Earthweek: Environmental news from around the globe
Right rebound
A species of whale once hunted to the point that only a few dozen breeding females remained has returned to the bay waters of Tasmania to give birth for the first time in well over 100 years. A just-born calf was resting on her mother's back and swimming close beside her as the pair was photographed in Great Oyster Bay during early August. About 1,000 southern rights were hunted each year around Tasmania in the early 1800s. They had become commercially extinct by 1842. According to the International Whaling Commission, the right whale was so thoroughly hunted that only 60 breeding females were left by 1920 out of an estimated original population of 160,000. The species received its name because whalers thought them the "right" whale to hunt because their slow movement made them easy targets and they tended to float after being killed. They are also rich in whale oil, once used in lamps, candles and even margarine before other products made its use obsolete.
El Niño to linger
The U.N. weather agency predicts that the El Niño ocean-warming phenomenon that has been strengthening in the tropical Pacific is likely to last well into next year, altering the world's weather patterns. Past El Niños have been associated with storms in California, drought in Australia and Indonesia and extremely heavy rainfall in East Africa, all at different times of the year. But the World Meteorological Organization cautions that no two El Niños are alike. The agency says that reliable predictions of what weather patterns are likely to do through the spring of 2010 are not yet available.
Plastic pollution
A new study finds that plastics, rather than being nearly indestructible, can actually decompose surprisingly fast in the ocean, leaching potentially toxic substances in the process. In a presentation at a meeting of the American Chemical Society, lead author Katsuhiko Saido said his team, “found that plastic in the ocean actually decomposes as it is exposed to the rain and sun and other environmental conditions, giving rise to yet another source of global contamination that will continue into the future.” Of particular concern is a vast collection of plastic debris about the size of Texas that swirls around the North Pacific in a zone called “The Great Garbage Patch.” An ocean circulation known as the North Pacific Gyre has been found to be responsible for swirling around an estimated 3.5-million-ton island of plastic trash about midway between Hawaii and San Francisco.
Volcanic cluster
Six volcanoes on Far East Russia’s Kamchatka peninsula are showing signs of activity simultaneously for the first time in 60 years, according to vulcanologists. Russia's Institute of Volcanology and Seismology says that Koryaksky, Shiveluch, Bezimyanny, Gorely, Karymsky and Klyuchevskaya Sopka volcanoes are expelling steam and gas at the same time. While none of the volcanoes appears to threaten any populated areas, the institute says that Gorely might soon erupt for the first time in 22 years. Vostok Media reports that water in Gorely's crater lake is getting hotter, which indicates magma is rising from deep beneath the volcano.
Tropical cyclones
Huge waves from passing Hurricane Bill destroyed homes along the northern coast of the Dominican Republic. Heavy surf from the storm also swept a number of people into the ocean along the coast of Maine, killing a young girl.
• Tropical storms Hilda and Ignacio churned the open waters of the eastern Pacific.
• Tropical Storm Danny was taking aim on Atlantic Canada.
Earthquakes
Far northern parts of Japan’s Honshu Island were jolted by a 5.4 magnitude tremor.
• Another earth movement was felt in far northwestern Sumatra.
Hopper invasion
Ranchers across the U.S. Great Plains and northern Rocky Mountains are battling what some are calling the worst infestation of grasshoppers in 20 years. "They've eaten everything but the cactus," South Dakota rancher Mark Tubbs told The Associated Press. He and other ranchers are planning to sell off a portion of their cattle this fall because they wonÕt be able to harvest enough fodder to feed all of their existing herds over the winter. Some say the ravenous insects are chomping through their alfalfa crop as quickly as it is growing. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service says the infestation is a natural cycle. As with many other insects, grasshopper populations ebb and flow based on moisture, drought and other factors.
