Diane Arrieta

Art about Humpback whales

2011-12-30T13:34:00.000-08:00

Installation view of new work by the artist Birds are Nice.

Kali and the Redemption song, 2011
mixed media + sound loop

This work is about a juvenile Humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae). The whale is an offering to the Hindu goddess Kali-redeemer of the earth in an attempt to save the species, but also used as a metaphor for people to heal themselves by listening to the wisdom of the whale.

You can find about about the artist and the exhibit by going to her website:
http://www.birdsarenice.com

Close encounter with some Florida manatees

2011-11-27T16:04:00.000-08:00

image copyright William Garvin

taken off savethemanatee.org [11/27/2011]

My stand up paddle boarding day today on Hutchinson Island, FL, just north of the power plant, turned into an awesome day. Spent the day surrounded by several Florida Manatee (Trichechus manatus latirostris).

The first close encounter consisted of three juveniles and two adult manatees encircling my paddleboard as I paddled out form the dock. They passed beside and under the board for a long time. It was so cool. I sat down on the board for a long time and just enjoyed their company.

After that I paddled out in the bay for a few miles, then just hung out for awhile. Saw several more swimming up and down the entire way. On the way back, I was lolly gagging, enjoying the view when my board approached a very large manatee, who must have been resting because she didn't hear me approaching, by the time I realized I was right on her, she did too and freaked out! Needless to say huge wave, splashes and a big woo-hoo from me!! You'd think those big round manatees can't move that fast but she took off so fast. I managed to stay on the board-miracle!! Leslie (hubby) was a ways behind me and saw this from a distance...He thought I was being attacked by a school of Tarpon or worse... he is paddling so fast to get to me....

When he got there all he found was me standing on my board with this huge grin on my face. THAT WAS AWESOME!!! Then another manatee escorted me the entire way back into the little channel we started from... another awesome day in the neighborhood!!

FYI
The Florida manatee (Trichechus manatus latirostris) is a federally protected species. You can find out more information here. or go to savethemantee.org

rare daytime turtle on the beach

2011-09-26T12:20:00.000-07:00

I was taking on walk this past Sunday on the south end of Jupiter, Island, FL and saw this little guy out on the beach. My guess is he was feeding on a jelly and they both got pushed out onto the beach (there were swells). I waited to make sure he wasn't injured. He swam away with no incident!

(I believe it is a green turtle, but please correct me if I am wrong).

FWC Manatee Relocation in North Palm Beach, FL

2011-08-13T08:16:00.000-07:00

Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, along with Sea World, Miami Seaquarium, PBSO (Sheriff's) and Kauf's Towing relocated a manatee. I got to go along. It was great.

This particular manatee (weighing in around 1500 lbs) was in a location that would not sustain her through the winter and was not moving, so they decided to move her to the grass beds off Munyon Island.

The manatee is outfitted with GPS so they can monitor her and keep track. The hope is she will adjust to her new location to be able to survive through the winter. They will reassess her situation before the weather turns cold to see if she has adapted to her new home.

This takes a lot of planning and cooperation between agencies, the tides, the weather, etc. I am grateful I got to experience this type of relocation. I learned a lot. (I also got to ride in the nice Sheriff's boat-thanks guys. Awesome. Hi to Jack-Sheriff Dog)

Due to low tides, the huge crane had to lift her out of the truck and lower her over the bridge to her new home.

Rhino Poaching

2011-08-05T06:01:00.000-07:00

Published by the government of Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe: No End to Rhino Poaching

Johnson Siamachira

4 August 2011

ABOUT 60 000 rhinos or 85 percent of their global population have been wiped out since 1970, says the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), one of the world's largest conservation organisations.
Efforts to stop poaching in Zimbabwe have been partially successful, but the future of the world's most wanted animals, is still under serious threat. During the summer season in the South East Lowveld of Zimbabwe, human beings are not the only ones to scurry for shelter from the sweltering heat.
Even the formidable looking rhinoceros seek cool temperatures under this savannah vegetation. Unfortunately, sometimes they fall into the hands of poachers ever on the lookout for the prize catch.

Zimbabwe is one of the countries in Africa which boasts a fair number of black and white rhinos.
In 1980, the country boasted 2 000 black rhinos - the world's largest population of the species at that time. However, their number has declined steadily over the years. At last count in March this year the Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority said the country had 700 rhinos remaining (400 black rhinos and 300 white).

Rhinos are still threatened with extinction with poaching being the main culprit in reducing the world's population from 500 000 at the start of the 20th century to around 20 000 individuals surviving in the wild today a deep decline in a single century. Both species have suffered dramatic declines in numbers to the extent that without focused conservation interventions, they were going to be driven into extinction, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), one of the world's largest conservation organisations.
Also, both species of African rhino were listed in 1977 in Appendix 1 of the Convention for International Trade in Endangered Species for Flora and Fauna (Cites), which prohibited all international trade of rhino parts and products.

Black rhinos currently number 4 840 (up from 4 240 in 2007), whilst white rhinos are more numerous, with a population of 20 150 (up from 17 500 in 2007), according to IUCN-The World Conservation Union.
The most distinguishing feature of the herbivorous animal, its horn - a compact mass of agglutinated hair - has made the rhino a most sought-after animal.
The rhino horn is a prized ingredient for traditional Chinese medicine. Its supposedly aphrodisiac qualities when taken in powder form bring it a fabulous price in the international market today, around US$70 000 or more for a single rhino horn, mainly in the South Asian countries, says TRAFFIC, the wildlife monitoring network.

Sexual prowess attributed to the horn could be due to its shape as it resembles the linga or phallus which is worshipped as Lord Shiva in India. Moreover, copulation between rhinos lasts much longer than between other animals and hence perhaps the association.

Containing poaching in Zimbabwe and saving the animal from extinction is proving difficult.
The areas where the rhinos live are surrounded by human inhabitants, providing ample opportunity for villagers to collude with poachers. Poachers also exploit the rhino's fondness for wallowing in marshy land and the habit of always following same track. In addition, they have on their side vast financial backing through international smuggling rackets.

While personnel from the National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority are trained, there is inadequate funding to access resources such as patrol equipment, says Geoffreys Matipano, National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority's National Rhino Co-ordinator(Biological).

In addition, the parks authority does not get any grants from the Government for rhino conservation. But under these difficult circumstances, anti-poaching rangers have done commendable work to contain the problem and compared to some African range states, the track record has been good.
But the poachers are getting cleverer by the day. The newest threat to the survival of the rhino is that the poachers have networked into well-resourced organised criminals who use sophisticated equipment. Sometimes the poachers cut off the horn even when the animal is still alive.

Zimbabwe has undertaken extensive dehorning projects together with Kenya and Namibia, with mixed results. But this exercise is expensive and presents logistical challenges.
It has been argued that stricter laws making it easier to convict poachers would be a more effective solution. Says one observer: "The law at times puts us at a disadvantage. Unless the poacher knows he is going to be mortally wounded if caught, you can't put fear in his heart and make him desist from his nefarious trade."
Little has been done to encourage research. Independent researchers are treated with suspicion and few are prepared to follow their advice.

However, conservationists are encouraged by the recent efforts by the Government to involve the judiciary to understand the economic and environmental losses resulting from rhino poaching. Even more, officials and conservationists are calling for Cites to allow Zimbabwe to trade in rhino horn so as to generate income to protect the endangered rhino.

Currently, the country is stuck with five tonnes of rhino horn in its stockpiles.
Perhaps due to its unusual amour-plated body, and poor sight but acute sense of smell, the animal has always evoked wonder among people.The rhino is associated with Western mythical animal Unicorn and can be found in the earliest Mesopotamian pictorial art. A Chinese 27 BC prototype is called Ch'i Lin.
In India, a seal of the Mohenjodaro civilisation of the third century BC shows a rhino. In later Hindu mythology it is projected as a powerful animal fit for carrying around the supreme god, Vishnu.
Even now, in parts of India, Nepal and South East Asia, it is thought that eating rhino flesh or drinking its blood is the surest way to go to heaven. In Nepal, consuming its urine is supposed to cure diseases like asthma.

Cups made of rhino horn were in great demand among medieval royal families of Assam and nearby countries. It was thought to be capable of absorbing venom and in palace intrigues, poisoning was a constant threat.
But what about the future of the rhino? "Every ecologist knows that all animals and plant life in an ecosystem are closely linked," says an ecologist with the national parks authority. "If the rhino goes, our extermination will not be far."

Conservationists believe that unless serious steps are undertaken at national and international levels, there is a danger of this unique species becoming merely a beast of splenderous tales of the past.

Link to original article here.

Contemporary environmental art

2011-07-14T06:43:00.000-07:00

Found this on the site Illusion scene 360. you can read the story here.

I have a similar project waiting to be made about water.

Rising Sea levels in Florida

2011-07-12T10:33:00.000-07:00

Nature Brains: The Race Against Sea-Level Rise

Written by Robert Lalasz
Published on July 6th, 2011 | Discuss This Article

111 5Email0117

Want to know how climate change might affect a seashore near you? Look at what it’s already done over the past 20 years to a stretch of the Florida Gulf Coast, according to a pathbreaking new study published in the journal Climatic Change.

Sea-level rise along the Waccasassa Bay area (90 miles north of Tampa) is already picking winners and losers in nature there — including the habitat of the iconic Florida black bear and the bald eagle depend upon. And people up and down Florida’s Gulf Coast might soon suffer, too, if sea-level rise destroys the coastal wetlands that produce world-class sport fishing and protect cities from storm surges.
But will these losses continue…and what can anyone do about them? Laura Geselbracht, senior marine scientist with The Nature Conservancy and lead author of the study — one of the first to test a sea-level-rise model using existing data from the past — gives some answers below.

______________

Q: Why is sea-level rise such a big deal for Florida?
GESELBRACHT: Because so much of the Gulf Coast here is under 1‑1/2 meters in elevation. If the Earth experiences 1 meter of sea-level rise over the next 100 years — and that’s the most recent “moderate” scenario projected by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change — that will mean very substantial change for Florida, not only to our coastal wetlands and natural systems, but also for people who live along the coast.

Q: The Waccasassa Bay area is one of the best places in the world to study sea-level rise — why is that?
GESELBRACHT: First, it isn’t very populated. So you can really study the effects of sea level rise without having to worry about development getting in the way.
Second, there have been 20‑plus years of field studies done there, and you can very clearly see over that period how sea level rise has affected that habitat. You can see where coastal forest has transitioned into salt marsh and tree islands. When you go out in the field, you come across tree trumps all over the place in the salt marsh. The habitats are changing fast, and it gives us a glimpse of what will happen in areas that aren’t as low-lying.

Q: So who’s winning and who’s losing in this race against sea-level rise?
GESELBRACHT: We were really surprised to find that it’s not the salt marsh — which is closest to the water’s edge — that has changed so substantially. It’s actually the coastal forest, which is set back from the salt marsh. So very small, even modest changes in sea level rise will have a fairly significant impact on the coastal wetland systems, quite a ways back from the coast. That means that, where development does exist, it will get in the way of coastal wetland systems that are trying to transition to higher elevations because of sea-level rise.

Q: About that transition to higher elevations…what’s going to happen in the future to these coastal habitats, according to your model? (I might add that you plugged the 20 years of data into the model you’re using, to see how accurately it would predict what actually happened…and it was very accurate.)
GESELBRACHT: The predictions vary with time and with which sea-level-rise projection you use. In one 25‑year period, tidal flats and salt marsh might do well, but in the next 50 to 100 years, those habitats may be squeezed out against either higher elevations, inappropriate soil types or coastal development. But coastal forest almost completely disappears in our 1-meter sea level rise scenario.
Q: How are species that depend on the forest going to be affected? Is there anywhere for them to go?
GESELBRACHT: Coastal forest supports some of the larger species that we all can relate to, like the Florida black bear. There is a particular population in the Waccasassa Bay area that is a very threatened population. So, as their habitat there gets more fragmented, as large swaths of it disappear due to salt water intrusion, they may not have enough room to forage and do the things that bears do, and they might ultimately die out.
Another is the bald eagle. A lot of people think: “Well, can’t they just fly to some other trees?” But those other coastal forest areas are already occupied by bald eagles, so their populations will be diminished in that area because of the loss of coastal forests. There’s a whole suite of other species that are associated coastal forests that would be impacted as well.

Q: OK, but that’s bears and eagles. Why should people care, outside from caring about bears and eagles?
GESELBRACHT: These effects are important anywhere along the coast. Some low-lying communities along Florida’s Big Bend Coast are going to be very vulnerable — if the coastal wetland systems retreat around those communities, it will leave some of them as islands.
And coastal wetlands are tremendously productive areas for fisheries, including things like shrimp, crab, and the majority of the wonderful sport fish that Floridians and a lot of visitors like to catch.
Finally, these coastal wetland systems help provide protection from storm surges. The marshes act like sponges — they can absorb some of the flooding that might otherwise ensue from a tropical storm, and they can also buffer the storm surge. If those wetlands disappear and become diminished, then the impacts from the storms to coastal communities would be greater.

Q: Sounds dire. So how should urban planners prepare?
GESELBRACHT: In a couple of ways. First, it’s really important to maintain the freshwater flows into our systems, whether from rivers, overland flow or aquifers. When you reduce those flows, your coastal wetlands retreat faster.
Second, development. It doesn’t make sense to build in areas to which coastal wetlands will need to transition. Understanding those transitions over time can help shape where you allow development or discourage it, or even help it retreat over time if that’s possible.
And third, keep our existing natural systems healthy. Transitioning of habitats in and of itself is not a bad thing, but if that change encourages a lot of invasive species that our natural species cannot access or utilize, then that could be a very bad thing. So proper land management — like prescribed fire and invasive control, along with preventing diking and ditching of our coastal wetlands to stop salt-water intrusion — are all really important.

Q: Are local communities on the Florida Gulf Coast listening to these messages?
GESELBRACHT: We’re finding that, while some communities and local planners are becoming aware of sea-level rise, so far a lot of communities aren’t really doing any planning. But we think they will. This research is very powerful. The information helps you understand how your whole coastal system is connected, and how the human system can be shaped to help protect natural systems, which in turn helps protect people. So The Nature Conservancy is trying to help educate local governments and regional planning councils about these types of changes and how patterns of building might change under this improved understanding.
(Image: Rendering of Florida coastline with 1 meter of sea-level rise. Image credit: davesag/Flickr through a Creative Commons license.)

Shark Fishing Banned

2011-07-06T07:07:00.000-07:00

Bahamas bans commercial shark fishing

Rob

Jul 5, 2011 4:38 PM

By David Fleshler

Source article: Sun Sentinel

The Bahamas banned commercial shark fishing Monday, joining a growing list of countries that have concluded that the fearsome predators are worth more alive than dead.
The chain of islands off the east coast of Florida has become one of the most popular places in the world for shark watching. It now joins Palau, the Maldives and Honduras in banning commercial fishing for sharks, once-despised creatures that have been gaining support from conservation groups.
“2011 is fast becoming the year of the shark,” said Jill Hepp, manager of global shark conservation for the Pew Environment Group, which played a leading role in pressing for the ban, in a news release. “Today’s announcement permanently protects more than 40 shark species in Bahamian waters. We applaud the people and government of The Bahamas for being bold leaders in marine conservation.”
Many species of shark have suffered severe declines due to the Asian demand for their fins, used in the shark fin soup, a delicacy comparable to caviar in China, Vietnam and other countries. Commercial shark fishing is still legal in the United States. Florida has already banned the catch of several species and is considering a ban on the catch of tiger sharks and three species of

Hope for the Arabian Oryx

2011-06-23T10:31:00.000-07:00

(taken from Conservation International e-news updates)

A Grain of Hope in the Desert: Arabian Oryx Rises Again
The regal Arabian Oryx (Oryx leucoryx), a species of antelope that was nearly hunted to extinction, now faces a more secure future.
According to the latest update of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, the oryx’s wild population now stands at 1,000 individuals. That might not seem like a lot, but consider that the species was once believed to be extinct in the wild. It was only through a successful captive breeding and reintroduction program that the animals have been able to thrive.
This success story shows how data can make a difference in bringing species back from the brink. It’s why CI helps facilitate the production of the IUCN Red List — and why our scientists work around the world to learn as much as we can about the biodiversity all around us.
LEARN MORE: Read the press release | VISIT: IUCN Red List | WEBSITE: CI + Biodiversity

running out of water?

2011-06-14T07:09:00.000-07:00

Really? How does it get this bad and no one notices until now?
West Palm Beach is running out of water.

Hawaiian Monk Seal

2011-06-02T13:10:00.000-07:00

Hawaiian Monk seals get more protection today.

Go to the Center for Biological Diversity to read more.

Ocean Noise

2011-05-23T06:26:00.000-07:00

This is disturbing. Noisy oceans and the impact for sea life.

https://2012indyinfo.wordpress.com/2011/05/20/in-an-ocean-of-noise-sea-life-faces-new-threat-environment-miamiherald-com/

Pilot whale rehab in the FLorida Keys

2011-05-22T07:43:00.000-07:00

16 Pilot whales strand in Florida Keys:

http://www.livescience.com/14046-pilot-whales-stranded-florida-keys.html

Volunteers and staff at the Marine Mammal Conservancy doing ultrasound on one of the whales.

I was fortunate to be able to participate with other volunteers. They require 4 hour shifts 24 hrs a day to help these whales. You can get updates on their site here.

If anyone gets a chance to go down and volunteer, it is a great learning experience, but be prepared to do a lot of sitting around. There are many volunteers and only so many can get in the water at the same time.

Here is more information about pilot whales from Aquatic Commons.
http://aquaticcommons.org/4005/

An explanation

2011-05-20T15:17:00.000-07:00

For those of you who are following this blog, there are many changes going on in my life and this new blog reflects that. I am going to grad school to pursue my other passion wildlife. This art blog is now mainly a conservation blog, updating people on my thoughts and activities while I am in school. My art is still continuing, but on another site and under my pseudonym Birds are Nice. See the link on the sidebar on the right. My work will focus only on endangered species. and saving the planet. I hope you follow that blog as well.

welcome to the new me. (Not really new as I have been working with wildlife/animals for the past eight years. Now everything is coming together in one focus).

My next post will be my weekend experience of pilot whale rehabilitation. I will be helping the marine mammal conservancy in the Keys with a recent stranding of pilot whales...