• U.S. Drifts Closer to the Law of the Sea
  
• New York Lawmakers Would Expand Atomic Workers' Compensation
  
• Park Service Allows Sale of Creationist Grand Canyon Book
  
• Yahoo! Runs Oceana Ads Blocked by Google
  
• Flame Retardant Levels High in Puget Sound Breastmilk
  
• Two Mariana Island Birds Declared Extinct
  
• Predicting Where Wolves Attack
  
• New Dinosaurs Discovered in Antarctica
  

U.S. Drifts Closer to the Law of the Sea

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee, by a unanimous vote, has sent to the full Senate the resolution of ratification for U.S. entry into the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Some 145 nations and the European Community have ratified the accord, which was adopted in 1982 as a "constitution for the seas."

The Convention aims to create an effective international regime over the waters and ocean floor beyond national jurisdictions.

Expert witnesses told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last fall that joining the convention would restore U.S. ocean leadership, protect U.S. ocean interests and enhance foreign policy by fostering the rule of law in international affairs.

The treaty has broad and strong support including the Bush administration, the U.S. Navy, environmentalists, international oil and shipping industries, the fishing industry as well as ocean conservationists, and international law enforcement and antiterrorism organizations.

"Our hearings revealed broad support for U.S. accession to the Law of the Sea Convention," said Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Dick Lugar, an Indiana Republican.

Lugar noted that the Convention comes open for amendment for the first time later this year and urged swift action by the Senate - two-thirds of the 100 Senators must agree to ratify the treaty.

"If the United States is not party to the Convention at that time, our ability to protect Convention rights that we fought hard to achieve will be significantly diminished," Lugar said. "In addition, the Convention's Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf will soon be making decisions on claims to continental shelf areas that could impact the United States' own claims. Full U.S. participation in this process requires us to be party to the Convention."

Lugar said he would ask Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist to schedule full Senate consideration of the treaty as soon as possible.

New York Lawmakers Would Expand Atomic Workers' Compensation

In the House, New York Representatives Louise Slaughter, a Democrat, and Jack Quinn, a Republican, introduced companion legislation.

Under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act (EEOICPA), workers are eligible for a payment of $150,000 and medical coverage for expenses associated with the treatment of diseases due to radiation exposure at atomic weapons plants.

The program was established by Congress in 2000 to compensate workers who developed diseases because of their work on the U.S. atomic weapons program.

The bills introduced Thursday would allow workers who developed cancers and other radiation related diseases from their work in facilities that were not properly decontaminated after the end of the nuclear weapons program to apply for compensation under EEOICPA.

In November 2003, the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) released a report which concluded that "significant" residual radioactive contamination existed in many of these plants for decades, posing a risk of radiation related cancers or disease to unknowing workers.

Out of a list of 219 plants supplied to NIOSH by the U.S. Energy Department, 97 plants, 44 percent, were identified as having the potential for "significant residual contamination" outside of the periods when weapons production took place.

The report showed potential for significant residual radioactivity at several sites in Western New York, including Linde Ceramics (Tonawanda), Ashland Oil, Bethlehem Steel and Bliss and Laughlin.

"Our atomic weapons program workers are true Cold War heroes, and deserve the 'timely, uniform, and adequate compensation' that Congress promised them more than three years ago," said Senator Clinton. "This bill will address one of the most glaring gaps in current law by making workers who were exposed to residual radiation eligible for benefits."

In addition to expanding eligibility to workers employed at facilities where NIOSH has found potential for significant radioactive contamination, the Residual Radioactive Contamination Compensation Act would require NIOSH to update the list of such facilities annually. This addresses the fact that there was insufficient information for NIOSH to characterize a number of sites in its 2003 report.

Park Service Allows Sale of Creationist Grand Canyon Book

The book "Grand Canyon: A Different View" claims the Grand Canyon is only 6,000 years old.

The U.S. Geological Survey, an agency of the Interior Department, states that the 277 mile long Grand Canyon of the Colorado River is "a product of water erosion over the last five to seven million years."

In August, the Grand Canyon National Park superintendent appealed to Headquarters, raising questions about the "appropriateness" of offering a book claiming that the central feature of the park developed on a biblical rather than an evolutionary time scale.

And a recent review by Park Service geologists found the book wildly inaccurate and that its sale violated agency policies and undercut its scientific education program.

A January 25 memo sent to top officials by David Shaver, the Chief of the Park Service's Geologic Resources Division called for removal of the book.

Shaver said the review "led us to conclude that this book: does not use accurate, professional and scholarly knowledge; is not based on science but a specific religious doctrine; does not further the public's understanding of the Grand Canyon's existence; does not further the mission of the National Park Service…and finally, that this book should not have been approved for sale in NPS affiliated book sales."

But officials have allowed the book to be reordered and it is being marketed on the Grand Canyon Association's Internet site as "natural history."

"In order to avoid offending Christian fundamentalists, the National Park Service has been forced to adopt a position of geologic agnosticism," said PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, noting that the Grand Canyon National Park no longer offers an official estimate of the age of the Canyon.

"On the same basis that public schools do not approve creationist books as science textbooks, the National Park Service has no business promoting Christian ideology masquerading as science."

Yahoo! Runs Oceana Ads Blocked by Google

One of the ads describes Oceana's mission of saving the oceans and linking to its website, the other focuses on Oceana's campaign to stop cruise ship pollution.

It was the latter ad that caused much of the controversy, as it takes direct aim at cruise giant Royal Caribbean. Oceana has been campaigning to convince the company to install advanced wastewater treatment equipment on all its ships and to stop dumping of pollution and wastes into ocean waters.

Royal Caribbean International is a global cruise line with 18 ships in service, while its Celebrity Cruises operates nine ships.

But only three of the 27 ships are equipped with the advanced wastewater treatment equipment that Oceana says is needed to cleanse the millions of gallons of sewage the ships produce and dump into ocean waters daily.

Sometimes, the U.S. Coast Guard catches up with the Royal Caribbean cruise ships. In June 2001, the company's Rhapsody of the Seas discharged 200 gallons of graywater into Juneau harbor, according to the Coast Guard, while such discharges are prohibited within one mile of Alaska shores under federal law.

In 1999, the company pled guilty in six federal jurisdictions to charges of fleetwide practices of discharging oil contaminated bilge waste, regularly and routinely discharging without a permit wastewater contaminated by pollutants through its ships' graywater systems, and making false material statements to the Coast Guard.

On February 6, to publicize its campaigns, Oceana placed the two advertisements with Google. But Google removed the ads after two days, citing the cruise pollution ad for "language that advocates against Royal Caribbean," and the general ad for using "language advocating against the cruise line industry and cruisers," even though the ad itself made no mention of the cruise industry.

Google's public editorial guidelines declare no such prohibition, but they do state that the company reserves the right to exercise editorial discretion when it comes to the advertising it accepts.

"Yahoo should be applauded for having the courage to put freedom of expression before sales," said Oceana Chief Executive Officer Andrew Sharpless, "If Royal Caribbean and the cruise industry can pay to publicize themselves in whichever venue they please, then we deserve to be able to show the facts about their environmental records."

"We hope that Google will reconsider its stance and place our ads," Sharpless said. "But we are very pleased that Yahoo! has accepted them and that our message will get out despite the apparent efforts to block it."

Oceana's campaign does not appear to have affected Royal Caribbean's popularity. On February 11, "Travel Weekly" magazine named Royal Caribbean International Best Overall Cruise Line in the publication's First Annual Readers Choice Awards. The awards competition, which surveyed more than 2,200 travel professionals, also gave the line top honors in the Best Cruise Line: America and Best Cruise Line: Caribbean categories.

Flame Retardant Levels High in Puget Sound Breastmilk

Levels of the chemicals - called PBDEs, or polybrominated diphenyl ethers - were found in milk samples donated by nine Puget Sound women at levels 20 to 40 times higher than levels found in European and Japanese women.

PBDEs - developed in the 1960s - are extremely persistent and accumulate in the body, much like mercury, lead and PCBs.

The chemicals are commonly added to consumer and household products such as furniture foams, upholstery textiles, and consumer electronics.

How the chemicals get into the environment is still uncertain, but PBDEs are being found worldwide in house dust, indoor and outdoor air as well as in the water and sediments of rivers, estuaries and oceans.

The study confirms other U.S. research documenting rapidly rising concentrations of the chemicals in people and the environment.

"This is a real health concern," said NEW research director Clark Williams-Derry. "Studies on laboratory animals suggest that PBDEs may impair memory, learning, and have other harmful effects on development."

The report emphasized that mothers should continue breastfeeding, noting that an extensive body of research demonstrates that breastmilk, despite the presence of contaminants, provides many benefits to mothers and babies.

The study found that the median PBDE concentration among the nine samples was 50 parts per billion, with individual levels ranging from 13 to 156 parts per billion.

In contrast, median levels in Japanese blood samples were 1.3 parts per billion in 2000, and tests of Swedish breastmilk collected in 2001 found a median of 2.1 parts per billion.

The lowest level found in a Puget Sound mother - 13 parts per billion - was higher than the highest level detected in the studies of Swedish and Japanese residents.

The study called for an urgent phase out of toxic flame retardants in Washington, in accordance with Washington Governor Gary Locke's recent executive order to develop an action plan to eliminate PBDEs.

"While the levels we found in Puget Sound are much higher than in Europe, there is hope," said Williams-Derry. "When Sweden removed PBDEs from the marketplace, contamination levels in breastmilk dropped rapidly."

Sweden was the first country to phase out some of the most toxic forms of PBDEs, followed by the European Union, which initiated a phase-out that will be completed by the end of this year.

Last summer the California legislature voted to phase out two forms of PBDEs.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has negotiated the voluntary phase out of some PBDEs by one U.S. manufacturer, but says it has not concluded that the chemicals pose an unreasonable risk to human health or the environment.

Two Mariana Island Birds Declared Extinct

"Although these two species have been lost forever, we can learn from this experience," said David Allen, regional director of the Fish and Wildlife Service's Pacific Region. "We need to renew our efforts to conserve and protect the habitats that our native species rely upon for their survival, and that includes controlling, if not eliminating, invasive species. The northern Mariana Islands still have many of their native species, and we are convinced that we can restore numerous species on Guam, but only if their habitats are protected."

The Mariana mallard was a large duck, with a grayish and green head separated from a chestnut breast by a white collar, a white tail, yellow bill and orange legs. The bird once inhabited the islands of Guam, Tinian, Saipan, and Rota - all on the Mariana archipelago in the western Pacific Ocean.

Mariana mallards were last seen on Guam in 1967 and Tinian in 1974 and there have been no confirmed sightings of the species since it was last observed on Saipan in 1979.

The Fish and Wildlife Service says exact causes for the extinction of the Mariana mallard are unknown, but possible factors contributing to its decline include the massive loss of suitable wetland habitat and years of unregulated hunting.

The Guam broadbill was a small flycatcher endemic to the island of Guam.

It was listed as endangered on August 27, 1984 when fewer than 100 individuals remained.

There have been no confirmed sightings or other evidence of the Guam broadbill since May 15, 1984, despite surveys conducted by Guam biologists. The brown tree snake is likely the major factor contributing to the extinction of this bird, according to federal biologists.

Including these two species, nine of the more than 1,300 species listed under the federal Endangered Species Act have gone extinct.

The seven other extinct species include two other birds, the dusky seaside sparrow and the Santa Barbara song sparrow; and five fishes, the longjaw cisco, the amistad gambusia, the Sampson's pearlymussel, the blue pike and the Tecopa pupfish.

Predicting Where Wolves Attack

Using geographic information system (GIS) mapping, the scientists looked at road density, farm size, availability of deer and other factors to develop statewide maps for Wisconsin and Minnesota.

Despite dramatic differences in the two states' wolf populations, hunting policies, and farm sizes, the maps revealed several similarities among the sites where wolves had preyed on cattle in the past.

"We are optimistic that these maps will be used to reduce conflict between wolves and people," said Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) scientist Adrian Treves, lead author of the study. "By knowing in advance the kind of areas where wolves will prey on livestock, non-lethal controls can be employed so that wolves will not be needlessly killed. Managers may be able to focus their outreach and interventions where it is most needed."

The authors of the study, who include scientists from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and University of Wisconsin in Madison, published their results in the latest issue of the journal "Conservation Biology."

The map revealed that southwest Wisconsin, an area that breeding packs of wolves have not yet recolonized, faced moderate to high risk.

Highest risk locations were clustered along the edge of the wolf population - areas with the lowest habitat suitability for wolves and where newly formed wolf packs encounter landowners with little, recent experience of conflict with wolves.

Among farms, the authors found that those with large land holdings and large herds were more likely to suffer losses from wolves.

In Minnesota, risk was particularly high for farms sharing the land with dense deer populations.

Techniques such as guard animals, improved fencing, and new scare devices that use random sounds and light can deter wolves from preying on livestock.

Last year, Treves and other colleagues published a study showing how "audio scarecrows" that played amplified sounds of everything from helicopters to gunfire drove bears and wolves away from fenced properties.

Treves also said that the mapping technique could be adapted to other areas where human/wildlife conflicts occur, provided enough geographic data could be gathered.

"Whether it is tigers in India or black bears in New Jersey, this mapping technique could greatly reduce needless killing of wildlife, by preventing human/wildlife conflicts in the first place," he said.

New Dinosaurs Discovered in Antarctica

One of the two finds, which were made less than a week apart, is an early carnivore that would have lived many millions of years after the other, an herbivore, roamed the Earth.

The fossilized bones of the carnivore - related to tyrannosaurs and velociraptors - were found on James Ross Island off the coast of the Antarctic Peninsula.

The teeth and features of the feet are characteristic of a group of dinosaurs known as theropods, which includes the tyrannosaurs and make up a large and diverse group of now-extinct animals with the common characteristic of walking on two legs like birds.

Recent research has shown that birds are direct descendents of theropods.

The creature - a running dinosaur some six to eight feet tall - likely inhabited the area millions of years ago when the climate and terrain were similar to conditions in today's Pacific Northwest.

"One of the surprising things is that animals with these more primitive characteristics generally have not survived as long elsewhere as they have in Antarctica," said Judd Case, dean of science and a professor of biology at Saint Mary's College of California who discovered the bones. "But, for whatever reason, they were still hanging out on the Antarctic continent."

As this discovery was being made, another research teams thousands of miles away were making another remarkable find on a mountaintop some 13,000 feet high.

Now known as Mt. Kirkpatrick, the area was once a soft riverbed before millions of years of tectonic activity elevated it skyward

A research team led by William Hammer of Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois unearthed in solid rock what they believe to be the pelvis of a primitive sauropod, a four-legged, plant-eating dinosaur similar to better known creatures such as brachiosaurus and diplodocus.

Basing his estimates on the bones excavated at the site, Hammer suggests the new, and as-yet-unnamed creature was between six and seven feet tall and up to 30 feet long.

Hammer said that the rocks in which the find was made helped to establish that the creature lived roughly 200 million years ago, millions of years before the carnivore discovered on the Antarctic Peninsula.

"This site is so far removed geographically from any site near its age, it is clearly a new dinosaur to Antarctica," Hammer said. "We have so few dinosaur specimens from the whole continent, compared to any other place, that almost anything we find down there is new to science."