After 42 years of charting the health of our seas, scientist’s studies now face the axe

Guillemot survey has provided wealth of data on climate – but funding could be cut

Robin McKie

The Observer, Sunday 26 October 2014

Tim Birkhead has been monitoring guillemots for 42 years – with intriguing results. His surveys, carried out on Skomer island in Wales, have provided key information about the wellbeing of the sea birds’ population around the British Isles and has also produced important insights into the health of our seas.

However, the zoologist’s four-decade-long project is now threatened with closure. The newly formed quango Natural Resources Wales has said it will not continue to fund the £12,000-a-year survey, as part of a cost-cutting exercise. Unless cash can be raised as a matter of urgency, this year’s survey will be the last.

The news has dismayed the 64-year-old professor of zoology at Sheffield University. “This is an incredibly short-sighted decision,” Birkhead said. “We have built an extremely important database of guillemot population parameters and breeding rates, which tells a great deal about variations in numbers of these birds, about the health of their populations and about the health of our seas in general. But that entire database is now under threat merely to save a modest amount of money.”

Continued ...

Conservation Funds Granted To Patoka River

April 4, 2014 2:54 PM Press Release

On March 26, the Migratory Bird Conservation Commission approved $61.3 million in funding to protect, restore and enhance more than 205,000 acres of wetlands and associated uplands in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Of that, approximately $6.5 million will go toward projects in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Midwest Region.

In Indiana, the Patoka River NWR Expansion has been granted $1 million with a $2.1 million matching fund amount. This project focuses on wetland and upland habitat protection, restoration and enhancement within Patoka River National Wildlife Refuge. Project activities will provide important migration, wintering and breeding areas for waterfowl, benefit rare and endangered species of wildlife and fish associated with large river ecosystems, improve water quality and help stimulate local economies through recreation on project lands.

“Conservation of our nation’s wetlands is critical to protecting our wildlife, watersheds, coastal communities and important economic activities,” said Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell, Chair of the Commission. “Wetlands not only are home to hundreds of species of migratory birds, but they also provide us with clean water, act as buffers against storms, support our vibrant coastal fishing industries, and provide unique opportunities for outdoor recreation.”

Continued

Migratory Bird Conservation Commission Approves $61 Million to Conserve 205,000 Acres of North American Wetlands

Funding includes Expansion of Five National Wildlife Refuges in Texas, California, Louisiana

03/26/2014

WASHINGTON -- The Migratory Bird Conservation Commission today approved $61.3 million in funding to protect, restore and enhance more than 205,000 acres of wetlands and associated uplands in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

“Conservation of our nation’s wetlands is critical to protecting our wildlife, watersheds, coastal communities and important economic activities,” said Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell, chair of the commission. “Wetlands not only are home to hundreds of species of migratory birds, but they also provide us with clean water, act as buffers against storms, support our vibrant coastal fishing industries, and provide unique opportunities for outdoor recreation.”

The commission approved $54.7 million in grants through the North American Wetlands Conservation Act to protect, restore and enhance 200,069 acres of habitat for migratory birds in the United States, Mexico and Canada, leveraging an additional $92.6 million in matching funds. 

Read on

NIH Revisits Debate On Controversial Bird Flu Research

On Tuesday, the National Institutes of Health in Maryland is holding a second day of talks about whether and how to continue funding some controversial scientific experiments.

Back in January, virologists agreed to temporarily stop research that was creating new forms of bird flu, because critics argued that the work was too dangerous. NIH officials are now seeking input from scientists and the public about how to proceed.

Scientists, national security experts and public health workers have come from all over — including places like the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Italy, Indonesia and Vietnam — to discuss thorny issues raised by the research.

"The subject of this meeting literally affects every individual in the world," noted Harvey Fineberg, president of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, who is helping to run the conference. "Every citizen in every country has a stake in the research that will or will not go forward with respect to these highly pathogenic agents."

These pathogenic agents are altered forms of the bird flu virus known as H5N1. H5N1 is widespread in poultry in parts of Asia and the Middle East, but it rarely infects people. Over half of those who are known to have gotten sick, however, have died.

Public health experts worry that the virus might mutate, begin spreading from person to person, and start a pandemic. Last year, NIH-funded researchers showed that certain genetic mutations could indeed make H5N1 spread easily between ferrets, the lab stand-in for people.

Read more:  http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/12/18/167466251/nih-to-revisit-debate-on-controversial-bird-flu-research

The commercialisation of conservation

Photo: Wikipedia

As the kakapo's conservation funding faces a $200,000 cut, Nikki Macdonald explores the debate about commercialisation of conservation.

Boom! Kakapo recovery programme faces $200,000 cut as sponsor seeks to withdraw after 22 years.

That news was conspicuously absent from the pithy updates regularly boomed and skraaarked by Conservation Department spokesbird Sirocco the kakapo, when cash-strapped New Zealand Aluminium Smelters announced it could no longer afford to support his species.

Surprising, given the randy green night parrot - propelled to international YouTube superstardom by trying to mate with zoologist Mark Carwardine's head - is New Zealand's second-most endangered bird.

With a total population of just 125 and a genetic curse requiring intensive breeding management, kakapo need every cent of their $935,556 rescue funds.

Continued:  http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/7716027/The-commercialisation-of-conservation

More information on the kakapo (Strigops habroptila):

http://www.kakaporecovery.org.nz/

http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/speciesfactsheet.php?id=1492