[SEASPAN] UN Warns Ocean Dead Zones on the Rise

October – B 2006, volume 12-18

CONTENTS:

A) FEATURE
1) UN Warns Ocean Dead Zones on the Rise

B) NEWS AND VIEWS
2) IUCN Report on Cetaceans in the Mediterranean and Black Seas
3) U.S. Administration goes back to drawing board on offshore farms
4) Rising temperatures, ocean acidity may stunt coral development
5) The Pacific Takes a Stand on Bottom Trawling
6) Iceland: Commercial Whaling to Resume
7) Marine Life Stirs Ocean Enough to Affect Climate
8) U.S. Congressman to Push Bill on Sea Lions

C) PEW INSTITUTE AND PEW FELLOWS (PF) NEWS
9) Fusing passions: Carl Safina York Times Interview

D) OPPORTUNITIES AND EVENTS
10) Lenfest Ocean Program Senior Outreach Associate
11) Environmental Defense Oceans Program Director – Gulf Coast Region
12) World Wildlife Fund (WWF) -Canada- Bycatch Campaign Director
13) Society For Conservation Biology 2007 Call for Contributed Papers
and Posters
14) Florida State University and the Mote Marine Laboratory


E) GENERAL INFORMATION AND SUBSCRIPTION INSTRUCTIONS


A) FEATURE

1) UN WARNS OCEAN DEAD ZONES ON THE RISE
   The number of dead zones in the world’s oceans and seas has increased
dramatically in the past two years, endangering fish stocks and the
people who depend on them for food and livelihoods, the United Nations
Environment Program (UNEP) warned. The latest study finds at least 200
dead zones across the world, up from an estimated 149 only two years
ago. The new scientific estimates of dead zones, areas where algal
blooms remove oxygen from the water, were released at a UNEP marine
pollution meeting in Beijing earlier this month. The most well-known
area of depleted oxygen is in the Gulf of Mexico – directly linked to
nutrients or fertilizers brought to the Gulf by the Mississippi River.
The report identifies new dead zones in the Finland’s Archipelago Sea,
the Fosu Lagoon in Ghana, the Mersey Estuary in the United Kingdom and
Uruguay’s Montevideo Bay. Others have been appearing off South America,
China, Japan, south-east Australia and New Zealand. It warns that the
pollution that contributes to dead zones shows few signs of decreasing.
Nitrogen exports to the marine environment from rivers, for example, are
expected to rise globally by 14 per cent by 2030 when compared with the
mid 1990s.

SOURCE: ENS Newswire, 19 October 2006
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/oct2006/2006-10-19-03.asp