Fishy workshop for Nature Guides

A very enthusiastic LARGE fishy crowd gathered last night. To learn from Fish Guru Jeffrey, as well as to share and brainstorm ways to sell our fishes; through nature walks of course. In the spirit of the Leafmonkey Workshop's tagline: Learn, Share and DO!

Here's November, who runs the Leafmonkey Workshops that hosts these wonderful sessions. And Jeff who carried on despite a bad cold, and failing eyesight.
Jeff share lots of insights into fishes, including some gory ones! And helped us sort out some Confusing Fishes.

After a lively Q&A, it was time to create our Fantasy Fish based on the fishy principles to fit into an assigned ecosystem.This required a bit of discussion. Some trials with initial outlines.Wacky ideas.And even the most sausage-like object can become a fish!Resulting in various masterpieces such as these fishy creations for a mangrove, complete with pnematophores.And elaborate creations with colourful but well camouflaged fishes.

We also brainstormed and shared ideas on how to sell our fishes. The hardest was coming up with corny jokes!But here's the team who role-played the pajama-wearing, school-loving eel-tail catfishes!

We sure had lots of fun! And learnt a lot from Jeff and from one another. It was also really nice to meet so many old friends, and make new ones.

The next workshop is about Life between the Tides where I hope to share about the tides, and the kind of life these create on various types of ecosystems. For more details and how to register for the workshop, see the Leafmonkey Workshop. You MUST register so that I can have early understanding of your concerns and can tailor the content to meet them.

Singapore's Melongena snails on Nature in Singapore

The large Spiral melongena (Pugilina cochlidium) is a die-die-sure-can-see encounter on many of our Northern shores.

This snail lays egg capsules in neat spirals on hard surfaces that often intrigue beach visitors. The living snail is often considered boring and dull because it has a layer of 'hairs' on its shell that traps sediments and camouflages it. The hairs fall off revealing the bright orange shell when the snail dies. The shell is often taken over by hermit crabs.

A recent paper on Nature in Singapore highlights these snails and their relatives, with lots of fascinating details about them and photos and info to help us identify them.


This study of empty shells found on East Coast Park and Changi found three species of the family Melogenidae in Singapore: Hemifusus ternataus, Pugilina cochlidium and Volema myristica. And an unconfirmed report of Hemifusus elongatus. There is also a fascinating discussion of how shells found hint at possible new record of Pugilina wardiana.

Our shores are very much alive! Even seemingly uninteresting beaches on the East Coast and Changi can turn up surprises if we take a closer look.

The Melongenidae (Mollusca: Gastropoda) of Singapore. S.-Y. Chan. Pp. 63-67. [PDF, 178 KB] on Nature in Singapore of the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research.

Seaweed cultivation helps poor fishermen in Indonesia

The weather determines incomes of poor fishermen living on Indonesia's remote islands. Many, who only own small boats, cannot take the risk of confronting the big waves on the open sea. While fishermen on bigger islands like Java can simply change jobs during rough weather, those living on small and isolated islands do not have much choice. With a seaweed cultivation programme they were now able to earn a living throughout the year without falling into debt.
Seaweed put to dry under the sun in Aru Islands, Maluku province. Poor fishermen in isolated islands like Aru and Buton in Southeast Sulawesi were encouraged to cultivate seaweed to help improving their economy. (JP/Asep Saefullah)

Seaweed brings magic to remote islands
Asep Saefullah, The Jakarta Post 6 Feb 09;

Living in a remote island still means limited access to many things.

For poor fishermen in the Aru Islands regency in Maluku, who face this situation year after year, this is a hard fact of life.

Surrounded by sea, their income is very much dependent on weather. Many, who only own small boats, cannot take the risk of confronting the big waves on the open sea.

While fishermen on bigger islands like Java can simply change jobs during rough weather, those living on small and isolated islands do not have much choice. They simply cannot go to other places to search for new jobs.

On Aru, where people have to take a boat for hours to reach the regency’s capital, Dobo, many end up with no significant income to support their families.

This situation encouraged the Sitakena Foundation to introduce a seaweed cultivation program to improve the livelihood of residents on the islands.

Robo Djambumir from Selmona village, which is located south of the Aru Islands and a seven-hour boat trip away from Dobo, was grateful for the program.

He said with the program the residents were now able to earn a living throughout the year without falling into debt.

“There is life now, more life in Selmona, because of seaweed,” he said. “We don’t have difficulty getting food and can finance our children’s education in the city.”

The improvements in the quality of life for Robo and the residents of Selmona village on Aru are also enjoyed by Tahinuddin in Sulaa village on Buton Island in Southeast Sulawesi.

In 2006, Tahinudin, together with seven of his friends who cultivated seaweed, formed a group called Sabar Menanti.

The Coastal Area Development Network (JPKP) is a self-supporting institute on Buton Island that helps the group.

When harvesting seaweed for the first time in 2007, Tahinudin recalled that he got 1.2 tons of dry seaweed.

At that time, the seaweed price in Bau-Bau, the main city on Buton Island, was Rp 4,900 a kilogram (about 50 US cents), meaning he earned more than Rp 5 million from a venture that had a start-up capital of less than Rp 2 million.

“I got Rp 3.5 million profit at that time. From the next harvest, I had 2 tons,” Tahinudin said.

For the second harvest, he got a much better profit with a selling price of Rp 6,200 a kilogram.

One of the network’s members, Asman, contributed to the Sabar Menanti group’s success by helping the members, who diligently took care of their crops, and keeping up their spirits throughout the process.

“Within the group we’re learning together how to best take care of the seaweed. The results have been quite extraordinary. In November 2008, Tahinudin was able to produce 3 tons,” Asman said.

Since January last year, Tahinudin, together with other group members, have started undertaking other business development programs. As well as cultivating seaweed, they now raise seaweed seedlings.

Tahinudin said he saw this program as a promising business opportunity — fully aware that the increasing number of people cultivating seaweed would also raise demand for good seaweed seedlings.

“It takes less time to process seaweed seedlings. The work is done between January and May or throughout the year,” he said. They simply need to adjust the planting time for the seaweed.

The seaweed seedlings cultivated by the Sabar Menanti group in Wantopi village can produce up to 360 clumps. The selling price for one clump is Rp 50,000. So they are able to get an income of around Rp 18 million from a single planting of seedlings.

The task of marketing the seaweed seedlings is carried out in Bau-Bau city and Buton regency.

Through to the cultivation of seaweed for the past three years, the life of Tahinudin and other group members has become more prosperous.

He said, “I can buy motorboats to use at sea and motorcycles to use on land, all because of seaweed.”

Related posts

• Seaweed as biofuel: pros and cons
• Indonesian seaweed bubble bursts

Seven dugongs dead in 6 months in Thailand

Seven dugongs had been found dead during the past six months in Thailand's Andaman coastal waters. The causes of death are varied. The latest case is a five-year-old dugong weighing 122 kilogrammes which was found dead at a beach in Trang. According an autopsy, the dugong died of shock when it was caught in the nets of a fishing trawler.
Marine mammal academic Kanchana Adulyanukosol said that there are now only about 200 dugongs left in Thai-Andaman waters and urged the Thai government to protect them.

Currently, Ms. Kanchana said, a master plan to conserve sea cows and seagrass, which was its main diet, was drafted, but has yet been submitted to the Cabinet.

It was believed that if the scheme is implemented, it will help, in a certain extent, to preserve the sea cow population, she said.

Public awareness activities to realise the importance and seriousness of the dugongs' problems is necessary were also recommended, she said.

Full media article on wildsingapore news.

Related links

• Dead dugong in Phuket: entangled in fishing net?
• Dugong slaughtered in Andamans Neha Sinha Indian Express 2 Jan 09;
• Nets leave their mark Thomas Chamberlin, The Cairns Post 26 Jan 09;
• Stranded sea cow saved by Filipino fishermen Associated Press 6 Jan 08;

Taiwan corals turn black with disease

"If you snorkel, you'll see it's black." said researcher Chen Chao-lun. "This is a large distribution and we had no previous information," said Chen, whose began doing research with local environmental groups in 2007.

Taiwan's study did not pinpoint a cause for the diseased coral, but untreated sewage may a factor, Chen said.

On Green Island, a tourism hotspot and one the sites surrounded by diseased coral, garbage and excrement are dumped into the surrounding azure waters while reefs are often plundered by coral-robbing tourists, officials and long-time divers say.

The discovery of a problem long suspected but seldom documented showed that coral was suffering widely in waters up to 5m deep and 300m offshore, Chen said.

“We still have to do more research to determine where the black disease comes from — is it caused by over-fishing or pollution?” Chen said.

Chen also expressed concern that in all the coastal areas they investigated, there was a serious deficiency of the types of fish that indicate the overall health of marine life. Over-fishing is caused by Taiwanese having a rich “seafood culture,” but lacking knowledge about marine preservation, he said.

Chen and other environmentalists urged the government to view coral reefs as living organisms, not rocks.

The environmental groups will be conducting another round of reef checks this year and encourage those who are interested in protecting marine life to sign up to volunteer.

Full media articles on wildsingapore news.

See also Bacterial infection of corals getting worse with global warming.

Nipah Island and Singapore's shores

Nipah Island, part of the Riau Islands province off Sumatra, became a center of controversy in 2003 after environmentalists claimed an estimated 300 million cubic meters of sand had been dredged from seabed around it and sold to Singapore each year for its coastal expansion works that boomed from 1999. Singapore has reclaimed Jurong Island, Tuas View and Changi, mostly with sand imported from Indonesia's Riau Islands.
Concerns have arisen that if the island disappears below sea level during high tides, it would risk Indonesia losing the maritime boundary that had been negotiated with Singapore since 2005.

A previous government report said Nipah only measured a total of 0.62 hectares when the tide came in, and expanded to 60 hectares during low tides.

After extensive reclamation work carried out by the Indonesian government, "Nipah island has now been brought far above sea level, just like before. We can already have buildings developed there and it has also been divided into several zones for different purposes,"

Nipah Island will be developed for various purposes, including as a traffic monitoring base for anchoring vessels, where vessels could anchor temporarily before entering Singapore, Malaysia or Indonesia.

According to the 2004 master plan for Nipah island`s development, plans for the island included a pier, plaza and monument, an integrated security post, mangrove and marine biota observation center, and a fishermen`s shelter. "The facilities would be constructed in accordance with the needs of visitors to the island which is located on the edge of a sea lane through which 50,000 merchant ships pass every year."

More reports about Nipah Island and Singapore's shores

• Indonesia restores key maritime baseline of Nipah Island: Foreign Ministry Lilian Budianto, The Jakarta Post 6 Feb 09;
• President Yudhoyono chairs meeting on Nipah Island`s development Antara 3 Feb 09;
• Singapore, Indonesia agree on western maritime boundary Salim Osman, Straits Times 4 Feb 09;
• Indonesia and Singapore agree on new boundary Erwida Maulia, The Jakarta Post 3 Feb 09;
• Four Villages In Madura Island May Be Gobbled Up By Sea Bernama 22 Dec 06;
• Indonesian activists back ban on sand for Singapore Yahoo News 14 Feb 07;
• Govt to boost security to enforce sand export ban Fadli, The Jakarta Post
• Singapore’s Shifting Sands Asia Sentinel 31 Jan 07;
• The shifting sands of time - and Singapore Bill Guerin Atimes 31 Jul 03;

Renewed demands on Atlantis to release whale shark

“Keeping the whale shark at a hotel, which is not an educational or scientific institution, does not increase the potential for conservation of the wild population,” said environmentalists in an open letter on the whale shark kept at Atlantis.

Activists last year questioned the rationale for catching the shark, which the hotel said was sick and confused. Atlantis characterised the capture as a rescue. Atlantis since has remained silent. The controversy subsided by the end of November, after the opening of the opulent hotel.

Yesterday, a group of environmentalists tried to remind the public about the creature’s welfare by releasing an open letter to “the management and decision-makers” of the hotel.

Atlantis did not respond to media requests for comment.

The open letter was signed by Susan Lieberman, director of the global species programme of the World Wide Fund for Nature; Azzedine Downes, vice president of the International Fund for Animal Welfare; Habiba al Marashi, chairman of the Emirates Environmental Group; and Razan al Mubarak, managing director of the Emirates Wildlife Society.

Full open letter and media reports on wildsingapore news.

Stronger than DEET - new repellent from a tree

Blood-sucking insects terrify me more than sea snakes, stonefish and other so-called scary marine creatures. DEET is a great repellent, except that it is industrial strength insecticide and is toxic to marine life. So these are seldom used by us. We prefer to cover up and flee from sand flies and mossies when they are abundant.

Thus it's exciting to read about a source of new mosquito repellent as effective as DEET, but from the Tauroniro tree (Humiria balsamifera) of South America.

Drawing from Moscow State University website

From the USDA Forest Service website, this tree is found in the Guianas, Colombia, Venezuela, and the Brazilian Amazon. In Guyana it is a principal dominant species in the marsh forests; does best on light sandy soils. In Surinam, it occurs in savanna forests.

Tropical forest tree is source of new mosquito repellent as effective as DEET
mongabay.com 5 Feb 09;

Isolongifolenone, a natural compound found in the Tauroniro tree (Humiria balsamifera) of South America, has been identified as an effective deterrent of mosquitoes and ticks, report researchers writing in the latest issue of Journal of Medical Entomology.

Derivatives of the compound have long been used as fragrances in cosmetics, perfumes, deodorants, and paper products, but new processing methods may make it as inexpensive to produce as DEET, a potent and widely available synthetic insect repellent that works by blocking the aroma of human sweat.

The authors, led by Aijun Zhang of the USDA's Invasive Insect Biocontrol and Behavior Laboratory, found that isolongifolenone deters the biting of the mosquitoes Aedes aegypti and Anopheles stephensi "more effectively than the widely used synthetic chemical repellent N,N-diethyl-3-methyl benzamide (DEET) in laboratory bioassays" and repels blacklegged ticks and lone star ticks "as effectively as DEET".

Since "isolongifolenone is easily synthesized from inexpensive turpentine oil feedstock," the authors write, "we are therefore confident that the compound has significant potential as an inexpensive and safe repellent for protection of large human populations against blood-feeding arthropods."

Tauroniro — which is also known as Bastard bulletwood, Oloroso, Couramira, or Turanira — is found in marshy forests in the Guianas, Colombia, Venezuela, and the Brazilian Amazon, according to the U.S. Forest Service.

A. Zhang et al. Isolongifolenone: A Novel Sesquiterpene Repellent of Ticks and Mosquitoes. Journal of Medical Entomology, Volume 46, Number 1, January 2009 , pp. 100-106(7)

New pygmy seahorse species!

Who can resist these cute creatures - among the tiniest of fish and indeed, vertebrates!


Five New Pygmy Seahorse Species Found
National Geographic News 5 Feb 09;

The Walea pygmy seahorse is one of five species named in a flurry of recent seahorse discoveries from coral reefs in the Red Sea and Indonesia. All five are less than an inch tall (2.5 centimeters) and are among the tiniest known vertebrates.

It was thanks to the keen eyes of underwater photographers and divers that these secretive specimens came to light.

The seahorses, described in December 2008 and January 2009 studies, are the first to be discovered in five years.

The Walea seahorse is named after an island in central Sulawesi, Indonesia—the only place it has so far been found.

--Helen Scales

More photos and a video clip on the National Geographic website

Google Ocean features Pulau Hantu, Labrador and Buloh

The first Singapore-related content with the Ocean tool have been created for Pulau Hantu, Labrador Park and the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve. Full media articles on wildsingapore news.It took me a while to get the new Google Ocean downloaded (don't ask) but here's what's displayed for Singapore. A company has gotten in the act on diving at Pulau Hantu. You can add photos, comments, divers, dive logs, dive trips. Currently zero entries for all.

For Labrador, how nice that they've picked up the photos I uploaded to Google Earth a long time ago. The process for doing so in the past was laborious and required moderator approval. Not sure how it works now, I'm too tired to try it out tonight. But I'm glad they included the photo I uploaded about the dredging off our only reefs associated with a Nature Reserve.

For Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve, there also lots of room to add photos and stuff.

For the Southern Islands, a bit of a confusing entry.Seems the errors in the World Database on Protected Areas which I blogged about earlier, are still there. The Marine Nature Area designated around the Sisters Islands have been ambiguously placed in the middle of nowhere.In fact the location of Labrador is wrong too (placed in the middle of Pasir Panjang container terminal). This error already occurred in Google's marine protected areas layer which I blogged about earlier. I'll try once again to send a message to get these corrected. Sigh.Anyway, the lovely closeup of the area around Labrador and Sentosa's natural shore shows the sediment plume nearby, probably due to the dredging and coastal works for the Pasir Panjang Container Port extension which has been going on for years now.

Some comments on Google Ocean for Singapore from the media:

Although there is limited content at the moment on display, the resources are expected to grow richer as users add and share their own content in the form of photographs, videos and articles.

Marketing manager of Google Southeast Asia, Derek Callow, said: "There's a wealth of data from user-generated content. We're a region that's got a lot of coastlines, a lot of learning opportunities and tourist spots, but also some real environmental challenges."

And the environmental challenges include pollution and endangered marine life.

Executive director of the Singapore Environment Council, Howard Shaw, said: "There is a lack of information in this region and the region we call the Coral Triangle, which contains the richest biodiversity of anywhere in the planet, exceeding that of the South American Amazon rainforests even."

Status of Coral Reefs: Singapore and beyond

I learnt a lot today about coral reefs in Southeast Asia and Singapore, and about the challenges of coastal management in our region. And I suspect there's way a lot more to the issues than what I glimpsed today.Karenne Tun, one of the authors of the Chapter on Southeast Asia for The Status of Coral Reefs of the World: 2008 Report, gave a very sobering summary.

Among the thought-provoking issues:

• While coral reefs accounted for less than 1% of the world area, 10% of the world population depend on them.
• While Southeast Asia accounted for less than 10% of global area, 30% of the world's reefs are found on our shores. It is also the location of the Coral Triangle, the richest centre of marine biological diversity.
• 60% of Southeast Asia's population live within 60km of the coast, the highest proportion in the world. For Singapore of course, that would probably be 100% of us, though most Singaporeans don't think much about this.
• The main threats to Southeast Asian reefs is overfishing. (In Singapore, from the paper, the main threats are sedimentation, marine-based pollution and coastal development)

This was one of the charts showing the potentially devastating impacts of global warming on our reefs.And this charts shows 100% of Singapore's reefs were threatened. Later on, a member of the audience asked what this meant. Prof Chou explained that this meant none of our reefs were under legal protection.Karenne ended with this photo which I couldn't see (or photograph) very well. Apparently there is a polar bear swimming in the reef.

It was then quite inspiring and educational to listen to Dr. Chua Thia-Eng who shared about the really Big Issues facing Southeast Asian coasts and shores.
If I thought things were bad for our shores, they are even more depressing elsewhere.Yet, Dr Chua shared how PEMSEA had over more than a decade worked relentlessly to develop and initiate an integrated approach to sustainable coastal development. Some of his wise words that stuck in my mind were thoughts such as: "Conservation is not just data collection, but also resource management and managing human behaviour". He shared that just putting in money is not enough. In fact, the more money was given, the less effect was achieved. It was more important to get stakeholders to participate and to prepare the participants and the people who need to do the job.

With successful demonstration models, Dr Chua shared how PEMSEA has slowly but surely spread sustainable management methods throughout Southeast Asia. To a question on whether Singapore needed integrated coastal management, Dr Chua suggested that Singapore first needed to see beyond our territorial waters. "Singapore is not just an island" he said. Indeed, we are connected by the sea, marine activities and trade as well as other links with other peoples throughout Southeast Asia.

It was certainly a lot to think about. And very inspiring to hear of how the tide has literally been turned on some seriously scary issues in our region.

NParks Biodiversity Centre as always puts together such a great event.There was a great pamphlet with all the key issues, here's the lovely November with it. I've been promised the soft copy which I hope to upload as soon as I get it.And for the scavenger conservationists who are too cheap to buy dinner, there's always a great meal to scrounge. With NON-plastic utensils too! We are impressed.

And it was also great to catch up with many old friends whom I haven't seen in the longest time.

More links

More about PEMSEA Partnerships in Environmental Management for the Seas of East Asia

from the International Year of the Reef 2008 website

The Status of Coral Reefs of the World: 2008 was released in Washington, DC in December 2008. The survey of the health of the world's coral reefs identifies which reefs are recovering and which are degrading.

The report shows that climate change impacts, for example, bleaching and ocean acidification, and man-made pressures are now the major threats to reefs worldwide - with all reefs effectively under threat of major losses. The report predicts that mankind has about a decade to reduce carbon emissions or there will be major losses of reefs through ocean acidification impacts.

The full report is downloadable from The International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI) website.

Chapter 9 details the status of reefs in Southeast Asia (launches PDF file). Highlights include:

• Between 2004 and 2008, the condition of coral reefs improved in Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam and Singapore but declined in Indonesia and Malaysia (however, many reefs were not assessed);
• Coral reef area estimates of just under 100 000 km2 for the region are probably a gross overestimate; recent GIS analysis in Thailand and Singapore shows reef area is approximately 10 times lower, possibly because non-reef sea areas were previously included;
• Losses of seagrass habitats are estimated at 30 – 60% in Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and Singapore; but largely un-assessed in other SEA countries;
• More than 50% of the region’s mangroves have been lost, with 10% of the losses occurring between 1993 and 2003;
• An assessment of MPAs of East Asia in 2005–2007 showed the number of MPAs with coral reefs increased from 178 in 2003 to 403 in 2007;

This "Status of coral Reefs of the World: 2008" is under the auspices of the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network (GCRNM) of the International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI).

More media articles about this Report, and previous Reports by the GCRNM.

Sex change for survival

As with orchids and some trees, some corals may survive bad times by changing sex.
"One of the evolutionary strategies that some corals use to survive seems to be their ability to change from female to male," says Prof Yossi Loya. "As males, they can pass through the bad years, then, when circumstances become more favorable, change back to overt females. Being a female takes more energy. And having the ability to change gender periodically enables a species to maximize its reproductive effort."

Females turn into males when times get tough... on the sea floor, that is
Judy Siegel Jerusalem Post 4 Feb 09;

Without intending to provide ammunition for the current argument over whether a woman would be as competent as a man in the prime minister's hot seat, Tel Aviv University scientists have found that when times get tough, nature sends in the boys - at least when it comes to an important species of coral.

TAU zoology Prof. Yossi Loya is the first in the world to discover that Japanese sea corals engage in "sex switching" under periods of stress, especially when threatened by global warming, The Jerusalem Post has learned. The fragile, flower-like sea animals are essential to all life in the ocean.

In times of stress such as extreme hot spells, the female mushroom coral (known as a fungiid coral) switches its sex so that most of the population becomes male.

The advantage of doing so, says the world-renowned coral reef researcher, is that male corals can more readily cope with stress when resources are limited.

"We believe, as with orchids and some trees, sex change in corals increases their overall fitness, reinforcing the important role of reproductive plasticity in determining their evolutionary success," says Loya, whose findings have just appeared in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

"One of the evolutionary strategies that some corals use to survive seems to be their ability to change from female to male," adds Loya. "As males, they can pass through the bad years, then, when circumstances become more favorable, change back to overt females. Being a female takes more energy. And having the ability to change gender periodically enables a species to maximize its reproductive effort."

Corals, though a part of the animal kingdom, can act like plants. Both are sedentary life forms, unable to move when times get tough. In stressful environmental conditions, male corals can "ride out the storm," he notes. "In the evolutionary sense, males are less expensive to maintain. They are cheaper in terms of their gonads and the energy needed to maintain their bodies," he says. He adds that this theory probably doesn't apply to humans, even those who have opted for a sex change.

While admired for their beauty by divers, coral reefs provide an essential habitat for thousands of species of underwater creatures. Without the reefs, much of the underwater wildlife in reef habitats would perish. And for millions of people in the tropical regions, coral reef sea life is a major source of daily protein.

Coral reef destruction, however, is expected to continue as an effect of global warming. About one-quarter of coral reefs around the world have already been lost. The TAU zoologist's finding may give new insight to scientists into developing coral breeding strategies for the time when the massive climate changes predicted by scientists set in.

"This knowledge can help coral breeders. Fungiid corals are a hardy coral variety that can be grown in captivity. Once you know its mode of reproduction, you can grow hundreds of thousands of them," says Loya, currently involved in coral rehabilitation projects in the Red Sea. He has been studying coral reefs for more than 35 years and won the prestigious Darwin Medal, awarded every four years by the International Society for Coral Reefs, for a lifetime contribution to the study of coral reefs.

Ancient sponges raise intriguing questions

"We're not saying we captured the first animal; we're saying they're an early animal phylum and we're capturing them when their biomass was significant."

The discovery pushes back the earliest accepted date for animal life on Earth by tens of millions of years. This pre-dates the end of the Marinoan glaciation, a deep freeze often referred to as "snowball Earth". "If there really was a snowball Earth, how did those sponges survive? The full snowball Earth hypothesis would predict that the oceans were frozen over by 2km, even at the equator."

Ancient sponges leave their mark
Jonathan Amos, BBC News 4 Feb 09

Traces of animal life have been found in rocks dating back 635 million years.

The evidence takes the form of chemical markers that are highly distinctive of sponges when they die and their bodies break down in rock-forming sediments.

The discovery in Oman pushes back the earliest accepted date for animal life on Earth by tens of millions of years.

Scientists tell Nature magazine that the creatures' existence will help them understand better what the planet looked like all that time ago.

"The fact that we can detect these signals shows that sponges were ecologically important on the seafloor at that time," said lead author Gordon Love, from the University of California, Riverside.

"We're not saying we captured the first animal; we're saying they're an early animal phylum and we're capturing them when their biomass was significant."

Tiny creatures

Researchers can usually determine the presence of ancient life in rock strata by looking for the fossilised remains of skeletons or the hardened record of the creatures' movements, such as their footprints or crawl marks.

But for organisms deep in geological history that were extremely small and soft bodied, scientists have had to develop novel techniques to uncover their existence.

One of these newer methods involves detecting breakdown products from the lipid molecules which act as important structural components in the cell membranes of animals.

Over time, these will transform to leave a molecule known as cholestrane; and for sponges, this exclusively takes the form known as 24-isopropylcholestane.

Dr Love's team found high concentrations of this biomarker in rocks located at the south-eastern edge of the Arabian peninsula.

They were laid down in what would have been a shallow marine environment at least 635 million years ago.

"Even though there must have been sufficient oxygen in the water to maintain the metabolism of these primitive animals, I think their size would have been restricted by oxygen being nowhere near modern values," the UC Riverside researcher said.

"We're probably talking about small colonies of sponges with body dimensions of a few millimetres at most. They'd have been filtering organic detritus in the water column."

Icy planet

The discovery is fascinating because it pre-dates the end of the Marinoan glaciation, a deep freeze in Earth history that some argue shrouded the entire planet in ice.

Scientists often refer to the term "snowball Earth" to describe conditions at this time.

So to find animal life apparently thriving during this glaciation seems remarkable, commented Jochen Brochs, from the Australian National University, Canberra.

"If there really was a snowball Earth, how did those sponges survive? The full snowball Earth hypothesis would predict that the oceans were frozen over by 2km, even at the equator," he told BBC News.

"Only at hot springs could any organism survive but it is questionable that you would have sponges in a hot spring. I haven't made my mind up about snowball Earth but perhaps these sponges are telling us something about this glaciation."

Dr Love's view is that the presence of these animals puts limits on the scale of the ice coverage.

"I believe there were areas of what we might call refugia - areas of open ocean where biology could go on. And in this case, it could be evidence that we had some sort of evolutionary stimulation of new grades of organisms as well."

Earliest Animals Were Sea Sponges, Fossils Hint
Rebecca Carroll, National Geographic News 4 Feb 09;

Fossil steroids found underground in Oman show that early Earth was the scene of a sea sponge heyday more than 635 million years ago.

The ancient chemicals—similar to modern natural steroids such as estrogen and testosterone—are now the oldest known fossil evidence of animal life, says a new study led by Gordon Love of the University of California, Riverside.

Based on chemical signatures inside sedimentary rocks, Love and colleagues think the sponges likely grew in colonies that blanketed areas of the ocean floor.

Back then the supercontinent Rodinia, which had been Earth's dominant landmass for at least 350 million years, was in the process of breaking up, and the climate was extremely cold worldwide.

Sponges evolved in shallow ocean basins, because the deeper seas did not yet contain oxygen, a necessity for almost all life.

Although the environment was harsh at this time—about a hundred million years before the evolutionary growth spurt known as the Cambrian explosion—a lack of predators made life easier for the sponges.

"There was no competition from more complicated animals, so sponges were probably thriving," Love said. "Compared with other times in our history, there were enormously high amounts of them."

Spongy Roots

Love and colleagues were able to date the sea sponges because the animals' chemical traces were found in rocks beneath glacial deposits from an ice age that ended about 635 million years ago.

The scientists cut away the outer surfaces of the rock, cleaned the remaining core with solvents, and crushed what was left behind into a powder that could be chemically separated into its component parts.

"It just so happens that these sponges produce very distinctive chemical structures," said Love, whose team describes their results in this week's issue of the journal Nature.

Kevin Peterson of Dartmouth College and his colleagues had independently hypothesized that sponges lived about 650 million years ago based on biological clues in the genes of modern sponges.

"To see to a robust, geochemical record of a tremendous amount of sponge mass at this time is very exciting," said Peterson, who was not involved in the new study.

"At some point during this interval, sponges gave rise to more complex organisms, including eventually vertebrates," he said.

"The origin of complex life is rooted in sponge biology, and that's what makes it so exciting for us."

Why don't more animals change their sex?

Some marine fishes can change sex. For example, our clown anemonefishes (Amphiprion sp.). Usually, several unrelated fishes settle into one sea anemone home. The biggest is female while the rest are male, usually with the biggest male as the breeding male. Should the female die, the biggest male changes into a female, while the next biggest male takes his (her?) place.

A recent study explores more about this behaviour and asks why is sex change so rare? And, why does one species of fish reproduce strictly as separate sexes, while another very closely related species flexibly changes sex?
Some Animals That Change Their Sex: Shown clockwise from upper left, the Bluehead wrasse (Thalassoma bifasciatum), Northern shrimp (Pandalus borealis), Common slipper shell (Crepidula fornicate) and Whip coral goby (Bryaninops yongei) are examples of some animals that change their sex. Credit: Erem Kazancıoğlu

Why don't more animals change their sex?
Yale University
EurekAlert 3 Feb 09;

New Haven, Conn. Most animals, like humans, have separate sexes — they are born, live out their lives and reproduce as one sex or the other. However, some animals live as one sex in part of their lifetime and then switch to the other sex, a phenomenon called sequential hermaphroditism. What remains a puzzle, according to Yale scientists, is why the phenomenon is so rare, since their analysis shows the biological "costs" of changing sexes rarely outweigh the advantages.

A report by Yale scientists in the March issue of The American Naturalist says that while this process is evolutionarily favored, its rarity cannot be explained by an analysis of the biological costs vs benefits.

Sequential hermaphroditism naturally occurs in various organisms from plants to fishes. Following four decades of research that established why sex change is advantageous, the question remained why it is rare among animals. In this study, Yale graduate student Erem Kazancıoğlu and his advisor Suzanne Alonzo, assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, demonstrate that sex change is surprisingly robust against costs.

While the adaptive advantage of sex change is well understood, it is not clear why relatively few animals change sex. According to Alonzo, "An intuitive, yet rarely studied, explanation is that the considerable time or energy it takes to change sex make hermaphroditism unfeasible for most animals."

To test whether the biological costs of changing sex affect sex change actually occurs, the researchers built theoretical models of the hermaphrodite and separate-sex life histories. In their "game" models, sex change "players" vary the age of their sex change, while the separate-sex strategy responds by altering the number of male and female offspring it produces.

"We were surprised to see that a hermaphrodite could spend 30 percent of its lifetime in the process of change sex, and still persist in a population," said Kazancıoğlu. "This suggests that only huge costs can disfavor sex change."

So, why is sex change so rare? And, why does one species of fish reproduce strictly as separate sexes, while another very closely related species flexibly changes sex? A comparative study of hermaphroditic and separate-sex mating systems, which the authors are currently performing, may provide a clue, according to Kazancıoğlu, "Reproductive behaviors such as parental care seem to disfavor sex change in some species. We are investigating whether general patterns like these may explain the rarity of hermaphroditism."

Yale University and the National Science Foundation funded the research.
Citation: The American Naturalist (March 2008)

Coral recovery from bleaching

Reefs vary dramatically in their ability to bounce back from coral bleaching, a recent study found. The study finds that Indian Ocean reefs are recovering relatively well from a single devastating bleaching event in 1998. In contrast, western Atlantic (Caribbean) reefs have generally failed to recover from multiple smaller bleaching events. No clear trends were found in the eastern Pacific, the central-southern-western Pacific or the Arabian Gulf.

This study of more than 25 years of data on recovery from coral bleaching is the first comprehensive review of long-term global patterns in reef recovery following bleaching events.

Bleaching can result in dramatic loss of coral cover and sets the stage for secondary such as coral disease and loss of critical habitat for reef fishes.

"These findings illustrate how coral reefs, under the right conditions, can demonstrate resilience and recover from bleaching, even when it initially appears catastrophic. What prevents them from doing so is combined, additional stressors that prevent them from recovering in-between recurrent bleaching events. If we can remove or reduce these stressors we might give reefs a fighting chance of surviving climate change".

Long-term recovery of reefs from bleaching requires local action to increase resilience
University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science
EurekAlert 3 Feb 09;

Scientists assess a quarter-century of climate change effects on coral health and find both good and bad news

VIRGINIA KEY, Fla. -- In the journal Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science Professor Dr. Peter Glynn, and 2008 Pew Fellow for Marine Conservation and Assistant Professor Dr. Andrew Baker, assess more than 25 years of data on reef ecosystems recovery from climate change-related episodes of coral bleaching. Coral bleaching – in which corals expel their symbiotic algal partners and turn pale or white – is one of the most visible impacts of climate change on marine ecosystems. Typically caused by higher-than-normal ocean temperatures, it can lead to widespread death of corals and is a major contributor to the rapid decline of coral reef ecosystems worldwide.

The paper, co-authored by Dr. Bernhard Riegl, associate director of the National Coral Reef Institute, represents the first comprehensive review of long-term global patterns in reef recovery following bleaching events. Bringing together the results of dozens of bleaching studies, the article reports that bleaching episodes set the stage for diverse secondary impacts on reef health, including coral disease, the breakdown of reef framework, and the loss of critical habitat for reef fishes and other important marine animals.

"Bleaching has resulted in catastrophic loss of coral cover in some locations, and has changed the coral community structure in many others," said Glynn. "These dramatic fluctuations have critical impacts on the maintenance of biodiversity in the marine tropics, which is essential to the survival of many tropical and sub-tropical economies."

However, the paper also shows that, while bleaching episodes have resulted in dramatic loss of coral cover in certain locations, reefs vary dramatically in their ability to bounce back from these disturbances. It also evaluates factors explaining why some species of coral recover better than others, as well as why some reef regions are recovering while others are not.

The study finds that reefs in the Indian Ocean are recovering relatively well from a single devastating bleaching event in 1998. In contrast, western Atlantic (Caribbean) reefs have generally failed to recover from multiple smaller bleaching events and a diverse set of chronic additional stressors such as diseases, overfishing and nutrient pollution. No clear trends were found in the eastern Pacific, the central-southern-western Pacific or the Arabian Gulf, where some reefs are recovering and others are not.

"These findings illustrate how coral reefs, under the right conditions, can demonstrate resilience and recover from bleaching, even when it initially appears catastrophic", said Baker. "What prevents them from doing so is the lethal prescription of combined, additional stressors that prevent them from recovering in-between recurrent bleaching events. If we can remove or reduce these stressors we might give reefs a fighting chance of surviving climate change".

The paper entitled "Climate change and coral reef bleaching: An ecological assessment of long-term impacts, recovery trends and future outlook" also discusses potential mitigation and intervention strategies that might maximize coral reef survival in the coming years. It concludes that bleaching disturbances are likely to become a chronic stress in many reef areas in the coming decades, and coral communities, if they cannot recover quickly enough, are likely to be reduced to their most hardy or adaptable constituents. Unless significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions can be achieved within the next two to three decades, maximizing coral survivorship during this time may be critical to ensuring healthy reefs can recover in the long term.

Wild dolphins in Singapore!

Wild dolphins were spotted near Pulau Terkukor which lies between Sentosa Island and St. John's Island.
"I was happily taking photos of Pulau Tekukor when Mei Lin suddenly tapped me hard to tell me there's a group of three pink dolphins on the other side of the boat. It was around 8.36am."

More about this dolphin sighting on Kok Sheng's wonderful creations blog.

More recent wild dolphin sightings

• Aug 08, dead dolphin washed ashore on Labrador on the habitatnews blog
  
• Jun 08 near Pulau Semakau on the urban forest blog
• Jun 08 near Cyrene Reefs on the wildfilms blog
• Jun 08 near Pulau Semakau on the ashira blog
• Dec 07 near St John's Island on the urban forest blog with video clip

More past dolphin sightings links on the wildsingapore website.

Acid oceans confuse baby Nemos

Increasing ocean acidity may interfere with baby 'Nemo's ability to smell their way to a reef and an anemone home. This was found in a recent study of larvae of the Clown anemonefish (Amphiprion percula). Another study had found that these fishes follow the scent of rainforest leaves to find their way to a home. The oceans are expected to become more acidic with rising CO2 emissions.

In Singapore, another kind of 'Nemo' called the False clown anemonefish (Amphiprion ocellaris) is often encountered on many of our reefs. And small ones are regularly seen.

A tiny little fish at Sentosa, very close to the reclamation site for the Sentosa Integrated Resort.

Small ones at Kusu Island.

A tiny fish which was even smaller than the anemoneshrimp at Pulau Hantu. Without their anemone hosts, these little fishes are unlikely to survive.

See also Losing Nemo on Not Exactly Rocket Science.

Acid oceans no laughing matter for clownfish
Rachel Nowak, New Scientist 2 Feb 09;

Just a few days after 150 marine scientists signed a declaration to draw attention to rising ocean acidity - dubbed "global warming's evil twin" – an international team has reported the first example of the potential for acid seas to directly affect animal behaviour.

When exposed to acidity levels in water similar to those expected by the end of the century, clownfish larvae fail to correctly discriminate between the smells they use to find a reef, according to the new study led by Philip Munday of James Cook University in Townsville, Queensland, Australia.

"Nearly all coral reef fish, and many other marine organisms, have a larval form that lives in the open water and needs to find its way to its reef habitat. If this is a wider issue, it could be serious," says Munday.

Like global warming, rising ocean acidity is due to carbon dioxide emissions. Around 40% of human CO2emitted in the past 200 years is now stored in the oceans, increasing acid levels. by a third, because CO2dissolves to produce carbonic acid.

Lab studies and modelling work suggest that, within decades, increased acidity will make it difficult for plankton, coral, mussels, oysters and other sea creatures to grow their calcium-based shells and skeletons. But until now no-one expected a direct impact on animal behaviour.
'Mom, I'm back!'

In the new study, the Munday team raised clownfish (Amphiprion percula) larvae in sea water with acidity at levels either current levels or equivalent to 1000 ppm of carbon dioxide -the upper level predicted by 2100 unless we can cut CO2 emissions.

In the lab, larvae that are at the age when they would usually be searching for a reef habitat are attracted to the scent of tropical tree leaves, and repelled by those of a type of tea tree plant that grows in swamps. The ability to discriminate between smells is thought to help the youngsters find a suitable reef habitat, as clownfish prefer to live on reefs surrounding vegetated islands. The larvae also avoid the scent of their parents, presumably to prevent inbreeding.

However, when larvae raised in acid water were given the choice of swimming in water carrying different scents, although they were still attracted by the leaves of a tropical tree called the golden penda, they were no longer repelled by tea tree leaves. Nor were they repelled by their parents' scent.

Quite how the acid water is altering scent discrimination remains a mystery, and there were no obvious anatomical changes in olfactory system, says Munday.
Rapid changes

"It is very concerning and unexpected. But one of the problems with ocean acidification is that it is happening quickly, and we don't know what to expect," says climatologist Janice Lough of the Australian Institute of Marine Sciences in Townsville.

A key question will be whether clownfish and other marine organisms can evolve to cope with increased acidity. "Their capacity to evolve may be limited because it is happening so fast, a hundred times faster than the less extreme increases associated with the end of previous ice ages," says Munday.

The Monaco Declaration (pdf format), which was agreed at a a meeting on the topic in Monaco last October, is intended to draw attention to problems of ocean acidification.

"We're trying to raise the alarm about this other impact of CO2 emissions that is independent of global warming," says Will Howard of the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Centre for Cooperative Research in Hobart, a signatory of the declaration. "Even if you believe this whole global warming thing is complete nonsense, you can't get away from the chemical impact of CO2 on the oceans."

To make matters worse, the geoengineering schemes suggested to date are designed to tackle global warming, but not ocean acidification. Some, such as dumping crop waste in the deep ocean could even exacerbate surface acidification, says Howard.

Journal reference: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0809996106)

Wildfacts updates: Some strange snails and a curious clam

This intriguing T-shaped animal is a bivalve!
It is the Hammer oyster (Malleus sp.). Thanks to Sijie for finding them on Cyrene Reef recently, and to Chee Kong for identifying them. Once I saw one, I saw lots of them! Talk about search image. Now I must try to find them in our other seagrass meadows. Meanwhile, I've uploaded a fact sheet for this and some other strange snails.

The shells of these snails are commonly seen on our shores, often empty or occupied by a hermit crab. It is rare to see the living animal. Recently, I've been lucky to see live ones!Here's what the animal looks like! Some kind comments on flickr suggest it is the Frog snail, Bufonaria rana. I'm going with Bufonaria sp. as indicated in Tan, K. S. & L. M. Chou, 2000. A Guide to the Common Seashells of Singapore. Singapore Science Centre. 160 pp.
Apparently, one of the distinguishing features of Family Bursidae is the notch at the back of the shell opening (see red arrow).

An interesting fact about these snails is that some species appear appear to feed on tube worms. These have an extendible proboscis and large salivary glands, that are probably used to anaesthetize the worms in their tubes; the worms are then sucked out and swallowed whole. Awesome!

Here's another weird snail that I sometimes see.
It too has a long foot and ploughs through the sand. I have no idea what it is, but from the books, it seems to be some sort of Turrid (Family Turridae).Here's another one I saw. If someone know what it is, I'd love to hear from you.

I finally took the time to sort out some of the little periwinkles that I've seen. They are so small and so common, I confess I haven't been paying them proper attention.

Here's my guesses on what they are...The Black-mouth periwinkle (Littoraria melastonoma) does indeed have a black patch at the mouth. "Melanostoma" means "black mouth". The shell has a nice elegant longish spire.
The Conical periwinkle (Littoraria conica) has a more squat spire and is only found in mangroves.
And the Ridged periwinkle (Littoraria carinifera) has ridges on its shell.

If I've made any errors, please do let me know. I'd be glad to learn and correct.

I should also pay closer attention to the periwinkles!

2 Feb is World Wetlands Day

"Swamps are some of the cheapest land, which is why they are almost always the first to be developed."

In the aftermath of the Asian tsunami in 2004, people realised how wetlands cushioned the full force of the waves, saving many lives. Overnight, mangrove replanting and wetland rehabilitation projects received a boost in funding and manpower.

Sadly, five years on, enthusiasm has ebbed. Wetlands' contribution to the ecology remain "undervalued", said Wetlands International Malaysia communications officer Gabriel Chong. More Malaysian media reports on World Wetlands Day.

In Singapore, World Wetlands Day is celebrated at Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve with a special photo exhibition by Yangchen (thanks to Jun's alert on this on her ashira blog), and Hillgrove Secondary School will be selling their beautifully hand crafted souvenirs to raise conservation funds on 7 Feb (Sat) from 9am to 1pm at the Reserve's Visitor Centre.

Other World Wetlands Day events and news

• New plan to save Doñana highlight of global wetlands celebration on the WWF website
  Awareness drive to protect mangroves in Mumbai Pamela Raghunath, Gulfnews 2 Feb 09

What is World Wetlands Day 2009 about?

From the RAMSAR website
World Wetlands Day 2009
“Upstream – Downstream”
Wetlands connect us all

Our suggested theme for this year is river basins and their management. We all live in a river basin (or drainage basin, catchment, watershed, etc.), and most of the people reading this are well aware of the challenges of managing it – and particularly the challenge of making sure that the basin planners think of wetlands and not just water in their planning.

We hope that WWD this year, 2 February 2009 or thereabouts, will be an opportunity for people to look around at their own wetland and its interconnections with the environment around it – how the wetland benefits the surroundings and, of course, how activities throughout the river basin may affect their wetland.

Our suggested slogan for this year – “Upstream – Downstream” – captures this sense of how interconnected we all are within the river basin, how we can be impacted by the activities of those upstream of us and how our activities affect those downstream.

The Convention has put a great deal of energy over many years into providing guidance on managing river basins because it is such a vital issue: good site management can be quickly negated by bad decisions on managing water at the basin level. While wetland managers need to engage at all levels with the water managers, the basin level is probably the most challenging.

There is another dimension to consider, too, and that is raising the awareness of all people about their river basins. It’s not just about planners, it’s also about users, and we are all users of water in river basins. Whoever we are – farmer, fisher, factory owner, or family – our activities have an impact on the basin in which we live, so ensuring that we can bring about a better understanding of how a river basin functions, of the impact of the users – and the abusers – and the challenges of good management, is our key focus for World Wetlands Day 2009.

And it’s not just a focus for WWD – at the upcoming Ramsar COP10 in October 2008, an important draft Resolution to be debated will be the Convention’s consolidated guidance on wetlands and river basin management.

10 things we all need to know about river basins

These are intended to ‘set the scene’ for WWD event organizers, getting us all on the same page and perhaps generating some ideas of what you might decide to focus on at your WWD celebration. The thematic areas identified below will not be covered in great detail, and technical jargon will be kept to a minimum!

1. Wetlands, freshwater and river basins

An introductory section that identifies freshwater as the critical resource upon which all life depends and reminds us that it is wetlands that capture and deliver water to all of us – thus, wetlands are critical too in considering river basins.

2. What’s a river basin?

Everyone lives in a river basin – it’s part of our ecological address. But what is a basin? This section will define what we mean.

3. Upstream-downstream: we’re all connected

We can change what happens in our river basin, for better or worse, by what we do to the basin’s natural resources. Our behaviour can have an impact on the soil, water, air, plants and animals. And whatever we do will eventually have an effect downstream (and sometimes an effect upstream!).

4. Wetlands: their ecological and hydrological functions

Getting down to basics. Showcasing wetlands and their diverse roles in river basins, this section will look briefly at the hydrological and ecological functions of wetlands within river basins.

5. Who’s in control?

Who decides how your river basin is managed? This section will look at river basin management, briefly considering Integrated River Basin Management (IRBM) and Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) as common approaches to this management challenge.

6. Getting involved

Successful basin management depends on broad stakeholder involvement. What is a stakeholder? Are you a stakeholder? How can stakeholders play a role in managing water and wetlands?

7. Water scarcity

We hear about water scarcity all the time now. So what does it mean on different continents, in different countries. What causes it? What can we do about it? Can IRBM help?

8. Urban living impacts

Urban dwellers place heavy demands on river basins – they need water, they produce wastes, their buildings and roads create huge areas that are impervious to water, and all of this has an impact on the quality of the freshwater and the biodiversity it supports downstream.

9. Transboundary issues

Transboundary wetland systems pose special problems for managers. There are at least 261 basins that cross national boundaries – so the challenge is big, and it’s global.

10. Major threats in basins

Many activities threaten river basins. Six have been identified by some experts as the most important based on their known impact: dams and infrastructure, excessive water extraction, climate change, invasive species, over-fishing, and pollution.