| U.S.: Lessons From the Past May Help Puget Sound 'Dead Zones' |
| December 20, 2006 |
 | | Visitors to Hood Canal during September's low dissolved oxygen event saw dead lingcod on the beaches—one of more than 30 fish species affected by the dead zone. Photo: Janna Nichols |
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Visitors to Washington State’s Hood Canal can normally expect to see beachcombers searching the shores for oysters, and divers seeking a glimpse of places like “Octopus Hole.” But this September, the divers were met with an eerie scene.
Dead fish floated on the water and washed up on the beaches. Octopuses were swimming to the surface, fleeing the deadly waters below, while others lay unmoving on the bottom. Fish were lethargic and disoriented.
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| VANCOUVER: River Works Wraps Up Another Year of Invasive Species Removal |
| December 20, 2006 |
 | A River Works volunteer gently massages the roots of a native shrub before planting, to stimulate growth and establishment within the soil.
Photo: Amber Smith/
Vancouver Aquarium |
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River Works volunteers have been tackling the invasive species problem at Vancouver’s Fraser River Park for many years, and December 12 marked the culmination of another summer of hard work.
Armed with work gloves, loppers and high spirits, River Works volunteers have spent a combined total of 85.5 hours removing Scotch Broom and Himalayan Blackberry from Fraser River Park since May 2006.
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| U.S.: Living Reefs Provide Better Tsunami Protection, Study Says |
| December 20, 2006 |
 | | A NASA satellite captured this image of the southeast coast of Sri Lanka, mere hours after the tsunami made landfall on December 26, 2004. Photo: NASA |
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A new Princeton University study suggests that healthy coral reefs provide coastlines with substantially more protection from destructive tsunami waves than do unhealthy or dead reefs.
Initially spurred by the tsunami that devastated the coastlines of the Indian Ocean in December 2004, a team of Princeton scientists developed the first-ever computer model of a tsunami strike against a reef-bounded shoreline. The model demonstrates that healthy reefs offer the coast at least twice as much protection as dead reefs.
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| PHILIPPINES: President Enacts National Conservation Policy |
| December 7, 2006 |
 | The Philippines' Verde Passage, a vital part of Southeast Asia's Coral Triangle, is home to diverse and abundant marine life including several species of sea turtle.
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President Gloria Arroyo has enacted a new national conservation policy for the Philippines to protect the archipelagic country's unique and rich nature, with initial focus on the heart of Southeast Asia's Coral Triangle.
The order applies to all of the natural wealth of the Philippines, and specifies initial steps to create marine protected areas in the Verde Passage, known as the "centre of the centre" of the world's most plentiful shore fish region located at the apex of the Coral Triangle that includes the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.
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| U.S.: Seagrass Ecosystems at a 'Global Crisis' |
| December 7, 2006 |
 | | The seagrass species Posidonia Oceanica, photographed in the Mediterranean Sea Photo: Manual San Felix |
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An international team of scientists is calling for a targeted global conservation effort to preserve seagrasses and their ecological services for the world’s coastal ecosystems, according to an article published in the December issue of Bioscience.
Seagrasses are a unique group of flowering plants that have adapted to exist fully submersed in the sea. They provide critical habitat for aquatic life, alter water flow and can help reduce the impacts of pollution. But coastal development, population growth and the resulting increase of nutrient and sediment pollution have contributed to large-scale losses worldwide.
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| U.K.: Fish Fights Affect ‘Personality’, Study Finds |
| December 7, 2006 |
 | Some rainbow trout appeared to vary their behaviour in relation to the relative dominance of other fish.
Photo courtesy University of Liverpool |
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New research by scientists at the University of Liverpool suggests that some fish alter their behaviour according to what they observe in other fish. The team found, for example, that bold fish become much more cautious after observing the behaviour of shy fish.
A research team led by Dr Lynne Sneddon of the School of Biological Sciences, measured the responses of rainbow trout to various challenges. The team presented the fish with Lego bricks to elicit a fear response and, based on the fishes’ reactions, described each as either ‘shy’ or ‘bold’. Bold fish approached the object within a few minutes, whereas shy fish took more than ten minutes to approach the object.
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