conservation Biology, showed.

The research reviewed scientific literature on the ingestion of man-made rubbish in the ocean by sea turtles published since 1985.

It showed that six of the world's seven species of sea turtles have been found to ingest debris, and all six are listed as globally vulnerable or endangered.

"We found that for green sea turtles, the likelihood that a sea turtle has ingested debris has nearly doubled in the last 25 years," Qamar Schuyler from the University of Queensland, who led the study, told AFP on Friday.

"Specifically for green turtles, it does appear that they are eating a lot more debris than they used to."

The study found that the likelihood of a green turtle, which can grow to 1.5 metres (five feet) and live for 80 years, ingesting debris jumped from about 30 percent in 1985 to nearly 50 percent in 2012.

The research said it was clear that since the first data was recorded more than 100 years ago, the amount of refuse leatherback turtles had ingested had also increased.

However, between 1985 and 2012 their intake had been stable.

Plastic products eaten by turtles and other marine life can be lethal, killing the animals by either blocking their stomachs and starving them or through puncturing their intestinal system.

Schuyler said ingested plastics could also be releasing toxins into the animals, either via chemicals in the plastics themselves or which the products have absorbed as they have floated around the ocean.

Green baby turtles in a container during a turtle release programme in

Indonesia's Bali on June 13, 2013 (AFP, Sonny Tumbelaka)

"The animal may not die of that right away but it may impact things like their reproductive cycle and that has longer-term consequences," she said.

Schuyler, a doctoral candidate, said the data showed that turtles washing up with lots of plastic in them were not necessarily found in the most polluted or populated places.

"So it means that they are ingesting that debris usually somewhere farther away from where they end up," she said, adding that this suggested that a global response was needed to counter the problem.

"What we really need to look at is a large scale movement to stop debris entering the oceans."

The research, analysing 37 studies published from 1985 to 2012 which reported on data collected from before 1900 through to 2011, found that turtles in nearly all regions ingested debris, most commonly plastic.

"Our results show clearly that debris ingestion by sea turtles is a global phenomenon of increasing magnitude," the study said.

Related Article:

19-Year-Old Develops Ocean Cleanup Array That Could Remove 7,250,000 Tons Of Plastic From the World's Oceans

Dead Fish After Huge Oil Spill in Philippines

Jakarta Globe, Cecil Morella, August 9, 2013

Nancy Bolata shops for dried fish at a convenience store in Marikina, Metro
Manila July 12, 2013. (Reuters Photo/Erik De Castro)

Manila. A huge oil spill shut down parts of the Philippine capital’s vital fishing industry Friday, jeopardizing the livelihoods of tens of thousands of people living along Manila Bay’s diesel-coated coast.

Dead fish floated on the water and some residents fell ill from the fumes, as authorities said an estimated 500,000 liters of oil cast a slick across 20-kilometers of the coastline.

“Many of our young and elderly residents are getting sick,” Marcos Solis, the captain of a fishing village near the worst of the oil spill, told AFP.

“The price of fish and shellfish has also collapsed. Even those who fish far out to sea are affected because the fish smell the oil and swim away.”

Authorities said the slick was caused by either a leak at an oil terminal on the bay or a ship that had unloaded diesel there.

Coastguard marine environmental protection chief Commodore Joel Garcia told reporters the slick stretched seaward about 15 kilometers from the shore, covering an area of 300 square kilometers.

“I cannot say that we have contained it because it has affected so wide an area,” Garcia told reporters.

The area described by the coastguard covers about 15 percent of the bay, the country’s busiest body of water in a region where about 30 million people live, according to government data.

Locals said they feared for the immediate future of the bay’s vibrant fish and shellfish industry, which feeds millions of people in the capital and surrounding areas.

“Fish and shellfish are floating up dead. It could be months before the shellfish industry is revived unless the water is cleaned up soon,” Jose Ricafrente, mayor of Rosario fishing town, told AFP.

He said 40,000 people dependent on the fishing and shellfish industry in the bay were temporarily without jobs.

Asis Perez, head of the government’s fisheries and aquatic resources bureau, also told AFP the oil spill was impacting a vital section of the region’s fishing industry.

“Each boat here would typically haul in 30-40 kilograms of fish a day, so definitely the impact is huge,” Perez told AFP by telephone as he toured the affected areas by boat.

Ricafrente said he had implemented an emergency “food-for-work” program, in which fishermen and their families would help in the clean-up in exchange for rice and canned goods with the local government.

The residents were collecting diesel from the water using bottles and other improvised scooping implements.

“Even the children are helping out. We have asked them to wear face masks,” he said.

Ricafrente said at least two Rosario residents were taken to hospital and were put on oxygen tubes on Thursday, but both had recovered.

Garcia, the coastguard official, said authorities initially suspected the leak had come from the tanker that had unloaded fuel at the depot.

The 34,000-barrel-capacity M/T Makisig and its crew have been detained, he added.

However, Garcia said coastguard divers later found a leaking underwater fuel pipe that leads to the jetty of the Rosario oil terminal, owned by Philippine refiner Petron Corp.

In a statement issued on its account on the social networking site Facebook, Petron insisted its pipeline was intact.

“According to initial information, the leak may have come from the vessel but this will have to be investigated further,” it said.

Garcia said the oil slick would likely remain for the next few days, or up to a week, depending on sea currents and the weather. He said the oil was expected to evaporate as it was exposed to sunlight.

Agence France-Presse