ARTIST’S IMPRESSION OF AN ASTEROID NEAR EARTH. IMAGE CREDIT: DIMA ZEL/SHUTTERSTOCK.COMhttps://f67d71ea7a24fd28d1763a80320868c5.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html
On Saturday, August 21, a potentially hazardous asteroid will safely fly past Earth at a distance of just3.4 million kilometers(2.1 million miles),the closest approach for several decades. That’s just 8.9 times the distance between the Earth and the Moon.
Asteroid 2016 AJ193 is larger than 99 percent of all known Near-Earth objects and so it is good to keep an eye on it.
The space rock measures 1.37 kilometers (0.85 miles) according to measurements fromNASA’s spacecraft NEOWISE. It is also surprisingly dark, reflecting very little light back making this close (and safe) approach an important chance to better study the object.
It was discovered by the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS) facility –…
Wildlife agencies in the Southwest transport water to tanks that provide a lifeline for thirsty animals during severe drought. Here, two bears at a catchment this summer in Arizona.
This story is part of Down to Earth, a Vox reporting initiative on the science, politics, and economics of the biodiversity crisis.
The 20-plus-year drought in the American West hit a new extreme this week as the US government declared a water shortage on the Colorado River for the first time in history.
The flow of the river, which shaped the Grand Canyon and cuts through seven western states, has fallen by 20 percent over the past century. It feeds the nation’s largest human-made reservoir, Lake Mead, which has also sunk to a record low.
The announcement of the shortage isn’t just symbolic. It also triggers mandatory water consumption cuts, which mostly impact Arizona, that take effect early next year. Some 40 million people rely on the river for water, contributing to its decline — to say nothing of the nearly 5.5 million acres of farmland that it irrigates.
What those figures miss are the countless plants and animals that also depend on water to survive in the harsh terrain of the western US. The megadrought is threatening wildlife, and state agencies are pouring in resources to keep important species alive — in some cases, by flying water in helicopters to remote, artificial watering holes where bears, sheep, and other thirsty animals seek relief.
A female elk drinks from a water catchment site in Arizona in the summer of 2021.
These measures are quickly becoming the new normal, and they aren’t cheap. Flying a helicopter that air-drops hundreds of gallons of water, for example, can cost as much as $1,800 an hour, according to a biologist with the Arizona Game and Fish Department.
Scientists involved in wildlife conservation are concerned that asclimate change makes droughts more frequent and severe, they’ll have to work harder to conserve plants and animals. And as more areas are forced to ration the scarce resource of water, they have to answer a difficult question: What do humans owe animals that areperishing from a problem of our own making?
How drought hurts animals
Wild animals can die of dehydration, but many of the major impacts of drought are far less obvious.
As the water levelin lakes or streams falls, for example, it can heat up, causing the metabolism of cold-water fish to increase, according to Blair Wolf, a biology professor at the University of New Mexico. To sustain a faster metabolism, fish need more oxygen, yet warm water tends to hold less oxygen, he said. “The fish basically have a higher metabolism and there’s less oxygen available for them to breathe,” Wolf said.
What’s more, warmer water in the Colorado River basin tends to favor invasive species like smallmouth bass, research has found. “In the absence of effective management interventions, future warming is likely to disproportionately benefit nonnative species to the detriment of native species,” authors of a recent study wrote.
Drought also affects birds’ ability to tolerate extreme heat, according to Steven Beissinger, an ecologist at the University of California, Berkeley. Birds perspire through their mouth and skinto stay cool on hot days, which requires water. Plus, many species get all of their water from the food they eat. “So if it’s hotter and drier, they will need to eat more food,” Beissinger said. “This requires more energy or effort to obtain more food, which increases water needs further.”
At the same time, drought — and especially drought combined with rising temperatures — can make it harder for baby birds to survive and lead to population declines in at least some species, in part by making it tougher to find food, Wolf’s research has found. Water is incredibly important to desert plants, Wolf said, which feed rodents and other animals that birds eat.
“We found a rapid decline in burrowing owl population size strongly linked to extreme drought conditions,” he and his co-author wrote in a 2016 study about a population of owls in the Southwest that fell by more than 98 percent in 16 years.
Not every species suffers when water levels fall.Some native fish, for example, actually seem to benefit from rising water temperatures in parts of the Colorado River basin, said Charles Yackulic, a researcher at the United States Geological Survey.
When reservoirs like Lake Mead are full, the water flowing out of dams tends to be cold and therefore uninhabitable for certain fish, including the humpback chub, an endangered species that prefers warmer waters. When the reservoirs shrink and release warmer water, certain downstream species may benefit: The humpback chub is doing so well these days that the Fish and Wildlife Service proposed downlisting the species last year from endangered to threatened.
But even those benefits likely have a limit, Yackulic says. Humpback chub can only tolerate warming water up to a point, and other parts of the river — where dams haven’t historically cooled the water as much — could soon become intolerably hot for native species, Yackulic said.
Lake Mead on July 20, 2021, from Boulder City, Nevada.
It’s getting harder and harder to keep animals alive
The US is the second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, but it also has some of the world’s strongest environmental protections and institutions. They’re helping offset some of climate change’s worst symptoms, including severe drought.
A handful of states resort to dumping water in outdoor tanks where animals can reach them, creating a liquid lifeline that wild animals depend on. Last year, the Arizona Game and Fish Department (AGFD) hauled a record 2.4 million gallons of water to these catchments, and this year the state’s on track to haul 3 million gallons, according to Larisa Harding, the AGFD small game program manager. There are roughly 3,000 catchments in the state that hold anywhere from 2,500 to 10,000 gallons of water each, Cronkite News’s Nick Serpa reported in 2018.
“When we don’t get rain, we can make up that difference at least enough to keep those animals persisting,” Harding said. While it may sound far-out to build a whole separate network of water infrastructure for animals, the catchments are essential “if we want wildlife on the landscape when we have these extreme conditions,” Harding said. Providing water also means animals won’t have to walk far in pursuit of a drink, which can lower the likelihood of road collisions, she said.
A helicopter picks up water to fill artificial catchment sites in Arizona.Nevada’s wildife agency carries water to artificial watering holes that benefit bighorn sheep.
Wildlife agencies have a number of other tools at their disposal, some of which require more work than others. Earlier this year, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife trucked millions of juvenile salmon from rivers that were drying up in the Central Valley to the Pacific Ocean. Some states have also limited hunting permits owing to “reduced productivity of critical wildlife ranges.”
There are also a number of other government-run conservation programs across the Colorado River basin. The Lower Colorado River Multi-Species Conservation Program, for example, was set up to offset damages to wildlife — especially animals listed under the Endangered Species Act — caused by all kinds of river operations, including diverting water and generating hydroelectric power, according to John Swett, who manages the program.https://b5d85b252ff2a5f0b8ec0f43e6be6c99.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html
But experts say many of these projects are only temporary solutions, and it’s not clear to what extent they help. Catchments, for example, have a pretty isolated effect and aren’t typically used by migratory birds, Wolf said. Plus, flying helicopters, hauling salmon, and limiting permits are expensive and already hard to sustain. A lot of effort is going into just keeping populations stable.
So what happens as climate change makes these problems worse?
“I talk to a lot of management agency folks, and that is a concern: How much longer can we maintain efforts as water becomes just rare in general?” Yackulic said. “Sometimes it’s about the financial costs, but sometimes it’s just about the water itself.”
The Lake Mead Marina, where trash is visible due to the low water level, on July 19, 2021.
What humans owe animals
Government agencies in the US are required by law to protect endangered and threatened species, and we conserve someanimals because they provide valuable services, like pollination. But aside from that, what do humans owe animals that are in decline thanks to problems — like severe drought — that people helped create?
“You would hope humans would have some sense of responsibility,” Wolf said. But “humans are selfish,” he added. “Allocating water for a minnow or a trout or a fish or a frog is hard to justify in people’s minds.”
Other scientists Vox spoke to were also at a loss for how to balance rising human demands with the needs of wildlife in a rapidly warming world, though they all felt a personal sense of responsibility. “I try to be a good steward of the land,” Harding said. “I try to look for the best ways to promote wildlife health and habitat health.”
Wolf, meanwhile, finds fulfillment in educating the next generation “on what’s happening, why it’s happening, and what can be done about it,” he said.
Of course, it’s that last part — what we can do — that really matters. And ultimately, it will have to be much more than airlifting water and, perhaps, require us to put the needs of ecosystems and the animals that inhabit them above our own.
In 2017, the Guardian released staggering details from an investigation into intensive U.S.-style factory farming in Britain, revealing that close to 800 mega-farms were operating across the UK. Since then, the number of factory farms has continued to rise and is more likely to be around the 2,000-farm mark today.
When we talk about intensive farming from the government’s perspective, we’re talking about farms that require an environmental permit to operate. By definition, that’s any farm confining more than 40,000 birds, 2,000 pigs, or 750 breeding sows. This classification of factory farming excludes the millions of cows, sheep, goats, and even fish that are also kept in cramped, overcrowded conditions with a lack of environmental enrichment, poor hygiene standards, and low animal welfare.
It’s widely accepted that chickens are by far the most intensively farmed land animal—with around 50 billion slaughtered for food around the world each year—and arguably, among the most abused. But when we compare their experience to that of aquatic animals, who receive fewer legal protections and are farmed with even less understanding of their individual needs, we have an even tougher battle on our hands in advocating for their rights.
The rise of modern aquaculture
Fish farming (known collectively along with the farming of other marine animals as “aquaculture”) is the practice of rearing fish under controlled conditions and includes both salt and freshwater species. It’s the world’s fastest-growing food production sector, generating over half of the fish filling our supermarket shelves. Every day in Britain we eat around one million salmon meals, making the Atlantic salmon the most commonly farmed species.
As with land-based factory farms, conditions on fish farms cannot easily replicate the complexities of an animal’s natural environment—leading to increasing concerns regarding their welfare. Stocking densities are a major issue, as farmers either pack too many or too few individuals into filthy ponds or cage-based systems.
High numbers of fish packed together create a stressful environment in which fights regularly break out, causing fin damage and abrasions. Low numbers often mean the fish are more open to predation and therefore feel more threatened. Both environments are hugely distressing and high mortality rates, poor water quality, disease outbreaks, and increased levels of parasitic sea lice (in the case of Scottish salmon) are common.
Prioritizing profit over welfare
Between June and November 2020, Viva! carried out a groundbreaking investigation into four rainbow trout farms supplying high-end supermarkets and “luxury” food retailers including Waitrose, Abel & Cole, Harrods, and Fortnum & Mason. The brands targeted are supposedly synonymous with “sustainability” and “high welfare standards,” yet serious questions have now been raised about unacceptable conditions that create a breeding ground for disease and lead to unnecessary pain and suffering.
Rainbow trout are native only to the rivers and lakes of North America, west of the Rocky Mountains. In being a hardy fish that is fast-growing, tolerant of warmer waters, and easy to artificially breed, they have become susceptible to intense farming and, as a result, increased exploitation. Clever marketing strategies sell us a skewed notion of “fine English trout” naturally reared in crystal-clear, swift-flowing water, pumped from the River Avon in Wiltshire and Hampshire’s pristine chalk streams. But this is a far cry from reality.
Thousands of farmed fish crowded in filthy ponds
Viva!’s video footage reveals trout severely overcrowded in filthy ponds and afflicted with abrasive injuries and swim bladder disorders affecting their buoyancy. Physical damage to their tails, fins, and eyes was widespread and seemingly untreated, leaving them open to infection from parasites, bacteria, and secondary fungal infection.
Some trout, too weak to swim against the flow of water, were filmed pressed against the outlet grilles, gasping for their last breath. Once dead, many were left to rot at the surface or sink to their watery graves in various stages of decomposition. Fungal build-ups indicated some of the dead had been left a considerable period of time, in complete violation of standards that call for the prompt removal of dead fish.
Despite defensive netting put in place to keep out herons, corvids, and gulls, several large gaps and openings were apparent, allowing for birds to strike the fish and cause additional and preventable distress.
Industrialized stress and asphyxiation
Without a doubt, many consumers will be astonished to discover the industrialized nature of rainbow trout farming, which relies on heavy-duty machinery to pump fish between ponds during their life-cycle. This practice disorients the fish as they are transported through pipework with powerful and at times sporadic water jets. Not having a constant flow of water through the system is likely one of the common causes of the abrasive injuries documented.
At one of the farms, endorsed by top chef Jamie Oliver, workers were filmed removing fish from the water for an extraordinarily long period of time to weigh them in a dry bucket—exceeding the “out of water times” standard prescribed by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) by more than double. This practice limits the fishes’ oxygen supply and can lead to suffocation, which inflicts tremendous stress and heightened anxiety.
Surveillance footage also captured workers handling fish at a grading station, where they’re sorted by size for slaughter. There were multiple instances of workers throwing live trout, kicking them with frustration, and bashing them around the head with a short, blunt baton. These batons are called “priests” and are an extremely ineffective killing tool, prolonging a painful death. One fish was observed writhing around for several minutes while a worker failed to catch and kill the animal with the end of a short broom handle.
Ultimately, the trout deemed unprofitable were discarded, ineffectively culled, and left to slowly die of asphyxiation—demonstrating that regardless of species or certification schemes that boast of high standards, when animals are factory farmed, profit is prioritized over welfare. With aquaculture on the rise, these problems are only set to get worse. Since there are so many plant-based seafood alternatives available that more than rival their fish-based counterparts in taste and texture, there couldn’t be a more perfect time to choose vegan instead.Read More
Mark Simmonds OBE, outgoing Chair of the Link Marine Mammals Group, outlines his thoughts on the the continuation of whaling around the world and the role of the International Whaling Commission
August 2021
I have been the chair of Link’s Marine Mammals Working Group (and its predecessor the Whales Working Group) several times and as I stand down this final time, here are my reflections.
Much of our focus over the years has been on whaling and we have typically worked in close cooperation with the UK government on this. However, as I look out around the world now, I fear that this topic has almost dropped out of public view. I don’t think this is because people don’t care but because there is much confusion – some of it deliberately seeded – and many people mistakenly think that commercial whaling has been consigned to history when, in fact, it is thriving.
Japan remains a skillful international advocate for commercial whaling. It has neither ceased whaling nor actively advocating for it. It left the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in 2019 but continued killing big whales – sei, minke and Bryde’s – in the extensive waters of its Economic Exclusion Zone.
This has been repeatedly misreported as a ‘resumption of commercial whaling’, as if the whaling in which it had previously been engaged was not commercial in nature. In 1982, the IWC declared a global ban on commercial whaling in recognition of a catastrophic failure to make whaling sustainable. Several countries objected. Japan was one of these and, a few years later, began its infamous programme of ‘scientific whaling’ in North West Pacific and Antarctic waters. This was clearly a commercial activity wrapped in a thin scientific disguise, as the International Court of Justice recognised in a 2014 ruling.
Japan’s abandonment of the IWC means that it also plays no part in this body’s increasingly important role in trying to protect all the world’s whales, dolphin and porpoises from other threats. The IWC’s conservation plans and recommendations have become a mainstay of important mitigation activities all across the world. However, the IWC has a financial dilemma. It is almost wholly funded by the subscriptions of member nations and the pandemic-driven economic crisis affecting many countries means that balancing its budget has become a major issue. The loss of Japan’s fees has not helped. The IWC will have to agree a new balanced budget at a special virtual meeting of the Commission this Autumn.
Surprisingly, Japan continues to be an active player in the meetings of the IWC. This might be seen as presenting itself as respectful of the one legitimate body recognised in international law to manage whaling and whale conservation. However, it remains to be seen if Japan still seeks to undermine this body (preferring no global regulation of whaling) especially given that many of its close allies remain as IWC members.
The International Whaling Commission is also somewhat undermined by its name because its role is now much bigger than just whaling. Its conservation work deserves far more recognition and its role in helping endangered species and populations – something that was urgently advocated by hundreds of concerned scientists this time last year – must be supported wholeheartedly. This firmly sits in the context of the global biodiversity crisis. Whales are excellent indicators for the health of ocean systems and their role in helping to circulate nutrients and fix carbon is becoming increasingly recognised.
The UK has a potentially important ongoing role in supporting the IWC and, more generally, in cetacean conservation both at home and overseas.
Link will continue to collaborate with and inform the UK governments and others on the issues affecting marine mammals, and I would like to thank the Link Secretariat (both current and previous) for all their support across the years and I wish everyone well in the work ahead.
Mark Simmonds OBE is the outgoing Chair of the Link Marine Mammals Group
This file photo provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife shows a gray wolf. (Gary Kramer/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service via AP)BySCOTT SHINDLEDECKER Daily Inter Lake|August 17, 2021 12:00 AM
The Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission on Friday is expected to decide on a number of proposals of interest to hunters and trappers in Northwest Montana, including wolf and furbearer trapping setbacks, season quotas and other regulations.
The commission is considering a proposal to allow snares for wolf trapping, increase the bag limit and allow a person to take more than one wolf per license.
It is also considering proposals for trapping setbacks in Region 1, the northwest corner of the state. Some setbacks — the minimum distance a trap must be placed from trails or popular recreation areas — would be added and some places would be designated as no-trapping areas.
Responding to the state’s COVID-19 situation, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) has canceled National Hunting and Fishing Day (NHFD) events scheduled for September 25 across Louisiana.
“This was a tough decision, but we think the right decision,” said LDWF Secretary Jack Montoucet. “Like so many others, I looked forward to attending the events and watching families, especially young people, learn about hunting, fishing, shooting, and other outdoor activities. But, the risk to the public’s health to hold the NHFD events was too great.”
NHFD is a national event celebrated in all 50 states on the fourth Saturday in September. It was created in 1972 when Congress passed two bills establishing a specific day to celebrate the conservation contributions of the nation’s hunters and anglers.
Statewide Iowa — Iowa’s 16-day teal only hunting season begins statewide Sept. 1, offering hunters an opportunity to enjoy Iowa’s wetlands and shallow lakes during the mild late summer weather.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service makes the September teal season available when the teal population is above certain levels. It offers hunters 16 bonus hunting days and does not take any days away from the regular duck hunting seasons.
“The teal season is a good opportunity to introduce young or novice hunters to duck hunting because these birds will fly all day and decoy fairly well,” said Orrin Jones, state waterfowl biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.
Teal will be moving in to Iowa in mid to late August and bird numbers can improve overnight with the change in weather up north.
Teal favor mudflats and shallow water so the current…
New regulations for hunting are on the horizon in response to the park’s recent redesignation to “national park and preserve.” However, hunters and hikers should be aware that these changes will not take effect until January 1, 2022.
Areas where hunting is currently prohibited in the park include Grandview, Camp Brookside, the Arrowhead Trail Area, the Park Loop Trail Area, and the Burnwood Environmental and Education Area. Hunting is also prohibited within 500 feet of heavy visitor use areas, including established campgrounds, day-use areas, and visitor centers.
Under West Virginia state hunting regulations, it is illegal to…
© Provided by Associated PressFILE – This July 16, 2004, file photo, shows a gray wolf at the Wildlife Science Center in Forest Lake, Minn. President Joe Biden’s administration is sticking by the decision under former President Donald Trump to lift protections for gray wolves across most of the U.S. (AP Photo/Dawn…/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69752617/Copy_of_GFD_2189.0.jpeg)
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22793861/headshots_1629414301337.jpg)
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22793107/GettyImages_1234103128.jpg)
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22790893/Water_Hauls_Muddy_Mtns_055_06082021.JPG)
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22790897/Water_Hauls_Muddy_Mtns_074_06082021.JPG)
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22793384/GettyImages_1234075776.jpg)
Viva! Campaigns
