If It Swims Like A Fish And Tastes Like A Fish...

The New York Times Magazine section today celebrates the 7th Annual Year in Ideas. Each year the editors collect the curious, inspired, perplexing and sometimes outright illegal innovations of the past 12 months for our delectation. A curiously ocean-focused idea is the rather tautological notion of Fish-Flavored Fish.

In essence, seafood consumers are ga-ga over the taste of wild-caught ocean fish species. Farmed fish just doesn't seem to cut it, making for challenging times as global oceanic fisheries face depletion. Most at risk appears to be the fast food industry who's assorted Fillet-o-Fish™, BK Big Fish™ and similar sandwiches depend on the characteristic wild-caught, mild flakiness of Alaskan Pollock, a northern Pacific whitefish that holds a near-monopoly over products like fish sticks, imitation crabmeat and frozen fish fillets. What's a sustainably-oriented seafood retailer to do?

Enter “sea-flavored” Tilapia, the first farmed fish manipulated to taste like a wild fish. A product of Japan-based HQ Sustainable Maritime Industries, this "better than wild-caught" alternative uses flavoring compounds to replicate the taste of Alaska pollock and even the texture of cooked pollock. My guess is consumers won't know the difference, especially when nestled between sesame seed buns and buried under a gooey dollop of tartar sauce and cheese-food.

Feelin' Hot Hot HOT!

Considering a tropical paradise for retirement? Then save a bundle, get in early, and buy some land in Wisconsin. Well, maybe that's stretching things a bit. But on the eve of the UN Bali Climate Conference this week, researchers have concluded that the tropics have moved hundreds of miles towards the poles in less than 30 years because of global warming.

The expansion of tropics northwards and southwards threatens to have profound repercussions on the world’s weather systems as jet streams and storm tracks are bumped out of position. Research into the impact of global warming on the tropics suggests that they may have moved 500 miles (805km) or more in each direction and much faster than anticipated.

Maps usually show the tropics as the regions between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. Climatologists and geographers have less rigid definitions which take into account factors such as rainfall, temperature, wind direction and ozone. “Some of the earliest unequivocal signs of climate change have been the warming of the air and ocean, thawing of land and melting of ice in the Arctic,” said the research team from America at this week's climate conference in Bali. “But recent studies are showing that the tropics are also changing.

I've commented here before about some of the biodiversity implications as climate belts shift. The notion of "introduced" or "invasive" species certainly will need rethinking as species ranges expand or shift with migrating climates. I've also commented on what I call the "Goldilocks Effect" in threatened species such as corals (they like conditions just right). As historically just right tropical zones become inhospitable due to overly warm sea surface temperatures, it may mean the cooler northern and southern extremes of coral reef formation become new refuge for larval recruits.

Several lines of evidence show that over the past few decades the tropical belt has expanded. This expansion has potentially important implications for subtropical societies and may lead to profound changes in the global climate system. Most importantly, pole-ward movement of large-scale atmospheric circulation systems, such as jet streams and storm tracks, could result in shifts in precipitation patterns affecting natural ecosystems, agriculture and water resources.

Changes in the extent of the hot and wet tropics, measured as having moved up to 8 degrees northwards and southwards, mean dry subtropical conditions are shifted farther towards the poles. Arid areas of the Mediterranean are expected to dry out further as a result of the shift. Parts of southern America, southern Australia, southern Africa, Mexico and South America will suffer drier conditions.

Crop yields and the types of plants cultivated for food are likely to be affected, and human settlements and ecosystems face severe tests, researchers said in a report published in the journal Nature Geoscience. The research was led by Dian Seidel, of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Maryland, with colleagues from the National Centre for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, and the Universities of Washington and Utah.

Source: The Times UK

Is It Just Me Or Do You Feel Itchy Too?

From the title of my blog, you might think that I encounter a lot of sea lice in my line of work (hence my inclination to fashion a blog around our encounters.) Well, yes and no. I'm vexed by sea lice quite often in my field work, but not all sea lice are the same. I noticed a story in the news this morning about how sea lice (like the one in the image at the top of this post) are widely distributed in wild fish stocks in Norway. While an interesting read, these aren't the same vexatious sea lice of my blog title. The sea lice to which I refer are the larval stage of Thimble jellies (Linuche unguiculata) found primarily in Florida and Caribbean waters. The picture at the bottom of the post shows some adult Thimble jellies.

These larvae, generally half a millimeter in length, can find their way into bathing suits - even passing through the mesh of some suits - and become trapped against the skin. Pressed against bare skin, the jellies nematocysts fire and a series of stings result. The common symptoms include intensely itchy skin eruptions with small blisters and elevated areas of skin. Found primarily on parts of the body covered by swim wear, these lesions may also appear on the armpits and neck and occasionally on the arms and legs. Most divers and swimmers call it "sea lice." The term is a misnomer, however. A more accurate name for this condition is Sea Bather's Eruptions (ewww). Nice image, huh? True sea lice, as in the article about Norwegian fish, are actually fish parasites, do not affect humans, and have nothing to do with the larvae of jellyfish.

I seem to be plagued by sea bather's eruptions (ewww) whenever I snorkel or dive in Caribbean waters. I suppose it's my fault for not taking more precautions, but it also seems to be a function of repeated exposure. Each occurrence seems to get a wee bit worse. I've heard of this sort of thing with people who get progressively worse afflictions with exposure to poison ivy or poison oak. But I don't really have anything beyond anecdotal evidence to indicate jelly-related sea lice afflictions as an aquatic analog.

April through July are the months when the jelly larvae are most prevalent in Caribbean waters, although they may appear at any time. The symptoms appear very soon (24 hours or less) after exposure to the organism and persist for several days. Some cases have been reported which have a three- or four-day delay in onset and a prolonged course lasting several weeks.

Symptoms may include fever, chills, headaches, nausea and vomiting. I've also seen severe afflictions in some adults (not me yet) that result in extreme swelling over large patches of affected area. One particularly nasty case I witnessed (across a woman's face) looked as if her skin was exposed to a second degree burn. It certainly was exacerbated by scratching, but it really looked like her face was melting. This individual eventually required a series of cortisone (steroid) injections.

Many of these cases of sea bather's eruption (ewww) will clear spontaneously, but others may require treatment. Antihistamines and antipruritic (anti-itching) agents may be used, but the results are not good in many cases. Children and individuals with allergies or diseases affecting the immune system may be at risk for severe reactions. Fortunately, the severe reaction is rare.

Prevention means adequate protection by wetsuit or impermeable dive skin. Snorkelers wearing T-shirts, and women wearing one-piece bathing suits are vulnerable because of the trapping action of the fabric. After diving or swimming in an area where the jelly larvae are present, it's best to remove the wetsuit, dive skin or bathing suit before showering since the fresh water may discharge the nematocysts trapped in the fabric. There have been reports of the condition recurring when the same bathing suit is worn again, suggesting that the larvae may remain in clothing.

Stemming The Tide?

The unremarkable photo at the top of this post is of Kimbe Bay in West New Britain Province in Papua New Guinea. I took this picture last year while visiting our conservation project sites in PNG. While you wouldn't know from the picture, you're looking at one of the most species rich places on the planet. Behind me was a dense tropical rainforest that rose up the steep coastal terrain to volcanic pinnacles. The waters of Kimbe Bay in front of me are home to 60 percent of the coral species of the entire Indo-Pacific region, and an astounding diversity of vertebrates and invertebrates packed into every conceivable nook and cranny.

The incredible diversity in forest and sea is mirrored in the cultural diversity of Kimbe Bay's people. There are seven major tribes, the Nakanai, Bakovi, Kove, Unea, Maleu, Kaulong and Arowe, speaking a total of about 25 languages. I had the good fortune of meeting community members from some of Kimbe Bay's coastal communities during my trip last year. I was there to discuss coral reef conservation, but many of the villagers were more interested in talking to me, a stranger and newcomer, about a more pressing concern on their minds: sea level rise.

I was asked how long before rising seas might threaten low-lying villages and what scientists are doing to help. While doing my best to help people understand, I'm no climate scientist or civil engineer. Villagers concerns were sincere and palpable and I felt remarkably inadequate in offering any peace of mind for their worries. Now, a little over 12 months later, representatives from Kimbe Bay and other PNG communities are taking their fears to Bali in hopes of finding answers at the Climate Conference beginning this week.

Regional temperatures and atmospheric conditions, currents, undersea and shoreline topography are all factors contributing to sea levels. On some islands and atolls, which are the above-water remnants of ancient volcanoes, the coral underpinnings are subsiding and adding to the sinking effect.

What's Indonesian For, "Quick, Take My Picture With Furry White Man!"

Polar bears and Indonesians together at last? If the Bali Conference is a failure (and polar bears don't march to extinction in the next decade) a warming world may bring these two great populations together.

Pyrrhic Victory?

With its first official act, the new Australian Government today ratified the Kyoto Protocol. "[This demonstrates] my Government's commitment to tackling climate change," newly elected Prime Minister Rudd said in a statement. Under United Nations guidelines, ratification comes into force 90 days after the instrument of ratification is received by the UN, making Australia a full member of the Kyoto Protocol by the end of March 2008.

The ratification may very well be mostly symbolic, given that the Bali Conference on climate change opened today. The Bali Conference is charged with establishing a road map for the next round of international action against climate change, starting when the current Kyoto targets expire in 2012.

Drop what you're doing and swim over to The Natural Patriot for the Carnival of the Blue 7. It's a round-up of some of the best ocean writing to be found online (at least in the English-speaking blogosphere). Yours truly has a submission on the recent fuel spill in San Francisco Bay. Remember?! The over 58,000 gallons of bunker fuel that continues to be an environmental problem yet expectedly fell off the media's (and resultantly your) radar? Yeah, that spill.

That's A Moray Monday: Stupid Humans In Need Of Attack

In lieu of my typical taxonomic moray reflections today, I thought I'd feature this video of despicable human behavior involving a Giant Green moray (Gymnothorax prasinus) and several divers. This fish is demonstrating considerable restraint in the presence of both profound stupidity and egregious wildlife harassment. These are individuals in some severe need of behavioral modification with a few well places bites to the hands and face.

I Love The '80's: The Australian Edition

With John Howard now busy unpacking his bags after an 11-and-a-half-year stint as Australian Prime Minister (a down-under warm-up for our own political embarrassment who will be packing his bags around this time next year), newly sworn-in Prime Minister Kevin Rudd made a not unexpected but still somewhat unusual cabinet appointment last week. Pete Garrett, former lead singer with Australian '80's rock band Midnight Oil, becomes environment, heritage and arts minister for the new center-left Australian Labor Party (ALP) government. In case you lived under a rock through the '80's, Midnight Oil was an incredibly popular yet more-or-less one-hit wonder here in the States with their song Beds Are Burning.


Beds are Burning was a powerful political song about giving native Australian lands back to Aboriginal communities. The band famously performed this song in front of a world audience of billions (including former Prime Minister John Howard) at the closing ceremony of the 2000 Sydney Olympics. The band was dressed in black, with the words "Sorry" printed conspicuously on their clothes––a reference to the Prime Minister's refusal to apologize, on behalf of Australia, to Aboriginal Australians for over 200 years of land grabs and marginalization.

While it looked as if Garrett would also add a cabinet position on climate change to his portfolio, loose lips and strategic errors on his part during the campaign resulted in that post being handed to another politician. Garrett was repudiated by Mr. Rudd over his suggestion that Labor would sign up to a post-2012 agreement that did not require developing countries to immediately reduce greenhouse gas emissions and "joked" to Australian broadcaster Steve Price that ALP policies would change if the party was elected to government. He was also criticized for giving support to plans to build a paper mill in the environmentally sensitive Tamar Valley of Tasmania.

Word of Colin Hay, former lead singer of Men At Work, holding any remaining cabinet posts has not yet been confirmed, although it has been suggested that Kylie Minogue will be in top-level discussions next week at The Lodge in Canberra.

Am I The Only Person Who Remembers Marine Boy?

Would any of my readers out there of a certain age who, like me, spent a good part of their after-school childhood in front of the TV please tell me they recall watching Marine Boy? I feel like I'm taking crazy pills when I try to explain the show to friends and colleagues, so I need some validation from other fans of 60's Japanese anime.

The Oxy-gum, the jet boots, the sonic underwater boomerang, Neptina the scantily-clad mermaid and her magic pearl... they can't write stuff like this anymore. And that theme song! It still plays in my head. So please, Marine Boy fans let me hear from you!

Snorkel Rental Outreach In Hawaii Kicks Into High Gear

Say you're one of the tens-of-thousands of tourists who visit the Hawaiian island of Maui each year. If you're an average visitor (data suggests that's up to 65% of visitors) you will engage in some form of marine recreation near coral reefs. If you take a boat tour, you will have a dive or snorkel guide to help interpret the natural world for you. This guide should also remind you that healthy reefs are vital to the state's economy and local culture, so it's important not to touch or stand on coral, take only pictures away with you, and generally be polite guests in Hawaiian waters.

But what if you are one of the thousands of people each week who don't take a guided tour but decide to rent snorkel gear (mask, fins, snorkel) from a local shop and find your own coral reef adventure? How are you supposed to know that touching or standing on coral can damage slow growing coral colonies? Or that fish feeding tampers with energy budgets of tropical fish and may deter them from important algae grazing roles on the reef? Or that collecting shell, coral, or even living souvenirs can quickly degrade a habitat? Outside of popular Maui destinations like Honolua Bay or Ahihi Kinau, there wasn't much public outreach to this enormous rental business.

But all that is changing. Thanks to technical and financial support from CORAL, local Maui community members have launched an unprecedented public outreach campaign to help educate visiting tourists when they rent snorkel gear on the island. Participating businesses are agreeing to pilot test laminated information tags that will be attached to gear rental bags. One side of the tag is a picture of a healthy reef. The other has a few simple guidelines that will ensure popular walk-in snorkel destinations on Maui can stay healthy.

The photo at the top of this post shows Pacific Dive on Maui who have recently agreed to test the tags. Following a CORAL Conservation in Action training, Teri Leonard of Maui Dreams Dive Co. and Pauline Fiene of Mike Severns Diving co-developed the tag message. That's Teri Leonard working furiously to assemble the tag prototypes in the photo on the right.
UPDATE 12/1/07: Hawaii Field Manager Liz Foote also reminds me to mention that Maui Dreams Dive Co. and Maui Dive Shop are testing tags as well.

As rental customer transactions are processed, shop staff will point out the tags to visitors and ask that they read the information presented. Since Japanese tourists are common in Hawaii, plans are underway to translate tags into Japanese and other languages as needed. On the clipboard in front of Teri is an exit survey that asks customers returning gear if they found the tag information useful. After pilot testing is complete, bag tags will be revised and used in gear rental shops throughout Maui and other islands. Community-based conservation at work!

Here's a shot of rental gear bags with tags attached:


And a customer reading a bag tag:

Gentlemen, Bait Your Crab Pots!

Three weeks, 58,000 gallons of spilled bunker fuel, hundreds of dead seabirds, and two-weeks of lost fishing revenues later, Dungeness crab season officially opened today with a cautious green light from the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment.

In what will stand as my favorite quote from this entire incident, John McCamman, acting director of the Department of Fish and Game, announced the end of the ban that began Nov. 13 with the following proclamation:

There is a possibility of residual oil remaining in the water, and it could remain over the next couple of months. We urge fishermen to use common sense. If it looks like oil and smells like oil and tastes like oil, you don't want to eat it.

Truer words were never spake. I think I might hold off on bringing fresh crab home to Manuel for a wee bit longer, considering that just this week yet another ship, a 35-foot commercial fishing vessel, ran aground near Pigeon Point just south of the Golden Gate. It's a crazy ocean out there.

Thanks Cephalopodcast!

Well my old Grinchy heart grew two sizes today when I received this fabulous Cephalopodmas ornament from Jason Robertshaw over at Cephalopodcast. That's Anja, the always stunning CORAL Program Associate, modeling the octopod delight.

Thanks, Jason! And excellent packing. I'll be cleaning the vermiculite out of the rug all through next year.

And you too can celebrate the wonders of Cephalopodmas and it's close relative Squidmas to spread more festive secular oceanic cheer.

Okay... I'll Jump On The Cloverfield Bandwagon

If you were paying attention to movie trailers this past summer, you've probably heard of Cloverfield, the super secret monster movie that looks to me like a mash-up of Godzilla, Blair Witch Project, and Independence Day, with healthy doses of 9/11 paranoia thrown in as well.

The producers are using a clever viral marketing with a lot of buzz being generated via the interwebs (can you say Snakes on a Plane?) I'll admit to being hooked by the above trailer. Maybe the storyline will feature some cool ocean origin for whatever is trashing the Big Apple and make the whole flick an environmental cautionary tale. The movie is slated to open 1/18/08.

We Don't Need Your Stinking Fish Food!

Big congrats to CORAL Hawaii Field Manager Liz Foote on some awesome press for our innovative Take a Bite Out of Fish Feeding Campaign throughout the islands.

You're a rockstar, Liz!

That's A Moray Monday

I know... I know, I've been a lazy Moray Monday blogger. I missed last Monday what with a full slate of meeting in DC. Apologies for you moray fans (all two of you). Since snow has begun to fall here and there (and since I've already featured the Snowflake moray) I thought I'd showcase another snow-white eel to keep with the season.

Peppered Moray
Gymnothorax pictus or Siderea grisea

Ah, the folly of common names. I found pictures of this eel labeled "Peppered moray" all over the web. But some sites gave the Latin name Gymnothorax pictus. Others used Siderea grisea. Not being a moray systematist, I can't be positive which is correct, so I provide both for your consideration.

The Peppered moray can be recognized by its fine black speckles across its face which sometimes join to form diffuse spots. This species is known to occur in very shallow water on reef flats where it feeds primarily on crustaceans, but also feeds on fishes. It has been observed fully exposed as the tide recedes, sometimes leaping from the water to capture shore crabs on rocks above the surface. It has also been observed leaving the water to pursue prey during low tide--similar to the moray in the video below (apologies for annoying narration).


The Peppered moray occurs in tropical marine waters of the Indo-Pacific and from islands of the tropical eastern Pacific. In Australia it is known from the north-west Cape, Western Australia, around the tropical north of the country, and south to the Capricorn Group, Queensland.

Tis The Season

Manuel and I broke our turkey torpor yesterday with an evening stroll through downtown San Francisco. It was a chilly Saturday evening and perfect to bundle-up and enjoy the holiday windows, twinkling lights, and retail madness. Holiday evening window shopping has always been a favorite pastime of mine, but then again I'm easily lured to distraction by colors, lights, and shiny things (which probably explains my fascination with coral reefs.) And while we don't do the whole tree-thing anymore, it was fun to explore the collection of exquisite glass ornaments at Gumps, many modeled from ocean life.

Some of my fondest holiday childhood memories were of lying on my back under the tree and gazing up as if hypnotized through the lights and reflections off the ornaments. So if I were to decorate a tree, it wouldn't be too difficult to guess the theme.

Can Rugby Reduce Fish Poaching?

I'm banking on it. Check out these handsome athletes from one of the villages in our reef conservation project sites in Fiji.

We're 3 years into our work of building a marine conservation corridor in the Kubulau District of Vanua Levu in Fiji. The Kubulau District villagers are the traditional resource owners of the Namena Marine Reserve--the MPA we are working to strengthen. We heard reports recently that fish poaching was occurring in the no-take MPAs that abut the local villages. Trainings to institutionalize a cadre of local fish wardens and set up patrols takes funding. Aside from funding, another part of the problem was that some of the young men of the villages--who could play an important role as local fish wardens--were not feeling a close enough connection to the MPAs and as a result not particularly motivated to proactively patrol and enforce against poaching.

Since rugby is such a popular sport in Fiji, one of our project partners, WWF, succeeded in organizing the Great Sea Reef Tournament as a way of generating additional funds to conduct fish warden trainings. Rugby is certainly played in the villages where we work and some of the local teams are quite good. But our Fiji field staff reported that some of the Kubulau teams were playing in torn shirts. Some didn't even have shoes.

Thanks to a CORAL microgrant, the Kubulau District rugby teams are now proudly outfitted in spanking new rugby shirts, shorts, socks, and shoes. The shirts bear the logos of the Kubulau District Management Resource Committee, and the Namena Marine Reserve. Oh, and a small Coral Reef Alliance logo too (Hey, it works for NASCAR.) Our hope is to instill a sense of community pride in the young men from the village and connect that pride to community-based conservation taking place in the MPA.

The rugby shirts are gaudy but look great! We have an order on the way for our SF staff and plan to sell them on our website. Let me know if you would like to show some Fijian rugby (and coral reef conservation) pride on your own back too.

Future Shock

Welcome to tomorrow. CNN reports a disturbing case of shifting baselines, as a typically warm-water, Mediterranean species of jelly (Pelagia nocticula) expands its range and invades a Northern Ireland salmon farm. The result? The entire farm population of more than 100,000 fish, worth $2 million, is decimated.

Babs Weighs In On The Spill

Read on for Senator Boxer's official statement.

Foul Play

In what I suppose is the fisheries equivalent of a hostile take-over, at about 12:10 a.m. Tuesday, two Oregon fishing boats docked at a Monterey commercial pier where, working under cover of darkness and well into the morning, workers from a seafood wholesaler, Royal Seafood, offloaded nearly 100,000 pounds of Dungeness from the holding tanks of the vessels Fierce Contender and Chevelle. The crabs, allegedly caught in waters near the Farallon Islands, were loaded onto waiting refrigerated trucks, which the wholesaler said were headed to San Francisco markets. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, none of this crab has been tested for the presence of any contaminants that may have come from the fuel oil spill that occurred in San Francisco Bay on November 7.

If you were following my posts from last week, this of course comes as both shock and insult to hundreds of fishermen in San Francisco, Bodega Bay and Half Moon Bay who have been desperately trying to keep untested crab off local dinner plates in the wake of the fuel spill. They vowed not to harvest crab until the state, which has been testing specimens caught locally, confirms the crabs are not contaminated. Results are due Nov. 28.

I know it's a free market, but isn't there some "Code of Fisher's" out there to protect local markets and fishing families from this sort of claim jumping?

DC Bound

I've finished laundry and packing for my trip to DC in the morning. I'll be meeting with some of our federal and NGO partners on this trip as well as visiting with a few board members. I'm feeling like crap right now (fighting off a cold?) so not all that excited for the joys of airtravel. Plus the turkey day airport SNAFU should be an added delight.

Anyway, more when I'm on the ground. If there are any DC bloggers (or readers) who would like to meet-up while I'm in town, shoot me a heads-up.

Did Less Affluent Bay Area Neighborhoods Receive Slower Oil Spill Response? Rambling Thoughts On Environmental Justice

A half-dozen beaches in Marin and San Mateo counties, fouled with oil and void of people for the past 10 days, were reopened to the public Friday after having been cleansed of oil. Seven more beaches in San Francisco and at Point Reyes in Marin County will be reopened by noon Saturday, Nov 17, a National Park Service spokeswoman said. But some residents of the East Bay city of Richmond, California have complained that the federal and state response to last weeks 58,000 gallon oil spill was slow or wholly absent. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that volunteers said large swaths of the Richmond waterfront remained open and people and their pets were scaring sick birds back into the water, further threatening their chances for survival. They said they complained to state and city officials to no avail. "I wish there had been a better official response earlier," said volunteer bird rescuer Lisa Owens of Berkeley. "We're trying to step in where we see this huge vacuum."

Unfortunately, vacuums are something Richmond residents have in abundance. Many media reports of this West Contra Costa County city often begin with the embarrassing opening line, Richmond: A city better known for failing schools, gun violence, and poverty. The city is home to elementary schools with some of the lowest Academic Performance Indices in California. Richmond is also known for environmental catastrophes, primarily thanks to the city's industrial base and its chemical leaks. A quick count shows at least five major chemical producers with manufacturing facilities in Richmond. The largest is the Chevron petrochemical refinery in North Richmond. The refinery has had numerous incidents where toxic gases (mostly chlorine and sulfur trioxide) have been vented into the air, initiating hold-in-place orders for Richmond neighborhoods that abut the facility. In the 1990s, the facility had many highly noted chemical leaks and Chevron has been fined thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars.

In a 1993 industrial accident, a General Chemical company rail tanker car containing fuming sulfuric acid was overheated and exploded. This resulted in a 17-mile (27 km) area contaminated with the poisonous gas, and led to 25,000 people landing in the hospital. The incident led to lawsuits, and has been referred to as a mini-Bhopal. Not surprisingly, neighborhoods surrounding the Chevron refinery and other chemical facilities in Richmond are not populated by Chevron executives. If executives actually live locally, you're more likely to find their homes on the other side of the coastal headlands in tony Lafayette or Walnut Creek. Most oil refinery air pollution victims inhabit low-income, minority communities. Richmond is the Bay Area’s most economically depressed, lowest income, highest unemployment community. African-Americans have dominated the population since the war-industry boom of the 1940s, but today, Asians and Latinos have become a significant part of Richmond’s ethnic mosaic.

The fact that low-value property abutting hazardous waste stockpiles is occupied by low-income populations is unfortunate, but not surprising. But should those low-income residents have any less rights to clean air, safe neighborhoods, or timely clean-up action in the face of environmental catastrophes like last week's oil spill? This sort of consideration--of how race, class, or gender impacts our relationship with the environment--is at the heart of environmental justice. In many respects, the environmental justice movement has redefined what environmentalism is all about. It basically says that the environment is everything: where we live, work, play, go to school, as well as the natural world. As such, we can't separate the natural environment from the cultural environment.

Environmental justice is about trying to address some of the inequities that result from human settlement, industrial facility siting, and industrial development. It's about educating and assisting groups in organizing and mobilizing, empowering them to take charge of their lives, their community, and their surroundings. It's more of a concept of trying to address power imbalances, lack of political enfranchisement, and redirecting resources so that we can collectively create healthy, livable, and sustainable types of community models.

Environmental justice is not a social program, nor is it affirmative action. It's about justice. And until we get justice in environmental protection--justice in terms of enforcement of regulations--we can't talk about achieving sustainable development or sustainability. I suspect that a lot of the groups that are trying to address these issues in the absence of dealing with race and class may be fooling themselves. How can we talk about the problems that exist in a city like Richmond without seriously and honestly considering the dynamic of race and class? These are issues which may be uncomfortable to address. But the environmental justice movement is forcing these issues on the table and forcing people to think about how to address the disparities and the inequities and the privileged position that some people have only because of the skin color that they were born in or the economic realities their families have inherited. To me, that's where the justice issues come into account.

Until relatively recently, the civil rights and environmental movements remained surprisingly separate in the United States. It seemed that academic researchers, environmental groups, and federal, state, and local environmental agencies gave little attention to the idea that environmental risks might be distributed inequitably, although such inequities have been documented for more than two decades. The tide only began to turn in 1983, when the General Accounting Office conducted a study of hazardous waste landfills in eight southeastern states. The study was requested by congressional representative Walter E. Fauntroy, who along with 500 other citizens had been arrested for demonstrating in opposition to the siting of a polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) disposal landfill in the predominantly black and poor Warren County, North Carolina. The GAO found that African-Americans formed the majority of the population in the counties of three of the four offsite hazardous waste sites in the region.

Lest I focus too much on examples of race, it's important to remember that issues of environmental justice are not solely the purview of people of color. Examples from white communities in Appalachia and their struggles with mining interests or toxic waste dumping illustrates that challenges to environmental equity can be color blind.

Environmental justice is not an attempt to somehow redefine all environmental problems as stemming from race, class, or gender inequities. But it can serve as a very effective lens by which we can monitor our activities and decision-making. Unfortunately, industries and governments have historically exploited the economic vulnerability of poor or disenfranchised communities, states, regions, and nations for their "risky" operations. The environmental justice movement challenges the notion of toxic colonialism, environmental racism, and the toxics trade here in our own backyards as well as abroad.

Fishers File Class Action Lawsuit

The San Francisco law offices of Audet & Partners has filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of all commercial fishing and crabbing businesses that operate in the San Francisco Bay and surrounding coastlines. Arguing that fishing losses could rise above $100 million as boats remain idled because fish and crab in the bay face contamination from the spilled oil, fishers filed their suit this morning in U.S. District Court, and ask for compensation for their losses while they are restricted from fishing the oil-fouled water. They also demand that the waterways be fully cleaned and safe again for fishing.

The suit names ship owner Regal Stone, Ltd., Hanjin Shipping Co., Ltd. and the China Ocean Shipping Co. (Cosco) as defendants. Audet & Partners has set up a toll free number for local fishers to join the class action or to learn about the lawsuit.

SF Fuel Spill No Laughing Matter... Well, Maybe A Little

Loose Lips Sink Ships

Shhhhhh... That seems to be the consensus of lawyers for Cosco Container Lines and the message they are sending out to the crew of the Cosco Busan, the 900-foot cargo ship that slammed into the Bay Bridge last week and unleashed 58,000 gallons of oil into the water. Attorneys for Cosco have barred the mostly Chinese-speaking crew from answering questions posed by the National Transportation Safety Board, the lead investigative body for the federal government. The hush hush tactic appears to be the result of the U.S. Attorney’s Office beginning a criminal investigation of the accident. With a crew of non-US nationals, silence appears to be the team strategy to avoid criminal charges being levied against the captain, chief officer, helmsman, second mate, third mate and chief engineer.

Despite the recommendations of silence by legal council, the crew has been issued subpoenas by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Crab On Ice

An amazing drama is unfolding for local San Francisco crab fishers. Despite mixed reports early this morning that crab boats were planning to set pots in the waters outside the Golden Gate, breaking news this afternoon indicates that crab fishers are staying put.

"All our guys are holding," said Larry Collins, president of the San Francisco Crab Boat Owners Association. "No one is fishing for crab and no one is buying crab." The same held true at Half Moon Bay and Bodega Bay, where harbors masters confirmed that crab boats were at their docks, with pots still stacked.

Some concerns appear to have been raised that non-local crab boats from out of state might try to unload their catches in Bay Area markets. But apparently no markets from Half Moon bay to Bodega Bay are buying crab.

Crab Season Open? Crab Season Closed? Confusion Abounds

SF Bay Ship Traffic In Real Time

While I can't seem to embed the real time graphic here, visit the BoatingSF website which features a very cool animation of the most recent one hour of ship activity on San Francisco Bay.

You can also see the path of the Cosco Busan as the ship hit the Bay Bridge.

1.6 Million Wintering Birds Affected

The SF oil spill last week couldn't have happened at a worse time for the 360,000 shorebirds that come to the Bay and the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta for the winter, to feed in the mudflats, in the lower tides and, at high tide, in the salt ponds.

The 700,000 waterfowl, which include ducks, grebes and loons, like the open ocean and deep bay where they can spend most of their time in the water, diving or dabbling.

Additionally, about 300,000 pelagic seabirds and Western gulls will be breeding at the Farallon Islands (about 27 miles outside the Golden Gate) come spring. Some of the murres are already showing up to start courtship at the islands, the largest seabird colony south of Alaska.

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

SF Crab Fishers Feeling The Boil

Words can’t begin to describe what I’m feeling right now. I have a 4-month-old daughter, a boat payment and a dock payment that don’t know there’s an oil spill. The planned income that’s supposed to be there might be gone.

These are the words of James Smith, owner and operator of the crab boat California Dawn reflecting on the potential loss of the sport crabbing season as a result of the fuel spill in San Francisco Bay. Yet the decision to shoulder this loss is self-imposed. Bay Area fishermen voted unanimously last Saturday to request a delay of local Dungeness crab season due to safety concerns associated with the spill. Yesterday, Gov. Schwarzenegger suspended all fishing for human consumption--including the Dungeness crab season which was scheduled to open this week--through Dec 1 or until the state Department of Fish and Game and state health officials determine the season can be reopened.

This is not just a tragedy at the dinner table. The impact on crab and other aquatic life in the Bay will likely be felt far into the future. “Right now, the bay is loaded with baby Dungeness,” said Larry Collins, president of San Francisco’s Crab Boat Owners Association. “As that fuel moves down the water column, it could devastate crab numbers for years to come.”

Not only does the spill harm the crab and crab-lovers, the commercial fishermen take a hit as well. “We just had a horrible salmon season and a lot of the commercial guys are depending on the crab season to survive in this business,” said Collins. “We seem to be going from one catastrophe to the next.”

The postponement of crab season will force the loss of income for perhaps two weeks, and local crab fishermen will lose the high prices attributed to the San Francisco tradition of Dungeness crab for Thanksgiving. Restaurants will still have Dungeness to sell but they will need to source their supply from the Pacific Northwest rather than from local fishers.

UPDATE:
The Department of Fish and Game decided to leave open much of the traditional crab grounds in the ocean outside the Golden Gate to both commercial and recreational fishermen. The Gov. initiated closure will stand however for most of the waters inside the Bay. Waters outside of 3 nautical miles, between Pedro Point and Point Reyes, will remain open to fishermen. We are flabbergasted," said Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations. "The decision makes sense for the recreational fishermen, but not for the commercial crabbers. There now is real potential to bring contaminated crab into the market."

Brownie, You're Doin' A Heck Of A Job

For the first time, SF city officials have compared the federal response after ship fuel spilled into the Bay with the response to floods after Hurricane Katrina. The scorecard thus far paints a pretty grim picture of ineptitude.

There was a painfully slow Coast Guard response following the accident. Confused coordination and inadequate capacity in the crucial early hours of the accident (the San Francisco Examiner reports today that an SF Fire Department boat heading out to the Bay to assist was immediately ordered back to land by the Coast Guard). Poor communication and significant underestimation of the scale of the spill is a popular mantra (Port of San Francisco Director Monique Moyer reported that she first found out about the spill not from the Coast Guard but "by smelling it." The Port of San Francisco had offered the Coast Guard more than 20 trained and qualified staff who could respond to the accident. As of Tuesday, the Coast Guard still had not accepted the offer. And while a bumper crop of volunteers came forward early on to help in the clean-up, the Coast Guard turned away the free help.

All we are lacking is a late inning helicopter visit from Dubyuh and the comparison would be complete.

SF Mayor Unveils New Fuel Spill Mitigation Strategy: Head To Hawaii

Just when I thought SF Mayor Gavin Newsom was Teflon-coated against criticism following last weeks fuel spill in the Bay, the San Francisco Chronicle reports today that in the midst of the fuel spill, Newsom decided to continue with his plans for a Hawaiian holiday.

The facts are, he left town after he knew he had a 58,000-gallon spill on his hands, said Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin.

It seems that on Thursday afternoon, after learning that the Coast Guard had vastly underestimated the size of the previous day's spill, Newsom still felt things were well enough in hand for him to take his planned post-election vacation.

Perhaps da Mayor felt he had enough oil already in his hair and could sit this one out?

Spill Bound: Dispatches From The Bay

My morning commute on Wednesday, November 7, was unusual in several ways. As I walked to the Alameda-Oakland Ferry terminal in Oakland's Jack London Square at 9AM, I recall that it was perhaps the foggiest morning in recent memory. By the time I had reached the dock, I couldn't even see across the estuary to the Alameda shore. The 9:15 ferry was 20 minutes late, which in itself is not unusual. The ferry runs reliably late in clear weather, so I figured the unusually heavy fog was just delaying the commute further.

Once underway, the captain's routine reminder of the locations of life vests was preempted by an apology for the extreme delay in service. Part of the blame was placed on the fog. But the captain also mentioned that an accident with a container ship resulted in a small fuel spill near the Bay Bridge. Because of the fumes near the spill, passengers were encouraged to stay inside, off the deck. Or at least this is what I was told the announcement conveyed, as I was sitting on the starboard outside deck and with the engines running it's difficult to hear much. While many of the passengers around me moved inside, a few of us stayed on deck.

It wasn't until we cleared the estuary into the Bay that the first waves of thick petroleum fumes hit my nose. The fog had lifted somewhat and sunlight was filtering through in places, but fog was still thick enough to obscure most of the Bay Bridge and the City. While I wouldn't have known if I was looking at it, there was no sign of the Cosco Busan, the Chinese COSCO shipping vessel that left the Port of Oakland at 6:31 a.m. and about two hours later scraped the base of a western support tower of the Bay Bridge leaving a long gash in the hull that ruptured several fuel compartments.

Here and there we passed rainbow swirls of fuel the size of large puddles. By the time we reached the midpoint across the bay, we were cutting through what seemed like an unbroken surface of fuel. Now I wasn't a Coast Guard trained spill expert. Just a caffeine deprived morning commuter possibly dizzy from potentially carcinogenic fume exposure. But even lacking training and with limited visibility, it was obvious this was not a small spill.

As we passed under the Bay Bridge, the fuel spill appeared to extend into the shipping lanes towards Alcatraz and Angel Island. Multicolor swirls and puddles of fuel ebbed towards the San Francisco Embarcadero shoreline. Docking at the Ferry Building, we were greeted by a local news cameraman asking if anyone had seen the "oil spill." Had we seen it? How could we miss it.

But then, the cameraman and most of the news outlets (and presumably the City officials) were still operating under the original reports that this was a "minor spill".

There is a sheen in the water. It is bunker fuel, said Coast Guard Petty Officer Kevin Neff about oil used to propel the ship. It's about a three-foot-(1-metre-)wide sheen at the last report, going from the bridge to the vessel. If it's only 3 feet away from the edge of the ship, there are oil absorbent pads that you can use, and it should be easily cleaned up, he said.

Original estimates suggested this "sheen" was caused by only 140 gallons of bunker fuel being released following the bridge collision. Revised Coast Guard estimates would state that over 58,000 gallons of fuel were actually spilled as a result of the accident. Once this new assessment came forward (several hours after the accident) Coast Guard Capt. William Uberti, captain of the Port of San Francisco and the chief federal officer investigating the incident re-designated this a medium-sized spill. Despite the initial underestimate of the scale of the accident, a day after the spill, California Governor Schwarzenegger praised the Coast Guard for taking "immediate action."

Over the course of the past week, the ripple effects of this medium-sized spill continue to be felt. Over 600 birds (mostly Surf Scoters) have died from fuel contamination with another 700 undergoing rehabilitation. Fuel and tar globules have left the confines of the Bay and are being discovered as far south as Pacifica and as far north as Point Reyes and the commercially valuable oyster beds of Tomales Bay. Even though the Coast Guard lacks capacity to attend to all reports of oil or tar making landfall, concerned volunteers have been restricted from helping in clean-up efforts as federal regulations prohibit civilian contact with petroleum spills without adequate training. Despite the ban, some volunteers have participated in cursory trainings and have assisted in clean-up at Ocean Beach.

Today, the Governor appeared to change his tune describing the spill as a result of "unbelievable human failure." Speaking at the California State Association of Counties' annual meeting on Tuesday, Schwarzenegger elaborated, "Then on top of it, it takes that long to react to the oil spill so by the time the next day comes around, the oil is all over the bay." Indeed, that's the problem with tides and currents. Adding economic insult to the ecological injury, Schwarzenegger also signed an executive order that bans both commercial and sport fishing from Nov. 15 until Dec. 1, or until state health and wildlife officials determine that it's safe to reopen the fisheries. The postponement means fresh local crab will not be available for Thanksgiving and local fishermen will carry the economic losses.

The delayed and confused response from the Coast Guard is now under investigation. Oakland-based conservation organization Save The Bay is demanding a full investigation into the accident’s causes, and supporting state and federal oversight hearings that will reveal what went wrong. Not that warnings of inadequate response to such accidents haven't been voiced before. As Mark over at blogfish recently commented, The Ocean Conservancy has been sounding the alarm for years.

Unable to meet the clean-up challenge by the Coast Guard alone, the state has contracted with a private company to bring in eleven skimmers which continue to ply the waters of the Bay in search of remaining slicks. To date, the fleet of skimmers has removed 20,546 of the original 58,000 gallons of the heavy fuel oil from the waters of the bay and ocean. It's estimated that much of the remainder will sink, wash ashore as tar, or dissipate through evaporation. In the mean time, it still presents a fouling threat to birds and marine mammals as well as pets and humans on coastal beaches. What this spill portends for the Bay's marine invertebrate filter feeding communities is anyones guess.

As I think of this medium-sized spill, I also think of the subsistence fishers (mostly low income Asian and Latino residents) I see every day at the SF Ferry Building pier with their poles and hand lines pulling everything from skates to flounder out of the much abused Bay water. What will they be bringing home as dinner over the coming weeks?

Politicians haven't missed an opportunity to chime in and get some airplay over the past week. My US Senator Barbara Boxer found the time to send me a personal assurance that she is, ...deeply concerned about the recent oil spill that is impacting the Bay Area and beyond. I’m working both to assess why this spill occurred and to make sure that it is cleaned up quickly and to the highest possible standards. Speaker of the House and SF native Nancy Pelosi dropped by Crissy Field for a photo-op and pledged to get to the bottom of this mishap. Disappointingly, newly re-elected SF Mayor Gavin Newsom (while apparently briefed) never once bothered to be chauffeured the six blocks from City Hall down to the Embarcadero on the day of the incident to see first-hand that this was not an insignificant event. For the moment, he seems to be flying under most of the media's radar as the Coast Guard takes most of the heat.

And what of the ship's pilot and crew? In an age when every car (hell, almost every cell phone!) seems to have GPS and it's possible to get detailed global positioning information everywhere, how does a multimillion dollar, transoceanic vessel run into a bridge? Of course allegations have already been raised that the ship had poorly performing instruments, or that language barriers between the Chinese crew and English-speaking pilot led to the mishap. And there are already doubts as to the sobriety of the pilot, a seasoned sailor with over 20 years experience, as there was a 26 hour delay in the Coast Guard administering an obligatory drug test.

Is this a wake-up call to our woefully inadequate rapid response to environmental disasters? Yes, it is. But I fear that call won't be loud enough to knock many from their complacency. What's a few hundred ducks and a few tar spots? True, local fishers will suffer but consumers will forget quickly. Subsistence fishers will be issued warnings, but an empty stomach can make good decisions a challenge. COSCO Shipping Lines will face scrutiny and fines, but the rebuke and monetary penalties will seem like a slap on the wrist to a billion dollar industry. San Francisco Bay has seen far larger spill catastrophes in the past, and yet here we are. The SF Bay remains one of the busiest commercial waterways in the world with as many as 250 vessels traveling on the water at any time. Vessel traffic in San Francisco Bay has increased from approximately 87,000 movements in 1987 to an estimated 97,900 in 1995. That number is surely six figures by now.

All this commerce and carriage of potentially dangerous materials and fuel, yet the SF Bay is refuge to scores of resident and migrating birdlife, repository of thousands of species of benthic marine invertebrates, home to seals and sea lions, passageway for fish on their way to and from freshwater rivers and streams, and even a stopping point for the occasional Gray and Humpback whales. And just outside the Golden Gate lies the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary: one of the most productive and biologically diverse marine habitats in the United States. I'd like to think that with so much precious natural resources at stake and in such precarious proximity to danger, we have the environments back in case of accidents. Until we can feel confident in that thought, I suspect there remains a lot of work to be done.