From: DawnWatch <news@...>
Subject: DawnWatch: ABC Nightline on penguin crisis as their food goes to
farm-raised salmon 11/28/06

ABC's Nightline gave us more wonderfully animal friendly coverage on
Tuesday, November 28. Using the new movie "Happy Feet" as his jump-off
point, reporter Bill Blakemore looked at the real plight of penguins. He
told us they are struggling to survive because of global warming, now
threatening to melt the frozen sea surface many penguins need for survival,
and because of extensive over-fishing. We learned that the colony of
emperors made famous in the popular documentary "March of the Penguins" has
lost 50% of its number over the past half-century. Blakemore explained that
their main source of food is tiny shrimp-like creatures called krill, and
that the krill are being taken in enormous catches, mostly to be ground up
and fed to farm-raised salmon s. He ended his report by telling us that
scientists say that unless humanity figures out how to reverse the course
down south, the happy ending in "Happy Feet" will be just wishful thinking.

You can read the web version of the report at
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=2683077&page=1


By BILL BLAKEMORE

Nov. 28, 2006 - While a young emperor penguin named Mumble and his friends
dance in animated joy rocking movie houses across the United States in the
hit film "Happy Feet," many of their real life counterparts are struggling
to stay alive, say scientists and environmental groups.


"These animals that have wiggled and tap danced their way into the hearts of
people around the country are in serious trouble," Josh Reichert, director
of the Environment Division of the Pew Charitable Trust, told ABC News.

Extensive over-fishing, human encroachment, and effects of global warming
appear to be having a devastating cumulative effect on many penguins, say
experts.


Of the world's 19 penguin species, 12 are now so threatened they need
special protection, according to the wildlife advocacy group the Center for
Biological Diversity.


The Center is filing a petition with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to
list all 12 penguin species under the U.S. Endangered Species Act.


They include the world's largest penguin, the emperor, whose midwinter
travails and incubation rituals also filled movie houses in the
record-breaking documentary "March of the Penguins."


"The emperor colony in that movie has declined by about 50 percent over the
past half-century," scientist Paul Ponganis told ABC.


Ponganis, who makes regular trips to study emperors in Antarctica from his
base at San Diego's Scripps Oceanographic Institution, cautions that the
colony is the only one out of about 40 emperor colonies with records going
back that far, "so we don't know yet exactly how stressed the species as a
whole is, but it's not a good sign."



Same Plight as Polar Bears - Less Sea Ice


Ponganis, who studies the emperors' remarkable ability to dive 1,640 feet in
search of food and hold their breath for 20 minutes, reports that the 4-foot
tall birds are threatened by commercial fishing and, almost certainly, by
the long-range effects of global warming that is melting sea-ice.


"emperors breed and incubate their eggs in the middle of winter," he says,
"because they do it all on the frozen sea surface."



If the sea-ice freezes too late in autumn or breaks up too early in spring,
the chicks won't be old enough to swim, he explains, "so the long-term
projections for global warming are a serious threat."






Early sea-ice break up in recent years is consistent with many projections
of the effects of global warming, and scientists are not optimistic.






Climate scientists around the world agree that even in the best case
scenarios, the earth is virtually certain to warm at least another two
degrees Fahrenheit due to human-induced greenhouse gas emissions.






Emperors and other penguin species also need floating sea-ice to rest on
during their long fishing forays.






Penguins, which are found only in the southern hemisphere, thus appear to
face the same problem global warming has already brought to the north pole -
less and less frozen sea surface or "sea-ice" - which polar bears, found
only at the north end of the planet, must have to stand on as they hunt
seals, their main food.







Farmed Salmon We Eat Are Fed Penguins' Food





"'Happy Feet' ends on a note that implies the threat to the penguins has
been fixed," says Reichert. "But it's not the reality - it's getting worse."






"Happy Feet" features three penguin species - not only emperors ("Mumble")
but Adelies ("Ramon") and rockhoppers ("Lovelace"), says Reichert - and ends
with what appears to be a United Nations ban on fishing in Antarctica and
plenty of food for all penguins.






The reality, he says, is that enormous catches of krill (tiny shrimp-like
creatures) and other "forage fish" not eaten by humans are already being
taken by large commercial fleets, robbing penguins of food, and there are
expected to be much bigger catches to come.






"Krill are eaten by many penguins - it's the main food of emperors - as well
as other animals including whales, seals and many seabirds," says Reichert.
"We will soon see gigantic trawlers - boats that can take 120,000 metric
tons of krill in one season, as much krill as the entire international fleet
in the southern oceans takes now."






Humans don't eat much krill - directly, he says, although it is used in
nutritional supplements. However, it has become an increasingly attractive
food source for the burgeoning farmed fish industry known as aquaculture.






"The krill are ground up to feed to farmed salmon, and because krill are
reddish in color, they are ideal for farm raised salmon because it gives
their meat a natural red color," says Reichert.






Otherwise, he explains, fish farmers have to use red and pink dyes in fish
food to produce the color buyers like.




Endangered Species Act and Environmental Tactics





"We are quite familiar with the Center for Biological Diversity," says
Valerie Fellows of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, "They bring many
petitions for endangered species."






Fellows says the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service cannot comment on the merits
of the petition before they receive and study it, but a similar petition
filed last year by the CBD and other environmental groups - seeking
endangered status for Polar Bears - has passed a first stage of review
toward gaining that status.






Courts have given the government a deadline of Dec. 27 to present its
ultimate determination on polar bears.






CBD officers tell ABC News they believe the Endangered Species Act contains
language that requires the government to act to prevent global warming when
it can be shown the warming is harming an endangered species.






The CBD cites language in the act that prevents the federal government from
carrying out, authorizing or funding any action that might "jeopardize the
continued existence" of any listed species.






"When we get a species listed that is threatened by global warming,"
including polar bears and penguins, says the CBD'S Kassie Siegel, "we intend
to bring a case under the Endangered Species Act against the government to
act to curb greenhouse gases."


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