fieldnotes

Marine Conservation
The Last Frontier

There are few corners of the globe left to explore, but one of them risks being lost before it is ever found—the cold, dark realm far below the ocean waves. "The deep sea is the last frontier on earth," says marine biologist Elliot Norse, president of the Marine Conservation Biology Institute, in Redmond, Washington. A study by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) has confirmed what many scientists have been discovering over the past decade—that the seafloor harbors a surprising diversity of habitat for marine life. Specially equipped submersible vehicles have enabled marine biologists to uncover whole forests of pink and orange tree corals a half-mile deep off Nova Scotia; dozens of new species of tiny clams and snails in seafloor mud off New England; and invertebrates thought extinct since the Mesozoic era on seamounts—massive underwater mountains—between New Zealand and Australia.

But just as this astounding array of new habitats and species is being discovered, the NAS also reports that commercial fishing trawlers, eager to extract the riches of these new frontiers, are mowing them down. With 40 percent of the world's trawling grounds now located in the deep sea, the NAS study details how repeated trawling degrades seafloor habitat; eliminates some species, such as tree coral; and slashes the numbers of other species. "If you imagine driving a snowplow through a coral reef, you can picture what they do," says Martin Willison, a conservation biologist at Dalhousie University, in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The trawling nets and attached devices typically weigh several tons and can span half the length of a football field. Since seamounts, like islands, are often home to endemic species, scientists fear that unchecked and indiscriminate trawling may drive still-uncatalogued species to extinction.

Meanwhile, other threats to the deep sea have recently emerged. In addition to trawlers, floating oil rigs, some the size of 50-story buildings, can extract oil from the ocean bottom in mile-deep water, says oceanographer Robert Carney, of Louisiana State University. The U.S. Department of Energy is also developing technology to extract methane hydrates, an icelike form of natural gas commonly created on the seafloor at depths greater than a third of a mile. Although methane hydrates could serve as a new energy source, they might also shoot tons of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere. Mining gas hydrates, cautions Norse, "could be the most destructive thing we do to the global environment."

Determined to stave off a deep-sea gold rush, some scientists are calling for protective measures. At the same time, they want to step up their surveying of deep-sea fauna and increase their knowledge of seafloor habitats. "It's time to admit ignorance and mobilize, then get to work," says Carney. The NAS report recommends closing vulnerable habitats like corals to trawling, reducing fishing catch limits, and requiring less-damaging trawls. For Norse, this also means implementing better laws to safeguard submerged habitats, because the current laws "are few and far between and generally not taken too seriously," he says. "The deep sea is not yet on our radar screens, but it's facing change on a massive scale."

—Dan Ferber


Citizen Science
Coats of Many Colors

What weighs less than a pound, cleans the streets for free, mates for life, and has hung around with humans for at least 5,000 years? Answer: Feral pigeons—as ubiquitous in cityscapes as blades of grass are in the countryside. These much-maligned descendants of the blue-bar rock dove are being studied by 3,000 urban schoolchildren, from Guatemala to British Columbia and such far-flung places as Japan. It's all part of a program called Project Pigeon Watch, which is being sponsored by the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology.

"We don't know much about feral pigeons," says Cornell ornithologist and urban bird studies leader Mindy LaBranche. "But the color morphs of pigeons vary in startling and wonderful ways: bars and checkers, pied and red-bar. No other feral animal has kept so many of their domestic colors for more than a few generations."

Armed with tally sheets, the budding Darwins answer questions such as, Where do you usually see pigeons? What colors and patterns do you observe in your flock? Do pigeons choose their mates by their color? The data is sent to the Cornell Lab and the results published in such major scientific journals as The Auk and the International Journal of Science Education.

For urban youths, who often must hop a bus out of the city for a true nature experience, taking part in a real-life science project at their local park is proving to be something of an eye-opener. "We've been stunned at how successful the project has been in engaging kids," says John Fitzpatrick, director of the Cornell Lab and a former Audubon board member. One 4-H leader from New York City reported that when kids in his group started in the project, they were throwing things at the birds. "You hear a lot of bad things about Bedford-Stuyvesant," he says, "but the kids have learned there can be beauty in their neighborhood. They've learned to like and respect where they live."

As one child wrote for the project's monthly newsletter, Pigeonscope, "Pigeons come in all types of colors, like humans. They don't have prejudice. Humans shouldn't have it either. If pigeons can beat the odds in New York, then everybody else has a chance, too."

To participate in Project Pigeon Watch or to learn more, call 800-843-2473 or visit http://birds.cornell.edu/ppw. Project materials are available in both English and Spanish.

—Sydney Horton


Education
Brooklyn Goes First

Brooklyn has long ceased to be a butt of jokes about everything from its mobbed-up neighborhoods to the funny way the people talk. Still, the borough's 2.6 million residents—more than live in most American cities—have neither a newspaper, an airport, nor a Major League baseball team. Today, however, Brooklynites have something they can really crow about: a new, world-class nature center in one of the nation's premier urban parks. In a display of teamwork not seen since the days of Reese to Robinson to Hodges, the Prospect Park Alliance has joined forces with New York Audubon, the New York City Parks Department, and Toyota to open national Audubon's first urban Audubon nature center and the first in a network of centers planned nationwide.

The backdrop for the ribbon-cutting ceremony last spring was the center itself, the 97-year-old Prospect Park Boathouse, a white terra-cotta, neoclassical structure that was modeled after the Library of Saint Mark in Venice, Italy. Its meticulous restoration took two years and cost $5 million.

On a bright, chilly spring morning, a series of federal, state, and city officials, including U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer, rose to seize their moment in the sun. In the audience were 22 third graders from P.S. 22 in Prospect Heights, one of the neighborhoods adjoining the park. The kids, fidgeting as they waited for the word that they could finally enter the center, had spent the morning hopping on rocks at a waterfall and marveling at the park's trees and birds. Last year more than 200 species of birds were sighted in 526-acre Prospect Park, including 61 rare migratory species.

The occasion marked the first exposure to nature for many of the young urbanites. "When they think of going to the park, they think of it as going to a playground," says their teacher, Elizabeth Mitchell. "Kids are naturally curious. Now they can come here and have their questions answered." The center will offer an array of nature programs for school groups, families, and toddlers—during school, after school, and on weekends.

At lunchtime, as most of her classmates scarfed down their sandwiches in the exhibit space upstairs, Karen Joseph, a bug-eyed nine-year-old, opted instead to inspect unappetizing owl pellets and snakeskins. Karen was visiting the park for only the third time, though she lives just a few blocks away. "It's great here," she exclaimed. "You can see a lot of birds. I was over the hill and saw a black duck lowering its head. I'm gonna bring my three-year-old brother, Christopher. He likes snakes—you know, cool things, crazy stuff."

—David Seideman


Recreation
Vehicular Ecocide

Cover your ears and hold your breath: off-road vehicles (orvs) are coming topublic lands near you. From Florida to California, these recreational vehicles are ripping through the nation's ecological gems, spewing out noxious pollutants and earsplitting decibels as they go. Recent federal reports confirm that snowmobiles, dirt bikes, and their like scar the land, foul the air and water, and harm wildlife. ORVs have been around for decades, but their growing popularity has drawn concern. The Clinton administration took steps to control them, including the November 2000 National Park Service decision to phase out snowmobiles in Yellowstone. But now, following a lawsuit brought by snowmobilers and tacitly supported by the Bush administration, the Park Service is reconsidering that decision. Nor has the administration stopped at Yellowstone: Around the country it is undermining ORV regulation at federally protected seashores and forests.

—Nancy Olmstead

 

Illustration by Chip Wass

SPECS About 1.6 million snowmobiles are registered in the United States. Most use two-stroke engines, which dump 20% to 30% of their fuel, unburned, out their tailpipes; all release carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, and several other toxic gases. EFFECT Each winter, in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks, bison, elk, and moose expend critical energy reserves avoiding snowmobiles. Rangers at Yellowstone use respirators to protect themselves from emissions. OUTLOOK Highest use of snowmobiles is in Yellowstone. Despite studies supporting a phaseout, a final decision on their use there will be reached on October 15.

 

Illustration by Chip Wass

SPECS Swamp buggies, used almost exclusively in Florida, are custom-built vehicles that weigh 4,000 to 7,000 pounds; oversized tires allow the vehicles to be driven on wet ground. EFFECT In Florida's Big Cypress National Preserve, more than 23,000 miles of created trails have altered water flows, damaged soils, and promoted the spread of exotic plants. OUTLOOK The Park Service adopted a Big Cypress Off Road Vehicle plan in 2000 that limits swamp buggy use to 400 miles of designated trails, restricts access points, and designates seasonal closures. The ORV industry is challenging the limits.

 

Illustration by Chip Wass

SPECS All-terrain vehicles (ATVs), including three-wheelers and "quads," come with tires as high as 25 inches and as wide as 12 inches. Many have two-stroke engines, which dump a quarter to a third of their fuel, unburned, out their tailpipes. EFFECT Bighorn sheep and pronghorn antelope are sensitive to disturbances by ATVs and dirt bikes, especially during lambing season. Both vehicles spread invasive plants. OUTLOOK Arizona's Ironwood Forest is currently open to ORVs, but because the area was designated by President Clinton as a national monument three years ago, a transportation-routes study is under way.

 


Illustration by Chip Wass

SPECS There are more than a million personal watercraft in the United States today. In seven hours a 100-horsepower, two-stroke jetski engine creates as much smog-producing pollution as driving a car 100,000 miles. A two-hour ride can release three gallons of unburned fuel into the water. EFFECT At Florida's Gulf Islands National Seashore, nesting colonies of shorebirds may experience the disruption of feeding, nest abandonment, habitat loss, and a decreased ability to reproduce. OUTLOOK Five parks have banned personal watercraft permanently; 16 others are temporarily closed to their use pending further studies.

 

Illustration by Chip Wass

SPECS Dune buggies are custom-built vehicles designed to move in deep sand by using extra-wide, "paddle"-type tires. EFFECT At California's Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area, dune buggies and other ORVs threaten rare plants and animals, including the endangered Pierson's milk vetch and the desert tortoise. OUTLOOK Although Bureau of Land Management studies confirm the environmental destruction by ORVs, the bureau has recommended reopening 49,000 acres at Imperial Sand Dunes that have been closed since the 2000 settlement of a suit brought by conservation groups. A decision is expected this fall.


 

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To read these articles, buy the May-June 2002 issue of Audubon.



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illustrations by Gary Hovland

Trash Surfers

Right now millions of tiny Kon-Tiki-like rafts—plastic bags, soda bottles, and other bits of trash—are drifting through the world's seas, carrying hitchhiking mollusks, hydroids, and other marine species as they

go. After traveling thousands of miles on ocean currents, the trash—from landfills, ships, or beaches—often washes up on distant shores. That's when the real trouble begins, says marine biologist David Barnes, of the British Antarctic Survey. After studying 30 remote islands from the Arctic to the Antarctic, Barnes found that the global trash flow has led to an explosion of exotic barnacles, worms, and bryozoans in colder climates, posing a serious threat to native biodiversity. "Antarctica's waters have been isolated for about 30 million years," says Barnes. So they are virtually defenseless, he says, against the onslaught of foreign organisms riding the global wave of garbage.

—Frank Bures

Dial That Birdie

There's nothing birders love more than sharing news of a rare sighting with the similarly obsessed. Now a new mobile-phone service called the Bird Observation System (BOS),

hatched by Hewlett-Packard in Finland, promises to enable them to gloat about their findings, and help others track the same elusive species, in real time. BOS users can instanta-neously transmit to other registered users the exact location and time of a sighting, along with information about the species and gender, using a field-ready, water-resistant, shockproof mobile phone equipped with a global positioning system (GPS) receiver and text messaging. Hewlett-Packard, which developed the system in cooperation with BirdLife Finland, envisions it not only as a boon for birders but as a highly accurate field-research tool for scientists and conservationists. The product is expected to be available to U.S consumers in the near future.

—Jennifer Uscher

When Good Birds Go Bad

For desperate owners of finger-chomping budgies, self-mutilating cockatiels, or macaws that shriek for hours, veterinarians—or, more precisely, "professional avian

behavioral consultants"—have a new question: Have you considered therapy? "Families tend to anthropomorphize their bird and ascribe malicious intent," explains Larry Lachman, a psychologist and the coauthor of the forthcoming Birds Off the Perch: Therapy and Training for Your Pet Bird, due out next March. In fact, he says, at the root of many pet-bird psychoses are responses that make sense in the wild. For example, some species peck to warn the flock away from a predator, which may explain why your pet starts wildly biting you at the sight of a new person. Lachman advises bad-bird owners to "work on their relationship with the bird" through feeding so that the animal no longer sees that new person as a threat. Still, he warns, therapy is not the right choice for everyone's bird. So if your parrot nips you once in a while, it might just be having a bad day.

—Kristen Fountain

P.U.

In a handful of university towns, students, retirees, and other residents have found an unusual way to make extra cash: going nose to nose with the livestock industry. For roughly $8 an hour they smell samples of

air collected at large hog, beef cattle, dairy, or poultry operations at different, carefully calibrated dilutions, and then report on gradations of stink. "We screen our panelists to eliminate the dead noses and the hypersensitive," explains Larry Jacobson, a professor of biosystems and agricultural engineering at the University of Minnesota. "Then we teach sniffing techniques, and how to detect differences in the quality and strengths of odors. This is not something that is really easy. Fatigue builds up within 15 to 20 minutes." Researchers now know that the intense odor wafting out of animal-containment buildings and off waste lagoons is a brew of between 200 and 300 different chemical compounds. Handheld electronic devices can measure major components, like hydrogen sulfide and ammonia, but so far no instrument has been able to accurately gauge how the mix will hit the human nose. The data is expected to be used to help set standards and acceptable odor levels for hog farms.

—Kristen Fountain

 

To read these articles, buy the September 2002 issue of Audubon.