Thursday, February 21, 2008

Aliens invade our Oceans!

More environmental problems in our oceans, this time from aliens.

Forget little green men and think on the lines of species ranging from "giant jellyfish and toxic seaweed to muscle-bound mussels and oysters" according to this week's New Scientist (alas subscription required for full article). These invasive species are being transported by ocean going container ships and causing up to $120 billion per year of damages!

But the end of the article also says there are things that can be done to slow further spreading - such as more regular cleaning and destroying any organisms in ballast water before its discharge.

Seems like a very good idea to me.

Also there was this article about the extinction danger to amphibians - the cause has been identified and its loss of habitat. Give those frogs some space!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Scary that the frog population is on the decline...(alien fungus- carrying bull-frogs aside!) That does not bode well for the environment.

In rural Canada, proximity to traffic seems to be the problem.

JP said...

Frogs and toads are in decline.... apart from Australia where there is the dreaded (cue scary music from Jaws) CANE TOAD!

Extreme proximity to traffic recommended.