Thursday, 06 Mar 2003

My Abalone Has a First Name

The word "abalone" probably doesn't bring to mind the same connotations as, say, "heroin" -- but conservationists in South Africa say that illegal trade in the ocean mollusk has wreaked the kind of havoc usually associated with narcotics, bringing guns, gangs, and violence to previously peaceful communities. Abalone is a prized gourmet food in much of Asia, and the market for it is so lucrative (up to $175 per pound) that young people are leaving school to take up poaching. As a result, the mollusk has been driven to the brink of extinction, taking much of the rich aquatic ecosystem with it. Authorities are trying to curb the poaching, but with internal corruption and armed and organized poachers, it's an uphill battle. Marcel Kroese of the South African Department of Environmental Affairs described the situation as "a low-level war": "The poachers often take pot shots at us. Frequently, when we go to try to make arrests, there are riots. ... Sometimes, they've even held us hostage in police stations or petrol-bombed us."

Crystal Mess

The city of Monterey, California, has permanently banned the Crystal Harmony cruise ship from docking in its bay after the ship's owners, Crystal Cruises, confessed to dumping more than 36,000 gallons of wastewater in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, home to 27 species of marine mammals. The incident occurred in early October but wasn't reported until last week, after state water regulators requested a quarterly report. Company spokesperson Michael Coleman said Crystal Cruises had a "wonderful, wonderful track record" on the environment and claimed the officer on duty the night of the discharge "simply failed to remember that we were in the middle of the sanctuary." In 2001, Crystal was one of six cruise lines that settled charges concerning excessive smokestack emissions off Juneau, Alaska.

Honey, I Shrunk the Budget

As states across the nation face massive budget shortfalls, many are aiming their axes at environmental and conservation programs. In South Carolina, for instance, the state legislature is considering cutting $16 million from conservation programs to help balance its upcoming budget. The South Carolina Wildlife Federation yesterday urged state legislators to protect the funds, noting that the legislature already slashed $53.4 million from environmental-protection programs in the current budget cycle. Meanwhile, in Massachusetts, Gov. Mitt Romney (R) narrowly avoided angering environmentalists yesterday when he eliminated $17 million in renewable-energy funds to whittle down the state's deficit. In exchange, Romney promised to file legislation requiring the state to buy at least $10 million of green energy per year. Environmentalists said the compromise would be satisfactory so long as the lawmakers pass the proposed legislation.

Defense Offensive

Citing the specter of impending war in Iraq, the Bush administration asked Congress this week to exempt the Pentagon from a wide range of environmental laws. Congress rejected a similar request last year, but now, war looms and Republicans control both the House and the Senate. Under the plan proposed by the administration, the Pentagon would be exempt from the Clean Air Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Superfund law, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and the Marine Mammal Protection Act when the laws interfered with training -- broadly defined to include such activities as driving vehicles on military bases or from one site to another. The plan would also grant states greater leeway in meeting federal clean-air standards if military equipment such as jet fighters and tanks were adding to overall air pollution. Critics say the plan is unnecessary because there is no evidence that environmental protections adversely affect military preparedness.

Dump Yuck

Twenty-two of 50 landfills tested in California have been found to contain unusually high levels of radiation, and radioactive waste from seven of those dumps has contaminated nearby groundwater, state environmental officials announced yesterday. The findings raise new questions about the ongoing impact of a now-defunct California policy that allowed mildly radioactive waste in local dumps. State officials said more testing was needed to determine the sources of the radiation, some of which, they said, could have come from natural mineral deposits near the landfills. But nuclear-watchdog organizations called that scenario highly unlikely, given the diversity and number of landfills testing positive for radiation, and said more likely culprits were radioactive waste from nuclear power plants and research facilities. Environmentalists were upset by the findings, as were landfill operators, who said the state never told them it was allowing radioactive waste to be disposed of in their dumps.