Treacle spill in Hawaii kills thousands of fish

A huge 1,400-tonne treacle spill off the coast of Hawaii has killed thousands of fish.

The syrup got into the water through a leak in the pipeline used to load it on to ships. The treacle is made at a sugar plantation on the island.

Officials say that while treacle in the water is "not harmful to the public directly, the substance is polluting the water, causing fish to die and could lead to an increase in predator species such as sharks, barracuda and eels."

Signs on nearby beaches are warning bathers to stay out of the water.

The hole in the pipe has now been repaired but rescue efforts continue to try to save the marine life.

A leak was discovered in a pipeline used to load the syrup on to ships, creating a sugary brown slick in Honolulu's harbour and nearby lagoon.

Health officials say they have already removed hundreds of dead fish from the water and expect thousands more.

Signs on nearby beaches warned bathers to stay out of the water.

Sticky predicament

The high concentration of treacle, known in the US as molasses, would make it difficult for the fish to breathe, state health department spokeswoman Janice Okubo told the Associated Press news agency.

TV footage showed some fish sticking their mouths out of the water.

"While molasses is not harmful to the public directly, the substance is polluting the water, causing fish to die and could lead to an increase in predator species such as sharks, barracuda and eels," the state health department said in a statement.

Heath officials expect the spill to be visible for weeks until tides and currents flush it out of the area.

They are concerned about potential increased growth of algae from the refined sugar.

Treacle is made at a sugar plantation on the US island state.

The firm that ships the sticky product to the US west coast about once a week, the Matson Navigation Company, repaired the hole and the pipe stopped leaking on Tuesday morning, spokesman Jeff Hull said.

Hawaiian officials said they could fine Matson for violations of the Clean Water Act, but the immediate priority was public safety.

In a statement, Matson said it would ensure spills did not occur in the future.

From BBC

Can we learn to love vultures?

Vultures have suffered something of an image problem over the years. Eating the bodies of dead animals has never attracted us to them. But now a project - supported by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge - is trying to turn round how we think about the birds, which are facing new threats, as the BBC's Kevin Bishop reports from Johannesburg.

Cape vultures swoop down from South Africa's blue spring sky over the Magaliesberg Cliffs.

Dozens skim over the dry, brown grassland to a "vulture restaurant".

A carcass has been laid out in the sun, flies buzzing around it and crows and egrets pecking at its skin. Slowly, one brave female gingerly approaches.

Step by step, each gently-landed claw accompanied by a cautious scan of the area for danger.

They take their time - an hour or more passes before they feel confident.

But once one vulture takes her first snatches of flesh, the others pounce. A feeding-frenzy ensues.

Each vulture pushing and squabbling its way to enough food to satisfy itself - and the chick waiting back on the cliffs.

We are at VulPro, on the outskirts of Haartebeesport, an hour's drive from Johannesburg.

It is a nature conservancy dedicated to a species that has got a reputation as the least cute, least huggable of all animals.

But Kerri Wolter, the head of VulPro, believes that the role that vultures play in nature - clearing away disease-ridden flesh - is crucial:

"We've got to lift the profile of vulture species to the same level as rhino, we've got to get people to acknowledge they are important."

Sinister threat

Why do the graceful birds have an image problem?

The cape vulture is seen by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) Red List as being "vulnerable".

Conservationists here fear they will soon join the African white-backed vulture, which is now seen as "endangered" with numbers decreasing by 90% in West Africa.

IUCN has seen a fall of more than 1,500 mating pairs of cape vultures in the last 20 years.

They are only now to be found in Botswana and South Africa, having become recently extinct in Namibia.

They face threats from electrocutions and collisions with electrical structures, land-use changes, a decrease in food availability and exposure to toxic veterinary drugs.

But the biggest danger is more sinister.

As the poaching of rhinos and elephants in southern Africa increases every year - more than 600 South African rhinos poached in 2013 to date - vultures are the unsuspecting victims.

The poachers are eager not to flag up their presence to game wardens.

So in some cases they have begun to poison the carcass of the animal they have just killed for its horn or tusks.

The vultures swoop in for their feed, unaware that the flesh is laced with a killer.

Ms Wolter says the stakes are high: "All you need is for one poisoned rhino, or one poisoned elephant, and you wipe out 600 vultures.

"However, during breeding season, it's not only the 600 vultures who consume that carcass. It's potentially their chicks as well.

"So you're looking at 1,200 birds at one poisoning incident."

From BBC News-Sci/Environment

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Freshwater Habitats Trust fight for UK native species

Wildlife in this country's ponds and rivers is under threat from species from other countries - this week a new organisation is being launched to help save them.

The Freshwater Habitats Trust hopes to protect endangered British plants and animals and improve the water quality of of streams and ponds in general.

Some of the foreign creatures whose numbers are rising here are abandoned pets like terrapins which became popular pets after a cartoon twenty years ago.

Terrapins eat tadpoles and little fish. Others species arrive in egg and larva in clothes, cars and boats.

Another example is the British water vole which is under attack from the American mink, thought to have escaped from UK farms.

Water voles have declined by a fifth in the UK since 2011, a survey suggested last week.

Pond Conservation told Newsround: "We're worried about alien species because they are so difficult to control. But their effect on wildlife pales into insignificance compared to the damage caused by pollution.

"It's shocking, but clean, unpolluted, water - which is vital for freshwater life - has all but gone from large parts of the country... leaving most rivers, streams and ponds much more impoverished than they should be."

From CBBC Newsround

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