03 Nov 2009 – Ocean Conservancy EVP Dennis Kelso to Testify Before Congress on National Ocean Policy and Marine Spatial Planning
Momentum builds for a national plan to manage our ocean: Administration set to act next month; Congress should support this critical effort

Washington, DC— On November 4th, Dennis Kelso, Ocean Conservancy Executive Vice President, will join Dr. Jane Lubchenco and Nancy Sutley in testifying before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation on the need for a national ocean policy. Mr. Kelso will emphasize the urgency and opportunity for Congress to move quickly to adopt an approach called marine spatial planning for balancing the many existing and emerging pressures on our ocean.

Momentum is building for a national plan to manage our oceans. In June, President Obama created the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force to provide counsel on how to protect and use our ocean wisely, with a specific charge to develop a framework for marine spatial planning. That plan is due by December 9th. The Task Force has already created a National Ocean Council, which if it fulfills its mandate with the support of Congress, will make historic progress for the health of the ocean.

The conservation community is united in support of the Task Force’s work. Just this week, Ocean Conservancy, in coordination with seven leading environmental organizations, developed recommendations for improving ocean governance through marine spatial planning. The recommendations have been submitted to the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ).

According to the letter, Ocean Conservancy and others in the conservation community call for a marine spatial planning framework that would “protect, maintain, and restore coastal, marine, and Great Lakes ecosystem health (as is stated in the National Ocean Policy), including protecting important marine ecological areas” and would foster sustainable development to the extent that it is consistent with this goal. The recommendations detail approaches to marine spatial planning, and who should have authority and involvement.

Mr. Kelso issued the following statement about the upcoming hearing and recommendations to the Administration:

“It’s time to change the way we manage our ocean. Our ocean is getting more crowded with each growing demand and we are putting great strains on fragile ocean ecosystems. Marine spatial planning will bring order to the ocean and provide a framework for balancing ocean conservation and other interests. The recommendations made to the White House Council on Environmental Quality and in my testimony will make marine spatial planning effective and efficient – they also call for a participatory process because there are a number of people who rely on the ocean.

“The ocean is our life support system – it provides much of the air we breathe and food we eat, and it regulates our climate. We need a comprehensive planning approach to managing our ocean, so that we can protect it for future generations while supporting our economy. These recommendations are a first step in making the vision of thriving ocean ecosystems and coastal economies a reality,” concluded Mr. Kelso.

Signatories in addition to Ocean Conservancy are Conservation Law Foundation, Natural Resources Defense Council, Oceana, Ocean Champions, Pew Environment Group, The Nature Conservancy and World Wildlife Fund.

Hearing Details:
The Future of Ocean Governance: Building Our National Ocean Policy
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 10:00 AM, SR – 253

President Obama’s memorandum creating the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force can be viewed here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/ceq/initiatives/oceans/

The Singapore Navy’s Naval Diving Unit turned up at Pulau Semakau on 30 Oct 2009 for Project Eco-Frog as part of their CSR effort for 2009.

96 NDU staff came ‘ashore’ on the NEA slipway via an open-top fast utility vessel.

Within minutes of the impressive landing, an operations command centre complete with medic station was set up and the various special focus teams (diving and shore) got busy with their CleanUp preparations.

Whilst some of the teams took turns to attend the landfill tour and video presentation by the ever-ready and friendly NEA Semakau operations staff, the diving teams un-rolled their zodiac inflatables which were duly filled with air and fitted with outboard motors and in no time at all, the boats were ready and in the water by the slipway.

The shore teams proceeded with the landfill tour and thereafter went straight for the Northern shore through the forest trail. There is an incredible amount of ‘marine’ trash which has accumulated on the Semakau shore over the years. These items do not originate from the landfill being operated by the National Environment Agency on Semakau but arrive as flotsam after being carried on visiting tides and ocean currents to the Semakau shore.  Some items have become buried in the sand over the years or have been blown by the coastal winds further inland to become lodged below the dense vegetation of the coastal shrubs and trees.

Although the tide was rather high at about 2.0m at 10am, the shore teams managed to make swift work of the strand line debris. These encompass plastic bottles, glass beverage bottles both whole or broken in pieces, detergent or chemical containers, styrofoam bits, plastic sheeting, tires, abandoned fishing nets, food wrapping, and various other mainly plastic material which have floated in with the daily tides.

Care had to be taken navigating the shore as there were occasional broken glass pieces amongst the pebbles and rocks. Some areas also had an unusually high concentration of wooden material which seemed to blanket the natural shore thus preventing the growth of mangrove vegetation.  Many of the wooden planks had rusty nails in them and so these were removed as well as they posed a safety concern to anyone walking on the shore.

The diving teams had some success at their dive sites just off Semakau’s amazing seagrass lagoon and the reef fringing it although the particular sites showed no significant build up of debris. Hopefully, the rest of Semakau’s deeper waters are in just as good a condition. Their condition can only be ascertained after further dive recce trips.

All the bagged items were removed by the zodiacs from the shore direct to the slipway. This proved a much more efficient way of transferring the trash. The alternative would involve carrying the numerous heavy bags a long long walk down the shore and through the forest trail to the landfill service road.

In total, Project Eco-Frog saw 96 staff removing 96 trash bags filled with 455 kg of waste material in about 1.5 hours. This was enough to fill the NEA bulldozer’s grab!

This is indeed a great first effort and will go some way towards ensuring that the Semakau shore is better looked after and its various interrelated ecosystem components will continue to thrive for years to come.

Thank you NDU!

Related links:

• http://wildshores.blogspot.com/2009/10/tackling-trash-on-semakaus-northern.html
• http://www.wildsingapore.com/places/semakau.htm

Ria Tan of WildSingapore has updated these Wild Facts Sheets on the Dugong, Sea Turtles and Indo-Pacific hump-backed dolphin! These are resource pages about sightings of these marine animals in Singapore and their status, brief notes about the biology and the issues they face.

Organisers and presenters of the International Coastal Cleanup who run an education programme with participants in the months ahead of a cleanup will find this really useful to accompany the powerpoint that deals with the popular question, "Is there marine life in Singapore?"

Thanks, Ria!

Posted via email from International Coastal Cleanup Singapore.

Marine rubbish on the rise: reportNicky Phillips ABC 21 Oct 09;
http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2009/10/21/2719237.htm

The damage caused by marine rubbish and debris is costing the
Asia-Pacific region more than a billion dollars each year, a new
report has found. The report, commissioned by the Marine Resource
Conservation working group of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
(APEC), found debris is increasing in the region's oceans, despite
measures to control it.

Study author Professor Alistair McIlgorm of the National Marine
Science Centre in Coffs Harbour says 6.4 million tonnes of debris
reaches the world's oceans each year. Of that 80% is thought to come
from land based sources, he says. More than half of the rubbish is
believed to be plastic, but McIlgrom says rubber, wood and sanitary
products also add to the problem.

"Poor landfill practices are big contributors to marine debris,
especially in Asia," says McIlgrom. The report also tallied the
economic costs of damage caused to the fishing and boat industries by
marine rubbish in the Asia-Pacific region. "Whether they have to
untangle plastic from a ship propellers or totally replace an outboard
- it's costing industries a lot," he says.

The report used a Japanese economic model, which estimates the damage
caused by marine debris costs governments close to 0.3% of their GDP
every year.

Conservative estimate

"That came to a total of US$1.265 billion across the 21 APEC
economies," says McIlgrom. In Australia, clean up of marine rubbish is
costing close to AU$6 million (US$6.5 million) each year. But these
figures are very conservative he says, and don't encompass the total
impact of marine rubbish. "There are lots of other costs, costs to
wildlife, loss of tourism and lost capital development opportunities,
like building a hotel or resort."

And the report doesn't include the clean-up bill, says McIlgrom. "If
you added the clean-up bill of all of APEC it would be a lot more." He
says what's really worrying is that the amount of marine debris in
oceans is growing with the world's population. "If you took the levels
[of rubbish] in 1980 it was much less than it is today, basically
we've got lazy with our use of plastics."

McIlgrom insists marine debris is an avoidable cost.

Prevention better than cure

The report recommends that governments focus more on preventing
rubbish entering our waterways, instead of trying to control it once
it gets there. "For every 100 units of rubbish that enter the ocean,
15 % float on the surface, 15% collect in the water column near the
shore and the rest sinks to the bottom of the deep ocean," says
McIlgrom.

With most rubbish originating from land based sources, he says it
makes more economic sense for governments to introduce preventative
measures. "Once debris enters the water and becomes diluted, it
becomes much more expensive per unit of rubbish to pick up." McIlgrom
says governments should implement proper landfill practices, which
would go a long way to reducing the amount of rubbish that ends up in
our water ways.

He says recycling, especially of plastic "really needs attention and
thought". McIlgrom says, good strategy is to reimburse people who
recycle plastic bottles, like in South Australia.

The report also recommends building nets at the end of estuaries,
where rivers or streams meet the ocean, to catch any debris before it
makes its way into open water.

Posted via email from International Coastal Cleanup Singapore

Penang-girl Alison Wee was accompanied up north by Andy Dinesh, Marcus Tay and Ng Kai Scene for ICC Penang. 

CEMACS organised a great cleanup, with everyone working hard, reporting their data the same day, using recyclables and non-disposables for the lunch and blogging the same day. This morning, Malaysian newspapers reported the event and it looks to be the start of something really good!

See the ICC Penang blogsite for reports, data and photos at: http://iccpenang.wordpress.com/

Posted via email from International Coastal Cleanup Singapore

Ubin Zone Captain Andy Dinesh has completed his video of the ICCS Chek Jawa 2008 cleanup – the video footage is from Chek Jawa and it is peppered with facts from the 2008 ICCS results.

This is our first video out since Wesley’s in 2004; congratulations, Andy!

Volunteers from ST Dynamics at East Coast Park Beach Site 1 encountered a fishing net buried in the sand and didn’t leave it there – they huffed and puffed and extracted the net, removed the entangled coral and disposed of it! Well done folks!

Complete album on Flickr – link.

Posted via email from International Coastal Cleanup Singapore

“The Earth’s Call,” by Julienne Reblora, Hougang Sec Red Cross Unit

All my life, I’ve never seen a polluted beach. All the beaches I have ever seen were in beach resorts which are kept clean by hired help. As a volunteer with the International Coastal Cleanup, however, our school’s Red Cross Unit gave me the opportunity to be part of the all the beach cleaning action.

Initially, we only found bits and pieces of styrofoam. Penetrating deeper into the swampy area, however, my golly, you wouldn’t believe it – we discovered a LOT of styrofoam had been washed into the mangrove! My group got very excited as the day progressed because we found more and more styrofoam and the pieces got bigger and bigger. Engrossed in the activity, we wanted to finish collecting it all, but a lot of styrofoam was stuck in inaccessible areas.

We gathered all our debris and recorded the weight and the number of pieces collected. Other trash items included barrels, fish nets, plastics and so on. It was surprising to see that beaches are polluted by so much trash.

This experience opened my eyes to what’s happening around me. We are so preoccupied with unnecessary things – don’t forget that there’s a world out there that needs attention. It needs our help. We were the ones that brought bad changes to the environment, but we are also the hope for a better and cleaner world. The Earth is the only inhabitable planet. The future lies in our hands.

Let us work together to make a difference; this is the best gift we can give to Mother Earth, who has sustained us and nurtured us for a long time. Change in the society starts in each one of us, so do your part!

“A meaningful cleanup,” Bernice Seow, Hougang Sec Red Cross Unit
I was expecting the usual pick-up-litter-only-to-get-the-beach-dirtied-less-than-one-hour-later community involvement project. However, this was clearly different – for starters, it was a mangrove cleanup at Lim Chu Kang mangrove and not an East Coast beach cleanup. And we weren’t only going to pick litter but collate data too! 

This last aspect of the cleanup made it a more meaningful activity than normal – by collecting data on the amount and type of debris accumulating at the mangrove, the people with the ICCS programme will figure out the most common material or type of litter thrown.

This will enable the individual to take action and educate the public on the harms of littering. This include the destruction of natural habitats and unfortunate incidents of unsuspecting animals devouring these rubbish and falling sick!

It took a lot of hard work ( and an entire morning! ) to pick up most of the debris there, but it sure was worth it!

“A rubbish dump instead of a beach!” By Chan Wen Xin, Hougang Sec Red Cross Unit

Lim Chu Kang mangrove swamp was littered with different kinds of rubbish. My group collected a total of 842 pieces of styrofoam when we ran out of time – but there was still more to collect!

Can you imagine what will happen if this large amount of rubbish lay uncollected year after year? We would have a rubbish dump instead of a beach!

We can do our part to reduce the amount of litter dispose of, choose to pack our food with reusable lunch boxes and use own recycled bags instead of plastic bags.

Fishermen could be educated not to dispose of their fishing nets by just leaving them on the beach or swamp area. I think we could all work harder to keep mother earth a cleaner place.