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Scientist captures elusive abalone off O.C.

March 30th, 2010, 12:47 pm by
A green abalone caught off Laguna Beach. Photo courtesy Nancy Caruso.

Green abalone captured off Laguna Beach. Photo courtesy Nancy Caruso.

An Orange County scientist who spent years growing kelp forests offshore is firing up volunteers for her newest project: breeding green abalone in local schools, then releasing them into the wild.

Nancy Caruso, a marine biologist and head of the “Get Inspired!” non-profit organization, caught three good-sized abalone off Laguna Beach Saturday with help from her dive team. She kept the abalone in tanks overnight to get fecal samples, and returned them to their offshore hideout the next day.

It’s the first step in an ambitious effort that would be the only one of  its kind in the state.

“We’re finding some abalone, and that’s good news,” Caruso said. “Nobody really knew if they were still around.”

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Posted in: Animal archive • Wildlife and the natural world • • • | Comments Off

Edge of Nature: Meet the snipe, creature of legend

March 30th, 2010, 10:16 am by

Youngsters on their first camping trips still fall victim to a famous practical joke: being taken on a “snipe hunt.”

According to legend, the snipe doesn’t really exist, much to the chagrin of the inexperienced camper.

But in some places, the joke might be on the joker. Snipes do exist, and the Wilson’s snipe can be seen in Orange County this time of year, though it will soon head north for the summer.

Seeing a snipe can be a difficult proposition, perhaps contributing to its legendary non-existence.

Inhabitants of marshes, wet meadows and river banks, they are strikingly patterned birds, but the patterns serve to break up their shapes. The result: the birds can hide in plain sight, blending in so well with, say, a rocky or pebbly habitat that they’re virtually invisible until flushed by an approaching intruder.

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Posted in: Animal archive • Edge of Nature • Wildlife and the natural world • • | 1 Comment »

Biologist lauded for work on endangered bird

March 29th, 2010, 5:08 pm by

An Orange County Water District biologist who spent 30 years working to bring back the endangered light-footed clapper rail has won a national conservation award from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Dick Zembal, right, with volunteer Molly Sallcup and captive-bred light-footed clapper rail about to be released. Courtesy Dick Zembal.

Dick Zembal, natural resources director at the water district who previously was a field supervisor at Fish and Wildlife, received the agency’s 2009 Recovery Champion Award — one of three to receive it in the state and one of 18 nationwide.

“In this day and age, what I use the clapper rail for is trying to get college kids involved with endangered species,” he said. “We get federal funds when we can to help kids pay for their schooling.”

Zembal has spent three decades monitoring the coastal wetlands, such as the wildlife refuge at the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station and Upper Newport Bay, that provide habitat for the secretive bird, which weaves its floating nests out of cord grass.

He also supervised captive breeding of the birds, built nesting platforms that helped them breed in the wild, and brought together a variety of agencies and institutions to assist in his effort, among them the U.S. Navy, the state Department of Fish and Game, the Unified Port of San Diego, the San Diego Zoo and SeaWorld.

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Posted in: Animal archive • Personalities in green • • | 3 Comments »

O.C. firms go dark for global warming event

March 26th, 2010, 2:57 pm by

It’s lights out across the planet Saturday night for “Earth Hour,” a symbolic call for action on global warming, and many Orange County businesses will flip the switch as well.

Golden Gate Bridge, lights on. Courtesy World Wildlife Fund

Golden Gate Bridge, lights off. Courtesy World Wildlife Fund

At least 12 appeared on a partial list compiled by World Wildlife Fund, the yearly event’s organizers, among them Ecotek in Huntington Beach and Westin South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa.

The idea is to switch lights off for one hour starting at 8:30 p.m. in each time zone on Saturday.

“We’re going to make it as dark as we can without causing any issues or concerns,” said Dan Pittman, spokesman for the Westin, which turned its lights out last year as well.

Most hotel guests seemed willing to participate, he said, though whether they turn lights out in their rooms will be up to them.

“People seem to buy into it,” he said. “People, given the chance, like to participate in these things. Candle light is kind of romantic anyhow.”

Should Orange County residents and business owners switch off their lights Saturday to call attention to global warming?
View Results

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Posted in: Climate change • Green events • • | 34 Comments »

Evolution scientist wins $1.5 million prize

March 25th, 2010, 8:00 am by

A UC Irvine scientist famous for tackling big questions in evolution — and for publicly facing down advocates of creationism and intelligent design — is the winner of a $1.5 million prize from the Templeton Foundation, a Pennsylvania-based organization that tries to foster dialogue between science and religion.

Francisco Ayala accepting Templeton prize in Washington D.C. Thursday, courtesy John Templeton Foundation.

Francisco Ayala, 76, says he will give his prize money to non-profit organizations — an amount of money that surpasses even that given to winners of the Nobel Prize.

The award was announced Thursday morning in Washington, D.C.

Ayala, who was once ordained as a Dominican priest but left the priesthood to pursue evolutionary research, collaborated with some of the field’s biggest names to reveal evolutionary secrets of fruit flies as well as the parasitic microbes that cause Chagas disease and malaria.

He recently discovered that the parasite that causes malaria jumped from chimpanzees to humans, and began spreading in the tropics only about 5,000 years ago.

He also took part in court fights over the teaching of evolution in the 1980s. One case led a judge to strike down an Arkansas law calling for “balanced treatment” of creationism and and evolution, while another, involving a Louisiana law requiring parallel teaching of creation science and evolution in public schools, ended with the law being declared an unconstitutional attempt to advance religion.

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Posted in: Evolution • • • • • | 45 Comments »

For youngsters, floods of facts at water fest

March 24th, 2010, 3:38 pm by

The laughs and shrieks of 2,500 children crowding dozens of exhibits gave the Nixon Library a kind of carnival atmosphere Wednesday, the kickoff of a two-day festival meant to saturate youngsters with knowledge about water, wildlife and the environment.

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Posted in: Green events • pollution • Water • | Comments Off

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