The Hawaiian culture places great emphasis on the word “Aloha,” which means love, peace, compassion, and charity. Hawaiians greet and bid farewell to their guests with Aloha. Unfortunately, there was no Aloha at this year’s APEC Summit (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) in Honolulu, Hawaii.  Sadly, a local Hawaiian youth was killed on the first day of the summit after scuffling with a U.S. federal agent who was hired as a security guard for the multi-day event. This caused bewilderment and a wave of protests from locals.

Honolulu, normally a peaceful vacation town, was not very friendly during the week of the summit and seemed to escalate into chaos. Roads were closed for world leaders and their entourages, causing massive traffic jams. According to witnesses, just the Chinese delegation alone, arrived with 1,000 members and that was only one of the 21 delegations in attendance. Thousands of armed soldiers and federal agents patrolled the perimeter of the tourist part of Honolulu-Waikiki, where the summit took place. Displaying weapons to cause fear in peaceful people is, unfortunately, a common practice in many countries. The meeting was held on Hawaii, far from the US mainland, where large-scale protests were unlikely. Yet, authorities and the APEC planning committee apparently decided to take special measures in light of recent Occupy Movement Protests in most large US cities.  To give you a sense of how much security was there, the US government spent $44 million to prepare for the summit, including $18 million for police and $10 million for “contingency expenses” such as 700 thousand units of non-lethal weapons, including 25 thousand pepper sprays, and even 3 thousand tasers, all purchased by American taxpayers.

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California  – Do Not Let Big Oil Win

Oil companies are working very hard this week to block a measure that would protect California’s oceans, beaches, bays and coastlines from oil spills.

This coming Monday, an important bill sponsored by Pacific Environment and supported by several environmental groups will be voted on by the California State Senate.  Assembly Bill 1112, authored by Assembly Member Jared Huffman,  tightens up our state’s oil spill prevention standards while ensuring that there are adequate funds to manage these programs— and paid for by Big Oil, and not the citizens of California.  If this law does not pass, California’s waters will be at risk of devastating and costly oil spills which have severe impacts on our marine environment and public health.

Here’s why this this bill is important:

Our state’s ability to prevent and respond to oil spills is funded by the Oil Spill Prevention Administration Fund (OSPAF), which collects very small fees from the oil industry at a current cap of a nickel per barrel of petroleum product that enters our state.  Unfortunately, this fund will be deficient by millions of dollars over the next several years and the state will have no choice but to cut programs and staff as early as 2012. Clearly, that nickel is not enough.

Huffman’s bill, AB 1112, will bring the fund back to solvency by requiring oil companies to pay an additional 1 and ¾ cents per each barrel of petroleum product shipped into California.  The bill also strengthens the state’s oil spill prevention program by increasing monitoring and safety measures on board the most dangerous oil tankers and offshore drilling platforms.  Unless lawmakers pass this bill, California’s wildlife, beaches and bays, tourism and fishing industries, and human health will be at risk of a catastrophe that could cripple our state.

So, who would be against safeguarding our state from oil spills?

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By Rosemary Ahtuangaruak

As an Inupiat who lives on the coast of the Arctic Ocean, I live a traditional lifestyle — hunting, fishing, whaling, gathering, and sharing our traditional way of life as our elders taught me. It is my duty to ensure the lifestyle that was passed down throughout generations continues in the face of multiple threats, including increased shipping.

As sea ice continues to recede in the Arctic, we are seeing an increase in the vessels that travel through our ocean. These ships can harm the marine environment with increased noise and pollution. Currently, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) is developing a mandatory set of regulations for vessels traveling in Arctic waters. However, they are doing it with little input from the people who will be most impacted by increased shipping.

Indigenous peoples who live a traditional way of life have an inherent right to make decisions about regulations that will impact us. I am calling on the U.S. delegation to the IMO, who has an obligation to consult with Tribes, to guarantee our concerns are addressed.

While Sunday 10/10/10 was celebrated all over the world by activists as “Global Warming Work Party” and now known as the “Biggest Day of Climate Action”, I was fortunate enough to participate in Pacific Environment’s Vessel Watch trip to the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary to collect and record data on whales (humpbacks, blue whales, etc) and help raise awareness about the impacts of shipping traffic on our magnificent marine life that frequent this sanctuary.

 

Vessel Watch Trip Leaving San Francisco Bay

On board the 65’ Catamaran “KittyKat” were experienced naturalists plus my colleague Jackie Dragon, the director of our Marine Sanctuaries Program; fellow colleagues and researchers; and several members of the public who for the first time were going to see and hear these amazing creatures in the wild.  The trip took us 27 miles beyond the Golden Gate to the Farallon Islands, a group of six small islands and giant rocks near the edge of the continental shelf. The sanctuary supports an abundance of life, including many threatened or endangered species – including the humpback whale, blue whale, great white shark and even killer whales.  The naturalist informed us that just two weeks ago they saw pods of the endangered northern right whale dolphins, an extremely rare sighting.  There are three typical seasons where researchers come out to collect data and they are – birds, whales and sharks.  Right now is great white shark season and the Farallons are heavily frequented by shark cage divers.

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With his veto pen in hand yesterday, Governor Schwarzenegger missed a huge opportunity to leave a real environmental legacy. Instead, he demonstrated his disregard for California’s priceless marine environment and its billion dollar associated economy, swiftly undermining our ability to respond to the next devastating oil spill.  The governor vetoed AB 234 (D- Huffman), a bill that would have been a triple-win when it comes to protecting our state from oil spills.

If signed, the legislation would have required a safety precaution known as pre-booming – placing oil containment boom in the water – during the fuel transfer operations that take place daily in California’s coastal waters. This technique could have prevented the Dubai Star tanker from spilling over 500 gallons into San Francisco Bay last October. In addition to this increased protection, the bill included a timely take-a-way from the BP gulf oil tragedy and would have insured that the 27 oil rigs in California state waters are equipped with fully redundant safety mechanisms to prevent a blowout here.

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By Julianna Calcagno

Marine Sanctuaries Program Intern – Summer, 2010

When was the last time you wanted a noisy leaf blower or a honking car alarm to stop blaring? Imagine thousands of similar sounds intruding into your daily life from breakfast through dinner time, and all through the night. This is what it’s like to be a whale in today’s noisy oceans. It’s called noise pollution. You and I may not notice it up here on land, but it is really bad for you if you are one of the animals that live in the vicinity of all the noise produced by humans on a daily basis in our oceans. The blue, grey, and humpback whales that swim and feed in the krill-rich waters of the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary are subject to dramatically increased background noise because of all the shipping traffic that drives through those waters on the way to the busy Port of Oakland, the 4th busiest port in the nation.

Now picture being at a concert and trying to hear something important that the person right next you is saying. Unless you have a hearing super power you would barely hear what the other person is saying. That is what the whales have to endure all the time. The noise that the ships make – mostly from their propellers – is at the same level, or frequency, that whales use to communicate with each other. In their darkened ocean world they can’t rely on sight, like humans can. Whales depend on sound to communicate through vast amounts of water, to find food, to mate, to survive, and protect themselves from predators.

Scientists recently discovered that some whales are changing their vocalizations – essentially screaming – so that they can be heard over the racket all the boats are making. But doing this is likely straining the whales and at some point they won’t be able to call loud enough to be heard in our industrialized ocean, leaving them silenced and alone.

If ships slowed down, though, they wouldn’t be spreading as much noise pollution, and they would save innocent whales that die each year after being struck and killed by fast-moving vessels.

Maersk, the world’s largest shipping line, is doing it! If they can slow their speed to 12 knots (about 14mph) – instead of the much noisier and dangerous 20 – 24 knots – then so should the rest of the shipping companies.

Try to picture having no way to communicate, protect yourself, or even be able to eat because of some body else who wants to be able to move faster to a destination.  For whales’ sake, and cleaner air and less climate change, ships should give whales a brake!

While Greenpeace activists await the results of their medical check-ups after being exposed to Dalian’s crude oil and as several fire fighters recover from their injuries, those responsible for the Dalian ecological nightmare act as if the oil stains had been removed from their own feathers.

Oil along Dalian Beach (photo by Wen Bo)

Chinese media outlet CBN A-Views reported that on August 3^rd, the Dalian government welcomed PetroChina’s Chairman Jiang Jiemin and his delegation at the Dalian Shangri-La Hotel  and expressed gratitude towards the oil giant’s contribution to Dalian’s economy.

Chinese netizens poured their outcries over cyberspace denouncing PetroChina for its lack of courage to admit its responsibility. Many demanded a formal and public apology from the company and requested compensation for the victims and the marine environment of Dalian.

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Photo: Greenpeace

In the very recent memory of Tom Beeke, a passionate Canadian birder, Dalian’s Jinshitan resort was still his land of discovery. Tom got a job as English teacher at Dalian Maple Leaf International School several years ago. Besides living close to the sandy beach, it was also a great treat being able to venture around Jishintan coast, bushes and wetlands to watch birds.  This summer, Tom’s new book, Birds of Dalian, hit the local book market.

Dalian, located on the East Asia-Pacific Flyway of migratory birds, is an important stopover site for birds migrating between Siberia and Australia. For those birds, who are now in Siberia, their journeys south will soon start.  For this year’s new chicks, their first ever encounter with the coasts, islands and the sea around Dalian will begin one month later. (more…)

Zhong Yu of Greenpeace bears witness to the Dalian oil spill (Photo: Greenpeace)

Twenty-two years ago, when my high school classmates unfolded a banner with the words “Save Our Seas!”, we put the Greenpeace logo on the banner.  At that time, we were protesting marine debris littering the coasts of Dalian.

Now, twenty-two years since that unofficial Greenpeace banner hung in 1988, Dalian received its first official support from Greenpeace with the deployment of several Greenpeace teams to respond to the massive oil spill in Dalian.

Zhong Yu, senior action coordinator with Greenpeace China, was not prepared for what she saw nor for what she would encounter.  Like many clean up workers and local fishermen, Zhong did not wear protective gear when she walked into thick crude oil along the beach. The photo of her wearing a red Greenpeace T-shirt and blue jeans was the first telling image from Greenpeace bearing witness to the Dalian disaster. (more…)

Firefighters responding to the scene of the Oil spill in Dalian, China (Photo from Netease)

To Chinese firefighter Jiang Hui, his Darley fire truck was his darling. Jiang had been a driver with a $1 million fire truck since his unit purchased it three years ago, and he liked this American brand.

Jiang was among the earliest squads to reach the burning and smoky scene in Dalian. While shooting water and foam to the fire, the blazing crude oil quickly rushed near their feet. The tires of the fire truck caught fire.  Jiang jumped into the truck and tried to move it, but the flame started to engulf the fire truck.  Another firefighter ran to the truck’s front side, pulled Jiang out of the cabin and dragged him away.

The heat was too hot to bear. While some firefighters shot water canons towards the burning oil tanker, others had to shoot water towards the front line of firefighters to cool them down.

“Water, Water!”, “Foam!” were the shouts of the firefighters mixed with the sounds of continuous explosions and blazing noise of fireballs.

A Dalian TV cameraman, Lu Jianwei, captured a short conversation of a firefighter, later identified as Xu Zhiyou, talking to his wife over the cell phone. “Dear, I might not be back, treat mom well, treat our child well!”  On the other side of the line, his wife must have asked why. “Don’t ask, no time, I will stop here.” Then he turned off the phone and rushed towards the fire. (more…)