Collapse of all wild fisheries predicted in next 45 years
If over-fishing and other trends harming fish stocks around the world continue on their current path, we'll be saying sayonara to the seafood we love best in coming decades

All species of wild seafood that are currently fished are projected to collapse by the year 2050, according to a new four year study by an international team of ecologists and economists. Collapse is defined as 90 percent depletion.

The scientists warn that the loss of biodiversity is 'profoundly' reducing the ocean's ability to produce seafood, resist diseases, filter pollutants, and rebound from stresses such as over-fishing and climate change.

"Whether we looked at tide pools or studies over the entire world's ocean, we saw the same picture emerging," says lead author Boris Worm of Dalhousie University. "In losing species we lose the productivity and stability of entire ecosystems. I was shocked and disturbed by how consistent these trends are - beyond anything we suspected."

The study published in the November 3 issue of the journal 'Science' was based at the National Center of Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, NCEAS, funded by the National Science Foundation, the University of California and UC Santa Barbara.

It contains some good news - the data show that ocean ecosystems still hold great ability to rebound. But the scientists found that every species lost causes a faster unraveling of the overall ecosystem.

Conversely, every species recovered add to overall productivity and stability of the ecosystem and its ability to withstand stresses. "Every species matters," the scientists say.

"Unless we fundamentally change the way we manage all the oceans species together, as working ecosystems, then this century is the last century of wild seafood," says co-author Steve Palumbi of Stanford University.

The analysis is the first to examine all existing data on ocean species and ecosystems, synthesising historical, experimental, fisheries, and observational datasets to understand the importance of biodiversity at the global scale.

The results reveal that progressive biodiversity loss not only impairs the ability of oceans to feed a growing human population, but also sabotages the stability of marine environments and their ability to recover from stresses.

"The data show us it's not too late," says Worm. "We can turn this around. But less than one percent of the global ocean is effectively protected right now."

"We won't see complete recovery in one year, but in many cases species come back more quickly than people anticipated - in three to five to 10 years. And where this has been done we see immediate economic benefits," Worm said.

The scientists on the NCEAS study say a pressing question for management is whether losses can be reversed. If species have not been pushed too far down, recovery can be fast - but there is also a point of no return as seen with species like northern Atlantic cod.

In 1992, the cod population nearly reached a point of commercial extinction in waters off eastern Canada and New found land, and a fishing moratorium was imposed. This moratorium has removed the main source of employment and income for thousands of fishermen from hundreds of small fishing communities.

"This isn't predicted to happen, this is happening now," says co-author Nicola Beaumont an ecological economist with the Plymouth Marine Laboratory. "If biodiversity continues to decline, the marine environment will not be able to sustain our way of life, indeed it may not be able to sustain our lives at all."

Collapses are hastened by the decline in overall health of the ecosystem. Fish rely on the clean water, prey populations and diverse habitats that are linked to higher diversity systems.

The study suggests that these relationships point to the need for managers to consider all species together rather than continuing with single species management.

"This analysis provides the best documentation I have ever seen regarding biodiversity's value," adds Peter Kareiva, a former Brown University professor and US government fisheries manager who now leads science efforts at The Nature Conservancy.

"There is no way the world will protect biodiversity without this type of compelling data demonstrating the economic value of biodiversity," Kareiva said.

Wild fisheries support the economies of many countries. The impacts of species loss go beyond declines in seafood. Human health risks emerge as depleted coastal ecosystems become vulnerable to invasive species, disease outbreaks and noxious algal blooms. Many of the economic activities along our coasts rely on diverse systems and the healthy waters they supply.

"The ocean is a great recycler," explains Palumbi, "It takes sewage and recycles it into nutrients, it scrubs toxins out of the water, and it produces food and turns carbon dioxide into food and oxygen."

But in order to provide these services, the ocean needs all its working parts, the millions of plant and animal species that inhabit the sea. The study drew immediate criticism from the Australian government, which 'categorically rejects' claim made by northern hemisphere scientists led by Canada's Dalhousie

University that Australia's fisheries are set to collapse.

"The reality is Australia is a world leader in fisheries and oceans management," Australian Fisheries Minister Senator Eric Abetz said recently.

"While we obviously welcome any serious scientific contribution, instead of trying to tar us all with the same brush, these scientists should instead be singling Australia out as an example to the world of how to ensure fisheries sustainability," said Abetz.

"Frankly, we get a bit annoyed at northern hemisphere scientists, whose fisheries management often leaves a lot to be desired, making sensationalist predictions about the state of Australian fisheries from half a world away," he said. Australia has a comprehensive plan to ensure the sustainability of Commonwealth fish stocks for generations to come, said Abetz, emphasising that of the world's area of marine protected areas, some one third is in Australian waters.

The strength of the NCEAS study is the consistent agreement of theory, experiments and observations across widely different scales and ecosystems, the participating scientists say.

The study analysed 32 controlled experiments, observational studies from 48 marine protected areas, and global catch data from the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization's database of all fish and invertebrates worldwide from 1950 to 2003.

The scientists also looked at a 1,000 year time series for 12 coastal regions, drawing on data from archives, fishery records, sediment cores and archeological data. "We see an accelerating decline in coastal species over the last 1,000 years, resulting in the loss of biological filter capacity, nursery habitats, and healthy fisheries," says co-author Heike Lotze of Dalhousie University who led the historical analysis of Chesapeake Bay, San Francisco Bay, the Bay of Fundy, and the North Sea, among other bodies of water.

Examination of protected areas worldwide show that restoration of biodiversity increased productivity four-fold in terms of catch per unit effort and made ecosystems 21 percent less susceptible to environmental and human caused fluctuations on average.

The buffering impact of species diversity also generates long term insurance values that must be incorporated into future economic valuation and management decisions.

"Although there are short-term economic costs associated with preservation of marine biodiversity, over the long term biodiversity conservation and economic development are complementary goals," says coauthor Ed Barbier, an economist from the University of Wyoming.

The authors conclude that restoring marine biodiversity through an ecosystem based management approach - integrated fisheries management, pollution control, maintenance of essential habitats and creation of marine reserves - is essential to avoid serious threats to global food security, coastal water quality and ecosystem stability.

--www.google.com

Green revolution's cancer train
Pesticides and cancer, a massive environmental and health disaster is making people die in the villages of the Indian State of Punjab. The MLA from Giddarbaha claims 300 cancer deaths in his constituency alone

By Sandeep Yadav Faridkot

Despite the relentless suffering, 41-year-old Karamjeet Kaur is not scared of death. Member of a proud, landed family in Kotbhai village in district Muktsar, this mother of three has been diagnosed with uterus cancer. The revelation has brought no change in her daily chores, except that she has to travel long distance for periodic check-ups at the Acharya Tulsi, a regional cancer treatment and research centre, at Bikaner, in Rajasthan. Her hair has turned white due to illness and heavy medicines, and her face is weary in the fading daylight. Yet, she tells her story with immense dignity, so distinctive among the strong, hardworking women of Punjab. And it doesn't matter if it is her cancer she is talking about.

Karamjeet is one of the five battling cancer in her village. The Jhoke Sarkari village in Faridkot district has 10 cancer patients. There have been 15 cancer-related deaths in the last five years here. Even children, as young as ten- year-old, are suffering from joint pains, arthritis and greying of hair. Their suffering is starkly visible. It's the same story in several villages of the Indian State of Punjab - Jhariwala, Koharwala, Puckka, Bhimawali, and Khara. Recently, a 12-year-old boy died of cancer in Khara village and a 25-year-old woman has been detected with breast cancer. Similar cases of cancer deaths (apart from farmers' suicides) have become the norm in the whole of Malwa region of Punjab, comprising the districts of Muktsar, Faridkot, Moga, Sangroor and Bathinda. Although the government has claimed 172 cancer deaths in Muktsar district in the last two years, Manpreet Badal, the Shiromani Akali Dal MLA from Giddarbaha, contested the claim. He has a list of 300 cancer deaths from Giddarbaha constituency alone. "In the 50 villages falling in my constituency I have attended close to 300 funerals of people dying due to cancer in the last three months," says Manpreet.

"Punjab (India) is in the grip of a terrible environmental and health crisis emanating from the intensive farming practices involving large doses of chemicals and pesticides in use for the past four decades," says Devinder Sharma, agriculture policy analyst. The green revolution has not really been so green. The environment has been intensely contaminated by the rampant use and abuse of chemicals and pesticides. The underground water is clinically unfit for drinking or for irrigation.

A comprehensive study conducted in the area by the prestigious Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, brings out unequivocal evidence that the use of indiscriminate, indiscreet, excessive and unsafe pesticides is directly responsible for the rapid and significant rise in the number of pesticide-related cases of cancers and cancer deaths.

Studies by the Consultative Group on International Agriculture Research (CGIAR) have established that Punjab (India) is facing a serious second-generation environmental crisis. Malwa region, in the southwest of Punjab, is a cotton belt that is now growing the controversial, genetically modified Bt cotton only.

Gurmail Singh, a cotton farmer of Jaitu village, tells that about 14 years ago the American ball worm - a deadly pest, attacked the cotton in the region. "I used about ten pesticide sprays over three acres of land and still could not kill the pest," he recalls. There are many farmers who used more than 20 sprays of pesticides to kill the pest, but were still unsuccessful. Unaware of the harmful effects of the mindless use of pesticides pushed by the nexus of unscrupulous agencies and private companies, the people of the region are paying a terrible price for their folly. Often wrongly advised by influential agricultural lobbies and profit sharks, the greed of high yield overruled prevailing health concerns. Indeed, Punjab (India) has 2.5 percent of the total agricultural land in the country, but is using the highest amount - more than 18 per cent of pesticides in the country. All of this has contributed to widespread social devastation in individual and community life.

Predictably, Dr Harinder Singh, agriculture development officer, Muktsar, categorically blames the farmers for not adhering to the precautions related to the use of pesticides. He informs that a pesticide called Monocrotophose is banned from being used on vegetables and fruits, but the farmers don't follow the warning. "The precautions are not binding as an official order since there are no such laws. Hence no legal action can be taken," says Singh.

Umendra Dutt, executive director of Kheti Virasat Mission, an NGO in Faridkot, argues that the entire tragedy is a result of a conspiracy hatched between the scientists of the influential Punjab Agriculture University (PAU) and pesticide companies, which convinced the innocent farmers with a false promise: more pesticides, more yield. "The PAU continues to push pesticides, knowing too well that these were not required in the first place. In the case of cotton, scientists have compounded the problem by turning the 'insect profile' hostile, who, instead of being eliminated are breeding heavily. There were six or seven kinds of pests that worried the farmers in the 1960s, today, the number of cotton pests has multiplied to over 60," says Dutt.

Almost 40 years after the green revolution, the International Rice Research Institute at Manila in the Philippines, now publicly accepts its mistake in promoting pesticides. It is on record that 'pesticides were a waste of time and efforts' in Asia for the cultivation of rice. Farmers in Bangladesh, Vietnam and the Philippines have successfully opted for pesticide-free cultivation.

But the irony of Punjab (India) is that the agriculture establishments are not open to this bitter realism about pesticides. They are still gloating in the green-revolution mindset, insulated from alternative paradigms for sustainable agriculture, environment and development. After Sunita Narain, director, Centre for Science and Environment, raised the issue of pesticide content in the blood of the people of Punjab (India) last year, the Punjab (India) government constituted two committees - one high profile committee, headed by chief minister Amrinder Singh, and another expert group headed by Dr K.K. Talwar, director, PGIMER, Chandigarh. The expert group met at least once but the high-powered committee failed to meet even once in the last ten months. Meetings were fixed not less then five times but were postponed for one reason or another.

While the Punjab (India) government is busy clearing multi-crore SEZs, it has not been able to provide its people a proper cancer treatment facility in the Bathinda region. Poor cancer patients are forced to go to distant Bikaner, in Rajasthan, for their treatment. According to the National Cancer Registry Programme, out of 424 cancer patients from Bathinda district, 328 were being treated at Bikaner. So much so, the locals have rechristened the train plying between Muktsar and Bikaner as the 'cancer train'.

While NGO's such as Kheti Virasat Mission, are doing their best to educate the farmers about health and environment issues, even to the extent of asking them to pledge that they will do only organic farming, the state government's role is starkly insensitive and lackadaisical. The Punjab (India) government paid a meagre relief amount to some cancer patients. But can half-hearted doles of monetary help stop the epidemic?

How will the government stop the ecological degeneration and health crisis, and save the people from cancer and other diseases directly related to top-heavy policies and the vested interests of pesticide lobbies?

The wake-up call has been buzzing non-stop and for a long time. But no one's listening, certainly not the powerful green-revolution lobby. While the people die, or survive, waiting for death, in abject pain.

Eco-Logic
300kg croc captured in Darwin river

A 3.7 metre saltwater crocodile has been captured in the Howard river at Howard Springs, southeast of Darwin. Parks and wildlife ranger Tommy Nichols told that the male weighed more than 300 kilograms and took several staff to remove from the trap. Mr Nichols informed that they have been on the look out for the saltie after finding a number of females over the past few weeks. "We got another one out of there, which was a 2.7 metre female," he said. "We've also taken two other females out of there so it's been a quite productive little area." He told that removing it was quite an effort. "Two of us had a hard time lifting him, so we had a couple of other blokes turn up and they gave us a hand," he said. "He was a very cranky animal and I gave him some drugs, but he was still quite cranky."  The saltie was taken to the NT Crocodile Farm at Noonamah.

Canada showcases science initiatives with China

Canada's new government is proud to be co-hosting the Canada-China Agri-Science and Innovation Pavilion at the China Agricultural High-Tech Fair, which started from November 5 and will continue till 9, 2006 in Yangling, China. The fair is the most comprehensive agricultural exhibition, expected to attract more than one million visitors and featuring over a thousand Chinese and international exhibitors. The Agri-Science and Innovation Pavilion showcases Canada's collaboration with China in agricultural research related to land management, plant and animal science, food safety, and environment. Since 2003, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) has been working with China to increase cooperation in agriculture science and innovation, and to strengthen the research and education linkages between the two countries. Besides the agri-fair, two other concurrent events are taking place in China this week: 1) The 2006 Canada-China Agri-Science forum during which government and university senior managers, including deans from the Canadian faculties of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, will work on improving coordination of scientific exchange programmes between China and Canada; and 2) The International Potato Symposium includes the Canada-China workshop on potato research and development. The symposium will focus on genomic and applications in potato production in support of sound and sustainable agriculture.

Mahyco regrets burning of insect-resistant research rice crop

Mahyco, a pioneer in plant genetic research and production of quality hybrid seeds in India since 1964, has regretted that a research trial of insect-resistant paddy being grown in Haryana with the permission and knowledge of the government of India as well as the Haryana government, was burnt by a group of misguided elements. "This is a really unfortunate development. The experimental research crop was meant to evaluate the performance of the new technology, which will help farmers use less pesticide, increase yields and benefit the environment. Farmers will also benefit from a personal safety point of view by using less insecticide. It is sad that some misguided people made an unauthorised entry into the trial plot and burnt the crop and did not permit us to complete data collection of the crop whose performance was being monitored by our scientists and the regulatory team," Dr M.K. Sharma, General Manager, Mahyco, said. He said that about 200 people gathered at 0.25-acre plot in Rampur village, Karnal district, where Mahyco had planted insect-resistant paddy in August with the permission of the Review Committee on Genetic Manipulation (RCGM). The crop was to have been harvested in a fortnight. Mahyco is the first seed company in India to produce and market hybrids of cotton, sorghum, pearl millet, sunflower and wheat. All of our experimental trials are with the permission and in the full knowledge of the central and state governments," he added. Dr Sharma said that the Monitoring and Evaluation Committee of the department of biotechnology had visited the plot to review the performance of the insect-resistant crop and compliance with conditions related to safety. "The crop is being grown in isolation as per the conditions of the permission, following all safety measures," Dr Sharma added.