{"id":4889,"date":"2011-03-18T16:56:22","date_gmt":"2011-03-18T20:56:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/?p=4889"},"modified":"2011-03-18T16:56:22","modified_gmt":"2011-03-18T20:56:22","slug":"wildlife-damage-from-japans-tsunami","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/2011\/03\/18\/wildlife-damage-from-japans-tsunami\/","title":{"rendered":"Wildlife damage from Japan\u2019s tsunami"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Most people have heard about the damage caused by last week\u2019s massive magnitude 9 earthquake that sent a tsunami\u2014at times reaching 33 feet\u2014onto the island nation of Japan. The situation in Japan is dire. According to CBS News, \u201c<\/span>An estimated 452,000 people<\/span><\/a> are living in shelters following the earthquake and tsunami. Japan\u2019s police agency currently puts the death toll at 6,900 with 10,700 more people still missing.\u201d Meanwhile, the threat of a nuclear <\/span>meltdown<\/span><\/a> is looming.<\/span><\/p>\n

The effects of the tsunami are devastating and far-reaching. From around the world, search teams, medics and volunteers work tirelessly to locate and help victims of the quake and floods. While the world\u2019s attention is rightly focused on aiding the people of Japan, other nearby island countries are trying to recover from severe damage to their infrastructure as well.<\/span><\/p>\n

One example is the Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF) and Research Station on the Galapagos island of Santa Cruz. As described in a recent Southern Fried Science <\/span>post<\/span><\/a>, \u201cThe tsunami hit the island at high tide on March 11, and the resulting 1.7 meter flood <\/span>destroyed essential equipment and shut the research station down<\/span><\/a> for the foreseeable future.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite extensive flooding in the Marine Laboratory, the animals at the Research Station were relocated in time to be saved. \u201cLonesome George, the iconic last Giant Tortoise from Pinta island, had been moved to high ground prior to the tsunami as a precautionary measure,\u201d reported the <\/span>World Heritage Convention<\/span><\/a>. According to the <\/span>Galapagos Conservancy<\/span><\/a>, the island\u2019s animal and plant life \u00a0may have suffered significant damage:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWith regard to the flora and fauna, the impacts are being assessed. According to Galapagos National Park reports, some marine turtle nests at Garrapatero Beach on Santa Cruz were destroyed. We had significant damage to the vegetation along the shore of the Research Station. The marine iguana nests that we have been monitoring within the area\u2026seem fine.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In Japan, the wildlife casualties are more severe than in the Galapagos. As described in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife <\/span>website<\/span><\/a>, \u201cA tsunami generated by a powerful earthquake off the coast of Japan struck Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge at 11:36 PM on Thursday, March 10th and continued for the next few hours\u2026Fortunately, no one was injured and no major damage occurred to the island\u2019s infrastructure\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe short-tailed albatross nest was washed over again, but the [first short-tailed albatross] <\/span>chick<\/span><\/a> [to hatch on Midway in decades] was found unharmed about 35 [meters] away and returned unharmed to its nest area. A minimum of 1,000 adult\/subadult, and tens of thousands of Laysan Albatross chicks, were lost. Thousands of Bonin petrels were buried alive. Spit Island [was] completely washed over. Eastern and Sand Island were 60% and 20% washed over, respectively. Thousands of dead fish were found in the interior of Eastern [Island]. Two live green turtles were rescued from the middle of Eastern [Island]. The impacts on Laysan ducks and monk seals are unknown.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Amidst the profound human tragedy in Japan and infrastructure damage in other places, there may be one story of hope found in Japan\u2019s wildlife. While the loss is substantial, it is likely that the short-tailed albatross population will recover. As Refuge official Berry Stieglitz said in a Wired Science <\/span>article<\/span><\/a>, \u201cThe loss of all these chicks is horrible. It\u2019s going to represent a significant portion of this year\u2019s Laysan albatross hatch. But in terms of overall population health, the most important animals are the proven, breeding adults. In the long term, the greatest impact would be if we lost more adults. The population should come through this just fine.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more in the Science Insider<\/em> <\/span>post<\/span><\/a> \u201cQuake Question #4: What Is the Impact on Wildlife?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Photo Credit: USFWS Pacific<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most people have heard about the damage caused by last week\u2019s massive magnitude 9 earthquake that sent a tsunami\u2014at times reaching 33 feet\u2014onto the island nation of Japan. The situation in Japan is dire. According to CBS News, \u201cAn estimated 452,000 people are living in shelters following the earthquake and tsunami. Japan\u2019s police agency currently puts the death toll at…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[732,1177,531,147,1178,703,218,1142,1129,1179,74],"class_list":["post-4889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-research","tag-aid","tag-albatross","tag-asia","tag-charles-darwin","tag-earthquake","tag-fws","tag-japan","tag-nest","tag-rescue","tag-tsunami","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4889\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}