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Marine mammal, birds, fish and reptile populations have almost halved since 1970, according to a report which is a "wake-up call" to tackle the crisis in the world's oceans. The study by conservation group WWF and the Zoological Society of London looked at how 5,829 populations of 1,234 species of marine creatures had fared in the past 45 years and found a 49% drop in numbers. Some species people rely on for food are faring even worse, such as the Scombridae family of fish which includes tuna and mackerel have fallen by almost three quarters (74%). Sea cucumbers, which are prized as luxury food in Asia, have been significantly exploited, with a 98% decline in the Galapagos and 94% drop in the Egyptian Red Sea in just a few years. Robin Freeman, head of indicators and assessments at ZSL, said: "This is a wake-up call, but it's also an opportunity. "These are populations that are smaller than they would be, and should be. They aren't recovering." Louise Heaps, chief advisor on marine policy at WWF-UK, said: "As well as being a source of extraordinary natural beauty and wonder, healthy seas are the bedrock of a functioning global economy. We are sowing the seeds of ecological and economic catastrophe."

Center for Food Safety's (CFS) report, “Water Hazard: Aquatic Contamination by Neonicotinoid Insecticides in the United States,” shows widespread water contamination with neonicotinoid insecticides and threatening a range of aquatic invertebrates including crabs and insects. In particular, the report draws attention to the use of neonicotinoid seed coatings, up to 95 percent of which ends up in the environment, not the crop. Neonicotinoids are a class of insecticide known to have acute and chronic effects on honey bees and other pollinator species and are considered a major factor in overall bee population declines and poor health. The report examines representative case studies from Maryland, Iowa, and California, each of which is experiencing widespread neonicotinoid contamination exceeding recommended standards as determined by leading experts in aquatic species toxicology. The report also highlights contamination elsewhere, including New York, South Dakota, Texas, and Wisconsin. It describes the key roles of irrigation and field drainage and discusses the growing risks to aquifers, vulnerable wetlands and the valuable wildlife inhabiting those areas, such as migratory birds and sport fish.

“Reading the emails make(s) me want to throw up” tweeted the Food Babe after reading a lengthy series of them posted online by the NY Times on Sept 5th. The emails in question result from a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request and are posted in the side bars of a front-page article by Times reporter Eric Lipton (“Food Industry Enlisted Academics in G.M.O. Lobbying War, Emails Show”). The article is highly disturbing, but, as the Food Babe implied, the Times buried the real story. The real scoop was not the perfidy and deceit of a handful of individual professors. Buried in the emails is proof positive of active collusion between the agribusiness and chemical industries, numerous and often prominent academics, PR companies, and key administrators of land grant universities for the purpose of promoting GMOs and pesticides. In particular, nowhere does the Times note that one of the chief colluders was none other than the President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Glyphosate (GLY) is a herbicide that is widely used in agriculture for weed control. Although reports about the impact of GLY in snails, crustaceans and amphibians exist, few studies have investigated its sublethal effects in non-target organisms such as the honeybee Apis mellifera, the main pollen vector in commercial crops. Here, we tested whether exposure to three sublethal concentrations of GLY (2.5, 5 and 10 mg l−1: corresponding to 0.125, 0.250 and 0.500 μg per animal) affects the homeward flight path of honeybees in an open field. We performed an experiment in which forager honeybees were trained to an artificial feeder, and then captured, fed with sugar solution containing traces of GLY and released from a novel site either once or twice. Their homeward trajectories were tracked using harmonic radar technology. We found that honeybees that had been fed with solution containing 10 mg l−1 GLY spent more time performing homeward flights than control bees or bees treated with lower concentrations. They also performed more indirect homing flights. Moreover, the proportion of direct homeward flights performed after a second release from the same site increased in control bees but not in treated bees. These results suggest that, in honeybees,exposure to levels of GLY commonly found in agricultural settings impairs the cognitive capacities needed to retrieve and integrate spatial information for a successful return to the hive. Therefore, honeybee navigation is affected by ingesting traces of the most widely used herbicide worldwide, with potential long-term negative consequences for colony foraging success.

They’re cute, they’re knee-high, they bray like donkeys and they’re a tourist attraction near Cape Town, South Africa. But African penguins (Spheniscus demersus) — the continent’s only species of the flightless bird — are at risk of extinction. In the 1930s, South Africa’s largest colony — one of many — had a million African penguins. Now, only 100,000 of the birds remain in all of South Africa and neighboring Namibia, the only places where the species exists. Anchovies and sardines are the penguin’s primary food source. Both fisheries scientists and bird specialists agree that the decline of the penguin began around 2004 with a shift in anchovies and sardines away from the colonies. Penguins must now swim farther to catch fish, leaving adults weakened. Many have died or abandoned their chicks, with hundreds winding up in the crowded outdoor pens of a rehabilitation center run by the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds.

Bats get their own day on the last weekend of August. Or rather, night: on European Bat Night, an international event promoted by UN bats secretariat Eurobats looks to get people closer to these animals. This is hoped to help the public better understand the important role of bats in the ecosystem, and encourage their conservation - since many species are in danger of extinction. These winged mammals are a "keystone species" essential to some ecosystems, being responsible for the natural control of agricultural pests, pollination of plants and seed distribution. Bats are critical to the survival of many wild species. Without them, the diversity of plants and animals on Earth would be greatly reduced. Even their droppings (known as guano) are a valuable natural fertilizer. Although bats have almost no natural enemies, over past decades they have been facing numerous threats. All of these are related to human activity: habitat loss due to deforestation, changes in building style, and overhunting for bush meat are among them. Beyond this, the ever-more more aggressive use of pesticides in agriculture has also lead to a significant decline of insects - bats' main food source - thus poisoning bats. Contributing to the problem is the difficulty in tracking significant declines in bat populations - until their situation is critical. And bats' low reproduction rates - most females give birth to only one pup per year - make recovery from serious losses especially slow.

Agricultural systems are drivers of global environmental degradation. Insecticides, in particular, are highly biologically active substances that can threaten the ecological integrity of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. Despite widespread insecticide application to croplands worldwide, no comprehensive field data-based evaluation of their risk to global surface waters exists. Our data show, for the first time to our knowledge at the global scale, that more than 50% of detected insecticide concentrations (n = 11,300) exceed regulatory threshold levels. This finding indicates that surface water pollution resulting from current agricultural insecticide use constitutes an excessive threat to aquatic biodiversity. Overall, our analysis suggests that fundamental revisions of current regulatory procedures and pesticide application practices are needed to reverse the global environmental impacts of agrochemical-based high-intensity agriculture.

In the late summer and early fall, western grebes (Aechmophorus occidentalis) will flock to the marine waters of the West Coast, where they gather by the thousands to dine on a smorgasbord of small fishes. And for years, masses of wintering grebes were a fixture of the Salish Sea. The waters from the Strait of Georgia in Canada south to Puget Sound in the United States hosted roughly 70% of the species’ entire population. Now, though, surveys estimate that only 4% of the population continues to winter here—a decline of 95%. Why did all the grebes leave? Where did they go? And what does their disappearance say about the health of the ecosystem? A group of scientists shared their research at the 2014 Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference. Research presented focused on the role of forage fish, a favorite prey item of many seabirds. Oily and calorie-rich, these fish, such as sandlance, surf smelt and Pacific herring are known for their importance to the food web. Normally an abundant source of sustenance for a wide variety of predators, they have declined significantly over the decades. “Half of all herring stocks in Puget Sound are designated as either depressed or low abundance,” says Dr. Nacho Vilchis, a former postdoctoral researcher with the SeaDoc Society, “and the same is true for British Columbia.”

Although the Everglades National Park is no longer subject to hunting, the unnatural distribution and quality of water has contributed to the decline of several bird species devaluing the park’s association with 350 different species of feathered creatures. “While a few species seem to be rebounding, others, such as the roseate spoonbill, are continuing their downward spiral,” said Larry Perez, a member of the South Florida Natural Resources Center’s Science Communications Outreach, the largest science center of the National Park Service.The most drastic and recent drop of all is that of the roseate spoonbill (Platalea ajaja). With the worst drop in breeding season in Florida Bay in over 40 years, the species is disappearing. Florida Bay takes up one-third of the Everglades. As wading birds, like the popular ibis of the Everglades, these animals have long legs for wading in the water to catch their fish. In the shallow water, the spoonbill lowers its partially opened bill and snaps it shut once a small fish or source of food has triggered its sensitivity. Fish are no longer concentrated in small shallow pools, leaving the spoonbills and other wading birds hungry and fending for survival.