It was wonderful that he even took a walk along to the mangroves, where other guides such as Subaraj gave an impromptu tour of some of our shores threatened flora like the Seashore nutmeg! Professor Peter Ng, who was one among the handful of local academics at the site, also chipped in a little talk about our shores to the First Lady, Mary Tan.

Many of the people who came to the shore today were visiting it for the first time. It was really nice to see so many new faces and I think it was a great way for them to witness the tremendous amount of work that so many volunteers and staff of NParks put into to maintaining interest and protecting our coastline. Above, visitors were greeted by three oriental pied hornbills and at least four wild boar at the Chek Jawa Visitors Center, while awaiting the arrival of President Tan. Other non-marine critters we saw included Great-billed herons, the biggest bird on our shores, White-bellied sea eagles and White-throated kingfishers.

Read more about President Tan’s visit to Chek Jawa here.

Feared to be globally extinct, the discovery of this fabulous sponge is featured in the latest issue of My Green Space published by NParks.

Karenne Tun and Eugene Tay share that ” the Neptune’s Cup sponge was first seen in Singapore waters in 1822. According to historical records, the Neptune’s Cup sponge was common during the time of Sir Stamford Raffles, An account by a British official in 1830 said “those gigantic sponges” were brought to them “in great numbers.” However, the Neptune’s Cup sponge population declined rapidly in our waters, and was last sighted in the 1870s. It seemed to also have disappeared from other coastal waters too – it was last collected off Bantam in West Java, Indonesia, in 1908. This led many scientists to believe that sponge had become extinct globally.”

How exciting then, that “in March 2011, during a routine survey dive, marine biologists from DHI Water & Environment (S) Pte Ltd encountered a unique-looking sponge off Singapore’s southern islands. It was later identified by Singapore’s sponge expert, Mr Lim Swee Cheng, as a young Neptune’s Cup sponge.”

Above: One of the old photos of the awesome sponge that fires the imagination and search for it in our waters!

Read more about this sponge in the latest issue of My Green Space!

This post was first published in Wild Shore of Singapore.

See more amazing photos and videos of Singapore’s sea life first on our Facebook Page!

Latest media reports say that while “the fire at the Shell refinery on Pulau Bukom has been fully extinguished, SCDF is still continuing foaming operations as there are still traces of fuel vapour in the affected areas.” In light of this, I thought it would be useful to find out more about fire fighting foam.

What is fire fighting foam?
Fire fighting foam is a foam used for fire suppression. Its role is to cool the fire and to coat the fuel, preventing its contact with oxygen, resulting in suppression of the combustion. The surfactants used need to produce foam in concentration of less than 1%. Other components of fire retardant foams are organic solvents (e.g. trimethyltrimethylene glycol and hexylene glycol), foam stabilizers (e.g. lauryl alcohol), and corrosion inhibitors. Wikipedia

What are the different types of foam?
Class A foams: developed in mid 1980s for fighting wildfires. Class A foams lower the surface tension of the water which assists in the wetting and saturation of Class A fuels with water.

Class B foams: designed for class B fires — flammable liquids. The use of class A foam on a class B fire may yield unexpected results, as class A foams are not designed to contain the explosive vapors produced by flammable liquids. Class B foams have two major subtypes.

• Synthetic foams are based on synthetic surfactants. Synthetic foams provide better flow, faster knockdown of flames, but limited post-fire security. Two main types of synthetic foams are:

1. Aqueous film forming foams (AFFF) are water-based and frequently contain hydrocarbon-based surfactant such as sodium alkyl sulfate, and fluorosurfactant—such as fluorotelomers, perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), or perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS). They have the ability to spread over the surface of hydrocarbon-based liquids.
2. Alcohol-resistant aqueous film forming foams (AR-AFFF) are foams resistant to the action of alcohols, able to form a protective film when they are present.

• Protein foams contain natural proteins as the foaming agents. Unlike synthetic foams, protein foams are bio-degradable. They flow and spread slower, but provide a foam blanket that is more heat resistant and more durable. Protein foams include regular protein foam (P), fluoroprotein foam (FP), film forming fluoroprotein (FFFP), alcohol resistant fluoroprotein foam (AR-FP), and alcohol-resistant film forming fluoroprotein (AR-FFFP).

What is the environmental impact of AFFF?
Fire fighting foams, whether or not they contain fluorinated materials, have acute toxicity towards the aquatic environment as detergents. They also deplete oxygen levels, required for biological degradation. Finished fluorosurfactant foams are generally rather non-toxic; however, it is their polyfluorinated degradation products that are of environmental concern because of unfavourable persistence, bio-accumulation and toxicity (PBT). Bio-accumulation and toxicity depend critically on the chain length and structure of the degradation product. Extreme persistence, however, is a general property shared by all perfluorinated degradation products whether derived from PFOS- or fluorotelomer-based foams. Indeed perfluorocarbon derivatives are some of the most environmentally persistent known – CF4 is estimated as having an atmospheric lifetime of between 10,000 and 20,000 years, and there is no known degradative pathway for trifluoroacetic acid, CF3COOH, in the aqueous environment.

Why use fluorosurfactants when it’s harmful for the environment?
The extreme chemical stability of fluorosurfactants and their degradation products is both a boon and a bane. Their use for fire fighting foam depends on both their excellent stability and efficiency as surface active (wetting) agents. Although very expensive on a weight basis compared to hydrocarbon or silicon-based surfactants, their effectiveness at low concentrations results in a favourable cost per unit volume of finished foam.

Case studies
The Allied Colloids fire in 1992 near Bradford UK resulted in tens of millions of litres of foam and chemically contaminated run-off being discharged into the local river system, since not to have done so would have destroyed the local foul water treatment plant. The immediate effect was to render the river system biologically dead for some 50 km downstream.

What are others doing about this?

• In 2000, 3M Company decided to discontinue the manufacture of PFOS-based fluorosurfactants including AFFF for firefighting on environmental grounds
• The 1979 European Council Directive (80/68/EEC 17 December 1979) – the
  European Groundwater Directive – forbids the discharge of organohalogens or
  degradation products that are organohalogens to groundwater. The Environmental Impact of Fire Fighting Foams: Operational and legal implications

Today I visited the shores and reefs of Pulau Hantu with Jeffrey Low, a Senior Conservation Officer at NParks. As the jetty on Pulau Hantu Kecil was closed, we dropped off at the south jetty and walked along the beaches and sea walls of Pulau Hantu Besar.

We were most amazed at how crisp the air was. Jeff and I commented that the air was not as foul smelling as days when the refinery at Pulau Bukom was flaring. There could be any number of reasons for this – there was the big rains that we’ve been having that could have helped clear up the air, but it could also be the kind of fuel that was burned during the recent fire combusted more completely than the gasses that are usually burnt during flaring, which can leave a distinct scent of sulfur in the air. (Above: oysters and carpet algae with Shell refinery in the background)

Without any comprehensive tests though, we can only speculate the causes and potential effects of the recent fire. (Above: View of Shell Bukom refinery from Pulau Hantu Besar, less than 2km away)

The latest media reports say that while the fire has been put out, fuel vapor remains at the site. This news was likely submitted yesterday evening at latest, before the large night time/morning downpour. It also mentioned the use of foam to curb the resuscitation of any fire. In light of this, I thought it would be useful to find out more about fire fighting foam.

During the walkabout with Jeff, we found this snail with an oyster living on its back. Jeff said that snails are known to be able to keep their shells clean so how an oyster ended up getting lodged in and growing on the back of a snail is truly interesting!

We also encountered several large Casuarina trees that have either been uprooted by recent storms or fallen over from old age. Look at the size of this tree’s roots next to Jeff! The fallen tree is estimated to be about 20 years old. Evidently, the soft and shifting soil along the edges of Pulau Hantu isn’t great for the roots of big trees to grow into.

After the walkabout, we took a dive into the reef, which was very busy with fish today! I saw a pair of Leopard grouper (Plectropomus leopardus) which really made my day as not only are these fish not common, they are a very desirable fish for anglers, so its good to still see some around. Other fish I saw included schools of Parrotfish, Goldenback fusilliers, Goldengirdled Butterflyfish, Copperbanded butterflyfish, Six-banded angelfish, Streaked Spinefoots, Yellow-spot rabbitfishes, Silver moonies and Yellow-tail barracuda. We also spotted a Reliable Chromodoris, Black-margined Glossodoris, heaps and heaps of Blue dragon nudibranch, and a Winged pipefish.

Why did the fire flare up again?
According to Shell, the affected area “has lengths of pipelines and connected pumps, and holds a mix of hydrocarbons”. The pipes are no longer in use but still contain fuel, which causes flares when the pipes open up under fire. “This was the reason for the erratic fire, sometimes waning and sometimes growing.” Reports say the fire was contained within the bund wall.

In this Straits Times image, Pulau Hantu is the small wooded island above Pulau Bukom.

Will the fire start up again?
According to reports, there are still traces of fuel vapour, and firefighters are on stand-by to handle that or any other leaks. SCDF said 34 of its vehicles and about 100 firefighters are currently at the scene.

Experts said that a fire like that at Bukom would take a while to die down completely. This is because fluids in the pipes that are burning could continue to reach boiling point and vaporise. The vapours could then heat up and re-ignite again.

Possible cause of the fire?
According to Shell’s preliminary investigation, the fire could have started during maintenance work but the company was unable to provide further details.

Steps taken by Shell?
These include shutting down neighbouring units within the vicinity of the fire, and isolating the lines and cooling the tanks in the area to prevent entry of any fresh hydrocarbons. Before the fire was put out, Shell said it was undetaking “a progressive shutdown of the refinery”. The company has shut several units in the vicinity of the fire, including a hydrocracker. A full shutdown will take two days. Other precautionary measures already taken include the monitoring of the air quality around Pulau Bukom four times a day.

Impact on air quality?
NEA, which has collected air samples, said it has not detected the presence of toxic gases. But it said smoke from the Pulau Bukom fire may have some effect on the air quality in western parts of Singapore – such as Jurong, Teban Gardens, West Coast and Pasir Panjang.

Impact on water quality?
There has been no public information put out on this.

What goes on at the Shell refinery on Pulau Bukom?
Ria Tan did this post some time ago on what she could find out about Shell operations on Bukom.

What natural wonders are found near Pulau Bukom?
More in this post.

Thanks to Ria Tan for staying on the pulse of this event and keeping us updated.

Royal Dutch Shell’s Bukom refinery is located a mere two kilometers from Pulau Hantu. Some 250 Shell employees have been evacuated and at least 100 firefighters are working on site. The plant is Shell’s largest refinery, producing half-a-million barrels-a-day. It has halted tanker loading and shut down a diesel-making unit as it struggles to contain the fire. Singapore is the world’s largest market for fuel oil and Asia’s hub for crude and refined product trading, and any disruptions from the fire could impact regional prices as some capacity has already been taken offline. Read more.

Read the rest of this post

Photojournalist aims to raise awareness of rich marine life
in Singapore’s waters

SINGAPORE is not the first place that springs to mind if you are a diver looking for a rich and diverse underwater habitat – but photojournalist Debby Ng hopes to change that.

Ms Ng, who is also a keen diver, has spent the past eight years trawling the seas around the island to chronicle its abundant marine heritage.

Like others in the volunteer world, she has a mission: to get more people to realise that Singapore has many hidden natural treasures off its coast and that these deserve to be preserved.

Most of these gems are concentrated in the waters around the southern island of Pulau Hantu.

Ms Ng, a nature enthusiast who loved hiking and bird-watching before she got into diving, set up The Hantu Bloggers in 2003, where she posts pictures and descriptions of her underwater discoveries. She also gives talks in schools and has taken more than 800 divers on undersea expeditions.

It all started innocuously enough in 2002 when the then rookie diver began visiting blogs and forums to learn more about good diving spots.

Ms Ng, a Ngee Ann Polytechnic communications graduate, found that most divers raved about regional spots, so she began asking what was wrong with diving in Singapore.

The response was pretty blunt, with divers telling her ‘there was nothing but trash down there’.

The ‘negative reaction’ did not surprise her. ‘A lot of people used to say the same things about Singapore’s biodiversity before Chek Jawa happened,’ she says, referring to ecologically fertile wetlands on the south-eastern tip of Pulau Ubin. The Government put reclamation plans there on hold in 2001 after a survey by local volunteers showed the area to be rich in biodiversity.

With that in mind, Ms Ng began diving around Hantu on her own, hoping to prove sceptics wrong about Singapore’s marine heritage.

She admits the water is silty but found starfish, nudibranchs, pufferfish and molluscs among the corals in Hantu’s waters.

The marine life is concentrated in a 12ha patch of the sea, about the size of 16 football fields.

She began writing about her experiences on blogs in 2002, but was confronted with sheer dis-belief. ‘People told me I was lying. There is no way I could have seen such things in Singapore’s waters.’

Unperturbed, she bought a cheap underwater camera and with the help of friends set up The Hantu Bloggers and began taking sceptics on guided dive tours. She has done more than 500 dives off Hantu.

Unlike many others, volunteering is not something this photojournalist with an online magazine does in her ‘free time’. ‘It is something I make time for, simply because I believe in the cause,’ she says.

Her passion is slowly bearing fruit. While Pulau Hantu will never rival the Great Barrier Reef for spectacular diving, she takes heart from the fact that awareness of its marine life is on the rise.

Experts now believe that while Singapore’s reefs are 0.05 per cent the size of the Great Barrier Reef, they contain a third of its marine biodiversity.

She acknowledges that diving in Singapore is not always a pleasant experience. ‘It’s sometimes like trekking in the forest on a rainy day. But just because you can’t see something does not mean it doesn’t exist,’ she says.

Ms Ng and a team of volunteers have been working with the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity and an Australian natural history museum to catalogue their finds.

She also holds talks in schools to make students aware of what lies beneath Singapore’s shores. ‘I still meet secondary school students who don’t know what a coral reef is, let alone that it may need to be protected,’ she says.

While she believes Singapore’s marine wealth deserves to be safeguarded, her primary work is to spark awareness, not activism.

‘Awareness will eventually lead to concern – and hopefully proactiveness to protect what we have,’ she says. ‘But right now, we are still very much spreading awareness.’

Debby Ng, 28
Day job: Photojournalist
After hours: Diver and chronicler of Singapore’s marine life
How long: Eight years

Image: Tamara Shopsin and Jason Fulford

December 26, 2009
The New York Times

For the many disappointments of the recent climate talks in Copenhagen, there was at least one clear positive outcome, and that was the progress made on a program called Reducing Emissions From Deforestation and Forest Degradation. Under this program, key elements of which were agreed on at Copenhagen, developing countries would be compensated for preserving forests, peat soils, swamps and fields that are efficient absorbers of carbon dioxide, the primary heat-trapping gas linked to global warming.

This approach, which takes advantage of the power of nature itself, is an economical way to store large amounts of carbon. But the program is limited in that it includes only those carbon sinks found on land. We now need to look for similar opportunities to curb climate change in the oceans.

Few people may realize it, but in addition to producing most of the oxygen we breathe, the ocean absorbs some 25 percent of current annual carbon dioxide emissions. Half the world’s carbon stocks are held in plankton, mangroves, salt marshes and other marine life. So it is at least as important to preserve this ocean life as it is to preserve forests, to secure its role in helping us adapt to and mitigate climate change.

Sea-grass meadows, for example, which flourish in shallow coastal waters, account for 15 percent of the ocean’s total carbon storage, and underwater forests of kelp store huge amounts of carbon, just as forests do on land. The most efficient natural carbon sink of all is not on land, but in the ocean, in the form of Posidonia oceanica, a species of sea grass that forms vast underwater meadows that wave in the currents just as fields of grass on land sway in the wind.

Worldwide, coastal habitats like these are being lost because of human activity. Extensive areas have been altered by land reclamation and fish farming, while coastal pollution and overfishing have further damaged habitats and reduced the variety of species. It is now clear that such degradation has not only affected the livelihoods and well-being of more than two billion people dependent on coastal ecosystems for food, it has also reduced the capacity of these ecosystems to store carbon.

The case for better management of oceans and coasts is twofold. These healthy plant habitats help meet the needs of people adapting to climate change, and they also reduce greenhouse gases by storing carbon dioxide. Countries should be encouraged to establish marine protected areas — that is, set aside parts of the coast and sea where nature is allowed to thrive without undue human interference — and do what they can to restore habitats like salt marshes, kelp forests and sea-grass meadows.

Managing these habitats is far less expensive than trying to shore up coastlines after the damage has been done. Maintaining healthy stands of mangroves in Asia through careful management, for example, has proved to cost only one-seventh of what it would cost to erect manmade coastal defenses against storms, waves and tidal surges.

The discussions in Copenhagen have opened the way for all countries to improve the management of oceans and coasts to harness their immense potential to mitigate climate change — especially over the next decade, while the world’s politicians, scientists and engineers develop longer-term strategies for stabilizing the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases.

In their continuing negotiations on climate change, nations should now make it a priority to produce a single map of the world that documents all the different types of coastal carbon sinks, and identify the ones that are in most immediate need of preservation. New studies should be undertaken to better understand how best to manage these areas to increase carbon sequestration. Then, following the example of the forests program, it will be possible to establish formulas for compensating countries that preserve essential carbon sinks in the oceans.

We urgently need to bring the ocean into the agenda alongside forests so that, as soon as possible, we can help the oceans to help us.

Chromodoris lineolata

The Encyclopedia of Life has a lively EOL flickr group with regular contests themed around various aspects of the Planet’s amazing biodiversity. So it was a great surprise that our humble but very handsome Chromodoris lineolata won the contest about ‘stripes’. Other entries included spectacular zebras, stripey fishes and banded bugs, all of which I thought were fabulous too!

This photo now gets to join the Best of EOL flickr group! I’m really glad that Singapore’s own biodiversity gets featured on this global site.

Do consider submitting your photos to the EOL, and join in the regular contests so that more can learn that Singapore does have and cares for our biodiversity! Here’s my earlier post about how to contribute to the EOL flickr group which feeds into the EOL database.

The next contest is themed ‘Aquatic’ and is open for entries from today.

Treegrow, who is the very diligent and active admin for the group, shares more details: “Please compete with pictures of organisms that live in water or immediately at the water’s edge. Both fresh and saltwater creatures qualify. Bonus points for images that show the organisms in situ and/or that convey aquatic adaptations, i.e., characteristics of that allow the organisms to survive in water. Submissions will be open through next Monday (30 Nov).”

The EOL flickr site is also a gold mine of information. Treegrow started a discussion thread on Online Identification Guides and there’s a huge list of resources suggested covering what seems to be everything!

So drop by the EOL flickr group for a look around.

This post was first published on Wildshores on November 24, 2009

At the heart of their story is the bizarre fact that there are more fine fish swimming in the tiny tanks than there are in the surrounding sea.

Having overfished and polluted its own waters to the point where they are home mainly to great ghosts of the past, Hong Kong now imports up to 90 percent of its seafood.

The problem with that, scientists say, is that Hong Kong is a microcosm of a marine disaster in which wild fish are being eaten out of existence worldwide.

“It is a sign of what is happening in most of the fisheries in the world,” says Guillermo Moreno, head of global environment group WWF’s marine programme in Hong Kong. “It’s a scary panorama.”

In scenes replayed throughout Hong Kong’s archipelago, the seafood for the restaurants in Yung Shue Wan arrives in the dull light of a hazy dawn, while most of the village is still asleep.

Through the rough streets, wiry men in singlets trundle trolleys laden with sloshing buckets full of struggling fish nearing the end of their lives far from their usual habitat on distant, colourful coral reefs.

They are tipped into crowded tanks outside restaurants lining the harbour to await the pointing finger of a diner which will flag the last leg of their long journey, to the kitchen.

At weekends, the open air restaurant tables under spinning fans host large family gatherings where cheerful children tuck in to food that researchers say could disappear in their lifetimes.

“Unless the current situation improves, stocks of all species currently fished for food are predicted to collapse by 2048,” the WWF reports, quoting a controversial scientific survey.

Restaurateur Ben Chan Kin-Keung acknowledges that Hong Kong’s waters no longer provide what his seafood-loving customers want, but says that is not a problem — at the moment.

“It’s very fast and convenient to import seafood around the globe either by plane or ship,” he says.

But he knows the feast cannot last and says it is already becoming difficult to find fish in the quantities he requires.

“It’s like people just want to eat the fish when they are not (even) born. I’m afraid that I may have to change my job in 10 years time.”

Offshore from the restaurants, a lone trawler dredges the jade sea — but bleak records show it is unlikely to bring up table-worthy fish.

“The average size of fish now caught in these bottom trawls is about 10 grammes” — about one third of an ounce or the weight of a small coin — Professor Yvonne Sadovy of Hong Kong University told AFP.

“To put this into some kind of context, Hong Kong was a famous fishing centre in the past and we had incredibly productive and species-rich ground fisheries.”

WWF says that “Hong Kong waters were incredibly rich just decades ago with manta rays, hammerhead sharks, giant grouper and croakers taller than a man. In less than a lifetime Hong Kong has lost them all.”

Sadovy, a marine scientist who has made a special study of Hong Kong’s seas, says there are several reasons the local fisheries are in such a bad state.

High demand for seafood in the crowded city and a lack of regulation fuelled overfishing which combined with pollution and loss of habitat to push fish populations “well beyond their capacity to regenerate themselves,” she said.

The scale of the pollution can be gauged a short boat ride away from the harbour-side diners enjoying their seafood, where a few pale-pink backs can be seen breaking the surface of the grey-green sea of the Pearl River Delta.

These are Hong Kong’s famed pink dolphins, but the most surprising thing about the beautiful creatures is not their colour — it’s the fact that they are alive at all.

Flush the toilet in any of the high-rise apartments or offices housing Hong Kong’s population of seven million people and it will likely go almost directly into the “Fragrant Harbour” — Hong Kong’s name in Cantonese.

Add to that the chemical effluent oozing down the Pearl River from thousands of frantically busy factories in mainland China and you have a “horrendous cocktail,” says Sadovy.

A keen diver, Sadovy says she has seen fish deformed by the pollutants in Hong Kong’s waters, and points out that many of them — such as the heavy metals — will poison the seas for years to come.

Eco-tourism group Hong Kong Dolphinwatch says that 450,000 cubic metres of raw, semi-processed sewage is dumped into the harbour every day — enough to fill 200 Olympic-size swimming pools.

The water quality is “disgusting,” says guide Janet Walker as the Dolphinwatch boat carries a group of Japanese and Western tourists away from a jagged skyline of tower blocks and into the delta.

There, the traditional curves of sampans threading their way past gigantic cargo ships, high-speed ferries and lumbering barges offer a glimpse of a richer — and cleaner — fishing past.

“I certainly wouldn’t eat anything from this water. There’s not much fish left here but what there is will be seriously contaminated — mercury levels are very high, cadmium, various other heavy metals…,” Walker told AFP.

First-born dolphin offspring tend to have a high mortality rate because they receive about a decade’s-worth of accumulated toxins through their mother’s milk, she said.

The poisons settle in fatty tissues as the mothers grow to sexual maturity and the first-born get the full dose, while later offspring from the same female will have much higher survival rates.

But WWF’s Moreno points out that pollution of the oceans is a worldwide menace: “Catch a bluefin tuna out in the middle of the ocean and it will contain mercury,” he says.

So overfishing must take most of the blame for the pitiful state of Hong Kong’s fisheries — just as it does for the collapse of cod fisheries in Europe and Canada and the threat to popular species globally.

“You see these fabulous big fish, colourful fish, plenty of them, in the seafood restaurants,” said Sadovy.

“But most of those fish, in fact almost all of the fish you see in those tanks come from overseas.”

They come from around the world — the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, Southeast Asia’s coral reefs.

“In the end we could view Hong Kong as a very good example of the direction we cannot risk taking if we want to be sure to have wild seafood available to us in the future,” Sadovy said.

Having told their tale, the fish in the tanks in the Hong Kong restaurants pose a question for ecologically aware diners: Is it no longer acceptable to eat fish?

Moreno and Sadovy, both passionate about their subject, say they don’t eat shrimp because of the destructive methods used to catch it in the wild and shrimp farming’s devastation of environmentally important mangroves on Southeast Asian shores.

But they do eat fish — provided they are species that are caught or farmed in a sustainable way.

WWF’s websites provide regional guides to dining with a clear conscience that can be downloaded and taken to the restaurant.

The Hong Kong government admitted in response to questions from AFP that its waters have been overfished and are badly polluted by sewage, and says it is working on plans to correct both problems.

The ocean surface temperature was the warmest on record for July, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the US.

Incidentally, on 28 June 2009, the Hantu Blog recorded an underwater temperature of 31 degrees C, up from an average of 27.5 degrees C measured over the past 5 years.

Global ocean surface temperatures reached 17 degrees C in July 2009, just over 1 degree C higher than the 20th century average of 16.4 degrees C.

Land surface temperatures across the world were tied with 2003 as the ninth-warmest July on record, just under 1 degree F above the 20th century average of 57.8 degrees F (14.3 degree C).

The combined land and ocean surface temperatures for the month were the fifth-warmest since world-wide records began in 1880.

NOAA data also showed that the Arctic sea ice coverage was 12.7 per cent below the 1979-2000 average in July 2009. This is the third lowest July sea ice extent on record after 2007 and 2006.

Antarctic sea ice coverage in the same month was 1.5 per cent above the 199-2000 average.

The NOAA said July Arctic sea ice extent had decreased by 6.1 percent per decade since 1979, while July Antarctic sea ice extent had increased by 0.8 percent per decade over the same period.

SOURCE

New information on the biology of albacore tuna will assist in stock assessments and providing advice on harvest levels in Australian and international waters. PHOTO: CSIRO/FRDC

Scientists are set to study the earbones and organs of more than 2000 albacore tuna to better understand the growth, age and breeding patterns of this increasingly important species.

Albacore tuna are harvested from tropical to temperate waters, mainly for canning, but also to satisfy the growing market for fresh fish in Europe and the United States.

While previously caught as by-product, albacore have become a prime target of Australia’s Eastern Tuna and Billfish Fishery which operates from Cape York to Tasmania and on the adjacent high seas. Several Pacific island nations and distant water fleets, including Taiwan and Korea, also target albacore.

This rising catch of albacore has generated a need for more information about the species to assess stock levels and provide advice on harvest levels in Australian and international waters.

To meet this need, scientists from the CSIRO Wealth from Oceans Flagship are studying the biology of albacore stocks from eastern Australia and the wider south-western Pacific Ocean to determine their age, growth and reproductive characteristics.

The two-year study – funded by the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation and CSIRO, the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, and the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission – builds on earlier studies in 2007 and 2008–09.

Project leader, Jess Farley, says fishery-wide information about how albacore age, grow and reproduce is needed to provide reliable stock assessments and set appropriate levels for future catches.

The age of the albacore will be estimated by interpreting growth bands formed in their earbones (otoliths) and dorsal spines in a process similar to reading growth rings of trees. Albacore reproductive organs will be examined to determine the location, timing, frequency and magnitude of spawning.

“Previous studies have shown that albacore grow to 1.2 metres in length and at least 30 kilograms in weight, and live up to 14 years,” Ms Farley says.

“More detailed biological information will allow us to calculate growth rates, age at maturity and longevity, and to see whether these differ by gender and region.

“We aim to develop a ‘maturity schedule’ for female albacore across the south Pacific to help estimate their spawning output at different sizes and ages. This is the key to understanding the productivity of the stocks.”

CSIRO scientist Dr Campbell Davies says that, like other fish species, tunas release many thousands, if not millions, of eggs in a spawning season and individual spawning output increases with the size and age of the female fish.

“This needs to be quantified so that stock-assessment scientists can estimate how different levels of fishing will affect the spawning capacity of the whole population,” he says.

The CSIRO scientists will collaborate with the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) on the ageing and reproductive work, which will link with an SPC tagging program examining albacore movements in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean. The fishing industry will provide albacore samples and an archival reference collection will be established.

Member countries of the East ASEAN Growth Area (EAGA) are deliberating on a draft framework designed to ensure sustainable management of tuna spawning grounds in the Coral Triangle. PHOTO: Debby Ng

A statement yesterday of the Mindanao Economic Development Council (MEDCo) said that the sub-ASEAN grouping, composed of Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, is now finalizing the draft memorandum of agreement (MoA) crafted by the Philippine EAGA Working Group on Fisheries with the help of the German Technical Cooperation.

Among others, the proposed framework will form a forum that will facilitate discussion of issues on fisheries development as well as opportunities such as access to market, funding and technology; capacity-building of fishermen, and public-private partnerships.

Source

El Niño events affect global weather conditions, changing rainfall patterns and storm intensity. PHOTO: NOAA

NOAA scientists announced the arrival of El Niño, a climate phenomenon with a significant influence on global weather, ocean conditions and marine fisheries.

El Niño, the periodic warming of central and eastern tropical Pacific waters, occurs on average every two to five years and typically lasts about 12 months.

NOAA expects this El Niño to continue developing during the next several months, with further strengthening possible. The event is expected to last through winter 2009-10.

“Advanced climate science allows us to alert industries, governments and emergency managers about the weather conditions El Niño may bring so these can be factored into decision-making and ultimately protect life, property and the economy,” said Jane Lubchenco, Ph.D., under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator.

El Niño’s impacts depend on a variety of factors, such as intensity and extent of ocean warming, and the time of year. Contrary to popular belief, not all effects are negative. On the positive side, El Niño can help to suppress Atlantic hurricane activity. In the United States, it typically brings beneficial winter precipitation to the arid Southwest, less wintry weather across the North, and a reduced risk of Florida wildfires.

El Niño’s negative impacts have included damaging winter storms in California and increased storminess across the southern United States. Some past El Niños also have produced severe flooding and mudslides in Central and South America, and drought in Indonesia.

An El Niño event may significantly diminish ocean productivity off the west coast by limiting weather patterns that cause upwelling, or nutrient circulation in the ocean. These nutrients are the foundation of a vibrant marine food web and could negatively impact food sources for several types of birds, fish and marine mammals.

In its monthly El Niño diagnostics discussion today, scientists with the NOAA National Weather Service Climate Prediction Center noted weekly eastern equatorial Pacific sea surface temperatures were at least 1.0 degree C above average at the end of June. The most recent El Niño occurred in 2006.

El Niño includes weaker trade winds, increased rainfall over the central tropical Pacific, and decreased rainfall in Indonesia. These vast rainfall patterns in the tropics are responsible for many of El Niño’s global effects on weather patterns.

NOAA will continue to monitor the rapidly evolving situation in the tropical Pacific, and will provide more detailed information on possible Atlantic hurricane impacts in its updated Seasonal Hurricane Outlook scheduled for release on August 6, 2009.

NOAA understands and predicts changes in the Earth’s environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and conserves and manages our coastal and marine resources.

Source

Indonesia’s marine tourism revenue reached US$2 billion per year and the country earned around US$2.2 billion from fish exports in 2008, Indonesia’s Antara news agency quoted Alfred Nakatsuma, director of the Environment office of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), as saying recently.

Oceans are the source of most rainfall, regulate the earth’s temperatures and wind patterns, clean the water the people drink, offer a pharmacopoeia of potential medicines, and generate most of the oxygen the people breathe.

Healthy and functioning oceans provide essential services to human communities that support economic well-being and human health to inlude providing food, shoreline protection, a source of non living resources for energy and trade, recreation and culture.

The world’s ocean and climate are inextricably linked: the ocean plays a crucial role in maintaining the Earth’s climate, and ocean life is vulnerable to climate change, which could among other things trigger sea-level rise.

“Likewise, in our interconnected world, the ocean affects us and we affect the ocean,” according to the Ocean Project in its press release observing the first World Ocean Day themed “one ocean, one climate, one future”, on June 8, 2009.

The world’s oceans and seas are now understood to be the biggest sink of greenhouse gases from the burning of fossil fuels.

Indeed experts now estimate that up to 40 per cent of the C02 entering the atmosphere is being cycled through the marine environment playing a crucial role in moderating climate change.

The oceans play a vast role in countering climate change – they are our ‘blue’ forests, according to Achim Steiner, executive director of United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), in his message prior to the implementation of the First World Ocean Conference held in Manado, North Sulawesi, Indonesia, May 11-15, 2009.

However, the situation regarding oceans and coastal areas as well as marine biodiversity is worse than people thought.

Oceans which were very important, were very distressed among other things because of overfishing, over exploitation, pollution, and global warming as well as climate change.

“We have to improve the health of our oceans,” Steiner said.

“They have to be as fit and resilient as possible, so that they can cope with the climate change burden– so they can continue to provide us with food and the myriad of other economically-important services,” he stated.

This means governments have to urgently address the multiple challenges weakening oceans and seas, from land based pollution and discharges from ships up to over exploitation of the globe’s vital fisheries, fueled in large part by perverse and wasteful subsidies totaling up to $35 billion a year, he said.

Currently somewhere around 12 per cent of the land is held in protected areas, but less one per cent of the marine environment enjoys such status so this needs to change as soon as possible, the UNEP chief urged.

He also called for investments in adaptation, rehabilitation, rejuvenation and resilience of coastal ecosystems, from mangroves to coral reefs and wetlands, to generate significant returns in respect to climate-proofing economies.

These include protecting vulnerable communities against storms surges and sea level rise while also helping to soak up greenhouse gas emissions; filter pollution and improve the health of fisheries.

And perhaps, just over the horizon, there is an even bigger prize’a way to make the oceans part of the carbon market options. Rewarding countries that sustainable manage them to boost their climate combating role and productivity would seem well worth exploring,” he said.

Indonesia, as one of the world’s largest maritime countries with about 5.8 million square kilometers of marine territory, last May 11-15, 2009, organized the first World Ocean Conference (WOC), in Manado, North Sulawesi, bringing together experts and officials from over 70 countries.

The developing countries are hit worst by the impact of climate change because they depend more on natural resources, according to Nakatsuma, when speaking to journalists participating in the Organisation of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA) Workshop on “The Role of the Media in Preserving the Global Environment”, which was organized on the sidelines of the WOC.

The developed countries, however, depended more on industries and information services than on natural resources, he said.

Coastal communities, mainly in small island states, are deemed the most vulnerable to the impact of climate change, mainly due to rising sea levels. Indonesia has around 17,000 islands, and only five of them are big islands, while some of its small islands have already vanished or may disappear due to the human-induced sea level rise.

The WOC issued a Manado Declaration (MOD) which required countries to promote sustainable ocean management and ocean conservation. It also pushed ocean issues as an agenda at the United Nations climate talks in Copenhagen in December 2009.

The MOD also will strive to reduce pollution of ocean, coastal and land areas and to promote sustainable management of fisheries, as well as stress the need to promote affordable, environmentally sound, and renewable ocean technologies and know-how, particularly in developing countries.

As part of the WOC, a summit of Coral Triangle Initiative (CTI) member countries — Indonesia, Malaysia, The Philippines, Papua New Guinea (PNG), Solomon Island, and Timor Leste – was held and attended also by observer countries such as the US and Australia.

The countries agreed to launch a programme on the Coral Triangle Initiative on Coral Reefs, Fisheries and Food Securities and Adaptation to Climate Change (CTI-CFFC).

Among the CTI countries expressing their commitment for the programme, were Indonesia with financial contribution amounting to US$5 million, PNG US$2 million, the Philippines US$5 million, and Malaysia US$1 million, the ministry said.

In addition to the above-mentioned commitments, there were also the USA with committed funds amounting to US$41.6 million (US$1.6 million, Global Environment Facilities (GEF) amounting US$63 million, and Australia amounting Aus$2 million.

Indonesian delegates attended the Bonn climate conference in Germany hosted by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) this week with a clear agenda of ensuring ocean issues are incorporated into climate talks to help save millions of coastal people from the brunt of global warming, in the upcoming Copenhagen climate conference.”

The world’s attentions and commitments to heal the oceans reflect the importance of the world’s oceans to Planet Earth’s health.

As a further step of Indonesia’s care for the oceans, an Indonesian delegation promoted the incorporation of ocean issues in an international meeting on climate change held in Bonn, Germany, June 1-12, 2009, which was undertaken by the United Nations Framework of Climate Change (UNFCCC) in preparing COP-15 UNFCCC in Copenhagen, December 2009.

Source

Sharks are vulnerable because they can take decades to mature and they produce few young. The scalloped hammerhead shark, which has declined by 99% over the past 30 years in some parts of the world, is particularly vulnerable and has been given globally endangered status on the red list, which means it is nearing extinction. In the Gulf of Mexico, the oceanic whitetip shark has declined by a similar amount.

Scientists estimate that shark populations in the northwest Atlantic Ocean have declined by an average of 50% since the early 1970s.

Announcing the red list of open-ocean or “pelagic” sharks and rays today, scientists called on governments to set limits for catching the animals on the high seas and to enforce strict bans on “finning” – the practice of catching sharks, cutting off their fins and throwing the bodies back in the water.

“Despite mounting threats, sharks remain virtually unprotected on the high seas,” said Sonja Fordham, deputy chair of the shark specialist group at the IUCN and policy director for the Shark Alliance. “The vulnerability and lengthy migrations of most open-ocean sharks call for coordinated, international conservation plans. Our report documents serious overfishing of these species in national and international waters, and demonstrates a clear need for immediate action on a global scale.”

Pelagic sharks are usually caught on the high seas in tuna or swordfish fisheries. In 2007, 21 shark-fishing nations reported catching more than 10,000 tons of shark. The top five – Indonesia, India, Taiwan, Spain and Mexico – accounted for 42%.

At one time, sharks were considered worthless bycatch, but they are increasingly being fished on purpose to serve emerging markets for their meat and fins, which are used in soups and can fetch more than £100 per kilogram. In places such as China, shark-fin soup could once only be afforded by the elite, but the growing numbers of middle-class people in the country has driven up demand.

To satisfy the growing market, some fishermen have taken to finning sharks. There are bans on this practice in operation around the world, but Fordham said the coverage is patchy and, in any case, enforcing the bans is difficult due to a lack of policing on the high seas.

“The overarching problem for sharks is that, for a variety of reasons, they’ve been considered low priority and they’re traditionally low value compared with something like the tuna,” said Fordham. “Also public image feeds into that – I don’t know if there are people clamoring for their conservation.”

Most species of pelagic shark take many years to mature and have relatively few young when they do reproduce. The IUCN’s report highlights a study by scientists in Canada which showed that the population of porbeagle sharks, classified as vulnerable in the red list, has been so affected by fishing that it will take at least 100 years to recover. Yet the government still allows the animal to be fished in its waters.

The global dusky shark popualtion, also classed as vulnerable by the IUCN, could take up to 400 years to recover because the animals are not sexually mature until around 20 years of age and usually raise only one offspring at a time.

Fordham said that because many of the sharks on the red list are at the top of the food chain, their extinction could also cause major local ecological problems. “We know that most of these species are top predators and we know that removing the top predators usually has negative consequences to the system as a whole.”

In 2007, Julia Baum, of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in California, who is also a member of IUCN shark specialist group, published a study showing how a major decline in the numbers of predatory sharks in the north Atlantic after 2000 had allowed populations of cownose rays, which are their prey, to explode. The rays in turn decimated the populations of bay scallop off North Carolina. “There was a fishery for bay scallops in North Carolina that lasted over a century uninterrupted and it was closed down in 2004 because of cownose rays,” she said last year.

Conserving threatened shark species might not be difficult. Last year, Peter Klimley, of the University of California, Davis, found that scalloped hammerhead sharks migrate along fixed “superhighways” in the oceans, speeding between a series of “stepping stone” sites near coastal islands ranging from Mexico to Ecuador. Focusing marine reserves around these hotspots might be a cost-effective way to conserve the species.

The IUCN sharks red list is published a few days before Spain is due to host an international meeting of the managers of tuna fisheries, where many of the sharks are caught. Scientists are also meeting in Denmark this week to produce advice for authorities on how to manage populations of Atlantic porbeagle sharks.

“The completion of this global assessment of pelagic sharks and rays will provide an important baseline for monitoring the status of these keystone species in our oceans,” said Roger McManus, vice-president for marine programs at Conservation International.

Source

Shark market, Lombok, Indonesia - "Trafficking the fins of these shark species is not a harmless offense." John C. Cruden, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division. PHOTO: DEBBY NG

Mark L. Harrison, a resident of Southport, Fla., and Harrison International LLC, a Florida corporation, today pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Atlanta to violating the Lacey Act, a federal fish and wildlife trafficking law, by dealing in shark fins, the landing of which was not reported as required by law, the Justice Department announced today.

In addition, Mark Harrison pleaded guilty to a second charge related to his attempted export of shark fins of species that are prohibited to harvest under laws of the state of Florida. Harrison also pleaded guilty to a third charge related to trading in shark fins that had been prepared, packed or held under unsanitary conditions.

According to the charges and other information presented in court, Harrison allegedly represented himself to be the nation’s largest shark fin buyer, purchasing “millions” of shark fins since he had been in the business, beginning in 1989. According to the plea agreements, in February 2005, Harrison purchased shark fins in Florida from an individual fisherman and later resold them in interstate commerce. No report of the landing or sale of those fins was filed with any Florida authorities, as required by law. Accurate reporting statistics of shark harvests are crucial for managing and regulating the populations of the various shark species that occur in U.S. waters.

In August 2007, Harrison attempted to export through Atlanta a shipment of shark fins that included at least 211 fins from Caribbean sharp-nosed sharks, two fins from bignose sharks, and two fins from night sharks, all of which are protected by Florida and/or federal laws due to their low population levels.

Finally, the plea agreements reveal that for almost four years Harrison processed shark fins by drying them on open air racks and/or tarpaulins laid on the ground, outdoors, on his property in Southport. The fins were left out at all times until dry and were exposed to bird droppings and insects. Dogs ran freely among the drying racks. Harrison would then sell the dried fins and ship them in interstate commerce through the Northern District of Georgia.

“Trafficking the fins of these shark species is not a harmless offense,” said John C. Cruden, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. “These species are protected in order to ensure their continued sustainability. The Justice Department, along with our partner agencies, will continue to prosecute those who illegally trade in protected shark or other wildlife species.”

“We will not tolerate the illegal harvest and sale of protected shark species whose populations continue to diminish in our oceans,” said Hal Robbins, Special Agent in Charge for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries Southeast Region. “We are pleased with the apprehension of Mr. Harrison, who is one of the country’s largest commercial shark fin buyers and I applaud the efforts of the prosecutors and Agents involved in this multi-agency federal investigation.”

The Lacey Act, enacted in 1900, is the first national wildlife law, and was passed to assist states in enforcing wildlife laws. It provides additional protection to fish, wildlife and plants that were taken, possessed, transported or sold in violation of state, tribal, foreign or U.S. law.

Since 1993, the NOAA Fisheries Service has managed, via federal fishery management plans, the commercial harvest and sale of sharks in or from federal waters of the Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea. In 1998, the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization finalized and adopted an “International Plan of Action for the Conservation and Management of Sharks,” recognizing the worldwide pressure being placed on declining shark populations by commercial fishing and the demand for shark fin soup. U.S. management of sharks has included prohibitions against retaining and/or selling particular species, including some in which Harrison was dealing, the populations of which are so reduced that further harvesting cannot be sustained.. There are currently 19 federally protected species of sharks.

David E. Nahmias, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia said, “There is an immense trade in wildlife products. Those who trade in wildlife must comply with federal and state wildlife statutes and regulations. We will support the investigative work of those agencies who identify violations of these laws, and commend the teamwork of the investigators who brought these wildlife violations to our attention.”

“We are proud of the coordinated investigative work of our agents with their colleagues from NOAA, Office of Law Enforcement and the Food and Drug Administration Office of Criminal Investigations,” said James Gale, Special Agent in Charge, Southeast Region, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Office of Law Enforcement. “This case is an excellent example of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s commitment to investigate and interdict the commercialization of protected wildlife species.”

Harrison is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 19, 2009, at 9:30 a.m., before U.S. Magistrate Judge Russell Vineyard of the Northern District of Georgia. Harrison faces up to one year in federal prison and a fine of up to $100,000. His company faces a fine of $200,000.

This case was investigated by Special Agents of the NOAA Office for Law Enforcement, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Office of Law Enforcement and the Food and Drug Administration Office of Criminal Investigations.

The case was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Georgia and the Justice Department’s Environmental Crimes Section.

SOURCE U.S. Department of Justice

This coral triangle covers 3.4 million square miles of ocean space stretching from the sea in the Philippines to Malaysia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Timor Leste and Solomon Islands. It is home to 75% of all known coral species and more than 3,000 species of fish. Without these coral reefs, the World Wildlife Fund for Nature says “the fish will eventually die” and the entire ocean ecosystem that some 120 million people in the region depend on “could collapse”.

Malaysia’s contribution to the fund is the most fitting gift to the world that celebrates the “World Oceans Day” that falls on June 8 each year. The WOD was first proposed by Canada during the Earth Summit in Rio Janeiro in 1992.

The theme for this year’s WOD celebration of “one ocean, one climate, one future” is very apt. It may sound semantic but contrary to geopolitical considerations, there is only one large ocean (not oceans). The concept of one ocean is similar to Najib’s 1Malaysia in terms of policy approach.

While the former treats the ocean as an integrated global common where everyone has a stake; the latter emphasises total commitment to nation building that promises a future for the rakyat regardless of race, colour, creed and ideological inclination.

For much of history, humanity has taken the ocean for granted, polluting the sea and treating its resources as inexhaustible. By pushing the natural limits of the ocean’s carrying capacity for far too long, the ocean has reached a stressful level. Large areas are deficient in oxygen and nutrients as a result of, among other things, overfishing, pollution, habitat degradation and ocean acidification.

Ignoring the importance of the ocean can be a great mistake. Not only does the ocean cover more than 70% of the planet on which we depend for security, medicines, food, resources, trade, jobs, and recreation, it also serves as a vast highway for commerce, logistics and communication.

The ocean also helps to mitigate global warming. Its currents circulate the energy and water that regulate the earth’s climate. The ocean is the world’s biggest carbon sink absorbing carbon dioxide and at the same time it helps with photosynthesis whereby the phytoplankton releases oxygen into the water. Half of the world’s oxygen is produced via phytoplankton photosynthesis.

In short, the ocean plays a critical role for life on the planet. Human activities are choking the sea and destroying the life-support system critical to their very survival. The strangulation of the ocean has crippled its invaluable services (estimated at a few trillion dollars annually). Without the ocean, one scientist laments, “Life as we know it would cease to exist.”

Many Malaysians take the sea for granted. Few realise that the sea is larger than its land mass by 1.4 times and it contributes around 20% of Malaysia’s Gross National Product. We consume fish that comes mainly from the sea (10% of world protein comes from marine fish); Petronas extracts oil and gas from the continental shelf (more than 20% of global supply of oil and gas is in offshore areas). More than 90% of our export (by volume) goes by sea and, the sea bridges the peninsula with Sabah and Sarawak.

More than 60% of Malaysians live within 30 miles of the coast; and, almost all the major tourist centres in Malaysia are by the seaside.

The military keeps reminding us that the sea is our first line of defence. The border is so porous that we need to remain extra vigilant to stop, for example, illegal immigrants, illegal fishing and other forms of intruders.

The Strait of Malacca, our strategic lifeline, is not only polluted (mainly from land sources), it is also getting very congested (mainly foreign vessels that use the strait to bypass the straits of Lombok and Makassar). According to a 2008 study by the Japan Institute of International Transport, the number of vessels passing through the Strait of Malacca in 2020 will exceed 113,000 vessels a year; 93,000 in 2007. The sheer number and density will interfere directly with our legitimate activities in the strait like fishing and recreation.

The cost to keep the strait open and safe will rise to billions of ringgit. The probability of accidents in the shallow parts of the strait is high as traffic density increases. Besides not all vessels that ply the strait use the 150 mile Vessels Traffic Separation Scheme from One Fathom Bank, off Port Klang, to Tg Piai, off Kukup in Johor waters.

The sea poses another security problem. While likelihood of conflicts from overlapping claims in the Spratlys is low, the nation needs to be ready to deal with the unexpected threats from non-traditional sources like the 2005 Tsunami that destroyed Aceh, maritime terrorism and piracy.

Regional mechanisms to deal with maritime threats from non-traditional sources need to be upgraded as a matter of urgency.

Yet despite a strong maritime heritage, its strategic significance and substantial economic value, Malaysia does not have a comprehensive national ocean policy. The need for a single national maritime governance agency for Malaysia is both compelling and pressing. Such an institution can help coordinate more efficiently the diverse activities that affect the sea. It can also help optimise the productivity of ocean resources and services. It can also help reduce the costly intra-agency conflicts (13 government maritime agencies).

Reorganising the administration system of the sea can reinforce Najib’s 1Malaysia programme.

Restructuring the governance mechanisms will not, in my view, result in political fallouts as the sea is politically neutral.

Malaysia should emulate Canada, Australia, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, US, Japan and South Korea, to name a few countries, which have special ocean laws and a single national maritime authority. The time is now for Malaysia to discard the label of a reluctant maritime nation. We should instead capitalise on our maritime attributes and heritage for a more assertive ocean governance policy.

Living in a global village, interconnected and held together by the sea, the poor state of health of the ocean must be a common concern. The challenge is how to make the sea more productive to reduce humanity’s vulnerability to climate change.