Parts 3, 4, and 5 of Out To Sea — The Decline of Barbados’ Sea Egg Fishery. Parts 1 and 2 are also available for viewing on Green Antilles

The European Investment Bank has agreed to fund preparations for possible use of geothermal renewable energy to replace fossil fuels in the Caribbean. Potential electricity generation capacity from geothermal resources and feasibility of connections to other islands will be examined under the technical assistance programme to start shortly.

The European Investment Bank, the European Union’s long-term lending institution, will provide a EUR 1.1 million grant to enhance detailed planning and study the feasibility of exporting electricity generated by geothermal energy from Dominica to neighbouring islands Martinique and Guadeloupe. Electricity generation using geothermal energy uses water heated to a high temperature using geothermal resources available near the surface. The EIB’s support will evaluate a possible northern submarine interconnection from Dominica to Guadeloupe and a second link to Martinique in the south. Once the feasibility of cross-border interconnections is determined, subsequent studies will define the characteristics of the sub-sea cables and assess the environmental impact of the planned interconnection.

“Ensuring the most effective use of geothermal energy as a sustainable source of electricity generation offers immense potential for transforming energy use and economic growth in the Caribbean. The European Investment Bank is pleased to contribute to overcoming specific technical and engineering challenges essential to lowering the energy costs in Dominica and to significantly increase electricity generation from renewable energy sources in the East Caribbean.” said Plutarchos Sakellaris, European Investment Bank Vice President.

Read more in the full media release.

There is concern over the transportation of hazardous nuclear waste and other hazardous material through the Caribbean Sea which are potential threats to lives, health, the environment and our economies.

This comes from Ambassador Raymond Wolfe, speaking on behalf of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to the [United Nations] General Assembly’s Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee.

He said that the focus on shipping and maritime commerce must also include improved measures, regulations and standards governing maritime safety, the training of seafarers and the safety of navigation at sea, including the safety of shipping vessels.

“Within this context, we support the Maritime Safety Committee of the IMO in its work on the continual development of materials for use in the construction of ships and improvement of maritime safety standards, including safety of life at sea. However, while CARICOM acknowledges the rights of Member States to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, there still remains a concern,” he stressed.

According to Ambassador Wolfe, CARICOM countries continue to work in partnership with the UN Environment Programme in the implementation of the regional seas conventions and action plans.

He said the region welcomed the establishment of two new working groups on reviewing lists under the Protocol relating to Specially Protected Areas and Wildlife to the Convention for the Protection and Development of the Marine Environment of the Wider Caribbean.

“We will continue to support and to co-operate with the UNEP Caribbean Environment Programme in anticipation of the completion of the first phase of the biodiversity initiative. The UN has been playing a vital role in the governance of the world’s oceans and seas and CARICOM will continue to extend its full co-operation to the Organisation in its work activities to promote and sustain the use and importance of the oceans and its resources as the common heritage of mankind.”

Source.

The Caribbean, perhaps more than any region in the world, faces an existential threat from global climate change. It is that threat which has spurred the region to band together and provide a voice to larger countries, urging them to confront the realities of what is a clear and present danger. … To learn more, Caribbean Journal talked to [John Ashton, the UK Foreign Secretary’s Special Representative for Climate Change] about Caribbean-UK climate talks, regional integration and what Caribbean intervention meant at Durban.

“I think there’s a very important experience from Durban that deserves to be much better understood around the world. In the last night, the final few hours of Durban, this whole 20 years of global climate diplomacy was on knife-edge – if it had gone the other way, we would not able to pick up the pieces. You can have a Copenhagen experience but you can’t have it twice – it would have turned into a zombie process. What was it that made the critical difference? It was the voice of the Caribbean, and particularly [Grenadian Foreign Minister] Karl Hood’s [pictured] intervention. But Karl Hood’s intervention was kind of on the shoulders of a really sustained effort on the part of some Caribbean leaders, like former President Jagdeo of Guyana, of people and institutions like the Climate Change Coordinating Centre in Belize – for example, and all of that effort came to a kind of crescendo that night. Because what needed to happen that night was for there to be an overwhelming emotional momentum in favour of a high-ambition outcome. And in the end, in that kind of circumstance, it was only the voices of the vulnerable countries – the people who were going to be existentially damaged by climate change soon – we’re all going to be existentially damaged by climate change if we don’t get a grip on it – but it will happen in a sequence. And you needed to hear from those countries that really are on the front line of it, and the Caribbean participants, and particularly Grenada, in their capacity as chairman of AOSIS, were right at the front of that. And just remembering back, it was this intervention that then triggered a number of others interventions that created that overwhelming momentum in the room.”

I really recommend that you read the complete interview with John Ashton over at the Caribbean Journal website.

[Photo: via caribbeanelections.com]

A study to determine if Cayman’s lionfish carry the toxin that causes ciguatera poisoning is under way, but so far there have been no reports of humans contracting the illness from eating the invasive species.

Researcher Bill Davin, an associate biology professor at Berry College in Mount Berry, Georgia, has been examining lionfish samples supplied by the Cayman Islands to see if they contain the naturally occurring toxin.

He has carried out examinations on 20 lionfish from all three islands – 12 from Cayman Brac, two from Little Cayman and six from Grand Cayman.

“Only one of the fish extracts thus far has shown signs of bio-activity, but those levels were relatively low compared to previous research I have done on ciguatoxic fish,” he said.

…

St. Maarten’s Nature Foundation last year recommended lionfish not be eaten based on a study that found ciguatoxins in flesh samples of larger lionfish caught in the island’s waters.

A US Food and Drug Administration study in the Caribbean has also revealed presence of the toxin in the flesh of lionfish.

“To date we have received no official reports of illness associated with the consumption of lionfish, but in endemic areas of ciguatera, toxins have been detected at levels exceeding FDA guidance and therefore could cause illness if consumed,” said Pat El-Hinnawy, an FDA public affairs officer. “The Virgin Islands is one of those areas. We have collected more than 186 fish from the waters around the US Virgin Islands, including St Croix, St. Thomas and St. John, and Puerto Rico. Of these, we have tested 74 fish to date with 26 per cent confirmed to contain ciguatoxins at levels exceeding FDA guidance.

“Our testing continues in this and other regions,” Ms El-Hinnawy said. “These results are consistent with other species of fish that are well known to be ciguatera hazards in endemic areas.”

Mr. Davin said people eating lionfish should use the same precautions they use when eating other Caribbean reef fish that can carry the ciguatera toxin.

“Avoid fish taken from established or known ciguatera hotspots and if a person has already had ciguatera, they should certainly be more careful, since they are certainly at a higher risk of re-intoxification than someone that has never had the disease,” he said.

He added: “While the number of toxic lionfish being reported from St. Thomas and St. Maarten seem high, I have not been able to find a single report of anyone contracting ciguatera from the consumption of lionfish.”

Get more information in the full article from Compass Cayman.

There have been a few other posts on this topic on Green Antilles: Amid concerns about ciguatera poisoning, reassurance that lionfish caught in Bermuda are safe to eat, More data emerges about ciguatera toxin in lionfish, Lionfish and ciguatera risk.

[Photo: Greg Grimes]

The eight member countries of the Central American Integration System (SICA) have adopted a common binding regulation outlawing shark finning. Unlike finning bans in many countries, the Regulation applies not only to domestic and foreign vessels that catch and land sharks in SICA countries, but also to vessels fishing in international waters that fly the flag of a SICA member country.

Regulation OSP-05-11, agreed in November 2011 and effective 1 January 2012, was adopted via SICA’s Fisheries and Aquaculture Sector Organization of the Central American Isthmus (OSPESCA). It binds Belize, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama.

The Regulation outright bans finning, and requires member countries to take necessary measures in national legislation to guarantee the integral use of “sustainably captured” sharks. In particular, member governments are to only permit landing sharks when the fins are still naturally attached to the whole body or to a portion of the shark body. Furthermore, exports from or imports into SICA countries of fins not attached to a body must be accompanyied by a document from the competent authority in the country of origin, certifying that it is not the product of finning.

Source.

[Photo: LV Julie]

As promised, here are part 1 and 2 of Out to Sea, a documentary about the decline of the sea-egg fishery in Barbados.

Previously on Green Antilles: Video: Trailer | The Decline of The Sea Egg Fishery in Barbados.

A decade ago, there were only 12 blue iguanas left in the wild. Today, precise tracking shows their numbers have now reached 667. Conservation may not be what you first expect from the Cayman Islands. But while these three Caribbean isles – Grand Cayman, Little Cayman and Cayman Brac – are perhaps best-known for their tax-haven status, their treasures are natural ones, rather than those stashed in bank accounts.

They claim to have more species of flora and fauna than the Galapagos Islands – and they are certainly home to two of the world’s rarest orchids, the earth’s smallest butterfly (the Pygmy Blue), around 230 species of birds, and wonderful marine life. It’s those blue iguanas though, which steal the limelight. With unblinking red eyes and vivid blue scales – especially apparent during the mating season and in the heat of the day – the reptiles, which grow to more than five feet in length, seem to revel in their fame, slowly turning their jowly heads to the cameras which inevitably surround them (and occasionally investigating pink-varnished toenails in the hope they might be fruit).

They are protected in two reserves on Grand Cayman, the largest of the three islands, and I met them in their third habitat, the breeding centre within the Queen Elizabeth II Botanic Park, which is also home to nearly two thirds of Cayman’s native plants. Close by, in the Heritage Garden, medicinal plants surround one of only 15 remaining traditional wooden Cayman cottages.

…

Ann Stafford, a British expatriate who has lived on the islands since the 1970s, runs nature tours of Grand Cayman, between growing ghost orchids in her garden and co-authoring a book on the islands’ butterflies.

“Native plants are part of the history, culture and identity of the islands. They’re what makes them unique,” she explains. “We don’t have large wild animals but we do have an interesting diversity of wildlife.”

…

[In Little Cayman] there’s just one local bank – a sleepy place with a single new ATM – and not even the faintest suggestion of global money markets, or complex financial transactions behind closed doors. The islands’ real riches are always on display: butterflies, fish, wild flowers…and those blue iguanas, basking in the sun.

For more, read the complete article from the Independent newspaper.

[Photo: The Real Estreya]

A scientific expedition into one of the world’s last pristine tropical forests has revealed incredibly diverse species and extraordinary cultural heritage, said Conservation International (CI) today, announcing the results of a scientific survey in southwest Suriname that documented nearly 1,300 species, including 46 species which may be new to science. The announcement comes as the global organization marks 25 years of science-based conservation, this month.
The three-week survey, an initiative of CI’s long-standing Rapid Assessment Program (RAP), explored three remote sites along the Kutari and Sipaliwini Rivers near the village of Kwamalasumutu from August to September 2010, in an effort to document the region’s poorly known biodiversity and help develop sustainable ecotourism opportunities for the local indigenous people. The research was conducted by a collaborative team of 53 scientists, indigenous Trio people, and students, who documented the diversity and status of plants, fishes, reptiles and amphibians, birds, small mammals, large mammals, ants, katydids, dragonflies and damselflies, aquatic beetles, and dung beetles.

CI scientist and Rapid Assessment Program Director Dr. Trond Larsen said, “Our team was privileged to explore one of the last remaining areas of vast, unroaded wilderness in the world. As a scientist, it is thrilling to study these remote forests where countless new discoveries await, especially since we believe that protecting these landscapes while they remain pristine provides perhaps the greatest opportunity for maintaining globally important biodiversity and the ecosystems people depend upon for generations to come.”

The findings of the expedition were recently published in the RAP Bulletin of Biological Assessment series, titled “A Rapid Biological Assessment of the Kwamalasamatu region, Southwestern Suriname”. Among the many highlights, scientists report new species that include a large tree-frog, eight freshwater fish, and dozens of new insects such as aquatic beetles, dung beetles, damselflies, and katydids.

Read more about cowboy frogs, armoured catfish and crayola katydids, and see photos, in the full media release from Conservation International.

Previous related posts on Green Antilles: Video: Species protection in Suriname | Global Ideas and US scientist calls for conservation of Suriname’s “uniquely unspoiled environment”.

[Photo: Paul E. Ouboter, via Conservation International]

Haiti’s president said Monday he hopes to double the number of rural households that receive electricity within two years by offering people small loans to buy solar kits.

The announcement by President Michel Martelly is part of a $45 million-plus energy package that aims to introduce electricity to thousands of people in this impoverished nation who otherwise illuminate their homes by candlelight.

The program, dubbed “Give me light, give me life,” seeks to build credit for rural Haitians as they take out loans to purchase small solar kits for charging their cell phones or computers.

…

The 40-year-old state-run Electricity of Haiti can only power 200,000 homes, Martelly said, and only 30 percent of the population in this country of 10 million has access to a power supply. Even then, most parts of Haiti only have electricity for a few hours a day, forcing many businesses and some homes to rely on generators and expensive fuel imports.

The new program will call on smaller Haitian banks to issue $30 million in loans with an interest rate of 7 percent, payable over seven years. The credit will help families purchase solar kits that will each cost between $250 and $350.

The families in question live in two of the most remote corners of the country — the Grand-Anse, the mountainous tip of the western peninsula, and the Northwest province.

In the end, the program seeks to give a power supply to 200,000 households within two years before moving onto the rest of Haiti, Martelly said.

Read more in the full article from the Washington Post.