IMP.
IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Maldives
I INTRODUCTION
Maldives (formerly Maldive Islands), island republic in southern Asia, located in the northern Indian Ocean, south-west of the southern tip of India. The Maldives is made up of a chain of nearly 2,000 small coral islands that are grouped into clusters of atolls. It has a total land area of 298 sq km (115 sq mi). The capital and largest city of the Maldives is Malé.
II LAND AND RESOURCES
The islands are low-lying and have only small tracts of arable land. Vegetation is dominated by coconut palms and breadfruit trees. The climate is tropical and humid. The average annual temperature is 26.7° C (80° F), with little seasonal variation. The average annual precipitation is 1,524 mm (60 in), most of which falls between May and November. The principal natural resource is the marine life of the surrounding seas.
III POPULATION
The Maldives has a population of 310,764 (2001), yielding an average population density of 1,043 people per sq km (2,701 per sq mi). The most populous atolls are Malé, the capital and principal commercial centre, with a population of 62,973 (1995 estimate); Suvadiva; and Tiladummati. The people are ethnically heterogeneous, incorporating Indian, Sinhalese, Arabian, and African elements. Islam is the state religion; nearly all the people are Sunni Muslims. The language is Divehi, an Indo-European tongue related to Sinhalese. Life expectancy in 2001 was 61 years for men and 64 years for women.
IV ECONOMY
The Maldivian economy is dominated by fishing and fish products, which accounted for almost 85 per cent of all export trade in 1993, and tourism. The fish catch is primarily tuna; corals and shells are also harvested. Coconuts are the principal agricultural product; most food must be imported. Industrial activity is largely limited to fish-processing and garment-manufacturing. The rapid growth of the tourist industry has necessitated improvements in the infrastructure of the country, such as the installation of telephones and other forms of communication. Tourism is the principal foreign currency earner for the Maldives, with approximately 430,000 tourist arrivals recorded in 1999. Earnings from tourism totalled US$38 million in 1997. The monetary unit of the Maldives is the rufiyaa, made up of 100 laari (11.77 rufiyaa equal US$1; 2001).
V GOVERNMENT
The Maldives is a republic governed under a constitution promulgated in 1968 and revised in 1997, with effect from 1998. The president is both chief of state and head of government and is elected every five years by the parliamentary assembly and confirmed by referendum of the people. The president appoints a Cabinet that is responsible to the unicameral assembly, the 48-member Majlis or Citizens' Council. The current president (since November 1978) is Maumoon Abdul Gayoom. His position was re-affirmed by popular referendum in October 1998. The last parliamentary elections were held in November 1999. There are no political parties in the Maldives.
VI HISTORY
The islands were settled by Buddhist peoples from southern Asia and Islam was introduced in the 12th century. The Portuguese traded at Malé in the latter half of the 15th century. Although the islands were ruled by a local sultan, European influence was established over the area, first by the Dutch in the 17th century and later by the British. In 1887 the Maldive Islands formally became a British protectorate.
In 1965 the Maldives achieved independence as a sultanate, and in 1968 the people voted to establish a republic. Government of the republic since independence has been dominated by Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who first became president in 1978, and was sworn in for his fifth term in 1998. Criticized by human rights organizations for his firm control over freedom of expression, and response to dissent, his long presidency has not been without crises, including coup attempts. A serious crisis flared in 1988, when Indian troops were called in to foil a coup attempt by Tamil mercenaries. The Maldives has, however, seen strong economic growth, due mainly to tourism.
The Maldives is among island nations under threat from global warming, which is expected to lead to rising sea levels in the 21st century. Because of their very low elevations the islands are particularly vulnerable.
Microsoft ® Encarta ® Encyclopedia 2002. © 1993-2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Maldives
BASIC FACTS
Official name Republic of Maldives

Capital Male

Area 298 sq km
115 sq mi



PEOPLE
Population 310,764 (2001 estimate)

Population growth rate 3.01 per cent (2001 estimate)

Population density
1,043 persons per sq km estimate

2,701 persons per sq mi estimate


Urbanization
Per cent urban 28 per cent (1999 estimate)


Per cent rural 72 per cent (1999 estimate)



Life expectancy
Total 62.6 years (2001 estimate)


Female 63.8 years (2001 estimate)


Male 61.4 years (2001 estimate)



Infant mortality rate
64 deaths per 1,000 live births (2001 estimate)


Literacy rate
Total 99.2 per cent (2001 estimate)


Female 99.4 per cent (2001 estimate)


Male 99 per cent (2001 estimate)



Ethnic divisions
Sinhalese, Dravidian, Arab, African


Languages
Divehi (dialect of Sinhala; official), English


Religions
Sunni Muslim


GOVERNMENT
Type of government Republic

Independence
26 July 1965 (from the United Kingdom)


Constitution 1 January 1998

Voting rights Universal at age 21

ECONOMY
Gross domestic product (GDP) (US$)
368 million (1998)


GDP per capita (US$) 1,400 (1998)

GDP by economic sector
GDP, agriculture 16.4 per cent (1998)


GDP, industry Not available


GDP, services Not available



National budget (US$)
Total revenue 149.8 million (1998)


Total expenditure 179.6 million (1998)



Monetary unit 1 rufiyaa (Rf), consisting of 100 laari

Exports
Fish, clothing


Imports
Consumer goods, intermediate and capital goods, petroleum products, machinery, transport vehicles, foodstuff


Major trading partners for exports
Sri Lanka, United Kingdom, United States, Germany, Japan, Thailand


Major trading partners for imports
Singapore, India, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, United Kingdom, Japan


Industries
Fishing and fish processing, tourism, shipping, boat building, coconut processing, clothing, woven mats, coir (rope), handicrafts


Agriculture
Fishing, coconuts, corn, sweet potatoes, cassava, taro, vegetables, sorghum


Natural resources
Fish


Sources:
Basic Facts and People sectionsArea data are from the individual country statistical bureaus. Population, population growth rate, infant mortality, and life expectancy data are from the United States Census Bureau, International Programs Center; International database, 2001; (www.census.gov). Population density data are from the individual country statistical bureaus, and the United States Census Bureau, International Programs Center; International database, 2001; (www.census.gov). Largest cities population data and administrative divisions data are from the individual country statistical bureaus. Literacy rate data are from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) database, 2001; (www.unesco.org). Urban and rural population data are from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations (UN), FAOSTAT database, 2001; (www.fao.org). Ethnic divisions and religion data are largely from the latest Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) World Fact book, as well as various country censuses and reports. Language data are largely from the Ethnologue, Languages of the World, SIL International; (www.sil.org).Government sectionGovernment, independence, constitution, and voting rights data are largely from various government Web sites, the latest Europa World Yearbook, and the latest Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) World Factbook.Economy sectionGross domestic product (GDP), GDP per capita, GDP by economic sector, and national budget data are from the World Bank database, 2001; (www.worldbank.org). Monetary unit, exports and imports, natural resources, agriculture, and industries information is from the latest Europa World Yearbook, and various International Monetary Fund (IMF) publications.Note: Due to rounding, totals may not add up to 100 per cent.

IMPORTANT!!!!!!!!!

Global Warming
I INTRODUCTION
Global Warming, term denoting the accelerated warming of the Earth’s surface due to anthropogenic (human activity-related) releases of greenhouse gases due to industrial activity and deforestation.
II EARTH’S ENERGY BALANCE
But for the greenhouse effect, life on Earth would not exist. The Sun emits radiation to the Earth. If we could imagine a flat surface at the top of the atmosphere, that radiation is about 340 watts per square metre (340 W/m-2). Just over 100 W/m-2 is reflected out again by atmospheric aerosols and clouds, and the Earth’s surface, leaving some 240 W/m-2 that heats up the surface of the Earth. The system must be in balance—energy “in” must equal energy “out”—so the Earth needs to re-radiate this amount back into the atmosphere. But the amount actually re-radiated depends on the Earth’s surface temperature: the hotter the surface is the more it will emit radiation. The outgoing radiation takes the form of “long wave” infrared thermal radiation. If the system balanced “naturally”, then the Earth’s surface would have a temperature of about –19° C (-66° F) since at this temperature 240 W/m-2 would be emitted. Obviously, something else must be happening because at such low average temperatures life would not exist. The Earth’s surface is very much warmer than this “natural” level (around 15° C/59° F) and hence far more radiation is emitted than the 240 W/m-2. What happens is that a lot of the Earth’s re-radiation bounces back to the Earth’s surface because it gets absorbed mainly by water vapour and carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. Water vapour, CO2, and a few other minor gases act like a “blanket”. The balance is secured as follows:

Incoming solar radiation: + 340 W m-2
Reflected from clouds, the Earth’s surface, etc.: - 100 W m-2
Net incoming radiation absorbed by the Earth = + 240 W m-2


Outgoing radiation: - 420 W m-2
Greenhouse effect: + 180 W m-2
Net outgoing (thermal) radiation = - 240 W m-2
The way the system balances, then, is that the Earth’s surface warms up compared to what would happen if the Earth was not surrounded by a blanket of greenhouse gases.
III ANTHROPOGENIC GREENHOUSE GASES
So far nothing is amiss. Indeed, the greenhouse effect is a good thing for life on Earth. The problem arises because humankind is adding to the effect by increasing the amounts of CO2 and a few other gases in the atmosphere, notably methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O). This results in the enhanced greenhouse effect, or “global warming”. Since the concentration of water vapour tends to be fixed (it is determined by the oceans) imagine what would happen if the atmospheric concentrations of CO2 were increased. The effect would be to increase the radiation bouncing back to the Earth and reducing the radiation leaving the top of the atmosphere. For a doubling in CO2 concentrations, the reducing atmospheric radiation would be about 4 W/m-2. But the system is now out of balance: 240 W/m-2 is coming in but 236 W/m-2 (240 W/m-2 minus 4 W/m-2) is going out. In order to balance, something must change, and what changes is the temperature of the Earth’s surface. Recall that if it increases, outward radiation will increase. This will happen until the 240:240 balance is restored. But while the balance is restored, the Earth has basically got hotter. For each doubling of CO2 concentration, the temperature increase is expected to be about 1.2° C. Various complicating factors intervene to enhance or reduce this figure. Water vapour might increase and this would make the enhanced greenhouse effect stronger still. Other factors of relevance are changes in cloud formation, changes in surface vegetation, the melting of the tundra (which would release methane), changes in ocean circulation, the cooling effects of sulphur aerosols, and so on. The end result is some uncertainty about projected climate change but an average temperature change of about 2° C by 2100 might be expected.
Where do the greenhouse gases come from? The fact that they come from economic activities that are so pervasive to human society largely explains why global warming control is so complicated and so controversial. CO2 is emitted from the burning of fossil fuels, so that most electricity production and most industrial activity contribute to global warming. Since gasoline, kerosene, and diesel are fossil fuels, they too contribute, which means that the entire transport sector is implicated. Methane is also emitted from fossil fuel burning, but also from gas pipeline leaks and from decomposing vegetation. Methane emissions are therefore associated with livestock and with rice growing. Nitrous oxide comes from fossil burning and fertilizers. The burning of forests also contributes significantly to CO2 emissions.
IV THE IMPACT OF GLOBAL WARMING
The next issue is to predict what would happen if these temperature changes were allowed to happen. The science of climate change impact assessment is very uncertain, not least because humans have the capacity to adapt to some of the expected changes. There are two stages to impact assessment: predicting what the consequences will be for ecosystem change and human health, and assessing how important those changes will be. The context to all this assessment is uncertainty, not least because the rate of change of temperature and the levels of temperature change together place some of the change outside human experience. That is, we have little idea how environments and humans will respond if the worst-case scenarios occur. An additional complication is that impacts will vary region by region, not just because of different susceptibilities but because there will be regional variations in temperature change, in precipitation, and in extreme events such as hurricanes. Summer monsoons in Asia could become heavier, but summer rains in southern Europe could become less.
The kinds of impacts that would seem to be important are as follows. Sea levels will rise due to the thermal expansion of the oceans. Low-lying areas, such as the coastal regions of Bangladesh, and many small islands, could be seriously affected unless adequate sea defences are built and maintained. Fresh water resources could be affected by saline intrusion as sea levels change. Existing dry land regions may become drier still, resulting in a greater likelihood of desertification. Agricultural output may change adversely in some regions, due to reduced rainfall, but may increase in other areas because CO2 also has a “fertilizing” effect on crops. While most of the work on impacts has been carried out on the agricultural sector, it is not clear that world food supply will be significantly affected: some regions will lose and some will gain. But the regions suffering losses may be some of the poorest in the world. In terms of human health there are similar ambivalent effects: if winter temperatures rise there may be fewer premature deaths due to winter cold. But if summer temperatures also rise there may be added deaths from heat stress. The pattern of the world’s diseases may also change—diseases such as malaria, eradicated from Europe, could return to some areas. Perhaps the most important effects are the ones we know least about. Ecosystems change in response to climate change but, in general, past changes have occurred slowly as temperatures varied over long periods. A rise of 1 or 2° C in just a century is a very fast rate of temperature change, and some ecosystems may not be able to adjust. Even more speculative are the effects of extreme events: for example, the worsening of El Niño, and the potential effects on ocean currents and hence marine productivity.
V MEASURING THE ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE OF GLOBAL WARMING
How much does it all matter? Listing possible impacts is one thing; saying how important they are is another. Yet some idea of the collective magnitude of the impacts is essential because the measures needed to reduce rates of warming will not be cheap. Economic studies suggest a fairly uniform measure of damage of about 1 to 2 per cent of the world’s entire economic output. But this is a figure relating to “2 x CO2”, that is, for a doubling of CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere. It is a benchmark widely used for economic and scientific analysis, but global warming will not stop there if unchecked, so the damages in the very far future could be very much higher. Another way of thinking about the economic scale of the damage is to translate it back into the economic damage done by the release of one additional tonne of carbon-equivalent now. This figure is probably around US$30 per tonne, but with a fairly wide range of uncertainty surrounding it. Since this is the extra damage incurred for the world as a whole from releasing one extra tonne of carbon-equivalent, it can be compared directly with the costs of reducing that tonne of carbon emission. As long as the cost of control is less than the damage done, it will pay the world as a whole to take action. This is the essence of the cost-benefit analysis approach to global warming policy.
As with virtually all aspects of the global warming debate, there are many complications. First, it seems likely that the costs of controlling carbon emissions now is fairly low for the first tranche of emissions, but as more and more reduction occurs it will become increasingly expensive to reduce emissions. Many of the economic models used to simulate policies estimate control costs of over US$100 per tonne of carbon, well above the damage figure and suggesting that it may not be economically justified to take drastic action to control global warming. Second, recent economic analyses have suggested that the incorporation of human adaptation into the calculations of damage would greatly reduce the damage figures, although there appears to be limited adaptation possibilities to some of the major ecosystem impacts. Third, and offsetting the argument about reduced damage, the control of CO2 emissions brings with it many other benefits. For example, CO2 emissions from the transport sector might be controlled by having more fuel-efficient cars and by traffic restraint programmes. This will bring with it benefits in the form of reduced conventional pollutants that harm human health, such as particulate matter, and traffic restraint will reduce congestion, noise, and perhaps accidents. Estimates of these ancillary benefits are very uncertain but may actually double the US$30 figure, so that it will pay to spend up to US$60 to reduce a tonne of carbon emissions in order to save US$30 of avoided global warming damage and to gain another US$30 of ancillary benefits. Fourth, failure to control global warming now simply shifts the problem forward on to future generations who are likely to face larger damage costs still. It can be argued that the current generation should incur costs now that are greater than the US$60 per tonne benefit figure in order to be fair to future generations. Others disagree: why use valuable resources now to protect future generations who are likely to be richer anyway when the same resources could be used to reduce poverty now?
These are just a few of the philosophical and economic issues that continue to be aired in the global warming debate. Not surprisingly, views about the right course of action vary radically from those who see the damage to the future well-being of humankind as being little short of catastrophic, to those who believe that technology and adaptation will come to the rescue, and that delaying serious action is the best policy.
VI THE INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE
These widely varying views also explain the differences of opinion about the adequacy of the actions already taken. It does not benefit any single nation to take action unless it can be assured others will act likewise. The disadvantages of being a “first mover” explain why the subject has to be dealt with at the international level, initially through the Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC) in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro, and subsequently at the Conference of Parties in Kyoto in 1997. The Kyoto Protocol, which emerged from the 1997 conference, is the first agreement under the FCCC with greenhouse gas emission reduction targets that will be binding in international law. The FCCC itself set voluntary targets for industrialized nations such that their CO2 emissions should be no higher in 2000 than they were in 1990. Developing countries argued that they had no responsibilities to cut emissions because the industrialized countries were the main emitters of greenhouse gases. As it happens, not many nations will meet their voluntary targets. The Kyoto Protocol sought a 5.2 per cent reduction in overall (carbon-equivalent) greenhouse gas emissions by about 2010 relative to 1990. This target applies collectively to industrialized economies only. Once again, developing countries have no mandatory targets. The target is differentiated between industrialized countries. The European Union (EU) as a whole must achieve an 8 per cent reduction, the United States 7 per cent, and Japan 6 per cent. Within the EU a separate agreement allocates the 8 per cent cut between member states.
How much of a breakthrough is the Kyoto Protocol? That there was any agreement at all is an achievement. After all, reducing greenhouse gases affects virtually all aspects of economic activity from electricity generation, industrial activity, agriculture, forestry, and transport. By calling for a change to a less carbon-intensive world, Kyoto signals the need for fundamental change in the way economic activity is organized. A second positive feature is that the agreement enables carbon trading to take place in order to help secure emission reduction targets. Carbon trading involves one country cutting emissions of CO2 (or another greenhouse gas) in another country. This has no deleterious environmental effect overall because a tonne of CO2 does the same amount of damage wherever it is emitted. But it is known that it is much cheaper to reduce emissions in, say, Eastern Europe than in the United States, so securing the reductions in Eastern Europe could save substantial sums of money for the US. Keeping these compliance costs down is crucial since the cost of meeting the Protocol targets are the biggest obstacle to further international agreement. Under carbon trading, the United States would pay for the reductions but would secure the paper credit for the CO2 reductions, which it can then set against its target. More sophisticated forms of trading are enabled under the Protocol as well.
Critics of the Kyoto Protocol point to the very slow pace of ratification and to the fact that even if the 2010 targets are met, very little happens to projected rates of global warming. The reason is that developing countries’ growth rates of emissions are very much higher than in the developed world. So far, developing countries have refused to adopt emission reduction targets. If they continue to refuse to do so, little will happen to change the rate of global warming. However, a more serious threat to the success of international climate cooperation came in early 2001 when President George W. Bush announced that the US would not implement the Kyoto Protocol. That the world’s greatest producer of greenhouse gases should review its climate change policy in this way was greeted with anger and frustration by governments and environmentalists worldwide.
Despite the setback of a developed nation refusing to adhere to the Kyoto Protocol, having some form of international agreement has produced some new initiatives in environmental policy elsewhere. A number of European countries have taxes on the carbon content of fuels—so-called carbon taxes—and there is a rapid growth in the various forms of carbon trading. There is a renewed focus on renewable energy because it is generally carbon-free, and on fuel-efficient transport. In the longer term, the agreements could still spur the technological changes needed to bring about economies based more on hydrogen than carbon, and a generally more energy-efficient world. But it could go wrong. Reflecting on the human race, James Lovelock, author of Gaia: the Practical Science of Planetary Medicine (1991), remarks: “Intelligent we may be, but as social collectives we behave churlishly and with ignorance.” Overcoming this human trait is fundamental to global warming control.

Contributed By:
David Pearce
Microsoft ® Encarta ® Encyclopedia 2002.


Maldives / Geography
Consisting of 1,190 coral islands, forming an archipelago of 26 major atolls. Stretches 820 kilometres from north to south and 120 kilometres from east to west. Two hundred islands are inhabited while 87 are exclusive resort islands.
Maldives / Climate
Generally warm and humid. Sun shines all year through. Average temperature around 29 - 32 degrees Celsius.
Maldives / People
Origin of the Maldivians are lost in antiquity, but history reveals that the islands have been populated for over 3,000 years ago. Early settlers were travellers on the Silk Route and from the Indus Valley Civilisation. Inherently warm, friendly and hospitable by nature, it is easy to feel comfortable and relaxed with a Maldivian.
Maldives / History / Early Settlers
Legend has it that a prince and his wife, the daughter of the King of today's Sri Lanka, stopped at Raa Atoll during a voyage and were invited to stay as rulers.
Later King Koimala and his wife settled in Mal� with permission of the Giraavaru tribe, the aboriginal tribe of Kaafu atoll. Nowadays Giraavaru people are still easily recognisable through their clothes and hairstyle, but only a few hundred of them are left and were resettled in Mal� in 1978. Their island, Giraavaru has been transformed into a tourist resort.
Aryans from India and Sri Lanka are believed to have settled in the Maldives from 1500 BC onwards - according to latest archaeological findings. "Elu", an archaic form of Sinhala (spoken in Sri Lanka) shows great similarities to Dhivehi.
As a favourite stop-over on the busy trade routes, the Maldives have had many visitors and influences, trading with Arabia, China and India with coconut, dried fish and above all the precious cowry shell, a small white shell found on the beach, used as currency in countries near the Indian Ocean. These shells were found as far away as Norway or West Africa showing the extent of the trade relations of the Maldives.
Maldives / History / Conversion to Islam
Mohamed Ibn Batuta, a Moroccan traveller who visited the Maldives in the 14th century recorded an interesting legend on how the country converted to Islam.
Abul Barakaath Yoosuf Al Barbary, an Islamic scholar, visited the Maldives during a time when people lived in fear of the "Rannamaari", a sea-demon, who came out of the sea once a month threatening to destroy everything unless a virgin was sacrificed. The unfortunate young girls were chosen by lot, had to stay in a temple near the seashore and were found raped and dead in the morning.
Maldives / History / The British Protectorate
On December 16, 1887 the Sultan of the Maldives signed a contract with the British Governor of Ceylon turning the Maldives into a British protectorate.
The British government promised the Maldives military protection and non-interference in local administration in exchange for an annual tribute paid by the Maldives.
In 1957 the British established a RAF base in the strategic southernmost atoll of Addu for �2000 a year, where hundreds of locals were employed.
19 years later the British government decided to give up the base, as it was too expensive to maintain. Maldives / History / Independence
The Maldives gained independence on July 26, 1965.Three years later a republic was declared with Prime Minister Ibrahim Nasir as the first president. In 1978 President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom became president and has been re-elected thrice since then.A coup attempt in 1988 by Sri Lankan mercenaries was successfully repelled.
Small as it is the Maldives has always maintained independence and a strong unity despite influences and threats from outside. They are now an internationally renowned country, a member of the UN, WHO, SAARC, Commonwealth, the Non-Aligned Movement and others andplay an important role in advocating the security of small nations and the protection of the environment.
The daughter of the house he was staying at had been selected to be the victim and he decided to save her.
Disguised as a girl he spent the night in the temple reciting continuously from the Holy Koran. In the morning when people went to find out the fate of the chosen girl they were amazed to find him alive and still reciting the Koran.
When the King found out that the demon had been defeated through the power of the Holy Koran he embraced Islam and ordered all the subjects to follow him.
MALDIVES
Maldives / Language
Dhivehi is the language spoken in all parts of the Maldives. English is widely spoken by Maldivians and visitors can easily make themselves understood getting around the capital island. In the resorts, a variety of languages are spoken by the staff including English, German, French, Italian and Japanese.
Maldives / Economy
The Maldives economy has been growing at an annual average of 10% for the past two decades. Tourism is the main industry, contributing close to 20% of the GDP. Fisheries and trade follow close behind. The Maldivian economy is regarded as exemplary in the region and welcomes foreign investment.
Environmental Impacts Found in Maldives Post - Tsunami Report
17 June 2005 – A report issued by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) today found that the Indian Ocean tsunami caused a number of significant impacts on the Maldives environment.
Although Maldives world-famous resorts are in good condition and largely open for business, the country’s inhabited islands are confronting several environmental challenges that have resulted from the December 2004 tsunami.
The UNEP report concluded that the tsunami generated approximately 290,000 cubic meters of waste on the country’s 69 inhabited islands that were severely damaged by the tsunami. Asbestos from crushed roofing material was mixed into the debris.
Coastal zones were eroded and vegetation, including food crops, was destroyed. In many cases, the tsunami worsened pre-existing environmental management problems on the inhabited islands.
Groundwater supplies were contaminated by seawater and sewage from disrupted septic systems. Water samples taken by the team found levels of biological contamination of groundwater too high to measure.
On a number of islands UNEP also found high levels of nitrates in the groundwater, which pose serious health threats to infants and young children, if ingested. Although groundwater is not normally used for drinking water supplies, contamination of the groundwater supply came at a time when rainwater collection systems were damaged and before the rainy season, when freshwater was in short supply on several islands.
The UNEP assessment found that the tsunami’s impacts were greatest where villages or cultivated fields abutted the sea with little or no coastal protection. By contrast, where natural coastal forests and vegetation that had been left untouched, UNEP found a reduction in soil erosion and building destruction.
UNEP’s report cited an earlier assessment by an Australian Government team that found that the country’s coral reefs had experienced only minor impacts from the tsunami. The report noted that additional environmental safeguards are in place for the country’s resort islands, which are crucial to the Maldives economy.
Abdullahi Majeed, Deputy Minister in the Maldives Ministry of Environment and Construction, said: “The tsunami has brought home most traumatically our dependence on the environment. I earnestly hope that this major disaster is not a precursor of what is to follow in Maldives with the projected rise in ocean levels. We are working closely with international partners to ensure that reconstruction is conducted in an environmentally sound manner.”
Klaus Toepfer, the Executive Director of UNEP said, “The tsunami in the Indian Ocean taught the world some hard, shocking but important lessons which we ignore at our peril. We learnt in graphic and horrific detail that the ecosystems, such as coral reefs, mangroves and seagrasses which we have so casually destroyed are not a luxury. They are life savers capable of defending our homes, our loved ones and our livelihoods from some of nature’s more aggressive acts.”
“They are also instrumental, in less devastating times, of supplying communities with goods and services that underlie prosperity and help human-kind overcome poverty,” Mr. Toepfer added. “So they have an important role in assisting us in realizing the Millennium Development Goals and delivering a more stable, healthy and prosperous world. It is therefore vital, that during the re-construction of shattered coastlines and settlements, the environment is taken into account along with the economic and social factors. This would be among the lasting tributes, and a key mark of respect, that we pay to people and the families who fell victim to the events of December 2004. Be assured that UNEP stands ready to offer help now and in the future to those countries concerned.”
The UNEP report is based on the findings of a team of international and national experts who visited 16 islands on 8 atolls. The report contains a number of recommendations for the government and international partners.
These include a strong call for environmental planning during reconstruction, strengthening of the Ministry of Environment and Construction and moving toward the creation of a ‘green state’ in Maldives, in which sound environmental management practices would benefit local communities while helping to market Maldives tourism. Detailed recommendations were also offered regarding waste management, sanitation, groundwater remediation, coastal zone protection and other issues.
Pasi Rinne, Chairman of the UNEP Asian Tsunami Disaster Task Force said, “Additional international assistance is needed to support the environmental recovery effort in Maldives. The country has made great economic strides in the past years. We cannot allow this progress to be jeopardized, and we must do all that we can to help protect Maldives from future disaster risks. UNEP’s assessment shows that the environment plays a vital role in this process.”
The report was developed in close cooperation with the Ministry of Environment and Construction (MEC) of Maldives. With support recently received from the U.K. Government’s Department for International Development and the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, UNEP is commencing projects to train workers in the handling and disposal of hazardous waste, to advise the MEC on the clean up of tsunami waste, and to promote the integration of environmental reviews, coastal planning and sustainability concepts into reconstruction plans.
For further information please contact Nick Nuttall, UNEP Spokesperson, Office of the Executive Director, on Tel: +254 20 623 084, Mobile: +254 733 632 755, E-mail: nick.nuttall@unep.org

Paradise (Soon to be) Lost

By Scott Lamb in Berlin

The tiny island nation of the Maldives is in trouble. If global warming continues, say scientists, the country could sink beneath the ocean within 100 years. The government is doing all it can to fight the sea, but the fate of the Maldives is ultimately a global responsibility.





DPA
In 100 years, these beautiful islands may all be underwater.
Pick up a standard map of the world and chances are decent that the Maldives won't even be on it. The archipelago nation made up of 1,200 tiny islands -- ranked 175th in the world for population (330,000) and 167th in terms of gross domestic product ($660 million) -- is known to most of the world, if it is known at all, as a tourist destination. With a total area about the size of Washington D.C., no major resources beyond its beautiful scenery and a location of little strategic importance, the island nation has never played much of a role in global affairs. And yet its very existence is becoming a global responsibility.

Consisting of some of the lowest islands on earth -- its highest point is only 2.4 meters (7.8 feet) above the surface of the ocean -- the Maldives are especially vulnerable to rising sea levels caused by global warming, and unless the world community can effectively curtail carbon dioxide emissions, the little island paradise may soon be lost.

"In the worst case scenario, we'll have to move," says Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Shaheed. The Maldives government has various schemes to save the islands from the sea, ranging from consolidating the population onto several main islands to artificially raising some areas. These plans may help to save the country in the short term, but, Shaheed says, "we are mindful that, in the long run, the only way would be through a global effort."

Threatened shores


DER SPIEGEL
Future maps may no longer have to worry about the Maldives. The island nation may disappear entirely.
On these tropical islands, where everyone lives within minutes of the sea and almost no one owns a car, the spectre of global warming from carbon-dioxide emissions may seem distant -- yet nowhere is the threat of the rising tide more real. According to the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), sea level is projected to rise between 9 and 88 centimeters (3.5 and 35 inches) by the year 2100. "If the higher end of that scale is reached, the sea could overflow the heavily populated coastlines of such countries as Bangladesh, cause the disappearance of some nations entirely (such as the island state of the Maldives), foul freshwater supplies for billions of people and spur mass migrations," the IPCC report said. A sea-level-rise of three feet -- the high end of IPCC estimates -- would mean that 80 percent of the Maldives would sink beneath the ocean.

Not surprisingly, the Maldives was one of the first countries to sign on to the Kyoto agreement. The treaty, which goes into effect on Wednesday of this week, seeks to reduce worldwide carbon dioxide emissions in an effort to stop the process of global warming. It is this warming, which causes thermal expansion -- water volume increases as it gets warmer -- in addition to melting glaciers and polar ice caps, that could spell the end of the archipelago. The Maldives has desperately -- and so-far fruitlessly -- tried to convince the United States, responsible for one quarter of the world's carbon dioxide emissions, to sign on. Where the Maldives have failed politically though, they might succeed only as an example of the powerful negative effects humans have on the environment.

The Maldives is doing everything it can to avoid that distinction. In January this year, the government began implementing their "Safe Islands" project and have identified five main islands that will be designed to resist the rising sea and provide a new, safe home for Maldivians. If necessary, the government has even proposed artificially raising the elevation of some islands to keep them high and dry. And near the capital city of Male, according to Shaheed, a land reclamation project is making an island from scratch, which could eventually be home to up 50,000 people, a huge percentage of the nation's population. "We are hoping to consolidate the population and create stronger and more sturdy structures," says Shaheed. But no matter how sturdy the new buildings are, an unchecked rising sea will still be a threat to the islands in the long term.

Tsunami spurs change

While such projects have been proposed in the past, it is the Dec. 26 tsunami disaster that has provided the impetus this time around. When the gigantic wave hit the Maldives, it didn't just strike the shoreline. In some places, the wave swept over entire islands, destroying everything in its path and washing away topsoil vital for the country's mango, papaya and banana groves. Most of the 200 inhabited islands are little more than beach front, and some estimates say that 40 percent of the country was underwater at some point. That the wave only killed 82 people and left 15,000 homeless is due in part to the country's population density: The majority of its almost 350,000 citizens live in Male, where, thanks to an enormous sea wall, the flood damaged some buildings but left most of the city intact.



FRANK SCHNEIDER
Low-lying islands cannot withstand the rising sea.
The havoc wreaked by the tsunami has gone a long way toward convincing a recalcitrant population that the sea can present a real threat. The government had been trying for years to convince people to leave many of the tiny, low islands to move to bigger and safer places, to no avail; a scheme similar to the Safe Islands project in the 1960s failed due to concerns about the effects on traditional island culture. That may now be changing. "After the tsunami, our plans got a boost," says Shaheed. "People are now more willing to move to larger islands." Most of the refugees have been permanently relocated to Male and so far, 12 islands, like the once densely populated northern island Kandholhudhoo, have been all but abandoned.

The tsunami also got the world's attention. The international community is suddenly interested in the tiny nation and some of the huge pledges that the world made in the days following the disaster are making their way there. And while the loss of life may have been minor when compared with Indonesia, the impact on the economy has been huge, and nearly one third of the population was directly affected. The UN has even started an "adopt an island" program, where companies may pay to help rebuild homes on a specific island.

In the world's hands

But the destruction caused by the tsunami's waters may just be a sign of things to come. Surviving a tidal wave is one thing; combating an inexorably rising sea is something else. If the sea continues to rise, even the most elaborate plans will only be temporary solutions. There is only so much the country can do to protect itself.

Furthermore, even minor rises in sea levels would have huge effects on the country's beaches, and the disruption to the tourist trade would ruin the economy long before the islands became uninhabitable. Ninety percent of the government's tax revenues come from import duties and tourism-related taxes.

The government knows that it can't count on the world's good intentions, and holds out hope that the Safe Islands project and other initiatives will ensure the future for the Maldives for some time to come. "Technology has always surprised humanity," Shaheed says.

But ultimately, the fate of the islands is in the world's hands. It cannot battle the sea forever, and the only long-term option will be to abandon the islands altogether. "That," says Shaheed, "will be an admission of defeat, not only for us, but for the global community."
Conference on Global Warming and the Future of low-lying countries
Location: Thea’s Lounge, Graduate Students’ Society, UBC Campus
Date: May 19, 2005; 4.00PM to 8.00 PM
Much of the rise in sea level has been related to the concurrent rise in global temperature over the last 100 years. The warming and the consequent thermal expansion of the oceans may account for about 2-7 cm of the observed sea level rise, while the observed retreat of glaciers and ice caps may account for about 2-5 cm. Humanity's greenhouse gas emissions are expected to lead to climatic changes in the 21st century and beyond. These changes will potentially have wide-ranging effects on the natural environment as well as on human societies and economies.
A recent report by the United Nations Panel on Climate Change, predicted more extreme droughts, floods and storms and the inundation of low-lying islands and coastal areas could lead to the displacement of hundreds of millions of people. The United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, has warned that a rise in sea level could lead to the disappearance of much of the world's largest delta, Bangladesh. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1220036.stm) The divide among scientists over whether or not the sea level is rising appears to be narrowing. Recent studies show that in the 20th century, the sea level rose over the world by 20-30 cm. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projects a rise of up to 1 meter this century. A U.N. panel comprising 2,000 scientists predicts temperature increases of 10.8 Fahrenheit this century, which might raise the sea level by up to 78.7 cm. Humanity's greenhouse gas emissions are expected to lead to climatic changes in the 21st century and beyond. These changes will potentially have wide-ranging effects on the natural environment as well as on human societies and economies.
In 2000, a World Bank-published map showed that a one-meter rise in the sea level would inundate half of Bangladesh's riceland. With sea levels predicted to rise up to one meter this century, Bangladeshis would be forced to migrate in their millions. Rice-growing river floodplains in Asia, including those in India, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and China, are also predicted to be affected. In October 1987, Maldives President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, in an address to the U.N. General Assembly, said that his country was threatened by rising sea level. The Maldives, with 311,000 people, he said, was "an endangered nation". With most of its 1,196 tiny islands barely two meters above the sea level, the Maldives' survival can indeed be threatened with even a one-meter rise in the sea level in the event of a storm surge. Fearing a rise in the sea level the Tuvaluan government appealed last year to Australia and New Zealand to provide permanent homes for the people. Bangladesh, with a population of 140 million, will be the largest nation that will be directly affected by a change in sea level rise.
Therefore, it is important to study the effects these will have on low-lying countries, like, Bangladesh, Maldives and Fiji. Bangladesh, with a population of 140 million, will be the largest nation that will be directly affected by a change in sea level rise.
Brief description of event and its purpose:
Leading experts from University of BC, Simon Fraser University, University of Victoria and University of Toronto will discuss issues around global warming, climate change and the related effects on low-lying countries. The conference will attempt to create awareness among UBC community on this vital issue and emphasize the research needs in this area. In addition, representative from Red Cross will speak about how to prepare for such an emergency, and a representative from CIDA will speak what roles Canadian government can play in creating international pressure how to reduce emission of green-house gases.
The following experts from leading Canadian Universities have very kindly agreed to present their views and findings at the conference:
1. Dr. John Clague, Department of Earth Sciences, Simon Fraser University. Professor & Canada Research Chair in Natural Hazards Research.
2. Dr. Adam Monahan, Assistant Professor, School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of Victoria
3. Dr. Stewart J. Cohen, Adaptation & Impacts Research Group (AIRG) & Environment Canada Institute for Resources Environment & Sustainability (IRES), University of British Columbia.

4. Dr. Hans Schreier, Professor, Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability, University of British Columbia.
5. Dr. Monirul Mirza, Researcher, Adaptation and Impacts Research Group, University of Toronto.
6. George Chandler, Manager, Humanitarian Issues Program, Canadian Red Cross.
7. Joe Knoekart, Director, Pacific Regional Office, Canadian International Development Agency.
Names, faculty and year of study of students involved:
All members of Bangladesh Students’ Association will be actively involved. However, the club has formed a committee comprising of the following nine members to organize the conference:
1. Hasanat M Alamgir, PhD Candidate, Faculty of Medicine, UBC; 4rth year
2. Hafiz Abdur Rahman, PhD Student, Dept of Electrical Engineering, UBC; 1st year
3. Md. Zahangir Hossain, PhD Student, Dept of Electrical Engineering, UBC; 2nd year
4. Kazi Parvez Fattah, PhD Student, Dept of Civil Engineering, UBC, 1st year
5. AKM Moniruzzaman, PhD Student, Faculty of Medicine, UBC, 1st year
6. Ashfaq Hossain Suman, PhD Student, Dept of Physics and Astronomy, UBC, 1st year
7. Zaman Sharif Fakhruz, PhD Student, Dept of Chemical & Biological Engineering, UBC, 1st year
8. Subrata Sarkar, PhD Student, Dept of Economics, UBC, 1st year
9. Md. Shahidul Alam, MSc Student, Dept of Computer Science, UBC; 2nd year
People who will be benefited:
In addition to all 45 members of Bangladesh Students’ Association, students attending the following departments of UBC will be invited to attend the conference and be directly benefited from this conference:
Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences, Institute of International Relations, Liu Institute for Global Issues, Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies, Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability (IRES),
Sustainable Development Research Institute (SDRI), and Department of Geography
Students of various departments will get opportunity to upgrade their knowledge regarding global warming, climate change and the impact on low-lying countries. It will create awareness among UBC community and emphasize the research needs in this area. Students of departments, like, Earth and Ocean Sciences, and Geography, will hear the expert opinion and provide their feedback how to prevent or slow down such an incoming humanitarian disaster. The news and discussions of the conference will be conveyed to the media of Canada, Bangladesh, Maldives and Fiji. By propagating such a meeting UBC’s image will be uplifted inside and outside Canada as a leading edge research institution and UBC students will be valued as responsible global citizens.

Global warming and coral reefs
Thomas J Goreau
31 - 5 - 2005

It is probably already too late to stop rapid climate change. The results for coral reefs and other life systems will be disastrous. Tom Goreau reports from the global-warming frontline.






Coral reefs are the most sensitive of all ecosystems to global warming, pollution, and new diseases. They will be first to go as a result of climate change. As the most important resources for fisheries, tourism, shore protection, and marine biodiversity for more than a hundred countries, this will be a huge disaster.
Almost all reefs have already been heated above their maximum temperature thresholds. Many have already lost most of their corals, and temperature rise in most places gives only a few years before most corals die from heatstroke.
In 1998 most coral reefs in the Indian Ocean suffered widespread dieback. In 2002 the same happened across much of the South Pacific. These were the hottest and second-hottest years measured, but all other years in the last decade were only a few tenths of a degree less. Survival of most remaining coral is only a question of when the next year as hot as 1998 and 2002 hits. Statistically it’s already 2005, although if we’re lucky natural climatic fluctuations may postpone it for a few years.
At the “Earth Summit” in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, I showed global satellite sea-surface temperature data and told governments that coral reefs were already at their tolerance limits, and could take no further heat. We begged them to stop global warming or we would lose many of our corals in the next ten years (which is what happened).

Bleached corals are starving. If the stress eases they may slowly recover, but if it intensifies they will die. This is the first recorded photograph of bleaching corals. It was taken by the late Prof. Thomas F. Goreau in Jamaica in 1963


The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) only stabilised rates of greenhouse gas and temperature increases, not greenhouse gas concentrations and temperatures. As a result the convention is useless for halting the destruction of coral reefs.
Although we got language in the convention stating that its purpose is, among other things, to protect the earth’s climate-sensitive ecosystems, this was rendered nonsensical by a failure to do three things:
• identify these ecosystems
• require they be monitored for temperature stress
• include a trigger mechanism to reduce greenhouse gas emissions if such stress was shown.
Further, there was wholesale dishonesty in greenhouse accounting requirements, confusing sources with sinks and net fluxes with gross fluxes. Any accountant who pulled off such tricks with real money would be jailed. Minutes after the treaty was signed, I circulated leaflets denouncing it as a death sentence for coral reefs.
A model fallacy
In Rio I also presented comparisons of historical changes in temperature, CO2, and sea level over the last 130,000 years recorded in ice-caps versus those predicted by the best models endorsed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The real data showed that model predictions seriously underestimate the actual observed sensitivity of the climate system. Changes in temperature due to carbon dioxide, for example, are probably underestimated about tenfold.



Also by Tom Goreau in openDemocracy (with Abdul Azeez Abdul Hakeem and Wolf Hilbertz), “Growing a beach in the Maldives” (May 2004)
Don’t miss the other articles and features in openDemocracy’s debate on the politics of climate change


By contrast, the models then in use only predict short-term changes which have not come to steady state, because this is much longer than the time horizon IPCC presents to policymakers. The logical fallacy is as if you kick a football, measure how far it moves in one tenth of a second, and confuse this with how far the ball will go!
Most climate-change models miss the “positive feedback mechanisms”. We know from correlations between earth’s orbital parameters around the sun and climate changes recorded in deep-sea sediments, stalactites, and ice cores that there are very strong internal feedback mechanisms that amplify very small changes in sunlight.
Climate models are still too imprecise to say how hot it will get and how long this will take. So let us ignore model predictions as uncertain and look at the real data. The last time global temperature was 1 degree Centrigrade above today’s level, 125,000 years ago (which humans now alive will experience), sea level was not the few centimeters higher predicted by the IPCC models but more than six metres (twenty feet) higher. Crocodiles and hippopotamuses flourished in tropical swamps in London (see them in the Natural History Museum), and Caribbean reefs were flattened by monster hurricanes while huge sand dune islands were built in days.
Carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere at that time were 30% lower than today. Conditions then underestimate what we will face when we come to equilibrium with the present level of CO2, much less the doubling that is likely to take place during this century if present methods of energy production and modes of economic growth continue!
Today, we do not feel the effects of global warming because most of the trapped heat is flowing down to the deep sea. This introduces a 1,000-year timelag, the mean turnover time of the deep ocean to the surface. If you have your furnace on full blast and your attic windows open, you won’t feel warm on the ground floor until after the attic warms up because heat flows to the coldest spot. If the circulation shuts down, the heat builds up more quickly. The qualitative argument is solid, but the timing highly uncertain.
A time to act
We are many generations away from feeling the effects of the excess carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere as a result of industrial activities to date, and when this plays out the effects will be much greater than 125,000 years ago, even if we never burn any more coal, oil or gas from today forwards. Sudden changes in temperature and sea level will follow when there are dramatic shifts in ocean surface currents (something taking place already in slow motion), and sudden slipping of ice shelves and glaciers lubricated beneath by meltwater. Eventually the surface ocean layer will become so warm and thick that it can’t get dense enough to sink, shutting down deep ocean circulation and greatly speeding surface atmosphere warming.
It has been long known that rising carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will raise ocean acidity (that is, lower ocean pH), but this keeps being re- “discovered” as a new problem. But corals will die of global warming long before increased acidity kills them.

Prolific coral and fish growth on a 3 year old Biorock reef in Indonesia shows why these are valued by fishermen and tourists alike. Photo James Cervino, July 2004


Our long-term global satellite coral reef temperature database shows that worldwide changes in ocean circulation are underway, affecting all coral reefs and marine fisheries. Our data show the crisis is more imminent than policymakers realise. But we can’t get them to act because people who have not studied the real data and rely on inaccurate models think the coral crisis is centuries to millennia away.
Large-scale application of Biorock reef restoration technology may offer one of the only long-term hopes for coral reefs, since global warming, pollution, and new diseases are now beyond control. This method allows corals to grow three to five times faster and have a survival rate of high temperatures sixteen to fifty times higher than background. Biorock reefs not only keep corals alive where they would die, they allow us to grow reefs where natural recovery is impossible (for more on this, see our article on work in the Maldives). Fishermen can use them to grow whole reefs supporting huge school s of fish and harvest fish sustainably, becoming reef farmers instead of hunters killing the last big game.

The "Vabbbinafau Lotus" - a Biorock facility in the Maldives, thriving after the tsunami of December 2004. Photo Azeez Hakeem


Policymakers and funding agencies must decide to quickly support large-scale restoration of reefs and fisheries, instead of marine-protected areas that will fail even more as global warming, pollution, and new diseases spread out of control. Only Indonesia has made such a commitment, and we must hope other countries and international agencies follow before it is too late and they lose their biodiversity, fisheries, tourism, beaches, and the low-lying islands and coasts.
July 2005

The CSI Report, July 2005

The monthly newsletter of the Conservation Science Institute

editor: Brian Petersen


Inside CSI

This month in the CSI Report you can read about Juerg Brunnschweiler, a CSI Fellow who has been working on his Ph.D. at the University of Zurich. Brunnschweiler's Ph.D. thesis title is 'Movement patterns and habitat use of satellite-tagged bull sharks, Carcharhinus leucas. Brunnschweiler uses state of the art pop-up satellite tags to determine bull shark movements; the researchers were very surprised by the results. Find out more in the CSI Fellow's Report below or go to Brunnschweiler's research web page at http://www.conservationinstitute.org/fellowbrunnschweiler.htm.

CSI is pleased to announce our newest fellow, Dr. Russell Bellmer, who is presently the project leader for the Stockton U.S. Fish and Wildlife Office. I met Dr. Bellmer when we worked together on the restoration effort of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. He was the Restoration Research Program manger with NOAA Fisheries in the NOAA Restoration Center in Silver Spring. You can learn more about Dr. Bellmer's work by going to his web page at http://www.conservationinstitute.org/fellowbellmer.htm and more about the CSI Fellows program at http://www.conservationinstitute.org/fellowships.htm. We welcome nominations for CSI fellows at anytime; send us an e-mail.

The Predator Conservation Network manager, Mary Sweeters, added a new species account, the lingcod, Ophiodon elongatus. The Predator Conservation Network is dedicated to revealing the importance of predators and dispelling myths about these important species. Read about lingcod at http://www.conservationinstitute.org/pcnlingcod.htm.

The Discovery Program "American Shark" is on several times during Shark Week, starting July 19. Alaska's salmon sharks will be discussed. The program can be viewed (EST):
July 19th 9pm and 12 midnight
July 23rd 2pm
July 26th 9am

Bruce Wright
Executive Director

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Featured CSI Fellow Report
Juerg Brunnschweiler

Juerg Brunnschweiler is investigating where mature bull sharks migrate to when they leave the local habitat and the locations of their nursery and mating grounds. Pop-up satellite tags are being deployed to monitor large scale movements of otherwise difficult to observe animals. Brunnschweiler began his bull shark research in the Bahamas. He deployed six tags on bull sharks in April of 2003. Within two days of tagging completion all the bull sharks within that population vanished. When they began receiving signals from the satellite they were surprised that in a matter of just a few days a female bull shark had swum all the way from the Bahamas to the Florida coast into a fresh water river system. This river had been long thought to be a bull shark nursery ground. Brunnschweiler's team had just made the first confirmed observation of seasonal migration of bull sharks between the Bahamas and the Florida coast.

In 2004 Brunnschweiler equipped 11 adult bull sharks with satellite tags. All of the tags had been programmed to pop up at the end of 2004. After being attached to the sharks for up to seven months they had popped up as expected and transmitted their data to satellites. The majority of the tagged bull sharks had migrated away in a westward direction covering an area of hundreds to thousands of kilometers. Some of the sharks turned up near the islands of Vanuatu and New Caledonia. The record for distance traveled, however, was held by one female shark that turned up close to northern Australia. Read more about Brunnschweiler's research at http://www.conservationinstitute.org/fellowbrunnschweiler.htm.

TO BE CONCLUDED!!!!