• Shipping Execs Charged for Dumping Oil Soaked Aid Grain
  
• Falsifying Reformulated Gas Tests Lands VP in Prison
  
• Rocky Flats Contractor Fined for Radioactive Contamination
  
• President Seeks Funding Increase for State Wildlife Grants
  
• Southwest Alaska Sea Otters May Be Listed as Threatened
  
• Four Fragile Species Burned by 2003 California Fires
  
• Yellowstone Buffalo Trap Impacts Gallatin National Forest
  
• Gulf of Mexico Void of Whitetip Sharks
  
• Congress Passes Congo Basin Forest Protection Law
  

Shipping Execs Charged for Dumping Oil Soaked Aid Grain

The indictment alleges that the contaminated grain was dumped in early February 1999 from the U.S. flagged vessel SS Juneau into the waters of the South China Sea, and the accused men tried to keep the United States Coast Guard and other authorities from learning of their illegal conduct.

Charged with conspiracy and other crimes are: Rick Stickle, chairman and CEO of Sabine Transportation, Inc. based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Sabine President Michael Reeve; Sabine VP Operations John Karayannides; Port Engineer Michael Krider; George McKay, Master of the SS Juneau; and Philip Hitchens, Chief Officer of the SS Juneau.

Court documents show that Sabine was at the time in the business of managing and operating U.S. flagged oceangoing vessels in the transportation of various dry and liquid commercial cargos.

Sabine had previously pled guilty to criminal charges in federal court in Cedar Rapids, Iowa which included the conduct underlying the indictment against the six individuals in Miami. Sabine admitted to discharging an oily mixture of some 440 tons of diesel oil contaminated grain and agreed to pay a $200,000 criminal fine with respect to the dumping incident and an additional $1.8 million as a result of the other charges against it.

The government’s investigation began when the SS Juneau arrived in Portland, Oregon at the end of her voyage and crew members alerted Coast Guard personnel there that a diesel oil leak into one of Juneau’s main cargo tanks was discovered while the humanitarian shipment of grain was being off-loaded in Bangladesh in December of 1998. The crew said some 442 metric tons of wheat became saturated with the oil and could not be off-loaded.

Allegedly, over the course of the following month, while in Bangladeshi waters and later during a dry docking in Singapore, company officials and vessel officers discussed various ways of off-loading the cargo legally, but this option was rejected as too expensive.

Instead, company officials misled Coast Guard officers in Singapore and Portland by failing to disclose the true nature of the contaminated residue and seeking authorization to discharge the residue at sea. They said it was merely an oily waste.

Such wastes can ordinarily be processed through an oil pollution prevention device on a ship, which would limit any oily waste discharge to the standards set by U.S. and international law. The Sabine officers and employees were well aware, the indictment alleges, that discharging the oily grain that way would not work, since the device was designed to handle liquids and not solids.

Although concealed from the Coast Guard at the time, Sabine’s executives allegedly had decided to hire a team of 15 Bulgarian nationals and several technicians to board the SS Juneau in Singapore and directly discharge the contaminated wheat into the ocean during the return vovage to the United States. During the first week of February 1999, the SS Juneau emptied the contaminated cargo tank into the South China Sea and failed to report the discharge to the U.S. Coast Guard.

The defendants face a maximum of five years imprisonment and a criminal fine of the greater of $250,000 per count or twice the gain or loss caused by their actions.

Falsifying Reformulated Gas Tests Lands VP in Prison

Rocky Flats Contractor Fined for Radioactive Contamination

Kaiser-Hill's responsibilities include the decommissioning of the Rocky Flats site, which lies between Denver and Boulder, Colorado.

The events included a May 2003 fire in a glovebox undergoing decommissioning, a March 2003 ventilation airflow reversal that spread radioactive material throughout several rooms, and a March 2003 radioactive contamination spread from an inadequately secured containment sleeve.

Several workers received doses of radiation, which the DOE says were below the federal limits, but there was no release of radioactive material outside of the facilities.

The DOE investigation identified deficiencies with radiological controls, procedural compliance, training of the workers, and failure to implement effective corrective actions to address previous similar issues.

The DOE is proposing to assess Kaiser-Hill a civil penalty in the amount of $522,500. Partial mitigation of the civil penalty was applied to only one violation due to the contractor's comprehensive and timely corrective actions.

Mitigation was not applied for the remainder of the civil penalty due to the contractor's ineffective or incomplete identification of the issues, failure to report to DOE or ineffective corrective actions.

The DOE says the enforcement program is designed to promote proactive efforts by contractors to correct procedural violations so that more serious events are prevented. The preliminary notice of violation will become final in 30 days unless the violations are denied with sufficient justification.

For almost 40 years, nuclear weapons parts were produced at Rocky Flats. The industrial facility used radioactive materials and more than 8,000 chemicals. Rocky Flats stopped weapons production in 1989, and cleanup of contamination at the site began in 1992. From 1952 to 1989, Rocky Flats workers used plutonium to build nuclear weapons triggers, called pits.

In 1996 the DOE decided to close Rocky Flats by the end of 2006, critics say without first figuring out the requirements for a real cleanup, but only allotting an inadequate fixed sum of $7 billion which must cover removal of weapons-grade material and bomb-production waste to site security, and decommissioning and demolition of buildings.

Environmental remediation, or cleanup of soil, air, and water, gets done with funds left over, says the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center - $470 million, or only seven percent of the $7 billion total.

President Seeks Funding Increase for State Wildlife Grants

The budget request reflects a $20 million increase above last year’s request and $10 million above the Congressional appropriation of $70 million for 2004.

Bush's fiscal year 2005 budget request cuts the overall budget for endangered species recovery by about 14 percent, a cut of some $10 million in Endangered Species Act programs.

The State Wildlife Grants program provides funding to states to restore and protect declining wildlife and habitat. Since Congress enacted the program in 2001, the first year of the Bush administration, states have worked with private landowners, conservation groups, and other agencies to restore degraded habitat, reintroduce native species, and promote the stewardship of private lands.

John Baughman is executive vice president of the International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (IAFWA), which represents all state fish and wildlife agencies. “We are pleased the President recognizes the significance of a cooperative, state based and fiscally responsible program that’s already making a difference on the ground," he said.

The State Wildlife Grants program "embodies the Bush administration’s commitment to collaborative, nonregulatory, state based approaches to conservation," the IAFWA says. By making early, strategic investments in wildlife conservation, the program helps states recover declining wildlife, saving taxpayer dollars and reducing conflicts over endangered species listings.

The state grants program is part of President Bush's U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service budget of more than $1.3 billion, $22.6 million more than last year. Much of this allocation distributes funds to private landowners.

An increase of $20.4 million for a total of $50 million is requested for Landowner Incentive Grants that provide state and tribal fish and wildlife agencies grant funds needed to establish or expand habitat protection and restoration programs on private land for "at risk" species.

And an increase of $2.6 million for a total of $10 million is asked for Private Stewardship Grant programs that provide cost-share grants to landowners for wildlife conservation.

Baughman praised the shape of the 2005 budget, but said even more funding is needed. “The President’s request for $80 million represents an excellent starting point for State Wildlife Grants in 2005,” he said. “However, wildlife conservation needs an even greater commitment of funds if we are to truly succeed in saving taxpayers many more dollars in the future.”

During the “Teaming with Wildlife Fly-In Days” on February 24 and 25, supporters of State Wildlife Grants from across the nation will converge on Capitol Hill to advocate for funding for the program. More than 3,000 groups, from sportsmen and environmental groups to outdoor and tourism businesses, support this effort, Baughman said.

Examples of how each state is using the grants and details on how much funding they have received for Fiscal Years 2001-2004 are available online at: http://www.teaming.com.

Southwest Alaska Sea Otters May Be Listed as Threatened

"Almost half the world's sea otters used to live in Southwest Alaska, but we've seen as much as a 68 percent drop in their numbers since the mid-1980s," Norton said. "No one is certain yet what is causing this, but listing this population as threatened under the Endangered Species Act will be an important step in discovering the reasons and reversing the decline."

The Service is proposing to list the southwest Alaska Distinct Population Segment of the northern sea otter, Enhydra lutris kenyoni. Under the ESA, "species" is defined broadly to include species, subspecies, and Distinct Population Segments (DPS), "a portion of a vertebrate species or subspecies that is discrete from the remainder of its taxon and also is significant to that taxon," the Service said.

The proposed rule describes the southwest Alaska DPS of the northern sea otter as occurring in near shore waters from the Aleutian Islands to Cook Inlet, including waters adjacent to the Aleutians, the Alaska Peninsula, and the Kodiak archipelago. This corresponds to the range of the southwest stock of sea otters recognized in 2002 by the Service in accordance with provisions of the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

Two other populations of sea otters in Alaska that also were recognized in 2002, the south-central and southeast stocks, are believed to be stable or increasing and are not included in the proposed rule.

Between the mid 1700s and the early 1900s, commercial hunting of sea otters for their furs brought the entire species to the brink of extinction. When they were protected from commercial harvest in 1911 under the International Fur Seal Treaty, only 13 small remnant populations were known to still exist, including six in southwest Alaska.

Following this protection, otters from 11 of these populations gradually recovered and re-colonized their former range in southwest Alaska and some other portions of their historic range.

The present decline in the southwest Alaska otter population appears to have begun in the mid-1980s, the Service said. In the Aleutians, there were approximately 55,000 to 74,000 sea otters in the mid-1980s, representing almost half of the world's estimated population of sea otters at that time.

But aerial surveys show a progressive decline in the number of otters in the Aleutians, where the current population is estimated to be less than 9,000 animals.

Survey results also show substantial declines have occurred in the Alaska Peninsula, where otter counts have declined by more than 65 percent since the mid-1980s. In the Kodiak Archipelago, surveys indicate the number of otters has declined more than 55 percent since the late 1980s.

Overall, the DPS has declined up to 68 percent over the past 15 years, and recent surveys indicate the decline is continuing.

The cause of the population decline is not clear, the Service said. "Production of young does not appear to be reduced, nor is there evidence that starvation, disease, or contaminants are involved. There also is no evidence that entanglement in commercial fishing gear or competition with fishermen for prey species is playing a significant role in the decline, and annual subsistence harvest by Alaska Natives is believed to be too low to contribute significantly to the decline."

Some evidence points to predation by killer whales as a possible cause of the decline in the Aleutian Island chain, but more research is needed to confirm whales as the cause of the decline.

The ESA defines a "threatened " species as one that is likely to become endangered in the foreseeable future. An "endangered" species is defined as being in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range.

The proposed rule to list the southwest DPS of the otter as threatened does not include a proposal for designating critical habitat. As explained in the proposed rule, critical habitat is "not determinable" at this time.

If the southwest Alaska DPS of the sea otter is listed as threatened under the ESA, a recovery plan would be developed for it. This plan would bring together efforts by Federal, State, Alaska Native groups, local agencies, and private entities for the conservation of the DPS.

The Service invites the public to submit data, information, and comments on the proposed rule. The Service will accept comments on the proposed rule for 120 days following publication in the Federal Register, and during that time the Service also will hold one or more public hearings where the public can obtain information and offer comments. Requests for public hearings must be received by the Service within 60 days of publication in the Register. Comments on the proposal can be emailed to: fw7_swakseaotter@fws.gov.

Four Fragile Species Burned by 2003 California Fires

Two birds - the coastal California gnatcatcher and the least Bell's vireo - the Quino checkerspot butterfly, and the southern California mountain yellow-legged frog have U. S. ranges restricted to southwestern California, and their habitats were all impacted by the recent fires.

The report also calls for federal, state, and local agencies to conduct supplemental environmental review of projects that may impact these species because baseline conditions have changed as a result of the fires.

In October 2003, more than a dozen wildfires swept across southern California, burning over 740,000 acres. About 95 percent of the fire burned in chaparral and coastal sage scrub. Government agencies often assess local impacts of individual fires on species of concern, but no data were available about the cumulative impacts of all the fires on these species.

The proliferation of extremely large development projects and regional permits authorizing significant amounts of "take" of these species in southern California, prompted the Center to conduct the analysis of the potential regional impacts of the fires.

The Center used data provided by the U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and California Department of Fish and Game to analyze the potential effects of the 2003 wildfires on known locations, modeled habitat, and designated critical habitat for each species throughout its range.

The results indicate that wildfires burned 19 percent of critical habitat and 27 percent of known locations of the Quino checkerspot butterfly; 12 percent of modeled habitat for mountain yellow-legged frog; 4 percent of known locations, 16 percent of critical habitat, and 28 percent of modeled habitat for the California gnatcatcher; and three percent of critical habitat and two percent of modeled habitat for least Bell's vireo.

"We recognize that fire is a natural and important ecological disturbance in southern California," said Monica Bond, Center biologist and primary author of the report. "However, burned habitat can be rendered temporarily unsuitable for these species until vegetation re-grows. The information in the report can be used as a starting point to re-evaluate the baseline conditions for these species in the wake of the 2003 fires."

U. S. Geological Survey research indicates that past fire suppression and fuel buildup are not responsible for chaparral fires because extensive fires are the norm in these habitat types, although humans are responsible for most ignitions and have increased fire frequency over the past century.

While fire is natural and inevitable in southern California, the Center says developers must be responsible for siting and designing development projects to protect human communities from fire.

"The federal and state wildlife agencies must consider the local and landscape level effects of the fires when determining the cumulative impacts of current and future development projects and large scale habitat conservation plans in the region," said Kassie Siegel, an attorney for the Center.

The Center suggests that avoiding development in fire-prone areas, using fire resistant building design, and providing defensible space around communities are the measures most effective at preventing loss of homes and human life.

Yellowstone Buffalo Trap Impacts Gallatin National Forest

The Buffalo Field Campaign, an advocacy group, points out that the last time a trap on Horse Butte was used, on April 29, 2002, the DOL captured 69 buffalo and sent them all to slaughter without testing a single one for brucellosis, the supposed reason for the slaughter.

Brucellosis is a contagious disease that causes ruminant animals to abort their calves. Brucellosis is transmitted through exposure to an aborted fetus or other birth materials and fluids. In addition to causing abortions, brucellosis causes infertility and decreases milk production in domestic and wild animals.

The State of Montana is concerned that the presence of brucellosis in the Yellowstone buffalo herd might cause the state to lose its brucellosis free status, impacting beef sales. But the buffalo advocates point out that there has never been a documented case of brucellosis transmission from wild buffalo to livestock, and since the grazing allotment was retired in 2003 there have been no cattle on the Horse Butte Peninsula.

Horse Butte is an ecologically rich area on the Gallatin National Forest comprised of approximately 15 square miles or 10,000 acres of world-class wildlife habitat. It shelters sensitive species including the bald eagle, gray wolf, trumpeter swan, peregrine falcon, grizzly bear, wolverine, lynx, and boreal owl.

The Buffalo Field Campaign (BFC) has documented violations of the Endangered Species Act associated with the buffalo trap, which is located within a Bald Eagle Management Zone. The BFC and the conservation organizations Cold Mountain Cold Rivers, and The Ecology Center have brought suit against the federal agencies permitting the trap under their buffalo management plan. They lost in the lower court, and an appeal in the case will be heard in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on March 1.

"It is very unfortunate that the state would put the facility up with this case pending," said Jim Coefield of The Ecology Center. "Today's actions reveal the agencies' disdain for the legal process."

"The trap is located on public land belonging to all Americans," said the BFC's Dan Brister. "The majority of residents on Horse Butte enjoy the presence of free-roaming buffalo and are opposed to this trap."

The BFC is the only group working in the field every day to stop the slaughter of Yellowstone's wild buffalo. Volunteers defend the buffalo on their traditional winter habitat, which includes Horse Butte, and advocate for their protection. "Daily patrols stand with the buffalo on the ground they choose to be on and document every move made against them," the BFC says.

"The two symbols of America - the bald eagle and buffalo - and the entire Yellowstone ecosystem are being abused by our government, and we will not stand by and watch as they destroy our public lands in the name of cattle that haven't even been here in over two years," said the BFC's Mike Mease.

Gulf of Mexico Void of Whitetip Sharks

Ransom Myers, a fisheries biologist based at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, Canada, with colleague Julia Baum, report that the whitetip shark abundance in the Gulf has dropped by over 99 percent since the 1950s.

In their study funded by the Pew Fellows Program in Marine Conservation at the University of Miami, Baum and Myers show that the initial abundance of large shark populations was much greater than is currently recognized.

They estimate that since the onset of intense fishing exploitation in the Gulf of Mexico in the 1950s, deepwater shark numbers have declined by over 80 percent, and the oceanic whitetip shark, initially the most common species, by over 99 percent.

The disappearance of whitetip sharks has gone unnoticed before this study was published this week. There is no conservation attention focused on this species, which has been all but forgotten in the Gulf of Mexico, with no recognition of its former prevalence in the ecosystem, say Myers and Baum.

That declines of this magnitude in these conspicuous species could go virtually unnoticed demonstrates how little we understand about the ocean, the authors say.

But federal fisheries officials questioned their findings. Chris Rogers, a fishery management specialist at the National Marine Fisheries Service, said data from the 1950s may not be relevant for the 1990s, because sharks are highly migratory and populations can vary as they move through the oceans.

In May 2003, Myers published a study in the journal "Nature" reporting a 90 percent decline in large predatory fish in the world's oceans over just 50 years.

Congress Passes Congo Basin Forest Protection Law

The Congo Basin Forest Partnership legislation (H.R. 2264), unanimously passed the House in October 2003. After being amended and passed by the Senate, the bill passed the House again Tuesday with bipartisan support. It now heads to the President's desk to be signed into law.

Royce, chairman of the Subcommittee on Africa, said, "Congo basin forests are coming under growing pressures. Ten years ago, these forests were virtually untouched. Today, logging operations are shrinking these forests.

"One estimate has logging taking out Congo basin forest areas at a rate of twice the size of Rhode Island every year," said Royce, who recently co-founded the International Conservation Caucus in the House to support the Congo Basin Forest Partnership (CFBP) and other international efforts to promote conservation.

Launched in 2002, by Secretary of State Colin Powell, the CFBP is focused on 11 key landscapes in six countries. It aims to support a network of national parks and protected areas and well- managed forestry concessions.

"Sadly, the construction of logging roads is putting intense hunting pressure on wildlife. At current levels, unless we act, most species of apes, large antelope, and elephants will disappear from the Congo basin, with some becoming extinct," said Royce.

The Congo Basin Forest Partnership attempts to combat illegal logging and poaching and other unsustainable practices, and to give local populations an economic stake in the preservation of the forests, including through the development of eco-tourism.