Jul
27

Baby Boom Of Gray Whales Attributed To Early Ice Melt (KPBS)

From: KPBS

More than 1,100 gray whale calves completed their first-ever 5,000-mile northward migration, from the warm water lagoons of Mexico to the Arctic Circle. That’s twice as many calves as last year, according toWayne Perryman, biologist with NOAA’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center.

Above: Gray whales travel10,000 to 14,000 miles roundtrip every year — from feeding grounds near the Arctic to breeding lagoons in Baja California.

Perryman helped count the cow/calf pairs along their journey.

“We’re counting them as they migrate northbound past a little point of land near San Simeon California, and that’s a site that cows and calves pass very very close to the beach,” he said.

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Jul
19

Report: Little environmental damage from Chevron’s offshore Brazil oil spill (Washington Post)

 

From: Washington Post

SAO PAULO — A federal police spokesman confirmed Wednesday that investigators have found that an offshore oil spill near a Chevron well last year caused no significant environmental damage.

The spokesman gave no other details about the conclusion, which was reported earlier in the day by two leading Brazilian newspapers: Folha de S. Paulo and O Estado de S. Paulo. The official spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to discuss the case.

 

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Jul
10

Sakhalin 2011 Sustainable Development Report

Sakhalin’s 2011 Sustainable Development Report is available here: Sustainable Development Report 2011

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Jul
02

Whale routes tracked — to help keep them safe (MSNBC)

From: MSNBC

To reduce the number of whales accidentally killed from ship strikes and entanglement in fishing nets, scientists are using data collected from tags placed onto more than 300 whales and combining that with information about human activities at sea to identify areas where whales and ships are most likely to intersect on the U.S. West Coast.

“We know, for example, that the West Santa Barbara Channel off California is a place where blue whales feed and it is right in the middle of shipping lanes to the Los Angeles harbor,” said Oregon State University researcher Bruce Mate in a statement. “Identifying the seasonal trends, as well as the geographical movement, may help policymakers find ways to better protect the whales.”

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