Monthly Archives: January 2012

Use of seismic technology to divert, herd, or eradicate invasive Asian carp from the Great Lakes ecosystem

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Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center

Research at the NOROCK is focused on developing sound energy barriers to prevent the expansion of two types of invasive Asian Carp in the Great Lakes ecosystem, bighead carp (Hypophthalmichthys nobilis) and silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix). Preliminary experiments have been conducted on Asian carp and non-target organisms to evaluate behavioral and physiological responses to the sound energy levels produced by water guns. Studies in 2011 are directed at the establishment of stationary and mobile barriers and the characterization of frequencies and energy levels that will divert Asian carp in the Chicago Sanitary and Shipping Canal.

In the 1960’s oil exploration companies began towing seismic air gun technology behind large vessels to explore the composition of the ocean floor using pulse pressure technology. Later in the early 1980s the water gun was developed to generate a cleaner signal by eliminating the interference produced by the air gun. Though water guns were developed as an alternate means of seismic exploration they were quickly discontinued because they were less efficient at producing low frequency energy and there were concerns about their effect on aquatic life. Today, it is those same properties of water guns that may provide the means to establish an acoustic barrier deterrent for Asian carp.

Pulse pressure technology is currently being evaluated as a means to control other aquatic invasive species throughout the US. The USGS along with the US Bureau of Reclamation is conducting studies with water guns and air guns. This research is exploring the feasibility of using these technologies to mitigate the effects of biofouling organisms such as quagga mussels (Dreissena rostriformis bugensis) and zebra mussels (Dreissena polymorpha) on hydropower production. Researchers are assessing the capability of pulse pressure to remove attached mussels from substrate or even prevent settlement on water delivery and hydropower structures. The USGS and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game are also evaluating the use of water guns as a means of suppression to control invasive Northern pike (Esox lucius) in order to protect and conserve Pacific salmonids. These studies will expand our knowledge of water gun technology and other potential uses for the protection of our infrastructure and the conservation of our fishery resources.

Why Water Guns?

Water guns offer three mechanisms by which to deter carp: 1) the use of sound at frequencies Asian carp hear, 2) a pressure wave, and 3) two high velocity water jets.

Water Gun graphic by USGS

Water Gun graphic by USGS

The water gun signature is short and clean compared to that of the air gun (Figure 1). The water gun has a low amplitude precursor pulse that is followed by the main implosion which produces a large positive spike. This is followed by a similarly shaped negative peak as the pulse is reflected off of the water’s surface. After this the pressure quickly stabilizes.

The water gun operates as a low energy, implosive source which produces a short, bubble-free pulse (Figure 2). The implosion of the cavity is created by the jet of high-pressure water expelled from the gun. These guns have dual chamber/piston assembly. Upon firing the gun high-pressure air in the upper chamber propels the firing piston into the lower chamber which then ejects the water through the ports at the base of the gun. When the piston decelerates a cavity is formed behind the expelled water. The main acoustic pulse is created when this cavity implodes due to the surrounding hydrostatic pressure.

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Cambodia: China pervasive, US welcome

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Milton Osbourne for The Lowy Interpreter

Even a short visit to Cambodia earlier this month is sufficient to underline why Prime Minister Hun Sen has been so ready over many years to describe China as his country’s best friend. Discussion of China’s aid to the country is a constant in almost every conversation.

In December 2011 Hun Sen inaugurated a major 103 MW dam at Kamchay in Kampot province built by Sinohydro, one of the largest Chinese construction groups, the latest major infrastructure project built with Chinese assistance at a cost of US$208 million.

Ramsar Site 999 - Just North of Stung Treng on The Mekong River

Ramsar Site 999 - Just North of Stung Treng on The Mekong River. Pic: Mouth to Source

In preceding years (and as Hun Sen always insists, ‘without strings’) Chinese aid to Cambodia has ranged from the construction of a bridge over the Se San River in Stung Treng province, through road construction, to the provision of military vehicles and uniforms for the Cambodia army. In May 2010 alone China committed itself to total aid of US$1.2 billion in grants and loans at a time when a US shipment of military vehicles had been frozen.

With the Kamchay dam completed, there are plans for two more Chinese-built dams in the Cardamom Mountains of Pursat province. Like Kamchay, their construction will be for the generation of hydroelectricity, but unlike Kamchay, the proposed dams will be sited on rivers that eventually flow into the Mekong River system. This raises familiar concerns about the degradation of fish stocks, an issue that has been at the heart of the opposition to the construction of the Xayaburi dam on the Mekong’s mainstream.

For the moment, dams on the Mekong’s mainstream have been held at bay, but the new environmental battleground is going to be what happens on the Mekong’s tributaries. The most contentious proposed dam is not one with Chinese involvement; this is the proposed dam on the Se San River in Stung Treng province, with proposed funding coming from Electricite du Vietnam and the Cambodian conglomerate, the Royal Group.

Bag of fish on sale early morning market - Stung Treng - Cambodia

Bag of fish on sale early morning market - Stung Treng - Cambodia Pic: Mouth to Source

Arguments for and against each of these projects boil down to whether the generation of hydroelectricity is more important than preserving wild rivers for the fish found in them. So far as the proposed Se Sam dam is concerned, Hun Sen has made his judgment, stating that ‘the Se San and Sre Pok Rivers are not the source for fish breeding for fisheries across Cambodia’.

Although China has a ‘flavour of the decade’ character, there is no doubt the Cambodian Government has hopes for greater American involvement in its economy too.

Bayon Temple and catapult Pic: Mouth to Source

Bayon Temple and catapult Pic: Mouth to Source

My travel through Cambodia was in the company of a group of senior American businessmen for whom the Cambodian Government pulled out every stop: a reception in the new Peace Palace in Phnom Penh, the presence of Deputy Prime Minister Sok An at a formal dinner, and to top it all, dinner under the stars by a flood-lit Bayon temple in the Angkor Archeological Park. This was a welcome that went beyond mere courtesy.

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Conserving biodiversity hotspots ‘could bring world’s poor $500bn a year’

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Fiona Harvey for The Guardian

Study puts economic value on the indirect ecosystem services provided by the world’s poorest people

Some of the world’s poorest people would be half a trillion dollars a year better off if the services they provide to the rest of the planet indirectly – through conserving natural habitats – was given an economic value, a new study has found.

Many of these valuable habitats and species are under threat, but the people who live in these areas lack the means to improve their conservation, according to a new study in the journal BioScience.

If poor people were paid for the services they provide in preserving some of the world’s key biodiversity hotspots, they could reap $500bn. There are some fledgling schemes that could help to raise this cash – for instance, the United Nations-backed system called Redd (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation), which uses carbon trading to generate cash to preserve trees – but so far they are small in scale.

The benefits of safeguarding these habitats, such as providing valuable services from food, medicines and clean water to absorbing carbon dioxide from the air, are more than triple the costs of conserving them, the researchers found.

Will Turner, vice–president of Conservation International and lead author of the study, said: “Developed and developing economies cannot continue to ask the world’s poor to shoulder the burden of protecting these globally important ecosystem services for the rest of the world’s benefit, without compensation in return. This is exactly what we mean when we talk about valuing natural capital. Nature may not send us a bill, but its essential services and flows, both direct and indirect, have concrete economic value.”

He said that preserving areas of highest biodiversity should be the priority. “What the research clearly tells us is that conserving the world’s remaining biodiversity isn’t just a moral imperative – it is a necessary investment for lasting economic development. But in many places where the poor depend on these natural services, we are dangerously close to exhausting them, resulting in lasting poverty,” said Turner.

Many of the benefits of conservation, so-called “ecosystem services”, are invisible – for instance, maintaining wooded land can help to prevent mudslides during heavy rainfall, and provides valuable watersheds that keep rivers healthy and provide clean drinking water, as well as absorbing carbon dioxide from the air. These benefits are not assigned an economic value, however, so that chopping down trees or destroying habitats appears to deliver an instant economic return, when in fact it is leading to economic losses that are only obvious when it is too late.

The study, entitled Global Biodiversity Conservation and the Alleviation of Poverty, was led by a team from Conservation International, and co-authored by scientists at NatureServe, the US National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. They looked in particular at 17 of the world’s most important areas for biodiversity.

They found that some of the ecosystem services accrued to the local people themselves – for instance, using forests as sources of food, medicines and shelter – while the rest are regional or global.

The study follows on a growing body of work from the past decade that has sought to place a value on ecosystem services, as a way of ensuring that they are accounted for in economic policy. If nature is not economically valued, many scientists have argued, it is more prone to being destroyed.

Russell Mittermeier, president of Conservation International and a co-author, said: “We have always known that biodiversity is foundational to human wellbeing, but we now have a strong case that ecosystems specifically located in the world’s biodiversity hotspots and high-biodiversity wilderness areas also provide a vital safety net for people living in poverty. Protecting these places is essential not only to safeguard life on earth but also to support the impoverished, ensure continued broad access to nature’s services, and meet the UN millennium development goals.”

He called on governments to integrate the conservation of nature into economic and poverty-alleviation policies, in order to value these services better.

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Protestors Paralyze Belo Monte Dam Construction Works

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International Rivers

New Construction Prompts Radical Intervention in Brazilian Amazon

Altamira, Brazil – Major construction on the Belo Monte Dam commenced on the Xingu River during Brazil’s New Year holidays, signaling a new phase in the Brazilian government’s intentions to sidestep environmental legislation and human rights conventions to build the world’s third largest hydroelectric dam in the heart of the Amazon. The project’s first blockades of the river, known as coffer dams, are being built to dry out a stretch of the river, allowing for its permanent damming. Today local protestors paralyzed construction at the dam site, affirming that resistance to the project is far from over.



Today’s protests centered on Belo Monte’s Pimental work site, where protestors denounced “unprecedented crimes” of the Brazilian government against the Amazon and its people. Organized by the Movimento Xingu Vivo para Sempre (Xingu Forever Alive Movement)-a grassroots coalition of social movements, indigenous groups, and NGOs-the protest included fishermen, farmers, students and other groups that are suffering the impacts of the Belo Monte Dam project. 



The protestors arrived at the dam site by boat, unfurling banners in front of the coffer dams with slogans such as “Belo Monte: crime of the Federal Government”, blocking the movement of workers and machinery, and paralyzing construction for over two hours. The protestors spoke peacefully with construction workers, explaining the motivations for the protest.

“Despite the criminal operations that are Belo Monte, where the Brazilian government is spending billions to devastate the Xingu while creating a situation of complete chaos among local communities, we will continue to resist this monstrosity and work to call attention of the Brazilian public and the world that this wanton destruction of the Amazon will hurt us all,” said Antônia Melo, coordinator of the Xingu Vivo movement. “To take away the river is to take away the life of its people, because water is life.” 


The first of three coffer dams, which are earthen walls built to dry out stretches of the river to open the way for dam construction, will connect the left bank of the Xingu to Pimental Island in the middle of the river. The Norte Energia (NESA) dam-building consortium has also begun to raze the jungle on the island after receiving authorization from the federal environmental agency IBAMA to clear cut over 5,000 hectares of rainforest.

Local residents were not previously informed by the government-led NESA consortium of the impending construction of the coffer dams, initiated soon after the New Year. Instead, they were alerted by a Xingu River tinged with red mud and the thundering of dynamite exploding in construction areas. 


“When we learned what they were doing, it practically killed us with sadness,” said Josinei Arara, a member of a threatened Arara indigenous community 10 miles downstream on the Xingu from the Pimental dam site. “The dam builders have kept none of their promises to compensate our village; in the meantime, they’re assassinating our river.” 



Outraged with the muddying of water they rely upon for drinking, cooking, and bathing, the Arara denounced NESA’s pollution of the river to Brazil’s Federal Public Ministry this week, also citing the clear deficiency of legally-mandated mitigation measures. 


If construction continues, the Belo Monte Dam complex will divert 80% of the Xingu River’s flow into an artificial canal and reservoir, devastating a riverine ecosystem of unique beauty and biodiversity, as well as the livelihoods of three indigenous tribes and other traditional communities.

“The building of coffer dams, traversing one of the main channels of the Xingu, is already a major intervention in the riverine ecosystem” said Brent Millikan of International Rivers. “Besides destroying habitats and interfering in the river’s hydrology, coffer dams create obstacles for local boat transportation and the movements of fish.”

The Rousseff administration has remained obstinate in pushing ahead with Belo Monte, ignoring criticisms from scientists, legal experts, religious figures, artists and street protests throughout Brazil and the world. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, linked to the Organization of American States, was scoffed by the Brazilian government when it issued precautionary measures issued by the to ensure consultations with indigenous peoples and protection of their rights. Meanwhile the Rousseff administration has pressured judges to stall or overturn legal actions against Belo Monte, while intimidating federal public prosecutors that issued them. The Belo Monte Dam is one of the first of dozens of large dams planned for construction in the Amazon by the Brazilian government.

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Media Contacts:

Brent Millikan, International Rivers, +55 61 8153 7009, [email protected]
Christian Poirier, Amazon Watch, +1 510 666 7565, [email protected]
Caroline Bennett, Amazon Watch, +1 415 487 9600, [email protected]

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Call for Action on Global Groundwater Crisis

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Groundwater.com

International water scientists today issued a call for action over the growing threat to the world’s groundwater supplies from over-extraction and pollution.

Water supplies will begin running out in critical regions where they support cities, industries and food production by 2030 unless urgent steps are taken to better manage the resource, they cautioned.

“The world has experienced a boom in groundwater use, more than doubling the rate of extraction between 1960 and 2000 – with usage continuing to soar up to the present,” says Professor Craig Simmons, Director of Australia’s National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training (NCGRT) and member of the UNESCO’s global groundwater governance program.

A recent satellite study has revealed falling groundwater tables in the United States, North Africa, India, the Middle East and China, where expanding agriculture has increased water demand.

“Groundwater currently makes up about 97 per cent of all the available fresh water on the planet and presently accounts for about 40 per cent of our total water supply. It provides drinking water to cities, is needed to grow much of our food and sustains many industries – yet almost everywhere, there is clear evidence that water tables are falling,” Professor Simmons says. “This means humanity is extracting groundwater much faster than it is naturally replaced.”

“Not many people think of groundwater as a key driver of the global economy – yet it is. If it becomes depleted, entire industries may be forced to shut down or move. Whole regions could face acute water scarcity.”

The groundwater crisis is driven by a competition for increasingly scarce water supplies between the megacities, the energy sector, manufacturing and farming. It has been hastened by an era of cheap pumps and relatively cheap energy, making it easy to extract.

“Over-extraction also has serious implications for the environment, especially when the climate is warming – as falling water tables can lead to emptying lakes and rivers and dying landscapes as the water they depended on is withdrawn,” Professor Simmons says.

“The blunt fact is that most countries and local regions did not know the size of their water resources when then began extracting them, nor how long it took to recharge. In some cases this can take centuries or even millennia. As a result they are now extracting their water unsustainably.”

Water is emerging as potentially one of the main limits to Chinese economic growth: groundwater supplies 40% of China’s food and 70% of its drinking water – yet water levels in aquifers in some regions are sinking by a metre or more a year. 660 Chinese cities have polluted supplies or are water insecure.

In the Middle East, depleted aquifers have been a major driver of the relocation of agriculture to Africa and the so-called ‘land-grab’ by wealthy countries. In India the number of wells grew from less than one million in 1960 to 19 million by 2000. Water tables in the key foodbowl are sinking beyond the reach of many farmers’ pumps.

“The crisis in global groundwater is chiefly one of poor governance, exacerbated by a lack of knowledge of the size and condition of the resource, rates of recharge, lack of transparent policy, lack of ownership, lack of price signals to users and a lack of political will to do anything,” says Professor Simmons. “It’s fixable – but it will take a lot of hard work and good science to do so.”

“Until recently this problem was on the world’s back-burner – but it is rapidly moving to the forefront. Groundwater science has improved dramatically in the last decade, giving us the ability to measure and manage the resource – but governance has yet to catch up. Unless it does, we can expect serious problems in the future.”

Even advanced nations such as the United States face a crisis in their use of groundwater, says Law Professor Robert Glennon of the University of Arizona.

“Groundwater now comprises one-quarter of the US supply and more than half of all Americans rely on groundwater for drinking. Unconstrained drilling of new wells, as many as 800,000 per year, has put incredible strain on aquifers around the US,” he says.

“Plummeting groundwater tables have caused earth subsidence, fissures, and saltwater intrusion. It took millennia for this water to accumulate in aquifers, but humans are pumping it out in mere decades.”

The environmental costs of unsustainable groundwater pumping are staggering, says Glennon. Rivers and springs have dried up or been reduced to a trickle. In Arizona, pumping turned a healthy river, the Santa Cruz, into a desiccated sandbox. Even in humid regions, water bodies have suffered. In the Midwest, wells dug to produce spring water for the bottled water industry have compromised blue-ribbon trout streams. And in Florida, scores of lakes have dried up from intense well-field pumping.

The lack of sensible regulation has created incentives for unlimited access to a finite resource, according to Glennon. “An aquifer is like a milkshake glass and each well is the equivalent of a straw in the glass. What most countries permit is a limitless number of straws in the glass. This is a recipe for disaster,” he says

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MEDIA NOTE: Leading international groundwater experts will gather in Sydney later this month (Jan 23-27) to review Australian research in the field. Media are welcome to interview them.

MORE INFORMATION: Professor Craig Simmons, Director NCGRT, ph +61 (0)405 184 645 Laki Kondylas, NCGRT, ph +61 (0)414 190 011 Emily Heylen, NCGRT media contact, +61 (0)8 8201 2193; [email protected]

Web: www.groundwater.com.au

BioFresh partners write the new IUCN Red List of endangered freshwater fish

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A new IUCN Red List for European freshwater fish, written by BioFresh partner Jörg Freyhof and Emma Brooks from the University of Southhampton, has been recently published. You can download it here. More information on IUCN Red Lists is available here.

The horse barbel, Barbus tyberinus, is severely impacted by introduced species, and is now categorised as Near Threatened. Photo © J. Freyhof.

The horse barbel, Barbus tyberinus, is severely impacted by introduced species, and is now categorised as Near Threatened. Photo © J. Freyhof.

The Red List is: “a review of the conservation status of around 6,000 European species, including dragonflies, butterflies, freshwater fishes, reptiles, amphibians, mammals and selected groups of beetles, molluscs, and vascular plants, according to IUCN regional Red Listing guidelines. It identifies those species that are threatened with extinction at the regional level – in order that appropriate conservation action can be taken to improve their status. This Red List publication summarizes the results for all described native European freshwater fishes and lampreys (hereafter referred to as just freshwater fishes)(vii).”

A review of 531 freshwater fish species across Europe yielded the main finding that:

“Overall, at least 37% of Europe’s freshwater fishes are threatened at a continental scale, and 39% are threatened at the EU 27 level. A further 4% of freshwater fishes are considered Near Threatened. This is one of the highest threat levels of any major taxonomic group assessed to date for Europe. The conservation status of Europe’s eight sturgeon species is particularly worrying: all but one are Critically Endangered (vii)”

In short, freshwater fish are amongst the most vulnerable taxonomic group in Europe, with a number close to extinction. This is a worrying conclusion, and one that calls for rapid and effective freshwater conservation work. The main threats to European freshwater fish were identified as pollution, water abstraction, overfishing, dam construction and the introduction of alien species. The authors call for stronger and more effective political protection for freshwater fish (e.g. through the EU Habitats Directive), and better conservation management for freshwaters (e.g. through the use of Key Biodiversity Areas).

The authors advise that: “In order to improve the conservation status of European freshwater fishes and to reverse their decline, ambitious conservation actions are urgently needed. In particular: ensuring adequate protection and management of key freshwater habitats and of their surrounding areas, drawing up and implementing Species Action Plans for the most threatened species, establishing monitoring and ex-situ programmes, finding appropriate means to limit further alien species introductions, especially by anglers, and revising national and European legislation, adding species identified as threatened where needed. (viii)”

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