• California Spends $59.8 Million to Protect Wetlands
  
• Senate Bill Would Ban Mercury Thermometers
  
• Groups Sue Over Experimental Longlining in Hawaii
  
• National Plan Combats Chronic Wasting Disease
  
• Navy Exercises May Be Harming Right Whales
  
• Data Buoy Offers Weather, Biological Information
  
• Mixed Vegetation May Help Cool Climate
  
• Repair Begins on Damaged Coral Reef
  

California Spends $59.8 Million to Protect Wetlands

The projects, part of the CALFED Bay-Delta Program, include developing wildlife friendly agricultural practices, scientific research in the Bay-Delta estuary and the construction of fish screens on irrigation canals.

"CALFED continues to be a vital part in California's efforts to restore the Bay-Delta ecosystem and improving water management in this state," said California Governor Gray Davis. "CALFED is finding common ground to restore habitat, promote agriculture and develop a more secure and reliable water supply for California."

The funded projects will help protect and restore salmon and steelhead habitats and riverside woodlands on the Tuolumne, Stanislaus, Mokulmne, Cosumnes, American, Yuba and Sacramento Rivers, and on Mill and Deer Creeks - two streams that flow into the upper Sacramento River. A total of $22.4 million has been dedicated to these streamside projects.

Another $7.5 million will help protection, restore and manage marshes and other wetlands in San Francisco Bay, Suisun Marsh, the San Francisco Bay Delta and the Jepson Prairie. Research into threats to water quality in the Bay Delta system, and into water cleanup technologies, will receive $10.6 million.

The 50 projects that were selected out of 260 proposals underwent a rigorous technical and scientific review process that began in August 2001. The projects were chosen by a 15 member selection panel, consisting of scientists, agency leaders and other stakeholders.

An additional nine projects are expected to receive funding with $3.4 million coming from the federal Central Valley Project Improvement Act.

To date, more than $336 million in state, federal and stakeholder funds, as well as cost sharing agreements, have been awarded for 326 projects under the Ecosystem Restoration Program.

The CALFED Bay-Delta Program is a cooperative effort of more than 20 state and federal agencies working with local communities to improve the quality and reliability of California's water supplies and revive the San Francisco Bay Delta ecosystem. The 30 year CALFED Plan described in the CALFED Programmatic Record of Decision is the largest, most comprehensive water management effort in the nation.

More information on the funded projects and the Ecosystem Restoration Program is available at: http://www.calfed.water.ca.gov/ecosystem_rest.html

Senate Bill Would Ban Mercury Thermometers

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee voted Thursday to send the Mercury Reduction Act (S 351) to the full Senate for consideration. The bill was drafted by Senator Susan Collins, a Maine Republican.

"This bill reduces toxic health hazards in American's homes, particularly to the most vulnerable populations of pregnant women and young children," said Senator Jim Jeffords, the Vermont Independent who chairs the commitee. "During a time when we are working to increase safety in our communities and around our homes, we must not forget to ensure safety in our homes as well. This bill is both sound health and sound environmental policy."

The measure would ban the sale of mercury thermometers except by prescription. The bill directs the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to establish a national mercury thermometer collection and exchange program, and dispose of all mercury collected under hazardous waste regulations.

The bill would create a federal task force to make recommendations regarding the cost effective long term management of surplus mercury.

No mercury thermometers are now made anywhere in the United States; the primary mercury thermometer factories are in India and China. Non-mercury thermometers are available and have proven to be just as accurate as mercury thermometers, though they tend cost a bit more.

The bill does not apply to basal, industrial, or any other type of thermometer or mercury product.

A number of U.S. cities and nine states - Maine, Oregon, Indiana, California, New Hampshire, Maryland, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Michigan - have already banned the sale of mercury fever thermometers. More than 20,000 of the 32,000 retail stores in the National Association of Chain Drug Stores no longer sell mercury thermometers, and 11 of the top 15 national retailers have stopped selling mercury thermometers.

"A mercury thermometer contains about a gram of mercury, which when airborne is enough to contaminate a 20 acre lake for a year, resulting in fish advisories," said Michael Bender, director of the Mercury Policy Project, based in Montpelier, Vermont. "While nine states have banned mercury thermometer sales, we clearly need a comprehensive national solution."

Groups Sue Over Experimental Longlining in Hawaii

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has proposed to issue permits for an experimental fishing program that would allow longline fishing in an area where the agency had banned longlining to protect turtles. The program would test fishing gear intended to reduce the accidental snaring of turtles on baited hooks intended to catch swordfish.

The Sea Turtle Restoration Project of Turtle Island Restoration Network, Center for Biological Diversity, and The Ocean Conservancy, represented by Earthjustice, filed suit in federal district court in Hawaii to halt the project, charging that it duplicates previous research and would kill the very turtles it is intended to help safeguard.

"NMFS is trying to create a loophole to allow swordfish fishing to continue, even after its own scientists have warned that the so called experiment is likely to jeopardize the continued existence of the turtles," said Paul Achitoff, Earthjustice attorney for the plaintiffs.

NMFS has estimated that the proposed experiment will kill up to 15 endangered leatherback turtles, 87 loggerheads and six green turtles. The fishing vessel operators will be allowed to sell their catch and retain the profit, and will be granted a permit to kill threatened and critically endangered sea turtles.

The suit alleges that the NMFS decision to grant a permit to itself to conduct the experimental fishery contradicts the scientific conclusions in the agency's own Biological Opinion, which suggests that the turtles that the project will kill could jeopardize the survival of the loggerhead and leatherback turtle species. The suit seeks to halt the experiment until NMFS complies with the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act.

Marydele Donnelly, sea turtle research scientist for The Ocean Conservancy, said previous research in the Atlantic Ocean has shown that blue dyed bait and removing hooks near buoys - some of the tactics that NMFS intends to test near Hawaii - do not deter sea turtles from taking bait or getting hooked.

"NMFS' Pacific experiment is uselessly duplicating this research, adding to our belief that the experiments in Hawaii are simply a cover for swordfish fishing," Donnelly said.

More information on the proposed experimental fishing project is available at: http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/prot_res/readingrm/Applications/1303_ea_final.pdf

National Plan Combats Chronic Wasting Disease

CWD is a type of disease known as a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy. Related diseases include bovine spongiform encephalopathy or mad cow disease, scrapie and Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease, which affects humans.

CWD is known to infect some free ranging deer or elk in Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, Wisconsin and New Mexico, as well as farmed elk herds in South Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma and Montana. There is no evidence that the disease is linked to any disease in humans or domestic animals.

The plan delivered to Congress on Thursday is intended to help states, federal agencies and tribes control the spread of CWD. The plan was developed by a joint working group co-chaired by the Department's of Agriculture and Interior.

The working group, which was announced May 16 in testimony before a joint hearing of two House Resources Subcommittees, held its first meeting on May 24.

Several states have already established chronic wasting disease programs. However, lack of resources in some states and lack of uniform standards have prevented the establishment of any minimum criteria for an effective nationwide program.

To fill this gap, the joint working group has developed a plan that addresses disease management, diagnostics, research, surveillance and information dissemination. Highlights of the plan's proposals include:

• Identification of best practices for herd management to help prevent introduction of CWD into a herd
• Exploring how to prevent contact between free ranging and captive animals, identification of infected animals, and the benefits of removing infected animals versus eradicating entire herds
• Development of better tests for the disease, both postmortem and in live animals
• Prioritizing critical research needs, such as the genetics of the disease and the means by which the disease is transmitted between animals
• Describing best practices for targeted, hunter harvest and outbreak surveillance
• Development of uniform standards for disease data collection and information transfer through a web based program

More details are available at: http://www.aphis.usda.gov/oa/cwd/index.html

Navy Exercises May Be Harming Right Whales

On Thursday, the HSUS sent a "strongly worded" letter of concern to both the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and the Navy Department, asking that the Naval live bombing exercises be moved to an area where they will not harm endangered whales.

On June 10, a NMFS aerial survey crew discovered the headless carcass of a right whale calf just to the north of the area designated as critical habitat for the endangered species. The HSUS has since learned that the U.S. Navy has been conducting bombing exercises near an area known as Sharrer Ridge, about 50 miles north of critical habitat and 60 miles northeast of Cape Cod.

North Atlantic right whales are one of the world's most endangered species. About 300 animals remain, and the population has been declining. International and national scientific bodies have urged strict protection of the remaining population of right whales.

Fisheries that entangle right whales are required to use risk reduction measures and the NMFS issues regular alerts to shippers to warn of recent right whale sighting near shipping lanes. On Thursday, for example, a group of 75 right whales was spotted east of Nantucket and Cape Cod, prompting NMFS to close the area to lobster traps and anchored gillnet gear until at least July 15.

The most rigorous protection of the animals in the U.S. occurs in the areas surrounding their three critical habitats. Two of the critical habitats are in the waters near Massachusetts, where right whales are found feeding in substantial numbers in the late winter, spring and early summer prior to heading north to critical habitat in Canada.

In January and February of 1996, several right whales were found dead off the coast of Florida and Georgia near their critical habitat in the southeast. At the time, the Navy was conducting live fire bombing exercises just outside of the critical habitat. No additional deaths occurred after the Navy moved the exercise area, the HSUS notes.

"The Endangered Species Act requires that federal agencies consult with one another when they are engaging in activities that may adversely affect endangered species," said Dr. John Grandy, senior vice president of wildlife programs for The HSUS. "We were alarmed to learn that the Navy did not take these steps to prevent the possible impacts on endangered whales from this sort of Naval activity."

In addition to right whales, the Gulf of Maine is an important seasonal feeding area for endangered humpback whales and fin whales, which have been sighted in and near the areas where bombing has occurred.

"It's a big ocean," said Sharon Young, marine issues field director for The HSUS. "The Gulf of Maine is an important seasonal feeding and nursery area for whales. Surely there is a way that the U.S. Navy can avoid putting endangered whales at risk while completing their mission."

More information on the NMFS plan to reduce the impacts of fishing on right whales is available at: http://www.nero.nmfs.gov/whaletrp/

Data Buoy Offers Weather, Biological Information

The buoy will also give oceanographers and biologists improved data on water movements below the surface, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) officials said Thursday.

The new weather buoy, funded through NOAA's Coastal Storms Initiative, was deployed by the National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) and the U.S. Coast Guard near the edge of the Gulf Stream 42 miles east of St. Augustine. The buoy, identified as 41012, joins two similar models off Florida's Atlantic Coast.

"This buoy fills a data gap in marine observations, which help meteorologists understand current conditions over the water and issue more detailed forecasts," said Dr. Paul Moersdorf, director of the NDBC. "The new buoy is also what the marine community needs to ensure they have the latest observations to make safe decisions in the water."

Data buoys collect real time observations of wind speed, wave heights, and air and sea surface temperatures. The newest buoy, 41012, also reports the water's salt content or salinity, a first for NDBC buoys. Long term salinity measurements will help scientists monitor changes in the underwater ecosystem, including fish and plant life.

The buoy will also give a vertical profile of ocean current measurements using an Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler, which operates much like a Doppler weather radar. The profiler sends sound waves in different directions toward the ocean floor, and helps detect shifts in ocean currents.

"Resource managers and local officials in the St. John's watershed will benefit from the data the sensors provide," said Jamison Hawkins, deputy director of NOAA's National Ocean Service. It gives them the best information available to make critical decisions about land and natural resource use in the coastal zone."

Pat Welsh, a meteorologist at the Jacksonville forecast office, said the new buoy will be valuable for issuing better marine forecasts, including predictions for thunderstorms that develop in coastal waters. It will enhance the performance of local computer weather models and even improve the ability to forecast winter storms.

"Knowing the sea surface temperatures and the wind structure are critical when forecasting coastal thunderstorms, which impact the safety of the marine community," Welsh explained. "Now, thanks to this new buoy, we have more information to improve our forecasts."

The new buoy's real time weather observations will be posted under the Recent Data section of the NDBC's web site at: http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov

Mixed Vegetation May Help Cool Climate

Hydrometeorologists Jim Shuttleworth at the University of Arizona in Tucson, and Lixin Lu at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, found that when they introduced satellite measurements of the real patterns of vegetation in Great Plains and Rocky Mountain states into a computer model, the results generated extra convection in the atmosphere to give a cooler, wetter climate.

Mixed vegetation impacts the atmosphere, weather and climate by changing the amount of sunlight that reflects from land and leaves back out to space, and varying the heights of trees and other plants exposed to the wind. Different plant types also evaporate water at different rates.

For example, irrigated, lush crop lands with plenty of water in the soil warm the air less because they use more of the sun's energy for evaporation, as compared to hot, dry bare soil.

The varied heights of plants and trees in a region change the aerodynamics of the atmosphere, creating more circulation and rising air. When the rising air reaches the dewpoint in the cooler, upper atmosphere, it condenses into water droplets and forms clouds.

"The mixed vegetation creates areas of different temperatures next to each other, some warmer and some colder, and this leads to mixing in the atmosphere that gives rise to clouds and, ultimately, rain," Shuttleworth said.

Over the last two decades, detailed maps of the amount and type of vegetation that covers the ground have become available through remote sensing. Based on that information, scientists can enter data to describe vegetation into computer models that simulate regional climate.

In this study, a climate version of the Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (ClimRAMS) was used to explore whether more of a mix of vegetation can alter climate in the United States. A U.S. Department of Agriculture soil database was used to define different soil types in the climate model, and vegetation was classified using an international land cover system.

The ClimRAMS assumes there is little difference between grasslands in northern Wyoming and southern Kansas, for instance, but the researchers found that when they introduced satellite measurements of leaf area index - a way of quantifying how much vegetation is present - the more realistic pattern of vegetation generated extra convection in the atmosphere to give a cooler, wetter climate.

Most current computer models that predict Earth's future climate do not account for the complex mix of vegetation and its atmospheric impacts, and may be producing forecasts that are too dry and too warm during growing seasons.

"In the future, it will be important to use remote sensing data to enter the fine details of plant cover into computer models to get more accurate weather and climate forecasts," Shuttleworth said.

More research is needed to determine if increasing variety of croplands would help reduce drought conditions. The study appears in the June issue of the "Journal of Hydrometeorology."

Repair Begins on Damaged Coral Reef

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has begun restoring the site where the freighter Wellwood grounded on Molasses Reef off Key Largo in 1984.

"We're excited that we now have the resources to begin repairing the damage to one of our most beautiful coral reefs," said sanctuary superintendent Billy Causey. "In the 18 years since the freighter Wellwood ran aground, the damaged reef has not regenerated. We believe the restoration work should help put the reef on the road to recovery."

The Wellwood, a 122 meter freighter registered in Cyprus, ran aground in about 18 feet of water on Molasses Reef in the former Key Largo National Marine Sanctuary on August 4, 1984, and remained there for 12 days. The grounding destroyed 5,085 square meters of living coral and injured 644 meters of reef framework, caused widespread destruction of bottom dwelling species and displaced fish and other marine life.

The Wellwood grounded on Molasses Reef in 1984. (Photo courtesy NOAA)

NOAA is working with the construction contractor, Underwater Engineering Services, Inc., to place 22 modules at 14 locations on the grounding site. The modules are preformed concrete casts that are used to rebuild the foundation of the reef.

Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary reef doctor Harold Hudson designed the modules to replicate the older spur and groove formation of the grounding site as closely as possible and provide the maximum amount of habitat for fish, coral and other marine life. Hudson and other sanctuary staff members built the modules by hand over the summer of 2001, using small limestone boulders, a special composite rebar, concrete and sand.

When the project is complete, the sanctuary will install a permanent buoy marking the restoration site. Snorkelers and divers will be welcome to view the completed work, following the guideline "look, but don't touch," to allow marine life to settle and grow on the modules.

More information is available at: http://www.restorereef.nos.noaa.gov