Thousands of Seabirds Found Dead in Southeastern U.S
Voice of America News - voanews.com
23 Jul 2007
L LaCapra
Area: United States

Greater shearwaters live out their lives on the open ocean. These gull-like birds spend most of their time criss-crossing the Atlantic, covering thousands of kilometers on their annual migrations. But this year, many of them are dying along the way, and no one is quite sure why. Greater shearwaters are one of the most abundant seabirds in the world.

An estimated 10 million pairs nest on just a few small islands in the middle of the South Atlantic, about half-way between South Africa and Argentina. Rob Ronconi, a Ph.D. candidate in biology at the University of Victoria in Canada, has been studying the birds. They weigh about one kilogram, he says, and their wingspan is just over a meter. He describes them as brown on top, and mostly white below, but with a good mix of brown and white all over their body, and a dark cap. "I tell my friends that they look like a small albatross."

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Fatal Fish Disease Spreading in State
Times Union - timesunion.com
23 Jul 2007
B Nearing
Area: New York USA

A fatal fish disease first discovered in the Great Lakes two years ago has spread into three areas in the western part of the state, and for the first time, into rainbow trout, according to the state Department of Environmental Conservation. Wildlife officials don't know how the fish became infected with Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia in the Little Salmon River in Oswego County and the Seneca-Cayuga Canal in the Finger Lakes, despite rules adopted last year to stem the illness by barring people from moving fish from one water body to another. VHS is a disease that causes the hemorrhaging of fish tissues, including internal organs. Uniformly fatal, the disease is common in Europe and Japan. Biologists believe that the virus arrived in the ballast of ships that ply the Great Lakes.

DEC spokeswoman Maureen Wren said that in the third new infection case - an isolated farm pond in Niagara County - the property owner had moved fish from a nearby infected creek last summer in a futile rescue attempt. Last summer, fish that tested positive were found in Lakes Erie and Ontario, the St. Lawrence and Niagara rivers, and the farthest west of the Finger Lakes, Conesus. In November, the state adopted new rules to fight VHS that prohibits moving fish, including bait fish, from one body of water to another, and require that commercial bait be certified disease free. In the Salmon River, an angler this summer noticed a dying rainbow trout and took it to wildlife officials for a test, which came back positive, said Wren.

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>>>Muskellunge Numbers Drop as Virus Invades St. Lawrence River

Elk Feedground Study Starts
Jackson Hole Star-Tribune - jacksonholestartrib.com
24 Jul 2007
B Farquhar
Area: Wyoming USA

The Bridger-Teton National Forest has started the ball rolling on whether the Wyoming Game and Fish Department should receive a long-term permit to continue elk winter feeding and related management programs on forest lands. A 45-day public comment period started Monday on the proposed special-use permit study document. Conservationists worry, however, that the planned environmental impact statement might be so narrowly drawn as to have a foregone conclusion: to approve the land-use permit without looking at what Game and Fish is actually doing on national forest lands. “I’m afraid the Forest Service might have their blinders on and ignore the widespread presence of brucellosis in feedground elk, or the threat posed by chronic wasting disease that is moving ever closer to the feedgrounds,” said Tim Preso, an EarthJustice attorney based in Bozeman, Mont.

Franz Camenzind, executive director of the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance, said he’d like to see the Forest Service do more than look at how Game and Fish is using national forest ground, and look at what that use is and means to the environment. Camenzind said he didn’t like to see a planning document “loaded for one outcome.” The public has until Sept. 17 to file postmarked comments on the scope of the analysis. The draft environmental impact statement is expected in January 2008, and the final environmental impact statement is expected in May 2008. Monday’s notice was published in the Federal Register.

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Colony Collapse Disorder Research Action Plan Announced by USDA
United States Department of Agriculture (Posted by sciencedaily.com)
22 Jul 2007
Photo courtesy of Stephen Ausmus
Area: United States

U.S. Department of Agriculture Under Secretary for Research, Education and Economics Gale Buchanan recently announced that USDA researchers have finalized an action plan for dealing with colony collapse disorder (CCD) of honey bees. Close-up photo of a healthy bees on a honeycomb. The ARS Bee Research Laboratory in Maryland is coordinating national efforts to identify the cause of colony collapse disorder the first step in trying to solve the problem. "There were enough honey bees to provide pollination for U.S. agriculture this year, but beekeepers could face a serious problem next year and beyond," Buchanan said.

"This action plan provides a coordinated framework to ensure that all of the research that needs to be done is covered in order to get to the bottom of the CCD problem." The action plan coordinates the federal strategy in response to CCD. It addresses four main components: (1) survey and data collection needs; (2) analysis of samples to determine the prevalence of various pests and pathogens, exposure to pesticides, or other unusual factors; (3) controlled experiments to carefully analyze the potential causes of CCD; and (4) developing new methods to improve the general health of bees to reduce their susceptibility to CCD and other disorders.

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Hope for Devil Tumour Vaccine

Cuts Would Reduce CWD Budget by 60 Percent

Killer Whales Metabolize Contaminants, yet Still Show Record-High Contamination Levels