Courtesy of Google.com

The last update on mercury levels in fish was put out to the public in 2004. Even though the 2004 update was a milestone, it’s source of data was put together from research that was 20 years old.

Nearly 10 years has past since the last update, but it looks as though we are going to have to wait a little longer. Here is a link to the article in the Huffington Post-

-Mercury Update Stalled

Wu Gang is obviously not that interested in A Ling as evidenced by his eating!

A few days after the earthquake, I returned to the panda base and everything seemed pretty much back to normal. The pandas seemed to be behaving normally (sleeping and eating) although I did read a report that the younger pandas had a hard time dealing with the earthquake. My understanding is that there had also been a significant amount of care provided to all of the bears directly after the quake.

Once the roads reopened, the volunteers who were staying at the panda base returned home. For the last 2 weeks, there have been no volunteers at the panda base with the exception of day volunteers. As of Tuesday (May 7^th) the CCRCGP, the gorge, and zoo were still closed to tourists although some new volunteers at the CCRCGP were scheduled to start this week. The panda base has felt pretty empty without the normal surge of tourists, visitors, and volunteers so I’m excited for their return.

We wrapped up mating season this week; although the final mating was not at all what I had been expecting. I expected a natural mating with the usual starting of a timer, a cheer, and clapping of hands as is what seems to be the usual routine. However on May 5th, A Ling being the

special panda that she is, decided to sleep all day instead of display any behaviors that could have given the keepers a heads up on her hormone levels. Unbeknownst to us, her hormones had peaked that morning. When we arrived at the breeding center the next day (May 6^th), she was displaying a whole bunch of behaviors! The keepers unsuccessfully introduced her to males all day long. In late afternoon, they decided to try an artificial insemination. They attempted placing her next to males on May 7^th as well, but the males weren’t interested and they conducted a second artificial insemination. That was the official end of breeding season. It was a little anti-climatic, but now mating season is officially over!

-Steph

The project will address the presence of emerging contaminants in the Columbia River and will determine whether bioaccumulation of these contaminants by riverine phytoplankton may represent a pathway of exposure and transport to higher trophic levels in the river – for example the fish we all eat.

Besides the research component, the project also incorporates outreach and educational aspects. Estefania is now writing a bi-weekly blog in English and Spanish to describe the project, address progress, and post relevant news.

You may also find Estefania in local schools, co-teaching a Saturday Academy class with another student of my lab. The class is called “River Rescue: Riverine Ecology”. In this class they cover basic freshwater ecology and then use the Columbia River as a model system. The participating kids learn to collect field water samples and process them in the lab (physical, chemical, and biological processing). And a large component of the class is discussions on  both synthetic contaminants (e.g. emerging contaminants) and natural contaminants (e.g. toxins from occurring harmful algal blooms) in the river and estuary.

PDXWildlife and Estefania are working on developing a program  to increase public awareness about pharmaceutical and personal care product waste disposal and to educate the general public on the potential environmental and human health effects caused by their improper disposal (e.g. down the toilet, into the regular trash).  We also hope that Estefania will use portions of her class to incorporate into our new PDXWildChild program.

-Meg

Image courtesy of OPB’s Ecotrope blog

If you’ve been following us here at PDXWildlife you know we’re big fans of sustainable seafood. And so is our home state!  As a result of grants from the Farm to School and School Garden bill, schools in Bend, Oregon have implemented a “Boat to School” program to bring local seafood into school lunches. This is a temporary program which wraps up this month (although there is a bill in the legislature this session to expand Farm to School programs), and will culminate with an educational event where fishermen speak to students about their fishing practices. What a great fusion of health and education!

And it looks like the trend is catching on – Centennial school district in east Portland has also started incorporating local seafood into their menu. Let’s hope programs like this take off all over our area!

For the full scoop on the Boat to School program see the full article on OPBs Ecotrope blog.

For more on our sustainable seafood activities, check out our PDXSeafood program page here.