the state of Florida has downgraded the protection afforded the manatee from "endangered" to "threatened," effective this week.  this is without a doubt a victory by boating and builiding groups, who have been lobbying for this move for at least 5 years.

manatee at Crystal River, Florida.  i took this picture during a "manatee snorkel,"

 one of the best wild animal interactions in the world.

   florida's fish and wildlife commission predicts no possibility of extinction over the next century, but a coin-flip chance the population could drop by 30 percent over the next 45 years. it also details a long list of threats: increased deaths from boat strikes, red tide, habitat loss and the potential shutdown of coastal power plants that provide the thin-skinned mammals with warm refuges during the winter.  Read More.

    there are approximately 3,000 manatees in Florida, the only state where wild manatees are found.  the timing on this lifting of the ban is a bit odd, since this past January marked the highest monthly death toll for manatees in Florida ever.   This figure, despite a warm winter, shows that manatees continue to be under stress.

     this is terrific video of humpbacks off Hawaii, taken by

Jason Sturgis, 31.  he is belived to be the first person to capture

underwater scenes of humpbacks frolicking in the waters of Hawaii

(using a Sony HVR-Z1U high-definition video camcorder)

    See the Video

     the humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) belongs to the

baleen whale suborder (so-called because they have baleen plates

instead of teeth in the upper jaw, which enables them to filter food

from water).

    humbacks are large: an adult usually ranges between 40–50 feet

long and weighs approximately 79,000, 40 tons.  humbacks are 

known for their breaching (leaping out of the water), their unusually

long front fins, and their complex whale songs.  they live in oceans

and seas around the world, and are regularly sought out by whale-watchers.

  here's the New York Times article about Jason Sturgis.

     after a one-two punch of coral bleaching and stress, Caribbean

coral is dying at an unprecendeted rate.  estimates range as high

as 30% for all Caribbean coral, with some areas ready to suffer

much higher mortality rates (for example, 96 percent of lettuce coral,

93 percent of  star coral and nearly 61 percent of brain coral in St. Croix

has bleached, making it succeptible to dying off).  Source.

   the Caribbean is actually doing well, compared to some areas of

Asia, where mortality (not bleaching) has been in the 90-percentile

range in the Indian and Pacific oceans.

   see my earlier entry on Barrier Reef coral bleaching.

   will our "generation" of divers be the last one to remember

what coral reefs were like?  this is certainly possible, given

the global warming that is threatening corals everywhere.

  also, corals grow very slowly, taking decades to cover

an area the size of a dime.  any damage done over a few

hot summers will likely take centuries to repair, if repair

is even possible (coral can only grow on a narrow temperature

range, with 82 degrees Farenheit being its limit).

      an estimated 95 to 98 percent of the coral in the Keppel

Islands, part of Australia's Great Barrier Reef, is suffering from

a bleaching episode.  basically, the algae that live in coral

and give coral its colors, are killed by hotter-than-usual

water temperatures.  if the algae do not return within a

month or so, the corals themselves may begin to die.

     Australia has just experienced its warmest year on record and

abnormally high sea temperatures during summer have caused massive

coral bleaching in the Keppels. Sea temperatures touched 84

Fahrenheit, the upper limit for coral.  Source.

bleached coral in the great barrier reef

   these bleaching episodes started in 1998, and have continued as the

average ocean temperatures continue to rise.  the Caribbean has also

suffered bleaching, but not to the extent the Great Barrier Reef has.

   will there be a time soon when the reefs off Bonaire, Grand Cayman,

and Roatan, will be void of coral? 

    i must admit it does not look good.

     a new crustacean species, looking something like a "furry lobster"

has been discovered at 7,450 feet deep in the South Pacific.  the new

animal is about six inches long and has hair-like strands on its pincers.

  the animal is so unique that a new family and genus have been

created to fit it in with the rest of the known animals.  whatever it is,

it is also blind:  the researchers found it had only "the vestige of a

membrane" in place of eyes.  Source.

here's a video of the animal walking around.

  maybe this is what Subway Sandwiches has been using all along

to make its Seafood And Krab sandwich???

  these are the logs of the expedition that found this animal

(it all happened last year):  http://www.mbari.org/expeditions/EasterMicroplate/index.htm