Page sponsored by Texaco Caribbean Limited
Publication: Daily Nation
Paper Section And Page: 21A
Paper Date: Wed, May 23, 2001
Byline: Compiled by Terry Ally
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Page sponsored by Texaco Caribbean Limited |
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ALIEN SPECIES have invaded Barbados and the Government said it is "extremely concerned" about the situation.
The alien species are not little one-eyed green men but plants and animals (biodiversity) which are foreign to the country. The most recently and widely publicised alien species recently was the water lettuce which invaded a pond in Bayfield, St Philip, choking it, killing fish and preventing migratory birds from resting and feeding. That is the biggest danger that alien species pose to local biodiversity.
"Invasive alien species threaten ecosystems, habitats, or [local] species of [plants and animals]," said the Ministry of the Environment in a release to highlight International Biodiversity Day yesterday.
Other well known alien species are the African Green Monkey, introduced from West Africa in the 17th century, which has become one of the biggest agricultural pests in the island. Another was the mongoose, introduced in the late 19th century from Jamaica, to control rats which were destroying sugar cane but the mongoose also ate fowls, lizards, frogs, and a variety of other indigenous animals causing a significant reduction in local species and perhaps even the extinction of other indigenous species such as the grass snake.
The Macarthur palm, the Australian casuarina, and the mahogany tree are other examples of foreign trees taking over and snuffing out local species. The Macarthur palm overcrowds the native macaw palm while the mahogany tree has routed the native mastic tree. The casuarina can weaken clays and soils in the Scotland District as their leaves leave an acidic layers on the ground making it very difficult for other plants to grow.
"The general public is therefore advised that the possible management problems and livelihood threats resulting from introducing invasive alien animals and plants to Barbados must always be considered before they are imported," the ministry said.
Another area often overlooked is the transportation of aquatic species from other parts of the world into Barbados through ballast water which is used to stabilise ships. It is suspected that the decline of the black sea urchin in the Caribbean was due to a pathogen released in ballast water picked up in the Pacific Ocean and released in the Caribbean Sea after the vessel came through the Panama Canal. These ships are supposed to exchange ballast water on the high seas prior to their arrival in Barbados.
THE Barbados Marine Trust has launched its website. It outlines their plans and programmes as well as news about the Barbados Marine Environment. It can be accessed at www.barbadosmarinetrust.com.
Buoy to watch over coral reefs
IT sounds like the ideal occupation - bobbing around in the warm Caribbean waters and looking at coral reefs. That's exactly what a 15-foot buoy will be doing, but its observations will provide a critical link in an early warning system developed by scientists at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to alert them of coral reef bleaching.
Already about 27 per cent of the world's coral reefs are gone. The single largest cause is massive climate-related bleaching that, in just nine months in 1998, destroyed about 16 per cent of the world's reefs.
The first of a series of buoys in the Coral Reef Early Warning System (CREWS), the device will measure environmental characteristics, such as air temperature, wind speed and direction, and ultraviolet radiation and send these measurements, via satellite, to a receiving station at NOAA's Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory in Miami. Each of these measurements will be monitored by specialised computer programmes that signal scientists when conditions are conducive to coral bleaching - a serious state resulting in reef-building corals expelling the algae that give them their colour. Bleaching can lead to mass coral mortality.
"Once the buoy hits the water, its first mission will be to monitor the effects of UV radiation and abnormally warm water temperatures on mass bleaching of coral reefs, two well-known causes of bleaching," said Jim Hendee, of AOML.
The debut buoy, the R/V Kristina, was named after the director of NOAA's Florida laboratory - Kristina Katsaros, the donor of the buoy, and consists of a platform with a 12-foot tower in the centre. Instruments are located from the top of the tower to three feet under the water. It is the first in a series of CREWS buoys and stations planned for installation near all major United States coral reefs, including Puerto Rico, United States Virgin Islands, Hawaii, American Samoa, and Guam. (NOAA)
Britain to pump $4.6 billion into wind power
BRITAIN has cleared the way for a BDS$4.6 billion offshore wind power investment, the first large scale British attempt to tap this clean energy source. Fully installed, the planned turbines would be capable of powering homes in a city the size of Manchester, England's third largest conurbation. The Crown Estate, which manages land and territorial waters owned by Britain's Queen, said it was issuing seabed leases to 18 companies at 13 sites in estuaries around Britain. The sites have the potential to power over one million British homes with between 1 000 and 1 500 megawatts of power. The British Wind Energy Association which represents most of the businesses involved, said the set of projects would meet one per cent of the government's plan to see 10 per cent of Britain's energy needs produced from renewable sources by 2010. (Reuters)