First U.S. Predator-Proof Fence Delivers on Promises - Important Seabird Species in Hawaii Producing Chicks in Record Numbers
December 2011. The first predator proof fence in the United States is producing dramatic results that may eventually lead to a resurgence in decimated seabird populations in Hawai'i. The Wedge-tailed Shearwater, which nests in the remote coastal dunes on the now-fenced Kaena Point at the north-western tip of O'ahu, has produced the highest number of chicks since the annual survey began in 1994.
14% increase in chicks
"This is extraordinary news. It has been only eight months since the predator-proof fence was installed and already, we are seeing results. This year's chick count of 1775 is a 14% percent increase over the previous high count in 2007 and the highest number ever recorded at the point. So far, the fence has done a great job of preventing bird predation by rats, cats, mongoose, dogs, and even mice," said Dr. George Wallace, Vice President for Oceans and Islands at American Bird Conservancy (ABC), the leading bird conservation group in the United States.
The project has been a cooperative effort involving Hawai'i's Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Hawai'i chapter of The Wildlife Society, and local communities.
"We are very excited to be moving into the next phase of the project now that the native species are able to exist without predation pressure and we can begin active restoration of the native species. We hope this is the first of many projects like this in Hawai'i" said Lindsay Young, the project coordinator with Pacific Rim Conservation.
Laysan Albatross
Ground-nesting seabirds in the area, which also include the Laysan Albatross, have been targets of predation by introduced mammals, with the result that up to 15% of chicks are killed each year. The predators have especially preyed on the young birds before they can fly, but they also eat seabird eggs and even attack adult birds. Despite intensive efforts to control these predators, they still pose a major threat to the survival of native species. The full moons in October and November often bring particularly devastating attacks on the Wedge-tailed Shearwater chicks as they leave their burrows for the first time at night and become vulnerable to predators roaming the area.
Read more here ...
Showing posts with label hawaii. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hawaii. Show all posts
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Critically Endangered Miller bird released onto Hawaiian island – After 100 year absence
It is thrilling to see millerbirds on Laysan once more'
September 2011: Critically endangered Nihoa millerbirds are now living on the Hawaiian island of Laysan for the first time in nearly a century, thanks to a historic and collaborative conservation effort.
The bid to save the insect-eating songbird from extinction, which involved releasing 24 of the birds on Laysan Island in Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, was the result of many years of research and detailed planning by biologists and resource managers, led by a partnership between the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and American Bird Conservancy (ABC).
Millerbirds have been absent from Laysan for nearly 100 years after a closely related subspecies went extinct in the early 20th Century. As part of a decades-long restoration effort, this translocation restores this insect-eating songbird to Laysan's ecosystem.
This is a potential turning point for the birds' recovery‘This project will reduce the chances that catastrophic events such as hurricanes or the introduction of invasive predators will wipe out the species, since there will be independent populations of Millerbirds on two islands, 650 miles apart,' said Loyal Mehrhoff, field supervisor for the Pacific Islands Fish and Wildlife Office.
‘It is thrilling to see Millerbirds back on Laysan once more, not simply because they have been a missing piece of the island's native ecosystem for so long, but also because this marks a potential turning point in the recovery of the species,' said George Wallace, ABC's Vice President for Oceans and Islands.
‘It is hard to imagine a project of this complexity going any more smoothly. From the capture of birds on Nihoa, the three-day trip to Laysan, and finally the release of birds. We have subsequently resighted all of the radiotagged birds on Laysan and several of the others; all are looking healthy and behaving normally - a very encouraging sign for the future,' he said.
Biologists tracking their progressBiologists from FWS and ABC, avian husbandry experts, and a wildlife veterinarian took special care to ensure the safe transport and arrival of the millerbirds at Laysan after their three-day voyage from Nihoa.
The birds were kept in specially designed cages for six days between their capture on Nihoa and their release on Laysan. Each bird carries a unique combination of coloured leg bands to allow identification in the field, and half the birds were fitted with temporary radio transmitters so that their locations can be determined during their first three weeks in their new home.
Biologists will remain on Laysan for the next year to monitor the birds' movements and behaviors, including, the team hopes, their first nesting attempts.
September 2011: Critically endangered Nihoa millerbirds are now living on the Hawaiian island of Laysan for the first time in nearly a century, thanks to a historic and collaborative conservation effort.
The bid to save the insect-eating songbird from extinction, which involved releasing 24 of the birds on Laysan Island in Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, was the result of many years of research and detailed planning by biologists and resource managers, led by a partnership between the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and American Bird Conservancy (ABC).
Millerbirds have been absent from Laysan for nearly 100 years after a closely related subspecies went extinct in the early 20th Century. As part of a decades-long restoration effort, this translocation restores this insect-eating songbird to Laysan's ecosystem.
This is a potential turning point for the birds' recovery‘This project will reduce the chances that catastrophic events such as hurricanes or the introduction of invasive predators will wipe out the species, since there will be independent populations of Millerbirds on two islands, 650 miles apart,' said Loyal Mehrhoff, field supervisor for the Pacific Islands Fish and Wildlife Office.
‘It is thrilling to see Millerbirds back on Laysan once more, not simply because they have been a missing piece of the island's native ecosystem for so long, but also because this marks a potential turning point in the recovery of the species,' said George Wallace, ABC's Vice President for Oceans and Islands.
‘It is hard to imagine a project of this complexity going any more smoothly. From the capture of birds on Nihoa, the three-day trip to Laysan, and finally the release of birds. We have subsequently resighted all of the radiotagged birds on Laysan and several of the others; all are looking healthy and behaving normally - a very encouraging sign for the future,' he said.
Biologists tracking their progressBiologists from FWS and ABC, avian husbandry experts, and a wildlife veterinarian took special care to ensure the safe transport and arrival of the millerbirds at Laysan after their three-day voyage from Nihoa.
The birds were kept in specially designed cages for six days between their capture on Nihoa and their release on Laysan. Each bird carries a unique combination of coloured leg bands to allow identification in the field, and half the birds were fitted with temporary radio transmitters so that their locations can be determined during their first three weeks in their new home.
Biologists will remain on Laysan for the next year to monitor the birds' movements and behaviors, including, the team hopes, their first nesting attempts.
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Coquis Frog May be Leveling off in Hawaii
Unless you sleep in a soundproof chamber, you've probably already heard the news: The great Hawaii Island battle between man and coqui is over. The little, quarter-sized frogs have won.
But, researchers said this week, even as the Puerto Rican invaders continue to spread to new areas of the island, their population numbers are leveling off and even dipping back down slightly in areas where they have thrived.
On Thursday, coqui experts with the University of Hawaii and the state Department of Agriculture said state spending has ended for some projects aimed at population tracking and eradication efforts. The focus, they said, has shifted to keeping the coquis on island, and preventing their spread to the other Hawaiian islands and primary shipping destinations, like California.
"There just isn't much new to go on," said William Mautz, professor and chairman of the University of Hawaii at Hilo's Biology Department. "Much of the funding for working on coqui frogs has dried up, now that they've proven difficult to remove. They have continued to spread to parts of the island
that are wet, and they will continue to do so."
Mautz said Thursday that most likely the coqui's spread on the Big Island would primarily be dictated by altitude.
"They'll probably be limited to somewhere around 5,000 feet," he said.
"They're already up that high now in Volcano. It's not clear how much higher they might go."
While several different techniques have been identified to kill coqui frogs, nothing is perfect, Mautz added. Sprays containing baking soda or citric acid have been proven to be effective, he said, but they must make direct contact with the frogs in high enough concentrations to work. And in some environments, there are simply too many hiding places for the frogs.
"In some parts of the island, it's easier to control them (the coquis) than in others," he said. "In areas with lots of a'a lava, like Puna, they're very difficult to control. All the cracks, and channels and tunnels beneath the lava, where they can get underground and hide, those areas are the areas with the most dense populations. In areas with older soils, where they can't get underground, you have fewer, such as in the Kohala mountains."
As some populations of coqui frogs have settled in to their new habitats on the island, members of the public have reported spotting what they consider to be unusually large specimens of the frogs. But, Mautz said, that is just a result of the population becoming established.
"It's not true that the frogs are getting larger. What's going on is that the populations of the frogs are maturing, so there are more and more frogs that are living longer. They don't stop growing until 6 or 7 years old, so there are more large, adult frogs showing up with more frequency," he said.
The larger adult frogs may also explain why researchers have seen population numbers dip in some areas that have been overrun by the little chirpers.
"In many places, they appear to be not as dense as they were," Mautz said.
"Don't get me wrong. There's still plenty of them. But they have dipped a bit. It's a typical pattern for an invasive species. When they first become established, their population shows a spike."
Later, as the population reaches an equilibrium with its environment, the population growth hits a plateau. And, he said, larger adult coquis also tend to be cannibalistic.
"They'll eat younger, smaller frogs," he said. "They'll eat just about anything that's smaller than them."
While Mautz did not have recent population number counts, as funding for that program was discontinued a few years ago, he was able to say anecdotally that he and other experts had noted a drop in the population of coquis at Lava Tree State Monument, the area on the island with the highest
concentration of coquis.
"The frogs just don't appear to be as loud as they were six or seven years ago," he said.
Arnold Hara, an entomologist and extension specialist with the UH College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, formerly worked with the project aimed at keeping track of coqui populations. But, he said after funding dried up, he moved on to direct containment efforts in the export of potted plants.
"My focus is now on treatments to prevent them from spreading to other islands and California," Hara said. "There's been interception of these frogs in California. They've had outbreaks in Disneyland and Hermosa Beach, among other areas.
"We admit that the Big Island is fairly well-infested and eradication is pretty much impossible. So, we're focusing on preventing the spread."
Using a Matson shipping container modified with shower nozzles, he gives plants that are to be shipped off island a hot shower. The temperature, he said, kills stowaway coquis and their eggs. According to Hara's most recent numbers, a total of 30,000 potted foliage plants were treated in the chamber during the month of June.
In addition to state funds no longer going toward coqui control, Hawaii County ceased its own coqui spraying program in April 2010, and in an unpopular move, attempted to auction off its 26 sprayers that it had been loaning out to different community groups following through with their own
control efforts. Public outcry led the county to cancel the auction and transfer the oversight of the equipment from the Mayor's Office to the Department of Research and Development's agriculture office.
from: HAWAII TRIBUNE-HERALD (Hilo) 21 August 11 (Colin M. Stewart)
But, researchers said this week, even as the Puerto Rican invaders continue to spread to new areas of the island, their population numbers are leveling off and even dipping back down slightly in areas where they have thrived.
On Thursday, coqui experts with the University of Hawaii and the state Department of Agriculture said state spending has ended for some projects aimed at population tracking and eradication efforts. The focus, they said, has shifted to keeping the coquis on island, and preventing their spread to the other Hawaiian islands and primary shipping destinations, like California.
"There just isn't much new to go on," said William Mautz, professor and chairman of the University of Hawaii at Hilo's Biology Department. "Much of the funding for working on coqui frogs has dried up, now that they've proven difficult to remove. They have continued to spread to parts of the island
that are wet, and they will continue to do so."
Mautz said Thursday that most likely the coqui's spread on the Big Island would primarily be dictated by altitude.
"They'll probably be limited to somewhere around 5,000 feet," he said.
"They're already up that high now in Volcano. It's not clear how much higher they might go."
While several different techniques have been identified to kill coqui frogs, nothing is perfect, Mautz added. Sprays containing baking soda or citric acid have been proven to be effective, he said, but they must make direct contact with the frogs in high enough concentrations to work. And in some environments, there are simply too many hiding places for the frogs.
"In some parts of the island, it's easier to control them (the coquis) than in others," he said. "In areas with lots of a'a lava, like Puna, they're very difficult to control. All the cracks, and channels and tunnels beneath the lava, where they can get underground and hide, those areas are the areas with the most dense populations. In areas with older soils, where they can't get underground, you have fewer, such as in the Kohala mountains."
As some populations of coqui frogs have settled in to their new habitats on the island, members of the public have reported spotting what they consider to be unusually large specimens of the frogs. But, Mautz said, that is just a result of the population becoming established.
"It's not true that the frogs are getting larger. What's going on is that the populations of the frogs are maturing, so there are more and more frogs that are living longer. They don't stop growing until 6 or 7 years old, so there are more large, adult frogs showing up with more frequency," he said.
The larger adult frogs may also explain why researchers have seen population numbers dip in some areas that have been overrun by the little chirpers.
"In many places, they appear to be not as dense as they were," Mautz said.
"Don't get me wrong. There's still plenty of them. But they have dipped a bit. It's a typical pattern for an invasive species. When they first become established, their population shows a spike."
Later, as the population reaches an equilibrium with its environment, the population growth hits a plateau. And, he said, larger adult coquis also tend to be cannibalistic.
"They'll eat younger, smaller frogs," he said. "They'll eat just about anything that's smaller than them."
While Mautz did not have recent population number counts, as funding for that program was discontinued a few years ago, he was able to say anecdotally that he and other experts had noted a drop in the population of coquis at Lava Tree State Monument, the area on the island with the highest
concentration of coquis.
"The frogs just don't appear to be as loud as they were six or seven years ago," he said.
Arnold Hara, an entomologist and extension specialist with the UH College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, formerly worked with the project aimed at keeping track of coqui populations. But, he said after funding dried up, he moved on to direct containment efforts in the export of potted plants.
"My focus is now on treatments to prevent them from spreading to other islands and California," Hara said. "There's been interception of these frogs in California. They've had outbreaks in Disneyland and Hermosa Beach, among other areas.
"We admit that the Big Island is fairly well-infested and eradication is pretty much impossible. So, we're focusing on preventing the spread."
Using a Matson shipping container modified with shower nozzles, he gives plants that are to be shipped off island a hot shower. The temperature, he said, kills stowaway coquis and their eggs. According to Hara's most recent numbers, a total of 30,000 potted foliage plants were treated in the chamber during the month of June.
In addition to state funds no longer going toward coqui control, Hawaii County ceased its own coqui spraying program in April 2010, and in an unpopular move, attempted to auction off its 26 sprayers that it had been loaning out to different community groups following through with their own
control efforts. Public outcry led the county to cancel the auction and transfer the oversight of the equipment from the Mayor's Office to the Department of Research and Development's agriculture office.
from: HAWAII TRIBUNE-HERALD (Hilo) 21 August 11 (Colin M. Stewart)
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Fish, coral from off-limits Hawaii come to Waikiki
HONOLULU (AP) — Hundreds of rare fish and coral pieces from one of the most remote parts of the planet have arrived in bustling Waikiki.
The Waikiki Aquarium's newest permanent exhibit, opening on Thursday, showcases specimens gathered from the pristine atolls of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands — an area so well-protected it's generally off-limits to everyone but researchers and Native Hawaiians performing cultural rites.
It promises to be a special treat for scuba divers and fish enthusiasts only rarely able to see species like the white-and-black-colored masked angelfish or table corals — corals that spread out like tabletops around a central stem.
It should also appeal to those curious about the 1,200-mile long string of atolls so highly valued the United Nations named them a World Heritage Site last year and then-President George W. Bush designated them a marine national monument in 2006.
"Given the challenges in getting to the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands for the vast, vast majority of people, this will be their only chance to see a taste of some of the wonders that exist up there," said Andrew Rossiter, the aquarium's director.
The islands are all so small they're inhospitable to human settlement. But this has also meant people have mostly left them alone and in their natural condition.
The limited signs of human presence include ancient Hawaiian heiau, or shrines, lining the top of a ridge running along the spine of Mokumanamana island.
The Navy once had a base at Midway Atoll — the site of the famous 1942 battle between the U.S. and Japan that turned the tide of World War II — but turned the island over to the Fish and Wildlife Service for a wildlife refuge in 1993.
Today, the atolls have thriving coral reefs accounting for nearly 70 percent of all coral under U.S. jurisdiction. Experts say the robust reefs are what the rest of Hawaii's reefs looked like before they were damaged by coral mining, runoff from land, overfishing, and other human activity over the years.
Sharks — which have been overfished in many other parts of the world — are richly abundant there. Life also comes in unusual forms: 25 percent of the 7,000 marine species in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands are found nowhere else in the world.
"This is a really, really unique place — nothing else like it in the world. And it's exactly how a coral reef should look, and this is how it was once around here," Rossiter said during an interview in his Honolulu office.
Fish and coral from the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands have been on display before, in limited circumstances. The Waikiki Aquarium has a small, existing exhibit, as does the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's discovery center in Hilo on the Big Island.
But the aquarium's new display sets a new standard. The tank occupies about 10 percent of the aquarium's exhibit space, and will boast some 30 different fish species and 20 coral varieties. Altogether, the exhibit will feature 225 fish and 200 coral fragments.
The masked angelfish will allow researchers to observe how the unusual sex-changing fish behave and interact. Around the main Hawaiian islands the fish lives in deep water that's impractical for extended human observation. But scientists watching the aquarium tank may watch the fish for hours or days at a time.
The species is notable in part because they're all female when they're a certain size. Then one member of the group gets a little more aggressive, dominates the others, and changes its sex to male. The newly male fish uses the remaining females as his harem.
Scientists will not only be able to observe this process, but perhaps begin to understand why some of the fish change sex and others not, Rossiter said. The exhibit will have five to start with, and the aquarium will add four more by mid-September for a total of nine.
Aulani Wilhelm, superintendent of the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, said the aquarium is offering people a way to connect to a place that by necessity must be appreciated from afar.
"These are atolls, these are fragile places," Wilhelm said, noting even well-intentioned or well-regulated travel would inflict harm on the islands. "There's only so much visitation a place like that can handle before it's changed."
___
If You Go...
Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Exhibit: Stars Aug. 18 at the Waikiki Aquarium, 2777 Kalakaua Ave., Honolulu; www.waquarium.org or 808-923-9741. Adults, $9; children ages 13-17 and people with disabilities, $4; children ages 5-12, $2. Special rates for military and Hawaii residents. Open daily, 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. except Christmas Day and Honolulu Marathon Sunday.
AUDREY McAVOY, Associated Press
Read more: http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Fish-coral-from-off-limits-Hawaii-come-to-Waikiki-1992277.php#ixzz1VCOOLilF
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Man fined $100 for running up to endangered Hawaiian monk seal and touching it
HONOLULU (AP) — Touching an endangered Hawaiian monk seal will cost a 19-year-old man $100.The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported Thursday that Cameron Cayaban pleaded guilty in federal court to harassing, harming or pursuing an endangered species.
A federal magistrate judged imposed $100 in fines and fees.Cayaban was charged with slapping a Hawaiian monk seal at Kalaeloa's White Plains Beach in March.His lawyer says Cayaban was overcome when he saw the seal, ran up to the endangered animal and touched it.Witnesses reported it to military police.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/travel/sns-ap-us-travel-brief-seal-touching-fine,0,1796380.story
A federal magistrate judged imposed $100 in fines and fees.Cayaban was charged with slapping a Hawaiian monk seal at Kalaeloa's White Plains Beach in March.His lawyer says Cayaban was overcome when he saw the seal, ran up to the endangered animal and touched it.Witnesses reported it to military police.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/travel/sns-ap-us-travel-brief-seal-touching-fine,0,1796380.story
Saturday, June 18, 2011
NEW FOSSIL LAND-CRAB FROM HAWAII
Last month, Florida researchers reported that fossil remains found in Hawaii are that of a crab that lived farther inland (three miles) and at higher elevations (3,000 feet) than any crab in the Pacific today. The scientists speculate that about 1,000 years ago, after humans arrived in the islands with rats, pigs, dogs and chickens, the crabs couldn't compete and the species soon went extinct.Palmyra Atoll, however, about 1,000 miles south of Hawaii, is crawling with land crabs: two kinds of fist-size hermit crabs, two species of burrowing crabs called "tupas" by Pacific islanders, and the Godzilla of all crabs, the coconut crab. But those islands have also been invaded by rats, cats, dogs and people. What type of crab, I wondered, went extinct in Hawaii?
While working in Palmyra, I came across the above five crab species almost daily. The literature, however, lists six.
The sixth is a land crab so rare that in four months of living on the atoll, I never saw one. That scarce little crab happens to be the closest relative of Hawaii's vanished species.
This sister crab is known on Pacific and Indian Ocean islands as the little nipper crab, scientific name Geograpsus grayi. And they mean little. The little nipper's shell is only 1 inches across. Hawaii's extinct nipper was larger but still no giant. Its shell was calculated to be about 2 ½ inches across.
Photos of little nippers remind me of Palmyra's tupas, common in Tahiti and other island groups. The largest tupas measure about 5 inches across and come in a variety of colors and patterns so stunning that they look fake.
My first encounter with a tupa on Palmyra startled us both. The crab ran from beneath some philodendron leaves into my path and froze.
The creature looked like an enchilada with legs, but no Mexican dish could compete with this tupa's shell colors. Its pinks and greens were as exquisite as a Monet watercolor.
One of the tupa's pincers was larger than the other and had serrated edges, a Vise-Grips with teeth.
As I got out my camera, the tupa made a run for it, holding its large claw like a shield. I followed the crab to a tree trunk, and when I squatted down to take the picture, the bold creature thrust its claw up at me. En garde! The challenge worked. I stepped back.
Tupas, nippers and all other Pacific island land crabs evolved from marine ancestors and must return to the ocean to spawn. When the females make their long migrations to the shoreline to drop their fertilized eggs in the sea, they are particularly vulnerable. Hawaii's land crabs, which evolved with no predators, must have been extra-easy pickings.
Most land crab eggs become fish food, but the ones that survive molt several times and then crawl ashore as tiny crabs.
Tupa babies spend their first three years of life inside tributaries of adult burrows eating leftovers. Researchers believe it takes this long for the youngsters' gills to develop the capacity to breathe air.
We will never know what the Hawaiian Islands were like when nippers roamed the mountains and valleys, but we can thank the little crabs for this: Their fast demise highlights how susceptible our native species are to alien species, and in that, they can guide conservation methods today.
Susan Scott can be reached at http://www.susanscott.net/.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
OUT OF PLACE LIZARD IN HAWAII (Via Herp Digest)
HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) 2/23/11 - A Waianae resident reported a dead lizard to the Hawaii Department of Agriculture after the family dogs apparently killed it on Friday night.
The foot-and-a-half long lizard has been identified as a tegu lizard (Tupinambis teguixin), which are illegal in Hawaii. The resident, who reported the lizard to officials on Saturday, said she heard her dogs barking Friday night and discovered the dead lizard. She was asked to hold it for agriculture inspectors, who picked it up on Monday morning.
It is not known how the lizard arrived in Hawaii. The lizard was identified by a herpetologist at the Bishop Museum and will remain in the museum's collection.
Tegu lizards are native to South America, but are found in the pet trade worldwide. They may grow up to four- to five-feet long and are a threat to ground-nesting birds and agricultural crops, as they may be a source of bacterial contamination of food crops. They are known to use their tails and claws as weapons and can deliver a nasty bite that may cause serious bacterial infections.
Individuals who see or have knowledge of illegal animals should call the State's toll-free PEST HOTLINE at 643-PEST (7378).
Those harboring illegal animals are encouraged to turn in the animals under the state's amnesty program, which provides immunity from prosecution.
Illegal animals may be turned in to any HDOA Office, Honolulu Zoo or any Humane Society - no questions asked and no fines assessed.
The foot-and-a-half long lizard has been identified as a tegu lizard (Tupinambis teguixin), which are illegal in Hawaii. The resident, who reported the lizard to officials on Saturday, said she heard her dogs barking Friday night and discovered the dead lizard. She was asked to hold it for agriculture inspectors, who picked it up on Monday morning.
It is not known how the lizard arrived in Hawaii. The lizard was identified by a herpetologist at the Bishop Museum and will remain in the museum's collection.
Tegu lizards are native to South America, but are found in the pet trade worldwide. They may grow up to four- to five-feet long and are a threat to ground-nesting birds and agricultural crops, as they may be a source of bacterial contamination of food crops. They are known to use their tails and claws as weapons and can deliver a nasty bite that may cause serious bacterial infections.
Individuals who see or have knowledge of illegal animals should call the State's toll-free PEST HOTLINE at 643-PEST (7378).
Those harboring illegal animals are encouraged to turn in the animals under the state's amnesty program, which provides immunity from prosecution.
Illegal animals may be turned in to any HDOA Office, Honolulu Zoo or any Humane Society - no questions asked and no fines assessed.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
What fish? Oh, that's a humuhumunukunukuapua'a! Aquarium staff welcome unprounceable new Hawaiian arrival
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 11:25 AM on 2nd February 2011
There's one fish you are unlikely to find on the menu in British chippy - because there isn't a wall long enough to write its name on.
And even if there was, no-one would be able to order the national fish of Hawaii by its proper name.
Even experts at the Hastings Blue Reef Aquarium in East Sussex, which has just welcomed the new addition to their collection, can't wrap their tongues around the word humuhumunukunukuapuab'a.
Aquarium manager Kate Buss said: 'He's a beautiful-looking fish but none of us have got the faintest idea how to pronounce his name and it's proving a little embarrassing when we do our public talks and feeding demonstrations as he's the one fish in the toxic reef display that everyone always asks us about.
'We got someone to write it out phonetically but that really wasn't any clearer and we tried just calling him a wedge tail triggerfish, which is an alternate name, but no one's letting us get away with that either.
'Apparently the name was also included in a scene from the Russell Brand comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which was partially set in Hawaii.'
Even in its home waters the name proves a challenge.
Hawaiians use the fish to check if a new face is truly a native - if they can't pronounce it, they are not to be trusted.
Although it may look pretty, the fish is equipped with razor sharp teeth and is aggressive in the wild, often giving divers a nasty nip if they get too close. It is believed to be highly toxic if eaten.
And along with its piggish nose, the fish makes a disgruntled snorting sound when taken out of the water.
Despite the fish's growing fame at the aquarium, the triggerfish initially failed to make much of an impression on visitors.
'We had only had him on display for a couple of days when he disappeared entirely,' said Miss Buss.
'Apparently he had hidden himself behind rockwork at the back of the display and we only found him at feeding time when he came up to the surface and began begging our senior aquarist for food.
'He has a lot of personality and he rushes around the tank, eating and filtering sand and always looking like he's on a mission to get somewhere.'
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1352753/Aquarium-staff-welcome-unprounceable-Hawaiian-arrival-Humuhumunukunukuapuaa.html
Last updated at 11:25 AM on 2nd February 2011
There's one fish you are unlikely to find on the menu in British chippy - because there isn't a wall long enough to write its name on.
And even if there was, no-one would be able to order the national fish of Hawaii by its proper name.
Even experts at the Hastings Blue Reef Aquarium in East Sussex, which has just welcomed the new addition to their collection, can't wrap their tongues around the word humuhumunukunukuapuab'a.
Aquarium manager Kate Buss said: 'He's a beautiful-looking fish but none of us have got the faintest idea how to pronounce his name and it's proving a little embarrassing when we do our public talks and feeding demonstrations as he's the one fish in the toxic reef display that everyone always asks us about.
'We got someone to write it out phonetically but that really wasn't any clearer and we tried just calling him a wedge tail triggerfish, which is an alternate name, but no one's letting us get away with that either.
'Apparently the name was also included in a scene from the Russell Brand comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which was partially set in Hawaii.'
Even in its home waters the name proves a challenge.
Hawaiians use the fish to check if a new face is truly a native - if they can't pronounce it, they are not to be trusted.
Although it may look pretty, the fish is equipped with razor sharp teeth and is aggressive in the wild, often giving divers a nasty nip if they get too close. It is believed to be highly toxic if eaten.
And along with its piggish nose, the fish makes a disgruntled snorting sound when taken out of the water.
Despite the fish's growing fame at the aquarium, the triggerfish initially failed to make much of an impression on visitors.
'We had only had him on display for a couple of days when he disappeared entirely,' said Miss Buss.
'Apparently he had hidden himself behind rockwork at the back of the display and we only found him at feeding time when he came up to the surface and began begging our senior aquarist for food.
'He has a lot of personality and he rushes around the tank, eating and filtering sand and always looking like he's on a mission to get somewhere.'
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1352753/Aquarium-staff-welcome-unprounceable-Hawaiian-arrival-Humuhumunukunukuapuaa.html
What fish? Oh, that's a humuhumunukunukuapua'a! Aquarium staff welcome unprounceable new Hawaiian arrival
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 11:25 AM on 2nd February 2011
There's one fish you are unlikely to find on the menu in British chippy - because there isn't a wall long enough to write its name on.
And even if there was, no-one would be able to order the national fish of Hawaii by its proper name.
Even experts at the Hastings Blue Reef Aquarium in East Sussex, which has just welcomed the new addition to their collection, can't wrap their tongues around the word humuhumunukunukuapuab'a.
Aquarium manager Kate Buss said: 'He's a beautiful-looking fish but none of us have got the faintest idea how to pronounce his name and it's proving a little embarrassing when we do our public talks and feeding demonstrations as he's the one fish in the toxic reef display that everyone always asks us about.
'We got someone to write it out phonetically but that really wasn't any clearer and we tried just calling him a wedge tail triggerfish, which is an alternate name, but no one's letting us get away with that either.
'Apparently the name was also included in a scene from the Russell Brand comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which was partially set in Hawaii.'
Even in its home waters the name proves a challenge.
Hawaiians use the fish to check if a new face is truly a native - if they can't pronounce it, they are not to be trusted.
Although it may look pretty, the fish is equipped with razor sharp teeth and is aggressive in the wild, often giving divers a nasty nip if they get too close. It is believed to be highly toxic if eaten.
And along with its piggish nose, the fish makes a disgruntled snorting sound when taken out of the water.
Despite the fish's growing fame at the aquarium, the triggerfish initially failed to make much of an impression on visitors.
'We had only had him on display for a couple of days when he disappeared entirely,' said Miss Buss.
'Apparently he had hidden himself behind rockwork at the back of the display and we only found him at feeding time when he came up to the surface and began begging our senior aquarist for food.
'He has a lot of personality and he rushes around the tank, eating and filtering sand and always looking like he's on a mission to get somewhere.'
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1352753/Aquarium-staff-welcome-unprounceable-Hawaiian-arrival-Humuhumunukunukuapuaa.html
Last updated at 11:25 AM on 2nd February 2011
There's one fish you are unlikely to find on the menu in British chippy - because there isn't a wall long enough to write its name on.
And even if there was, no-one would be able to order the national fish of Hawaii by its proper name.
Even experts at the Hastings Blue Reef Aquarium in East Sussex, which has just welcomed the new addition to their collection, can't wrap their tongues around the word humuhumunukunukuapuab'a.
Aquarium manager Kate Buss said: 'He's a beautiful-looking fish but none of us have got the faintest idea how to pronounce his name and it's proving a little embarrassing when we do our public talks and feeding demonstrations as he's the one fish in the toxic reef display that everyone always asks us about.
'We got someone to write it out phonetically but that really wasn't any clearer and we tried just calling him a wedge tail triggerfish, which is an alternate name, but no one's letting us get away with that either.
'Apparently the name was also included in a scene from the Russell Brand comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which was partially set in Hawaii.'
Even in its home waters the name proves a challenge.
Hawaiians use the fish to check if a new face is truly a native - if they can't pronounce it, they are not to be trusted.
Although it may look pretty, the fish is equipped with razor sharp teeth and is aggressive in the wild, often giving divers a nasty nip if they get too close. It is believed to be highly toxic if eaten.
And along with its piggish nose, the fish makes a disgruntled snorting sound when taken out of the water.
Despite the fish's growing fame at the aquarium, the triggerfish initially failed to make much of an impression on visitors.
'We had only had him on display for a couple of days when he disappeared entirely,' said Miss Buss.
'Apparently he had hidden himself behind rockwork at the back of the display and we only found him at feeding time when he came up to the surface and began begging our senior aquarist for food.
'He has a lot of personality and he rushes around the tank, eating and filtering sand and always looking like he's on a mission to get somewhere.'
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1352753/Aquarium-staff-welcome-unprounceable-Hawaiian-arrival-Humuhumunukunukuapuaa.html
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
A new threat to Hawaiian monk seals: Cat parasite carried by runoff, sewage
On the beaches of the Hawaiian islands, monk seals are dying from a pathogen in cat feces that is carried to the ocean in polluted runoff and sewage. Experts worry that the disease, toxoplasmosis, will derail efforts to restore the endangered species. With only about 1,100 Hawaiian monk seals left in the wild, the deaths are “very concerning and put toxo as one of our primary concerns” for the species, says NOAA scientist Charles Littnan. Throughout most of Hawai`i, surface water quality ranges from “slightly impaired to severely impaired,” according to a state assessment. In particular, runoff from densely populated watersheds on Maui and O`ahu likely contains pathogens that infect the seals.
Hoku endured some rough days before he died last spring. Three dogs chased him off one of his resting beaches, and he battled a minor tsunami that left him wedged between a pair of boulders in a lava field far from shore.
Observers noticed him looking thin in the few months before fishermen found him dead on a beach near the east Kaua`i town of Kapa`a.
In the end, disease took him.
Nicknamed "Star" in Hawaiian for the small white spot on his forehead, Hoku was a large, 10-year-old Hawaiian monk seal, an endangered species.
Hoku may likely have been the second Hawaiian monk seal to die this year from Toxoplasmosa gondii, a parasite transmitted primarily through cat feces and carried to the ocean in polluted runoff and sewage.
The first suspected toxoplasmosis case of the year came in January. While conducting his weekly seal search along the coastline of Moloka`i's Kalaupapa National Historical Park, marine ecologist Eric Brown discovered a stillborn pup in a tide pool. His mother, apparently in good health, lay nearby.
David Schofield, marine mammal response coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Pacific Islands Regional Office, believes the pup may have been the first Hawaiian monk seal to die from a toxoplasmosis infection transmitted in the womb.
With only about 1,100 monk seals left in the wild, the deaths are "very concerning and put toxo as one of our primary concerns" for the species, says Charles Littnan, lead scientist for NOAA’s monk seal research program.
The overall population of monk seals is declining at a rate of about 4.5 percent a year. The good news is that in recent years, their numbers have been growing in the main Hawaiian islands. Now resource managers worry that in the midst of so many humans, interactions will likely increase, as will the seals' chances of encountering diseases and contaminants.
No studies have been done in Hawai`i on how and where toxoplasmosis reaches the ocean and there are few efforts to control it. In California, however, researchers have found that it infects sea otters mainly through runoff from urban areas.
Flushing cat litter down the toilet is one pathway, since sewage treatment does not always kill the parasite's hardy eggs, called oocysts. Studies have found that oocysts can live for at least two years in sea water.
Over the past ten years, the cat parasite has killed at least four monk seals in the main Hawaiian islands – two from Kaua`i, one from O`ahu, and one from Moloka`i – and perhaps six, experts estimate.
Those deaths "should be considered an absolute minimum since there are dead seals we never know about and ones we sample but are unable to determine a cause of death for," Littnan said.
"We are only just beginning to understand the prevalence of the disease in the population and determine ways to mitigate the impact."
Hunted to near extinction in the late 19th century, the Hawaiian monk seal was federally listed as endangered in 1976, after populations plummeted during the 1960s and 1970s, largely due to military disturbance.
Today, it is considered the most endangered pinniped in the United States. With a potential peak population of about 3,000 seals, NOAA predicts numbers will drop below 1,000 in the next few years.
The population’s core has long been in the remote, largely uninhabited Northwest Hawaiian Islands, but more and more, conditions there are killing them. Low juvenile survival due to starvation is by far the biggest problem facing monk seals. Some researchers speculate that overfishing may have caused a shift in predator dominance that is now making it nearly impossible for young seals to compete for food.
But diseased cats also are among the seals' worst enemies, since their feces flow into the ocean via runoff and sewage.
The state Division of Forestry and Wildlife estimates that 300,000 to 400,000 free-ranging cats live on Maui alone. That’s roughly two cats per resident.
"Cats are all over the place in Hawai`i," explains Thierry Work, a wildlife disease specialist with the Geological Survey’s Honolulu field station who studied toxoplasmosis in Hawaiian crows, known as `alala, about a decade ago. "Wherever there are cats, there’s the potential for toxoplasmosis."
Although domestic cats are considered the main source, feral cats in remote areas also transmit the disease. Nearly 40 percent of 67 cats captured from the slopes of Mauna Kea, on the island of Hawai`i, tested positive for toxoplasmosis, according to a 2007 article in the Journal of Wildlife Diseases.
In the past decade or so, toxoplasmosis has been regularly found in a wide range of marine mammals, including whales, dolphins and sea lions. In Hawa`i, it also has killed seabirds and endangered Hawaiian crow and geese.
Perhaps most famously, southern sea otters in California began dying off in alarming numbers in the 1990s. Toxoplasmosis was found in 52 percent of fresh, beach-cast otter carcasses and 38 percent of live otters sampled along the California coast, according to a 2005 International Journal of Parasitology article.
In Hawa`i, it also has killed seabirds and endangered Hawaiian crow and geese. Whether the increased diagnoses indicate improved testing techniques or a rise in disease prevalence is difficult to determine.
"Probably both things are at play and it's going to be awfully hard to tease those out," says Scott Wright of the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Wildlife Health Center.
Sometimes a pathogen is discovered in a species and it's unclear what it means in terms of the disease moving through a population, he says. "In some cases, circumstances change and the disease takes hold and causes a problem and other times it doesn’t," he says.
For some seals, determining a cause of death is impossible since they are often highly decomposed when discovered.
"If we’re not there within 24 to 48 hours, the insides of the seal are soup," Littnan says.
But even when his team confirms the presence of T. gondii, that doesn’t necessarily indicate an infection, let alone a fatal one. So, in addition to hunting for the pathogen, his team looks for signs, such as swelling of the brain, lymph nodes, or lungs, that are typical of toxoplasmosis.
Hoku, an up-and-coming dominant male, died of "severe meningoencephalitis caused by a protozoan," Littnan says. Although toxoplasmosis is suspected, it has not yet been confirmed as the culprit. He notes that only Hoku’s brain was inflamed but not other organs that toxoplasmosis has a predilection for. This suggests that the parasite was "inactive for a long period," he says, "but some event, such as immune suppression, may have led to activation. At this point, the findings are speculative until all the results come back."
Hoku visited an area known as Salt Ponds four times in the six months before he died. There are well-known, and well-fed, feral cat populations there and at Kalaupapa National Historic Park. But Littnan says seals "move across a pretty large range. It's hard to trace it back to where they were likely exposed."
Throughout most of Hawai`I, water quality in surface waters ranges from "slightly impaired to severely impaired" by pathogens and pollutants, according to a state assessment. In particular, runoff from densely populated watersheds on Maui and O`ahu likely contains pathogens, according to the state's polluted runoff control implementation plan.
Sewage is also a significant source of pathogens as tropical storms overwhelm aging transmission pipes and inadequate treatment systems. What’s more, injection wells on Maui have created giant wastewater plumes at some popular beaches.
Cat feces also contaminate livestock. A study of pig farms on O`ahu found that nearly half of more than 500 pigs tested positive for toxoplasmosis. Most rivers that flow to the ocean traverse through an agricultural site, according to a 2006 EcoHealth article by Littnan and researchers from NOAA and the Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute.
Although the state doesn’t test for toxoplasmosis, the Natural Resources Defense Council's Testing the Waters 2010 report provides some insight into the role runoff plays in pathogen transmission in Hawai`i. Storm water was responsible for 99 percent of beach closures/advisories in 2009. Sewage spills accounted for the remaining one percent. Kaua`i beaches exceeded daily maximum bacterial standards most often.
According to the EcoHealth article, nearly 30 million gallons of sewage were spilled between 2000 and 2004. That number was exceeded in a matter of days in 2005, when a broken main caused the city of Honolulu to divert 48 million gallons of raw sewage into Waikiki's Ala Wai canal.
In addition to toxoplasmosis, other pathogens have infected monk seals.
A few years ago, Littnan, NOAA contract veterinarian Robert Braun, and Brent Stewart and Pamela Yochem of the Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute tested seals for pathogens while trying to assess the disease threat. Their results, published in EcoHealth, suggest that seals encounter a variety of pathogens, including Sarcocystis neurona and Neospora caninum, as well as T. gondii. S. neurona causes equine protozoal myeloencephalitis, which creates lesions on the spinal cord and brain stem. Neosporosis can cause abortions in cattle and neuromuscular degeneration in dogs.
Leptospirosis is among the biggest concerns. Suspected in the death of two pups born near a stream mouth on the island of Hawai`I, it is mainly transmitted through contact with surface water contaminated with infected rodent or mongoose urine.
Although there is limited data on leptospirosis prevalence in Hawai`i, it's considered ubiquitous. The reported incidence rate among people in Hawai`i (1.29 cases per 100,000 persons) is about 30 times the national rate, with the highest rates on Kaua`i and Hawai`i islands.
In another effort to gauge threats, Hawai`i Pacific University graduate student Jessica Lopez is evaluating 77 industrial chemicals and pesticides found in about 60 monk seals over the past decade.
Some of the chemicals have been shown to depress the immune systems of marine mammals, making them more vulnerable to diseases.
"We don't know anything about what levels can cause an effect in monk seals, whether lethal or sub-lethal, so it will be difficult to speak to whether the levels measured are 'safe' or not," she says.
Lopez also plans to evaluate seal movements and locations of sewage outflows and agricultural and industrial complexes to determine high risk areas that may factor into decisions on managing the seals.
For Littnan, filling data gaps is his top priority, such as tracking the mother of January's stillborn pup to see if she has signs of infection.
"It would be very interesting to learn more about seals that [test positive for toxoplasmosis] but are not showing any clinical signs," he said.
If the mother tests positive, drugs might be available for treatment. NOAA is partnering with California’s Marine Mammal Center to build a monk seal hospital in Kona.
To raise public awareness about toxoplasmosis and cat feces, NOAA has begun talking with the Hawai`i Humane Society, various interest groups and the health department.
But given his experience with Hawaiian birds, Work of the U.S. Geological Survey says generating the political will to control cats is "very difficult."
"The `alala is a classic case in point," Work says. Ten years ago, toxoplasmosis was identified as a threat at a national wildlife refuge in Kona that was created for the birds. Yet today, the cats remain at the refuge, while the `alala have been extirpated from the area.
Scientists are concerned about the role the disease may play in the seals' recovery.
Under NOAA's recovery plan, the population must grow from the current 1,100 to a minimum of 2,900 before it can be downlisted to threatened. In a recent article, NOAA scientists stated that "fishery interactions, direct killing, and disease could rapidly undo the current fragile positive trend" on the main islands.
"The greatest need for seals right now is fostering the co-existence of seals and people. That's the most immediate threat to population growth in the main Hawaiian islands," Littnan says. Compounding the threat, "toxo and lepto will be there and will probably continue to operate in a background level."
By Teresa Dawson
Environmental Health News
http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/hawaiian-monk-seals
Hoku endured some rough days before he died last spring. Three dogs chased him off one of his resting beaches, and he battled a minor tsunami that left him wedged between a pair of boulders in a lava field far from shore.
Observers noticed him looking thin in the few months before fishermen found him dead on a beach near the east Kaua`i town of Kapa`a.
In the end, disease took him.
Nicknamed "Star" in Hawaiian for the small white spot on his forehead, Hoku was a large, 10-year-old Hawaiian monk seal, an endangered species.
Hoku may likely have been the second Hawaiian monk seal to die this year from Toxoplasmosa gondii, a parasite transmitted primarily through cat feces and carried to the ocean in polluted runoff and sewage.
The first suspected toxoplasmosis case of the year came in January. While conducting his weekly seal search along the coastline of Moloka`i's Kalaupapa National Historical Park, marine ecologist Eric Brown discovered a stillborn pup in a tide pool. His mother, apparently in good health, lay nearby.
David Schofield, marine mammal response coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Pacific Islands Regional Office, believes the pup may have been the first Hawaiian monk seal to die from a toxoplasmosis infection transmitted in the womb.
With only about 1,100 monk seals left in the wild, the deaths are "very concerning and put toxo as one of our primary concerns" for the species, says Charles Littnan, lead scientist for NOAA’s monk seal research program.
The overall population of monk seals is declining at a rate of about 4.5 percent a year. The good news is that in recent years, their numbers have been growing in the main Hawaiian islands. Now resource managers worry that in the midst of so many humans, interactions will likely increase, as will the seals' chances of encountering diseases and contaminants.
No studies have been done in Hawai`i on how and where toxoplasmosis reaches the ocean and there are few efforts to control it. In California, however, researchers have found that it infects sea otters mainly through runoff from urban areas.
Flushing cat litter down the toilet is one pathway, since sewage treatment does not always kill the parasite's hardy eggs, called oocysts. Studies have found that oocysts can live for at least two years in sea water.
Over the past ten years, the cat parasite has killed at least four monk seals in the main Hawaiian islands – two from Kaua`i, one from O`ahu, and one from Moloka`i – and perhaps six, experts estimate.
Those deaths "should be considered an absolute minimum since there are dead seals we never know about and ones we sample but are unable to determine a cause of death for," Littnan said.
"We are only just beginning to understand the prevalence of the disease in the population and determine ways to mitigate the impact."
Hunted to near extinction in the late 19th century, the Hawaiian monk seal was federally listed as endangered in 1976, after populations plummeted during the 1960s and 1970s, largely due to military disturbance.
Today, it is considered the most endangered pinniped in the United States. With a potential peak population of about 3,000 seals, NOAA predicts numbers will drop below 1,000 in the next few years.
The population’s core has long been in the remote, largely uninhabited Northwest Hawaiian Islands, but more and more, conditions there are killing them. Low juvenile survival due to starvation is by far the biggest problem facing monk seals. Some researchers speculate that overfishing may have caused a shift in predator dominance that is now making it nearly impossible for young seals to compete for food.
But diseased cats also are among the seals' worst enemies, since their feces flow into the ocean via runoff and sewage.
The state Division of Forestry and Wildlife estimates that 300,000 to 400,000 free-ranging cats live on Maui alone. That’s roughly two cats per resident.
"Cats are all over the place in Hawai`i," explains Thierry Work, a wildlife disease specialist with the Geological Survey’s Honolulu field station who studied toxoplasmosis in Hawaiian crows, known as `alala, about a decade ago. "Wherever there are cats, there’s the potential for toxoplasmosis."
Although domestic cats are considered the main source, feral cats in remote areas also transmit the disease. Nearly 40 percent of 67 cats captured from the slopes of Mauna Kea, on the island of Hawai`i, tested positive for toxoplasmosis, according to a 2007 article in the Journal of Wildlife Diseases.
In the past decade or so, toxoplasmosis has been regularly found in a wide range of marine mammals, including whales, dolphins and sea lions. In Hawa`i, it also has killed seabirds and endangered Hawaiian crow and geese.
Perhaps most famously, southern sea otters in California began dying off in alarming numbers in the 1990s. Toxoplasmosis was found in 52 percent of fresh, beach-cast otter carcasses and 38 percent of live otters sampled along the California coast, according to a 2005 International Journal of Parasitology article.
In Hawa`i, it also has killed seabirds and endangered Hawaiian crow and geese. Whether the increased diagnoses indicate improved testing techniques or a rise in disease prevalence is difficult to determine.
"Probably both things are at play and it's going to be awfully hard to tease those out," says Scott Wright of the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Wildlife Health Center.
Sometimes a pathogen is discovered in a species and it's unclear what it means in terms of the disease moving through a population, he says. "In some cases, circumstances change and the disease takes hold and causes a problem and other times it doesn’t," he says.
For some seals, determining a cause of death is impossible since they are often highly decomposed when discovered.
"If we’re not there within 24 to 48 hours, the insides of the seal are soup," Littnan says.
But even when his team confirms the presence of T. gondii, that doesn’t necessarily indicate an infection, let alone a fatal one. So, in addition to hunting for the pathogen, his team looks for signs, such as swelling of the brain, lymph nodes, or lungs, that are typical of toxoplasmosis.
Hoku, an up-and-coming dominant male, died of "severe meningoencephalitis caused by a protozoan," Littnan says. Although toxoplasmosis is suspected, it has not yet been confirmed as the culprit. He notes that only Hoku’s brain was inflamed but not other organs that toxoplasmosis has a predilection for. This suggests that the parasite was "inactive for a long period," he says, "but some event, such as immune suppression, may have led to activation. At this point, the findings are speculative until all the results come back."
Hoku visited an area known as Salt Ponds four times in the six months before he died. There are well-known, and well-fed, feral cat populations there and at Kalaupapa National Historic Park. But Littnan says seals "move across a pretty large range. It's hard to trace it back to where they were likely exposed."
Throughout most of Hawai`I, water quality in surface waters ranges from "slightly impaired to severely impaired" by pathogens and pollutants, according to a state assessment. In particular, runoff from densely populated watersheds on Maui and O`ahu likely contains pathogens, according to the state's polluted runoff control implementation plan.
Sewage is also a significant source of pathogens as tropical storms overwhelm aging transmission pipes and inadequate treatment systems. What’s more, injection wells on Maui have created giant wastewater plumes at some popular beaches.
Cat feces also contaminate livestock. A study of pig farms on O`ahu found that nearly half of more than 500 pigs tested positive for toxoplasmosis. Most rivers that flow to the ocean traverse through an agricultural site, according to a 2006 EcoHealth article by Littnan and researchers from NOAA and the Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute.
Although the state doesn’t test for toxoplasmosis, the Natural Resources Defense Council's Testing the Waters 2010 report provides some insight into the role runoff plays in pathogen transmission in Hawai`i. Storm water was responsible for 99 percent of beach closures/advisories in 2009. Sewage spills accounted for the remaining one percent. Kaua`i beaches exceeded daily maximum bacterial standards most often.
According to the EcoHealth article, nearly 30 million gallons of sewage were spilled between 2000 and 2004. That number was exceeded in a matter of days in 2005, when a broken main caused the city of Honolulu to divert 48 million gallons of raw sewage into Waikiki's Ala Wai canal.
In addition to toxoplasmosis, other pathogens have infected monk seals.
A few years ago, Littnan, NOAA contract veterinarian Robert Braun, and Brent Stewart and Pamela Yochem of the Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute tested seals for pathogens while trying to assess the disease threat. Their results, published in EcoHealth, suggest that seals encounter a variety of pathogens, including Sarcocystis neurona and Neospora caninum, as well as T. gondii. S. neurona causes equine protozoal myeloencephalitis, which creates lesions on the spinal cord and brain stem. Neosporosis can cause abortions in cattle and neuromuscular degeneration in dogs.
Leptospirosis is among the biggest concerns. Suspected in the death of two pups born near a stream mouth on the island of Hawai`I, it is mainly transmitted through contact with surface water contaminated with infected rodent or mongoose urine.
Although there is limited data on leptospirosis prevalence in Hawai`i, it's considered ubiquitous. The reported incidence rate among people in Hawai`i (1.29 cases per 100,000 persons) is about 30 times the national rate, with the highest rates on Kaua`i and Hawai`i islands.
In another effort to gauge threats, Hawai`i Pacific University graduate student Jessica Lopez is evaluating 77 industrial chemicals and pesticides found in about 60 monk seals over the past decade.
Some of the chemicals have been shown to depress the immune systems of marine mammals, making them more vulnerable to diseases.
"We don't know anything about what levels can cause an effect in monk seals, whether lethal or sub-lethal, so it will be difficult to speak to whether the levels measured are 'safe' or not," she says.
Lopez also plans to evaluate seal movements and locations of sewage outflows and agricultural and industrial complexes to determine high risk areas that may factor into decisions on managing the seals.
For Littnan, filling data gaps is his top priority, such as tracking the mother of January's stillborn pup to see if she has signs of infection.
"It would be very interesting to learn more about seals that [test positive for toxoplasmosis] but are not showing any clinical signs," he said.
If the mother tests positive, drugs might be available for treatment. NOAA is partnering with California’s Marine Mammal Center to build a monk seal hospital in Kona.
To raise public awareness about toxoplasmosis and cat feces, NOAA has begun talking with the Hawai`i Humane Society, various interest groups and the health department.
But given his experience with Hawaiian birds, Work of the U.S. Geological Survey says generating the political will to control cats is "very difficult."
"The `alala is a classic case in point," Work says. Ten years ago, toxoplasmosis was identified as a threat at a national wildlife refuge in Kona that was created for the birds. Yet today, the cats remain at the refuge, while the `alala have been extirpated from the area.
Scientists are concerned about the role the disease may play in the seals' recovery.
Under NOAA's recovery plan, the population must grow from the current 1,100 to a minimum of 2,900 before it can be downlisted to threatened. In a recent article, NOAA scientists stated that "fishery interactions, direct killing, and disease could rapidly undo the current fragile positive trend" on the main islands.
"The greatest need for seals right now is fostering the co-existence of seals and people. That's the most immediate threat to population growth in the main Hawaiian islands," Littnan says. Compounding the threat, "toxo and lepto will be there and will probably continue to operate in a background level."
By Teresa Dawson
Environmental Health News
http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/hawaiian-monk-seals
A new threat to Hawaiian monk seals: Cat parasite carried by runoff, sewage
On the beaches of the Hawaiian islands, monk seals are dying from a pathogen in cat feces that is carried to the ocean in polluted runoff and sewage. Experts worry that the disease, toxoplasmosis, will derail efforts to restore the endangered species. With only about 1,100 Hawaiian monk seals left in the wild, the deaths are “very concerning and put toxo as one of our primary concerns” for the species, says NOAA scientist Charles Littnan. Throughout most of Hawai`i, surface water quality ranges from “slightly impaired to severely impaired,” according to a state assessment. In particular, runoff from densely populated watersheds on Maui and O`ahu likely contains pathogens that infect the seals.
Hoku endured some rough days before he died last spring. Three dogs chased him off one of his resting beaches, and he battled a minor tsunami that left him wedged between a pair of boulders in a lava field far from shore.
Observers noticed him looking thin in the few months before fishermen found him dead on a beach near the east Kaua`i town of Kapa`a.
In the end, disease took him.
Nicknamed "Star" in Hawaiian for the small white spot on his forehead, Hoku was a large, 10-year-old Hawaiian monk seal, an endangered species.
Hoku may likely have been the second Hawaiian monk seal to die this year from Toxoplasmosa gondii, a parasite transmitted primarily through cat feces and carried to the ocean in polluted runoff and sewage.
The first suspected toxoplasmosis case of the year came in January. While conducting his weekly seal search along the coastline of Moloka`i's Kalaupapa National Historical Park, marine ecologist Eric Brown discovered a stillborn pup in a tide pool. His mother, apparently in good health, lay nearby.
David Schofield, marine mammal response coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Pacific Islands Regional Office, believes the pup may have been the first Hawaiian monk seal to die from a toxoplasmosis infection transmitted in the womb.
With only about 1,100 monk seals left in the wild, the deaths are "very concerning and put toxo as one of our primary concerns" for the species, says Charles Littnan, lead scientist for NOAA’s monk seal research program.
The overall population of monk seals is declining at a rate of about 4.5 percent a year. The good news is that in recent years, their numbers have been growing in the main Hawaiian islands. Now resource managers worry that in the midst of so many humans, interactions will likely increase, as will the seals' chances of encountering diseases and contaminants.
No studies have been done in Hawai`i on how and where toxoplasmosis reaches the ocean and there are few efforts to control it. In California, however, researchers have found that it infects sea otters mainly through runoff from urban areas.
Flushing cat litter down the toilet is one pathway, since sewage treatment does not always kill the parasite's hardy eggs, called oocysts. Studies have found that oocysts can live for at least two years in sea water.
Over the past ten years, the cat parasite has killed at least four monk seals in the main Hawaiian islands – two from Kaua`i, one from O`ahu, and one from Moloka`i – and perhaps six, experts estimate.
Those deaths "should be considered an absolute minimum since there are dead seals we never know about and ones we sample but are unable to determine a cause of death for," Littnan said.
"We are only just beginning to understand the prevalence of the disease in the population and determine ways to mitigate the impact."
Hunted to near extinction in the late 19th century, the Hawaiian monk seal was federally listed as endangered in 1976, after populations plummeted during the 1960s and 1970s, largely due to military disturbance.
Today, it is considered the most endangered pinniped in the United States. With a potential peak population of about 3,000 seals, NOAA predicts numbers will drop below 1,000 in the next few years.
The population’s core has long been in the remote, largely uninhabited Northwest Hawaiian Islands, but more and more, conditions there are killing them. Low juvenile survival due to starvation is by far the biggest problem facing monk seals. Some researchers speculate that overfishing may have caused a shift in predator dominance that is now making it nearly impossible for young seals to compete for food.
But diseased cats also are among the seals' worst enemies, since their feces flow into the ocean via runoff and sewage.
The state Division of Forestry and Wildlife estimates that 300,000 to 400,000 free-ranging cats live on Maui alone. That’s roughly two cats per resident.
"Cats are all over the place in Hawai`i," explains Thierry Work, a wildlife disease specialist with the Geological Survey’s Honolulu field station who studied toxoplasmosis in Hawaiian crows, known as `alala, about a decade ago. "Wherever there are cats, there’s the potential for toxoplasmosis."
Although domestic cats are considered the main source, feral cats in remote areas also transmit the disease. Nearly 40 percent of 67 cats captured from the slopes of Mauna Kea, on the island of Hawai`i, tested positive for toxoplasmosis, according to a 2007 article in the Journal of Wildlife Diseases.
In the past decade or so, toxoplasmosis has been regularly found in a wide range of marine mammals, including whales, dolphins and sea lions. In Hawa`i, it also has killed seabirds and endangered Hawaiian crow and geese.
Perhaps most famously, southern sea otters in California began dying off in alarming numbers in the 1990s. Toxoplasmosis was found in 52 percent of fresh, beach-cast otter carcasses and 38 percent of live otters sampled along the California coast, according to a 2005 International Journal of Parasitology article.
In Hawa`i, it also has killed seabirds and endangered Hawaiian crow and geese. Whether the increased diagnoses indicate improved testing techniques or a rise in disease prevalence is difficult to determine.
"Probably both things are at play and it's going to be awfully hard to tease those out," says Scott Wright of the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Wildlife Health Center.
Sometimes a pathogen is discovered in a species and it's unclear what it means in terms of the disease moving through a population, he says. "In some cases, circumstances change and the disease takes hold and causes a problem and other times it doesn’t," he says.
For some seals, determining a cause of death is impossible since they are often highly decomposed when discovered.
"If we’re not there within 24 to 48 hours, the insides of the seal are soup," Littnan says.
But even when his team confirms the presence of T. gondii, that doesn’t necessarily indicate an infection, let alone a fatal one. So, in addition to hunting for the pathogen, his team looks for signs, such as swelling of the brain, lymph nodes, or lungs, that are typical of toxoplasmosis.
Hoku, an up-and-coming dominant male, died of "severe meningoencephalitis caused by a protozoan," Littnan says. Although toxoplasmosis is suspected, it has not yet been confirmed as the culprit. He notes that only Hoku’s brain was inflamed but not other organs that toxoplasmosis has a predilection for. This suggests that the parasite was "inactive for a long period," he says, "but some event, such as immune suppression, may have led to activation. At this point, the findings are speculative until all the results come back."
Hoku visited an area known as Salt Ponds four times in the six months before he died. There are well-known, and well-fed, feral cat populations there and at Kalaupapa National Historic Park. But Littnan says seals "move across a pretty large range. It's hard to trace it back to where they were likely exposed."
Throughout most of Hawai`I, water quality in surface waters ranges from "slightly impaired to severely impaired" by pathogens and pollutants, according to a state assessment. In particular, runoff from densely populated watersheds on Maui and O`ahu likely contains pathogens, according to the state's polluted runoff control implementation plan.
Sewage is also a significant source of pathogens as tropical storms overwhelm aging transmission pipes and inadequate treatment systems. What’s more, injection wells on Maui have created giant wastewater plumes at some popular beaches.
Cat feces also contaminate livestock. A study of pig farms on O`ahu found that nearly half of more than 500 pigs tested positive for toxoplasmosis. Most rivers that flow to the ocean traverse through an agricultural site, according to a 2006 EcoHealth article by Littnan and researchers from NOAA and the Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute.
Although the state doesn’t test for toxoplasmosis, the Natural Resources Defense Council's Testing the Waters 2010 report provides some insight into the role runoff plays in pathogen transmission in Hawai`i. Storm water was responsible for 99 percent of beach closures/advisories in 2009. Sewage spills accounted for the remaining one percent. Kaua`i beaches exceeded daily maximum bacterial standards most often.
According to the EcoHealth article, nearly 30 million gallons of sewage were spilled between 2000 and 2004. That number was exceeded in a matter of days in 2005, when a broken main caused the city of Honolulu to divert 48 million gallons of raw sewage into Waikiki's Ala Wai canal.
In addition to toxoplasmosis, other pathogens have infected monk seals.
A few years ago, Littnan, NOAA contract veterinarian Robert Braun, and Brent Stewart and Pamela Yochem of the Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute tested seals for pathogens while trying to assess the disease threat. Their results, published in EcoHealth, suggest that seals encounter a variety of pathogens, including Sarcocystis neurona and Neospora caninum, as well as T. gondii. S. neurona causes equine protozoal myeloencephalitis, which creates lesions on the spinal cord and brain stem. Neosporosis can cause abortions in cattle and neuromuscular degeneration in dogs.
Leptospirosis is among the biggest concerns. Suspected in the death of two pups born near a stream mouth on the island of Hawai`I, it is mainly transmitted through contact with surface water contaminated with infected rodent or mongoose urine.
Although there is limited data on leptospirosis prevalence in Hawai`i, it's considered ubiquitous. The reported incidence rate among people in Hawai`i (1.29 cases per 100,000 persons) is about 30 times the national rate, with the highest rates on Kaua`i and Hawai`i islands.
In another effort to gauge threats, Hawai`i Pacific University graduate student Jessica Lopez is evaluating 77 industrial chemicals and pesticides found in about 60 monk seals over the past decade.
Some of the chemicals have been shown to depress the immune systems of marine mammals, making them more vulnerable to diseases.
"We don't know anything about what levels can cause an effect in monk seals, whether lethal or sub-lethal, so it will be difficult to speak to whether the levels measured are 'safe' or not," she says.
Lopez also plans to evaluate seal movements and locations of sewage outflows and agricultural and industrial complexes to determine high risk areas that may factor into decisions on managing the seals.
For Littnan, filling data gaps is his top priority, such as tracking the mother of January's stillborn pup to see if she has signs of infection.
"It would be very interesting to learn more about seals that [test positive for toxoplasmosis] but are not showing any clinical signs," he said.
If the mother tests positive, drugs might be available for treatment. NOAA is partnering with California’s Marine Mammal Center to build a monk seal hospital in Kona.
To raise public awareness about toxoplasmosis and cat feces, NOAA has begun talking with the Hawai`i Humane Society, various interest groups and the health department.
But given his experience with Hawaiian birds, Work of the U.S. Geological Survey says generating the political will to control cats is "very difficult."
"The `alala is a classic case in point," Work says. Ten years ago, toxoplasmosis was identified as a threat at a national wildlife refuge in Kona that was created for the birds. Yet today, the cats remain at the refuge, while the `alala have been extirpated from the area.
Scientists are concerned about the role the disease may play in the seals' recovery.
Under NOAA's recovery plan, the population must grow from the current 1,100 to a minimum of 2,900 before it can be downlisted to threatened. In a recent article, NOAA scientists stated that "fishery interactions, direct killing, and disease could rapidly undo the current fragile positive trend" on the main islands.
"The greatest need for seals right now is fostering the co-existence of seals and people. That's the most immediate threat to population growth in the main Hawaiian islands," Littnan says. Compounding the threat, "toxo and lepto will be there and will probably continue to operate in a background level."
By Teresa Dawson
Environmental Health News
http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/hawaiian-monk-seals
Hoku endured some rough days before he died last spring. Three dogs chased him off one of his resting beaches, and he battled a minor tsunami that left him wedged between a pair of boulders in a lava field far from shore.
Observers noticed him looking thin in the few months before fishermen found him dead on a beach near the east Kaua`i town of Kapa`a.
In the end, disease took him.
Nicknamed "Star" in Hawaiian for the small white spot on his forehead, Hoku was a large, 10-year-old Hawaiian monk seal, an endangered species.
Hoku may likely have been the second Hawaiian monk seal to die this year from Toxoplasmosa gondii, a parasite transmitted primarily through cat feces and carried to the ocean in polluted runoff and sewage.
The first suspected toxoplasmosis case of the year came in January. While conducting his weekly seal search along the coastline of Moloka`i's Kalaupapa National Historical Park, marine ecologist Eric Brown discovered a stillborn pup in a tide pool. His mother, apparently in good health, lay nearby.
David Schofield, marine mammal response coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Pacific Islands Regional Office, believes the pup may have been the first Hawaiian monk seal to die from a toxoplasmosis infection transmitted in the womb.
With only about 1,100 monk seals left in the wild, the deaths are "very concerning and put toxo as one of our primary concerns" for the species, says Charles Littnan, lead scientist for NOAA’s monk seal research program.
The overall population of monk seals is declining at a rate of about 4.5 percent a year. The good news is that in recent years, their numbers have been growing in the main Hawaiian islands. Now resource managers worry that in the midst of so many humans, interactions will likely increase, as will the seals' chances of encountering diseases and contaminants.
No studies have been done in Hawai`i on how and where toxoplasmosis reaches the ocean and there are few efforts to control it. In California, however, researchers have found that it infects sea otters mainly through runoff from urban areas.
Flushing cat litter down the toilet is one pathway, since sewage treatment does not always kill the parasite's hardy eggs, called oocysts. Studies have found that oocysts can live for at least two years in sea water.
Over the past ten years, the cat parasite has killed at least four monk seals in the main Hawaiian islands – two from Kaua`i, one from O`ahu, and one from Moloka`i – and perhaps six, experts estimate.
Those deaths "should be considered an absolute minimum since there are dead seals we never know about and ones we sample but are unable to determine a cause of death for," Littnan said.
"We are only just beginning to understand the prevalence of the disease in the population and determine ways to mitigate the impact."
Hunted to near extinction in the late 19th century, the Hawaiian monk seal was federally listed as endangered in 1976, after populations plummeted during the 1960s and 1970s, largely due to military disturbance.
Today, it is considered the most endangered pinniped in the United States. With a potential peak population of about 3,000 seals, NOAA predicts numbers will drop below 1,000 in the next few years.
The population’s core has long been in the remote, largely uninhabited Northwest Hawaiian Islands, but more and more, conditions there are killing them. Low juvenile survival due to starvation is by far the biggest problem facing monk seals. Some researchers speculate that overfishing may have caused a shift in predator dominance that is now making it nearly impossible for young seals to compete for food.
But diseased cats also are among the seals' worst enemies, since their feces flow into the ocean via runoff and sewage.
The state Division of Forestry and Wildlife estimates that 300,000 to 400,000 free-ranging cats live on Maui alone. That’s roughly two cats per resident.
"Cats are all over the place in Hawai`i," explains Thierry Work, a wildlife disease specialist with the Geological Survey’s Honolulu field station who studied toxoplasmosis in Hawaiian crows, known as `alala, about a decade ago. "Wherever there are cats, there’s the potential for toxoplasmosis."
Although domestic cats are considered the main source, feral cats in remote areas also transmit the disease. Nearly 40 percent of 67 cats captured from the slopes of Mauna Kea, on the island of Hawai`i, tested positive for toxoplasmosis, according to a 2007 article in the Journal of Wildlife Diseases.
In the past decade or so, toxoplasmosis has been regularly found in a wide range of marine mammals, including whales, dolphins and sea lions. In Hawa`i, it also has killed seabirds and endangered Hawaiian crow and geese.
Perhaps most famously, southern sea otters in California began dying off in alarming numbers in the 1990s. Toxoplasmosis was found in 52 percent of fresh, beach-cast otter carcasses and 38 percent of live otters sampled along the California coast, according to a 2005 International Journal of Parasitology article.
In Hawa`i, it also has killed seabirds and endangered Hawaiian crow and geese. Whether the increased diagnoses indicate improved testing techniques or a rise in disease prevalence is difficult to determine.
"Probably both things are at play and it's going to be awfully hard to tease those out," says Scott Wright of the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Wildlife Health Center.
Sometimes a pathogen is discovered in a species and it's unclear what it means in terms of the disease moving through a population, he says. "In some cases, circumstances change and the disease takes hold and causes a problem and other times it doesn’t," he says.
For some seals, determining a cause of death is impossible since they are often highly decomposed when discovered.
"If we’re not there within 24 to 48 hours, the insides of the seal are soup," Littnan says.
But even when his team confirms the presence of T. gondii, that doesn’t necessarily indicate an infection, let alone a fatal one. So, in addition to hunting for the pathogen, his team looks for signs, such as swelling of the brain, lymph nodes, or lungs, that are typical of toxoplasmosis.
Hoku, an up-and-coming dominant male, died of "severe meningoencephalitis caused by a protozoan," Littnan says. Although toxoplasmosis is suspected, it has not yet been confirmed as the culprit. He notes that only Hoku’s brain was inflamed but not other organs that toxoplasmosis has a predilection for. This suggests that the parasite was "inactive for a long period," he says, "but some event, such as immune suppression, may have led to activation. At this point, the findings are speculative until all the results come back."
Hoku visited an area known as Salt Ponds four times in the six months before he died. There are well-known, and well-fed, feral cat populations there and at Kalaupapa National Historic Park. But Littnan says seals "move across a pretty large range. It's hard to trace it back to where they were likely exposed."
Throughout most of Hawai`I, water quality in surface waters ranges from "slightly impaired to severely impaired" by pathogens and pollutants, according to a state assessment. In particular, runoff from densely populated watersheds on Maui and O`ahu likely contains pathogens, according to the state's polluted runoff control implementation plan.
Sewage is also a significant source of pathogens as tropical storms overwhelm aging transmission pipes and inadequate treatment systems. What’s more, injection wells on Maui have created giant wastewater plumes at some popular beaches.
Cat feces also contaminate livestock. A study of pig farms on O`ahu found that nearly half of more than 500 pigs tested positive for toxoplasmosis. Most rivers that flow to the ocean traverse through an agricultural site, according to a 2006 EcoHealth article by Littnan and researchers from NOAA and the Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute.
Although the state doesn’t test for toxoplasmosis, the Natural Resources Defense Council's Testing the Waters 2010 report provides some insight into the role runoff plays in pathogen transmission in Hawai`i. Storm water was responsible for 99 percent of beach closures/advisories in 2009. Sewage spills accounted for the remaining one percent. Kaua`i beaches exceeded daily maximum bacterial standards most often.
According to the EcoHealth article, nearly 30 million gallons of sewage were spilled between 2000 and 2004. That number was exceeded in a matter of days in 2005, when a broken main caused the city of Honolulu to divert 48 million gallons of raw sewage into Waikiki's Ala Wai canal.
In addition to toxoplasmosis, other pathogens have infected monk seals.
A few years ago, Littnan, NOAA contract veterinarian Robert Braun, and Brent Stewart and Pamela Yochem of the Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute tested seals for pathogens while trying to assess the disease threat. Their results, published in EcoHealth, suggest that seals encounter a variety of pathogens, including Sarcocystis neurona and Neospora caninum, as well as T. gondii. S. neurona causes equine protozoal myeloencephalitis, which creates lesions on the spinal cord and brain stem. Neosporosis can cause abortions in cattle and neuromuscular degeneration in dogs.
Leptospirosis is among the biggest concerns. Suspected in the death of two pups born near a stream mouth on the island of Hawai`I, it is mainly transmitted through contact with surface water contaminated with infected rodent or mongoose urine.
Although there is limited data on leptospirosis prevalence in Hawai`i, it's considered ubiquitous. The reported incidence rate among people in Hawai`i (1.29 cases per 100,000 persons) is about 30 times the national rate, with the highest rates on Kaua`i and Hawai`i islands.
In another effort to gauge threats, Hawai`i Pacific University graduate student Jessica Lopez is evaluating 77 industrial chemicals and pesticides found in about 60 monk seals over the past decade.
Some of the chemicals have been shown to depress the immune systems of marine mammals, making them more vulnerable to diseases.
"We don't know anything about what levels can cause an effect in monk seals, whether lethal or sub-lethal, so it will be difficult to speak to whether the levels measured are 'safe' or not," she says.
Lopez also plans to evaluate seal movements and locations of sewage outflows and agricultural and industrial complexes to determine high risk areas that may factor into decisions on managing the seals.
For Littnan, filling data gaps is his top priority, such as tracking the mother of January's stillborn pup to see if she has signs of infection.
"It would be very interesting to learn more about seals that [test positive for toxoplasmosis] but are not showing any clinical signs," he said.
If the mother tests positive, drugs might be available for treatment. NOAA is partnering with California’s Marine Mammal Center to build a monk seal hospital in Kona.
To raise public awareness about toxoplasmosis and cat feces, NOAA has begun talking with the Hawai`i Humane Society, various interest groups and the health department.
But given his experience with Hawaiian birds, Work of the U.S. Geological Survey says generating the political will to control cats is "very difficult."
"The `alala is a classic case in point," Work says. Ten years ago, toxoplasmosis was identified as a threat at a national wildlife refuge in Kona that was created for the birds. Yet today, the cats remain at the refuge, while the `alala have been extirpated from the area.
Scientists are concerned about the role the disease may play in the seals' recovery.
Under NOAA's recovery plan, the population must grow from the current 1,100 to a minimum of 2,900 before it can be downlisted to threatened. In a recent article, NOAA scientists stated that "fishery interactions, direct killing, and disease could rapidly undo the current fragile positive trend" on the main islands.
"The greatest need for seals right now is fostering the co-existence of seals and people. That's the most immediate threat to population growth in the main Hawaiian islands," Littnan says. Compounding the threat, "toxo and lepto will be there and will probably continue to operate in a background level."
By Teresa Dawson
Environmental Health News
http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/hawaiian-monk-seals
Friday, September 3, 2010
‘Extinct’ lobelia flower rediscovered in Hawaii
‘Extinct’ lobelia flower rediscovered in Hawaii
Jonathan Harwood
SEPTEMBER 3, 2010
A flower thought to be extinct for almost 100 years has been rediscovered in Hawaii. The species of lobelia was found growing on native trees and ferns in rainforests covering the slopes of the Kohala volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii.
The flower, known as 'oha wai' in Hawaiian, was last seen on the island in 1909 and last collected on the nearby island of East Maui in 1920. It had never been recorded on the slopes of Kohala before.
Conservation worker Jon Griffin explained how researchers made the unexpected discovery. "We were surveying a rare tree snail population when we came across a native lobelia plant that we were unable to identify," he revealed.
He said they sent photographs of the flower to Dr Thomas Lammers, a botanist at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, who identified it as Clermontia peleana singuliflora, which had not been seen for 90 years and was believed to have died out.
Around 30 specimens of the plant were found by the researchers, who said many were in bloom or fruiting. The oha wai has greenish white flowers and leaves that are dark green on the upper surface with a reddish midrib. The Latin name peleana is in honour of Pele, the volcano goddess of Hawaiian mythology.
Conservation teams in Hawaii are now hoping to propagate the plant to ensure its survival. The area where it was found is home to many other rare species, including the world's only remaining colony of pupu kani oe tree snails.
Dr Sam Gon, senior scientist and cultural advisor for The Nature Conservancy of Hawaii, said news of the find was heartening. He added: "In a place like Hawaii, with its rich native diversity, rugged terrain and remote places, there is always the potential for new and exciting discoveries."
http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/68155,news-comment,news-politics,extinct-flower-rediscovered-in-hawaii-lobelia-oha-wai
Jonathan Harwood
SEPTEMBER 3, 2010
A flower thought to be extinct for almost 100 years has been rediscovered in Hawaii. The species of lobelia was found growing on native trees and ferns in rainforests covering the slopes of the Kohala volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii.
The flower, known as 'oha wai' in Hawaiian, was last seen on the island in 1909 and last collected on the nearby island of East Maui in 1920. It had never been recorded on the slopes of Kohala before.
Conservation worker Jon Griffin explained how researchers made the unexpected discovery. "We were surveying a rare tree snail population when we came across a native lobelia plant that we were unable to identify," he revealed.
He said they sent photographs of the flower to Dr Thomas Lammers, a botanist at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, who identified it as Clermontia peleana singuliflora, which had not been seen for 90 years and was believed to have died out.
Around 30 specimens of the plant were found by the researchers, who said many were in bloom or fruiting. The oha wai has greenish white flowers and leaves that are dark green on the upper surface with a reddish midrib. The Latin name peleana is in honour of Pele, the volcano goddess of Hawaiian mythology.
Conservation teams in Hawaii are now hoping to propagate the plant to ensure its survival. The area where it was found is home to many other rare species, including the world's only remaining colony of pupu kani oe tree snails.
Dr Sam Gon, senior scientist and cultural advisor for The Nature Conservancy of Hawaii, said news of the find was heartening. He added: "In a place like Hawaii, with its rich native diversity, rugged terrain and remote places, there is always the potential for new and exciting discoveries."
http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/68155,news-comment,news-politics,extinct-flower-rediscovered-in-hawaii-lobelia-oha-wai
‘Extinct’ lobelia flower rediscovered in Hawaii
‘Extinct’ lobelia flower rediscovered in Hawaii
Jonathan Harwood
SEPTEMBER 3, 2010
A flower thought to be extinct for almost 100 years has been rediscovered in Hawaii. The species of lobelia was found growing on native trees and ferns in rainforests covering the slopes of the Kohala volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii.
The flower, known as 'oha wai' in Hawaiian, was last seen on the island in 1909 and last collected on the nearby island of East Maui in 1920. It had never been recorded on the slopes of Kohala before.
Conservation worker Jon Griffin explained how researchers made the unexpected discovery. "We were surveying a rare tree snail population when we came across a native lobelia plant that we were unable to identify," he revealed.
He said they sent photographs of the flower to Dr Thomas Lammers, a botanist at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, who identified it as Clermontia peleana singuliflora, which had not been seen for 90 years and was believed to have died out.
Around 30 specimens of the plant were found by the researchers, who said many were in bloom or fruiting. The oha wai has greenish white flowers and leaves that are dark green on the upper surface with a reddish midrib. The Latin name peleana is in honour of Pele, the volcano goddess of Hawaiian mythology.
Conservation teams in Hawaii are now hoping to propagate the plant to ensure its survival. The area where it was found is home to many other rare species, including the world's only remaining colony of pupu kani oe tree snails.
Dr Sam Gon, senior scientist and cultural advisor for The Nature Conservancy of Hawaii, said news of the find was heartening. He added: "In a place like Hawaii, with its rich native diversity, rugged terrain and remote places, there is always the potential for new and exciting discoveries."
http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/68155,news-comment,news-politics,extinct-flower-rediscovered-in-hawaii-lobelia-oha-wai
Jonathan Harwood
SEPTEMBER 3, 2010
A flower thought to be extinct for almost 100 years has been rediscovered in Hawaii. The species of lobelia was found growing on native trees and ferns in rainforests covering the slopes of the Kohala volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii.
The flower, known as 'oha wai' in Hawaiian, was last seen on the island in 1909 and last collected on the nearby island of East Maui in 1920. It had never been recorded on the slopes of Kohala before.
Conservation worker Jon Griffin explained how researchers made the unexpected discovery. "We were surveying a rare tree snail population when we came across a native lobelia plant that we were unable to identify," he revealed.
He said they sent photographs of the flower to Dr Thomas Lammers, a botanist at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, who identified it as Clermontia peleana singuliflora, which had not been seen for 90 years and was believed to have died out.
Around 30 specimens of the plant were found by the researchers, who said many were in bloom or fruiting. The oha wai has greenish white flowers and leaves that are dark green on the upper surface with a reddish midrib. The Latin name peleana is in honour of Pele, the volcano goddess of Hawaiian mythology.
Conservation teams in Hawaii are now hoping to propagate the plant to ensure its survival. The area where it was found is home to many other rare species, including the world's only remaining colony of pupu kani oe tree snails.
Dr Sam Gon, senior scientist and cultural advisor for The Nature Conservancy of Hawaii, said news of the find was heartening. He added: "In a place like Hawaii, with its rich native diversity, rugged terrain and remote places, there is always the potential for new and exciting discoveries."
http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/68155,news-comment,news-politics,extinct-flower-rediscovered-in-hawaii-lobelia-oha-wai
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