Fishermen left high and dry fear for Mekong River’s future

By Staff WritersVientiane (AFP) April 4, 2010 Fisherman Phimmalang Sengphet paddles his boat to the sandy banks of the Mekong River in Laos and inspects his meagre haul. “We can’t even catch enough to feed ourselves,” he says wearily. The 38-year-old was able to net more than 10 kilos (22 pounds) of fish a day […]

Ships using Great Barrier Reef as ‘rat run’

Kevin Rudd, the Australian prime minister, has promised to review shipping rules after a Chinese coal ship ran aground as a result of taking an “outrageous” short cut through the environmentally sensitive Great Barrier Reef. By Bonnie Malkin in SydneyPublished: 12:33PM BST 06 Apr 2010 Mr Rudd, who on Tuesday flew over Douglas Shoals where […]

Water pressure the only thing preventing disastrous oil spill at the Great Barrier Reef

SAFFRON HOWDEN, TOM ARUP AND BEN CUBBYApril 6, 2010 A PLUG made of compressed coral and held in place by water pressure is likely to be the only thing stopping more than 900 tonnes of oil gushing from a grounded bulk coal carrier onto the Great Barrier Reef. Salvage experts – some from the team […]

Stranded ship a ‘time bomb’ to Great Barrier Reef

Editing by Jerry NortonSYDNEYMon Apr 5, 2010 3:56am EDT SYDNEY (Reuters) – A stranded Chinese coal ship leaking oil onto Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is an environmental time bomb with the potential to devastate large protected areas of the reef, activists said on Monday.   The ship was a “ticking environmental time bomb,” Gilly Llewellyn, director […]

China says dams not to blame for low Mekong levels

By Ambika Ahuja, Editing by Alan Raybould and Ron PopeskiHUA HIN, ThailandMon Apr 5, 2010 8:41am EDT (Reuters) – China on Monday denied that its dams were reducing water levels on the Mekong River and blamed problems along the river on unusually dry weather, but it also offered to share more data with its neighbors. […]

Medicine residues may threaten fish reproduction, Swedish study finds

  ScienceDaily (Apr. 5, 2010) — Researchers at Umeå University and the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, have discovered that traces of many medicines can be found in fish that have been swimming in treated waste water. One such medicine, the hormone levonorgestrel, was found in higher concentrations in the blood of […]

Sierra Leone allows pair trawling despite signing international fishing conventions

By Tatafway Tumoe – SEM Suddenly, with the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) indicting former Fisheries and Marine Resources Minister  Haja Afsatu Kabba, everyone it seems has suddenly become interested in the manner in which this sector is operating in the country. What most people have however failed to realize is that the present government is […]

EPA study confirms damage from strip mining

By Ken Ward Jr.Staff writer CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Federal government scientists say a “growing body of evidence” shows that mountaintop removal coal mining is destroying Appalachian forests and dangerously polluting vital headwater streams. In a new report, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency outlines the results of dozens of scientific papers published over the last decade […]

Lake Naivasha: Then and Now

In Kenya’s Nakuru Rift Valley, the lakes are drying up: Nakuru, Naivasha, Baringo, Solai, Bogoria, Turkana, and Elementaita are rapidly wasting away, leaving cracked lakebed deserts. In only six years, Lake Naivasha has receded to the point that fishermen have dug long channels in the lakebed to reach the now-distant shore. 2002   2009 Technorati […]

Kenya: A lake lies on its deathbed

By WANJIRU MACHARIAPosted Tuesday, December 8 2009 at 22:00 The short rains that pounded the larger Nakuru District for a few days in August, September and November were greeted with a sigh of relief. For a while, residents and tourists marvelled at the replenished Lake Elementaita that had dried up due to the long drought, […]

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