'Zero recovery' for corals in back-to-back Australia bleaching

Yahoo – AFP, April 10, 2017

Australia's Great Barrier Reef is suffering a fourth round of coral bleaching
this year, after being hit in 1998, 2002 and 2016 (AFP Photo/Nette WILLIS)

Sydney (AFP) - Coral bleached for two consecutive years at Australia's Great Barrier Reef has "zero prospect" of recovery, scientists warned Monday, as they confirmed the site has again been hit by warming sea temperatures.

Researchers said last month they were detecting another round of mass bleaching this year after a severe event in 2016, and their fears were confirmed after aerial surveys of the entire 2,300-kilometre (1,400-mile) long bio-diverse reef.

Last year, the northern areas of the World Heritage-listed area were hardest hit, with the middle-third now experiencing the worst effects.

"Bleached corals are not necessarily dead corals, but in the severe central region we anticipate high levels of coral loss," said James Kerry, a marine biologist at James Cook University who led the aerial surveys.

"It takes at least a decade for a full recovery of even the fastest growing corals, so mass bleaching events 12 months apart offer zero prospect of recovery for reefs that were damaged in 2016."

It is the fourth time coral bleaching -- where stressed corals expel the algae that live in their tissue and provide them with food -- has hit the reef after previous events in 1998 and 2002.

Australia's Great Barrier Reef is suffering a fourth round of coral bleaching 

this year, after being hit in 1998, 2002 and 2016 (AFP Photo/Nette WILLIS)

Record temperatures

"The combined impact of this back-to-back bleaching stretches for 1,500 kilometres, leaving only the southern third unscathed," said Terry Hughes, head of the Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, also at James Cook University.

"The bleaching is caused by record-breaking temperatures driven by global warming.

"This year, 2017, we are seeing mass bleaching, even without the assistance of El Nino conditions," he added, referring to the natural climate cycle in the Pacific Ocean.

The Barrier Reef is already under pressure from farming run-off, development and the crown-of-thorns starfish.

It was also recently hammered by category four Cyclone Debbie, which barrelled through the region last month, mostly affecting southern parts around the Whitsunday islands which largely escaped the bleaching.

The extent of the destruction wrought by Debbie is not yet known, although scientists have said damage could range from minor to severe.

Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority began a study last week to determine how extensive it might be and have already found extensive pulverised coral at popular snorkeling spots.

"The feedback that's coming back is the more sheltered areas have come out a bit better, but they all seem to have suffered some form of damage," Association of Marine Park Tourism Operators' Brendon Robinson told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

The Whitsundays is one of the reef's tourist hotspots, attracting more than 40 percent of total visitors to the iconic marine ecosystem.

An aerial view of bleaching in the Cairns-Townsville region of Australia's 

Great Barrier Reef (AFP Photo/Ed ROBERTS)

Multiple impacts

Hughes warned rising temperatures could see more bleaching events.

"Clearly the reef is struggling with multiple impacts. Without a doubt the most pressing of these is global warming," he said.

"As temperatures continue to rise the corals will experience more and more of these events. One degree Celsius of warming so far has already caused four events in the past 19 years.

"Ultimately, we need to cut carbon emissions, and the window to do so is rapidly closing."

The world's nations agreed in Paris in 2015 to limit average warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial levels, by curbing fossil fuel burning.

Canberra in 2015 narrowly avoided UNESCO putting the reef on its endangered list, and has committed more than Aus$2.0 billion (US$1.5 billion) to protect it over the next decade.

Japan volcanic islands may hold keys to coral survival pic.twitter.com/Ed9QVQEC8n

— AFP news agency (@AFP) April 17, 2017

Related Article:

Caribbean coral reefs could disappear 'in 20 years'

“2011 and Beyond” - What you are seeing, and why - Jan 16, 2010 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Text version)

"....The Prediction: The Renewal of the Life Cycle

When you change the temperature strata of the oceans of the earth, things start to change, for the life cycle of the food in the ocean depends upon that which is the smallest. The plankton of the planet survive in certain temperatures, and that's changing. Throw away what you think you know about how it's all supposed to work, and instead think "renewal" or "how did it begin." This will serve you to understand what is happening now. This cycle is built to replenish the ocean with life and not always by sustaining the kind that was there.

Let us just talk about the ocean for a moment. We won't even get to what's happening in the air and what mammals might experience. Let's just speak of the ocean. Have you heard about the salmon? What has your science warned you against? You're overfishing! The sea is dying. The coral is dying. The reefs are going away. You're not seeing the food chain that used to be there. You've overfished everything. Fishing quotas have been set up to help this. Oh, all those little people in the red room - they don't know about the purple. Red people only know about the red paradigm.

Did you hear about the salmon recently? There's too many of them! In the very place where quotas are in place so you won't overfish, they're jumping in the boats! Against all odds and any projections from environmentalists or biologists, they're overrunning the oceans in Alaska - way too many fish.

What does that tell you? Is it possible that Gaia takes care of itself? That's what it tells you! Perhaps this alignment is going to keep humanity fed. Did anybody think of this? What if Gaia is in alliance with you? What if the increase in consciousness that raised your DNA vibration has alerted Gaia to change the weather cycle and get ready to feed humanity? Are you looking at the ocean where the oil spill occurred? It's recovering in a way that was not predicted. What's happening?

The life cycle itself is being altered by the temperature change of the ocean and much of what you have believed is the paradigm of life in the sea is slowly changing. A new system of life is appearing, as it has before, and is upon you in your lifetime. It will compliment what you know and expose you to a new concept: Gaia regularly refreshes the life cycle on Earth.

Within this process, there will be the extinction of certain plants and animals, birds and fish. My advice to you, especially to those environmentalists, is to understand the cycle of life so that you may relax with what nature has always done. It puts life on the planet to serve the planet for a time. When certain life no longer serves the planet in the ways it used to, it takes it away. The extinction of life, especially through weather change, is normal for Gaia. It is honored, appropriate and normal, even if you don't think so. Don't try to save all the disappearing animals, fish and birds! Some are supposed to go away. And, dear ones, don't assign all this activity to something you did to cause it!

The red people are stressing. The purple is here, and they are trying to figure out what they did wrong. They don't know they are in the Rainbow Room. They think they are in the RED ROOM. This is what the Rainbow Room does; it changes colors. So as the room does what it has always done, the red people are sitting there in fear trying to figure out what it is that they did that possibly could have caused the purple to appear.

The Rainbow Room is beautiful. The color purple is significant. Going from red to purple has metaphysical significance within this parable, but I'll let you figure it out. For those who are into colors, there's a reason why I gave those two. The earth is becoming more sacred than it's ever been before. Gaia is with you in this. It's cooperating in ways you never thought it could, in the way biologists said it would not. You think you're killing it? Instead, it's giving birth to an altered ecological system. ...."

New Japan volcano island 'natural lab' for life

Yahoo – AFP, Kyoko Hasegawa, 17 May 2015

The newly-created Nishinoshima island at the Ogasawara island chain, 

1,000 kilometres south of Tokyo, pictured on March 25, 2015 (AFP Photo)

Tokyo (AFP) - A brand new island emerging off the coast of Japan offers scientists a rare opportunity to study how life begins to colonise barren land -- helped by rotting bird poo and hatchling vomit.

Researchers say bird waste will be the secret ingredient to kickstart Mother Nature's grand experiment on what is a still active volcano that only poked its head above the waves in November 2013.

That speck of land, some 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) south of Tokyo, has grown to engulf its once larger neighbour, Nishinoshima, a part of Japan's Ogasawara island chain known for the wealth and variety of its ecosystem.

The new Nishinoshima, a respectable 2.46 square kilometres (0.95 square miles), the Japan Coast Guard said in February -- roughly the size of 345 football pitches -- is currently almost all bare rock, formed from cooling lava.

But scientists say it will one day be humming with plant -- and possibly animal -- life, as nature moves in to what is being called a "natural laboratory" on one of the latest bits of real estate in the Pacific Ocean.

"We biologists are very much focusing on the new island because we'll be able to observe the starting point of evolutionary processes," said Naoki Kachi, professor and leader of Tokyo Metropolitan University's Ogasawara Research Committee.

After the volcanic activity calms down, "what will probably happen first will be the arrival of plants brought by ocean currents and attached to birds' feet," he said.

Those seabirds, who could use the remote rock as a temporary resting place, could eventually set up home there.

Their excreta -- along with their dropped feathers, regurgitated bits of food and rotting corpses -- will eventually form a nutrient-rich soil that offers fertile ground for seeds carried by the wind, or brought in the digestive systems of overflying birds.

"I am most interested in the effects of birds on the plants' ecosystem -- how their bodily wastes-turned-organic fertilisers enrich the vegetation and how their activities disturb it," Kachi told AFP.

The old Nishinoshima, measuring just 0.22 square kilometres, was home to bird colonies until the eruptions scared the creatures away.

A small number have clung on to the only patch of the old island that is still visible, making their nests among ash-covered plants.

Pristine

Japan, which sits at the junction of several tectonic plates, is home to more than 100 active volcanoes.

The newly-created Nishinoshima island at the Ogasawara island chain, 

1,000 kilometres south of Tokyo, pictured on April 27, 2015 (AFP Photo/)

Scientists have no idea when Nishinoshima will stop spewing lava, but its expansion is being offset by erosion around the edges.

The island is expected to follow a route laid out by Surtsey, an island that emerged from the sea in 1963, around 30 kilometres from the coast of Iceland.

The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage spot is known globally as an outstanding example of a pristine natural laboratory where researchers have been able to trace the evolution of a habitat.

"Since they began studying the island in 1964, scientists have observed the arrival of seeds carried by ocean currents, the appearance of moulds, bacteria and fungi, followed in 1965 by the first vascular plant," UNESCO says on its website.

"By 2004, (vascular plants) numbered 60, together with 75 bryophytes, 71 lichens and 24 fungi. Eighty-nine species of birds have been recorded on Surtsey, 57 of which breed elsewhere in Iceland. The 141 hectare island is also home to 335 species of invertebrates."

Not bad for somewhere that has only existed for half a century.

Nishinoshima might not be quite as quick as Surtsey to establish itself as a teeming wildlife haven -- it is a long way from mainland Japan and not too close to its neighbours in the Ogasawara island chain, which limits the number of species of birds and seeds that will make it that far.

Nonetheless, it is an exciting blank canvas, said Kachi, and needs to be treated with respect -- which means keeping out foreign invaders that would not naturally drift or fly in.

"I'd like to call on anyone who lands on the island to pay special attention to keeping it the way it is -- not to take external species there," he warned.

He said when he conducted a field study on another island in the chain in 2007, his team prepared a fumigated clean room where they packed all research equipment, after making sure everything they had was either brand new or scrupulously clean.

While Nishinoshima is currently only being monitored from the air, the first field researchers will need to take similar precautions.

"Biologists know the business, but probably the first batch of scientists who will land on the island will be geologists and vulcanologists -- who may not be familiar with the problems," he said.

"I'd be pleased to offer advice on this to scientists in other fields."

Fisherman snags 'humped back' sea turtle off Taiwan's coast

Want China Times, CNA 2015-04-18

The humped back sea turtle, April 16. (Photo/CNS)

A Taitung fisherman caught an unusual looking "humped back" sea turtle in waters off the southeastern coast of Taiwan on Wednesday.

The fisherman, Tien Cheng-yung, said he was fishing in waters off Pingtung and Taitung counties when he unexpectedly pulled up a heavy turtle that had an unusually shaped shell.

Tien said his first thought was "why does it look like this?" He said he had unintentionally caught turtles before but had never seen one with a humped shell.

Tien said he shot a video of the creature with the humped back and then released it back into the sea.

When he showed the video to other veteran fishermen on Thursday, they were all amazed and said it was the first time they had seen a "humped back" turtle, Tien said.

A photo of the turtle showed its shell was shaped like a traditional Chinese farmer's hat.

Cheng I-Jiunn, a marine biology professor at National Taiwan Ocean University, said it appeared from the photo to be a regular green sea turtle species that probably had been raised in captivity or on a farm and was later abandoned or had escaped.

The unusual shape of its shell may have resulted from living in a small space, which would have forced the turtle to grow "upward," making it appear to be "humped back," he said.

US lawyer argues chimps are people too

Yahoo – AFP, Glenn Chapman, 21 March 2015

Attorney Steven Wise argues that apes, chimpanzees, elephants and orcas

 are as entitled to the rights of "persons" under law as are people or corporations 

(AFP Photo/Sia Kambou)

Vancouver (AFP) - Attorney Steven Wise is on a crusade to prove that, as a matter of law, chimps are people too.

For that matter, so are dolphins, elephants, gorillas and orcas.

Wise made his argument at the TED Conference that wrapped up in Vancouver, Canada on Friday.

"I had to invent the field of animal juris prudence," Wise told AFP at TED.

Nonhuman Rights Project president and

 attorney Steven Wise pictured in 

Vancouver, Canada on March 20, 2015,

 where he spoke at a TED conference

(AFP Photo/Glenn Chapman)

"Coming here is implicit affirmation that people are interested in what we have to say."

Wise argued that apes, chimps, elephants and orcas are as entitled to the rights of "persons" under law as are people or corporations.

Legal systems around the world have granted rights of personhood to holy scripts, mosques, companies, and even a river.

"Personhood is not a biological concept, it is a public policy concept," Wise said.

"The legal system decides it; human being is not synonymous with person."

He has devoted decades to the cause, which is now making its way through courts in the US state of New York.

Seeing animals as slaves

Wise, president of the Nonhuman Rights Project, is hoping a legal tactic successful in getting a slave legally transformed from property to person in a historic case in Britain will do the same for chimpanzees and other animals.

He will use the writ of habeas corpus, in which judges order prisoners or detainees brought before the court. Such writs, by definition, assign rights of personhood to those targeted.

Members of the project found chimpanzees in abysmal conditions in several parts of the state of New York, then filed for writs of habeas corpus in respective courts to get the animals moved to a refuge.

Reactions from judges have been mixed, with even sympathetic members of the bench averse to breaching the legal wall separating people from animals, according to Wise.

"Even in America, no judge wants to be the first to make this leap of faith," the animal rights champion said.

Wise, author of "Rattling the Cage" and other works defending animal rights, has been waging this legal battle since the early 1980s.

"They truly are slaves," Wise said of chimps, bonobos and other animals proven to have feelings, memories, language, foresight and other traits considered human.

"I realized there was no one looking out for their interests and they were just being exploited."

He recalled being met with hostility and ridicule early in the battle. Rival lawyers would bark when he walked into courtrooms.

After decades of laying groundwork and gathering allies, Wise and his team filed an opening salvo of lawsuits in New York about two years ago.

"We are going state by state, animal by animal and we are going to lose a lot before we start to win," he said.

"I expect to win, and not all that far into the future."

An orca swims with its baby at the Marineland animal exhibition park in

 the French Riviera city of Antibes, southeastern France on December 10, 2013

(AFP Photo/Valery Hache)

Tide of history

Victory would come in the form of a non-human animal being legally recognized as a person for some purpose, no matter how limited.

"Once that wall is pierced, judges will realize that they have to make more nuanced, rational decisions," Wise said of establishing that some animals have a right to be treated better than mere property.

Wise is working with lawyers in Europe, Argentina and other parts of the world.

"I think there is a tide of history and judges need to swim with it and not against it," Wise said.

"Orcas, apes, chimps and elephants should at least have the right to bodily liberty. I am not talking the entire animal kingdom, but lines have to be drawn."

The Nonhuman Rights Project is looking to hit US courts with its next case, on behalf of circus elephants, late this year.

"I think it may change the way people view entities that aren't human," Wise said of his quest.

"They may not have the knee-jerk reaction that we can exploit them."

Killer whales have been thrilling whale watchers this week in Puget Sound. But

they were especially exciting Tuesday when nearly three dozen orcas surrounded

 the ferry from Seattle as it approached the terminal on Bainbridge Island. NOAA

Fisheries Service photo by Candice Emmons

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Kryon Q&A

Question: Dear Kryon: I live in Spain. I am sorry if I will ask you a question you might have already answered, but the translations of your books are very slow and I might not have gathered all information you have already given. I am quite concerned about abandoned animals. It seems that many people buy animals for their children and as soon as they grow, they set them out somewhere. Recently I had the occasion to see a small kitten in the middle of the street. I did not immediately react, since I could have stopped and taken it, without getting out of the car. So, I went on and at the first occasion I could turn, I went back to see if I could take the kitten, but it was to late, somebody had already killed it. This happened some month ago, but I still feel very sorry for that kitten. I just would like to know, what kind of entity are these animals and how does this fit in our world. Are these entities which choose this kind of life, like we do choose our kind of Human life? I see so many abandoned animals and every time I see one, my heart aches... I would like to know more about them.

Answer: Dear one, indeed the answer has been given, but let us give it again so you all understand. Animals are here on earth for three (3) reasons.

(1) The balance of biological life. . . the circle of energy that is needed for you to exist in what you call "nature."

(2) To be harvested. Yes, it's true. Many exist for your sustenance, and this is appropriate. It is a harmony between Human and animal, and always has. Remember the buffalo that willingly came into the indigenous tribes to be sacrificed when called? These are stories that you should examine again. The inappropriateness of today's culture is how these precious creatures are treated. Did you know that if there was an honoring ceremony at their death, they would nourish you better? Did you know that there is ceremony that could benefit all of humanity in this way. Perhaps it's time you saw it.

(3) To be loved and to love. For many cultures, animals serve as surrogate children, loved and taken care of. It gives Humans a chance to show compassion when they need it, and to have unconditional love when they need it. This is extremely important to many, and provides balance and centering for many.

Do animals know all this? At a basic level, they do. Not in the way you "know," but in a cellular awareness they understand that they are here in service to planet earth. If you honor them in all three instances, then balance will be the result. Your feelings about their treatment is important. Temper your reactions with the spiritual logic of their appropriateness and their service to humanity. Honor them in all three cases.

Question: Dear Kryon: I was wondering about the way I feel about whales and dolphins. I've had a feeling that I have to go to them sometime, but I don't know how or what I'm to do when I get there. Please help.

Question: Dear Kryon: I'm a Turkish/Islam woman of 57. I live in Ankara and work for the European Commission's project in Turkey. I've read almost all of the Kryon books twice, and I'm planning to read them once more. My question is about the whales. Why do they commit mass suicide? What is the reason for this very sad event? Is it a kind of protest against Human Beings?

Answer: Dear ones, we've channelled many times about the whales of this planet. In review, they're the living portions of an actual grid-system! They contain the "history of Earth" within their beings, and they're sacred for that reason. They coordinate and cooperate with the crystalline grid of your planet, which is currently being rewritten (see Kryon channelling on the Website: "What's Next?" December 8, 2002). Doesn't it strike you odd that these mammals are the only ones protected against hunting by more than 90 percent of the countries of Earth... even the places without oceans? Do you think that this is an accident or a coincidence? No. It's cellular information for all humanity to protect the whales and keep them safe. Dolphins are their cousins and support group, and they play a role in the whales' development. This is why you're so attracted to them.

Whales do not commit mass suicide. They have no consciousness to allow for this, and it has never happened. Instead, you see whales often beaching themselves and then being saved by Humans, only to re-beach themselves and die. This takes place mostly on the coastlines of your continents, and often on those areas of topography that "stick out," such as a peninsula or isthmus. Your Cape Cod is a good example in America, and is also a place where this has recently happened (up to 47 whales on a beach).

The reason is that whales, dolphins, amphibians, birds, and even insects all navigate to their breeding ground or migration areas each year via the magnetic grid of the planet! Each group follows the ley lines of magnetic influence, almost as if they had a built-in compass. In fact, they actually do!

The magnetic grid of this planet has changed so much, so quickly, as we told you it would in 1989, that there hasn't been time for the pods of whales to adjust with time to these changes. Instead, many simply follow the old magnetic lines of migration, only to find themselves on a beach instead of the open ocean, as the old magnetic direction used to take them. They're confused, and they simply line up and try again, just as they have for years. These things are temporary, and as tragic as you might see them, it's all part of "pruning" the system, and the calves will go around in the future, establishing new instinctive information for the new whales regarding the grid changes. This information has even now been validated this year (2003) by your scientists.

Jiaolong deep-sea sub finds huge chimney vent in Indian Ocean

Want China Times, Xinhua and Staff Reporter 2015-02-03

A sample from the chimney vent Jiaolong discovered in the Indian
Ocean, Jan. 29. (Photo/Xinhua)

China's deep-sea manned submersible Jiaolong discovered a huge active "chimney vent" 20 meters tall and two meters wide in a hydrothermal area of the southwestern Indian Ocean on Monday.

After finishing all planned work, the sub explored the eastern area of the working seabed and Shao Zongze, the scientist in the sub, was very excited at what he saw.

"We observed a giant active chimney vent, which was really a big surprise for our mission," Shao said. "Deep-sea chimney vents as huge as this one have rarely been seen in scientific research all over the world."

Piloting the sub, Tang Jialing videotaped the chimney vent and measured its height and width with a laser range finder. "We didn't have enough time to measure its inner temperature and to collect samples of sulfides, hydrothermal fluid and living beings this time, so I hope Jiaolong could go there again," said Shao, a researcher with the Third Institute of Oceanography of the State Oceanic Administration (SOA).

There were mussels, shrimps and fishes around this chimney vent, according to Shao.

Deep-sea chimney vents, also known as hydrothermal sulfide, are a kind of seabed deposits containing copper, zinc and precious metals such as gold and silver. Those metals formed sulfides after chemical reactions and came to rest in the seabed in the form of chimney vents.

Jiaolong found clues to a new active chimney vent on Monday north of a hydrothermal area called Dragon Flag, which was the first hydrothermal area Chinese scientists discovered in 2007, according to Shao.

Researching six hours in Dragon Flag, Jiaolong picked up the high temperature probe which the sub placed on Jan. 12 and took samples of deep-sea water, hydrothermal fluid and living organisms.

"The probe recorded the temperature of a chimney vent for 21 days successfully and we will analyze all data to discover whether there is regularity," according to the scientists.

Reaching its deepest depth of 7,062 meters in the Pacific's Mariana Trench in June 2012, Jiaolong is on a 120-day expedition in the southwest Indian Ocean.

Related Article:

Jiaolong sub collects perfect 'chimney vent' in Indian Ocean

Jiaolong divers find new deep-sea organisms, break them

Want China Times, Xinhua and Staff Reporter 2015-01-15

Organisms collected by the Jiaolong scientists in the Indian Ocean,
Jan. 11. (Photo/Xinhua)

China's manned deep sea submersible Jiaolong collected 17 samples of deep-sea organisms from the seabed of the southwestern Indian Ocean on Wednesday, of which two were unknown to scientists aboard the vessel.

With a size similar to a regular sea cucumber, the first mysterious creature broke into three parts when it was taken to the vessel.

Since the organism was transparent, scientists could see its blue and brown viscera clearly.

"This might be a special kind of sea cucumber, but we need to make sure after further analysis in labs," said Lu Bo, a scientist with the Second Institute of Oceanography of the State Oceanic Administration.

Looking like a small pink snake, the second strange creature, 330 centimeters long and three centimeters wide, was completely unknown to the scientists. Two bubbles appeared in its body due to pressure change, said the scientists.

"These two organisms might be new species but we can't be certain with limited tools and data on the ship," Lu Bo said.

Additionally, the Jiaolong gathered 15 deep-sea shrimps, water and sulfide weighing 6.9 kilograms.

The Jiaolong, which made a dive of 7,062 meters in the Mariana Trench in June 2012, is on a 120-day expedition to study polymetallic sulfide, biological diversity, hydrothermal microbes and genetic resources in the southwest Indian Ocean.

Related Article:

Jiaolong sub collects perfect 'chimney vent' in Indian Ocean

Karachi's defensive mangrove barrier faces triple threat

Yahoo – AFP, Ashraf Khan, 5 Jan 2015

A boat laden with chopped mangroves passes along an inlet close to

the Arabian Sea in Karachi (AFP Photo/Asif Hassan)

Thick mangroves have long protected Karachi, southern Pakistan's sprawling metropolis, from battering by the Arabian Sea, but pollution, badly managed irrigation and years of illegal logging have left this natural barrier in a parlous state.

Experts fear that loss of the natural barrier formed by the mangroves could put the city of nearly 20 million people at greater risk from violent storms and even tsunamis.

Talib Kacchi looks at a destroyed

 mangrove swamp along a beach on the

 Arabian Sea in Karachi (AFP Photo/

Asif Hassan)

Close to Karachi, the mighty Indus river ends its long journey from the Himalayas in the sea.

The river delta is home to the shimmering green mangrove, a delicate ecosystem that thrives in the mingled salt and fresh water.

Fisherman Talib Kacchi, 50, recalled taking shelter from monsoon storms in the mangroves as a young man.

"When there were storms, we would have tied as many as four boats together with the mangroves, and then we would sit, gossip and sing songs," he said.

But the mangrove is a shadow of its former self -- from 600,000 hectares in the early 20th century now barely 130,000 hectares remain, according to marine biologist Mohammad Moazzam Khan.

The rest has fallen victim to illegal loggers, pollution from nearby industry and changes to the river flow caused by irrigation upstream on the agricultural plains of Sindh and Punjab provinces.

The fishermen, who make a livelihood from the fish and shellfish that shelter in the mangroves, have warned about their decline for years.

But a short boat ride from Karachi's Ibrahim Haidri fish harbour finds plenty of locals cutting the mangrove and carrying it away.

A boat laden with chopped mangroves passes along an inlet close

to the Arabian Sea in Karachi (AFP Photo/Asif Hassan)

Some use foliage as fodder for cattle while others scrape a living by selling branches for fuel.

"I sell one bundle for 10 to 20 rupees (10 to 20 cents)," Haji Ibrahim, a frail old man who had just anchored his small boat at the shallow waters of the harbour told AFP.

Cutting the mangroves is illegal but the maximum punishment for cutting the mangroves is a 36,000 rupee ($360) fine, doubled for habitual offenders, and in any case, prosecutions are extremely rare.

Pollution

Karachi is Pakistan's biggest city and economic and industrial heart. The rapid growth of factories has contributed to pollution in the Indus delta.

Near a power plant to the east of the city, the mangroves are dry and withered, robbing fish of their spawning grounds and angering Kamal Shah of the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum.

"I really cannot understand why you would attack the mangrove. It's stupid -- it's like emptying your neighbour's stomach to fill your own," Shah said.

"If we were in another country, the mangrove would be valued and protected."

A crow sits on a chopped mangrove in

 a mangrove swamp on a beach on the 

Arabian Sea in Karachi (AFP Photo/

Asif Hassan)

As well as dissipating the energy of tropical storms when they hit the coast, the mangrove also provides a line of defence in case of tsunamis.

The Arabian and Eurasian tectonic plates meet at the Makran Trench, off the coast, and the boundary has the potential to create major earthquakes.

An undersea quake in 1945 generated a tsunami that hit Karachi, killing 4,000 people, and a recent UN simulation suggested the city could be wiped out if a big tremor hit again.

"It is a very important ecosystem... it is the first line of defence against cyclones, strong surges, tsunami and other natural calamities," said marine biologist Khan, who works for the WWF wildlife NGO.

But there is some hope. A drive to replant the mangroves in recent years has seen them slowly regain some of the losses.

"It (plantation) is going very well. There are very few areas in the world where the mangroves cover is increasing and Pakistan is one of them," Khan said.

Related Article:

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Jiaolong sub collects perfect 'chimney vent' in Indian Ocean

Want China Times, Xinhua 2015-01-04

The Jiaolong collecting the chimney vent, Jan. 2. (Photo/Xinhua)

China's deep sea manned submersible, the Jiaolong, collected a perfect "chimney vent" on the seabed of the southwest Indian Ocean on Saturday.

"Chimney vent," also known as hydrothermal sulfide, is one kind of seabed deposit containing copper, zinc and precious metal such as gold and silver. Those kinds of metal form sulfide after a chemical reaction and came to rest on the seabed as a chimney vent.

With several mussels and spiral shells living on it, the chimney vent that Jiaolong collected was about 40 cm high and 15 cm wide, said Li Xiangyang, assistant chief commander of the mission.

"This is a perfect chimney vent for biologists and I believe there are lots of microorganisms integrated with it," said Xiao Xiang, professor with Shanghai Jiaotong University. "I am so excited about it."

The study of microorganisms is the basis of researching ecosystems in hydrothermal areas, as microorganisms are sources of nutrition for advanced organisms, Xiao said.

This chimney vent is very important for studying organisms in hydrothermal areas, which live in a completely dark world with substances toxic to most forms of life, as well as high temperature and high pressure, Xiao said.

The special genes of these organisms have great economic and scientific value, Xiao said.

The temperature of hydrothermal fluid flowing out of the collected chimney vent is 145 degrees Celsius, said Tang Jialing, who piloted Jiaolong for the dive.

Jiaolong also gathered 4.7 kg of sulfide, 39 kg of basalt, 32 spiral shells and 37 mussels.

The Jiaolong, named after a mythical dragon, is on a 120-day expedition in the southwest Indian Ocean. It has planned to conduct 20 dives during the four-month period to research polymetallic sulfide, biological diversity, hydrothermal microbes and genetic resources in the area.

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