China massively overfishing American waters
By all accounts, the Humboldt squid — named for the nutrient-rich current found off the southwest coast of South America — is one of the most abundant marine species. Some scientists believe their numbers may even be thriving as the oceans warm and their natural predators, sharks, and tuna, are fished out of existence.
But biologists say the squid have never faced a threat like the explosion of industrial Chinese fishing off South America. The number of Chinese-flagged vessels in the south Pacific has surged 10-fold from 54 active vessels in 2009 to 557 in 2020, according to the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organization, or SPRFMO, an inter-governmental group of 15 members charged with ensuring the conservation and sustainable fishing of the species. Meanwhile, the size of its catch has grown from 70,000 tons in 2009 to 358,000 tons last year.
Fishing takes place almost exclusively at night when each ship turns on hundreds of lights as powerful as anything at a stadium to attract swarms of the fast-flying squid. The concentration of lights is so intense it can be seen from space on satellite images that show the massive fleet shining as brightly as major cities hundreds of miles away on land.
Europeans demand Apple iPhones use standard charging connector
The European Union announced plans Thursday to require the smartphone industry to adopt a uniform charging cord for mobile devices, a push that could eliminate the all-too-familiar experience of rummaging through a drawer full of tangled cables to find the right one.
The European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, proposed legislation that would mandate USB-C cables for charging, technology that many device makers have already adopted. The main holdout is Apple, which said it was concerned the new rules would limit innovation, and that would end up hurting consumers. iPhones come with the company’s own Lightning charging port, though the newest models come with cables that can be plugged into a USB-C socket.
Some 420 million mobile phones or portable electronic devices were sold in EU last year.
A little brown bat with white-nose syndrome. Credit: Marvin Moriarty/USFWS
Bat-killing fungus found near Rimrock Lake
An invasive fungus that causes white-nose syndrome in bats continues to spread in Washington, with the fungus detected in late spring near Rimrock Lake.
During spring and summer field work this year, scientists with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service detected the fungus or disease in Yakima, Chelan and Mason counties, according to a news release.
WDFW scientists collected guano samples in late spring 2021 from a bat colony showing no signs of disease on Forest Service land near Rimrock Lake. Testing confirmed the presence of the fungus that causes white-nose syndrome. The bat genus was Myotis, but the specific species is unknown.
“These recent confirmations of white-nose syndrome and the causative fungus in new areas of Washington are very concerning, as they provide evidence that the disease is spreading,” said Abby Tobin, white-nose syndrome coordinator for WDFW, in the release. “This eventually may lead to population declines in several bat species critically needed for eastern Washington agriculture.”
White-nose syndrome (WNS) is a disease that affects hibernating bats and is caused by a fungus, Pseudogymnoascus destructans, or Pd for short. Sometimes Pd looks like a white fuzz on bats’ faces, which is how the disease got its name. Pd grows in cold, dark and damp places. It attacks the bare skin of bats while they’re hibernating in a relatively inactive state. As it grows, Pd causes changes in bats that make them become active more than usual and burn up fat they need to survive the winter. Bats with white-nose syndrome may do strange things like fly outside in the daytime in the winter. The fungus is harmless to humans.
White-nose syndrome has been in North America at least since 2006. Pd was unknown to science until it was found on North American bats. After that, researchers began looking for it elsewhere and found it on bats in Europe and Asia (where bats strangely do not appear to get as sick from the fungus as they do in North America.)
There’s an old saying, “Out of sight, out of mind.” We rarely see bats, so it can be easy to forget about them or believe they aren’t important. You may think bats don’t affect you, but you may not realize all the ways that bats make our lives better. Do you avoid mosquito bites? Each bat may eat a thousand mosquitos each night.
White-nose syndrome is a serious threat to hibernating bats in North America. Since 2006, it has steadily spread south and west from New York State. Millions of bats, up to 100 percent of some populations, have died due to this fungal disease.
We don’t know how Pd got here or where it’s from. Pd spores can last a long time on surfaces such as clothes, shoes and outdoor gear, so even though people do not get white-nose syndrome, we can unknowingly move the fungus from one place to another – the most likely way that Pd found its way to North America.
We care about bats and white-nose syndrome for many reasons:
- Bats eat insects. A lot of insects. Bats are the most significant predators of night-flying insects. There are at least 40 different kinds of bats in the U.S. that eat nothing but insects. A single little brown bat, weighing 5-9 grams with a body smaller than an adult human’s thumb, can eat 4 to 8 grams, about its body weight, the weight of two grapes, of insects each night. Although this may not sound like much, it adds up—the loss of the millions of bats in the Northeast has probably resulted in between 660 and 1320 metric tons of insects no longer being eaten each year by bats. In fact, bats contribute about $3.7 billion worth of insect control for farmers in the US each year. So, when white-nose syndrome wipes out populations of bats, they can no longer eat insects that harm agricultural crops, which then requires more pesticide use.
- Bats help keep natural areas healthy. Bats are important species wherever they live. When they die, other parts of the web of life are affected. Other living things in caves depend on bats because bat guano (droppings) provides them nutrients.
- Bats are cool! Bats are the only mammals that fly, and they are masters of “seeing” obstacles using echolocation, reflections of sound from their ultra-high-frequency voices. Bats only have 1-3 pups (babies) per year, and many live together in colonies, hibernating through the winter. These nocturnal animals are simply fascinating and very valuable.
- We can help bats and slow the spread of white-nose syndrome. Those of us who like to explore caves can help. Our actions matter! We can clean and disinfect clothes and gear after each trip to prevent spreading the fungus that causes white-nose syndrome into other caves.
Dave Bunting, Sept. 27, 2021
See these columns on my blog: daverant.com