Puerto Ricans celebrate new marine preserve
"Never stop fighting for your ecosystem": A grassroots effort protects over 77 square miles of ocean, home to 14 endangered species, including manatee. Plus a roundup of good environment news.
Dear Readers: I’m working on several in-depth stories that aren’t yet ready for prime time, so I offer you this news roundup. The U.S. election is weighing heavily on my mind. I hope that in the coming week, we can remember our common humanity, tap our values, respect one another, and forge a future of environmental protection, together.
I’ll see you on the other side.
Underwater gardens for manatee: Puerto Rico’s new marine protected area
For 16 years, grassroots activists on the northern coast of Puerto Rico have been knocking on doors, rallying neighbors and engaging leaders to protect the stunning mangroves and coral reefs that feed humans and endangered manatees around their island. In October, they succeeded in creating the Jardines Submarinos de Vega Baja y Manatí, or the “Underwater Gardens for Vega Baja1 and Manatee.”
This isn’t just good news for ocean conservation and biodiversity, it also helps the fight against climate change. Scientists have long identified mangroves, sea grass and coral reefs as powerful carbon sinks.
From the Wildlife Conservation Society:
The newly-established [Marine Protected Area] encompasses 202.7 km² (77 square miles) of coastal coral reefs, mangroves, and seagrass beds home to more than 14 endangered species, including the Greater Caribbean Manatee. The area also hosts vibrant small-scale fisheries and a local ecotourism industry, and communities hope that … its waters remain a source of food and income for local families for generations. …
Leaders … hope their success inspires others to take action: "To other coastal communities around the world, our message is clear: never stop fighting for your ecosystems," concluded Ricardo Laureano.
Industrial wastelands to wildlife oases: Five nature wins
From the BBC, an article that discusses the five main strategies to tackle biodiversity loss: protecting oceans, restoring forests and wetlands, tackling invasive species and restoring keystone species, all of which we write about here at Earth Hope!
A major study revealed this year that conservation efforts are generally effective at reducing global biodiversity loss. International researchers spent 10 years assessing conservation measures, including the establishment of protected areas, habitat restoration and eradicating invasive species. They found that in most cases (66%) these measures improved the state of biodiversity or slowed its decline. …
Marine Protected Areas if properly enforced, can become crucial biodiversity havens, which protect countless species from overfishing, pollution and habitat destruction. Countries that have established MPAs have experienced great biodiversity wins.
Chefs serve up lionfish tacos: 'They're invasive ... they're delicious'
From Yahoo News:
A Wilmington, North Carolina, restaurant is serving lionfish on its menu to help control one of the most invasive species in the Atlantic.
Lionfish feed on native fish populations and are destroying ecosystems. Yet they are quite tasty in tacos and pan-seared with grits.
Federal agencies looking at sea otter reintroduction
As a follow-up to my story about sea otters and their incredible ability to protect giant kelp forests, here are two stories about federal agencies working to reintroduce sea otters to Northern California.
A The National Park Service study showed two large and shark-free estuaries, Tomales Bay and Drakes Estero, have enough food to support a sea otter population.
[R]ecently, a team of scientists chose southern sea otters to test if predator-prey population dynamics modeling could help conservation planners figure out where predator reintroductions could work. The team … found that two estuaries in Point Reyes National Seashore could probably feed lots of cute (or not) whimsical water weasels one day!
The public wants sea otters back in Northern California waters. From Bay Nature Magazine, Congress has charged the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service with studying the feasibility of sea otter reintroduction in Northern California, so the agency conducted several “listening” sessions in communities:
The majority of comments from the couple hundred Californians who participated extolled the benefits of sea otters in helping to restore kelp forests, the importance of biodiversity, ecosystem balance, and as many screamed in uppercase: “they’re just plain CUTE!” Only a small fraction of answers expressed opposition—and most of those were concerned with impacts to commercial and local fishing.
Researchers count slight increase in North Atlantic right whales
From The Independent, researchers said the population increased to an estimated 372 in 2023, up 4 percent from 2020. This is “heartening news” after the whale's numbers fell by about 25 percent between 2010 and 2020.
Also, The New York Times, in “Can 70 moms save a species?” presents a comprehensive summary of the right whale’s plight, including the efforts of brave volunteers manning the Eastern seaboard to untangle right whales caught in Maine lobster fishing gear.
Rats are helping Madagascar's ancient baobabs disperse seeds
Since I’ve written about efforts to eradicate invasive rats on islands, I wanted to give them a boost by highlighting this story. Rats are the only animals left on Madagascar that will help spread the seeds of ancient baobabs. The seed pods are so thick and tough, only humans and rats can get into them. The trees once relied on giant lemurs and giant tortoises to disperse their seeds. Those species went extinct several hundred years ago, though giant tortoises were recently reintroduced.
From RFI:
No animals or birds visited the baobab fruit while they were still on the tree, the team found, but when the large pods fell to the ground, native western tuft-tailed rats – small rodents with rich brown fur, elongated ears and a tuft of fur at the end of their long smooth tails – were caught on camera traps sniffing the fallen fruit and then eating the seeds.
Antarctic ozone hole keeps shrinking, thanks to human cooperation
From the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association:
Healing continues in the atmosphere over the Antarctic: A hole that opens annually in the ozone layer over Earth's southern pole was relatively small in 2024 compared to other years. NOAA and NASA scientists project the ozone layer could fully recover by 2066.
During the peak of ozone depletion season from September 7 through October 13, the 2024 area of the ozone hole ranked the seventh-smallest since recovery began in 1992. That’s when the Montreal Protocol, a landmark international agreement to phase out ozone-depleting chemicals, started to take effect.
Minnesota researchers find that native plants can beat buckthorn on their own turf
From The Minnesota Star Tribune:
Virginia wildrye and other thatchy grasses can kill off young buckthorn before it takes over a woods.
[Researchers] found that after cutting down the main stems of a buckthorn hedge, they can keep it from growing back by immediately spreading seeds of certain native plants that can literally stand up to young buckthorn, shading it out, in those first two critical autumns.
Red-cockaded woodpecker no longer “endangered”
Over 15,000 red-cockaded woodpeckers are thriving across 11 Southeast U.S. states after 50 years of conservation efforts. These social, non-migratory birds are the only woodpeckers that build nests in live pine trees. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service recently downlisted the species from “endangered” to “threatened.”
Conservationists deployed a variety of tactics to reverse habitat loss. From the American Bird Conservancy:
On public lands, managers now set controlled fires to mimic the natural burns that historically maintained suitable Red-cockaded Woodpecker habitat. By maintaining older trees in the landscape, along with building artificial nest cavities and translocation programs, conservationists have also helped boost populations and establish new colonies.
From the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service:
Once abundant from New Jersey to Florida, west to Texas and north to Missouri, the red-cockaded woodpecker’s range dwindled to a few states by the 1960s, following more than a century of habitat loss. In the late 1970s, populations were at an all-time low of an estimated 1,470 clusters of red-cockaded woodpeckers. Today, the Service estimates there are 7,800 clusters ranging across 11 states from southern Virginia to eastern Texas.
About Earth Hope:
Earth Hope is a solutions-based journalism project that highlights environmental success stories from around the globe, because hope is the foundation of progress. I’m Amanda Royal, a former newspaper reporter and current eco-news junkie. Read more about this project and what inspired it.
Signing off with my latest in Notes:
A town in northern Puerto Rico.
Huzzah!
I needed some hope going into this week. Thank you.